hurt my son. Dear God, I can't . . . stop . . . thinking what almost
happened. Caleb could have been killed." He didn't have to reach for
her. She came into his arms willingly, desperately needing to be
comforted.
He hugged her tight. "You aren't going to cry, are you? " he asked
gruffly. "You're going to upset Caleb if you do."
"No, I won't cry, but you don't understand, " she whispered. "It's my
fault Mr. York is dead. He was such a nice man. He'd be alive if it
weren't for me."
"Hush now, " he ordered. "None of this was your doing. Poor baby.
It's all over now. I know it was frightening."
"You don't understand."
"What don't I understand, sweetheart? " He was more stunned than she
appeared to be that he had used the endearment. What was even more
amazing to him was the fact that it had come so easily.
"I didn't know how to shoot that gun."
"You did just fine."
"No, I didn't, " she argued. "And I have to know how."
"Jessie, I know it was a close call, but I did get the bastard. I can
protect you. Have a little faith in me and let me do my job."
"I do have faith in you, but I still have to know how to protect my
son." Daniel carried Caleb back to his mother. "Is she all right? "
he asked Cole.
"Yeah, she's just shaken."
"It was me, " she blurted out. "I was there."
"What? " Daniel said.
It suddenly dawned on Cole what she was trying to tell him. "Let me
guess, " he muttered.
She stared up at Daniel over Cole's shoulder. "I'm your witness. "
"Ah, hell." Daniel whispered lithe expletive with a sigh.
Caleb promptly repeated it.
"Now what? " Cole asked as he tightened his hold on Jessica. She had
willingly gone to him, and he wasn't going to let go.
"What's going on here? " Daniel asked, his anger mounting as he
spoke.
"Know what I think? " Cole said. He squeezed Jessica before adding,
"It was damned crowded under that desk. "- v he office in the front of
the jail was crowded with lawmen. Marshal Jack Cooper, head of
operations in Salt Lake City, and two young deputies named Spencer and
Cobb, had just arrived in Rockford Falls. The three men had ridden
hard and were parched and covered with a layer of dust.
Cooper was a good friend of Daniel's. The two men had worked on
several investigations in the past, though admittedly none of them had
involved women, and all of the cases had been far less convoluted.
Like Daniel, Cooper was no stranger to danger or the bizarre behavior
of criminals.
He once escorted a smooth-tongued self-proclaimed reverend who had
brutally killed and mutilated sixteen redheaded men because he believed
the color of their hair indicated that they were spawns of the devil.