Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

Judith’s sisters. We got to talking and he was showing me a little of property, just walking really while we talked, and there was a man in a grove of trees just above Judith’s house.”
    “Who spotted him?”
    Stefan frowned and shook his head. “I don’t honestly remember. We were talking and then a bird called out loud, and he screamed. Maybe that’s what drew our attention. In any case, Levi shouted something, and the guy took off running. We separated, trying to come at him from two positions and he shot at me.”
    “How many times did he fire his gun?”
    “Three times. Well, at me. He shot at Levi a couple more times.”
    “You’ve got a few splinters in your face.”
    “It happened so fast,” Thomas reiterated. “I didn’t have time to think. I just reacted. I tackled him when he was shooting at Levi. I thought he was going to kill me.”
    “Not the smartest thing in the world, tackling a man with a gun,” Jonas observed. “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. I need to check your hands for gun residue.”
    Jonas unlocked the handcuffs. Stefan noticed his eyes never shifted away. The sheriff was ready for anything. He dutifully held out his hands for the swab.
    Aleksandr Volstov approached, using a small hand gesture to summon his partner for a conference. “His name’s Mike Shariton. He lives in Point Arena. I read him his rights. He tested positive for gun residue. He said he gets paid for taking pictures of Judith and has for the last five years. This is only the second time he went over the fence and onto the property. He admits to shooting at both men. In fact, he didn’t hold anything back.”
    Jonas cast a suspicious glance back at Lev. “He confessed to shooting at them?”
    “The way he tells it, he was scared and trying to just frighten them enough to back off.”
    “He’s stalking Judith.”
    “He claims he gets paid to take the photographs for someone else. He was contacted and offered money to do the job and the pay is good and comes immediately when he sends the pictures over the Internet.”
    Distaste crossed Jonas’s face. Stefan could see the idea of anyone stalking a woman and sending her pictures over the Internet bothered the sheriff on a very personal level.
    “The pictures are sent to a guard at a prison in France. That guard delivers them to Jean-Claude La Roux.” Volstov said the name expectantly.
    “That name mean something to you, Aleksandr?” Jonas asked with a small frown.
    “He was convicted of running guns some five years ago, but was suspected of everything from espionage to murder. Anyone in his way disappeared. Twice, Interpol agents investigating him disappeared, but no one could connect him.”
    Jonas shook his head. “I’ll finish up here and talk to Judith. See if she knows this man or if she has any idea why a criminal in France would want her photograph. Take Shariton to the hospital and get him help for that wrist. Book him on felony assault with deadly a weapon and felony negligent discharge of a firearm. We can add anything else we need to later.”
    It took what seemed like forever to answer all the questions and recover two of the five bullets fired. One was in a tree trunk, the second in the branch of the same tree. The others were impossible to recover, although Jonas made a thorough inspection of the area. He interrogated them again, both separately and together, dropping seemingly inane questions into the conversation designed, Stefan knew, to trip either of them up. He had interrogated more people than he’d ever want to admit to and knew the tactics.
    Stefan just wanted everyone gone. He had no problem maintaining his role as American businessman Thomas Vincent, but all the same, he was happy enough that the sharp-eyed Volstov had left before he could inspect Stefan too closely.
    Aleksandr Volstov had quite the reputation as a police detective and Interpol agent. What was the man doing in Sea Haven? Had he been friends with Ilya? There would be no talking with Judith tonight, not with the sheriff heading to her house to interview her.
    What would she tell him about her relationship with Thomas Vincent? Any way he looked at it, she wasn’t going to welcome him with open arms again. He was going to have to crawl back and find a loophole or two to get her to even listen to him.

13
     
    JEAN-CLAUDE La Roux.
    Judith stood at the door watching Jonas walk back to his squad car, her entire body numb, the color draining from her