to become one of their targets either. I read this article on the Internet and—”
“Ms. McCall, we know you’re in there. You owe it to the public to answer a few questions,” a strident voice shouted from outside, interrupting Claire midspate.
“Ms. McCall, can you confirm your father received threats from the Earth Liberation Front before his death?”
She felt the color leach from her face as an appalling thought assailed her. What if they had been looking at this whole thing from the wrong angle—she, Daniel, Hotwire and Claire? What if ecoterrorists were angry about her father’s school in the middle of national forest lands, angry enough to do something about its existence?
They’d considered and dismissed the possibility the attack had been spurred by antiwar activists, but had not even given first thought to it being ELF sympathizers.
Privately held property was always at risk, and her dad had been forced to clear old growth timber to establish the compound before the timber controversy had become such a big deal. Only that had been so long ago.
“Josette, if it were ecoterrorists, why break in to your house and steal the school’s records? It’s possible the real culprits tipped off the press to throw up a smokescreen, but my gut tells me that the people trying to kill your dad aren’t doing it because of his views on the environment.”
She looked up at Daniel, feeling disoriented by how closely his thoughts ran parallel to hers. “Are you reading my mind?”
“Maybe I just know how you think.” He massaged her shoulders, his eyes warm on her in a way that made her feel very special.
Which did not mean she was going to let him give her commands like a raw recruit, but it was possible he’d been right about not going outside just yet.
“It takes a soldier to know a soldier,” Hotwire said, his voice laced with amusement.
“That’s all well and good, but what are we going to do about the zoo in our front yard?” Claire asked acerbically.
Josie’s mouth set with resolve. “We can call the police.”
“Do you think that will do any good?” Claire asked. “There’s the whole freedom of the press issue.”
“It will get them out of my yard. If they want to stand yelling on the sidewalk, that’s their business, but I don’t have to listen to it through my front door.”
Daniel leaned down and kissed her right on the lips, shocking her thoughts right out of her head. “Don’t do anything yet. Let me and Hotwire go around from the back and scope out the scene. I want to see if any of the reporters are acting like maybe they aren’t reporters.”
“How would you tell?” Claire asked while Josie’s brain was still adjusting to Daniel’s public display of affection.
Daniel turned to her. “They messed up breaking in here by not taking the CDs and DVDs. Unless they make better reporters than fake thieves, they’ll give themselves away somehow.”
“I should go out, too,” Josie said as her thoughts started stringing together in coherent patterns again. “I might recognize someone.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“It’s too risky,” added Hotwire.
“I don’t intend to let anyone see me.”
“Do you really want Claire left in here alone while we all go outside to recon?”
“Hotwire can stay inside.”
“She’s got a point, Nitro,” Hotwire said. “If she stays out of sight, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find out if she recognizes any of the gaggle outside.”
“I don’t need a baby-sitter,” Claire said, sounding as irritated as Josie by being managed.
Hotwire smiled charmingly. “Even if you weren’t in here, someone would have to stay to make sure none of the reporters gained entry.”
“I can handle that.”
Hotwire’s smile disappeared. “Not if the person gaining entry isn’t really a reporter.”
“He’s right,” Josie said, taking petty satisfaction in throwing the words back at her friend and then feeling instant remorse. “I mean—”
Claire’s eyes filled with understanding humor. “Don’t worry about it. I know what you mean, and you’re both right.” Then she sighed, looking out the window, and bit her lip, her expression turning worried. “I’ve got class in an hour and a half.”
“I’ll take you,” Hotwire offered, “and I won’t let any of that mob get at you on the way to the car.”
Claire nodded, her curly ponytail bouncing and her relief palpable. “Thank you, that would be great.” She turned to Josie. “If you don’t need me to hold the fort, I think I’ll take a shower and get ready for class.”
Josie and Daniel’s recon netted exactly nothing, and no adventurous reporter tried breaking in while they were outside. Which didn’t mean they wouldn’t make the attempt later, Daniel pointed out, taking the opportunity also to comment again that if Josie had a decent security system, there would be nothing to worry about.
She ignored the barb and made the call to the local police, who told her they could come by and get the reporters out of her yard, but there was no way of guaranteeing they would stay out once the officers left again. She got off the phone feeling frustrated, not only by that, but also the realization that Claire still didn’t have a computer for her class work and her first class that day was an on-line lab.
Josie would be missing classes today, but there was nothing she could do about that. She had meant to do something about her roommate’s lack of a computer first thing that morning, but had gotten caught up reading her dad’s journals.
“Darn it.”
Daniel watched as Josie’s hands curled into fists at her sides and her pixie face creased with a fierce frown.
She’d made her phone call while looking out the window at the steadily increasing melee in her front yard. Eventually, the reporters would have to leave—out of boredom or the need to cover another story—but he was pretty sure they’d come back and keep hounding Josie. He didn’t like it.
Maybe they needed to consider changing locations.
“Did the cops refuse to come out?” he asked.
“No. They’ll come, but they said they can’t promise any lasting results.” She sounded resigned, which did not explain her tension. Sitting on the arm of the couch beside him, she ran her fingers through her chin-length brown hair. “Claire doesn’t have a computer, and she needs one. Badly. I meant to take care of it this morning. She hasn’t said anything, but she’s got an on-line lab first thing.”
“I brought two laptops with me,” Hotwire said from his position by the window, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to travel with two computers when Daniel could never remember traveling with even one. “I’ll give her one of them. They’re both fully loaded with killer speed CPUs. They’ve even got GPS devices on them, not that yours did you any good.”
“You mean the one in my car?” Josie asked. “It worked just fine before my car was destroyed by an arsonist’s fire.” The grim set to her mouth left Daniel with no doubt what she felt about losing her little car in the blast.
But Hotwire shook his head. “The one in your laptop.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t use my laptop for GPS. Even if I hadn’t had a unit in my car, that would have been too inconvenient while driving.”
Hotwire came away from the window, his expression alert. “I meant the GPS unit inside your laptop. The one used to track its location if the computer gets stolen.”
“Her laptop had a GPS?” Daniel asked. Then, “And why do you know about it, but she doesn’t?”
“Hotwire helped me pick out my computer when I started taking classes at PSU.”
“And the one we picked out had a GPS unit.”
Josie twisted her body so she could look squarely at Hotwire. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. I’m not even sure I ever knew it, and I should have. It was my computer, for crying out loud.”
“Like you’re going to read the computer manual after you buy.” Even he didn’t do that, and Daniel was a lot less proficient with computers than Hotwire and Josie.
“Yes, but—”
