Deadly Revenge (Pearl River #3)

Chapter 32

32

A tired quiet settled between them as the sun dropped over the mountain. They’d picked up barbecue in town, and the aroma just about made her stomach growl. Jenna glanced over at Max in the passenger seat and smiled. He hadn’t argued with her about driving his pickup.

“Well, I think we’ve had enough excitement to last awhile.”

“More like a lifetime.” Max rubbed the back of his neck. “I feel like an idiot.”

“Now you know how I felt this morning.”

“I wasn’t trying to one-up you,” he said with a dry laugh.

She laughed with him as she turned into her drive and killed the engine. Her gaze slid to the house, and her breath caught in her chest. A man briefly appeared in her window.

Her attacker was back!

Jenna jerked the car door open. She flicked away the strap over her gun and jumped out. Max yelled for her to stop. She ignored him and raced to the steps, her gun drawn.

She glanced at the top of the front door. The tape was undisturbed, but she knew what she’d seen. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Jenna unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Police! Come out with your hands in the air.”

Silence. Behind her, Max ran up the steps. “What’s going on?”

“I saw someone in the window.”

Max nodded. “Left,” he said, keeping his voice low.

Jenna nodded. She slipped inside, hugging the wall on the left. Max was close behind her, going to the right.

They both swept their guns from side to side. The room was empty. She glanced at him. “Kitchen,” he mouthed.

Silently they moved through the dining room. When they saw that the kitchen was empty, they backtracked to the living room.

“What happened?” Concern darkened Max’s brown eyes.

“I saw a man in the front window.”

She scanned the living room to see if anything was missing, and her gaze landed on the family photos on the mantel. Granna’s photo had been moved ... at least, she thought it had been.

“You sure? I didn’t see anyone and there doesn’t appear to be anyone here now.” Max holstered his gun.

She bristled at the implication in his voice. “He was here.”

“Was the tape disturbed?”

Jenna shook her head, not trusting her voice. She’d seen someone in the window. She knew she had.

“You put tape on the back door, right?”

Without answering, she hurried out the front door and jogged to the back. That tape hadn’t been disturbed, either.

“I don’t understand. I know I saw someone—a man.”

“Can you describe him?”

“I only saw him for a second. He had his back to the window.”

They walked to the front of the house. “Could it have been a shadow?” Max asked. “The front of your house faces west, and the sun was against the window ... that creates shadows sometimes.”

A rock settled in her stomach. He didn’t believe her.

“I remember when I was a kid, thinking I saw someone in the attic of the house next door to us. Turned out to be an old hat box. Let’s go back to the truck and see if—”

“I don’t have to recreate the moment. I know what I saw.” It was Chattanooga all over again. She jutted her jaw. “He was about your height and had dark hair.”

Her face grew hot as Max studied her. That was what she saw ... wasn’t it?

“Why don’t we look around to see if he left any evidence of being here,” he said.

Instead of making her feel better, his words irritated her. He was placating her, like a father soothing a frightened child. She fisted her hands on her hips. “I know what you think. You think I’m unstable ... just like my old boss in Chattanooga.”

“That’s not what I think at all, but sometimes our eyes do play tricks on us. Why don’t we dust for prints before we eat our barbecue, and you can check to see if anything has been disturbed.”

They cleared the house together, dusting for prints in each room. In her bedroom, she stared at the remote on her dresser. Had she put it there? If she had, it would’ve been yesterday because she hadn’t turned the TV on this morning. No matter, she simply couldn’t remember. Same thing with items in her living room. The photos on her mantel didn’t look quite right, but she couldn’t be sure. The frames were all identical. Had her grandmother’s photo been on the end or the middle? Same thing for the photos on the other end. Everything looked suspicious once she questioned her memory. At least the tape across the fake receptacle hadn’t been disturbed—but that was no guarantee. The tape on the doors hadn’t been disturbed either.

An hour later, they found several prints overlaid with smudges, which was what they’d get if the intruder wore latex gloves. Except for a few prints that matched Max’s fingerprints, the ones they found all looked the same. She assumed they were hers since she couldn’t remember the last time anyone else was in her house but Max and Alex, but her boss hadn’t touched anything.

“Have you checked to see if any of your jewelry is missing?” Max asked.

“I’ll do it now.” In her bedroom, she sorted through what jewelry she had, which wasn’t much. Everything seemed to be there, except ... where was her necklace?

Max stuck his head in the doorway. “Anything missing?”

“I can’t find my gold necklace with a cross.”

“When was the last time you saw it?”

She tried to remember. “Maybe a couple of weeks ago? I don’t wear jewelry often.”

“So it could be misplaced rather than missing?”

Jenna shrugged. “That makes more sense than thinking someone stole it and left behind a three-thousand-dollar laptop sitting in plain sight.”

“I agree.”

In the kitchen, she set plates down for the barbecue along with real knives and forks. “I’m not eating out of a Styrofoam box or using plastic utensils.”

But when Jenna sat down, she wasn’t hungry and picked at the food.

“You need to eat,” Max said.

“I know ... but I don’t have any appetite.”

Jenna managed to eat half of her plate, but her thoughts kept returning to the intruder. If someone was here, why didn’t they take her laptop in plain view in her office? What if she had imagined the man?

She’d thought the man who attacked Max could’ve been Sebastian. What if that had planted a subconscious thought that the gang leader was in Russell County? It wasn’t a far stretch to believe he could’ve broken into her house.

Could she really be suffering from PTSD? Right after the shooting, any loud noise could put her in the middle of the battle in Chattanooga, and blood, even just a drop of it, made her faint. Had her PTSD returned in a different form? She looked up as Max picked up her plate.

“I think we’re done for the night,” he said. “As soon as I do the dishes, let’s ride into town to the hotel so I can get my things. Tomorrow we’ll go see your grandmother first thing.”

“I’ll do the dishes.” She ignored his reference to the hotel. “And I think we have a briefing first thing.”

“After that, then.”

Jenna raised her brows. “Uh, don’t be surprised if Granna starts her matchmaking. I, uh, talked quite a bit about you when we worked together.” Her heart stuttered as he caught her gaze and held it.

“Would her matchmaking be such a bad thing?”

She hadn’t been wrong earlier, thinking he’d wanted to kiss her. Jenna wasn’t sure she could handle this version of Max. Sure, she’d fantasized about him right after his fiancée dumped him and before things got serious with Phillip, but Max never indicated he had the same feelings ... except for that one kiss...

What had changed? Before she got up the courage to ask, her cell phone rang. Alex. Jenna answered and put the call on speaker, dreading any more bad news.

“Dylan and Taylor finished processing Joe Slater’s house. You want them to come by and dust for prints?”

Jenna released the breath she’d been holding. “Thanks, but Max helped me. We found a few smudges, but nothing else.”

She filled her boss in about their interview with Eric Darby. “We feel he knows something, but it’s going to take time before he trusts us enough to share.”

“I’ll let you two work that,” Alex said. “I called Harrison Carter to discuss his rally, and he agreed to stop by the Pearl Springs Park in the morning on his way to Chattanooga around ten. I figure you and Max will want to join us for the meeting.”

“Absolutely,” Max said.

“Yes,” Jenna chimed in.

“Good. I’ll see you in the morning at the briefing ... and Jenna, I hope you don’t find any more bodies tonight.”

“So do I!”

Alex disconnected.

“You ready to ride to the hotel with me to get my things?”

“Max, I’ll be fine. What kind of law officer am I if I can’t protect myself? It’s hard enough being the only female deputy on the force other than Taylor without it looking like you don’t trust me to take care of myself.”

He opened his mouth, and she held up her hand.

“Please.”

“You are one stubborn woman.”

“Independent.”

Max studied her, then resolutely nodded. “Keep your phone by your bed.”

“I will. And I’ll walk you to the door and deadbolt it.”

He rattled the door once the lock snicked in place. “See,” she called. “You can’t get in.”

“Okay. Call me if you need me.”

She agreed and walked to the hall. His lights swept across the living room, and once they were gone, she stared at the window where she’d seen the man.

Had her mind seen something that wasn’t there?