The High Country Rancher by Jan Hambright

Author:Jan Hambright [Hambright, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2009-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Remove your shirt,” the polygraph examiner said, opening his equipment case and hooking up cables.

The interrogation room seemed five times too small to Baylor as he popped the snaps down the front of his plaid shirt and pulled it off.

He knew Mariah was there, just behind the four-by-four square of mirrored glass, watching, hoping…trusting?

“Relax, Mr. McCullough,” the examiner said as he placed a band of convoluted rubber tubes around Baylor’s chest and abdomen, then cinched them tight.

“Go ahead and have a seat.” He gestured to an oversize chair on the opposite side of the table.

Baylor sat down and leaned back, trying to take deep, even breaths to calm his blown nerves. He didn’t have anything to hide, save a secret or two, so what were the chances he’d flunk the test?

The polygraph examiner, Wendell Cranston, clamped two small metal plates to the index and pointer fingers of Baylor’s right hand, followed by a blood pressure cuff on his left upper arm. He felt like a bovine in a calf roping event, all tied up until the flag dropped.

He watched Wendell plug the leads into a machine that looked something like a seismograph. He tried to breathe normally to combat his growing agitation with the situation he’d volunteered to participate in.

“I’m going to ask a series of exploratory questions which I’ll use to form my control questions. The exploratory questions will come off the paperwork you filled out. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“This machine will record the physiological responses generated by your sympathetic nervous system. These include blood pressure, pulse, respirations and skin conductivity. This machine can detect lies, so it’s important to answer my questions truthfully. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Wendell switched on the machine, its low hum filling the room and further eroding Baylor’s resolve.

“Is your name Baylor McCullough?”

“Yes.”

“Do you live in Idaho?”

“Yes.”

“Are you thirty-four years of age?”

“Yes.” Baylor stared straight ahead, feeling the tension in his body ease.

Wendell Cranston stared down at the graph and made several marks on the paper. “I’m going to conduct a stim test now, in which I’ll ask you to deliberately tell a lie. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Is your name Baylor McCullough?”

“No.”

Wendell made a mark on the paper as it flowed out of the machine. “Are you thirty-four years old?”

“No.”

“Are you married?”

“Yes.” Baylor cleared his throat and sucked in a deep breath, seeing his last images of Amy flash in his mind. “I’m a widower.”

“Just yes or no answers, Mr. McCullough.”

Baylor shut his eyes and tried to focus on the examiner’s voice, but he could feel his muscles clenching tight between his shoulder blades.

“Do you live on the Bellwether Ranch?”

“No.”

“Were you born in Idaho?”

“No.”

“That concludes the stim test. I was able to detect the lies, and to establish a baseline. We’re ready to begin.”

Baylor sucked in a deep breath, opened his eyes and glanced at the mirror. What was he thinking? He was doing this for her. Something about the way she saw him mattered on a primal level that he couldn’t explain.

“Do you know James Endicott?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see James Endicott on April the fifth of this year?”

“No.

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