Ropes and Trees and Murder Read online

  Matt’s earnest face seemed more boyish than ever. I’d known him since elementary school and always liked him, though we hadn’t really reconnected since I came home. Sure, I’d seen him at Sammy’s, run into him a time or to. But I’d been so busy I honestly hadn’t even thought about him past the occasional encounter. “They did,” he said, keeping his voice low, hands on his narrow hips. “And as far as I know that’s not been rescinded. Trouble is, these people have the right to protest all they want as long as they don’t break the law.”

  Grumble, mumble. I struggled to pull my temper under control, the urge to march back through the gate and confront the jerk with the bullhorn with his short, roundness and balding head and his idiotic multi-pocket vest and jeans tucked into his rubber boots just feeding the overwhelm of emotion. The second I cooled off enough not to yell at Daisy I was kicking his ass out of my bed and breakfast and banning him for life.

  So there.

  “Olivia and the council aren’t happy.” Matt sounded almost mournful. How much of the brunt was he carrying, considering his job as park ranger for the area? “I hate to say it, but I think this place might fail before it has a chance to even get started. No one wants to come.” He flashed me a quick grin, white teeth bright against his tanned skin. “Except you, Fee. You were always braver than the average girl.”

  I wasn’t so sure brave was the right word, but whatever. “Poor Jared,” I said.

  Matt didn’t get to respond. When he drew a breath to speak, as if by some predetermined signal, the crowd of protestors surged forward, pushing against Jill and Robert, and, with his bullhorn waving and leading the way, their arrogant ass of an instigator came charging toward us.

  ***

  Chapter Seven

  Spoiling for a fight, who, me? While I might have been less likely to choke the living crap out of the arrogant snot with the bullhorn from hell, the surge of adrenaline he’d created—and the burgeoning can of whoop ass he’d cracked open with his little shouty stunt—still raced through my veins and not even Matt’s gentle attempt to stop me could keep my Fleming redheaded temper in check this time.

  The group stopped just short of trespassing, toeing the line at the gate while I leaned into it, dodging the bullhorn as the man lowered it and flashed me another nasty grin.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” he said in an oddly mild voice that surprised me enough I froze a moment.

  “You’re supporting the deaths of innocent woodpeckers not seen in this region for years.” The older woman next to him spoke up next, brown eyes bulging, her squat body squashed into her own matching version of environmentalist mountain store chic. One of her big, square boots stubbed against the toe of my sneaker, the steel reinforcement sending a zing of pain up my leg. I was high enough on my temper to ignore it while she practically spat in my face, her graying hair pulled into a severe bun that tugged at the lines around her eyes. “Murderer!”

  I caught Jill’s struggle to reach me out of the corner of my eye, but I had this covered. Especially since it seemed like the protesters were all talk and no actual action outside their pretense at breaking the line in the gravel. “So show me a woodpecker,” I said.

  I don’t think the leader was expecting that. In fact, I was a little surprised by my own restraint. While his hazel eyes flickered with annoyance, his crowd of earth-mother hungry followers frothing to comply with his every desire, I realized just how coldly calculated he was, saw it written in the flare of irritation he shared before I grinned in his face.

  “Well?” I looked over the line of protestors, back to him. He was slightly shorter than me, though my 5’7” could hardly be called towering, but it was enough of a difference when I stood straighter I could almost see over his head. Being a barista and a waitress for years taught me to stand up for myself without actually insulting the customer, though the past little while running Petunia’s had given me more of an edge knowing it was my place without a boss to tell me to smile and let the guy buying coffee treat me like crap if he felt like it. I felt a rather hysterical giggle building in my chest, fed by the truth I was about to have some fun despite the continuing bubble of anger I rode. “Show me one of the cute little fellas and I’m outta here.”

  “Lewis,” the woman snapped in his ear.

  “Hang on a moment, Grace,” he said, lowering his bullhorn further, waving at the people crowding behind him while light panned over us from the cameras hovering past Jill’s shoulder. Great, I was on television. Awesome. Just what I needed. But no way was I backing down from this artificial and contrived little crap disturber. “Our fair hostess has a point.” Lovely, he knew who I was. “The problem is, young lady, we’ve been denied access to the site in question. Which means I can’t comply with your request, can I?”

  “So this whole show and tell is lacking in show,” I shot back. Let the cameras roll on that truth. “Speculation to make a mess. Nice job.”

  The woman he’d called Grace grimaced. “We have it on good authority,” she grumbled. “No red cockaded woodpeckers have been seen in this area in well over fifty years. But a live specimen was spotted and despite our efforts to expose the cover up of local government,” way to stir the crowd again, lady, “we’ve been cut off from proving those precious little lives are at risk!”

  Dear god, enough with the rhetoric. Though, clearly, it was enough to set off the group again and while I stood there, Matt hovering at my side, my chest tight from the need to laugh and scream at the same time, I realized it didn’t matter. The truth was irrelevant. And I was wasting my breath.

  I turned toward the ranger beside me to toss my hands and give up when I spotted a small cluster of people heading our way from the low, square building that had to be the main office. Jared looked about as grim as I’d ever seen him, even more so than the night he’d caught me red handed in his father’s office shortly after Pete was murdered. And the tall, handsome sheriff at his side wasn’t much happier. Yeah, I’d be hearing about my lack of self-control in detail if the tick under Crew’s left eye was any indication. The other two who joined them in their approach were strangers to me, though Alicia’s mention of Carmen and Aiden had to be identifiers. They wore matching Zip It! t-shirts and looked anxious enough about the gathering they approached—the handsome young man with the blond hair and lean build worried and the young woman with the dark hair in an aggressively swinging ponytail—about as pissed as I was if I read them right.

  I backed off, shaking myself internally, knowing I’d get nowhere from here and wishing I’d kept my temper instead of challenging Lewis. Stupid and probably unhelpful and had done nothing to eliminate my need to do physical harm to his smirking face.

  Temper, Fee. Sheesh.

  Matt tried to guide me by my elbow again—like he knew I needed the help to stay out of trouble—but I refused to let him make contact, striding to join Jared who stopped in front of me with his eyes on the crowd and his jaw jumping.

  “Thanks for coming,” he said, not once meeting my gaze. “Sorry to drag you into this. It’s way worse than I thought.”

  He did not get to feel guilty. “This is stupid,” I snapped, turning on Crew who squinted at me with those blue eyes like he knew I was going to ask something of him he couldn’t follow through on. “How can they get away with this? They have zero proof of anything but they can just slander the crap out of a local business and no one can stop them?”

  I knew one thing for certain. If this had been Petunia’s? Hell would be paid in the blood of my enemies. Snarl.

  Instead of answering, Crew looked away. I did my best not to shout coward at him in my head while Jared sagged slightly, finally meeting my eyes while his two friends crowded close, the girl with her arms crossed over her chest.

  “This was a terrible idea,” my young, hard-working and awesome friend said.

  Oh hell no.

  I turned to find Matt had left me, joined Jill and Robert in an attempt to move the protesters back away fro
m the gate again. I found myself toe-to-toe with Crew, hating that I had to ask the next tough questions.

  “When are you going to call the state police?” He needed help, didn’t he, Olivia or no Olivia? This had to end.

  When he met my eyes, his were so tight I could barely see blue past his slitted lids. “I was told,” he said in a voice so cold I was surprised I didn’t see a puff of condensation pass his lips, “to leave them out of it.” Wow. And he listened? I knew he’d felt his position was uneasy before now, but was he worried about his job so much he would risk someone getting hurt to keep it? “For now, the protestors have stayed outside the park. For now.” He looked down at me again. “I’m monitoring the situation.” Nodded.

  Okay. So he’d make the call if need be and, from the tension in him he wasn’t happy about holding back. Trouble was, if he had to make that call, it would likely be too late.

  “Lewis Brown has a huge following,” Jared said, “and his right hand, Grace Perkins, is no less known. They both have a history of conflict. Bringing in more muscle just makes them double down.” He shrugged, glanced at Crew like he wished he could undo every decision he’d made about the park up to now. “The mayor and council figured it would be best to just let this protest run its course.”

  Oh, fantastically brilliant and the idiotic idea of the century. “Olivia can’t be serious.”

  Crew’s chill snapped as he answered. “I’m not so sure anymore it was up to her.”

  What was that look he fixed me with? And was all that bubbling anger aimed at me? Or was I just in the way of it for the moment?

  “What do you want us to do, Crew?” I hated the sound of defeat in Jared’s voice. “I never meant for this to go so wrong.” He ran one hand over his face while his two friends wavered next to him, both silent and expectant while the sheriff twitched just a bit, jaw grinding a moment.

  “This isn’t your fault, Jared,” Crew said, voice low-pitched and without the kind of gravelly anger I was expecting. “I’m sick of it, but my hands are tied.” He actually looked briefly heartbroken, long enough I knew his expression earlier had nothing to do with me. I almost reached for him in a flare of empathy for what this damned job was putting him through, discarding my judgment and wishing I could help. Instead, I held back. He didn’t need my sympathy out in the open like this. He needed authority and I couldn’t give him that. “Unless they take action that breaks the law, they can stay.”

  “Both Lewis and Grace are linked to violence,” Jared said. “We knew as soon as they trolled the forums and caught wind of a chance at national press this might take a nosedive. The last thing I want is that kind of negative attention for Reading.”

  He hardly had the corner market on negative press. There’d been enough murders in our little town over the last two years surely a few endangered and likely fictional woodpeckers weren’t going to make things much less appealing to the throngs of tourists who flooded our town.

  Then again, maybe I was wrong this time. Dead football heroes and fake psychics didn’t have the kind of impact on people as the plight of innocent creatures threatened by man. While it was likely just a racket for attention, it was an effective one.

  Crew’s concern was real enough, though when he spoke he sounded like he’d been practicing what he had to say. “No one’s been able to prove wrongdoing, Jared.”

  Proof, right. That was kind of necessary. Though how could they continue to thrive while this park might not all on the basis of the same lack of evidence? No proof of criminal behavior and no proof of woodpeckers.

  Jared shook his head like he was making up his mind about something. “There’s been enough fires lit and vandalism and physical attacks when they show up to protest this can only go one way.” He hesitated, glanced sideways at his friends. “Guys, I’m so sorry. But we have no choice, here. We have to shut this down.”

  ***

  Chapter Eight

  Before I could argue with him, Jared’s female friend spoke up, the bitterness in her voice enough to cut through the haze of my lingering anger.

  “This is going to ruin us.” She didn’t sound like she held it against Jared, at least, but the glare she shot at the gathering of protestors made me worry for their physical safety. Considering what I’d been thinking myself I needed to stop being a hypocrite.

  “We’ll have a new assessment done,” Crew said, his tone clearly appeasing, though the gruffness of his voice told me he was about as happy as they were. Still no animosity aimed in my direction? Score. “Things will settle down and you can get back to business.”

  “We’re so low on capital I’m not sure we’re able to hold off.” The young man’s earnest face had settled into the kind of glum acceptance that made me want to shake him. Quitting already? Not on my watch. “Besides, even if we are cleared it’ll take weeks to get the assessment done and by then the one star reviews will bury us.”

  I knew a thing or two about reviews and snorted despite myself. “Trust me,” I said, “this is Reading. It seems like the worse the press the more people want to visit.” Threatened woodpeckers or not, people were so weird.

  The young woman scrunched her nose at me, her disbelief tinged in irritation. “We’ll see. If we get the chance.” She glanced up at Jared with an eyebrow raise while my young friend smacked himself in the forehead.

  “Sorry, guys,” he said, “my bad. Fiona Fleming, this is Carmen Martinez,” she nodded to me, dark eyes weighing me as if judging my worth, “and Aiden Jackson. Carmen, Aiden, Fee Fleming.”

  I shook their hands as the dark haired girl relented a bit, despite the continuing chanting from the peanut gallery. Funny, I was getting used to the noise of their constant chatter, so much so I was tuning them out. Perfect.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said.

  “Fee owns the B&B I was telling you about,” Jared said, perking just a little. He squeezed my shoulder and the pair seemed to relax the rest of the way, their friend’s vetting clearly good enough for them.

  “Sorry about the mess,” Aiden said, his light tenor peaking as he shrugged. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Yeah,” Carmen said, a faint smile rising before she crossed her arms again, staring at the crowd. “Nice of you to show your support.” She didn’t sound like she meant it.

  “Carmen.” Aiden sighed, one arm going around her shoulders from behind, pulling her to him. So, they were a couple? Looked that way, though she resisted him at first. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “Let me front you some more capital,” Jared said, face strained. “I’m sure we can ride this out.”

  While I might not have intimate knowledge of his business, I did know Jared was working on a large number of expensive projects, from a mall development on the edge of town to an expansion at the White Valley Ski Lodge just to name two. I wondered, if Alicia was here, would she be tromping on his foot to shut him up or was he really prepared to ride this sinking ship to the bottom of the ocean?

  Carmen spun on Jared, shedding Aiden’s arms, hugging him quickly, her expression altering completely from angry sullenness to a surge of regret. “You’ve been awesome, Jay,” she said, voice muffled in the front of his t-shirt. Hmmm. Did they have history I didn’t know about? She seemed pretty comfortable embracing him like that. None of my business, but still made me prickle a little for Alicia’s sake. Not that Jared would stray and Carmen had Aiden, but still.

  Fiona Fleming. Stop that right now.

  Jared hugged her back before letting her go. She blinked up at him, tears on her lashes before she dashed the back of her hand over her eyes, shaking her head. This time when Aiden slipped his arm around her she smiled up at him, faint but there.

  “We owe you big time, Jared,” Aiden said. “We jumped at this opportunity, both feet, no hesitation. It’s not your fault things are going south. We’re really grateful.”

  “No way are you pouring more money into this,” Carmen said, lips tight and grim. “We’ll either float it or
we won’t. But I want you to recoup your investment, not throw good after bad.”

  They seemed determined enough, though that protectiveness I’d been feeling the last year or so toward the people in my life didn’t fade any. Jared was a grown man, could take care of himself, right? Still, he was my Jared.

  Since when did I become such a mother hen?

  Crew seemed uncomfortable with the conversation, shuffling his booted feet in the gravel and clearing his throat. “What do you want me to do?” Just the fact he was willing to wait for an answer made my heart soften again and took the final sharp edge off my dwindling anger.

  Carmen sighed, glanced one more time at the protestors. “This isn’t just a zip line park,” she said, voice pitched low and full of emotion. “It’s been our dream for a long time.” Aiden sighed, nodded, hand squeezing her bicep. “It’s not just the lines, it’s the high ropes course, the trails for hiking in summer, skiing in winter. Snowshoeing, snowmobiling.” Her gaze looked suddenly far away, no longer seeing the crowd of angry sign wielders and though Aiden seemed sad he didn’t appear to be as into the whole dream as she was. “It’s a nature experience.” Enthusiasm rose in her tone, almost cheerful. “For locals and corporate retreats.”

  “All tied into the Lodge,” Jared said, nodding, his own enthusiasm returning.

  “Wait,” I said, frowning a little as I dug for the memory. “You’re talking about that retreat thing Olivia’s been pitching.” She’d come to me a month ago to chat about it but I’d been too busy and forgot to read through the info she left. Not that I had room or anything anyway to accommodate the guests she wanted me to house.

  “Her newest tourism drive,” Jared said. “The Reading Corporate Retreat Initiative.”