Samantha leaned against the counter for support, wondering if her knees were going to continue to support her. What if she’d been alone when she’d found the note? What would she have done?
“You okay?” John’s deep voice rumbled, sending a jolt of electricity along her nerves and making the hair at the nape of her neck prickle.
“No. I’m not okay,” she answered bluntly. “Right this minute, I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again.”
When he said, “Good. That means you’ll be more careful from now on,” she didn’t know what she wanted most: to slug him for giving her an unnecessary lecture or kiss him again for standing by her.
Considering the ambiguity of her feelings she decided that doing neither would be the smartest choice.
At least for the time being.
* * *
“I can’t be positive,” John told Charlie Fox, the young, part-time sheriff’s deputy who had responded this time because he’d been patrolling nearby, “but it looks as if the dognappers decided to retrieve the ransom note as soon as they knew Samantha had seen it.”
“Why bother?”
“I don’t know. Nothing they’ve done so far has made a lot of sense. When we first missed Brutus we didn’t spot any note but I’m not positive either of us thought to look in the refrigerator.” He scowled. “That’s my fault.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they left it after that, when you were busy over at the hospital.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Coloring from remembered embarrassment, John shook his head. “Has there been any sign of Ben Southerland—or my Glock?”
“Not yet. We’ve expanded the APB to include all Arkansas counties and up into southern Missouri.”
“Good.”
“I can make a sweep through the house before I leave if you want.” Fox looked pointedly at John. “Since you’re camped here I don’t suppose there’s too much to worry about.”
“That was supposed to be the general idea. I’ll take care of the house.”
“Nice gig if you can get it.” The deputy touched the brim of his cap, then said, “G’night, folks. I’ll let myself out and start on the yard while you’re checking inside.”
Their cursory walk-through didn’t take long. As soon as they heard the patrol car driving away Samantha looked to John. “You can go, too. I’m fine. Really.”
“You weren’t fine when you were beating on my trailer so hard the whole thing was shaking.”
“Okay, so maybe I was a little excited.”
“A little.” He eyed the door. “Is it just me or are deputies getting younger and younger? Charlie didn’t look old enough to shave.”
“I think he’s in his early twenties. You’d mentioned his name when we were going to see Opal. Hadn’t you met him before?”
“No. He must have been off duty when I was given the station tour. It’s not as if Chief Kelso or the sheriff threw a welcome-home party for me, although there was enough of a fuss that it ruffled a few feathers.” John gestured toward the kitchen table. “Why don’t you have a seat and tell me everything you can remember about that note?”
“Like what? You heard what I told Charlie.”
“Humph. He’s such a raw rookie I’m surprised he pinned his badge on right side up. There were some very important questions he didn’t ask. For instance, was this note at all like the first one? Same paper, same lettering? Anything?”
“Well, it wasn’t misspelled, although that may have been done to the one before to try to throw us off.”
“What was the exact wording?”
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then repeated what she’d said earlier. “‘The package for the dog.’”
“That’s all? No instructions? No way to make contact?”
“No.” Samantha’s gaze searched his and she began to frown. “That doesn’t make much sense, does it? If they want this mysterious package they’re so sure I have, why not tell me how to get it to them?”
“Maybe there’s another note hidden somewhere around here.”
“Like where? Wouldn’t we have found it already?”
“I don’t know. There was no good reason for them to leave the threat in the fridge so we can’t assume there will be logic to wherever they may have put further instructions.”
The misty look in Samantha’s eyes told him she was close to losing control of her emotions. That was perfectly natural, he simply didn’t want to see her give in to grief before there was adequate reason to do so.