Heap of Trouble (Trouble, Tennessee 2)

“Yeah, well, good luck with that,” he said, directing her to a chair at the table. “Thanks to Jims, I won’t need to keep you long.”

“Okay.” She rested her elbows on the table and clasped her hands under her chin.

Detective Brice looked up then and blushed. Heather shot him a smile. “I won’t bite, Detective.”

He shook his head and clumsily flipped through his notes. Heather winked at Gabe but he only narrowed his gaze, giving her one of those “knock it off” looks.

“What?” She asked innocently. “I’m just sitting over here, minding my own business.”

“Do I need to ask Mr. Reynolds to step outside?”

“I don’t think so, Detective,” she said sweetly.

“Some of the questions I’ll ask will be private, Miss Powers.”

“I understand.” She didn’t have anything to hide. She and Gabe were soul mates. She’d always suspected it. Now, after the way he’d loved her? She was certain of it. There couldn’t be secrets between them.

“Okay let’s start at the beginning.” He set his recorder on the table. “This is Detective Bane Brice with the Cavern Mountain Police Department. The date is March 8, 2015. I’m with Heather Powers. These notes are for internal use.” He looked down at his notepad. “Now Jims Vance says you came here two months ago. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Can you explain why? Were you friends with the Vance brothers?”

“No,” she replied. “I had been living in California—LA—working and going to school. While I was enrolled at UCLA, I became more and more interested in the supernatural.”

“The occult?”

“Yes. That’s probably more accurate. Actually, I went to LA to become an actress. I became interested in writing and realized I had a knack for it. While I was there, I met a few true crime authors and some folks who worked in the film industry. Anyway, I decided to become an occult detective and write occult detective fiction.”

“It looks like you won’t be short on stories,” Detective Brice said, scribbling somethin

g down. “So you came here as soon as you returned to Tennessee?”

“Yes. Like most everyone else in this area, I’d heard the tongue-wagging tales about the Vance brothers.” She glanced behind her, checking to be sure Gabe was still there. “When I first arrived, I was disappointed. Dons was real paranoid about my arrival and he didn’t want me here. Kens and Jims convinced him to let me stay. Soon—”

“Now back up a minute. You said you were disappointed upon your arrival. Why?”

“The first week I was here, I decided they weren’t involved with the occult. In fact, I don’t mind sharing my notes with you. While the Vance brothers are aware of their reputations and more or less flaunt their beliefs, they became concerned when I landed on their doorstep wanting to write about their lives.

“For a while, they had me convinced that they weren’t involved with the occult at all. As Dons put it, ‘We want people to believe exactly what they believe. If folks believe we’re sacrificing people up here, they’ll stay away. We’re running drugs and what better way to keep people out of our wells than to make them think they’ll find skeletons down there if they start poking around’ and what he said made sense to me.”

“Uh-huh,” the detective muttered, scribbling more. He looked up again and tapped his lip with his pencil. “Did you ever see any skeletons on the property?”

“No.”

Gabe cleared his throat. “Bradley found some.”

“Yes, he told us.” Detective Brice flipped through his notes. “So when did you realize the drug front was a cover for something far more sinister?”

“I didn’t. Not really. For the first couple of weeks, I was treated rather well. The Vance brothers were respectful, kind even.”

“When did it change?”

“Pretty much overnight. I can’t pinpoint when or where. I told Rons I was going to town for clothes. He went nuts, said I couldn’t leave, and I was locked in my room. During that time, I only saw Jims. He was always apologetic. He said he’d tried to warn me but I couldn’t remember a time when he did. No one gave me any indication that I wouldn’t be allowed to leave when I decided to go.”

Detective Brice leaned forward. “Miss Powers, were you sexually involved with any of the Vance brothers?”

“What?”