Heat of the Moment by Karen Foley

Author:Karen Foley [Foley, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: It Takes A Hero
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

8

TWO PATROL CARS RESPONDED to Shane’s call. One of the officers stayed at the house with Holly, while Shane showed the sheriff and two other deputies where he had seen the movement in the trees. He hadn’t wanted to leave Holly in the house, not even with a deputy to protect her. Just thinking about the close call she’d had made him go hot, then cold inside. He replayed the incident in his mind, over and over and each time he felt weak with the realization that she’d nearly been killed. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight, even for a second. But he needed to show the sheriff where he’d seen the shooter. There, in the damp pine needles and mud, they retrieved a single shell casing.

“Looks like he left a trail,” the sheriff said, crouching down to examine the broken undergrowth. He glanced pointedly at Shane’s cast. “Why don’t you stay here, while we see what we can find?”Shane waited while the officers disappeared into the forest. They were gone less than an hour.

“The forest provided some protection from the rain, and we tracked the intruder’s path to a dirt road on the edge of the Durant property,” the sheriff said. There they’d found some tire marks in the mud, as if someone had left in a hurry, but the rain had turned the entire area into a quagmire and they hadn’t been able to obtain any additional evidence.

Except for the bullet.

Outside the house, Shane watched as they dug the spent slug out of the wooden step and examined it.

“The casing looks like a .270 Winchester, and this type of bullet is used fairly commonly among hunters, usually to bring down big game,” the sheriff commented, turning the flattened bullet over in his fingers. “Probably fired from a long range hunting rifle, like a Remington 7400.”

Shane could see Holly standing just inside the French doors of the kitchen, watching them. He felt restless and irritable. He wanted to hurt someone. He wanted the son of a bitch who had fired that shot behind bars. He wanted to know why he’d taken a crack at Holly. Most of all, he wanted to be in the kitchen with Holly, reassuring her that nothing would happen to her, not while he was there to watch over her. He wanted to know that Holly was safe.

He kept his voice low. “You must have access to the gun permits in this region. Can’t you do a cross-check to see who owns one of these hunting rifles?”

The sheriff gave Shane a look of disbelief. “Son, this is Virginia. Every other man in this state owns a hunting rifle. Trying to identify the owner of this particular shell amounts to looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“But you don’t really think this was some random hunter who thought Holly was a deer, do you?” Shane asked. “Especially considering how the boat engine was rigged. And it’s not hunting season.”

“Could be just a poacher or vandals.

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