Chapter 5
Jarrod was coming back to the library after giving Jose and Serena off to Audra's care, when Sheriff Harris was coming out. Jarrod said, "Theresa is finishing up her food. Do you want to talk to her now or should I take her up to the guest room with her family?"
"If she'll talk to me now, I'd like to do that, without Serena around," the sheriff said.
Jarrod understood. "Is there any reason you think they're coordinating their story?"
"I don't know," the sheriff said. "Right now I think their stories will match up because they're both telling the truth, not because they're coordinating a lie, but I'm curious if Theresa tells us anything different that what Serena told us."
"Serena was pretty frightened," Jarrod said.
"Or seemed to be," Sheriff Harris said.
"Maybe more frightened that you expected?" Jarrod asked.
"How well do you know her, Jarrod?"
"Not well at all," Jarrod said. "Mother knows Jose and Theresa best. Those of us in the next generation down really haven't had much to do with one another, and both the Cabrillo girls are much younger than I am. I think I've seen those girls maybe two or three times in my life."
"But you have good instincts. Harry Lyman trusted your gut like he trusted his own. Does Serena make you uncomfortable? Do you think some of this terror she's showing isn't real?"
Jarrod had to think about that, to access that gut that the late Sheriff Lyman trusted instead of being influenced by Sheriff Harris's words. "Maybe," was all he could come up with. "But I can't imagine why she would lie about this. I don't know why she'd have any objection to her sister's marriage."
"Let's talk to Theresa, alone, now," Sheriff Harris said. "Maybe she can give us an idea of how Serena feels about this marriage, one she might not give us if Serena was present."
"If she doesn't object, I'll go get her and bring her to the library," Jarrod said.
Theresa didn't object, but asked to be taken up to her family in the guest room after she talked with the sheriff. Jarrod escorted her to the library, giving his mother's worried eyes a slight smile meant to be comforting for both Victoria and Theresa as they left the dining room. In a minute, Jarrod was escorting Theresa into the library.
"Senora," Sheriff Harris said with a polite nod. "Thank for you talking to me this evening. Why don't you have a seat? I'll make this as brief as I can."
Theresa sat down on the sofa, saying, "I want to help all I can, Sheriff. Brevity is not important."
The sheriff sat down in a chair opposite Theresa. "Still, I know you've had a terrible ordeal today and you need some quiet time with your family." The sheriff recounted to Theresa everything that Serena had said, finishing up with, "She is clearly very frightened and I imagine that's affected her memory. Is there anything you can add that would help us figure out who took you?"
Theresa was frowning a little. She hesitated to say anything.
Jarrod asked, "Did Serena say anything she might have gotten wrong? Like the sheriff said, she was very frightened."
Theresa still hesitated, but finally said, "Nothing you say she told you is incorrect, but perhaps incomplete."
"That wouldn't be unusual, considering how frightened she was," Sheriff Harris said. "What do you think she might have left out?"
Theresa said. "She seemed to become more frightened after we were released than she was when they had us."
"Maybe because that was when the men threatened the family if Joe and Annamaria were married?" Jarrod asked.
Theresa hesitated again before she nodded a little. The sheriff looked to Jarrod – the man who was so good at getting people to release the truth in court. Jarrod sat down on the coffee table and faced Theresa.
"Theresa," Jarrod said carefully, "are you sure neither you nor Serena knew who the men who took you were?"
"I did not recognize them," Theresa said.
"Think back," Jarrod said. "Even if you did not recognize them, was there anything about either of them that reminded you of anyone or anything?"
Theresa frowned, thinking, hesitating, then shaking her head.
Jarrod asked, "Did Serena seem to think anything about them was familiar, even if she didn't seem to know either one?"
Theresa said, "The way they spoke both English and Spanish was just wrong. I thought I heard something like it before, but not as strong as it was in these men. Their accents surprised me for that reason, but Serena did not seem to feel the same way. She did not seem surprised by their accents."
"Did she have trouble understanding their accents?" the sheriff asked.
"Not as much trouble as I was having," Theresa said, "but then, like her sister, we sent her to school in San Francisco. She would have heard accents there I was not as familiar with."
"Did she ever talk about men she might have met in San Francisco?" Jarrod asked. "Or did she ever introduce you to any of them?"
Theresa closed her eyes and shook her head. "She did not have any suitors in San Francisco, but I am sure she knew boys I did not know."
"Did she ever meet a boy she was interested in, maybe the way Annamaria met Joe in the park?"
"Not that she told me," Theresa said.
Jarrod took a deep breath, and let his voice get even more gentle. "Do you know how Serena feels about her sister's marriage? Has she said anything to you?"
Theresa shook her head. "She has always seemed to like Joe. She's always seemed to be happy for Annamaria."
"Do you know of anyone who doesn't seem happy about this marriage?" Jarrod asked.
"No," Theresa said with a sigh. "That is why this is so hard to understand. Perhaps Annamaria may know something, but sheriff, I would ask you not to talk to her about this tonight. Annamaria has had a terrible day when it should have been the most wonderful day of her life."
"If you would, Senora, I ask that you not talk to Annamaria or to Serena about this at all until I have talked to them more. I won't talk to them tonight, but I will tomorrow. If these men are a threat to your family, I want to remove it as soon as possible."
The sheriff and Jarrod talked to Theresa a bit longer, and then
the sheriff thanked Theresa. Jarrod took her back to the living room, where Victoria, Audra, Nick and Heath were gathered, talking. "Mother, Audra, perhaps one of you would take Senora Theresa up to her family?" Jarrod said.
Audra got up. "I'll take her up. I put Senor Cabrillo in the room opposite yours, and Annamaria and Serena in the room next to yours."
The Mitchells shared the large guest room opposite Nick's. The Cabrillos' servants would be settled in the servants' quarters, their driver in the bunk house that was mostly empty since they were shorthanded these days and men were doubling up on shifts. Once Audra took Theresa up to her husband, they would all be settled for the evening.
Theresa went up the stairs with Audra, and they were out of sight before Victoria asked Jarrod, "Have you learned anything that will help?"
"I need to talk to Steve some more," was all Jarrod said before he went back to the library.
Nick said, "Something they heard is bothering Jarrod or the sheriff."
"Or both of them," Victoria said.
Jarrod found the sheriff pacing the library. He closed the doors after he went in, asking, "What do you think?"
"Let me hear what you think first," the sheriff said.
Jarrod was straightforward with it. "There's a big hole in the information – who Serena might have known that Theresa didn't know, maybe from San Francisco. Maybe somebody Annamaria knows. Maybe even one or both of the men who took Theresa and Serena. And how Serena really feels about this marriage –that seems like a hole too. Theresa's answer about that didn't seem all that certain to me."
The sheriff nodded.
"Do you want to talk to the driver tonight?" Jarrod asked.
"Tomorrow," the sheriff said. "I suggest we let everyone stew on this for the night."
Jarrod said. "Serena and Annamaria are sharing a room. They may talk. One or the other or both may have more to say in the morning."
"Or something may keep one or both of them awake," Sheriff Harris said. "Or keep somebody else awake."
"I'm the one inclined to stay up late around here," Jarrod said. "I'll just stay up a little later and see if anyone gets up and moves around."
"I have to get back to town," the sheriff said. "I'll see if anything has come up there and be back here first thing in the morning. Why don't you talk to your brothers and trade off some of this night watch? I got an itch."
"I can tell," Jarrod said. "I'd rather not post a guard in the compound though. If somebody's gonna go walking, I'd rather give them some room to do it."
"I like that idea too. Maybe I'm all wrong and my itch is nothing but an itch, but if something is going on among some of these people, we best find out what it is as soon as we can."