Chapter Ten #3
“My grandparents on my mother’s side left me an inheritance in a trust. There were specific criteria I had to meet in order to receive the money.
I had to have an education and an occupation that served the community in some way.
I paid my own way through nursing school and didn’t get any money from the trust until I found this property. ”
“The trust would have been in your mother’s maiden name, not anything to do with the senator or your mother,” Rainier reiterated.
She nodded. “That’s correct.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Wilder said. “Her family is quite famous, and the senator made certain all of them had a tremendous amount of publicity. It’s possible she was recognized.”
“True, Harlow. We can’t exclude that someone has a grudge against your parents and is willing to harm you because of their political views,” Rainier agreed.
“Guadalupe didn’t seem like a political person,” Harlow objected.
“You don’t seem like a woman someone would want to kill,” Rainier pointed out.
She sighed. “You have a point. I’ll talk to her.”
“No, you won’t,” Wilder said instantly, with hard authority that set her teeth on edge. “You’ll stay away from her and let us handle it. We’ll pick her up and question her.”
She shook her head, her breath catching in her throat. She was fairly certain she wouldn’t approve of Wilder’s and Rainier’s interrogation methods. “We should just watch her to see what she does. What if someone forced her to deliver the threats?”
“What will that accomplish?” Rainier asked. “The threats have escalated to the point that everyone believes, eventually, and I think, sooner rather than later, that an attempt will be made on your life.”
“That’s cheerful news. Thanks for that.” She put her head back, resting it on the chair. “Wouldn’t it be better for me to talk to Guadalupe and find out what is going on? Maybe we could work it out amicably.”
“The problem, Harlow,” Rainier said, his piercing gaze meeting hers with the precision of a laser, “is I don’t believe it’s Brown putting these letters together. I think she’s delivering them for someone else. Someone living out of the country.”
Harlow frowned and rubbed at her temples. The moment she did, Wilder’s strong fingers began a slow massage of her scalp and temples. Gentle but firm. Soothing. She didn’t know how to react when she’d never had anyone treating her the way he did.
“I don’t understand. Someone out of the country?”
Rainier nodded. “I think the original threats from a year or so ago were mailed to someone in the US, not Brown, and the person put them in a different envelope and mailed them to you from a different state. Fortunately, you kept the envelopes, and most appear to come from the same border town in Texas, one that has high violent crime and is considered one of the more dangerous towns to visit.”
“What Rainier is saying is that he thinks the letters were either brought across the border by whoever is threatening you and mailed from that town, or given to someone else to mail them,” Wilder interpreted gently.
“Now the letters are being sent to Brown and she sticks them in your mailbox rather than mail them to you. She probably hopes there is no trail leading back to her. She wouldn’t know about cameras. ”
“Maybe she doesn’t know what’s in the letters.
” Harlow was very hopeful that was the case.
She didn’t want Guadalupe to be a part of the threats to her.
She liked her. Although they weren’t close friends, they did meet for coffee occasionally to catch up, and Harlow always considered her more than an acquaintance.
“Honestly, I’ve never exchanged a single cross word with her. ”
“This isn’t about you,” Rainier assured. “Whoever is sending you the threats has some issues that really are more about him than you.”
“Him?” she asked.
“The one putting these letters together is definitely a male,” Wilder said. “The words he uses to make his threats, the names he calls you, definitely male. And over the last year, his anger has escalated.”
Rainier leaned toward her, drawing her gaze. Wilder’s fingers tightened at the nape of her neck as if to steady her. Her heart thudded. Whatever they were about to say, she wasn’t going to like.
“The escalation into real threats came after your father was named in the investigation of the disappearance of Oliva Dunstin. I believe this has something to do with that.”
Her mind rejected the conclusion. “I’ve been getting threats from that same person for well over a year.”
“True,” Wilder agreed, “but not death threats. Not vile, call-you-names-and-act-as-if-you’re-responsible-for-something-reprehensible.
This man believes you are. He believes your father is.
It’s possible he’s a relative of the girl, and when she began working with her mother at the senator’s home, if she confided that the senator was molesting her, he may have started sending you letters as a way to vent his anger.
Then she disappeared, and his anger grew into rage. ”
She reached up to find Wilder’s hand, to thread her fingers through his. He steadied her, and she needed him right at that moment. “He would have every right to feel that way if he knows her. If she’s a relative. You would feel that way, Rainier. So would you, Wilder.”
Rainier shook his head. “You aren’t responsible for a single thing your father has done, Harlow.
You can spin it different ways to convince yourself you are, but he made his own choices.
Your mother made hers. You left. You got out and separated yourself from them.
Even if this person lives in Mexico, Guadalupe Brown has been around you for several years.
She has to know him or she wouldn’t be helping him.
She knows you want nothing to do with the senator.
It’s common knowledge in Knightly. One would think she would have informed whoever is sending you threats. ”
She lifted her chin and met Rainier’s piercing gaze. “I’m holding out hope that she has no idea what’s in those letters.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right,” Rainier said.
“For her sake, I hope you’re right,” Wilder corrected. “We’re picking her up to question her. We’ll do it quietly and hopefully have answers by tomorrow. I won’t be home tonight.”
She shook her head. “I’m not comfortable with the two of you asking the questions. Take this to the sheriff.”
“To Bale Landry’s uncle?” Rainier said. “The man doesn’t like you any more than his nephew does. You and your friends exposed him for what he was in front of the FBI. I don’t think he’s going to be much help to us. And we want to act quickly on this.”
Wilder leaned into her, his arm slipping around her shoulder, his mouth moving against her ear. “Mon rêve, this is one of those times you will have to trust me to do what’s right to keep you safe. I don’t ever harm innocents. Not ever. Neither does Rainier.”
“Even if she’s part of the threats against me, even if she knows about it and is helping, she hasn’t done anything to me. It’s likely that she never would.”
“That’s absolutely true, Harlow,” Rainier agreed. “We’re looking for information, not to hurt her.”
Harlow was feeling a little desperate. “If you talk to her now, won’t she tell her partner that you can identify her and that you’re getting close to him? He might run, and then you’ll never catch him.”