Chapter 6
Jarrod talked in confidence with his family in the parlor before everyone turned in for the night. He let everyone in on what the sheriff was thinking, what he was thinking, and what they wanted done.
"I'll stay up down here until two," Jarrod said. "Then I'll come up but I'll be leaving my door open and staying awake until four."
"I'll leave my door open all night, but I'll stay awake until you come up, Jarrod," Victoria said.
"And I'll wake up at four and open my door to listen, too," Audra said.
Jarrod nodded. "Heath, you come down here and spell me at two. Nick, you come down at four and spell Heath. And ladies, if anyone passes by your room, you let them go where they're going to go and then come down to get whoever is awake down here. We'll be back at the corner desk back there. That chair always keeps me awake just fine."
"Then go back up and wake up whoever is up there?" Heath asked.
Jarrod nodded.
"You want us to stay in the dark back there in the back?" Nick asked.
Jarrod nodded. "If somebody leaves the house, follow as best you can. And Heath and Audra, keep an ear out on the back steps. I'll do that too when I come up. Nick, the Mitchells are in the room across from yours. I don't think they're involved in this in any way, but I could be wrong. You leave your door open too, just in case it's one of them who goes out."
"This is terrible," Audra said. "Suspecting all our friends like this."
"We're just being very cautious, honey," Jarrod said.
"The sheriff suspects something," Victoria said.
"The sheriff is concerned after speaking with Theresa and Serena," Jarrod said. "That's all there is right now. But maybe he'll find other information from town once he gets back to his office."
"I don't know whether to hope something happens tonight or not," Audra said. "I hate the thought of the Cabrillos and the Mitchells having to live with this threat, but at the same time I hate the thought that one of them is behind it."
"If one of them is, we can't change it but we can stop it," Jarrod said.
It wasn't very long after that everyone was settled down for the night. Jarrod set himself up at the desk in the far corner of the parlor, in the dark, resisting the urge for a cigar and resisting sleep. From where he sat, he could look out the window that faced the side of the house, and by leaving the curtains open he could look out toward the front. He didn't expect to see any human movement out there, but the moon came up just before midnight and he could see enough movement of horses and shifting light on the yard and the hillside to keep him thinking and awake.
But then it didn't take long. It was just before one in the morning that he saw movement on the stairs. He knew the form of his brother despite the darkness, and he got up and met Heath in the foyer.
"Audra is waking Nick and mother," Heath said quietly. "We both heard somebody taking the back stairs."
"Did you see who it was?" Jarrod asked.
"No, but it was a light step, like a woman's, so I'm betting on Serena."
Nick was hurrying down the stairs now too. He softened his usually loud voice, saying, "Sounds like we've got something."
"Somebody going outside," Jarrod said. "That sounds like somebody heading to meet someone who's been in the bunkhouse. Let's stick to the shadows as best we can and keep it quiet, but keep an eye on each other."
Jarrod led the way out the door, and once out there he moved to the left toward the bunkhouse. Heath moved across the drive to the tree that faced the front door. Nick moved with Jarrod and beyond to the garden at the side of the house. They kept track of each other and could see each other in the moonlight. They could also see a woman's form moving toward the bunkhouse, and then a man's form coming out.
The two met. They did not kiss. They did not touch each other at all. They talked in low tones. The Barkley men looked all around and saw no one else moving anywhere. Nick and Heath looked toward Jarrod, and he nodded toward the two people near the bunkhouse.
The Barkley men moved quietly. Before the two people heard them coming, the Barkley men all heard them speaking in Spanish. Jarrod caught the words what do we do now? It was the woman speaking. The man said in Spanish we try again. Then suddenly, the two stopped and looked toward the Barkleys.
Lights from the house backlit the Barkleys but cast enough light on the two people that they could tell who they were. Serena and the driver Chonez looked startled, and Chonez ran.
Heath was closest to Chonez and caught up with him quickly, grabbing him by his pants and pulling him down. Nick was there right away to help subdue him, while Jarrod grabbed Serena by the arm. In Spanish, he said to her, "Now we talk."
They hustled Serena and Chonez back into the house. Victoria and Audra were in the foyer, and as soon as they saw the shadows of the men coming in with Serena and Chonez in tow, the women set about lighting lights in the parlor. Jarrod pulled Serena in and sat her down in his "thinking chair." Nick and Heath put Chonez down into the other armchair, and then they stood looking down at them.
Jarrod drew the closest, and his family members backed off, keeping watch, letting him do the talking. "Why don't you tell us what this is about?"
"It's nothing," Serena said. "I was – meeting Pablo in the dark as we always do because – well, it isn't proper for me to be meeting a servant."
"'Meeting' meaning romantically?" Jarrod asked.
Serena hung her head. "Yes."
"Then why didn't you kiss when you met? Why didn't you even touch each other? That hardly seems like a romantic meeting to me."
Serena looked away and didn't say anything else.
Jarrod looked at Chonez. "What did you mean by we try again? What do you intend to try again?"
Chonez didn't not look up or say anything. Jarrod tried the same questions in Spanish but Chonez still did not speak.
Jose and Theresa appeared on the stairs and came down. As they did, the Mitchells appeared on the landing, coming from the guest room near Nick's, but they waited right there. Only Annamaria was missing. No one moved to wake her up.
"Look," Jarrod said. "The sheriff will be back here in the morning, and he's not likely to be as gentle as I'm being with you right now. Serena, he already suspects you've been lying to us and that you have something to do with what's happening to your family. Chonez, you're implicated now too and the sheriff is likely to haul you off to jail and have a private talk with you tomorrow. And like I said, he's not likely to be as gentle as I'm being."
Jose and Theresa came closer. Jose stared hard down at his daughter. "Serena, what is this about?" he asked in Spanish. "Do you have something to do with you and your mother being taken?"
Serena wouldn't say anything.
Jose moved to slap her, but Jarrod held him back. "No, Jose, stop. That won't help."
Annamaria was awake now, running toward the landing and then down the stairs, pulling on her robe and running right by Joe and the Mitchells. "What is this?" she cried out in English.
Theresa held her back when she ran in. "No, stop, stay with me," she said in Spanish to Annamaria.
But Annamaria was confused, angry, scared. "What is happening?" she cried out, aimed at Serena. "What have you done?"
Jarrod suddenly got that itch that had been after Sheriff Harris. "What do you mean?" he asked Annamaria. "Do you know anything about this?"
Annamaria stuttered. "I – I don't know."
"What do you know?" Jarrod asked. "Have you and Serena been talking about what happened?"
"Of course!" Annamaria said. "She doesn't want me to marry Joe!"
"Because she's frightened of the threats?" Jarrod asked. "Or is it something else?"
Annamaria was flustered, moving out of her mother's grip, looking like she wanted to say something but for some reason couldn't say it.
"What did she say to you tonight?" Theresa asked Annamaria.
Jose was catching on too. "Serena said something to you after you retired, didn't she? What did she say?"
Serena glared hard up at her sister. Annamaria grew more flustered.
"Has Serena threatened you, Annamaria?" Jarrod asked. "Tell us now so we can stop it. Did she threaten you?"