“How many guards do you have? I only saw three, including you.” He tilted his head toward the burly man now keeping Mr. Haraby down.
“Five,” the burly man answered when Mr. Haraby seemed apt to remain mute.
“Seems you have a point then, Mr. Haraby,” Jay smiled, straightening slowly and glancing around the space. “This assassination attempt is off. I don’t think we’re in any more danger—”
“I need help out here!”
Jay didn’t need Mr. Haraby in order to recognize the voice. Nor did he need the guard’s wide-eyed glance to know something was awry.
They skirted around the shattered glass strewn over the floor. Jay looked at the window and felt his frown deepen. The bullet should have hit one of them. They were standing almost in line. Even if he had pulled Mr. Haraby down in time, the guard hadn’t had a prayer. Only if the shooter had aimed straight. From the glass breakage in the tall window, they had fired upwards.
He tried to follow an imagined line of sight along the possible trajectory and, other than the ceiling, the only possible target was the first floor landing.
He stepped outside slowly, still trying to remember if he had noticed anyone on the landing while he and Mr. Haraby spoke. He shook his head, knowing he had seen no one.
Jay turned his eyes over the grounds as he followed the other two to the voice of Gary Peters, where he was still calling for help.
He could see two slumped shadows down by the gate and guessed that those guards were likely dead. They rounded the house, and another shadowed heap could be seen near the far corner of the building. A little farther along, near where the sloping lawn met the densely packed trees of the park, was a fourth, still heap.
He saw Mr. Haraby snatch his only remaining guard’s phone and make a phone call. Gary hadn’t even noticed him yet, too busy applying pressure to the shoulder of the man laying in their midst.
He met the now-familiar pair of green-blue eyes and watched the strawberry blond hair flop into them as Dave moved his head. Jay felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Dave wasn’t meant to be anywhere near here, never mind bleeding out into Haraby’s lawn.
Before he could ask anything, Dave fainted. Jay pulled out his own phone, but Mr. Haraby’s man seized his wrist.
“Get—”
“I have already called a doctor,” Mr. Haraby interrupted. “You either let go of your pride and do this my way, or let your friend there die. He did trespass after all. As did you.”
Jay held the glare without flinching and replaced his phone in his pocket. “Still think I faked this just to get your attention?”
Haraby huffed and turned to Gary, who was now staring at Jay with unconcealed hate. “When Adam gets here, take them to the west conservatory. I need to make a few more calls.”
***
“You have no right to speak here,” Mr. Haraby said as Jay interrupted yet again.
“If you are going to listen to his idiocy, then I have no choice.”
Gary Peters’ face twisted into an ugly sneer. “Still so high and mighty. I would have thought being done in for murder would take you down a peg or two.”
Jay threw him a cocky grin then turned a serious face back towards Mr. Haraby. “Your premises have just been the target of an attack, and you are really going to be an idiot and blame it all on me just because he’s holding a grudge?”
“The facts speak for themselves,” Gary’s voice shook with anger. “You arrived unannounced and uninvited. You killed the guards at the gate, then staged that little talk to get the one guard inside killed too.”
Jayden sighed heavily. “How do you have any clients at all? Or do you function better when your emotions are involved?”
“My emotions? You’re the—”
Jay raised a hand. “Fine. You want to talk facts, let’s talk facts. I entered these grounds from the northeast, avoiding the gate as well as the other two guards that patrol the sides and rear. I killed no one.”
“It’s true,” piped up the burly guard, whom Jay had learned went simply by Ben. “I checked in with the gate on the way downstairs after we heard of Mr. Roe’s arrival. They were alive.”
Mr. Haraby looked very much like he wanted to order Ben to remain silent, but Jay only shook his head.
“I don’t know what happened tonight, but it is clearly linked to the fires back in Salisbury.”
“How?” asked Mr. Haraby.
“You’re not seriously going to listen to him?” spat Gary.
“Oh, I think he owes me that much. I did save his life, after all, and my partner saved it over again.”
Gary murmured a series of aggressive profanities, but Jay looked back to the man who was waiting with his eyebrows arched in challenge.
“The fires seem to have targeted the people that were questioned in relation with Stella’s disappearance. You were the only one linked that had already left. Yet the police conveniently found CCTV footage to implicate you and your man, which will eventually lead them here. Here they would have found you and your entire household dead.”
“Then why isn’t he dead? You telling me the shooter who took out four guards couldn’t kill the three of you at such short range?” asked Gary. “And don’t tell me it is because you moved faster than the bullet.”
Jay smiled. “No. I didn’t have enough warning. I can only assume my partner is the reason. He must have startled them, causing them to miss and then flee.”
Gary opened his mouth and then shut it again. There was a problem with his
