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CASCADE COURIER
Timber Falls Cloaked in Mystery as Rainy Season Begins
by Charity Jenkins
Sheriff Mitch Tanner had his hands full when just hours before the rainy season began Bigfoot was spotted on the edge of town by our local bread delivery man. This is not the first Bigfoot sighting here—nor the last—but the real mystery is the disappearance of Dennison Ducks decoy painter Nina Monroe! The sheriff refused to confirm reports that foul play might have been involved, but one source said Nina’s boss, Wade Dennison, was very upset when she didn’t show for work this morning. Nina has been in town for only a month and little is known about her. But never fear, this reporter will get to the bottom of it….
Mountain Sheriff
B.J. Daniels
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A former award-winning journalist, B.J. Daniels had thirty-six short stories published before her first romantic suspense, Odd Man Out, came out in 1995. B.J. lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, two springer spaniels, Zoey and Scout, and a temperamental tomcat named Jeff. She is a member of Kiss of Death, the Bozeman Writers Group and Romance Writers of America. When she isn’t writing, she snowboards in the winters and camps and boats in the summers. All year she plays her favorite sport, tennis. To contact her, write: P.O. Box 183, Bozeman, MT 59771 or visit her Web site at www.bjdanielsweb.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Charity Jenkins—She’s set her sights on confirmed bachelor Sheriff Mitch Tanner—and the newspaper story she’s working on could get her killed.
Mitch Tanner—The rainy season in Timber Falls is always bad, but this year it starts with a murder.
Nina Monroe—The duck-decoy painter lied about who she was and why she was in town—and now she’s gone missing.
Wade Dennison—The owner of Dennison Ducks is hiding something. But is it murder?
Daisy Dennison—She became a recluse when her baby daughter, Angela, was stolen from her crib twenty-seven years ago.
Angela Dennison—Twenty-seven years ago Angela was stolen from her crib and never seen again.
Alma Bromdale—The nanny had been sleeping soundly in the room next to Angela’s…
Desiree Dennison—For years she’s had to live in her missing younger sister’s shadow. The last thing she wants is Angela to turn up now in the flesh.
Jesse Tanner—Is it just a coincidence that Mitch’s outlaw older brother shows up in Timber Falls now?
Ethel Whiting—She knows the Dennison family better than anyone in town. Maybe too well.
Sheryl Bends—Did the painter hate Nina Monroe enough for stealing one of her duck designs that she could have killed her?
Bud Farnsworth—The production manger at Dennsion Ducks has a chip on his shoulder and a mean temper.
Kyle L. Rogers—The P.I. doesn’t know it, but he was hired to make sure the kidnapper’s identity stays a secret.
This book is dedicated with much appreciation to JoAnn Brehm. Thank you for sharing your stories about life in Oregon and the long rainy season.
Oregon is a beautiful, diverse state and one I found both fascinating and a little mystifying. Especially in the deepest, darkest woods on the rain shadow side of the Cascades, where it takes little imagination to believe that Bigfoot watches from the shadows.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Chapter One
Tuesday, October 27
Darkness pressed against the window. Beyond the glass, something moved at the edge of the tangle of growth.
Under the glow of the desk lamp, Nina Monroe feathered the paint along one side of the wooden duck decoy.
She’d forgotten she was alone in the isolated Dennison Ducks decoy plant. Nor had she noticed how late it was. Her mind had been on her future.
For the first time in her twenty-seven years of life, her future looked good. Not just good. Dazzling. Almost blinding. Sometimes she had to pinch herself it was so hard to believe. Soon she would have everything she’d ever wanted. Soon she wouldn’t be painting duck decoys in the middle of nowhere, that was for sure.
A voice in her head warned her not to count her chickens before they’d hatched. The voice was that of her old-maid aunt Harriet and she shut it out, just as she had all of her life. Aunt Harriet the doomsayer.
After tonight, Nina would finally have what she deserved. It had been a long time coming. She smiled at the thought of blowing this dinky boring town knowing she’d never look back, never even give Timber Falls, Oregon, another thought. She felt dazed by the possibilities. And filled with righteous indignation that it had taken so long for justice to finally be done.
She’d picked Halloween. A perfect time to unmask the true villains. By Halloween, she’d be long gone—but not forgotten. She would have it all, the money—and—the revenge. Who said revenge wasn’t sweet?
A noise at the window made her look up. From the darkness appeared a distorted face. It filled the window, the eyes like empty sockets.
She let out a strangled cry, dropping her paintbrush as she shoved back her chair and stumbled to her feet.
Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the face was gone. She snapped off the lamp, the only light in her corner of the decoy plant, and stood in the dark staring out at the night.
Beyond the glass was a jungle of ferns, vines, moss and trees that fought for space in the suffocating rain forest on the Pacific Ocean side of the Oregon Cascades. Sometimes she felt so closed in here she wanted to scream.
Like right now. The trees moved restlessly in the wind. Shadows flickered over the glass from what little moonlight pierced the forest.
She took a breath and tried to calm herself. There was no one out there. It had just been a trick of moonlight and shadows. Hadn’t her life always been full of shadows? But not for much longer.
So close to finally getting everything she wanted, she felt nervous, jittery, excited and maybe a little spooked. Spooked because something could go wrong.
But she knew that was just her aunt Harriet talking. After all those years with the pessimistic old woman, Nina could hear Harriet in her head. The voice of negativity. The voice of defeat.
She pushed all thoughts of Harriet away as she looked out the window again and saw nothing but the movement of trees and ferns in the faint moonlight.
Glancing at her watch,