Kitabı oku: «The Silver Star of Texas», sayfa 2

She fought a smile. “What can I say—I’m a cliché. A cop with a donut addiction.”

She glanced at the monitor when there was some movement so she could see what the camera had recorded. There was some light coming from her office window, and it gave enough illumination for her to see that it was merely two cats that seemed to have amorous intentions. A moment later they disappeared into the thick woods and out of camera range.

Sloan sat down again, volleying glances between her breakfast and the monitor. “You’re not going to offer me any of that donut?”

“Didn’t plan on it.”

He grinned. Sheez, it was that all-star, billon-dollar grin. “That smile won’t work on me,” she grumbled.

“What smile?” Oh, butter would not melt in his mouth.

“That one you’re flashing right now. I suspect it’s coaxed many women into lots of things, including clothing removal. But I’m immune to it. And it won’t work on parting me from my donut.”

The grin morphed. Just a tad. But instead of evoking sultry thoughts, it had a sad puppy-dog look to it.

“Besides,” he drawled. “You should be eating something more nutritious since you’re recovering from your injuries. When we’re done looking at this disk, we can head to the diner and get you some real breakfast. While we’re there, I’ll have a donut.”

Carley didn’t like the sound of that. Her goal was to finish this situation report, review the surveillance disk and then get him the heck out of her office so she could continue her own investigation.

Maybe sharing the donut would speed things up.

Figuring this would cause them to skip the trip to the diner, she ripped the donut in half, plopped his half back on the paper plate and shoved it across the desk toward him.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, diving right into it. “See? We do have some common ground. Our shared love of sugary, high fat pastries that have no nutritional value.”

“You call that common ground?”

Sloan used that smile again. “Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”

She could have added something snarky—like, he had already gotten everything he could possibly get—but the sugary donut was making her fingers sticky, so she began to eat it.

“I’ve arranged to meet with both Donna and Leland this afternoon.” Sloan tossed that out there in between bites.

Carley didn’t know if that was an invitation for her to join him or if he was merely continuing with his briefing. She decided to go with the option that suited her. “Let me know when and where, and I’ll be there.”

“At two this afternoon. Here at the police station.” He tipped his head to the filing cabinet. “Just how strong are those pain pills?”

Mercy. She’d forgotten all about those. They’d blended in amid the stacks of files and other clutter. “Not strong enough to keep me off this case,” she insisted. “Besides, I haven’t even taken any of them.” She would have added more, would have probably even started a fresh argument, if there hadn’t been more movement on the screen.

“It’s motion-activated,” Sloan commented, his attention now fully on the monitor. He set the rest of the donut aside.

Carley followed suit. Because what she saw captured her complete attention, as well.

No amorous cats this time. It was a shadowy figure. She turned the monitor, hoping for a better angle. Sloan walked around the desk and stood behind her.

“I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman,” he mumbled.

“I can’t tell if it’s even human. It looks a little like a scarecrow in a Halloween costume.”

“Definitely human. The person’s wearing a mask and a cloak.”

She studied the image and had to agree. But the person didn’t have just a cloak and mask. There was something in his or her hand. The light from her office danced off that something. It was a glint of metal.

And on the screen Carley saw the gun rigged with a silencer.

That barely had time to register in her mind when there was the first shot.

And it wasn’t aimed at the camera.

The gunman saved the second bullet for that.

Sloan reached over and pressed a button to rewind the disk. He stopped it just as the first shot was in progress. Carley saw then what she hadn’t wanted to see.

Mercy.

A chill went through her.

“This person wasn’t just gunning for your surveillance camera, Carley,” Sloan confirmed. “He or she was gunning for you.”

Chapter Three

“Are you okay?” Sloan asked when he saw the expression on Carley’s face.

What little color she’d had drained from her cheeks. Not without reason. She’d just witnessed a recording of someone attempting to kill her.

“The shots were fired at 1:13 this morning,” Carley mumbled, obviously noting the time displayed on the bottom of the monitor.

“You weren’t here when it happened?”

“No. I finished up work about a half hour before that, but I’d left on the light. I didn’t notice it until after I’d locked up and made my way back to the inn.” She looked up at him. “I can see my office window from my attic apartment. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to leave the light on all night and I knew I’d be back in the office early.”

Sloan played around with that a moment and took it to its logical conclusion. “So, because of the light, someone might have thought you were inside here working at 1:13 this morning.”

Carley nodded. “It’s not unusual for me to be here at that hour.”

He didn’t doubt it.

From all accounts, Carley was driven to be the best sheriff ever. That included plenty of seventy-hour work weeks, even though technically the sheriff’s office was only supposed to open from eight to five, with all calls before and after hours going through dispatch. He figured with Carley around, dispatch wasn’t taking many of the calls, because she made sure she was readily available for the citizens of Justice.

Sloan glanced around the room. “The window’s intact, no broken glass. I don’t see any point of entry for that first bullet.”

He watched the steel and resolution return to Carley’s eyes, and she got up at the exact second that he headed for the door.

The race was afoot.

She rushed around her desk and then came to a complete stop. That stopped Sloan, especially when Carley caught onto her side.

“It’s nothing,” she said, no doubt as a preemptive strike against what he was about to say.

Sloan gave her a flat look. “If it’s nothing, then why are you holding your side?”

She immediately lowered her hands.

That was the last straw. Sloan stormed toward her, and before she could stop him—or slap him into the middle of next week—he went after her shirt buttons.

“What in Sam Hill do you think you’re doing?” Carley snarled.

Sloan ignored her, and probably because she was in too much pain, she didn’t even attempt to fight him off. He undid the lower buttons at her midsection and had a look at the bandage. No blood. No raw, red areas on the skin. That was a good sign. But the edge of the adhesive tape was caught on one of the tender areas where her stitches had recently been removed. So that might be the cause.

“Hold still,” he instructed.

And, much to his surprise, she did.

Sloan slathered his hands with some liquid sanitizer that she had on top of the filing cabinet next to her pain meds. Taking a deep breath, he pulled over the chair and sat down so that he’d be at eye level with the bandage. It also put him at eye level with her stomach. And the bottom edge of her bra.

Purple lace.

Sloan couldn’t help it. He looked up at her, and when she followed his gaze, Carley narrowed her eyes to little bitty slits. “I haven’t had time to do laundry. It was one of the few wearable things that I had left in my lingerie drawer—and why I’m telling you this, I don’t have a clue. Because it certainly isn’t any of your business.”

To punctuate that, she snapped the upper sides of her top together so there was no visible purple lace.

But Sloan didn’t need to see it to remember that it was there. Nope. It was branded in his memory.

“I never took you for the purple-lace type,” he commented. Partly because it was true and partly because he wanted her mind on something else when he lifted that tape.

She’d already opened her mouth, probably to return verbal fire, but that tape pull had her sucking in her breath and wincing.

“Sorry,” Sloan apologized. “It’ll only hurt for a second.” He worked quickly, before she changed her mind, and he gave the bandage a slight adjustment. “There. Now it won’t pull at the skin that’s healing.”

She eyed him with skepticism and then tested it by rotating her arm. No wincing. No sucking in her breath. Just a relieved expression. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. But you know, if you were at your apartment resting, that bandage wouldn’t have shifted.”

“And you wouldn’t have gotten a cheap thrill of learning that I own a purple bra.” She buttoned her shirt as if she’d declared war on it. “By the way, you tell anyone about my choice of underwear and you’re a dead man.”

Puzzled, he stared up at her. “Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know that?”

She dodged his gaze and stepped back. “I don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that I’m female. I already have enough strikes against me without letting people know that I occasionally wear girlie stuff.”

Still puzzled, Sloan shook his head. “Why?”

“Because I’m not male. Because I’m the first woman in Justice to wear this badge. Because I don’t have the full support of this town.” She aimed her index finger at him. “Because I’m not you. And despite the fact you’ve been gone for years, most people still and always will think of you as the sheriff.”

Sloan wanted to deny it, but he knew it was true. Despite the advances in Justice, Carley was probably battling a gender bias. He’d been one of the guys. A good ole boy. Many people in town had no doubt thought that badge was made for him. His for a lifetime.

That acceptance hadn’t been extended to Carley.

“Just for the record,” he let her know, “you don’t have to prove anything to me.”

She frowned and then mumbled some profanity. After some posturing and a huff or two, the aimed index finger returned. “Let’s get something straight, Sloan McKinney. I want no camaraderie with you. None. And you don’t want that with me. Remember, you accused me of lying about your father. I accused you of being blind to the truth. I also accused you of being a jerk and an—”

“I get the point,” Sloan interrupted. Man, she made it easy to remember the anger. “So here’s the deal. I’ll work my butt off to solve this case as quickly as possible so we won’t have time to develop any camaraderie. Agreed?”

She agreed with a grunt and headed toward the back exit, where they’d entered earlier. Sloan was right behind her. Neither wasted any time once they were outside. They both started scouring the building for that first bullet.

Thanks to the blazing sunlight striking the brown brick exterior, it didn’t take Sloan long to spot it. He went to the window and there it was. A bullet lodged in one of the bricks that framed the window directly outside Carley’s office. This was obviously the first shot that the gunman had fired in the wee hours of the morning. The shot meant for Carley.

“I checked the exterior this morning, when I was looking at the surveillance camera,” she mumbled. “How could I have missed that?”

He could have stated the obvious—maybe she didn’t see it because she was exhausted and wasn’t medically ready for duty. But reminding her of that would have only started another argument.

Without touching it, Sloan examined the embedded bullet. A .38 slug. Another inch to the right, and it would have gone through the glass and hit anyone who might be sitting at Carley’s desk.

Sloan peered through the window and realized something else. Her high-back chair would have made it impossible for a gunman to see if she was there or not.

Carley obviously realized that, as well, because he heard the sudden change in her breathing. Sloan didn’t address her reaction. No sense touching on uncomfortable issues again. So he scanned the area to figure out what’d happened there.

“Sarah’s killer escaped into those woods,” he surmised, talking more to himself than her. “It’s the same path your shooter took.”

Carley made a sound of agreement. “And there’s evidence out there—footprints, possibly trace fibers, maybe even the bullet that injured me that night. It was never recovered. So maybe the killer planned to scour the woods to retrieve any incriminating evidence, and the camera got in the way.”

“Then why fire that first shot into your office?” Sloan asked.

She shrugged, hesitated, but Sloan already had a theory. Unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to voice it, because he heard footsteps.

He instinctively drew his weapon and stepped in front of Carley. To shield her. To protect her. It didn’t earn him any brownie points. She pulled out her own gun, huffed, mumbled something and then stepped out from behind him so that they were side by side.

It didn’t take long for their visitor to appear around the corner of the building. It was Leland Hendricks, and since he was a murder suspect, neither Carley nor Sloan lowered their guns.

“There you are, Sheriff Matheson,” Leland barked. He said her name as if she were some annoying insect that he was about to squash. “What the hell do you mean calling me in again for questioning? I don’t have time for this. I have a business to run. And until that grand jury says differently, I’m a free man.”

Carley slipped her gun back into her holster and tipped her head to Sloan. “He’s in charge. Yell at him.”

Sloan gave her an aw-jeez-thanks look before he turned his attention back to a possible killer.

The years had been kind to Leland Hendricks. Of course, money and massive ego probably helped. The graying hair and the wrinkles only added to his air of authority.

“You’re in charge?” Leland stared at him.

Sloan nodded. “You have a problem with that?”

“You bet I do.” He shook his head. “I won’t let you McKinney boys railroad me into taking the blame for these murders. I won’t become the scapegoat for your drunk of a father who can’t keep his pants zipped.”

It took some doing, but Sloan forced himself not to react to that. “You’re saying you’re innocent?”

“Damn right I am.”

“And what about the fake kidnapping of your own son? You’re innocent of that, too? Because Sarah, your dead stepdaughter, said differently.”

Leland probably didn’t want to react, either. But he did. Every muscle in his body seemed to tense. “It doesn’t matter what that witch Sarah said. Even if I admitted I’d planned a fake kidnapping, you can’t arrest me for that. The statute of limitations is on my side. Besides, I’ve paid in the worst way a father can. My son disappeared that night. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”

“You’re certain you don’t know that?” Sloan asked.

That did not please Leland. The veins on his neck began to bulge. “I have no idea where he is. If he’s alive, I don’t know who has him or where he’s been for the past sixteen years. That’s punishment enough.”

Sloan shrugged. “It won’t be if I can prove you murdered those women. There is no statute of limitations on murder, and right now I’m making you for these killings.”

Leland glared at Carley before he turned that glare on Sloan. “You’ll never prove it.”

“Never say never, Leland,” Sloan countered. “Oh, and if you’re not there for that interview this afternoon, I’ll have you cuffed and brought in just like anyone who disobeys the law.”

There was a staredown, and Sloan wasn’t the first to blink. Leland was. He mumbled, “I’ll be there,” along with some choice profanity, then stormed away, disappearing around the building.

“Well, wasn’t that a special way to start the morning,” Carley grumbled.

“That started the morning,” Sloan said, pointing at the bullet lodged near the window. “I’ll dig it out and send it to the crime lab.”

“Nearly everybody in town owns at least one .38,” she reminded him. “And I’m willing to bet there are a dozen or more that aren’t registered, so we don’t even know about them. Matching that bullet to a specific firearm will be a needle in a haystack.”

A slim chance was still a chance, and the truth was, they had little physical evidence to connect anyone to Sarah’s murder. The bullet was a start. But he had other avenues to explore.

One of those avenues was standing beside him.

“Maybe this latest attempt to shoot you isn’t about something you saw less than a week ago right after Sarah’s murder. Maybe this is about the first murder—Lou Ann’s? If so, maybe you saw or heard something sixteen years ago that the killer doesn’t want you to recall.”

“Then why wait all these years to come after me?” she asked.

“Because, other than the killer, you might be the only person in the entire town who was close enough to witness both murders. Either the killer thinks you saw something or you did see something and you just don’t remember it.”

Her posture became defensive again. “I remember everything about that night, and the only person that I saw anywhere near Lou Ann’s room was your father.”

“You could have missed something. A few hours before the body was found, you were sitting in that big, comfortable chair in the lobby at the inn, reading a teen magazine with Johnny Depp on the cover.”

Her defensive posture went up a notch. “How did you know that?”

“I looked through the window and saw you.”

Carley’s eyes widened considerably. “What—you’re a Peeping Tom?”

“I’m not. I was looking for my father,” Sloan calmly answered.

And he’d looked at Carley, too. In fact, she’d distracted him that night. Why? Because for the first time he’d noticed that she was no longer the gangly girl two grades behind him in school. Among other things, he’d noticed that she had breasts. But it was her mouth that had really caught his attention. The heart shape. The full bottom lip. Her mouth was sultry then. And it was sultry now.

Something Sloan wished he hadn’t remembered.

“I saw you that night, too.” Her voice was low and whispery, as if this wasn’t something she wanted to admit. However, her voice didn’t have to be loud to grab his attention.

“Where? When?” Sloan asked.

“I heard something and looked out the window. You were walking on Main Street, headed in the direction of your house.” She cleared her throat. “That was about an hour and a half before the murder.”

She turned and started inside, but Sloan caught onto her arm. “I get the feeling there’s more that you’re not telling me.”

Carley didn’t jump to her defense and she didn’t huff at his accusation. “I’ve told you everything that’s pertinent to the murder and to this investigation.”

Sloan really didn’t care for the way she’d phrased that. “Does that mean there are other nonpertinent things you haven’t told me?”

She didn’t answer. Which in itself was probably an answer—yes, she was withholding something. Carley eased out of his grip and she walked back into the building.

Sloan didn’t want to dwell on it. After all, Carley wasn’t the type to withhold vital information that would affect the outcome of the case.

So what secrets did she have?

The question settled hard and raw in his stomach. Because it made Sloan search his own memory. It made him recall things about that night. Specifically something that had haunted him for the past sixteen years.

It haunted him now.

Carley Matheson wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.

Chapter Four

Does that mean there are other nonpertinent things you haven’t told me?

Carley frowned.

Sloan’s question kept flashing like a neon sign in her head. Either she was missing the gene that could supply her with a poker face or Sloan was psychic. Because there was indeed something “nonpertinent” that she hadn’t told him. Nor would she. It was just one of those totally embarrassing events that a woman didn’t want to have to recount aloud.

Especially since Sloan was that nonpertinent detail.

Yes, she’d seen him that night, but seeing him wasn’t all she’d done. She’d stepped out the side door of the inn and watched him, well, walk down the street. She’d even followed him for a few minutes. At the time, she’d blamed the voyeurism on boredom, the sweltering summer heat and her leftover lusting brought on by that magazine picture of Johnny Depp.

But she had to blame it on Sloan, as well.

That night, she’d finally figured out what the other girls had meant about his bedroom eyes. Oh, yes. He’d stirred things in her that even Johnny Depp hadn’t managed to stir, and that was something Carley planned on taking to her grave. Sloan was already cocky enough without learning he’d had that kind of effect on her. She wasn’t about to be labeled a Sloan McKinney groupie.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Sloan commented.

Sitting at her desk, she glanced up at him. He was in the doorway, his hands bracketed on either side of the frame, and he was staring at her. Specifically he was staring at her mouth. Probably waiting for her to explain herself.

Uh-oh.

It was time to get this conversation back on something it should be on—the case.

“I’ll have one of the deputies start the gun roundup for the .38s,” she informed him. “Then the crime lab can do the ballistics tests and compare that bullet lodged in the brick to the guns from the town.”

Sloan pushed himself away from the door and stepped toward her. He reached over and ejected the surveillance disk from the computer. “And I’ll send this to the crime lab, as well. They might be able to enhance the image so we can figure out who fired those shots.”

“Yeah,” Carley mumbled, recalling both the image and the shots. “It’ll be nice to know who wants me dead.”

Their eyes met before he leaned back away from her. “I’m sure it’s not personal.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.” Carley decided it was a good time to sign the time sheets centered on her desk. It was a necessary task and it would prevent any more eye contact with Sloan. “And you’re wrong. It is personal. Very personal. In all probability, someone I’ve known my entire life is out to murder me.”

“Something that neither of us will let happen,” Sloan assured her. “Now that we know what we’re up against, we can take precautions.”

That got her attention off the time sheets. Heck. Eye contact again. “What precautions?”

“Well, for starters, you shouldn’t be working late here alone. Not that you’d have time for that anyway. The case should keep us both busy.” He motioned in the general direction of the lodged bullet. “In addition to the ballistics and reinterviewing Donna and Leland Hendricks, there are those papers that Sarah brought with her to Justice.”

Since that sounded like a prelude to something, Carley sipped her now-cold cappuccino and waited. She didn’t have to wait long.

“Carley, if we’re going to work together on this case, it means we’re going to be together. As in physically together. A lot.”

She took the safe approach and tossed out a hopefully confident-sounding, “So?”

“So, can you handle that? I mean, it’s obvious you can’t stand the sight of me.”

Well, she apparently had a poker face after all. “I don’t have to like you to do my job.”

“Does that mean our past isn’t going to get in the way?” he asked.

“Oh, it’ll probably get in the way,” Carley readily admitted. “But above all else, we’re lawmen. Focused lawmen. Solving this case is as important to you as it to me.” She drank more coffee. “And speaking of doing our jobs, you mentioned those papers that Sarah Wallace brought to town. Where are those exactly?”

“I have copies of them.”

That was it. I have copies of them, and no offer to share them with her.

“And?” she prompted.

“There’s a problem with what Sarah had with her when she was murdered.” He sat on the corner of her desk. “Basically the papers are a collection of notes and copies of notes that implicate both Leland and Donna.”

Carley shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like much of a problem to me. If they’re guilty, we just arrest them both.”

“The notes don’t prove murder—even though that’s obviously what Sarah believed or she wouldn’t have tried to get them to her sister. At worst, the notes and copies are gossip and innuendo. At best, they point fingers at Leland and Donna for some dirty dealings and shady behavior.”

That improved her mood. “Anything we can arrest them for?”

Sloan shook his head. “Time’s run out to prosecute them on those accounts.”

The improved mood didn’t last long. “So what’s in Sarah’s copies that we can use?”

“I guess the papers are good for painting a picture of what was going on in the Hendricks household about that time. Lou Ann’s copying and hiding habits weren’t limited to Leland. There are receipts for prescription painkillers and booze that the nanny, Rosa Ramirez, bought for Donna. God knows where Lou Ann found those.”

Carley frowned. “Why would the nanny be buying those things for Donna?”

“My guess? Donna wanted to keep up the appearance of a clean and sober socialite. Her father was still alive back then. You remember how he was.”

Yes, she did. And Donna’s old-money dad definitely wouldn’t have approved of a drugged-out, drunk daughter who might tarnish the family name. “Anything else in Sarah’s stash of info?”

“There’s a copy of a bank statement that basically proves Leland was broke at the time he planned his son’s fake kidnapping and murder.”

“That’s old news,” Carley mumbled.

Sloan made a sound of agreement. “In fact, the reason Leland had come up with such a ridiculous scheme was because he was desperate for money.” He paused. “Unlike Donna. She had the cash, but she had it hidden away in trust funds and foreign accounts.”

Carley made a mental note of that, but she didn’t immediately know how it would help them build a case against either Leland or Donna.

Or even if there was a case to build.

“Is there anything you’ve seen in those papers and notes that’ll help us solve these murders?” she asked.

“I’ve just scanned through them, but I hope after all the pages are thoroughly examined that Lou Ann and Sarah will be the ones to give us the ammunition to make an arrest. Because Leland’s right about one thing—we can’t nail him on the fake kidnapping plot. We either get him for murder or he walks.”

“And if Leland walks, then maybe that’s because he’s innocent.” Carley didn’t wait for him to respond to that. “Of course, I’ll want to look at Lou Ann’s and Sarah’s collection of notes and papers.”

Nothing. Nada. Only that drilling stare. It seemed to last for hours before he finally nodded.

Just a nod.

Not exactly an enthusiastic endorsement for her investigative abilities, and so much for his assurance that she would assist him on this case. But it didn’t matter. She would study those papers, and this would be her chance to prove to Sloan that she was a good cop.

“I have some reports I have to do for Zane,” he let her know. “Then we’ll talk about the ground rules for Lou Ann’s papers.”

Carley was certain that she blinked. “There are ground rules?”

“Yeah. You’re guaranteed not to like them, but they’re a necessity if we want to keep you safe.” Sloan went to the cabinet in the corner and took out a small plastic evidence bag. “For now, I’ll dig out that bullet. My advice? Don’t try to assist, because all that reaching and moving will only aggravate your injury.”

She had no intentions of assisting. She needed a reprieve from Sloan. Judging from the speed with which he made his exit, Sloan needed some time away from her, as well.

Unfortunately her reprieve didn’t last long.

Mere seconds.

Before Carley heard the brass bell jingle—an indication that someone had come in through the front entrance of the Justice police station.

She checked her watch. It was a half hour too early for any of the deputies to arrive for duty, and maybe because she was still jumpy about that bullet being fired at her, she sprang to her feet. The sudden movement tugged at her injury, but Carley tried not to react. She made sure she could draw her gun if it became necessary.

“Sheriff Matheson?” someone called out. “It’s me—Jim McKinney.”

She didn’t relax one bit. In fact, she moved her hand to the butt of her gun. Because, simply put, Jim McKinney could be the person who wanted her dead.

Carley heard the footsteps come closer. Cowboy boots thudding on the hardwood floor. The thudding stopped when Jim McKinney appeared in her doorway.

“It’s a little early for a visit.” Carley nearly groaned when she heard her own voice. It was actually shaky. She cleared her throat, squared her shoulders and continued. “What can I do for you?”

Carley looked him straight in the eyes. Eyes that were obviously the genetic source for Sloan’s own intense baby blues. Jim’s, however, were cragged with wrinkles at the corners. It didn’t detract from his good looks. Nope. These were character lines.

As if that face needed anything else to give it character.

Jim slipped off his pearl-gray Stetson and held it against his chest. It was almost a submissive kind of pose, but there wasn’t anything submissive about his expression. Besides, he wasn’t the kind of man who could look totally docile. Ever. The well-worn Stetson helped. The tail of a rattler dangled from the silver-rope hatband.

“I came by to talk,” Jim explained. “About the murder investigation.”

Carley didn’t want to be, but she was highly flattered. A suspect was actually treating her like the sheriff. A rare occurrence.

“I hadn’t planned to reinterview you anytime soon,” she informed him. “Mainly because Zane already did.”