“Weird.” Cassie wadded up a layer of newspaper before pulling out a string of lights. “Did you know he was a P.I.?” she asked her mother.
“No. He never mentioned it.”
“Even weirder.”
“I don’t think we’ll hire Mr. Settler.”
“Thank God,” Cassie muttered under her breath.
“But it would be cool.”
“You just want Dani to come live with us,” Cassie accused, and Allie’s face darkened.
“He could do it. He was in the Army. In the Special Forces, or something like that.”
“Another tall tale. God, Allie, grow up, would you?”
“It’s true!”
“Yeah, right.” Cassie plugged in the string of lights and they winked on, shining bright and reflecting in little spots of color on the floor.
“Enough. We don’t know anything about Mr. Settler.”
“Except that he has the hots for you.”
“Cassie!” The box cutter slipped and she nicked the thumb of her other hand. “Damn!”
“It’s true.”
Allie turned on her sister. “He was in the Army. Dani showed me some stuff, okay? Medals and pictures and awards. Mr. Settler was—like a sergeant—in some kind of eli
te unit.”
Jenna’s shoulders tightened as she pressed her bleeding thumb to her mouth. She reached into a cupboard by the sink for a box of Band-Aids and tore one of the smaller plastic strips open. Why hadn’t Travis mentioned his past? She wrapped her thumb with the Band-Aid, covering the cut. It showed red through the plastic, but the blood didn’t seep out. She was back in business again. “So,” she said, leveling her gaze on her youngest daughter. “Did Mr. Settler know you looked at his things?”
Allie shrugged.
“Allie?” Jenna reprimanded gently as she sliced open a box of clear lights.
“Dunno. Dani said it didn’t matter.”
“Geez. What’s with that girl?” Cassie asked, uncoiling a final strand of lights. “Doesn’t she take tai-kwon-do and shoot guns at the rifle range and ride horses bareback?”
“So what?” Allie said, bristling even more.
“Does she think she’s a guy, or what?”
“Hey! Maybe we should all do some of the things Dani does,” Jenna said as she untangled the string of lights. She thought of the holiday ahead and wondered how she’d ever find a shard of Christmas spirit. Not only was she still dealing with Jill’s death, but now she had this…this stalker…watching her—entering her house.
Happy Holidays, she thought morbidly.
CHAPTER 26
The neighbors were a bust. One of the ranches bordering the Hughes estate was boarded up, no sign of life; another was owned by an elderly couple who’d noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Aside from Harrison Brennan being overly concerned and bristling at the prospect of someone “bothering” Jenna Hughes, no one had seen or heard anything they thought was worth mentioning.
By the time Carter parked his Blazer in Jenna Hughes’s driveway, it was early afternoon and Montinello was just leaving. He’d finished taking prints, remarking, as he met Carter, about the chances of finding a needle in a haystack. “There were so many prints in the house. She’s got two kids, friends, a housekeeper, a ranch foreman, a personal trainer, and then the kids have friends and she’s had repair guys in.” Montinello was standing next to one of the department’s SUVs, the rig he’d parked in front of Jenna Hughes’s garage. “Unless whoever left the note is a class-A moron, I doubt if we’ll get lucky,” he said, shaking his head. A few snowflakes swirled from the sky, and though it wasn’t yet twilight, the day was dark, the gloom of winter settling into the surrounding trees and buildings.
“You never know. How many prints in her bedroom?” Carter asked, looking up at the behemoth that was her house. Smoke curled from a tall rock chimney, and steam rose from a side deck, where, he supposed, a hot tub was uncovered. Nestled in the trees, complete with icicles dripping from the roof, the rustic house looked like something out of a Christmas card. But beneath the quaint facade lurked something treacherous, something evil.