The look of gratitude Hotwire sent him shocked Josie so much she didn’t think to add her voice to Daniel’s in convincing Claire to come to dinner.
But the other woman’s face creased in a worried frown. “I hadn’t thought about the reporters.”
“But you did think about the bad guys coming back, didn’t you?” Hotwire asked, almost as an accusation.
“Well, yes…”
Hotwire sighed. “Claire, I wouldn’t leave you to face people who have already tried to kill once.”
“You wouldn’t?” she asked, her emphasis on you echoed in Josie’s mind.
“None of us would,” Daniel inserted before Hotwire had a chance to answer.
“Right,” Josie finally had the wherewithal to say. “You need to come with us, honey.”
Claire didn’t need much convincing after that, but she did politely decline Hotwire’s offer to help her with her studies. Josie wondered if Claire wasn’t going to wind up with Hotwire in her room going over program code, all the while not sure how he’d gotten there.
Josie told the others over dinner about the leads she’d uncovered on her dad’s possible whereabouts. Both Hotwire and Daniel thought she was on to something, and Claire made a couple of suggestions on avenues Josie hadn’t thought to research.
The motion sensor units did not go off during dinner, and the discussion progressed from Josie’s dad’s possible whereabouts to what to do if he really was in Nevada.
When they got back to the house, the front lawn was empty, as was the sidewalk, and no suspect cars or vans were parked along the street. Josie’s relief was short-lived when a sedan pulled up just as they were getting out of Daniel’s SUV.
A man jumped out of the passenger door, and a second later a powerful camera flash went off.
“Miss McCall, would you care to comment on the rumor that ELF was behind the explosion at your father’s compound two nights ago.”
She spun around at the sound of the reporter’s strident voice. He was standing on the sidewalk, but that didn’t keep his photographer from snapping more pictures of her and the others.
She marched up to the two men. “Just where exactly did you hear this rumor?” she demanded.
“Are you saying it’s not true?” the reporter asked while the photographer took yet another picture.
She grabbed his wrist with a snakelike movement her father had taught her when she was fifteen. Pressing with two fingers on a vulnerable spot, she watched in satisfaction as the man lost his hold on the camera and it fell with a clunk to the pavement. She released him, and he scrambled backward, kicking his camera as he did so and causing further damage to the expensive piece of equipment.
“You should be more careful with your things,” she said sweetly.
“You did that. You broke my wrist, you bitch.” He was holding it cradled limply against his chest, but she knew feeling would return in less than a minute.
“No. I didn’t.”
“But if you call her another name, I will,” Daniel said from beside her. “Pick up your camera and get back in the car.”
“Hey, you can’t tell me what to do. This is public property.”
Daniel took a step toward the photographer. “Yes. It is. Which means I can stay out here as long as I want.”
“You can’t do anything to me. I’ll call the cops.”
Daniel’s smile was chilling. “How long do you think it would take them to get here?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No. A soldier learns early not to waste time or words warning his enemy of his intentions.”
The photographer’s nerve broke, and he grabbed his camera before heading back across the street to his car. “Come on, Dooley, it’s not worth it. This story is old news already anyway.”
“Stop being such a wuss,” Dooley said.
The other man made a crude, but dismissive gesture with his hand and got back in the car.
“I told you, I have no comment, and that isn’t going to change.” Josie turned to go.
“There’s something going on here, Miss McCall, and I’m going to figure out what it is.”
“Be my guest,” she said over her shoulder. “When you do, make sure you share your findings with the Forest Service.”
“I find it very interesting that Daniel Black Eagle, the son of a known felon, buys in to an exclusive paramilitary training school and pretty soon that same school is blown to smithereens and burned to the ground.”
Chapter 14
She barely stifled the urge to tell the reporter where to stuff it, knowing he wanted her to lose her cool.
“Even more interesting, the man is currently shacked up with his partner’s daughter, and they are both explosives experts.”
“What the hell are you getting at?” Daniel’s voice was deadly, but not out of control.
She looked over at him, continuing toward the house. “Ignore him, Daniel. He’s blowing smoke out of his behind, and pretty soon he’s going to set himself on fire.”
“Like you set fire to your father’s compound? Is it true your father died in the fire, Ms. McCall? Do you think he died from smoke inhalation before the fire got to him? It puts a different complexion on the recent million-dollar life insurance policy your dad took out naming you as beneficiary, doesn’t it?”
Two thumps sounded from behind her, and she spun around to see what was going on. Daniel was walking toward her, and the reporter lay unmoving, half on the sidewalk and half on the street.
“Daniel, what did you do?”
“He tripped. Over my foot.”
She stared at the reporter and then looked toward the car where the photographer was busy trying to fix his camera under the interior lights. From his lack of reaction, she had to assume he hadn’t seen anything. He certainly hadn’t gotten any pictures, not with his camera out of commission.
“You can’t leave him lying half in the street.”
“He accused you of killing your dad. He’s lucky I didn’t throw him in front of the next passing car.”
The reporter groaned and started moving.
Daniel nodded toward him. “See. He’ll be fine. Unfortunately.”
“He knew an awful lot about you and me for that matter. Not to mention some insurance policy I’m darn positive my dad would never have taken out. He doesn’t trust insurance companies.”
“I know. I wouldn’t buy in to the school until he agreed to insure the property.”
“Why didn’t Dooley mention that policy?” she asked as they walked into the house, and Daniel closed the door behind them. “It would support his whacky accusation you had something to do with the school’s demise.”
Hotwire and Claire were nowhere to be seen, but she could hear typing from the study, and Claire’s bedroom door was shut.
“I don’t know.” Daniel pulled her around so she was looking up into his face. “Are you okay?”
“Other than knowing someone tried to kill my dad and apparently planned all along to lay the blame on me? Sure.” She smiled to make a joke of her words, but it slipped at the seriousness of his expression.
“I don’t like this one dam—darn bit. I don’t think you’re safe, Josette.”
“I’m not a helpless little bubblehead, Daniel. If anybody comes after me, I’m more than ready to give them a taste of the temper I’ve been keeping under wraps for the past three days.” And she meant it.
She would welcome a chance to meet her enemy face-to-face and take them apart with every trick her dad had taught her.
“They didn’t meet your dad head-on. They tried to blow him up. If you hadn’t been there, he would be dead.”
“If I hadn’t been there, the security system would have been set at a higher level for motion detection outside his room. I turned it off when I went for a walk.”