Making a decision to err on the side of caution, she hurried outside again. She would wait in her car until she saw someone leave the ranch house. At that point she would approach them to find out what was going on. Depending on the answer, she might have to double back to Elko for the night and return in the morning.

Her reasons for coming here were private and personal. After suffering a troubled child hood and teenage years, Catherine had been given a second chance at life. Now, years later, she was in a position to fight for someone who couldn’t.

The problem was, any information she gave to the wrong person could jeopardize everything. She refused to let that happen, not when she’d made promises to Terrie she intended to keep.

“Mr. Farraday?”

“Excuse me, Hal,” Cole said to the Lieutenant Governor and his aide before turning to face Janine, the newest member of the household staff. The tone in her voice held a certain nuance that prompted him to walk her over to one of the windows where they could be apart from the thirty or so people left in the room. “What is it, Janine?”

“A woman I’ve never seen before came to the door just now. I assumed she must be a friend of the family, so I asked her to come in and follow me.”

Making that kind of assumption was Janine’s first mistake, but Cole let her continue uninterrupted.

“When I turned around, she was gone! I don’t know if she’s somewhere in the house, or if she left. I alerted Mack, but thought you should know.”

Cole schooled his dark features not to reveal his thoughts. “You did the right thing to come to me. Give me a description.”

“She was a tallish blonde wearing a yellow outfit.”

“How old?”

Janine shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe twenty-five, twenty-six.”