Stronger Than the Rest by Shirleen Davies

Boss. I…”
    “Did you see or hear anything?” Jeff asked, his voice low, unhurried, but firm.
    “No, Boss, nothing.” The young man hung his head, dejected at his incompetence.
    Jeff closed his eyes and shook his head. It’d do no good to chastise the kid. The foreman could see the boy was already doing enough of that himself.
     “Come on, Mrs. Bierdan, let’s check inside. Maybe we can find something that will help us figure out who did this.”
    Jeff walked behind her into the house, looking for anything that would help them determine the identity of the rider. He set his rifle aside and followed Eloise into the front room.  It was a mess. Broken glass lay everywhere. It wasn’t just a small rock the rider had thrown into the room but a long piece of lumber and several pieces of what appeared to be discarded horseshoes. Jeff bent down to pick up the wood and turned it over.
    “You’d better see this, Mrs. Bierdan.”
    She stood by her foreman and read the words burned into the lumber.
    Get out or we’ll be back for you.
    Eloise gasped and took a step back. Her heart raced as she mentally absorbed the meaning. It was a clear threat, directed at her.
    “Must be the men who threatened Clint and Jay. Don’t know of anyone else who’d do something like this. Unless it’s that man you met with from Denver. MacLaren?”
    “No, I’m certain this isn’t the way he operates. He’s a businessman, not a thug.” Eloise responded. She’d spent enough time with the Taylor’s over the past weeks to learn a great deal about the MacLaren family. This didn’t fit with what she’d learned.
    “As soon as the men return I’ll send a couple of them to town to get Sheriff Alts. He needs to know what’s happened,” Jeff said. He’d go along with her judgment on MacLaren, for now, but he wasn’t willing to take a chance on Eloise’s life by ruling anyone out. “Don’t move anything until he’s had a chance to look around.”
     

Chapter Eight
    Frank Alts looked around at the damage and re-read the note burned into the wood. He knew in his gut who was most likely behind the attacks, the vandalism, but he needed proof.
    “You see anything at all, Mrs. Bierdan?” Frank asked.
    “No. I was in the kitchen when I heard the crash. By the time I got outside whoever did it was riding out. It was too dark and he was too far away for me to see anything more.” But she sure wished she had.
    “Jeff, you or your men see anything?”
    “Nothing. We were in the bunkhouse. Mrs. Bierdan was outside by the time we made it to the house.”
    “You both think it could be one of the same men who attacked Clint and Jay?”
    “That’d be our guess, Sheriff.” Eloise replied.
    “Unless it’s that MacLaren fellow who came here earlier today.” Eloise’s head swung up to Jeff’s at his comment.
    Frank appeared to consider the possibility for a moment before replying. “Doesn’t sound like anything MacLaren would do, Jeff. I know the MacLaren men, worked with Jamie MacLaren in the Marshal Service. This isn’t their style.” He knew for a fact it wasn’t Drew, or Louis Dunnigan, but remained quiet about his connection to the Denver businessman.
    “We’re looking for the men Clint and Jay described. They’ll turn up somewhere, sometime. No one can stay invisible for long. Mrs. Bierdan, I want you to be especially vigilant. Don’t go anywhere alone and make sure you’re armed. You do know how to handle a rifle or handgun, right?”
    Eloise gave him a scathing look. “Of course I can handle a gun, Sheriff. That was one of the first things Gordon taught me when we married.” The thought of her dead husband caused a dull ache in the area of her heart, not because of her love for him, but because of the damage he’d caused. “But I understand what you’re saying and won’t intentionally make myself a target.”
    Frank’s eyes narrowed on the pretty widow. She had spunk, he’d give her that, but did she have the