He didn’t say it with actual words, but his expression confirmed it. Leeroy’s feelings weren’t much of a surprise to Egan. That didn’t mean hearing it didn’t sting, though. It did. Because Leeroy was right. Still, that much hurt and anger was a red flag to a lawman.
“I gotta ask,” Egan said to him. “Where were you tonight?”
The jolt of surprise seemed to make Leeroy’s muscles even tighter. “Oh, no. You’re not going to try to pin this on me.”
“It was a simple question,” Egan pointed out. “Usually it’s simple to answer for someone who isn’t hiding anything.”
If looks could have killed, Leeroy would have ended Egan’s life right there. “Like I said, I was at the ER with my wife. If you don’t believe me, just ask the nurses.”
Oh, he would. But Egan wouldn’t like doing it. Plain and simple, he felt guilty when it came to Leeroy. He hadn’t protected Shanna, and part of Egan would always believe that he deserved every bit of hatred and venom that Leeroy sent his way.
“Tell that cop friend to stay away from me,” Leeroy growled to Jordan before he turned and stormed out.
“I’ll call Christian,” she said, taking out her phone.
She wasn’t scowling exactly, but Egan knew from her tone that this wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation. However, it was one he wanted to hear. He didn’t get to do that because his own phone rang, and Egan knew he had to take the call when he saw Court’s name on the screen.
“No ID yet on the Jane Doe,” Court volunteered the moment Egan answered. “But when the ME and his crew were moving the body, something fell out of the blanket. I bagged it, but I thought you might want to see it before I send it to the crime lab.”
“Why? What is it?”
Egan thought he heard his brother mumble some curse words. “It’s a note,” Court finally said. “It’s not good, Egan. And it’s addressed to Jordan and you.”
Chapter Four
Jordan had no trouble hearing what Court had just said to Egan, and it caused everything inside her to go still. For a couple of seconds anyway. Then the new wave of panic came. And pain. But the pain was because she’d bunched up her forehead, the motion pulling at the stitches.
It was a reminder she didn’t need of just how close she’d come to dying tonight. The note was perhaps going to be another of those unnecessary prompts.
Since the note was addressed to Egan and her, that meant the attack and the woman’s death weren’t just some fluke, that they did indeed have something to do with them. Of course, she hadn’t actually believed that it was a sick coincidence, but she’d held on to the hope like a lifeline.
Well, that lifeline was gone now.
And Jordan just sat there, trying to gather what little of her composure she had left so she could listen to the rest of what Court had to say. Judging from Egan’s grimace and his muttered profanity, he was trying to do the same thing.
“The note’s handwritten,” Court went on. “It’s scrawled as if the person wrote it in a hurry. It says, ‘Want to put an end to the killings? Meet me. I’ll be calling you soon.’ And there’s no signature.”
That last part definitely wasn’t a surprise. No way would the person who’d written that note want them to know who he or she was. Because if they did know, Egan could make an arrest for attempted murder. Maybe even murder. But the jury was still out on who’d killed that woman who’d been dumped from the truck.
“I’ll be calling you soon,” Court repeated. “You think this could be a situation where this clown is going to demand payment so the killings will stop?”
“Maybe.” Though Egan didn’t sound especially hopeful about that.
Neither was Jordan, but it was sadly the best-case scenario here. If the person could be paid off, then the motive was simply money. Not that she had money, but Egan did, and plenty of people knew that. Still, this didn’t feel like something that simple. It would be a lot harder for them to stop this guy if the motive was revenge because their attacker might not be satisfied until Egan and she were dead.
She stood and started walking, just to give herself something to do with the slam of fresh adrenaline she got. Egan’s office wasn’t that big so she soon ended up in front of the bookcase and filing cabinet, where there were framed pictures of his family.
And Shanna, of course.
Every detail of Shanna’s features was etched in Jordan’s memory, but it was even more painful seeing that face. That smile. Jordan went back to the chair so the photos would be out of sight and hopefully out of mind. For a couple of seconds anyway. She needed to regain her footing, and she didn’t stand a chance of doing that if she was looking at Shanna’s face.
“Are you okay?” Court pressed when neither of them said anything.
“Fine,” Egan snapped, but all three of them knew that wasn’t the truth. “Have the handwriting on the note analyzed. Also check the paper for prints or trace.”
“I will,” Court assured him. “But I think this makes it pretty clear that Jordan and you are the targets. Please tell me you won’t go to a meeting with this snake if he or she actually calls.”
A muscle flickered in Egan’s jaw. “If there is a call, I’ll see what he wants and take things from there.”
Judging from Court’s huff, he didn’t like that answer, but Jordan felt the same way as Egan. If a meeting truly would put a stop to the killings, then she would go for it. Well, if she could figure out a way for Egan and her to come out of it alive.
“It’s late, and I’m sure you’re both exhausted. Are you taking Jordan to the ranch?” Court asked a moment later.
There was more of that muscle flickering from Egan. “Maybe. But if that’s where we go, it would be just for tonight.”
Jordan was shaking her head before he even finished, and she got to her feet. “I don’t want to go there,” she protested.
Egan didn’t even acknowledge that. He just kept talking to his brother. “Call me the minute you get anything back from the ME, CSIs or the lab. Are there any safety measures you want me to take for Rayna?”
“Rayna and I have already worked that out.” And Court proceeded to tell Egan about some hands standing guard and an armed security system.
Jordan knew that Rayna was a local horse trainer who was also engaged to Court. That likely meant the woman had already moved to the ranch, and Jordan figured she could use that to win the argument she was about to have with Egan. An argument that started the moment he finished the call with Court.
“I don’t want to go to the McCall Ranch,” she repeated. “Your family will be there. Your father, your sister and apparently Rayna, too. My being there could put them in danger. Not to mention that none of them will want me there after what happened to Shanna.”
“No, my family won’t be there. Court and Rayna have their own place on the back of the property. My sister, Rachel, lives with her soon-to-be husband in a house near town. And my dad has been staying at his fishing cabin down by the river.”
Even though she wasn’t ready to give up her argument, that did give her a new reason for alarm. That was because the fishing cabin was a good mile from the main ranch house.
“Is it safe for your father to be there?” she asked. “I mean since someone tried to kill him just two months ago.”
Egan lifted his shoulder. “Some people ignore the danger and hope that it doesn’t come back to bite them.”
“You mean me.”
“Yeah,” he readily admitted. “Just because you didn’t die with Shanna doesn’t mean you have to choose to die now.”
Surprised, Jordan pulled back her shoulders. Egan didn’t usually bring up Shanna’s name around her. Nor did he usually show any kind of concern for her. Of course, maybe the concern was because of the danger she might have brought to his doorstep.
“You blame me for what happened tonight
?” she came out and asked.
“No,” he snapped, but it certainly sounded as if he meant yes. “It was beyond risky, though, for you to investigate those other deaths on your own. You should have turned all of this over to the cops before things got this far.”
She heard the words and was certain that they were true, but there was another angle to this. “You didn’t believe me when I told you about the other deaths. You thought I’d gone off the deep end.”
And maybe he still did think that, but Egan managed to give her a flat stare. “You really want whoever’s behind this to get his hands on you?”
“No. Of course not.” It put an icy chill through her just thinking about it. This person had likely killed three people, and she didn’t want her or anyone else to be his next victim. “The same goes for you, though. We need a safe house, not your family’s ranch.”
“That’s probably true, but it’s nearly midnight and too late to come up with an alternative.”
She tipped her head toward the back of the building. “How about the break room? There used to be a shower and a sofa back there.”
The last time she’d seen it, it had definitely qualified as bare-bones. Nothing more than a flop room for cops pulling double shifts. Still, it beat going back outside. She didn’t want to run from a killer, but Jordan wasn’t sure she could face him head-on right now.
Egan stared at her, and she saw the fatigue and weariness in not only his eyes but in every part of his body. He probably needed to crash for at least a nap anyway. Still, she doubted either of them would get much sleep no matter where they were.
He took out his phone again, and he fired off a text. “I’ll have one of the hands bring us a change of clothes and some toiletries. Some dinner, too.” He motioned for her to follow him.
And that was when Jordan realized she had actually won the argument with Egan. Too bad it didn’t exactly feel like a win. Every part of her was on edge, and apparently it was the same for Egan because when the front door opened, he reached for his gun. So did Ian Meade, the deputy who was at his desk in the squad room. But their visitor wasn’t the killer. Or if it was, he was wearing a white lab coat.
Jordan didn’t recognize him, but Egan and Ian must have because they both huffed and reholstered their weapons.
“It’s okay,” Egan said to her, and he blew out a quick breath. “That’s Billy Watson. He works at the pharmacy.”
Billy nodded and volleyed uneasy glances at all three of them. “Uh, Dr. Madison asked me to bring over these meds.” Billy handed Egan the small white bag, and he in turn gave it to Jordan.
Jordan thanked him, but Billy didn’t hang around. He got out of there, fast, probably because he’d figured there must be some potential trouble for Egan and Ian to have drawn so fast.
Egan took a laptop from one of the desks and got her moving again toward the break room, but this time it was Ian who stopped them. He gave Egan a thick file. “You said you wanted to go through that,” Ian commented. “I can do it for you. I mean, you need to get some rest.”
Jordan didn’t know what was in that file, but Egan didn’t take Ian up on his offer. He simply told the deputy to come and get him if there was any hint of a problem, and he led Jordan to the break room.
Yes, it was as bare-bones as she had remembered with a kitchenette, sofa and chair. The attached bathroom wasn’t much bigger than a storage closet. Egan put the file and laptop on a small table next to the chair.
“You can take the couch,” she said when he took several blankets and pillows from one of the lockers.
“I’m not the one who got shot tonight.” He motioned to the bag that the medic had brought and dropped the bedding on the sofa. “Take your meds and get some rest.” Egan immediately poured himself a cup of coffee, took it to the chair and opened the file.
“If you’re drinking coffee, you must not be planning on getting any sleep,” she pointed out.
He made a sound of agreement and started thumbing through the papers in the file. Since he obviously wasn’t in a chatting mood, Jordan grabbed a bottle of water so she could take the pills, but instead of heading straight to the sofa, she walked in Egan’s direction to get a look at what had captured his attention.
And her stomach went to her knees.
Because the first thing she saw was a picture of a dead woman. Even though it was impossible to tell the woman’s identity from the photo alone, the name was beneath the grisly image.
Breanna Culver.
The woman who’d gotten Shanna’s liver. Receiving that organ had saved Breanna’s life, but she certainly wasn’t alive in the photo. The shot had been taken after the horrific car wreck that had killed her.
Egan looked up at her, and while he didn’t look especially pleased about her looming over him, he didn’t close the file or tell her to move away.
“When the doctor was examining you, I texted Ian to print out everything on the other two dead women,” Egan explained.
Yes, but there seemed to be more in that file than just that. When he moved aside another page, she saw the police report on Shanna’s murder.
Jordan had read it, of course. Actually, she could probably tell him word for word everything that was in it. But she couldn’t figure out why Egan was looking at it now. Certainly, he didn’t want all those painful memories brought to the surface at a time like this. Maybe, though, the memories were always with him.
They were always with her.
“I have to look at all the angles,” he said. “What happened tonight and what happened to those other two women might be linked to Shanna. Or someone could just want it to appear as if it is.”
She thought about that a moment. “You’re talking about Christian now.”
He didn’t need to confirm that, but since they were on the subject of the possibly dirty cop, she opened up the laptop and made her way to the online files.
“I don’t like that Christian went to visit Leeroy,” Egan added a moment later.
Neither did Jordan, and she’d considered calling Christian about that. But it could wait. The numbing medication was wearing off from where she’d had her stitches, and the wound was starting to throb. Best if she had a clear head when she confronted Christian. And it would indeed be a confrontation since he had no right to go to Leeroy with any of this.
She opened the computer files where she’d had some crossover with Christian and passed the laptop to Egan. “Like I said, I do death penalty reviews. Just to make sure corners weren’t cut, etc. And those are the two cases I flagged. Both were arrests that Christian made.”
Egan immediately began to read through them. “What made you suspicious about them?”
Jordan hoped this didn’t make her sound foolish. “Gut feeling. Christian was the only officer on scene for both arrests. Both of the prisoners claimed he set them up. I know, a lot of people in prison insist that happened,” she added. “But this just felt like something I should look at a little closer.”
Egan lifted his head and made eye contact with her. “And Christian knows about these closer looks?”
She nodded. “I think he’d like for me to back off, but that, of course, only makes me want to dig deeper.”
Egan made another of those sounds of agreement and went back to reading the file. The reading, though, came to an abrupt halt, and she saw him go stiff. “Christian was supposed to be one of the officers on scene the night Shanna was murdered.”
Yes, that was in her notes. “He said something personal came up, and he asked another officer to fill in for him.” She paused. “Christian knew Shanna, of course, because she was a parole officer in San Antonio, but I think that’s the only connection between them.”
If there was something else, Jordan hadn’t been able to find it. And she’d looked—hard.
Egan continued to stare up at her, and she saw the conc
erns and questions in his eyes. At least that was what was there. But it changed a little when his attention dropped to her mouth. He frowned as if disgusted with himself.
“Go ahead and get some sleep,” he insisted. He set the file that Ian had given him aside. “I’ll get to work on finding a safe house for you. The marshals can take over protective custody until we figure out what’s going on.”
He was putting some distance between them. That was a good thing, Jordan reminded herself, even if it suddenly made her feel worse than she already did. It made her ache for the closeness that Egan and she had once had.
She moved away from him, going to the sofa. No way would she get any sleep tonight, but it was obvious that Egan wanted the space between them to happen right now. However, Jordan had barely managed to get settled on the makeshift bed when the sound of Egan’s phone ringing cut through the room. Since it could be an update on the case, she immediately sat back up.
“It’s Court,” Egan relayed to her when he looked at the screen. He dragged in a deep breath. The kind of breath people took when they were bracing themselves for bad news. He answered the call and put it on speaker.
“Still no sign of the shooter,” Court said the moment he was on the line. “But we did find out more about the body.” Court hesitated. “The ME took pictures, but I’m not sure this is something you should see. Jordan, either.”
That got her attention, and she came off the sofa so she could go back across the room to Egan.
Egan ground out some profanity. “I’ve seen pictures of dead bodies before.” His voice was edged with sarcasm.
“Not this dead body,” Court practically whispered.
“Just send it,” Egan insisted. “And tell me what the heck this is all about.”
Court certainly didn’t jump into an explanation. “There was...damage to the body. Damage not caused by the bullet.” He hesitated again. Then groaned. “I think we’re dealing with a very sick serial killer.”
Chapter Five
Egan kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep when he heard Jordan get up from the sofa and go into the bathroom. A moment later, he heard her turn on the shower. He’d already taken one about an hour earlier, but it hadn’t helped soothe his knotted muscles as he’d hoped it would.
Lawman with a Cause Page 4