she agreed. “A different hybrid he was trying. Harder walking than last year, but he said it would make the harvest easier, with the way the combines worked. But it allowed a lot of weeds to grow up in some places.” She smiled slightly, as if remembering something. “Levon encouraged me to walk around the fields, to use the field road to make it easier, but it was still quicker to go through. I told him that the harder hiking was good for me, that I needed the exercise. He laughed.”
I’m sure he did, thought Daniel. April stood almost as tall as his own six-foot height, and her lean, muscular frame reminded him of an Olympic athlete. She had been softer, less muscular when she’d arrived in Caralinda a year ago, a beautiful, vibrant woman he’d wanted very much to spend more time with.
He’d even asked her out, but she’d told him that her divorce still stung and she couldn’t manage anything but friendship. He’d understood, sort of. He’d been through breakups, but nothing as serious as a divorce.
April had obviously been healed by Caralinda, however. The days in the sun, walking the fields with his father, and the work in her own garden had slimmed her down even more and made her skin glow. Her emerald-green eyes had always been bright against her reddish-brown hair and the freckles that splattered across her face, but now they gleamed as they met his focused gaze without flinching.
She knows what I’m doing, he realized. Good. He cleared his throat.
“Did you hear anything before you stepped out of the corn?”
April thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“What did you see first?”
She closed those emerald eyes, and her brow furrowed. “His back. The shooter’s. Then your dad.”
“Was he taller than Dad?”
April hesitated a moment, trying to remember. “N-no. I could still see the top of your dad’s head.” She held her hands about two feet apart. “But broader. I think.”
“What was the shooter wearing?”
She hesitated. “Jeans. Dirty. Beat-up jeans. A light shirt. White…or pale blue. Maybe.”
“Anything on his head?”
“A ball cap.”
“What color?”
Another pause, then she shook her head.
“What did you see next?”
The furrows deepened. “I saw…” Her eyes, still shut, clenched tighter. “Levon stepped back so I saw his face, then there was the shot….” She stopped, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
April opened her eyes. “I can’t remember anything after that. I just…ran.”
Daniel pressed down hard on the frustration, the grief that threatened to boil over in him once more, and his already taut muscles clenched harder from the effort. She’d been doing so well, was clearly trying so hard. He’d gotten his hopes up that the memories were returning on their own by sheer force of will. But now she looked crushed all over again, even the little bit that she’d remembered hurting her all over again.
Daniel turned to Aunt Suke. “You called 911. You saw it?”
Aunt Suke shook her head. “I heard the first shot. By the time I got to one of the windows, all I could see was Levon on the ground, and two people tearing through the cornfield. When I realized one of them was April, I knew she’d probably seen what went down. I told the operator, then went after her.”
“Could you see the shooter?”
Aunt Suke wagged a hand toward the cornfield. “Nothing. By the time I got to the window, he was crashing around in the corn. All I could see was the barrel of the shotgun as he used it to push back the stalks.”
“Did either of you see a vehicle on either of the side roads? A car or a—”
The gongs of Aunt Suke’s doorbell, followed by a determined pounding on the door, interrupted him. Polly bolted for the door with a series of sharp barks.
“That’s probably Ray,” Aunt Suke said softly.
Daniel stood, nodding almost to himself. “I’ll get it. Take whatever he has to say.” He hoped Ray would understand why he had to do this.
The pounding sounded again, and Polly’s barks increased in volume. Daniel headed for the door, hat in hand. He herded Polly aside and pulled open the ancient door, faced Ray and waited.
Ray Taylor stared at him, his jaw clamped so tight that the muscles in his cheeks twitched. He stared at Daniel a moment, glanced briefly at Aunt Suke and then looked at April, who had taken up a position just to Daniel’s right. After a moment, Ray let out a long exhale, as much a snarl as a sigh, and looked back to Daniel. “Boy, if you don’t beat all. I will deal with you later.”
Ray’s gaze turned again to April. “Right now, Ms. Presley, you need to come with us.”
Alarm surged through Daniel at the sheriff’s statement. “What’s happened?”
Ray glared at him. “You need to go home.”
April stepped forward and placed a firm hand on Daniel’s arm. Whether she needed support or offered it, he wasn’t quite sure. “Please, Sheriff. What’s happened?”
Ray hesitated, obviously still perturbed with his disobedient deputy. He looked from her, to Daniel, then back, as if he’d made up his mind about something. “I sent an officer to secure your house, Ms. Presley. He just radioed to say there are signs that someone has broken in.”
April’s fingers closed viselike on Daniel’s arm, and he felt her body sway toward him, once again needing the support he was more than happy to give.
FOUR
“I want him to come. Please.” April hated the pleading sound in her voice, but she had to make the sheriff understand.
They stood in Aunt Suke’s driveway, Ray Taylor’s hand still on the top of his cruiser’s door, which he had opened for April. He had just ordered Daniel to go home. Again.
Ray growled under his breath. “Ms. Presley—” He stopped and took a deep breath as if to calm himself. “April. Listen, it’s bad policy to have family involved in these things, even if he’s a trained officer of the law. Bad for the case and good for any defense attorney.”
April glanced quickly at Daniel, who waited silently, his body tense but still, his ebony eyes focused on her. April knew he had to be a little wary of what she would say. Which was understandable, since she’d held him at bay since her arrival in Caralinda. But he’d asked her out so soon after her divorce that she’d had no choice but to turn him down. At that point she would have been skittish around almost any man.
They had not been around each other much since, even though Levon had clearly been on a campaign to get them together. He’d frequently given her updates about events in Daniel’s life, and suggested that Daniel would make an excellent husband.
