Justice At Morgan Mesa. Jenna Night

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СКАЧАТЬ that Vanessa had withheld some important bit of information intentionally last night, either because it was embarrassing or because it might incriminate her in some illegal activity. Levi wanted to talk to her while she was still a little off-balance from the attack and might find it difficult to hide the truth.

      His police SUV rattled as he drove over a cattle guard. The noise might wake up some of the ranch’s vacationing guests, but that would just add to the authenticity of their visit. From his own ranching childhood, he knew waking up early was an integral part of an authentic ranch experience.

      The Silver Horse Guest Ranch was sixteen miles east of town on what used to be a family-owned horse ranch. The family’s younger generation had sold out, and apparently the buyer had turned it into a guest ranch. Vanessa had told the patrol officer he’d handed her off to last night that she was staying here.

      After driving through a couple of curves in the winding dirt road, the view opened up to a fenced meadow on the left and a sprawling ranch house on the right. Beyond the ranch house, scattered among the trees, he spotted several small unfinished cabins. It looked like the guest ranch wasn’t open for business yet.

      A big blue storage trailer sat alongside the private drive with piles of raw lumber and paint cans stacked against it. The stables were tucked up fairly close to the ranch house with a big red barn and a couple of other storage buildings a little farther away.

      Levi parked his SUV in front of the ranch house and walked up the three steps to the wide front porch. There were four rocking chairs sitting out there, each one a different style and color. An ancient-looking calico cat occupied one cushioned seat. She lifted her head and slowly blinked as he walked up. He reached out to pat her head, half expecting her to run away before he could touch her. But she didn’t.

      After scratching the orange patch between her ears for a few seconds, he glanced up. The drapes were open at a pair of large windows beside the front door, and he could see Vanessa Ford inside seated in a straight-backed wooden chair, an elbow propped on the dining table beside it and her forehead pressed into the palm of her other hand.

      Across from her, a tall, sinewy man in dark jeans and a long-sleeved Western shirt paced back and forth. His hair was mostly steel gray with a few black streaks while his thick mustache was almost completely black. He waved both of his arms as he talked. “You should have woken me up and told me!”

      Levi was interrupting an argument. It sounded like it was about the attack on her last night. He stood by the window so they’d be able to see him, then reached over and knocked on the door.

      The man looked at him first. His face was red. Then Vanessa lifted her head to look toward him. The red marks he’d seen on her chin and the side of her face after she’d tripped and fallen last night had darkened into purple bruises. The man strode over to open the door and Levi introduced himself.

      “Sam Ford,” the man said in response. “Come on in, Lieutenant. I believe I have you to thank for saving my granddaughter’s life.” With that, he turned to glare at Vanessa.

      Vanessa shifted her gaze to Levi. Her eyes were squinted like she was in pain. Maybe a headache. He’d fallen and smacked his head a few times and he knew how she felt. He also understood the alternating emotions of buoyant relief and sinking terror once the adrenaline wore off after someone tried to kill you.

      Not that he was convinced the man who attacked her last night had truly intended to kill her. If so, she’d be dead now. The attack was almost theatrical. Fear was the goal. Now he needed some leads on who would do that to her and why.

      “Sorry to interrupt your morning,” Levi said as he stepped inside. They were in a dining area. Wood floors, oak table and chairs, a couple of potted plants, coffee mugs hanging from pegs on the wall, and not much else. The current residents hadn’t been settled in for very long. “I came out to ask Ms. Ford a few questions.”

      “You could have just phoned me,” she grumbled, running a fingernail up and down the handle of her coffee mug. “And call me Vanessa.”

      “I wasn’t aware you’d gotten your phone back.”

      Her shoulders dropped and she sighed. “I haven’t.”

      “We’ve got a good group of volunteers working with a couple of officers up on the mesa. They’re doing a second search of the Heaton property now that it’s daylight. If your phone is still up there, they’ll find it.”

      Levi felt another presence walk into the room and turned to see a second older gentleman, this one shorter than Mr. Ford, with sparse reddish hair. He was barrel-shaped and wearing a white cook’s apron. He walked from the kitchen area with a plate of muffins and a coffeepot. He set the muffins on the table and turned to Levi. “Good morning. Would you like some coffee?”

      “Sure, thanks.”

      “This is Pablo Sandoval,” Vanessa said. “Pablo, this is Lieutenant Levi Hawk.”

      “Pleased to meet you,” Pablo said as he took a mug from a peg on the wall and filled it with coffee for Levi. “I’m grateful to God that you arrived at that house in time to keep something terrible from happening to Vanessa.”

      Levi nodded. He was a praying man. And he, too, was grateful to God that nothing worse had happened.

      “This is Rosa,” Vanessa added, making the introductions as a lady with graying hair pulled back into a tight bun walked into the room and smiled at him.

      “Rosa and I know each other through work,” Levi said. “It’s good to see you.”

      This wasn’t the first time he’d had to intrude on a family while doing his job. He’d accepted the offer of coffee in an attempt to be social, which wasn’t always his strong suit. But he’d been working on it. He thought about forcing a friendly smile on his face, but didn’t. His sister, Angela, told him he looked scary when he did that. “How are you feeling?” he asked Vanessa.

      “Probably about how I look. Bruised.”

      “Why bother asking?” her grandfather snapped. “She’ll just tell you everything’s fine. She won’t be forthcoming.”

      Pablo loudly cleared his throat and gestured toward the plate he’d set on the table. “Applesauce muffins. Anybody hungry?”

      Apparently, nobody was. No one made a move toward the food. Everyone’s attention was focused on Vanessa.

      “So, you live in Las Vegas and your family lives here?” Levi asked her.

      Vanessa started to nod, winced and stopped. “We bought this property a few months ago. There’s still a lot of work to be done before the guest ranch opens for business.”

      “Do you have any leads on who attacked my granddaughter?” Sam asked impatiently.

      “Not yet.” Levi watched Vanessa closely, trying to gauge whether she was holding back information. Maybe she didn’t want to talk in front of her grandfather. “I have several questions for you,” he added. “Maybe you’d like to step outside. We could talk on your porch.”

      “You can talk right here,” Sam growled out. He pulled out a chair for Levi and one for himself. Pablo and Rosa headed off into the kitchen area. There was the sound of a cabinet door opening and a bag rattling. A gray tabby cat shot down the staircase beside the dining area and disappeared СКАЧАТЬ