“There were a few prints around the room…some larger than hers.”
Carter nodded, his jaw suddenly tight at the thought of a man in Jenna Hughes’s bedroom.
Montinello lifted the small case he was carrying. “I took everyone in the household’s prints to compare them to. If I need to, I’ll check with the other people who’ve been there—her personal trainer, the guy who keeps the ranch up. His wife. But for now, I’ll start with these. Meanwhile, I told her to beef up security, and while I was here two guys, Wes Allen and his nephew, were fixing the alarm system and the electronic gates. Both work now. I double-checked, but she says the security system needs to be either completely updated or torn out and a new one installed. She’s called someone, so she’s on it, I think.”
“Good.” Carter should have felt better about Jenna’s safety, but didn’t. There was something about this place—picture-postcard perfect and yet so isolated—that worried him. He glanced at the surrounding forest and isolated, snow-covered acres and too many outbuildings. Stable, barn, garage, windmill, pump house, sheds…a lot of places for a criminal to hide. Too many.
Montinello opened the door of his Blazer and tossed the kit inside.
“Let me know what you find out.”
“You got it.”
As Montinello drove away, Carter walked along the breezeway and knocked sharply on the back door. The dog began to bark and as Jenna inched open the door, threatened to rush out.
“Shh! Critter,” she ordered as she pushed the door open. The dog was going out of his head, turning in circles wildly. “And you didn’t think he was a guard dog,” she said with a laugh. Her hair was pinned to the back of her head and she smelled faintly of the same perfume he’d noticed before.
“He seems to have risen to the occasion.”
“It was the threat of being replaced by a pit bull, I think.” She grinned as she caught hold of the dog’s collar. “Come in if you dare.” Her eyes seemed to sparkle a bit at the sight of him, and he told himself that he was being an idiot. She was glad to see him because she was scared and he was the law, or she was faking it—she’d had a lot of practice. All those years of acting. “Welcome to my nightmare,” she invited.
He took off his boots as she let go of the dog, who immediately nuzzled his legs and whacked him hard with his tail.
“Oh, Critter, you’re blowing your cover,” Jenna admonished as she led Carter into the kitchen.
Along with Christmas decorations, boxes, tissue paper, and lights strewn all over the floor, there was also black or silver dust in a few places, residue from the prints Montinello had taken. The younger girl was fiddling with a string of lights, changing bulbs and barely looking up.
“Allie, this is Sheriff Carter, remember?”
“Yeah.” She barely glanced up.
“You can call me Shane,” he said. To Jenna, he added, “It’s less intimidating. Right, Allie?”
The girl shrugged and kept at her task.
“Kids love me,” he joked, and Jenna laughed, her gaze touching his for the briefest of instants, just long enough to captivate him.
“I can tell.”
“Whatever you say.” Her eyes took in the mess on the floor. “Kinda makes you feel like you’re in a winter wonderland, huh?” she quipped, calmer than she had been earlier in the day.
“Right.” He eased around an open box of tree ornaments and pulled a piece of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. On the page were the names and phone numbers of three men he trusted. “I haven’t called these guys, but they might be available to help with security.”
“Bodyguards?”
“Potentially. Yeah.” He nodded. “I can personally vouch for them.”
Something seemed to soften in her and she bit her lip, then looked up at him, her eyes shinier than they had been. “Thanks, Sheriff. This was above and beyond.”
“Part of the job.”
She arched a dark brow. “If you say so.”
“I do,” he said, but the silence stretched between them and he noticed how her eyelashes swept her cheek when she blinked. He heard the clock ticking and a television in another part of the house. “Want to show me where the note was discovered?”
“Oh…sure…this way…” She cleared her throat and stepped over a long string of bubble lights, then led him up the stairs. Carter tried not to notice her hips moving beneath her jeans or the way a few strands of black hair escaped from the knot clipped to her head as he followed her, but it seemed impossible. He barely noticed the dog streaking ahead as she opened double doors on a floor midway up the staircase. Her bedroom was on a floor all its own, and as he stepped into the room, he knew he was in trouble. The smells of cedar, soap, and lilacs assailed him. A queen-size bed was pushed against one wall and a white silk robe was tossed casually over one of the iron bedposts. Candles and potpourri were scattered around the room, and thick rugs covered the smooth, hardwood floors. A television peeked from behind doors slightly ajar in a large armoire, and a bank of paned windows looked out to the forested hills.
Black or silver fingerprint dust was pretty much everywhere, especially around one of the nightstands, the bureau, armoire, window latches, and doors.