Hunter crossed his arms over his chest and examined the twelve men in the jury box. A few looked interested, but most looked bored. They’d sat in the same spot for two weeks now, hearing the district attorney drone on as he built his case.
Despite Jesse’s well-honed ability to stop the district attorney when he’d stepped over the line, and his sharp questioning of the prosecution’s witnesses, Hunter didn’t feel secure in where the trial stood. Unless they could uncover a viable suspect—besides himself—it didn’t look good.
The captain sighed, giving the district attorney a look that clearly spoke of his annoyance at the stupid question about gun comfort. “Yes. Henderson was very skilled—and comfortable—with his gun. He was one of our best shots.”
“And Mr. Henderson is no longer with the Texas Rangers, is that correct?”
“That’s right. He was—”
“Thank you, Captain.” The district attorney glanced at the jury before walking to his table. “Your witness, Mr. Cochran.”
Jesse stood and sauntered toward the witness, his thumbs in his vest pockets. “Captain McNeil, would you say that during his career, Mr. Henderson had been a good Texas Ranger?”
“The best.” He glanced in Hunter’s direction and grinned.
“And would you consider him an honorable man?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’m sure you found having such a fine, honorable man like the defendant as part of the Texas Rangers reassuring in your quest to rid society of criminals. In the course of his duties as a Ranger, the defendant would have had reasons to shoot—and probably kill—criminals. Had he ever given you reason to believe he would murder someone in cold blood?”
“No.”
“Objection!”
They both spoke at once.
“Mr. Cochran is asking the witness to state an opinion,” the district attorney said.
“Sustained. You know better, Mr. Cochran.” The judge faced the jury. “Ignore the last question and answer.”
Jesse turned from the judge and winked at Hunter. “Tell me, Captain. Why is Mr. Henderson no longer a part of the Texas Rangers?”
“He was injured in the course of duty. He was busted up pretty bad.”
“Can you tell the court what happened?”
“Objection, Your Honor. Relevance.” The district attorney glowered at Jesse.
Jesse sighed as if having to explain himself to an annoying child. “Your Honor, I am trying to have the State’s own witness provide some background on the defendant’s career as a law enforcement officer which is relevant to my client’s character.”
“Overruled, Mr. Spencer. As counsellor has pointed out, Captain McNeil is your witness.”
The district attorney huffed and sat down.
“Thank you, Your Honor.” Jesse moved to the jury box, leaning against the railing. “How was the defendant injured?”
“We had been tracking a man who had raped and killed several women. Mr. Henderson cornered the man who was holed up in a house with a female hostage. At his own peril he rushed the building, shooting and killing the man before he was able to harm the victim. In the shootout Henderson took several bullets to the leg, shattering the bone and making it impossible to return to duty. A loss to the Rangers.”
Jesse waited a few moments, allowing the story to resonate with the jury. “And when he left the Rangers, did he turn in the weapon he’d been issued?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Thank you, Captain. No further questions.”
Once the Ranger had stepped down, the district attorney stood. “Your Honor, the State rests its case.”
Judge Stenger checked his timepiece and smacked the gavel. “The court will take a lunch recess and resume at two o’clock.”
“I’m going after Emily.” Hunter hopped up from his seat.
Jesse gathered up his papers and nodded. “Go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you.”
As Hunter flew down the courthouse steps, he spotted Captain McNeil ahead of him. “Captain!”
The man turned and smiled as Hunter strode toward him, extending his arm.
Taking deep breaths as he came to an abrupt halt in front of the man, Hunter shook his hand and said, “I wonder if you could do me a favor?”
“Sure. Anything you need.” He gestured toward the courthouse. “That whole thing is nuts. You could never murder anyone.”
Hunter squeezed the man’s shoulder. “Thanks for your support. But I need something else from you.”
He began walking and the captain fell in beside him. “What’s that?”
“A very close friend of mine was supposed to be at the courthouse today, but she never showed up. I have reason to believe she’s in trouble.”
McNeil’s eyebrows rose. “She? This wouldn’t happen to be the woman at the center of this entire mess, would it?”
“Yes. The very one. Her husband was the murder victim. I’m seriously concerned that she’s gotten herself into trouble. Right now I feel as though I could use another body with me while I track her down.”
They picked up their pace and jogged to the trolley car that was just coming to a stop across the street. “I think you’d better fill me in, Henderson.”
They climbed aboard and took side-by-side seats. “One question,” Hunter said.
The ranger nodded.
“Do you have your gun on you?”
The captain opened his jacket to reveal a holster strapped under his arm. “Of course.”
It took the rest of the ride for Hunter to fill in the details of what he’d been doing since leaving the Rangers.
“Sounds to me like you’ve jumped in with both feet with this gal.”
Hunter gave him a wry smile. “You might say that. Once this is all cleared up, I intend to ask her to marry me.”
The Ranger whistled. “Never thought I’d hear you say that, Henderson.”
“Finding my father’s killer has been a driving force in my life for years. Now that Smith is dead and I can’t beat him to a pulp myself, I can start thinking about a future. I want that future to be with Emily.”
“If anyone deserves a good life with a decent woman, it’s you. I wish you the best of luck.”
“Thanks. But before we start raising our glasses in a toast, I have to find said decent woman. I feel in my gut that she’s in trouble.”
Chapter 24
Emily checked all the other drawers in the file cabinet as well as the ones in his desk. Completely cleaned out, not even a scrap of paper or a pencil stub.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, she left his office and tried the door to Mr. Sanders’ room. Amazed to find it unlocked, she crept across the floor to his file cabinet, and winced when the drawer screeched as she slid it open, as if someone was close enough to hear.
She took the list from her pocket and began to compare the names on the paper with the folders in the drawer. After pulling out several files, she settled in Mr. Sander’s chair, her foot tucked under her bottom as she flipped through papers.
Dust motes danced in the stream of sunshine coming through the windows while time passed as she pulled more files, and added papers to the stack on the desk. Her list of those who’d invested a great deal of money was growing. She closed the file in her lap and stretched. A glance at her timepiece told her she’d been at this for over two hours.
Court would already be breaking for lunch and Hunter would be wondering where she was. Wouldn’t he be surprised and pleased when she handed over the stack of papers with the damming information?
As she stood to return the latest files to the cabinet, a noise in the outer office stopped her in her tracks. Her heart pounded as footsteps sounded across the outer room, and the door to Mr. Sanders’ office slowly open
ed.
“Mrs. Smith!” Louis’s partner stood in the doorway, gaping at her. Then his eyes moved to his desk where the pile of papers rested. “What are you doing in my office?”
“Ah, I, um, came to look for something.”
“What?” He moved further into the office, his eyes taking in the open file drawer, the file in her hand, and the neat stack on his desk.
“I, ah, hoped to find some information on Louis’s finances so I could . . .” Her words drifted off as she fumbled to think of a reasonable explanation for her presence in the man’s office.
“Could what? Your husband saw fit to leave you nothing. I guess he preferred to leave everything to a whore instead of a slut.”
She reared back at his comment as if she’d been slapped. His initial surprise at finding her in the office had turned into something frightening. His eyes narrowed as he came closer. “I suggest you vacate my office, Mrs. Smith.” He nodded to his desk. “And whatever it is you have there, just leave it and go.”
She eased out from behind his desk, keeping her eyes on him. Knots formed in her stomach and her heart continued to pound. She’d only been in Mr. Sanders’ presence a few times, but he always seemed a meek and mild man, the epitome of a gentleman. The man standing in front of her now frightened her as much as Louis had.
As she moved around the desk, she glanced again at the pile of papers. Right there in that stack was evidence that would put Sanders behind bars for a long, long time. And possibly convince the police there were plenty of others who had a motive to kill Louis. She dragged her finger along the desk as she moved forward.
“Mrs. Smith. I suggest you leave now. Right now.”
She licked her dry lips and gave him a brief smile. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”
He seemed to relax at her words.
“Oh, dear,” she said, looking over Sanders’ shoulder. When he turned, she snatched the papers from the desk and ran to the door, slamming it behind her.
“Son of a bitch . . .” The door to the office flew open as she thundered down the stairs, Sanders on her tail. “Stop!”
Taking deep breaths, as much from fear as the run, she kept going, heading straight for the rear of the building.
She burst through the back door and looked wildly around. A short distance in front of her to the right stood a decrepit old building on the verge of collapse. A ‘condemned’ sign hung sideways from the doorway swinging in the slight wind.
“Stop right now, or I’ll shoot you,” Sanders shouted.
“Oh my God.” She glanced behind her and screamed as Sanders pulled a gun from his inside jacket pocket, waving it in her direction. Clutching the papers to her chest, she raced up the few steps to the condemned building and yanked the old wooden portal open, coughing and choking on the dusty air as she darted inside.
Slamming the door behind her, Emily looked frantically around the broken down space. The building was so dilapidated it appeared to be crumbling before her eyes. Light streamed through broken windows and holes in the walls. Animal droppings and dirt covered the floor. On her right she spotted a staircase and made for it.
The stairs creaked and a couple split as she stepped around broken boards to the next floor.
Oh my God, this whole building is going to collapse.
Hopefully there would be a place to hide up there until . . . Until what? No one knew where she was, and Sanders had a gun. A gun! When did that meek and mild man become so frightening?
The rotted wooden planks beneath her feet on the second floor also groaned under her weight. She walked on her tiptoes, carefully picking out the strongest looking pieces, not sure if that made it better or worse. The sound of more stairs breaking through signaled the arrival of Sanders. Emily focused on the door straight ahead, which appeared to be a back staircase. If she could make it there, she could leave the building, and scream for help.
“Don’t move!”
Emily stopped and looked over her shoulder. He stood in the doorway, panting heavily, his gun pointed directly at her.
“Turn around, Mrs. Smith.”
Hunter figured the best place to start was at Smith’s office. Emily had been begging him to allow her to help in the investigation ever since Jeremy’s death. Stubborn and protective, he’d refused, and now he was certain she’d gone ahead and gotten herself in deep.
They hopped off the trolley, and with Hunter leading the way, they entered the building that housed Smith and Sanders. Hunter’s jaw tightened remembering the last time he’d been in this building. The day he’d looked into the face of the man he’d spent a good many years searching for.
Taking the stairs two at a time, they sprinted down the hallway to the office. The door stood wide open.
Hunter cursed under his breath as they both moved cautiously into the room. The door to one of the two inner offices gaped open as well. McNeil drew his gun as they peeked around the doorjamb.
The place was a mess. File cabinet drawers stood open and papers were scattered on the floor. A diploma from the College of New Jersey, awarded to Gregory Sanders, hung on the wall behind the desk.
“I’ll bet Sanders was here. And from the look of things, he might have caught Emily going through his files.” Hunter ran his hand down his face. God only knew what Sanders’ reaction to finding Emily might have been.
He tried to remember what he knew of the man. Very little, only that Emily mentioned he’d seemed relieved when told at the reading of the will that he’d inherited the other half of the business.
All this time their focus had been on disgruntled clients. Perhaps they’d overlooked an obvious suspect.
“I think you’re right. If he found her snooping, he could have panicked. I don’t like the looks of this, Henderson.”
Just as Hunter bent to pick up one of the papers, a woman’s scream rent the air, the sound going right to his gut.
“Emily!”
His steps ate up the distance to the window in time to see Emily race into an old decrepit building situated behind them and slam the door. A chunky man, not too fast on his feet, ran after her. He looked familiar, and with what he and McNeil had discovered here, and his memory from the courtroom when he’d testified, it had to be Sanders.
Hunter’s heart dropped to his stomach at the sight of the man waving a gun as he chased Emily down.
Dammit to hell!
Emily turned, the papers she clutched in her hands shaking as badly as her knees. She stared into those black eyes, filled with terror and determination, and in a flash she knew.
Sucking in a breath, she said, “You killed Louis, didn’t you?”
Sanders held the gun with both hands. “Louis needed killing. He refused to shut down the business and give me my half of the money so I could leave. We made a deal at the beginning. Five years, then we would cut out. But no, he got involved with you, bought himself a fancy house, started to believe his own story. Except bad blood always shows, doesn’t it? Did you know he was a two-bit bank robber at one time?”
Emily managed to find her voice. The man seemed almost as frightened as she was. Maybe she could talk calmly to him, convince him he didn’t want to make things worse by hurting her. “Actually I did know that. He killed Mr. Henderson’s father in a bank robbery eighteen years ago.”
“Well, what do you know? Small world, wouldn’t you say?” One hand released his grip on the gun and he waved it through the air. “None of that matters. Your boyfriend is going to hang for the murder. I’ve been watching the trial—he’s done for.” Still aiming the gun at her, he said, “Drop those papers.”
The documents slid to the floor, much like she thought she would do if she didn’t get ahold of herself. Her mouth was dry, her heart pounded, and she felt weak all over.
“
Emily!”
Sanders jerked and glanced at the window behind him. “Who’s that?”
Hunter. She recognized his voice immediately. Relief flooded her, even though he certainly wasn’t close enough to help. She wasn’t out of danger yet.
“Come over here.” Sanders motioned with the gun. He reached out and grabbed her arm as she came close. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pushed the gun to her temple and dragged her to the window. Looking down at the two men who stood there, he said, “Henderson. Why the hell isn’t he in court?”
Hunter cupped his mouth with his hands. “Sanders, let her go. That building isn’t safe. It could collapse around you any minute.”
“Well, if it does, she’s going with me.”
Emily’s heart banged against her ribs with the feel of the cold metal pressed up against her head. Sanders’ grip on her waist tightened, and she whimpered as pain shot through her. She looked out the window as nausea welled up from her stomach. Hunter was down there with another man wearing a badge.
They both stared up at her and Sanders in the window. “Emily. Hang on, honey. I’ll get you out.”
“Like hell you will, Henderson. This gal is my ticket out of this town.” Sanders’ voice sounded desperate, like he was trying to convince himself with his words.
“Release her and we’ll let you leave,” the other man said.
“Nope. I’m not that dumb. I want a horse and money brought here. Then once we’re far enough away, I’ll let her go.”
“Hunter, he killed Louis!” Emily grunted as Sanders hit her in the side of her face with the gun.
Anyplace But Here (Oklahoma Lovers Series Book 5) Page 23