In Hot Water by Terry Odell

Author:Terry Odell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, suspense, Colorado mountains, bioterrorism, cowboy cattle rancher, cooking, second chances
Publisher: Terry Odell
Published: 2016-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

SABRINA CONCENTRATED on stirring the flour into the skillet. Cooking was real. If you did what you were supposed to, everything came out fine. All this other stuff—sick people, vandalized cars, spies—they were not part of her world, and she had no intention of letting them in. Biscuits and gravy, biscuits and gravy became her mantra.

As if telling herself to ignore what was going on around her would make it so. Keeping an eye on the thickness of the gravy as she added milk, she couldn’t help but listen to Adam and Derek discussing their elusive Ripley.

“How do you know where he is?” she asked. “I thought nobody knew what he looked like.”

“I should have phrased that better,” Adam said. “There’s a lead, not an ID, of a man Blackthorne believes might be Ripley. They use composite descriptions and the chatter about activities he’s been known to be connected with for intel.”

“They’re looking for connections to these two new disease outbreaks,” Derek added.

Adam continued, “Our intel people have been following Ripley for a long time. They have a huge file on him—or the people they think might be him, but every time they think they’re getting close, he changes his pattern.”

“He’s been involved with germs before?” she asked.

“If the guy we’re looking at is Ripley, then yes, it’s possible.”

And if he was, and if he was plying his trade here, all the more reason for her to scoot home to Albuquerque. Home. Her school. Tanya. Sabrina checked the time. Still too soon to call. Her stomach clenched. Why had she promised Derek a week? Could she weasel out? Technically, they hadn’t shaken hands, much less signed a contract.

But she’d accepted the deal, and she wouldn’t break her word. Not without coming to a mutual understanding with Derek.

“Where do we stand?” Derek asked Adam. “When you said Ripley might be close, do you mean at one of the resorts?”

Before Adam responded, his phone burred. He answered, then extended it to Sabrina. “Does he look familiar?”

Sabrina took the phone and studied the picture of the man Adam showed her, not sure if she wanted the answer to be yes or no. If yes, then Adam’s company could catch him and put an end to this mess. But if it was Ripley, and he was as elusive and dangerous as Adam had said, she’d rather not be anywhere in the vicinity. Maine was beginning to sound appealing. Or France. However, the man didn’t resemble anyone she’d seen, not here, not on the road, not at John’s funeral, or in Albuquerque. “No, sorry.”

Derek grabbed the phone and studied the image. “Not from around here.”

Sabrina lowered the flame under the gravy and started cleanup so she could move on to the meatballs she wanted to get underway. “But if he’s involved, wouldn’t it be better to ask Merry or Cecily if they recognize him? Seems they’re the ones encountering strangers.”

“Point taken. And our team is going to approach Merry today.” Adam faced Derek. “Cecily’s

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