Page 39 of Mile High Mystery

“It was just a stuffed bear,” he said. “Sick, but...”

“It was a threat,” she said. “Or a warning.”

“You really think the Chalk brothers sent someone after me? Why?”

“Maybe killing Camille wasn’t enough for them,” she said. “Maybe they want to take out her whole family.”

He stood. “My parents!”

She put a hand on his arm. “While you and Deputy Owen were in the bedroom, I called my office, and they’re sending someone to watch over your parents. I told them I’d look after you.”

He sat again. “This is unreal. You really think I’m in danger?”

“You said Janie was at the campground the day Camille was murdered. She has long blond hair.”

“Wait. I thought a man killed Camille.”

“A tall, thin figure dressed in a hooded raincoat and jeans was seen leaving her campsite. How tall is Janie?”

“Tall,” he said. “Almost six feet.” He looked stunned. “You really think she murdered Camille?”

“I don’t know. What about Todd? What does he look like?”

“He’s tall, too. And thin. And he has blond hair.” Zach looked as if he might be sick.

“Was he at the campground that day?”

“I don’t remember seeing him. But there were a lot of people there. And everyone was wet and bundled up in coats and rain gear.”

“I’ll work with the sheriff’s department to find out where both of them were after they left you yesterday,” she said. “In the meantime, I’ll stay here tonight.”

He stiffened, and she knew he wanted to protest that he could look after himself, but the memory of that almost beheaded bear must have stopped him. “I’ll find you some bedding,” he said and left the room.

When he was gone, Shelby took out her pistol and laid it on the coffee table, within easy reach of the sofa. She didn’t believe what had happened here tonight was a harmless prank or a sick joke. The person who left that bear wanted to frighten Zach. Fear had a way of wearing people down. Of making them more vulnerable. But she wasn’t going to let them get close enough to Zach to harm him. She had failed Camille. She wouldn’t fail Zach.

ZACHDIDN’TSLEEPthat night. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that mutilated bear and heard Shelby telling him the Chalk brothers might have decided to come after him. Because they hated Camille so much?

Or because they knew he hadn’t told everything he had seen that night in front of the Britannia Pub?

He tossed and turned, then listened as Shelby moved around in the front room. He thought about going out to talk to her. Or to do more than talk. He hadn’t forgotten the brief physical connection they had shared in her motel room earlier that evening. How wonderful would it be to focus on exploring that instead of being afraid? To escape for a while in a different kind of emotion?

But that wouldn’t be a good idea. And Shelby didn’t strike him as the type to get distracted when she had a job to do. So he turned over again and stayed in bed, finally slipping into a troubled sleep full of swirling waters, a blond figure running away from him and a real bear that roared at him from the underbrush.

He went through the next day on autopilot, half expecting his coworkers to ask what was wrong. But everyone was busy in the run-up to the opening of a new mine shaft, and no one questioned the dark circles beneath his eyes or his distracted air.

At four o’clock, Deputy Owen called. “Could you stop by the sheriff’s office when you get off work?” he asked.

“Sure. Did you find something?”

“We just have a few more questions to ask you.”

Shelby was waiting in the room with Sheriff Walker and Deputy Owen when the office manager, Adelaide Kinkaid, escorted Zach inside a little over an hour later. “Thanks for stopping by,” Sheriff Walker said. He nodded to the lone empty chair. “Sit down.”

He sat and glanced at Shelby, who looked at him in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring, but only made him brace himself for worse news. “What have you found out about the break-in at my place last night?” he asked.

“None of your neighbors saw anyone suspicious,” the sheriff said. “But that’s not too surprising, if someone with a key walked up and opened the door and went inside. Most people wouldn’t look twice. And the way the townhomes are arranged, your front door faces the street. None of your neighbors could see it from inside their homes.”

“Did you talk to Todd or Janie?” he asked.

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