Whispers of the Heart (29 page)

“Miss Chloe,” Sheriff Masters said softly, settling on the steps beside her.

Get a grip so you can pin the blame for everything on Cal. I need to get out of here.

Chloe sniffed loudly and looked up at the sheriff, but she had a hard time finding her voice. She shook her head and would have started blubbering again, had the sheriff not asked her a question to help focus her mind.

“Something’s happened to you, Miss Chloe. That much is apparent, but I need you to explain what that something is, or I can’t help. Did someone attack you?”

Chloe shook her head and then took another deep, unsteady breath. When she was certain she could talk, she began to explain about finding Cal in her room and what he said before he went into convulsions and died. “Apparently, he planned to plant the gun in my room to try to frame me for Kat’s assault,” she said, but her eyes widened at the implication of her own words, words not formed by
her
but by the entity now residing in her brain. “When he realized that he’d lost the gun in the bushes, he lost
it
.” She’d emphasized
it
because she wanted to try to convey to the sheriff that Cal lost more than his marbles, he lost the
it
inside, controlling his actions. The sheriff didn’t get it, but her host did.

How true that is,
the entity cackled.

The sheriff sat listening, shaking his head – not in disbelief of her story, but in disbelief that he’d nearly discounted Cal as a suspect – despite his background – all because he’d been found innocent of prior charges. When Chloe stopped talking, the sheriff patted her on the shoulder and then turned to address the deputy that had followed him in from the range.

“Cancel the helicopter. Tell forensics to check for Cal Wither’s prints specifically on the gun, call off the search, send for the coroner, and then have Jake return with the ambulance to take Miss Chloe to the hospital to get checked out.” The deputy nodded, and immediately got on his radio to begin issuing the given orders. “I want you to sit right here until the ambulance arrives, and – no argument – let the doctor have a look at you and, if need be, give you a sedative to help you sleep for a little while. You’ve been through quite an ordeal in such a short period of time.”

Chloe nodded, “I don’t think my legs would carry me very far right now anyway.”

“Completely understood. Could you just tell me which room you occupied?”

“Up the stairs, second door on the left. It isn’t a pretty sight, Sheriff. I didn’t know convulsions could do that to a person.”

You talk too much. Be quiet. I took care of Cal.

Chloe winced, but the sheriff didn’t notice. He simply nodded again and then went inside. When he reached Chloe’s room, he stopped and took in the scene before him with a confused expression. Chloe was right about Cal being deceased, but her account of his final resting position was way off the mark.

Cal Withers body wasn’t lying twisted on the floor, rather he was on the bed, his pose serene, as if he’d just lie down and died. The sheriff quirked his brow wondering how to reconcile the sight with Chloe’s version that he fell into macabre-twisting convulsions on the ground at her feet. Certainly, she wouldn’t have picked him up and placed him on the bed before going to seek help. Perhaps she’d been so distraught that her mind concocted a version of events to make it seem more dramatic than what had actually transpired. It wouldn’t be the first time someone dramatized things in order to get more attention.

He looked back down the corridor in the direction of the front door, trying to decide how best to proceed with this inconsistency, when his radio chirped.
“Sheriff Masters?”

He pulled the radio from his belt and depressed the talk button, “This is the sheriff.”

This is Phil over at the lab. I was already running the fingerprints your deputy scanned from the gun when your deputy called and asked me to run it against a specific guest – Cal Withers.

“That’s right. What did you find?”

Cal Withers’s prints were the only ones on both the gun and the bullets. I think you’ve found your shooter, Sheriff.

The sheriff nodded, “Thank you, Phil. I guess we can close the book on this one.” He pressed the off button and returned the radio to its pouch on his belt. He shook his head again, his lips twisting in curiosity. “Well, I guess it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, or in this case, dead murderers.”

“What was that, Sheriff?” His deputy asked, approaching.

“I was just thinking how not to kick at a hornet’s nest just to see if there is honey in the hive.”

The deputy nodded, all too familiar with the sheriff’s quirky explanations by now to know that he wasn’t really thinking about bees and honey, “You thinking something isn’t right about this case, but aren’t certain you should go sniffing about after more clues in the event you might get stung? That about sum it up?”

The sheriff nodded again.

“That our suspect?”

“That’s our perpetrator.”

“Well, I guess we can close the book on this one then, and let all of these guests finally return to the sanity of their lives. They certainly are going to have a tale to tell their friends about this particular vacation. I wonder what his motive was for going after Kat and/or Dalian? Did Miss Chloe say whether he mentioned motive to her? Or which person he was actually after?”

The sheriff shook his head, his countenance perplexed. “This appears to be one time when we close the book before all of the answers are written down in it. I can’t say as if it’s the most
comfortable of conclusions for me. Not knowing all of the details can really irk a body. Leaves an imagination to conjure all sorts of scenarios which may or may not be factual.”

“At least Kat and Dalian will be safe now. I guess that’s really the most important thing.”

“Speaking of which, I think I’ll take a ride to the hospital; see how Kat and Dalian are faring. I’m certain that they will be pleased as punch to know they don’t have to stay at the hospital longer than necessary, nor continue looking over their shoulders the rest of their lives.” What he didn’t say was that he had a sudden inexplicable urge to make Chloe Harper remain looking over her shoulder the rest of her life. He couldn’t say what it was, but there was something off about her story, which made the law enforcement side of him want to know what it was. And since it wasn’t likely he’d ever find the answers he sought in this case, he’d just have to keep tabs on her to see if any other cases popped up involving her down the road. If any did, he’d be there.

Of course, the logical side of his brain said that he could simply ask her about the discrepancies, but when he reached the front porch and saw her sitting in the ambulance talking to Jake, something in her gaze said that she wouldn’t be forthcoming. She’d been crying and distraught when he’d left her earlier, but now she was cool and composed, and her gaze was anything but troubled when she looked at him.

Yep, something definitely not right,
he thought, and headed to his Jeep.
“Maybe I need to take another look into Chloe Harper’s background after I leave the hospital,” he muttered to himself, as the ambulance pulled out ahead of him. “See if anything pops. Damnation! I’m going to kick that hornet’s nest after all.”

Dalian stood the moment Sheriff Masters entered the room, “If you’re here, then I’m assuming you have some news for us?”

The sheriff clasped Dalian’s outstretched hand and then turned to face the bed, “She sleeping?”

“I was, but not now.” Kat opened her eyes and released a long yawn. “How is the search going, sheriff?”

“It’s over. Cal Withers’s prints were on the weapon that was dropped at the site...”

“Wait a minute! Cal Withers left the ranch long before we were shot at.” Dalian’s tone was incredulous.

“He came back.”

Dalian’s brow quirked in confusion, “Came back? When?”

“All we know at this point is, he drove back through the main gate at 11:30 a.m., and then somehow managed to slip onto one of the main trails winding around through the range, before locating a spot from which to take a shot at either you or Kat...”

“Whoa, if you know who he is, why are you here? Why aren’t you at the sheriff’s office beating answers out of him? I, for one, want to know why he was taking pot shots at Kat and me? Why he tried to burn a barn down around our ears?”

“I can’t interrogate a dead man.”

“You shot him?” Kat whispered.

The sheriff shook his head, “No. Near as we’ve been able to piece together, he was hiding in Miss Chloe’s room having some sort of mental meltdown over dropping his gun at the scene of the crime. When Chloe walked in on him, he suffered a sort of seizure and died. I guess crime doesn’t sit well in some people’s brains.”

“Wow,” Dalian said, settling on the bed next to Kat.

“Is Chloe okay?” Kat asked. “Cal didn’t hurt her, did he?”

The sheriff shook his head again, “She was obviously distraught, but she’s here at the hospital getting checked out by the doctor just to make certain all is in working order.” The sheriff couldn’t reveal what he really wanted to say – that her story was hokey, and he would be keeping a close eye on her in the future.

“Harvey and I had a suspicion something was off about the man, but other than an unusual display of cowardice, there wasn’t anything about him that made us think he capable of killing.”

“He may have seemed cowardly to you,” Kat interjected, “but there was something about the way he talked to me that sent creepy-feeling shivers along my spine. I mean, the few times he talked to me, I got the impression he was super pissed that you and I had gotten together,” she concluded.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Dalian asked.

“Dalian’s right,” the sheriff interjected. “It may not have seemed important to you, but
with as little to go on as we had, every little morsel would have turned into a piece of bread, eventually.”

“What the sheriff is saying,” Dalian translated with a grin, “is that his behavior may have given us a first clue as to his character.”

Kat sighed, “Well, I guess the point is moot now, isn’t it? But, if anyone comes after Dalian and me again in the future – God forbid – I will certainly be more aware of how people behave around me.”

“Sorry sweetheart. We didn’t mean to make it seem like we were coming down on you.”

“I’m good. I completely understand what you’re saying – now. Hindsight is, after all, twenty-twenty.”

Just then, Chloe appeared at the doorway, looking fresh as a spring daisy, with the exception of her red and puffy eyes – the only indicator she’d suffered an emotional meltdown. The tears started again when she moved into the room and made her way over to Kat’s side.

“I’m so glad you’re okay – again,” she sniffled, bending down to give Kat an affectionate hug.

If I wanted the headache of trying to separate these two, I’d turn our sights on Mr. Gorgeous.

Chloe stiffened visibly at the entity’s lustful game play, primarily because she sort of understood from where it derived its “fun”. It seemed to enjoy the thrill of the pursuit almost as much as she did; however,
her
motivations were simple – to snare a rich husband and settle down – permanently, she always hoped. With the entity, motivation was unclear. Unless having ‘fun’, as it stated in her bedroom earlier, was its only motivation.

You nailed it, blondie.
It stated in response to her musings. She winced. That was one aspect of sharing her mind that she was never going to get used to – having something else privy to her innermost thoughts. It was unnerving, especially since those thoughts were meant to be private. Another aspect she’d never enjoy about sharing a mind was having something else controlling her every movement and decision, as it did when she moved to settle into the chair next to the bed.

Don’t sit. We have men to pursue, fun to
be had. Bid your farewells and let’s hit the road. I’ve had enough of this barren landscape.

“I would really rather stay to talk to my friends,” she said, and a slight pain shot through her head. She visibly winced.

“Are you alright, Chloe,” Kat asked.

“Ever since I found Cal in my room,” she replied, rubbing at her temples vigorously, “and saw him have a full-fledged epileptic seizure of death, I’ve had this horrible recurring headache.
It
just won’t go away!”

Do be careful, blondie. They may not know what you’re trying to say, but I do, and you best be warned – I would prefer to have fun with you rather than kill you, but kill you I will. If you doubt it, just remember what I did to poor, helpless,
defiant,
Cal Withers.

“Can’t you just find someone else? It’s obvious I’m not interested in being your patsy,” Chloe hissed, trying to keep her voice down, but a quick look at the occupants in the room said
they were growing rapidly concerned about her.

Hmmm.
You know what? You’re right. I don’t think I like inhabiting your brain. You are much too strong-willed and I fear you may just hamper my fun. Be a good girl and stretch out your hand. Why I didn’t think of this before, is beyond me.