Witness Read online

  Another life, a lifetime ago.

  “This ain’t just a social call to get reacquainted with relatives,” Lee Roy said. “Spit it out, whatever it is you come here to say.”

  “I understand you two are working for Buck Stansell. Is that right?”

  Johnny Joe opened his mouth to respond, but shut it quickly when his older brother gave him a warning stare.

  “Buck took over the business when his old man died a few years back.” Lee Roy picked up his coffee mug, took a swig, then wiped his mouth with the back of his big hand. “Our old man and yours both worked for Buck’s daddy.”

  “I know who my daddy worked for and what he did for a living,” Ashe said, laying his palms flat on the table. “I’ve chosen to work on the other side of the law. And right now, my main concern is Deborah Vaughn’s safety.”

  “I see.” Lee Roy studied the black liquid in his mug.

  “She ain’t in no danger as long as she keeps that pretty little mouth of hers shut,” Johnny Joe said.

  “Dammit, man, you talk too much.” Lee Roy turned to Ashe. “You ought to stay out of things that ain’t none of your business. What happens to Deborah Vaughn shouldn’t be your concern.”

  Ashe leaned over the table, glanced back and forth from one brother to the other, finally settling his hard stare on Lee Roy. “Deborah Vaughn is very much my concern, and what happens to her is my personal business.”

  “Are you saying that there’s still something between the two of you? Hell, man, I’d have figured—”

  “I will take it personally if anything happens to her. If one hair on her head is harmed, I’ll be looking for the guy who did it. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Why are you telling us?” Lee Roy asked.

  “I’m asking you to relay the message.” Ashe shoved back the chair and stood, towering over his seated cousins. “Tell Buck Stansell that Deborah Vaughn is my woman. She’s under my protection. This isn’t just another job to me.”

  “You sure you want to tangle with ol’ Buck?” Johnny Joe grinned, showing his crooked teeth, three in a row missing on the bottom.

  “I’ve trapped and gutted meaner bastards than Buck Stansell, and you can tell him that. Buck and his friends don’t want to tangle with me. If I have to come after them, I will.”

  “You sure do talk big,” Johnny Joe said. “But then you always did. Just ’cause you been in the Green Berets—”

  “Shut up!” Lee Roy said.

  “I know that the local, state and federal authorities would all like to see Buck behind bars.” Ashe walked toward the door. “So would I. But you tell him that my only interest in him and his business is my woman’s safety. If he leaves her alone, I’ll leave him alone. Pass that advice along.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that,” Lee Roy said. “Can’t say whether or not Buck will take the advice, but it’s possible that whoever’s out to get Deborah Vaughn might listen. Her being your woman just might make a difference. To certain people.”

  Ashe smiled then, nodded his head and walked out the door. He’d bet money that before he was halfway back to Sheffield, Lee Roy and Johnny Joe would be on their way to see Buck Stansell.

  ASHE PARKED HIS rental car in the lot adjacent to Vaughn & Posey Real Estate. Walking up the sidewalk, he almost laughed aloud when he saw the sheriff’s deputy pacing back and forth just inside the office entrance. The fresh-faced kid looked like a posted sentry marching back and forth.

  When Ashe opened the door, the deputy spun around, taking a defensive pose, then relaxed when he recognized Ashe.

  “No problems here, Mr. McLaughlin. Not even a phone call or a letter.”

  “Good. Tell Sheriff Blaylock that I said you did a fine job. Thanks—” Ashe glanced at the boy’s name tag “—Deputy Regan.”

  The young man grinned from ear to ear. “Ms. Vaughn’s taking care of some personal business right now, but she agreed to keep her door open so she wouldn’t be out of my sight.”

  Ashe slapped the deputy on the back. “I’ll take over now. I appreciate your diligence in keeping Ms. Vaughn safe for me.”

  Ashe noticed Deborah in her office, standing to the side of another woman, whose back was to him. Deborah glanced at him, her face solemn.

  The young deputy backed out of the office like a servant removing himself from the presence of his king. Ashe nodded a farewell to the boy, then focused all his attention on Deborah and the other woman.

  He heard a rather loud hiss, then someone cleared their throat. Looking around, he saw Annie Laurie motioning for him to come to her.

  “What’s up?”

  “Shh…shh.” She flapped her hands in the air and shook her head. “Whitney Jamison—” Annie Laurie pointed to Deborah’s office “—is in there right now. She came prancing in here with her nose in the air, looking all over the place for you.”

  Ashe sat down on the edge of Annie Laurie’s desk, leaned over and whispered, “What makes you think she was looking for me?”

  “She said so, that’s how I know.” Annie Laurie kept her voice low. “She took one look at the deputy and asked what he was doing here. Deborah told her he was on temporary guard duty. Then Whitney asked what was the problem, had you already deserted her? Then that bitch laughed. I wish Deborah had slapped her face.”

  “Aren’t you overreacting just a little?”

  “No, I don’t think I am. Do you suppose for one minute that Whitney will let Deborah forget that you once asked Whitney to marry you and she dumped you, that she made you look like a fool?”

  “Maybe I’d better go on in there and make sure there’s not a catfight.” Ashe grinned.

  “Wipe that stupid grin off your face,” Annie Laurie said. “Deborah Vaughn is not the type of lady to get into a catfight over any man, not even you, cousin dear.”

  Ashe laughed, but took note of Annie Laurie’s words. She was right. Deborah wasn’t the catfight type by any stretch of the imagination. But if she was, and she did choose to go one-on-one with Whitney, he’d place all his money on Deborah.

  Ashe walked into Deborah’s office, stopping directly behind Whitney, who was obviously unaware of his presence.

  “It’s going to be a delightful evening. Simply everyone will be there. You must come. If you don’t, I’ll never forgive you. After all, George’s fortieth birthday celebration should be something for him to remember.”

  “Of course I’ll be there,” Deborah said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Deborah looked over her cousin’s shoulder, making direct eye contact with Ashe, who couldn’t seem to erase the lopsided grin off his face. The very sound of Whitney’s voice grated on his nerves. Why had he never noticed how whiny she sounded?

  “You mean we’ll be there, don’t you?” Ashe stepped to one side, placing himself beside Deborah’s desk.

  Whitney spun around, a cascade of long black curls bouncing on her shoulders, settling against her pink silk blouse. “Ashe!”

  She stared at him, her eyes hungry, her mouth opening and then closing as she bit down on her bottom lip. Whitney Vaughn Jamison was still beautiful, erotically beautiful with her dark hair and eyes and slender, delicate body.

  Over the years there had been a few times when he’d wondered how he’d feel if he ever saw her again. Now he knew. He didn’t feel a damned thing. Except maybe grateful she’d rejected him. Despite her beauty, there was a noticeable hardness in her face, a lack of depth in those big, brown eyes. He’d been too young and foolish to have seen past the surface eleven years ago.

  “Whitney, you haven’t changed a bit.” It was only a small lie, a partial lie. She’d grown older, harder, hungrier.

  “Well, darling, you’ve certainly changed. You’ve gotten bigger and broader and even better looking.” Rushing over to him, she slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him boldly on the mouth.

  She all but melted into him. Ashe did not return her kiss. He eased her arms from around his neck, held her hands in his for a brief mome
nt, then released her and took a step over toward Deborah.

  “What’s this big event you’ve invited Deborah and me to attend? Something special for ol’ George’s birthday?” Ashe took another step in Deborah’s direction.

  “His fortieth birthday.” Whitney pursed her lips into a frown. “And he’s being a beast about getting older. I think it really bothers him that I’m so much younger.”

  “Not that much younger,” Ashe said. “If I recall, you’re thirty-four.”

  Whitney gasped, then smiled and purred as she gave Ashe another hungry look. “Of course you’d remember. You probably remember a lot of things about me, don’t you, Ashe?”

  “Not really, Whitney. To be honest, I haven’t given you more than a passing thought over the years.”

  Ashe slipped his arm around Deborah’s waist. Glaring at him, she opened her mouth to protest. He tightened his hold on her. She wriggled, trying to free herself.

  “Deborah, on the other hand, I never forgot.” He pulled her close to his side, smiled at her and barely kept himself from laughing out loud when he saw the stricken look on her face.

  “Well, don’t tell me you were cheating on me with my little cousin behind my back.” Whitney pasted a phony smile on her heavily made-up face.

  “Sort of like the way you cheated on me with George?” Ashe asked.

  “That was years ago. Surely you don’t still hold that against me?” Whitney fidgeted with the shoulder strap on her beige leather purse.

  “Whitney, I appreciate your stopping by to invite me—” Deborah gasped when Ashe squeezed her around the waist “—us to George’s birthday party.” She glared at Ashe. “We’ll be there.”

  “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again, Ashe. The party’s at the country club.” Whitney’s genuine smile returned with a vengeance.

  When she didn’t receive the reaction from Ashe she’d hoped to evoke, she waved at him with her index finger. “Until next Saturday night.”

  The moment Whitney exited the office, Deborah jerked out of Ashe’s embrace, stormed across the room and slammed the door.

  “Just what was that all about?” Deborah anchored her hands on her hips.

  “I think your cousin was coming on to me. What do you think?”

  “Of course, she was coming on to you. My God, I expected her to drag you down on my desk and jump on top of you at any minute.”

  Ashe chuckled, then coughed and covered his mouth when he noticed Deborah’s face reddening and her eyes widening.

  “I was not referring to the way Whitney threw herself at you,” Deborah said. “I was talking about your dragging me into your arms, accepting her invitation on our behalf and telling her that I was the one you never forgot.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yes, that!”

  “You had already accepted her invitation when I walked in, hadn’t you? All I did was let Whitney know that you didn’t go anywhere without me these days.”

  “I could have, and would have, explained to her that as my bodyguard, you’d have to accompany me.” Deborah dropped her hands to her sides. “That doesn’t explain your manhandling me in front of Whitney or your reason for saying what you did.”

  “I put my arm around you because I wanted Whitney to think that there’s more than a business arrangement between the two of us.”

  “But there isn’t.”

  “Of course there is. Do you honestly think I came back to Sheffield, to a town I swore had seen the last of me, to lay my life on the line for a woman who pretends she hates me, simply as a favor to a woman who was once kind to me and my grandmother?”

  “Yes. That’s what you told me.”

  “Doing a favor for Miss Carol was only part of my reason for accepting this job.” Ashe realized that he’d been lying to himself as well as Deborah about his reasons for accepting Carol Vaughn’s dare. “I wasn’t lying when I told Whitney that you were the one I never forgot.”

  Deborah’s vision blurred. Her ears rang with the pounding of her heart. “Don’t—” she threw up her hands in front of her as if to ward him off “—please, don’t. Whitney was the one. You loved her. Don’t you dare lie to me!”

  “You and I need to have a long talk and get a few things straight, but I doubt this is the time or the place.” Ashe heard the phones in the outer office ringing and the buzz of voices. “Whitney doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. You, on the other hand, do. I’m here to protect you. And you’ll be a lot safer if everyone thinks you’re—”

  A loud knock on the outer office door interrupted Ashe midsentence. Opening the door, Annie Laurie walked in with a package in her hands.

  “This just came for Deborah. There’s no return address.” Annie Laurie held the square box out in front of her. “Something inside there is ticking!”

  Deborah stood deadly still staring at the box. Ashe took the package out of Annie Laurie’s hands. Listening, he heard the steady tick, tick, tick coming from inside the cardboard container.

  “Don’t panic, and don’t scare the others in the office,” Ashe said. “Go back to your desk and call the Sheffield police. Talk to Chief Burton. Tell him to send whatever kind of bomb squad he has over here, pronto.”

  “You think it’s a bomb?” Annie Laurie gulped, then started backing out of the office. “What do we do?”

  “You and Deborah get everyone outside. Tell them you’ll explain once you’re out. Walk them across the street. And make sure everyone stays there.”

  “What about you?” Deborah asked.

  “I’m going to set this box down on your desk and follow you all outside.”

  Deborah shoved a stricken Annie Laurie out of the office, then rounded all her employees together and ushered them outside, while Annie Laurie phoned the police. Deborah started into Neil’s office, but Annie Laurie reminded her that Neil was in Florence at a realtor’s brunch.

  Ashe set the ticking box down on Deborah’s desk. His gut instincts told him that this wasn’t a bomb, but his instincts had been wrong a few times and it had nearly cost him his life. He didn’t take chances anymore. Not with other people’s lives. Certainly not with Deborah’s life.

  Within five minutes Chief Burton and his bomb squad arrived. The employees of Vaughn & Posey stood across the street in front of the bank, their evacuation and the presence of several police vehicles garnering attention from passersby. A small crowd of spectators gathered on the corner.

  Ashe stayed beside Deborah, who stood ramrod straight, her vision focused on her office building. She gripped Ashe’s hand tightly, but he was certain she had no idea what she was doing.

  A member of the bomb squad walked through the front door, holding the open box in his hands. “Somebody’s got a real warped sense of humor, Chief. Take a look at this.”

  Ashe held on to Deborah’s hand as she dashed across the street.

  “Everybody can go back to work,” Chief Burton said. “There’s no bomb.”

  “What was ticking?” Deborah asked.

  The chief held out the box. “Take a look, Ms. Vaughn.”

  Inside the hand-delivered package lay an ordinary alarm clock, tightly wound. Positioned on all four sides of the box, surrounding the ticking clock, were unlit sticks of dynamite. A small white card was stuck to the face of the clock, the message typed. “Next time, boom!”

  Ashe could almost hear a man’s insidious laughter. Buck Stansell’s crazy, sharp laugh. Ashe remembered the man’s diabolical sense of humor. Buck had not meant to harm Deborah, only to frighten her. If Buck had wanted Deborah dead, he would have killed her before Ashe had come into the picture.

  But what would happen if Deborah couldn’t be scared off, if she showed up in court to testify against Lon Sparks? With a man like Buck Stansell, anything was possible. All Ashe knew was that whatever happened, he was going to take care of Deborah.

  “A clock!” Deborah balled her hands into fists. “A stupid alarm clock!”

  “Looks like another war
ning,” Chief Burton said. “I’ll see that Charlie’s people get a look at this. I doubt we’ll be able to trace it to anybody, but we’ll see what we can do. Maybe somebody at the messenger service will remember who sent it, but I’ve got my doubts. Anybody could’ve paid a kid off the street to run a package by the office.”

  “It’s not going to stop, is it?” Deborah looked to Ashe for an answer. He grasped her by the shoulders. She trembled.

  “I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “The phone calls and letters aren’t going to stop. But I’m screening them. You don’t have to deal with them at all. And from now on, any UPS deliveries will come directly to me, too. You don’t even have to know about them.”

  “Unless you think it’s another bomb and we have to evacuate the office again.” Deborah wanted to walk into Ashe’s arms, to lay her head on his chest and cry. Instead she pulled away from him, turning to her employees, still standing around outside on the sidewalk. “Let’s get back to work.” Then she held out her hand to Chief Burton, thanked him for arriving so promptly and took one last look at the gag gift she’d been sent.

  She walked back into the building, her head held high. At that moment Ashe didn’t think he’d ever been as enthralled by a woman’s show of strength. He knew she’d been scared to death, had felt her trembling beneath his hands, but despite her anger and uncertainty, she was not defeated.

  Ashe waited around outside for a few minutes until the police left and the crowd cleared. He found Deborah in her office, alone, her elbows propped up on her desk, her hands covering her face.

  He closed the door behind him. Dropping her hands, she stared up at him, her eyes damp but without any real tears.

  He walked over, knelt down beside her swivel chair and took her hands into his. “It’s all right if you want to cry or scream or hit something. Nobody can be strong all the time.”

  “I have to be,” she said, her voice flat and even, masking her emotions. She looked down at her lap where he held her hands. “Mother and Allen have no one else but me. If I fall apart…if I…” Pausing, she swallowed. “I have to keep Vaughn & Posey going. So many people depend on this business. And since Mother’s illness, she’s become very fragile emotionally.”