On Deadly Ground Read Online Free Page A

from their gold-framed wedding photograph, and tears welled in her eyes.
    Holy Savior Elder Care was set on beautifully landscaped grounds, the low, white brick building ablaze with bright yellow forsythias, vibrant greenery and red and yellow tulips. Ringed with more spring flowers, a snow-white statue of Jesus sitting with children at his knee rested on a raised platform before the wood-framed double-door entrance.
    Jake crossed the parking lot and went inside, asked for directions, then proceeded past pink-and-green floral wallpaper to the activities room. He spotted Rachel at one of the tables, chatting with two elderly women whowere cutting coupons from newspaper supplements. At the front of the room, other residents worked on puzzles or watched a rerun of
Little House on the Prairie.
He stopped just short of the doorway, feeling conspicuous in his uniform.
    Rachel glanced up in surprise, beckoned another volunteer over to take her place, then strode into the hall to meet him.
    “Jake?” she said, slightly alarmed. “Is something wrong?”
    “No. Not wrong, exactly. But I was having an early lunch at the diner with some friends, and Perris came in.” He glanced around. The hall had gotten busy with visitors and nurses aides wheeling residents to other venues. “Can we talk somewhere else? I know you’re busy. I won’t keep you long.”
    “Of course. Let me talk to Gail—she’s the activities director—then I’ll see you outside.”
    A few minutes later, he watched her breeze through the home’s double doors. Sunlight glanced off the small gold cross she wore with tiny gold earrings, a white knit top and deep purple chinos. Trying to ignore the uninvited change in his pulse, Jake joined her on the sidewalk and reminded himself he was only here to make a pitch for protection. Nothing more. No matter how beautiful she looked.
    They fell into step together, strolling past bright yellow goldfinches pecking seeds from multilevel feeders “So what’s up?” Rachel asked. “What did Perris tell you?”
    Jake glanced down at her. “He said your visitorhad to have made a second trip back to your place last night.”
    “I know. He mentioned that to me before he left. He said the light ‘chinking’ sounds I heard earlier weren’t consistent with someone banging a screwdriver into a fuel tank.” She glanced up at him. “Did he tell you that whoever damaged Tim’s dozer got the hammer and screwdriver from Decker’s own toolbox?”
    “Yeah, he did.”
    She sighed. “I’m not sure I like someone coming and going at will on my property.”
    “I’m not wild about it, either,” Jake said gravely. “Which brings me to the reason I’m here. When Perris said the guy came back, your living alone in the woods really started to bother me. I think you should get a dog.”
    “A dog?”
    He had to smile. He liked the way her sable bangs just missed colliding with her dark eyelashes, liked her sea-green eyes. “Yeah, a dog. They look a lot like Maggie—four legs and a lot of fur. Good ones bark up a storm when their owners are threatened.”
    The little lift he felt when she grinned took a sudden nosedive.
    “David loved dogs—big, slurpy breeds. And we did consider getting one for a time. But we worried that a big dog and our guests might not be a good mix.”
    Jake looked away for an instant—told himself that Rachel’s mentioning David wasn’t any big deal. “Then you get a smaller, even-tempered dog with a big bark.”
    “Maybe someday,” she said. “But I don’t see the need right now. The man I saw last night was angry at Tim,not me.” She glanced toward the home’s entrance, then brought her pretty gaze back to him. “Was there … something else?”
    Annoyed with himself, he shook his head. Now she probably thought he’d made a special trip to talk to her, when he could have phoned or stopped at the campground later. “No, that’s it. I just thought I’d drop in because I had to pass the