Free The Hidden by Heather Graham Page A

else?”
    “The head housekeeper, Linda Reagan. She’s around thirty, I think, and beyond competent. She hires seasonal help when the place is busy, the rest of the time—like now—she and Ben and Trisha handle the cleanup and the meals. Ben and Trisha have a private suite on the second floor, and Linda has a small apartment in the attic. Angus lives over the stables. He leads most of the trail rides, though Ben loves to take out the late-afternoon ride himself, and there are a few locals who help out as needed.”
    “Guests here last night?” Diego asked.
    “A flock who fled immediately, though not before the police talked to them. There are five who stayed. Terry Ballantree’s a young guy, here on his own. He’s excited because he’s a descendant of Nathan Kendall, just like Ben and me. There are also two couples still here. Charles and Gwen Barton are newlyweds from Mississippi, and Gigi and Clark Levin are from Texas. They’re retirees, and they come for two months at the end of summer, beginning of fall, every year.”
    Diego nodded. “I’d like to meet all of them.” He paused, studying her. “What else?”
    “What do you mean, what else?”
    “There’s something you haven’t told me yet,” he said. “I know you.”
    She shook her head, lowering her eyes. “There is one thing, but I can’t see how it means anything. There was a strange guy who stopped me when I was in town and told me to be careful, that I was one of ‘them’ and also one of ‘us.’”
    “What did he look like?”
    “Maybe thirty-five. Dressed like a cowboy.”
    “Are you sure he wasn’t just trying to pick you up? You’re a beautiful woman, you know.”
    Coming from someone else, it would have been a compliment. From Diego right now, it was a professional observation, but it was still nice to hear, and she smiled. “Thanks. But I don’t think so. I actually know pick-up lines when I hear them, and that wasn’t one. He was probably just some drunk rambling on about who knows what. Although I ought to thank him, because he’s part of why Lieutenant Gray decided to let me go. They found a witness who saw me talking to him. Well, they saw
me
talking anyway. Their view must have been blocked, because they didn’t see him. Anyway, after I got away from him I went to hear a friend’s band, and he walked me to my car later.”
    “I’m glad he made sure you were safe,” Diego said.
    She would have liked it better if he’d sounded at least a little bit jealous.
    It was her own fault that he wasn’t, of course. She had left him, and he had moved on.
    Why hadn’t she?
    “I wasn’t really worried at that point. The guy didn’t seem scary, just weird, and I didn’t know then that anyone had been killed.” She paused. “But actually,” she said, frowning, “when Eddie walked me to my car, I forgot about this earlier, but I felt as if I was being watched then, too. But not by the guy from earlier. By someone...different. Someone evil. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It was probably nothing, just my nerves being on edge because of the freaky thing with the photos. Then I got here and found out...” She stared him straight in the eyes. “Diego, how could those pictures have been on the camera?”
    “How closely did you look at them?”
    “Not very. I was too stunned. They were bloody, though. I remember that much.”
    “And you never saw the murdered couple?”
    “No. Only Ben saw them. And the police, of course.”
    “I need to get my hands on that camera,” Diego said, “but for now, I’d like to meet everyone else here. Want to start at the stables?”
    “Sure.”
    It was noon; rides were scheduled for ten in the morning, and three and five in the afternoon. Every once in a while they planned a special night ride, but only for experienced riders.
    Angus Fillmore was alone at the stables, sitting on a bale of hay and enjoying a sandwich. He liked Scarlet, and she was glad, because she loved the horses and