Page 15 of Valor (Long Hot Summer: Christian Romantic Suspense #2)

CHAPTER TWO

After a few hours at the Police station, Heather was ready to be anywhere but the sterile white room where she had to wait for Allen and his team to finish processing her house. Even hours later, the sick to her stomach feeling kept her from eating anything. Dad had been beaten up by those men. He’d bled in their house. There was no other explanation for what she’d seen.

Hindsight left a guilt so heavy Heather could hardly stand it. If those men had been after her, why had they taken Dad? What drive could she possibly have that they could want? Wildlife photos weren’t exactly known for being illegal or even so precious that someone would break in for one. She’d never even sneaked her way into a place without asking permission. Her father was a stickler for honesty and rules, so she learned at a young age to be good and do things right.

Heather twisted a tissue into a long tube and unrolled it, bored with her surroundings, but also nervous. What would Allen find? Someone knocked on the door to her room and tension knifed through her stomach. “Come in?” She wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to say.

Allen came through the door and the small room suddenly felt about half the size it had a moment before. The scent of his aftershave filled her nose. “Did you find anything?” She had to focus on her dad and what she had to do to get him back safely, not the man in front of her.

“No. They had to have been wearing gloves. Other than the few drops of blood and those match your father’s blood type, nothing was left behind.”

“Except the mess.” She’d been thinking about that, too. What could they be looking for that they’d have to cut open the sofa? What did they mean by ‘drive’ on the note? They’d destroyed her father’s computer. It probably wouldn’t even turn on. Did they mean the hard drive on her computer?

“Yes.” Allen tugged out the nearest chair and sat. While having him eye-to-eye with her helped her to feel less surrounded by Allen, he was still big enough to fill the room. “I’d like to bring you back there, if you’re willing, and take another look around. As we processed the scene, we looked for things that could be the drive described in that note, but we found nothing.”

“I’ll help as much as I can, but I’m stumped. They looked through Dad’s computer. That only leaves mine.”

His forehead furrowed. “Where was your computer?”

“My car.” The only thing of hers that wasn’t destroyed, besides her camera bag. “My phone was in there, as well as my camera in its case. My camera case is similar to Dad’s. The only difference is, I have a pink puff on the zipper pull. I had to add it because we’ve grabbed the wrong bag before.” She hoped she’d get the chance to joke with her father again about photography and all the things they shared by having the same career.

“Can we look through your computer?” His eyes looked hopeful.

She stood, needing to do something instead of just sitting there staring at the sheriff. “Sure. You can look at it while I search the house.” He’d have to give her a ride back, since he’d been the one to bring her there for her safety while they processed the scene and bandaged up her hand.

“Thank you. I know this isn’t easy.” Allen remained sitting as if he knew that his size left her a little unsteady. Her heart hitched slightly, and she mentally put a stop to that. She should know better. Police officers always put everyone else above family. Her last relationship should’ve been enough to remind her for a lifetime that cops didn’t make good friends, and definitely not good boyfriends.

“It’s not, but I need to do this to get my father back alive.”

He pressed the tips of his fingers together. “And what about you? You’re not safe until these people are caught. That is abundantly clear. I don’t even like bringing you back to your house because the last two times you’ve gone there, someone has shot at you.”

He didn’t have to remind her, but there didn’t seem like any other option. How could she find what they were looking for if she didn’t take the time to look? “I can’t answer that or even think about that. I have to think about Dad and that he’s injured. They hurt him. Whatever they want, I’ll give it to them if they give my father back.”

“What if they want you? I don’t think that’s a trade you’d be willing to make.” Allen finally stood and held the door open for her.

If he meant to scare her, he’d succeeded. She loved her father, but she wasn’t ready to die. There was so much of life left to live. Losing Mom had been hard and had forced her to look at her own life and mortality. Praise God she’d come out on the other side of her grief with stronger faith, not weaker. She also knew she had a purpose in life, one that wasn’t realized yet.

“I’m not willing, so there must be something else they want or a way for me to get through this. I refuse to believe differently.”

Allen grinned. “That’s the spirit.” He made his way out of the station and led her to his car, then opened the door for her.

Mom had thought Heather was precocious, smarter than her years, but na?ve when it came to people. She wanted to trust everyone. That was partly why she trusted her father so implicitly. He’d been right about Luke, the officer who’d left her to further his career. Dad had seen that Luke would never care for her the way she needed. He would never put her needs above his work. True to form, he’d let her down spectacularly, then left her when she was upset about it.

Dad had been right, and now she knew she had to trust him.

When they arrived back at home, she didn’t wait for Allen to come around. He’d let her sit in the front, which allowed her to open the door, instead of the back where she wouldn’t be able to leave until he let her out. Nothing seemed quite right now. Funny how getting chased and shot at could change how she felt about the place she loved.

“Take your time. It’s okay. I’ve got my team working on everything else right now, so I can focus completely on this.” He handed her a pair of booties and gloves.

She appreciated his effort and hoped this wouldn’t take long for either of them. If Dad was back by supper, she could forget about this day and all the things she’d been through so far. Inside, she headed for Dad’s laptop. It had been moved and felt gritty to the touch. She plugged in the password. Even though the device had been manhandled, it whirred to life.

“If they looked through this computer, they couldn’t have found what they were looking for or they would’ve taken this, right?” She looked up at Allen who seemed to hover nearby.

“I would agree with that. Want me to get your computer from your car?”

She’d planned to do that. But, if the shooter returned, they’d have the device they wanted, which would mean they could kill her and Dad. “That’s a good idea but we should look at that in a more secure location. Right now, I want to look around at what isn’t destroyed.” She stood and did a slow circle, taking in the room, remembering she shouldn’t touch anything.

“Why is that? If they wanted something, it would make sense to hunt through what they tried to search through to figure out what that is.” He crossed his arms and tilted his head, genuinely looking like he wanted to hear her thoughts.

She raised her chin so she could appear confident. “They didn’t find whatever it was. Oliver was right. If they’d found what they were looking for, they’d have killed me. So, whatever it is should still be here.”

“And I’ll say again, what if that is you?”

She shook her head. “I’m not a drive. They said I needed to give them a drive. So, unless they want me to take them somewhere, they couldn’t be looking for me specifically. More likely, they must think I know something my father doesn’t or have something he doesn’t.” Which was terrifying. What did she know that Dad didn’t? Could it be one of her clients or information on one of them?

“That’s why I think we need to look at what is still here. I’m not saying we should discount the mess. They want something having to do with photography. They focused heavily on our files, Dad’s camera case, and his computer. I just wish I knew what they meant by ‘drive’.” She headed for the file cabinet and tugged open the bottom drawer. It stuck slightly with the weight of the open drawers above it. “Unless they meant this?”

Allen followed her to the table and flicked the kitchen light on with his pen as she opened a three-ring binder filled with plastic sheets meant to hold trading cards. Dad had found them useful for holding the thumb drives of all his clients. She’d started adding her own a year ago.

“Oh, wow.” Allen hovered his finger over the stickers down each one that had dates, occasions, and names on them. “Do you have every photo you’ve taken in here? There must be thousands.”

The awe in his voice made her feel like she was worthy of praise. So often, people compared her to her father, and she always felt lacking. “Probably closer to tens of thousands, if you count both our contributions. Each set has hundreds of photos. Some will never be shown to anyone except me and Dad. Others have sold for thousands of dollars.”

“That’s really amazing. Do you think they could possibly be looking for something on one of these drives?” He sat next to her. “I admit, I didn’t even think of something like this.”

“I don’t know. It occurred to me earlier that we might have accidentally taken a picture of a crime. I don’t know how we wouldn’t know that, though, with the detailed editing process we do.” If they’d photographed a crime, that would be obvious, wouldn’t it?

“I suppose that’s true.” He glanced at his watch. “I honestly didn’t think this was going to be as big of a case as it looks like it will be. Wall gets pretty quiet after tourist season and leading up to the holidays. I have to keep the peace, or I won’t be sheriff longer than one term. We’re known for being rural and quiet. You have my promise that this case will get handled as quickly as possible with as little fuss as possible.”

She appreciated that even if the speed would help him too. The people of Wall had little to talk about when they weren’t trying to avoid the huge crowds that took over the whole center of the town from Memorial Day all the way to Labor Day. Rain or shine. Free water had been the original draw, but now people could get fudge, bison burgers, and trinkets galore, all while getting a little history. If anyone started talking about her father and his kidnapping, they might start pointing fingers at her. She had no other talent or expertise. “I’m glad. Both because I want my father back and because I don’t need to be any more of a target than I already am.”

The way Allen nodded made her realize that he’d come to that conclusion far before she had.

* * *

Allen moved from window to window inside Heather’s small single-level home, making sure he wasn’t taken by surprise again. The longer they were there, the more he itched to get her far away from this house until they found the people who’d abducted her father. If she had evidence against someone she didn’t know about, then she was in danger.

He’d been considering for the last hour if he should call in witness protection or what tactic he needed to use to protect her. He had to keep whatever he did completely quiet though. Any hint of a major case in Wall and people would be banging on his door, accusing him of failing them. He’d campaigned on the promise of continued peace and quiet, and he had to keep his word.

Heather yawned delicately behind her hand and her eyelids drooped. She hadn’t taken a break for three hours and they’d both missed lunch. Soon, they’d miss supper too. His shift had officially ended an hour before, but he couldn’t clock out just because of his schedule. He had to make sure Heather had somewhere to go or he’d worry about her all night.

“You ready to call this an evening? We can come back tomorrow and look more.” He glanced at his watch to remind her they’d been there a long time. “You should probably eat, too.”

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled quietly. She immediately covered her belly, and her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. “I’m sorry. How embarrassing.” She stood and closed the binder that had taken all her attention since she’d brought it out hours before. “Can I take this with me? I can do more hunting on my computer.”

He nodded, reminded that he still wanted to look at that. “I know this isn’t usually how things are done, but I have a spare room in my house. My dad uses it when he stays with me, but that’s rare. It’s clean and you’d be safe for the night. Tomorrow, we can find a better solution.” He waited to hear her expected resoundingly negative reply. She’d made it clear that her father’s ideas about Allen were shared.

“You want me to stay with you?” Her voice squeaked as her brows plunged at the center.

He shrugged briefly. “I don’t have any other options unless you’d like to stay with Oliver or take your chances at a hotel.” He hadn’t thought about the elderly man who had protected her earlier.

Heather wrinkled her nose. “The hotels are out. Both are doing post-summer cleaning after their busy season. I don’t want to stay with any friends because my car is easy to spot. Oliver is nice, but he told me he walks in his sleep. I’ve seen him outside at night with his shotgun. If he forgot I was supposed to be there, I don’t think he’d hesitate to shoot me. He’d feel awful about it, but accidents happen.”

If that was true, he should talk with Oliver about getting a gun safe. His job was to protect all the citizens, even from themselves. “I’ll deal with that information another day. Why don’t you grab a change of clothes if there’s a drawer in your room that looks untouched? I’ll order a pizza, and we can pick it up on the way out of town. You look exhausted and you’ll need rest to figure out this puzzle.”

She gave a quick nod, agreeing way more readily than he’d expected. “I have nowhere else to go. Thanks for offering. I know you’re uncomfortable with me after what my dad did.”

He laughed as he pointed to the open stairwell to the basement a few feet away. Tucked inside a board that ran along the wall were the signs Ed had used to tarnish Allen’s name during the election. Those signs, the way they were worded, had led him down a long road. One he didn’t want to discuss with anyone, and especially Heather. “Uncomfortable might be an understatement.”

She bit her lip, turning it red, then released it. “If it makes this any easier for you, I don’t know why Dad was so certain you wouldn’t make a good sheriff. This is hard on me because I trust my father implicitly, but you haven’t done anything to make me not trust you today. Honestly, even before today. Not a single person in town has said a negative thing about you since you took office. Clearly, the town didn’t believe him. You were still elected.”

Coming from the beautiful woman who happened to be the daughter of his only enemy, that meant a lot. “Thanks for that.” He held the door open for her and led her out to his car. With his hand on his pistol, he kept an ear out for any sounds and watched for any signs of people. Unlike earlier, cars waited outside nearby homes. People sat near windows, enjoying the last almost warm weather before the winter cold and snow. No one would be able to drive down this block without being seen now.

“There’s safety in numbers,” Heather mumbled. “I hadn’t noticed until Oliver mentioned it, but this block is full of families who work all day or are at school. No one is home until after 3:30.”

Which was why they’d been safe in the house that hadn’t been earlier. There was too much risk someone in the close-knit neighborhood would notice strangers. “If we return here tomorrow, let’s do so after four when everyone is home again,” he said.

She laughed as she headed for her car and pulled out her purse, an overnight bag, and her camera case. “My computer is in my bag. I was doing a shoot over in Deadwood, up at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery.” She yawned again.

He opened her door and reached for his phone, chuckling as he put in his usual pizza order through an app and hit send. He hated cooking, so a bachelor had to do what was necessary to survive. That meant ordering pizza regularly.

He came around the front of his car and slowly took a breath. Heather wouldn’t want to eat pizza every few days like he did. She was probably very healthy, judging by her size and slender figure. Nope, he needed to stop his thoughts from going anywhere near the daughter of the man who hated him and how pretty she was. She was all wrong for him.

After picking up the pizza and heading to the edge of town to the house he’d purchased after leaving his childhood home, indecision roiled his insides. Heather had nowhere else to go. He needed to make sure nothing else happened to her. That didn’t make offering his own home easier.

He set the pizza box down on his table, took off his gun belt and put it in his safe near the front door. Jasper, his retired K9, came up from downstairs and sniffed Heather’s feet.

“Is he going to hurt me?” She held all her belongings high, protecting them from the shepherd.

“Not unless I tell him to, and I won’t.” He grinned at her sudden change in expression from fear to a snort of laughter.

“I guess if you wanted to get back at me, now you know how. I’ve never had a dog and I’m afraid of them. He’s huge.”

“I should’ve warned you.” He hadn’t thought about his dog frightening her. His only thought had been about her need for a safe place to stay. “He’ll help watch and listen for anyone. Then again, no one would ever guess you’re here and my address isn’t public knowledge for a reason.”

He’d purposely rented a PO Box and only used that for his mail. When he’d purchased his house, he’d put his dad’s name first on the deed, so his father’s name would show up if anyone searched for his address on the county tax website. Even an officer needed privacy sometimes.

Heather hesitated, then rested her hand on the dog’s head. “He’s softer than I expected.” She laid her bags down on the sofa and took a deep breath. “I don’t mean to be rude, but can we eat? I’m starving.”

“Absolutely.” He pointed out the bathroom so she could go wash up and he took the time to do his own washing and setting the table in the kitchen. He’d even use real plates instead of paper since he had a guest. Hopefully, tonight wouldn’t be one of the nights his dad showed up looking for a place to crash unexpectedly.

Heather came out and tentatively looked at the table. He realized she didn’t know which seat to take and didn’t want to sit in his. “Any chair is fine. I don’t mind.” He opened the box of pizza. Normally, he’d opt for something covered in meat, but he’d chosen pepperoni and green peppers instead, thinking she might like at least some vegetables. “Hope I ordered okay.”

Heather laughed. The first full laugh he’d heard from her. “It’s great. Dad and I usually order pepperoni and mushrooms. This is pretty close.” She took the smallest slice from the pie.

Allen bowed his head and prayed to himself, then was surprised to find Heather with her head bowed when he looked up. He’d never seen her at his church, so he’d assumed she wasn’t a believer. “Do you attend church here in town?” The nearest large town was Rapid City, and that was an hour away.

“I do. It’s the one on the east end of Wall.”

So, they were opposed in other ways too. Not that the other church believed much differently than he did, but churches seemed to almost have rivalries. “Has your family always gone there?” He took a bite of his pizza.

She nodded as a string of cheese grew from her mouth to her slice. She laughed as she tugged it free of the pizza. “Yeah. Mom decided and Dad went along with her decision. I was a kid, so I went where I was told to go. Now, it’s hard. So many of my memories of Mom have to do with that church.”

He’d never known his mother and his father had always hidden who she was from Allen. Now he knew why, but he wasn’t about to share that information. “I go to the other,” was the only response that made any sense.

An uncomfortable silence spread over them until both had eaten. As soon as he’d cleared the table, he invited Heather to bring her laptop over with the book of thumb drives. She eagerly went to the sofa and riffled through her bag.

“I’m glad I had this with me. I rarely take my computer, since I don’t do any photo editing until I’m home. There was time to relax before and after the shoot, so I listened to some podcasts. That was easier on my computer,” she explained as she opened her laptop case.

He nodded and reached for the binder. “Mind if I look?” He had a pretty good handle on the names of local criminals, few as there were. If any of those names were listed, he’d have a place to start.

“Sure, there’s nothing secret about hiring a photographer, so I don’t feel like I’m breaching anyone’s privacy.” Her brows bunched together. “I’m not sure if they meant my hard drive, a thumb drive, or the drive that holds all my photo memory.” She tapped her chin. “There are almost too many options.”

She turned the computer around to let him have a look. “If you want to take over, you can. I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

He glanced down at everything in front of him. It was going to be a long night. “If you like coffee, hit the brew button on my coffee pot. I leave it set up for the morning, so pressing a button is all I have to think about. We might be looking at a lot of stuff in the next few hours.”

A smile broke over his face as he heard rather than saw her cross the room. He’d always been able to drink coffee late into the night, but he’d never met anyone else outside of law enforcement who could. Maybe Heather was more like him than she would admit.