Harley Ann motioned to both of them to sit down.
Once they complied, she began. “That man on the porch is my ex-boyfriend.”
“The one who got you sent to jail?” Sheriff Carter asked.
“Youknew?” Harley Ann said in shock.
“When all the rumors went around town about a big mystery after you moved here, I made it my business to see what I could find out.” When Aunt Edna began spluttering, he held up his hand. “Now, Miss Edna, this is my town and my county and it’s my responsibility to make sure everyone is safe.”
“Well you’re doing a piss poor job of it.” Aunt Edna said. “That man threatened my niece and here you sit, pretty as you please, asking a bunch of fool questions instead of chasing him down.”
“I didn’t see anyone when I got here, so I didn’t know there was anyone to chase. Unfortunately, he’s long gone by now.” He squinted at Harley Ann. “How about you tell me what kind of mess is going on in my town and how you’re involved.”
“I’m not involved at all, Sheriff. David Green showed up here demanding I tell him the location of the jewelry from the robbery. I don’t have that information. I never had the jewelry in my possession at any time.”
The sheriff backed down. “I believe you. But why does he think you have it?”
Harley Ann shrugged. “His friend Calvin, who was involved in the robbery but never caught, must have told him I have it. I don’t know of any other reason he’d think I do. I didn’t even know he was out of jail until now.”
The sheriff rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “I wish there was a camera on this house so we could watch anyone coming and going. The best I can do is adjust a couple of the cameras on the town square to see if they can include this house. And Todd and I will drive by regularly to keep an eye on the house.” He turn to Harley Ann. “Does anyone else know about this?”
“Ian Elliott and the friend who’s staying with him and Piper.”
The sheriff sighed. “I suppose you told them instead of me?”
Harley Ann shook her head. “No. Really. They put it together than someone was stalking me before I did.” She glanced at her aunt. “Yesterday, Aunt Edna and I found some disturbances in the flowerbed out back of the house and I thought someone had been spying on us, but Aunt Edna thought I was crazy.”
She pushed her hair behind her ears. “Then Jesse Miller, that’s Ian’s friend came by last night and told me that he’d discovered someone had put a bug under the boards on the booth I use at the farmer’s market, and he’d found evidence of someone hanging around in the woods out there. They’re going to keep an eye on things here. Watching for the guy.”
The sheriff sighed. “Okay. I understand that all this happened pretty quickly, but you should’ve reported this to dispatch last night instead of waiting till this morning.”
She nodded, suddenly feeling unnerved. Everything had just gotten far too real. David showing up bold as brass on the front porch was something she’d never had believed he’d do. If his aim was to scare her, he’d succeeded magnificently.
She needed to tell Jesse and let him know what had happened.
“I’ll drive over to Ian’s and talk to him and his friend about how we’re going to handle this. I don’t want a couple of protectors from out of town going off half-cocked and getting other people hurt.”
It sounded to her like the sheriff was overly concerned about his jurisdiction. She kept that thought to herself, though. Accusing a man like Ben Carter of trying to win a pissing match wouldn’t have any positive impact on the situation. She hoped Ian and Jesse would feel the same way.
As she was saying her good-byes to the sheriff and assuring him she’d stay close to the house, a beat-up pickup truck with a bed full of mulch pulled up out front.
“There you go, Sheriff.” Harley Ann pointed to the truck. “I’ll stay busy spreading this mulch for Aunt Edna in the back flowerbeds. Safe as houses in my own backyard all afternoon.
Chapter 13
Jesse satin tense silence as he listened to the distraught women tell him their versions of what they thought had happened to Harley Ann. Speaking over each other and contradicting each other to the point where they argued about which of them was right instead of giving him straight information.
He’d rushed over here the minute Piper told him Miss Edna had called in hysterics because Harley Ann was missing. The call was thirty minutes old by the time Piper had been able to tell him about it. He’d been out trying to track David Green’s location and the area with full of dead zone for cellphone.
He’d wasted more precious minutes convincing her to stay home rather than accompany him to Miss Edna’s. Once he’d gotten here and discovered two hysterical women instead of one, he was doubly glad he’d kept Piper from coming.
Ian, dammit, was out somewhere in the county looking at vacation and rental homes to see if he could flush out David Green that way. He must be in a dead zone because he hadn’t answered phone calls or text messages.
Jesse would be on his own with this.
The ‘bird dog’ in him that had given him his nickname wanted to rush out and start sniffing out Harley Ann – and to kill the sonofabitch who’d taken her.
However, he couldn’t rush off with no Intel. And these women were the only ones who could provide him with that starting point. If only they would get to the point quicker.
