Page 13 of Silverstorm

He’d been trying to get her out of his head ever since, without much luck. And to make matters worse, he’d never posted the description of Aria as the thief from the milk bar, which made his stomach churn in self-reproach, even now. And to top that off, now he was mixed up in her father’s murder investigation. She’d require him most in his professional capacity. But he was also going to be there for her emotionally, if she needed him.

“Jude, I’ve run out of tape,” Susan called from the front gate.

“I’ve got some right here.” He held up the roll. Then he turned at the sound of a car engine. Sheriff Buchanan was here to oversee everything. The sheriff gave him a look as he exited his car, as if to say, here we go again. Jude understood that expression. This wasn’t the first murder they’d attended in the past two years in this small, sleepy town. And here was yet another one with a connection to Stargazer Ranch, albeit a loose one, as Aria had only been working there for two days. But it was a connection, nonetheless.

Thinking about Stargazer jogged his memory back to earlier today when Levi had called into the office. He’d almost forgotten his conversation with Levi because straight afterward the tip-off had come in about a suspected dead body, and Jude and Susan had dropped everything to rush over to Tango’s house.

Levi had some interesting news. Yesterday afternoon, he’d borrowed an ATV from Cat at Stargazer and driven into the foothills of Canyon Peak, which ran parallel to the Stargazer Ranch boundary. And he’d found signs of at least two abandoned campsites. It was very dry up there with the fall rains yet to start, and so footprints were almost impossible to see in the dusty, rocky ground. It’d taken Levi’s trained eye to spot them; whoever was camping there had done a good job of covering up any signs. Some partially flattened grass and what looked to be freshly swept earth, scattered with leaves and other debris. This would’ve fooled most people, but it immediately raised a red flag in Levi’s mind.

“I think they might still be up there,” Levi had said in his slow, considered way. “It looks like they move around every couple of days. But I ran out of time, and out of daylight, to keep searching.”

“You said they. Do you think there’s more than one person?” Jude asked.

“Yes. Two, maybe three people, from the size of the campsite. I found no sign of the stolen cattle, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t take them. If they were that careful to cover their tracks and campsite, they could easily have buried the remains of the cattle somewhere outside the camp and disguised that site, as well,” Levi added thoughtfully. “It’s a little odd, and it definitely warrants another look.” Levi had scratched his beard and tipped his head to the side, watching Jude with his dark eyes.

Jude trusted Levi’s judgement, which was why he’d asked him to go up there in the first place. So they’d made a plan to go back together in a few days’ time, when they were both free.

Now, with Tango’s murder, Jude decided there should be more urgency put on someone going into the area to give a more thorough search. Could there be a link between the mysterious campers stealing cattle and a murder in the town? It would be a tenuous link, but Jude knew better than to discount anything in an investigation.

He tossed this all around in his head as he watched Sheriff Buchanan walk toward him. He hadn’t mentioned asking Levi to take a look for him to his boss yesterday, seeing it more as a favor to Dean. But now he needed to make the search official. He filled Hank in on everything they’d found today, as well as Levi’s findings, as they walked toward the house.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“MMM HMM.” ARIA made the sound in the back of her throat as she watched Naomi sketch out her idea on a piece of paper. It was a rough plan for a new covered horse riding arena, specifically designed to teach blind children to ride. It was like a large dressage arena, with high wooden fences and a roof to keep out the snow and rain. Aria was a little flabbergasted at the ease with which Naomi blithely threw plans around, as if money were no hurdle. Which it obviously wasn’t. But it was still hard for Aria to get her head around that kind of money being so easily accessible.

“We’d have to have a covered walkway between the arena and the stables,” Naomi stopped drawing and tapped the pen against her lips. “I wonder if Dean would let me build a whole new set of stables specifically for the blind riding horses, too?”

Aria silently shook her head. It was a great thing Naomi was doing, all this philanthropic development of the ranch, but she talked about building stables like they cost nothing at all, like she wasn’t thinking of spending millions of dollars to achieve her goal.

Dean had been in earlier to see what they were up to, and had just grimaced when he saw how his wife and new employee were taking over his office. Drawings and papers covered in Naomi’s scrawled handwriting littered the floor. Piles of reference books and articles were stacked on one end of the desk, and a set of yellow sticky notes were plastered to the window. His grimace said that he knew he wasn’t getting his office back any time soon.

“Looks like you ladies are having fun,” he said with a smile. Aria was fast coming to learn that Dean always had a smile at the ready. He was one of those positive, happy people who just loved his life. And why wouldn’t he? With this beautiful ranch, his lovely wife, and more than enough money that he’d never want for anything.

“We are,” Naomi had enthused. “Look, Dean, we could build our very own riding arena.”

“We could?” Dean eyed the picture Naomi held up with mild confusion.

“Yes, I think that would be best,” Naomi replied, completely serious. Naomi turned to Aria and said, “Dean is totally on board with this. He’s already talking about retraining some of our ranch horses, or perhaps bringing in new horses that’ve been trained specially to work with blind people. They’d need to be bombproof. Gentle and extremely tolerant.”

Aria held in a smile. She didn’t think Dean had any choice about being on board, it seemed Naomi was running with this idea, and no one was going to stop her. But Dean gave her an indulgent smile, full of love and admiration, and Aria knew he’d give her the sun and the moon if she asked for it. What would it be like to have that sort of love? Where your man loved you unconditionally, would do anything to see you happy and smiling? It was a special kind of love that Dean and Naomi had, and Aria found herself a tad jealous.

This was only the second day on the job, but her head was already bursting with all the new information, all the projects Naomi had lined up, and how many different ways Aria could help Naomi achieve her goals. She’d originally thought she was applying for the job of marketing and social administrator, which Naomi agreed was definitely a large part of the new position. But she also said she needed help with the practicalities of getting the blind riding school off the ground, and that would form at least half of Aria’s new duties. Aria didn’t mind. As long as she got to use her graphic design skills, she would be happy. And they’d already come in handy getting all of Naomi’s hand-drawn ideas into readable and recognizable documents on the computer. Aria had shown Naomi a software package that could bring her drawings to life, and show her a 3D virtual reality version of the plan once it was input into the system. Naomi had been beside herself with glee when she’d seen that software, and now that Aria knew she liked what she saw, she had plenty more ideas up her sleeve.

Yesterday, Aria had spent all of the day locked in the room with Naomi, getting to know her new boss and finding out the extent of her plans. Naomi had waxed lyrical about all the different ways horseback riding could help to add meaning and structure to a vision-impaired person’s life.

“Usually with a blind person, their other senses are highlighted,” Naomi had told her. “Riding stimulates these other senses, through touch, the leather of the saddle, the soft horse's hide when they groom the animal, and through environmental stimuli, like the sound of a farm and the smell of dust and hay and manure. Their posture may be improved, too, as they learn to sit up straight, keep their shoulders back and look the world right in the eye, so to speak.” Naomi had given a self-effacing cough at her unintended pun. But then she’d continued with her passionate sermon. “It will also give them freedom of movement, they’re no longer tied to shuffling along using a stick or other implement. They’re free to fly on top of a cantering horse.” Naomi was so excited by this new prospect, it was hard not to feel excited, as well. In fact, Naomi was so excited, Aria could hardly get a word in edgeways.

Then finally, late this afternoon, Naomi had remembered to take Aria out and introduce her to the other Stargazer Ranch staff.

“You’ve already met Penny,” Naomi said, breezing past the reception desk.

“Yes. Hi again.” Aria waved as they fluttered past, and Penny gave her a sympathetic glance at being caught up in the whirlwind that was Naomi with a new idea brewing.

“I’ll give you a quick whistle-stop tour of the place,” Naomi said. “So you can get your bearings.” Naomi took two jackets from inside a mud room to the side of the main entrance and handed her one with a Stargazer logo on the back. “I’ll get Penny to order you your own personal jacket to fit you properly, but this spare one will have to do for now.”

Practically having to run to keep up with her new boss, Aria was glad she’d decided to stick with jeans, a sweater and a pair of tennis shoes, throwing the jacket over her clothes as they trudged up the hill toward the machinery shed. The wind was decidedly icy. Fall was definitely setting in. Aria noticed a gorgeous garden hugging the side of the lodge and leading down to the parking lot, full of natives, and pockets of green oases set in amongst the trunks of enormous pine trees. There was even a stand of silver aspen, their yellow fall leaves shivering in the breeze. But she didn’t have time to stop and stare, as Naomi charged up the path toward a low rise, over which she could just make out a metallic roofline.

“Cat, are you there?” Naomi called out as they rounded into a huge iron-clad shed full of farm equipment and other vehicles. A woman with bright blonde, spiky, short hair clambered out from underneath a tractor. “This is our newest staff member, Aria Cusack.” Naomi pointed to Aria, who was standing with her mouth open, taking in the enormous space.

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