Free Deadly Intentions by Leighann Dobbs Page B

it’s just that given the warning, I think you guys need to be extra careful.”
    Jolene thought about her aunt. The truth was, she did get a funny vibe from her, but it wasn’t anything she could explain.  
    Her mind went back to the tour they’d given her on the first day and how it seemed like she was scoping the place out. Almost as if she was looking for something. Then again, maybe she was just sizing the place up to see what everything was worth—after all, she had as much right to the family heirlooms as Jolene and her sisters. And yesterday they’d found her coming up from the basement.
    “I’ll keep my eye on her,” Jolene said. She didn’t want to say anything negative about the woman unless she was sure.
    “Okay, in the meantime it might be wise for you girls to pair up and make sure you don’t go walking around alone.” Jake said. “You’ll be better able to protect yourselves if two of you are together.”
    Jolene shot him an angry glare. “Are you serious? I’m not bringing someone around with me all the time. Besides we each have our own businesses that we need to tend to.”
    “Jo, you know that the people Luke’s company deals with are real bad guys. You or your sisters could be hurt, or even killed.”
    “I know. I’ll be careful and I’m sure you guys will make sure Morgan, Fiona and Celeste are protected. But don’t forget I’m a trained detective and perfectly capable of handling myself. Plus I have a gun.” Jolene patted her purse, then slid off her desk. “And a job to do. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way. Alone.”

Chapter Twelve

    Jebediah Powers was scraping barnacles off an old dinghy that rested upside down on two sawhorses when Jolene pulled into his driveway.
    “Hey, Jolene. What brings you here?”
    “Hi, Jeb.” Jolene got out of her car and came to stand beside him. Behind them were deep, dense woods. Jolene glanced into them uneasily, then chastised herself for feeling so skittish. She hoped she wasn’t getting paranoid now. “I came about the case you hired Jake and me for. I was wondering if you could tell me more about your traps.”
    Jeb stopped his work and brushed the back of his hand against his sweaty brow.  
    “Well, like I told Jake, I drop my traps in the waters just east of the cove opening. Been settin’ my pots there for years.” A painful look crossed his face.  
    “Uh huh.”
    “So, the other day I go out to check ‘em and I start pulling up the ropes and the lines are cut on most of the traps.”
    Jolene knew that lobster traps were set out on a rope that connected them to a buoy. The buoy floated above the water with the trap on the ocean floor. Lobstermen would grab the buoy with a gaffe and pull the trap up on a motorized pulley, then take out the lobsters, keep the ones that were legal size, bait the trap and throw it back in.
    “What makes you think Gordy did it, though? Maybe the line just broke,” she said.  
    “The line didn’t just break. It was a clean cut. On purpose. Plus I had Billy dive down and all my pots were missin’ and most of the buoys were gone, too.” Jeb tilted his head and rubbed his chin. “‘Course they probably just floated out into the ocean with no traps to anchor them. Someone did it on purpose and Gordy’s the most likely suspect on-account-a the feud.”
    “Yeah, but it seems that’s a little drastic, doesn’t it? I mean, messing with a guy’s lobster traps is against the law. And neither of you ever went that far before, right?” As near as Jolene could remember the Powers-Ellis feud consisted mostly of pranks and practical jokes.
    Jeb shook his head. “Nope, we haven’t and our daddies never did, either. That’s why I’m so mad and I want proof. I lost almost all my traps, and the ones that weren’t gone didn’t even have any lobsters in ‘em … just a weird whale bone.”
    “Whale bone?”
    “Yeah some kind of whale jaw or maybe even a shark. You wanna