Unexpected Protector

by Justine Davis

  Murphy froze, fearfully eyeing Justice. To anyone watching, it appeared that the German shepherd was eyeing him in return.

  Carson took out his handcuffs.

  Chapter 18

  “Then it’s over,” Serena said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  It felt as if a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders. Carson had sought her out in the stables after he had returned from town, specifically from the police station where he had taken Pete Murphy. The cowboy had been placed under arrest for possession of cocaine with the intent to sell.

  Serena was overjoyed when Carson told her about the arrest. “This means that I can bring Lora back to the ranch.”

  It had only been less than a day since she’d handed her daughter over to the police detective who had taken the baby into protective custody, but it felt as if it had been weeks.

  Carson frowned. He hated doing this to Serena, but in all good conscience, he had to. Lora couldn’t be allowed to be brought home yet.

  “Not so fast,” he warned.

  She was ready to have Carson take her to wherever her daughter was being held. Her heart sank when he just stood there.

  “Why not?” she wanted to know. “You got the guy, right?”

  “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “But those drugs you found in his room tie Murphy to the Larsons,” Serena cried. “They’re drug dealers. He’s working for them.”

  Carson shook his head. He’d spent two hours interrogating the cowboy, but he’d got nowhere and it frustrated him.

  “Murphy claims that he’s not working for anyone, that he just bought those drugs from a dealer to sell on his own. He swears he’s not working for the Larsons and that he doesn’t know anything about a kidnapping.”

  “But he’s lying, right?” Serena cried desperately. “You told me that the Larsons’ thugs are afraid of testifying against them. This could just be another example of that.”

  He felt for her. He knew exactly what she was going through, but that still didn’t change anything. “They are, and I’ve got no doubt that Murphy is selling drugs for the two brothers. I also wouldn’t put it past the Larsons to try to steal a wealthy family’s baby just to ransom it back to them—”

  Serena didn’t let him finish. “So I can’t bring Lora home yet.”

  “Not until I get some proof of that,” he continued, determined to get his point across even though it really aggravated him to be the bearer of bad news. “I can’t charge Murphy with kidnapping, and as much as I would like to, I can’t charge the Larsons with conspiracy to kidnap or anything of the kind.”

  Disappointment spread out all through Serena. She felt as if she was caught up in a nightmare. She wanted to keep Lora safe, but she missed her daughter more than she thought possible.

  “So you’re telling me that it’s not over,” she concluded, exasperated beyond words.

  “Not yet. But soon,” he added quickly. “I promise, soon. Until then, Lora’s safe and I’m going to keep you safe, as well. And to make sure nothing happens to you, I’m going to have Detective Saunders stay with you,” he told her, mentioning another member of the K-9 team. “I’m leaving Justice here with you, too.”

  Serena had an uneasy feeling he was telling her that he wasn’t going to be around. She looked at him suspiciously. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “I just got a call from Bo’s lawyer, Jonathan Witherspoon,” Carson answered. “He told me that he’s going to be reading Bo’s will to his heirs this afternoon, and I feel I need to be there.”

  “Out of respect, or because you think he left you something?” Serena wanted to know.

  He laughed shortly. He’d long since lost all respect for Bo, and he knew without being told that he wasn’t in his brother’s will. He had a different reason for attending the reading.

  “Neither,” he answered. “I want to see who else turns up at the reading and if there are any ‘surprises’ in the will. Maybe that’ll give me some kind of a lead as to who might have actually killed my brother.”

  She looked at Carson, taking solace where she could find it. “So you don’t think it’s Demi anymore,” she assumed.

  He knew how much that meant to Serena and if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he was beginning to have suspicions that someone actually had tried to frame Serena’s cousin.

  “Let’s just say I’m more open to other possibilities,” he answered.

  Serena nodded. She didn’t care how he phrased it just as long as he stopped obsessing that Demi was the one who had killed his brother. “Good. What time’s the reading of the will?”

  “Two o’clock.” Carson looked at her, his curiosity aroused. “Why?”

  She was already stripping her leather gloves off. “Give me half an hour, and I’ll get ready,” she said, already halfway out of the stable.

  Carson still didn’t understand. “Why?” he asked again.

  “Because I’m going with you,” she answered Carson simply.

  Maybe she’d misunderstood him. “There’s no need for you to go—” he began.

  Carson had been the one to discover his brother’s body and since then, she knew that Carson had gone through a lot, even though he kept it all bottled up. She didn’t want Carson sitting through the reading of the will by himself. Who knew what emotions he’d wind up dealing with? She wanted to be there for him, to let him know, even silently, that he wasn’t alone.

  However, she knew that if she began to explain any of this, he would just balk at her reasons. Most likely he’d just tell her to stay here.

  Knowing that the detective appreciated minimalism, she merely told him, “Yes, there is,” and hoped he’d leave it at that.

  Carson was about to argue with her, to insist that there was no reason for him to drag her to the reading. He wouldn’t be going himself if Bo had died in his sleep at some ripe old age. There’d be no reason to go then. It was Bo’s murder that was forcing him to attend this reading like some undercover voyeur.

  Given that, he reconsidered and grudgingly admitted that he needed to have her with him. So he sighed and echoed, “Half an hour,” as if putting her on notice that he would wait half an hour and no more. He wanted her to believe that if she took longer, he’d just leave without her—even though he knew he’d wind up waiting for her anyway.

  As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait.

  * * *

  “Five minutes to spare,” Serena told him proudly, sliding into the passenger seat of his car. She looked in the rear of the vehicle and saw that Justice was already in the car. They had both been waiting for her to come out. “Is he going to the reading, as well?” she asked. The question was asked only partially tongue in cheek.

  “I’m on duty,” he told her. “I don’t go anywhere without Justice.”

  Leaning back, she put her hand out for the dog to sniff, then petted his head. “Does the lawyer know you’re bringing a ‘friend’?”

  “I don’t think Witherspoon’ll mind my bringing you,” Carson said, starting up his vehicle.

  He didn’t fool her, she thought. He knew perfectly well that she was referring to the K-9. But she said it anyway.

  “I was referring to Justice. This is a will reading. Mr. Witherspoon might not be prepared to have a German shepherd ‘attend’ the reading.”

  “Justice goes wherever I go,” he told her matter-of-factly. “We’re a team.”

  “I know that,” she said, petting the dog again, “but some people might not be comfortable having a big German shepherd so close to them.”

  Carson met her observation with a shrug. “Well, that’s their problem, not mine,” he told her. “Besides, if they don’t have anything to hide, everything’ll be all right.”

  Serena settled back into her seat. “This should be interesting,” she said, bracing herself f
or what the next hour or so held.

  * * *

  Jonathan Witherspoon looked as if he had been born wearing a three-piece suit with a matching shirt and tie. The two or three times that Carson had crossed paths with the lawyer, he got the impression that the word casual had no meaning for the tall, angular man who looked at the world through thick, rimless glasses. Sporting prematurely gray hair since he had turned thirty-five, the lawyer was only now approaching the age where his gray hair finally suited him, even though it had begun to thin considerably.

  When Carson arrived with Serena for the reading of the will, the folding chairs that Witherspoon had his administrative assistant set up in his office were almost all taken. There were only a few remaining empty seats.

  Carson guided Serena in first and took a chair on the aisle so that he could easily hold on to Justice. Specifically, he wanted to see if Justice would react to anyone at the reading. He’d always felt, right from the beginning, that Justice seemed to be able to actually sense evil. Carson took himself to task for not having brought the dog with him to the bachelor party, despite being off duty. He might have been able to find the killer right then and there and there would be no need for this elaborate game of hide-and-seek.

  Witherspoon drew his shallow cheeks in even more than he usually did when he saw the dog sitting beside Carson. The lawyer looked none too pleased about the four-footed attendee, but apparently knew better than to say anything to Carson. He only scowled.

  Looking around, Carson noted that Bo’s ex-wife, Darby, was seated all the way in the back. Hayley, Bo’s fiancée was front and center, just as he had expected her to be. As he watched, she turned around twice to shoot dirty looks at Darby.

  This, he thought, was really shaping up to be a very interesting afternoon.

  Leaning in closer to Serena, he whispered, “You sure you want to be here?”

  “You’re here, so I’m here,” she told him. “Besides,” she added, keeping her voice low, “this makes me realize why I like working with horses so much more than working with people.”

  Carson suppressed a laugh.

  The next moment, Witherspoon cleared his throat rather loudly, indicating that they should all stop talking and pay attention to what he was about to say.

  “All right, it looks like we’re all here,” the lanky lawyer said. He sat down behind his desk as he looked around at the various people who had gathered here in hopes of getting at least a piece of the considerable amount of money that Bo had accrued or, if not that, then a part of his breeding business. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

  In a monotonous, droning voice that seemed incredibly suited to the lawyer’s face and demeanor, Witherspoon read the will in its entirety, stating every single detail that the law required in order for the will to be deemed a binding legal document.

  When the lawyer came to the part that everyone had been waiting for—the distribution of Bo’s possessions—the reading went far more quickly than anyone had actually anticipated.

  “And I leave the entirety of my dog breeding business, as well as my ranch, both located at—” Witherspoon paused to read the address that everyone was well acquainted with, unintentionally stretching out the drama.

  Almost everyone in the room had leaned forward. No one wanted to miss a single syllable of this part.

  “—to my ex-wife, Darby Gage. I hope that this will make up for some of the things that I put you through, Darby.”

  “No!” Hayley screamed, all but going into shock. She jumped to her feet, knocking over the folding chair she’d been sitting in and discarding any and all pretense of grief. “There’s got to be some kind of a mistake,” she cried glaring accusingly at Witherspoon.

  Witherspoon maintained his composure. It was obvious to Serena that the lawyer had to have been the target of angry heirs before Hayley’s vitriolic display.

  “I assure you that there’s no mistake. I was there when Bo signed this.” Holding up the last page of the document he’d been reading from, he displayed a seal. “It’s been notarized.”

  “I don’t care if it was signed by all the saints in heaven and half of Congress. That piece of paper’s a fake! Bo would never have done something like this to me! He wouldn’t have given that little scheming witch everything!”

  Practically choking on her fury, Hayley gave every indication that she was going to lunge at Darby. Her hands went up and her freshly lacquered nails were outstretched, ready to rake over the ex-wife’s face. Carson was immediately on his feet and got between his brother’s fiancée and his ex-wife.

  Justice growled at the woman, ready to take Hayley down on command. Serena had got to her feet as well, waiting to help Carson if he needed it. Since she was a woman, she felt she could restrain Hayley in ways that Carson couldn’t.

  But he caught Hayley’s hands before she could do any damage.

  “Settle down, Hayley,” he ordered sternly.

  “Settle down?” she shrieked, trying to pull free. “Didn’t you just hear what Witherspoon just read? Everything’s hers! That miserable liar didn’t leave me anything!”

  The more Hayley struggled, the tighter his grip on her hands grew. “You can get a lawyer and contest the will if you feel this strongly about it,” he told her, his voice unnervingly calm.

  “I’m not getting a damn lawyer,” she spit, then retorted, “There are other ways to resolve this injustice!”

  Carson immediately cut her short. “Don’t say anything you’re going to regret,” he warned.

  “What I regret is wasting my time with that backstabbing, worthless brother of yours,” Hayley cried.

  Still watching her carefully, Carson released the woman.

  Swinging around, Hayley glared at Witherspoon. “You haven’t heard the last of this!” she declared.

  With that, she stormed out of the lawyer’s office, pausing only long enough to spit on the floor right in front of Darby.

  For her part, Darby didn’t react. She appeared to be absolutely stunned.

  The people sitting near her, many of whom had either been bequeathed a nominal sum of money or had learned that they would be receiving nothing at all, murmured among themselves. They filed out of the lawyer’s office one by one, many in a state of disbelief.

  In the end, only Carson, Serena and Darby were left with Witherspoon.

  “Are you all right?” Carson asked his ex-sister-in-law.

  He couldn’t quite read the expression on Darby’s face. It was a cross between what he took to be utter shock and something like subdued joy. He had the feeling that Darby wasn’t quite sure exactly where she was right now.

  “Fine,” she finally managed to reply. And then, as if coming to, she turned to look at Witherspoon. “Did you just say that Bo left everything to me?” she asked in total disbelief.

  “Why don’t you come over here closer to my desk so I don’t have to shout?” the lawyer told her, not that he appeared to be capable of shouting.

  Rising from the last row, Darby made her way forward, moving in slow motion like someone who wasn’t sure if they were awake or caught up in some sort of a dream.

  Still looking dazed, she sat down in the single chair that Witherspoon had facing his desk.

  The lawyer raised his tufted gray eyebrows and looked over expectantly toward Carson and the woman who was beside him. “I’m going to have to ask the two of you to leave now. I have several details to discuss with Ms. Gage.”

  Carson nodded. Bo had managed to drop a bombshell, even in death.

  Chapter 19

  “Well, certainly didn’t see that one coming,” Carson commented to Serena.

  He was driving them away from Witherspoon’s office. For all intents and purposes, Justice appeared to have fallen asleep in the back seat the moment they’d taken off.

  “Then Bo and his ex-wife weren’t on frien
dly terms?” Serena asked.

  She was totally in the dark about Carson’s older brother in general beyond the fact that Bo Gage owned a breeding business and supplied the K-9 unit with German shepherds.

  “Bo wasn’t the type to worry about being on good terms with any of his exes, including his ex-wife,” Carson told her. “I think it’s fair to say that he was always only looking out for himself.” As far as brothers went, he and Bo were as different as night and day. “Once Bo got what he wanted, he moved on. When he decided that Darby was cramping his style, he shed her like a snake sheds its skin, without so much as a backward glance. When the marriage ended, he only tossed a couple of crumbs her way and by crumbs, I mean literal crumbs. Bo gave her a part-time job cleaning kennels at the breeding business they both had once owned.”

  Serena viewed that as pretty callous, but she did always like to think the best of people. “Maybe it was like Bo said in his will. He felt guilty about the way he’d treated her and this was his way of making it up to Darby.”

  “Maybe,” Carson answered, but he was highly skeptical. Bo wasn’t nearly that noble. There had to be some other reason for what he had done.

  Serena glanced at him. Carson didn’t sound convinced. “You think the will was a forgery?”

  Carson thought of the lawyer. “No, the will’s real all right. Witherspoon’s so conscientious, he would have known if there’d been a substitution or switch. No, I’m thinking something else.”

  He’d mounted his cell phone on the dashboard when he’d got into the car and he now pressed a button that connected him to his boss’s cell. When he heard the deep voice answer, Carson started talking.

  “Chief, it’s Gage. I think we just might have ourselves another suspect in my brother’s murder,” Carson told Serena’s brother.

  “Make this quick, Gage. I’m in the middle of something right now,” Finn prompted. “And this better be something more than just an off-the-wall theory.”