Nick's enforced rest was not taken lying down as would be expected of anyone else recovering with a brush with the business end of a rattlesnake. Heath's last words on the day that Nick had been bitten, struck a chilling note in his older brother's heart. Plotting was not one of Nick's innate skills, but there was no way that he was going to let Heath out of his sight again. Least not until they had caught the monster that seemed to be stalking the boy.
To that end, Nick had summoned several of the hands, one at a time, after breakfast the next morning. Settled into a chair in the sitting room with his injured leg propped on an ottoman, Nick outlined his double-pronged plan of attack to each of the hands that he took into his confidence. One, Heath Barkley has a chaperone at all times if he stepped foot outside the house. And two, the ranch hands would take shifts guarding the immediate property around the house. Nothing overt, mind you. Wouldn't want to rile Heath. Just needed to keep a lookout until they located the nut case that was after his little brother.
The men were cooperative and soon were strategizing where to keep a lookout, shift changes and how to mask their activities so that Heath would not pick up on their intentions.
Nick's greatest fear was that Heath would get it into his head to leave the ranch for his family's safety. That damned note! Nick's fist pounded the arm of the chair. Shaking his head, Nick couldn't blame Heath. He'd want to do the same to protect their family. Nick couldn't bring himself to tell the hands to prevent Heath from leaving the ranch. If word got back about that to Heath, why he'd have a fit and be just that much more inclined to leave.
Now that he had dealt with the problem of protecting his family and especially his brother, Nick appointed himself in charge of making sure his Heath didn't leave the house. Steepling his fingers, his head bent to ponder the problem, Nick did not realize how much his stance resembled that of his brother Jarrod, who was even now wrestling with his own problem.
BVBVBVBBVBVBVBVBVBVThe legal pad was sitting there mocking him. Jarrod glared at his notes. Maybe mocking was not quite right; rather it was definitely failing to enlighten him. He had written down the particulars of what they knew about the situation. With each numbered point, Jarrod pondered its possible clue.
1. Party or parties want to kill Heath to see Nick suffer.
Does that make something Nick did in his past a cause for someone seeking revenge, Heath?
2. Primary target of revenge might be Nick. Make him watch Heath die???
But why is Heath seemingly the only intended victim?
3. Attacker stated that he had planned this for two years.
Could this mean that the originating incident happened two years ago?
4. Letter intimates that other members of the family might be in danger.
Is the object to put the entire family on warning or scare Heath into protecting his family by leaving and therefore exposing himself?
5. Attacker seems intelligent and patient though vocabulary does not imply higher education. Willing to leave some things to chance (rattlesnake). Overconfident?
I only wish!
Jarrod growled his frustration at his list notes. Maybe he should take a page from Heath's attacker and be a bit less methodical and a bunch more random. With this intent in mind, Jarrod jotted down the first words that came to his head as he pondered the problem. Not full thoughts, just haphazard bits of flotsam that were rolling around in his head. Maybe one would give his a clue as to which direction to steer his investigation.
Brothers
Younger
Older
Revenge
Eye for eye
Dead
Suffer
2 years
Suddenly the words that had been thrown back at his brothers as they rode away jumped from the page and thundered though Jarrod's mind.
Eye for an eye!What if the Heath's attempted killer was himself an older brother who had suffered the loss of a younger brother? Nick was no gunfighter but he had killed in the war and later in self-defense and in defense of his family and their land.
My God, Jarrod thought to himself, this has to be it! Jarrod flipped the page and started to write down a few names that he could remember and for want of a name, incidents that might fit the profile he'd just created. Nick could fill in the rest of the names and Jarrod could hire a detective and start his own inquiries first thing in the morning. With grim satisfaction, Jarrod pushed himself away from his desk and left the study. With a bellow of "Nick" that would have done said brother proud, Jarrod went in search of his brother to round out his list.
BVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVHeath was making plans of his own.
Everyone in the family was pleasantly surprised when Heath followed the doctor's orders for bed rest for three more days. He could tell that his mother fretted that he stayed in his room, thinking that he was feeling worse than he let on. But Heath allayed her concerns with his teasing good humor when she came to sit with him.
On the second day of his self-enforced bed rest, Nick came by and dumped the ranch ledgers in his lap, with a frustrated growl. Heath's job was to figure out why the accounts were off by $4.57. Smiling to himself as Nick grumbled and stomped unevenly out his bedroom door, Heath was pretty sure that Nick was more frustrated because he was stumped by his younger brother's uncharacteristic actions, or lack thereof, than the accounting error. By later in the evening, the limping Nick that stopped by his room and played poker with him seemed to accept that Heath was just being a little more cautious about his recovery this time.
And relaxing Nick's guard was exactly what Heath was after.
The blonde also saw the wisdom of being well rested before he left the ranch. He would have to pack light, but he was used to that. A bedroll, some clothes and his saddlebags were camouflaged under a couple of neatly folded shirts in his bottom drawer. Starting tomorrow night, he would start smuggling the items out to the woodpile in back of the house.
He tipped his head and smiled gently to himself, Nick would never make much of a master criminal. His "secret" plans to keep tabs of his brother were revealed to Heath almost immediately. He'd noticed the parade of ranch hands the previous day coming back and forth between the ranch house and knew something was up. Given the lack of subtlety, Heath was fairly sure that it was his big brother Nick's doing. It was cinched when Heath overheard a couple of the hands talking near his window. In the still of warm evening he got an earful. And more importantly, just enough to have an idea when the hands made their rounds each night.
Money would be a bit of a problem. He could draw on the Barkley account anywhere in the country, if needed. But he knew that once he was gone, Jarrod would ask to be alerted to any activity on the account in order to find Heath. He couldn't risk accidentally luring one or both of his brother's into the sights of the killer. There was money in the safe that they kept for petty cash on the ranch. Though he knew it seemed illogical, Heath felt that taking that money would be line that he could not cross.
He had about fifty dollars - it would have to be enough. He could make an adequate living until he was able to lure the killer far enough away from his family. Then Heath would turn the tables on his stalker, track him down and finish this once and for all. His biggest problem was getting Charger out of the barn – a barn with its entrance in full view of the main house and bunkhouse. But he had a few days to figure that out. He'd be heading out on Saturday. With many of the hands in Stockton to kick their heels up a bit at the saloon and everyone sleeping in on Sunday, he'd gain a bit more time than if he left in the middle of the week. Heath was confident that he could cover his tracks well enough to hide the direction that he took away from the ranch.
TBC…