Page 33 of The Perfect Hosts
“It’s too soon to tell, but my gut says no, that this is personal. I’m just not sure that the woman who was killed was the intended target. I’m in the process of interviewing witnesses.”
“Keep me posted,” Skyes says. “I’ll handle the press for now, but you’re going to have to talk to them sooner or later.”
“Will do,” Jamie assures him before disconnecting. Talkingto the press is Jamie’s least favorite part of the job, but right now he has other matters to attend to, like interviewing the Drakes’ neighbors, Sully and Mia Preston.
“Agent Saldano?” comes a voice from behind him. He turns to find a nurse dressed in yellow scrubs. “Mellie says she has to talk to you again.”
“Great, thanks,” Jamie says and quickly returns to the hospital room. Mellie is sitting in a chair now, dressed in the same kind of scrubs that Madeline Drake had been wearing the night before.
“I remembered something.” Mellie’s voice has a floating quality, her words are loose, unfinished. “I saw him.”
“Who?” Jamie asks, trying not to sound too eager. “Who did you see?”
“Coming out of the barn. I saw him,” Mellie says quietly. “I didn’t think it was a big deal before, but now...”
“Every bit of information could be important, but you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll figure it out. Who did you see?” Jamie asks again. The nerve endings in his fingers jangle.
“Her husband,” Mellie says. “I saw Johanna Monaghan’s husband coming out of the barn before I went in, and then a few minutes later it exploded.”
Chapter 14
Jamie
Jamie calls Sheriff Colson and requests that a deputy brings Dalton Monaghan to the office for a formal interview, then keys Sully Preston’s address into his GPS. As Jamie approaches the vast property, he sees a pair of eight-foot-tall horse sculptures flanking each side of the ranch gate. A metal sign affixed to the gate’s arch readsLong Horn Ranchin loopy script. He turns onto the property and passes multiple pastures, each holding different livestock: horses, cattle, bison. As he draws closer to the house, he passes what looks like a pitch and putt golf course and a pickle ball court. Jamie does a double take when he sees a peacock with a plume of iridescent blue and green feathers staring at him curiously from behind a white picket fence.
“Who are these people?” Jamie asks himself as he parks in front of the massive, custom-made building constructed of honey-colored logs. Three stories high, it looks more like a luxury hotel retreat than a home. Equally impressive is the water feature, made up of large, smooth boulders and jagged rocks that form a meandering waterfall filled with brightly colored koi. As a kid, Jamie had had no idea that homes like this existed in Nightjar.
He presses the bell next to the front door, a twelve-foot monstrosity, and waits. He presses the button two more times.Seconds tick by, then minutes, and he is about to give up when the door opens to reveal a small-statured man with close-cropped white hair and horn-rimmed glasses.
“Sully Preston?” Jamie asks.
“Who wants to know?” the man asks.
Jamie introduces himself, and reluctantly the man nods and moves aside to let Jamie enter.
“I’m Sully Preston,” the man says. “I figured someone would be coming by. Let’s talk in my office.”
Sully leads him through the great room past an expanse of windows that look out over a lake and the mountains off in the distance and down a narrow hallway lined with black-and-white family photos. He opens a door and ushers Jamie inside. Hanging from the smoothly hewn logs walls are dozens of heads. Deer, moose, elk, bear, mountain goats, and what Jamie thinks is a warthog, their glassy eyes staring down at him. Apparently, Sully Preston is quite the hunter.
Sully takes a seat behind an executive-size mahogany desk that holds a computer, a stack of unopened mail, and a pile of file folders. Jamie takes the chair across from him.
“My wife insisted I keep my trophies in here,” Sully says with a little laugh. “Says she doesn’t like them looking at her.”
“You must be a good shot,” Jamie says.
“I am,” Sully says. “So let me guess. Wes Drake told you that he thinks I’m the one who blew up his barn, right?” he asks, getting right to the point.
“What makes you think it was on purpose?” Jamie asks. “The cause of the explosion hasn’t been released.”
Sully gives Jamie a wry smile, as if to sayCome on. “It’s a small town. People talk. Why would the ATF come out to investigate if it was just an accident?”
“Why would Wes Drake think you had something to do with the explosion?” Jamie counters as he surreptitiously looks around the office.
“It’s no secret that Wes and I had a falling-out. Some nonsense over a few horses. We were friends once, and Mia and I went to the party to try to put the past behind us. What kind of bomb was it?”
Sully is matching each of his questions with a question of his own, and Jamie doesn’t like it. “And did you? Put the past behind you?”
“We really didn’t get a chance to. Mia and I spoke briefly to Madeline, but there were lots of guests. She was busy. We hoped to catch up more with her and Wes later. I don’t think I even saw Wes until they started the gender reveal. Then all hell broke out.”