What Echoes Render Read online

  “I’ll take you,” David stated more than offered.

  “Are you sure it’s not a problem?”

  He hated how tentative she sounded asking him for help. “No, it’s not a problem.”

  She drew back a bit and he realized just how sharp his voice sounded. “I start a three-day shift tonight but I don’t have to be in for four hours. I was going to take the back roads on my way north anyway, a stop at the school will be right on the way.” His attempt to soften the edginess he felt seemed to work, and she offered him a smile.

  “Thank you, I would appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I can take you home afterward, too.”

  She shook her head. “I can grab Matt’s keys from him and drive his car while he’s away. After that, I’ll get Wanda out. It’s been awhile since I’ve driven her, but she runs.”

  “Wanda?” David asked. Ian looked interested, too.

  “My husband’s ’68 Shelby. It took him ten years to restore her. The boys and I decided not to sell her after he died, even though we hardly ever drive her.”

  For the first time in several hours, a smile played on David’s lips. The image of her in that car was striking. She’d look like Cybill Shepherd from American Graffiti.

  “Why don’t you guys head out so you can catch the boys and have some time to reassure them that you’re alright. I’ll finish up here and Vivienne will probably stop by later this afternoon,” Ian suggested.

  David started ushering Jesse toward the passenger door of his truck but she paused in front of Ian. “Vivi doesn’t need to come see me, Ian. I’m fine. She should stay home and rest.”

  “Probably, but it will be a lot harder for me if I don’t tell her what happened and she finds out tomorrow. So if you could just humor me, I would appreciate it.”

  She laughed. “Whatever you say, Sheriff. And thanks for your help.” She went up on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Anytime, you just need to take care of yourself. Drive safe and call me if you need anything. Otherwise, we’ll be in touch when I have more information and I’ll make sure Richie calls you about the car.”

  Jesse nodded and climbed into the truck. David shut the door behind her and motioned for Ian to walk with him as he rounded the vehicle.

  “I’d start at the hospital, if I were you,” David suggested. “It’s the most likely place someone might have a bone to pick. Her assistant can help you, I’m sure.”

  Ian gave a small nod. “I’ll do that, but not until after Vivienne talks to her. I’m not going to go behind her back or frightened her staff. Jesse is a reasonable woman and expects to be treated as one. Over the years, I’ve learned it’s easier to accommodate that and deal with my own anxiety than try to keep anything from them, ’cause it always bites you on the ass in the long run.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Voice of experience?”

  “Maybe a time or two. But it didn’t take long to learn that lesson.” Ian grinned.

  Nodding his agreement, David climbed into his truck. As he shut the door, fastened his seat belt, and turned his key in the ignition, he watched Ian raise a hand up in a subtle wave, then turn and walk toward his own truck. His gaze turned to Jesse, only to find her rubbing her neck and temples—any moment of lightheartedness he’d just been feeling vanished immediately. Without a word, he pulled out onto the road and headed toward Riverside. From there he’d take a local route north to Windsor.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  He blinked. “Am I okay? Of course, I’m okay. Are you?”

  She sighed. “I’m fine. A little sore. I’ll be even more sore tomorrow. A lot more sore than I was last weekend.”

  “You have managed to take a few beatings this week.” He managed to sound reasonable, he was pretty sure.

  “Yes, my life isn’t usually so . . .”

  He wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep himself from exploding if she said “exciting.” There was nothing “exciting” about what was happening to her.

  “Intense,” she finished. He forced his fingers to relax on the steering wheel. “Thank you, again, for taking me back to Windsor,” she added, her voice quiet.

  “It’s not a problem.” Okay, maybe he hadn’t been so good that time around. He glanced over at her and she was watching him. With a look. He knew that look. He’d used it often on Miranda. When she was fourteen.

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that the thought of someone almost running you off the road has set me a little on edge. I see the worst of the worst in my job—like you, I bet—and sometimes it’s hard to keep my mind from going to all those places. All those ‘what if’ and ‘could have’ places.”

  He afforded another look at her as he pulled through the center of Riverside and started to head north. Her expression was almost unreadable, but he was pretty sure he detected a hint of understanding in her eyes. And then she turned and looked out the passenger window.

  “Yeah, me too. I’m trying not to think about it, actually. Trying really hard. So, if you don’t mind, maybe we can talk about something else? Didn’t you come by my office earlier to update me on the fire at Julie’s?”

  He wasn’t sure this topic would make her feel any better, but at least it was a few days, rather than a few hours, in the past. “I did. I stopped by and met with Julie this morning before I came down to the hospital. The device was fairly crude, a simple canister of propane and a basic timing device. Thankfully, the checkout counter was sturdier than the bomb maker anticipated because the canister was a good size and the timing device, though not sophisticated, worked perfectly.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning the explosive did what it was supposed to do. Sometimes, when we see crude explosives like that, we hope it was a fluke or that we’ll find some indication that the maker just got lucky. But whoever left it in Spin-A-Yarn was meticulous about their workmanship, even if it was an elementary device.”

  “I watch all those crime shows and I’m sure they are about as unrealistic as the hospital shows, but they always talk about bombers having signatures. Is that true?” she asked.

  “To an extent, yes. If you have a serial arsonist or an explosives expert, you do tend to see patterns. But with the device we collected from the shop, we’ve determined that the design came off a website.”

  “Kind of like buying ready-to-wear rather than couture?”

  He smiled. “If that means what I think it means, then yes. It will be harder to tell it apart from other devices that might have been based on the same instructions.”

  He slowed for a light that had only just turned green and when the car in front of him picked up speed, he accelerated too, being sure to keep a good distance between him and all the other drivers. Jesse didn’t look too gun shy, but it would be hard not to be after having just been through what she’d been through.

  “So, what about other evidence?” she asked.

  He wagged his head. “Our preliminary tests came back inconclusive. We know we don’t have any prints or shoe marks or anything like that on or around the building structure. Not even on the pieces of the broken window we collected. But we’re still running some tests on the device itself. Given the state it was in, it’s not as straightforward as printing from a sheet of glass or a door knob.”

  “No, I don’t suppose it is. So, what do you do now?”

  “Now, we wait for the second round of tests to come back and then we’ll probably do a third. No one was hurt, but you can be sure that everyone from the state commissioner on down wants to know exactly what happened so that we can rule out terrorism. A bomb going off in small-town America is the perfect way to conduct psychological warfare. Thankfully, the people of Windsor don’t seem to be panicking.”

  He could feel her eyes snap to him in shock and he wished he hadn’t added that last little bit. Just because he and his teammates had to think that way every time they discovered that
an explosive was used in a fire didn’t mean everyone else should.

  “You don’t really think it was an act of terrorism, do you?” she asked.

  He gave a curt, adamant shake of his head. “I do not think it was an act of terrorism in the sense you’re thinking. I do think that any time someone detonates or threatens to detonate an explosive device it is a form of terrorism. But not like 9/11 or the bombings in London or Madrid.”

  “So, what do you think?” She sounded like she wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not.

  “I think it was someone who very deliberately picked that shop and that time to set off a bomb. I think we’ll find it has something to do with Julie or the people around her. It feels very targeted to me and not part of a larger political statement.”

  “So then, if they didn’t succeed at whatever they were trying to do, do you think we’ll see more?”

  Now that was the million-dollar question. He wanted to say no, but given that someone had very nearly just run Jesse off the road, he couldn’t make that statement.

  “I sure as hell hope not.”

  CHAPTER 9

  JESSE CURLED UP IN HER FAVORITE ROCKING CHAIR and sipped a glass of wine. Matt and James were off to Ithaca and the night was, hopefully, going to be a quiet one. The boys had both wanted to stay home with her when she’d told them what had happened, and truth be told, she wouldn’t have minded the company, but this was the last meet of the year. It wasn’t meaningful from a rankings standpoint, and Matt already had his scholarship locked up, but it was a fun one and one the kids enjoyed every year, so she’d sent them on their way.

  Looking at her watch, she decided that she didn’t have the time for a quick walk before Vivi arrived. Much like Ian had predicted, Vivi had called her only minutes after she’d heard about the accident from Ian. At first, she’d tried to get Vivi to stay home, put her feet up, and relax—not only was her friend pregnant, but she’d just spent the last few days in Boston teaching. But now that Vivi was on her way, Jesse was kind of glad that she was coming. It was quiet at home, which was a good thing, but for the first time in a long time, it felt kind of lonely. Even the sound of her phone vibrating beside her, as soft as it was, startled her.

  She picked it up, looked at the number, and smiled. A girlie feeling of happiness crept into her chest.

  “Hello?”

  “How are you?” David’s voice sounded gruff, but not gruff in an unpleasant way.

  “I’m fine. Sitting on my porch having a glass of wine while I wait for Vivi. Thinking maybe I should get a dog when Matt goes to college.” She hadn’t really been thinking about getting a dog, but maybe she should.

  “Do you ever wear your hair down?”

  That caught her off guard. “Huh?”

  “Your hair, it’s always up. Do you ever wear it down?”

  She smiled to herself again. He’d been thinking about her—and not just about her as a victim of an accident or the explosion at Spin-A-Yarn, but her as a woman.

  “Sometimes, for special occasions.”

  “Like what?”

  “Weddings, charity events, things I have to dress up for.”

  ”Hmmm,” was his only response.

  “I’ve thought about cutting it,” she added.

  “Don’t,” he cut her off.

  “But I have that kind of hair that’s not wavy enough to be cute or straight enough to be easily managed. And since time is such a hot commodity as a working parent, I just leave it long and pull it back.”

  “Huh.”

  “Is that why you called?” Her voice was teasing but she was secretly kind of pleased. It had been a long time since a man had been this forward in his interest. Usually, when men found out that she was a widow, they became overly respectful. And usually that was fine because she had no interest in them anyway; it actually made things easier. David had been overly respectful when she’d first told him about her husband that day in her office. But she was very glad to hear he was moving through it.

  “Yeah, sort of,” he answered. The hint of embarrassment she heard in his voice was kind of cute. “I just pulled up to the station. I’m on shift until Monday night, but I’ll keep in touch,” he said.

  “Okay. You know where to find me.”

  “Stay safe, Jesse.” The fierceness of his voice was offset by the tinge of tenderness she also heard.

  “I’m always safe, David. It’s the people around me that seem to be causing the chaos.”

  He made an indecipherable sound. In agreement, she assumed.

  “You do the same, David.” They disconnected and, for the first time, she thought—really though—about his job. She knew him as the investigator, but he was also a man that ran into fires, not away from them, for a living. The thought sat uneasily in her stomach. But if this thing between them went anywhere, it was something she would have to get used to. With another sip of wine, she opted to push that thought aside for the time being. Yes, she was worried about him. But at this point, there was no sense in worrying how she might handle the dangers of his job if they were ever in a relationship of any sort.

  As if to make changing her mindset easier, she heard the wheels of Vivi’s car on her gravel drive and soon saw the car itself pulling up to the house. Walking to the driveway, she arrived just in time to watch Vivi haul herself out of the car. Smiling, Jesse remembered how cumbersome she’d felt at that stage in her pregnancies.

  Vivi caught her eye and laughed. “I know. It’s like I’m suddenly pregnant. I don’t think I showed much for the first several months and now I’m starting to feel a bit blimpish.” She got herself upright and closed her car door. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine,” Jesse answered. “And you don’t look blimpish by any stretch. But you do look considerably more pregnant than you did five weeks ago. Want to go inside and I can get you something to drink?”

  Vivi shook her head. “If you’re up for it, I’d rather take a short walk first. I’ve been sitting all day between department meetings and driving.”

  Not one to deny a pregnant lady, Jesse agreed. After taking her wine glass inside and slipping on a pair of shoes, she joined Vivi and the two headed for the trail that looped around the perimeter of her property. Years ago, when Matt had first gotten into running, Mark had created the tractor-width path as a place for him to train. Since they lived on a road that had no sidewalk or even much shoulder to speak of, it had been a great idea. Even now, the boys still used it to train and she used it when she wanted to go for a walk but not deal with the cars, few and far between though they were.

  “So how are you really?” Vivi asked as they headed up the hill toward the back end of her land.

  “I’m really okay. I still have a little bit of a headache, but I took a couple of ibuprofen and will take some more before bed. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but this walk will probably do me some good.”

  “You should book yourself a massage tomorrow.”

  “Already done,” Jesse grinned at her friend. “And a pedicure.”

  “That’s my girl,” Vivi said with a laugh. “So, Ian told me what happened. Do you want to talk about it at all?”

  Jesse thought about it for a minute. “There’s not really much to talk about. I saw the SUV behind me, but didn’t think anything of it until it was beside me. Then, everything happened so fast—I’m sure Ian got more information from the folks who stopped to help than he got from me.”

  “Did you see anything in the SUV? Did you get a glance at the driver?”

  Even though Ian had asked her these same questions earlier, she knew she was in a better frame of mind now than she had been then, so she gave it some thought.

  After a moment, she shook her head. “Honestly? I didn’t see much. The windows seemed darker than mine, not tinted really dark, but maybe just a little bit. The driver was small and he was wearing a red baseball cap. When he was behind me, he was short enough that I couldn’t really see him and when he was beside me
, the truck was so much taller than my car, all I could see at that point was the top of the baseball cap.”

  “You keep saying ‘he.’ Do you think it was a man driving?”

  Jesse wagged her head from side to side. “No, I’m not really sure. I just said that because most of the time around here it’s men who seem to drive those big SUVs. And while I know plenty of women who drive them too, I’d say the majority are probably men. But other than that, no, there’s no reason why I called the driver a ‘he.’”

  They walked in silence for a few minutes. Beside her, Vivi took very deliberate steps, her head down in thought. In fact, she looked to be thinking quite a bit.

  “Care to tell me what’s on your mind, Doctor?”

  Vivi glanced up, then looked chagrined. “Ian wants me to ask you about a few things.”

  Jesse frowned. “Okay. But I’m not sure what to think when Ian sends you on an errand. It’s either some girlie questions that he’s too uncomfortable to ask or something sensitive that he’s worried about screwing up.”

  Vivi smiled at this assessment of her husband. “Definitely the latter.”

  She took a deep breath. “Okay, lay it on me.”

  “How have things been at work?”

  That wasn’t quite what she’d expected and Jesse looked at her friend in surprise.

  “Fine. You know, the usual stuff—budget issues, godlike surgeons, and the nurses’ union. But nothing out of the ordinary. Why do you ask?”

  “Because Ian is concerned that there might be a pattern developing.”

  Jesse paused at the top of the hill under the guise of thinking about what Vivi was saying, but she also wanted to give her pregnant friend a little rest.

  “Pattern?” she asked as she looked back down on her house. She loved this view of her property, her little farmhouse with the big chimney, the old barn, which had been Mark’s former office, to the left. She could even see a hint of the pond.

  “There have been three incidences in the last two weeks that have directly involved you. Your tires, Spin-A-Yarn, and what happened this afternoon. When I found out you were supposed to be at the quilt shop last weekend, I have to say, it made me a little concerned, too. You didn’t mention to Ian that you’d had an appointment with Julie that morning. He’s not very happy about that.” When Vivi was done speaking, she cast Jesse a worried look then gestured her onward across the back part of the property.