Colorado Abduction (5 page)

He pointed to the red markings. “These dots represent incidents of sabotage.”

She counted. “Seven incidents. Since my brother hasn’t seen fit to keep me informed, can you tell me about them?”

Burke had plenty of details. During the interrogations, he’d listened to dozens of complaints from ticked-off cowboys.
“Like you said before, it was just petty mischief until the barn burned down.”

Her soft pink lips frowned. “I still don’t understand why. We’re good neighbors. We provide employment to the people in this area. Why would anybody do this to us?”

“You want motives?” He flipped open the notepad where Silverman had recorded their notes. “There are over twenty names listed. People who bear grudges against the Carlisles.”

She leaned over the table. Her manicured fingernail—a feminine contrast to her ranch clothes—skimmed down the list. “I don’t even know half these people. How did you come up with this list?”

“Your employees told us about them. By the way, all the ranch hands were quick to say that they like their jobs and your brother is a good, fair-minded boss.”

She pointed to a name on the list. “Who’s this?”

When he bent down to see where she was pointing, her ponytail brushed against his cheek. The scent of lilacs from her hair distracted him and it took a moment for him to read the name. “He works for an oil company. Your brother wouldn’t allow his equipment access through Carlisle property.”

“That hardly seems like an incitement to vandalism. Or kidnapping.”

Though Burke agreed, he knew better than to overlook any motive, no matter how slight. Some people could work themselves into a homicidal frenzy over a stubbed toe.

She read another name. “Nate Miller. That’s no surprise. He’s hated us forever, blames us for his father’s failure on the Circle M.”

“There are a couple of other ranchers on the list who don’t like the competition from Carlisle Ranch.”

“It’s business,” she said. “Why make it personal?”

“Your success hurts their bottom line. People tend to take bankruptcy personally.”

“But we’re always fair. Always.” She tapped the name with her finger. “Dutch Crenshaw runs the meatpacking plant in Delta. We’ve given him millions of dollars in business over the years.”

Burke considered Crenshaw’s motive to be one of the best. “But you’re thinking about building your own slaughterhouse.”

“I gave him a chance,” she said. “I told him that we wanted to use state-of-the-art humane technology, but he refused to modify his plant.”

“So you’re going to put him out of business.”

She frowned. “Okay, maybe you’ve got a point.”

His focus on the list was interrupted by a loud crash, followed by the sound of gunfire. The shots came from the front of the house.

Burke’s risk assessment had been dead wrong. They were under attack. He caught hold of Carolyn’s upper arm and turned her toward him. “Go upstairs. Don’t turn on any lights and—”

“The hell I will.” She wrenched free. “Those were gunshots. Somebody’s firing at my house—the house that’s been in my family for three generations, the house my grandpa built. Don’t ask me to hide behind the lace curtains in my bedroom.”

Stubborn woman
. “I go first. Stay behind me.”

“Of course. I’m not going to put myself or anyone else in danger.”

He grabbed his handgun from the shoulder holster slung across the back of a chair, aware of seconds ticking away. Whoever fired that shot would be making his escape. Moving quickly through the house, Burke turned off lights as he went. Carolyn followed in his footsteps.

Her brother staggered into the moonlit hallway, rubbing his eyes. “Carolyn? What’s going on?”

“Stay with him,” Burke ordered as he flipped the latch on the front door. “I’ll be right back.”

Leaving Carolyn behind—thank God—he slipped outside
onto the veranda. Aware that he might be the next target for a man with a rifle and a nightscope, Burke stayed low. He dodged around the rocking chair and porch swing. At the end of the veranda, he jumped over the railing and ducked into the shadows.

Wind rustled the bare branches of a cottonwood. Nothing else appeared to be moving.

“Over here, Burke.”

Burke followed the sound of the voice and saw a security guard crouched behind a truck that was parked on the wide gravel space beyond a hitching rail. Burke hustled toward him. “Where’s the shooter?”

“Didn’t see him. I was behind the house when I heard the shots.”

His heavy jaw was thrust forward. His name, Burke remembered, was Neville. He’d been in the Secret Service for five years before joining Longbridge Security. “What about a vehicle?”

Neville shook his head. “I didn’t hear a car.”

Cautiously, they peered around the truck. The driveway leading to the house was a long gravel lane. The yard was about an acre of winter-brown grass, separated from the road by a whitewashed fence. On the other side of the road, the land turned rugged with lots of trees and rocks—plenty of hiding places for a sniper.

“He could be dug in behind those rocks,” Burke said.

He nodded. “A decent rifle would be accurate from four, maybe even five hundred yards away.”

After that first burst of gunfire, no other shots had been fired. Likely, the shooter had already hightailed it out of there. “Do you think he’s gone?”

“I don’t want to test that theory by taking a bullet,” Neville said.

“Let’s find him,” Burke said. “You go right. I’ll go left. We’ll meet at the fence by the road.”

As Burke moved across the yard, he scanned the cold, moonlit landscape. There was virtually no cover. Burke longed for the city streets, crowded with parked cars and doorways to duck into. This sniper was probably an expert hunter. Not like the city punks who held their guns sideways, more concerned with looking cool than taking careful aim.

When he reached the fence and no other shots had been fired, he was fairly sure that their sniper was gone. He heard the door to the house open. A mob spilled onto the veranda. Carolyn and her brother were both carrying rifles. The other three FBI agents accompanied them.

Lucas and two other cowboys—also armed—charged toward the veranda from the two-story bunkhouse.

“There are way too many guns on this ranch,” Burke said. This was the land of the Second Amendment where the right to bear arms would not be infringed upon. He turned and looked across the road. From where he stood, he spotted four good positions for a sniper to hide, if he’d even bothered to take cover. With Neville behind the house and no one else keeping watch, the sniper could have stopped in the road, dropped to one knee, taken aim and fired. But why? What did he hope to gain by rousing the household?

“Sorry I missed him,” Neville said.

“Not your fault. One man can’t patrol an area this size.”

As he and Neville walked up the drive toward the house, Burke shivered in the December cold. He wasn’t wearing a jacket or hat, and hadn’t bothered to put on gloves. Responding to the threat had been his sole focus.

The gunfire bothered him because it didn’t make sense. As a rule, kidnappers kept close tabs on their hostages.

But two men had abducted Nicole. One could be with her while the other came here. Why? By now the kidnappers had to know that the FBI had been called in. Why take the risk of coming close?

He stopped behind the black rental van he and his men had driven from the Delta airfield. The back window was shot out, and there was a neat bullet hole in the rear license plate. None of the other vehicles showed signs of damage. The FBI van had been the target.

Carolyn stepped up beside him. Her rifle rested on her shoulder. “Looks like a pretty clear message, Burke. Somebody doesn’t like you.”

For a moment he grinned. He liked a challenge.

A
FTER SHE’D HERDED EVERYONE
back into the house, Carolyn took Burke and her brother into the office to talk strategy.

Somehow Carolyn had to turn the situation around and make it work.
But what can I do?
She couldn’t put in extra hours to get the job done. It didn’t matter that she was smart and strong. She couldn’t change fate.

Pacing on the carpet, she snapped at her brother, “Don’t drink that coffee. Caffeine keeps you awake.”

“Somebody needs to be alert.” He leaned against the desk and faced the sofa where Burke sat. “Looks like we made a mistake.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“The kidnappers don’t want the FBI involved.”

“Of course they don’t.” Her temper flared. “That’s exactly why Burke and his men are staying here. We need their expertise.”

“Why? We’re paying the ransom. I’m not taking any chances with my wife’s safety.”

“You want reasons?” In spite of her brother’s distress, she
had to be brutally honest. “I don’t think I can get my hands on a million dollars in cash by the deadline.”

“Why not? I’m sure there’s a way.”

“Even if we pay, there’s no guarantee that the kidnappers will bring Nicole back.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I know.”

“We’re ranchers, Dylan. We don’t know squat about crime. The best way to deal with these kidnappers is to follow the advice of experts. Right, Burke?”

He didn’t bother to nod. Instead, he sat in self-contained silence. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but hoped he had some kind of plan that involved more than sitting here waiting for the next call from the kidnappers.

Lucas Mann poked his head into the office. “I got a question for you, Carolyn. The men are asking if maybe you could see fit to give their guns back.”

“Seems to me that you’ve got plenty of other guns.”

“Well, sure.” He raked his fingers through his thinning salt-and-pepper hair. “Most everybody has backup weapons. But we want all the firepower we can get. Especially since some polecat is shooting at us.”

“And I suppose you’re missing your pretty new Glock nine millimeter?”

“Ain’t she a beaut?” A proud smile stretched his face, and she noticed the wad of chewing tobacco that made a pouch in his cheek. “I bought it when all this sabotage started up. Gave my old piece to MacKenzie, that new kid.”

“I’m assuming,” Burke said from the sofa, “that you legally transferred ownership.”

“Speaking of sabotage,” Carolyn said, quickly changing the subject. If Burke got official about the paperwork for all the firearms on this ranch, there would be trouble. “What’s your opinion, Lucas? Who do you think is behind it?”

“Don’t know who,” he said, “and I don’t know why. But it all started when we moved a couple hundred head onto the south grazing pasture, near the Widow Grant’s property.”

Dylan grumbled, “Don’t start.”

“Carolyn asked a legitimate question,” Lucas said. “And she deserves an answer.”

Apparently, there had been a dispute between these two. “Please, Lucas, continue.”

“The first time I found a fence post torn down, I told Dylan that we should herd them cattle to a different area. He wouldn’t hear a word of it. Then we had another incident. And another. Dylan still wouldn’t change his mind. He sure can be pigheaded. Not meaning any disrespect.”

“I didn’t move the cattle,” Dylan explained, “because I’m trying a new system of rotating the herd.”

On the sofa, Burke leaned forward. His heels hit the floor with a loud thump—a subtle but effective way to get their attention. “Lucas, can you tell me why having cattle in that pasture might provoke vandalism?”

“Don’t know why. I just wanted to keep the herd safe.”

“They weren’t in danger,” Dylan said.

“We were damn lucky we didn’t lose any cattle when they broke through the fence.”

“Stop bickering.” Carolyn felt her temperature rising. “I don’t give a damn about what happened yesterday or last week. We need to concentrate on now. Right now. This very minute.”

Lucas took a backward step, hoping to escape. She caught him with a glare. “How do you explain this, Lucas? When you put those cattle in a pasture that’s usually empty, our men would be paying more attention to that area. Right?”

He thought for a moment. “Yep.”

“So, these vandals would be more likely to get caught when the cattle were there.”

“Guess so,” Lucas said.

She spread her hands, palms up, presenting them with her conclusion. “It’s counterintuitive to attack there. Why would they take the extra risk?”

“Because they’re not very smart,” Dylan said.

Clever enough to burn down the stable without being caught
. She turned away from her brother before she snapped his head off. “Lucas, tell me about the fire.”

“It was late.” He shifted the tobacco wad to his other cheek. “And damned cold. Everybody was in bed, but I couldn’t sleep and I remembered Polly had left some peach pies. So I came back here to the house for a midnight snack. That’s when I saw the flames.”

“You raised the alarm?”

“Yep.”

“I’m sure the sheriff investigated. Did he say how the fire was started?”

“Nothing fancy. That stable was dried-out wood. All it took was gasoline and a match.”

Burke unfolded himself from the sofa and stood. His height made him an impressive presence. “I have a plan.”

Her automatic reaction was to object, but Carolyn was desperate to make some kind of forward progress, even if it meant stepping back and letting Burke take charge. “I’m listening.”

“If we were in the city right now, I’d call in every free cop and state patrolman to provide surveillance and protection on the ranch.”

“We ain’t in the city,” Lucas pointed out.

“But we have resources. A lot of men and a lot of guns.”

She watched as her brother turned his attention toward Burke. Their gazes locked. They seemed to be communicating at a level she couldn’t comprehend. Man to man.

Dylan gave a slow nod. “I think I know what you’re planning.”

“We need to set up a perimeter around the ranch,” Burke said. “Deploy men at every place the security could be breached.”

“All around the ranch?” She hated this idea.

“The house, the barn, the bunkhouse, all the nearby structures. The center of activity.”

“You make it sound like we’re under siege.”

“Maybe we are.”

“I like it,” Dylan said. He set down his coffee, pushed away from the desk and took a step toward Burke. For the first time since Nicole’s kidnapping, he grinned. “The next time these guys get close, we’ll catch them.”

Though the two men didn’t bump chests and exchange high fives, she felt the testosterone level in the room raise by several degrees. Deploying armed cowboys sounded like a shortcut on the road to disaster.