Elusive Identities: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 1)

by Olivia Jaymes

  His cheeks had turned red and his hands were on his hips. She'd succeeded in making him even angrier.

  Oops.

  "Are you giving me advice?"

  Am I? Looks like it.

  "Yes. I think you need it. Plus, I owed you. You've given me advice. Did you think we were going to have a relationship where only you get to tell me what to do? I don't think so. That's for the birds."

  Chris didn't speak for a long moment and for a split second Ella thought she might have gone too far. This man wasn't nearly as affable as the Chris she'd known before this evening. He might not appreciate her strange sense of humor anymore.

  Then the corners of his lips quirked up in the first smile she'd seen in over two hours.

  "Have I been that pissy?"

  "Well–No–It's just that...Yes. Yes, you have. It doesn't bother me because you deserve to be mad or whatever it is that you are, but I was just thinking that you probably don't really want to be that way when it's time to get back to work. You can be mad all you want tonight, if you like. It doesn't bother me. Get it all out of your system if you need to. I had a good cry, maybe you need a good yell. Or you could go down to the nearest convenience store or bar and kick somebody's ass. That might make you feel better."

  "My last barfight was a long time ago, honey. I'm done with those." He took a deep breath and his tense shoulders visibly relaxed. "I am wound a little too tight. You're right, I'd rather have a clear head. This guy is pissing me off but that's not going to help me find him."

  "I know just the thing to help you relax."

  "If it's meditation, forget it. I sucked at that during rehab. I can't turn my mind off."

  She ran at hand over the surface of the water, still nice and hot.

  "I bet a hot bath would relax you."

  And it would distract me, which I need right now.

  "Is there room?"

  Scooching up against the back of the tub, she pointed to the other end. "I think we could make it work. What do you say?"

  "I say yes."

  Maybe this was exactly what the both of them needed. A temporary diversion. Then back to the sucky reality.

  Sex didn't solve anything but it didn't make it worse, either. Ella had needed to feel close to Chris, and she'd accomplished that. When his strong arms were around her things didn't seem so bad. They were still bad...but not quite so much. She certainly couldn't say that about any of the other men she'd dated in the past. Heck, a few of them had made things worse.

  Wrapping a robe around her, Ella padded into the kitchen on bare feet, Merc on her heels. Chris's friends had laid in a few supplies and she'd seen the bottle of orange juice being placed in the refrigerator. A small glass sounded just about perfect. Would Chris want one? He was still outside talking to the man named Brew who was watching the front of the house. Another man named Ryan was covering the back. Knox had been called away on another assignment at the last minute.

  Ella was perusing the snacks they'd brought - cheese and crackers - when a telephone chimed. Both her and Chris's cells were on the kitchen counter and it was his lighting up and making noise. She swiped the phone to accept the call, mostly out of habit. It was only after she'd done it that she questioned whether it was a wise decision. The screen display said it was Stacey, his ex-wife.

  This might be a huge mistake. Damn.

  Too late though. She'd answered. She'd apologize to Chris when he came back inside. He'd mentioned earlier that he'd left his ex a message about not being home for a day or two because of the case he was working on.

  "Hello. Chris's phone."

  There was a small silence that wasn't all that surprising since Stacey was expecting Chris to answer.

  "Hi. Is Chris there?"

  "He's just outside right now. He won't be long. Would you like me to go get him?"

  "No, that's okay. Can he call Annie when he comes inside? She wants to talk to him."

  "Absolutely," Ella promised. "I'll give him the message the minute he comes in the house. I can go get him if you like. It's really no trouble."

  "No, it's not important. It's the weekend so Annie gets to stay up later." There was another small silence before Stacey continued. "You're Ella, right? Annie mentioned you."

  Okay, here we go.

  "Yes, I'm Ella. I hope Annie is feeling better these days."

  "Much. In fact, you'd never know she was sick at all. She bounces back so quickly. Kids are lucky." Another pause. "You're Chris's new girlfriend."

  It wasn't phrased as a question so Ella didn't feel like she needed to answer but somehow her mouth had a mind of its own.

  "Yes, I am."

  I mean...I hope I am. We never actually discussed titles and such.

  "That's great. Just wonderful. Chris is a great guy and he deserves to have someone in his life."

  This call was becoming increasingly awkward. Time to bring it to a whimpering end if possible.

  Lesson learned. Don't answer Chris's phone. In fact, don't answer anyone else's phone. Ever.

  "He is a great guy. I'll be sure to give him your message."

  Ella was trying to close it out but Stacey had other ideas.

  "I just think that you should know...well...Chris has a drinking problem."

  Shit, shit, shit. I do not want to be having this conversation.

  "I am aware. Is there any other message that I can give him?" The front door swung open and to her utter relief Chris walked in. "Wait, he's inside now. I'll hand off the phone."

  Blowing out a breath, she quickly handed him his phone before he could even ask who it was. "It's Stacey. I answered it. Sorry."

  She'd give a better apology when he was done. Grabbing her own phone, juice and a box of crackers, she exited the kitchen and plopped down on the couch, turning on the television while Merc settled himself on the arm. She didn't care what she watched and she turned on the news as usual. One of her colleagues was discussing some road construction and how it was snarling traffic for some commuters.

  After a few minutes, Chris came and joined her on the couch. "That was Stacey. Annie wanted to talk to me since she didn't get to stay with me this weekend."

  "That's good that you got to talk to her. How did you explain the situation? I assume you don't want to scare her."

  "I told her that I wasn't home because of the case. I think that's enough at her age. She says she understands and I think that she does in her way. She's disappointed but I promised her a big movie night with lots of popcorn. I warn you, though...she's going to want to go see something animated with lots of talking animals and maybe a princess."

  He wasn't too mad about her answering his phone if he was planning on Ella being there for that big movie night.

  "That's okay. I like animated films with talking animals. And I am sorry that I answered your phone. It was just force of habit. Ringing phone. Answer. It was automatic and I shouldn't have done it."

  The last words came out in a rush but that's how it was when Ella was embarrassed.

  "It's fine," Chris assured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer. "It's no big deal. You can answer my phone anytime. I don't have any deep dark secrets that I'm hiding."

  He wouldn't. He was an open book which she adored. She'd been with men that would have been angry as hell for what she'd done.

  "I'm still sorry. I shouldn't have done it."

  Boy, should I not have done it.

  "You worry too much. It's okay. Now are you going to share those crackers?"

  The answer to that would be yes. Being stuck in a safe house kind of sucked but being stuck with Chris? That wasn't so bad. She could get used to having him around all the time.

  Even after they caught a killer. Whoever he might be.

  30

  The next morning everyone was crammed into the living room to review the case. Logan and Reed had picked up breakfast on the way and everyone was digging in as Jason leaned a large white board against the back of a
chair. He'd made a diagram with Kelly Perkins at the center of a circle, surrounded by two circles of suspects.

  Chris wasn't surprised to see Knox, Ryan, Brew, Logan, and Reed, but he hadn't been expecting Jason to show up. Jared was conferenced in on the phone. Even Ella seemed impressed by the large gathering of support.

  Logan tapped the white board, bringing the meeting to order. "It's time to go back to the beginning and review what we know and what we don't know so we can have a plan as to how to move forward. Clearly, we've shaken someone up with the investigation which leads us to believe that the killer is someone Chris has already spoken to. But who is it? Let's start at the beginning. Chris, do you want to begin?"

  Taking a sip of his coffee, Chris nodded and then stood, standing by the white board. He pointed to Kelly in the middle. "We now know that our Jane Doe is Kelly Perkins. We were able to confirm that by matching the clothes that were found at the dump site with the clothes in a photo of Kelly. We also know that Kelly had a substance abuse problem and also had a police record for possession and prostitution."

  Chris didn't mention that Ella was Kelly's daughter. That wasn't part of this case and it was no one's business but her own.

  "We have several possible suspects," Chris went on. "Some less probable than the others, such as Robert Trask, Connie Chastain, Allen Maxwell, and Sheri Martindale."

  "I'm not sure about Trask," Knox interjected. "He found the body and that makes me automatically suspicious of him, even though he doesn't seem to have any connection to Kelly."

  "That we can find," Logan replied. "Do we feel like we've really dug into his past?"

  Jared's voice piped up from the phone. "I can keep looking but I think I've dug all the skeletons out of his closets, drawers, and cupboards. But just because we can't find a connection doesn't mean there isn't one."

  "What about this Sheri Martindale?" Brew asked. "Wasn't she one of the last people to see Kelly alive?"

  "She was," Chris confirmed. "So was Kelly's boyfriend, Connie, and Maxwell. But Sheri doesn't have any discernible motive. She also seemed to be unaware of the extent of Kelly's issues."

  "The boyfriend said Kelly was playing a role," Ella said. "Do you think Sheri knew? She didn't act like it."

  "It's hard to tell," Chris said. "She seemed sincere. But even if she wasn't, I'm not leaning toward a female killer. Whoever did this needed to have a great deal of upper body strength. They moved a dead body and that's not easy. Sheri didn't look like she was capable of that even when she was younger."

  "She could have had help," Ella replied.

  "That's true, but who? One of our other suspects or someone we don't even know about?"

  "That leaves Connie Chastain and Allan Maxwell on the list of low probability suspects," Logan said. "What is your gut telling you about them?"

  A question that Chris had been asking himself. He didn't like committing himself but if he had to...

  "I don't think either of them are who we're looking for."

  Jason pointed to the inner ring on the circle. "Then let's look at the higher probability suspect. Steve Adams. He's got a rap sheet but nothing violent."

  Ryan shook his head. "One would think that if he had a murder problem that he'd at least have a battery charge or something."

  "He did knock Kelly around," Chris pointed out. "So we know that he can be violent."

  Reed, who had been quiet up until now, finally spoke. "Statistics say that the most dangerous person in a woman's life is the man in her life. That would be Steve. We would negligent if we didn't take a much closer look at him. He had the means and opportunity. Did he have the motive?"

  "Maybe Kelly wanted to leave him," Chris suggested. "That might have set him off."

  "But why?" Ella countered. "She'd left before but always came back. At least that's what Connie Chastain told us. If she was right, why would this time be any different?"

  "It could have been an accident. They were arguing, it got a little heated. Maybe she threw something at him or called him a name. He takes a swing and next thing he knows, she's dead. He panics and dumps the body. Pretends that she's left town when somebody asks where she is. Hell, after all these years he might even believe his own story, especially if it all happened when he was high or drunk."

  Knox didn't look convinced. "Other people had means and opportunity, not just Steve."

  "Okay, what was their motive?" Brew asked. "And would it be any better than the boyfriend’s?"

  "Motive doesn't have degrees," Jason pointed out. "If the killer thinks their motive is good enough, it doesn't matter what we think of it. People have been murdered over a pack of smokes. But I do agree with the question—what are the motives of these other people? Did any of them have issues with our victim?"

  "Not that we know of," Ella answered. "But we only have their stories. Kelly doesn't have a voice here."

  "We only know she had issues with Adams," Chris said. "We can only take her friends' word for it."

  "She might have had issues with the father of her child," Brew pointed out. "She'd pretty much left him holding the bag when it came to parenting. He might not have been too happy with her."

  Ryan shook his head. "But if he killed her that's not going to help his situation. He's still going to be a single parent, only now there's never any chance that Kelly is going to step up and be a decent mother."

  Chris took a quick glance at Ella but she seemed unfazed by the discussion of her parents. He had a feeling thought that later she might have a reaction when everyone else wasn't around. She'd been holding it all in too long.

  "Maybe he was jealous of Steve," Knox suggested. "Maybe he was tired of seeing Steve beat on Kelly."

  "Then he would have killed Steve," Chris said. "Once again he doesn't benefit from Kelly's demise."

  "So who does benefit from Kelly Perkins' death?" Logan asked. "Who has something to gain?"

  "Steve," Knox replied. "And maybe Alan Maxwell. If he tried something on with Kelly and she told him no, he might have been holding a grudge no matter what he says all these years later."

  "What about Connie Chastain?" Ryan suggested. "She said they all partied together and that everyone really loved Kelly. There might have been some jealousy there."

  Ella was frowning and shaking her head. "Not all women are competitive with each other. That's just what men want to think. We don't have any reason to suspect her other than she was one of the last to see Kelly alive."

  "We're just being thorough," Chris said. "We have to consider every angle no matter how far-fetched. I'm leaning toward Steve Adams but his lack of a violent history bugs me. I'm going to talk to him again today, lean on him a little more this time. Maybe he'll slip up and contradict himself."

  Ella pointed to the outer circle. "Have we ruled all of them out then?"

  The room was quiet, no one willing to speak up. Eventually, Chris had to reply.

  "I don't think we can rule anyone out at this point except maybe Wallace Wade, the detective on the case. I'm fairly certain he didn't do it. I do think we need to talk to Sheri Martindale again, though. Her story veered hard from everyone else's. She deserves a second look."

  Reed nodded in agreement. "Then we all know what we need to do. Knox and Ryan are going to follow Ella today. Logan and Chris are going to talk to Steve Adams. Jared and I are going to try and dig up some more information regarding the others on the outer circle. Any questions? Then let's get going."

  Chris couldn't wait to talk to Steve Adams and get some answers. That man wouldn't fool him twice.

  Steve Adams greeted Chris and Logan happily when they showed up at his door, gratefully accepting the box of photos back. He had no idea what Chris was about to ask him about so ignorance was indeed bliss.

  They all sat in Steve's living room, their host opening the box and perusing the pictures with a misty smile on his face.

  "They're all there," Chris assured him after introducing Logan. "I was very careful when I made co
pies. Thank you again for letting me borrow those."

  "If it helps find who killed Kelly than I'm glad to do it." Steve placed the lid back on the box and set it on the table next to him. "Thank you for bringing them back."

  Taking a quick glance at Logan who was content to let Chris lead on this, he plunged into their real purpose for being there.

  "Steve, there are a few more questions we'd like to ask you. We talked to your boss Allan Maxwell and also to one of the other waitresses in the bar, Connie Chastain. They both told us that you and Kelly argued a lot and that sometimes it would get physical. Kelly would have bruises the next day. Why don't you tell us about that?"

  The color drained from Steve's face and his entire body seemed to curl in on itself, his shoulders hunching and his head hanging low. At least he wasn't proud of his actions.

  "It–It wasn't what you think."

  "Then tell us how it was."

  His voice was so low they could barely hear him. "It was the drugs."

  "What?" Logan said, leaning forward. "I'm afraid I didn't hear that."

  Steve looked up finally, his eyes shiny with moisture. "It was the drugs."

  "They made you do it?" Chris asked, not believing that in the least.

  "No." Steve shook his head and took a moment before continuing. "It wasn't like that. It was...It was like the drugs made me a different person. An angry person."

  "And when you say drugs, you mean...?"

  "Coke," Steve admitted in a small voice. "It made me do things I'm ashamed of now."

  Having been in rehab, Chris was well aware of what cocaine could do via the people in his group therapy sessions. Paranoia, anger, and edginess. And that was just for starters. It did make people do things they weren't proud of...but did it make them killers? He didn't know the answer to that question but somehow he doubted it. The rate of murder was a hell of a lot lower than the rate of drug addiction.

  "What are some of those things?"

  Shrugging, Steve gazed down at his hands, the knuckles white as he wrung them together.