Lawman with a Cause

by Delores Fossen

  “Are you sure you didn’t go to Kirk’s house to plant a gun?” Egan snapped. “A gun that maybe you used to kill a woman?”

  “No way in hell,” Leeroy practically shouted. “Is that what the weasel Kirk said I did?”

  Apparently, Leeroy wasn’t feeling so good now about his possible alliance with the brother of his daughter’s killer.

  “I’m saying it,” Egan clarified, and he sounded very much like the formidable sheriff that he was. “The timing of your visit is suspicious. You show up at Kirk’s house and only an hour later, my deputies find a gun there.”

  “A gun they must have planted.” Leeroy grumbled something else she didn’t catch. “Was it really used to kill that woman?”

  “I don’t know. It’s at the lab now for testing. Is there a chance your prints or DNA will be on it?” Egan demanded.

  “None. Well, unless someone stole a gun from my place and planted it at Kirk’s. What kind of gun was it?”

  “What kind of guns do you own?” Egan fired back. “And remember, I can check to see if you’re lying.”

  “There’s no reason for me to lie about that. I own a couple of hunting rifles, a shotgun and two handguns. One is a Glock 43, and the other is a .38 Smith & Wesson.”

  Bingo. The gun found at Kirk’s was a .38 Smith & Wesson, and the dead woman had been killed with a .38. But why would Leeroy have killed her? The woman wasn’t even one of Shanna’s organ recipients.

  Maybe it had been a case of mistaken identity. If Leeroy had been targeting Tori, he could have accidentally kidnapped Lorena by mistake. But if he had planned something like that, why would he have used his own gun? Maybe he’d simply messed up and then tried to cover his tracks by planting the gun at Kirk’s.

  “How much longer am I going to have to wait around here for you to show up?” Leeroy snarled.

  “Maybe a long time. I’m not sure when I’ll be in my office.” Egan had probably told Leeroy that since he didn’t want him to know that they would be traveling there soon. If Leeroy was behind the attacks, then it was best not to let him know their plans so he could send that sniper after them again.

  “You expect me to just keep waiting for you?” Leeroy howled. “I’ve wasted enough time with your witch-hunt accusations.”

  “Yes, you’re going to wait. My advice? Call a lawyer because you’re going to need one if that gun in question turns out to be yours.”

  Egan didn’t give Leeroy a chance to argue with that—something the man would have almost certainly done. Egan just ended the call.

  “You think Leeroy will try to leave?” she asked.

  “I hope so because then Thea can arrest him. That’ll get him off the streets while we try to work out if he’s behind the attacks.”

  True. But just because Leeroy was behind bars, it wouldn’t mean the sniper couldn’t come after them again. If Leeroy had hired the gunmen, then he could hire others even if he happened to be in jail.

  “Ian’s ready,” Egan told her, and he looked at her as if he wanted to say more. Maybe remind her to be careful when she went outside. If so, it was unnecessary. Jordan knew they were still in danger.

  They started toward the front door when Egan’s phone rang, and she saw Court’s name on the screen. Egan answered it right away, and as he’d done with his other calls, he put it on speaker.

  “Please tell me the gunman didn’t go after you,” Egan immediately said to his brother.

  “No. But it looks as if he went after someone.” Court paused, then cursed. “We have another dead body.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Egan still had enough adrenaline left over from the attack, but hearing his brother’s words gave him a jolt of even more. Jordan must have felt the same thing because the color drained from her face, and she dropped down into the chair next to her.

  “Who was killed?” Egan asked Court.

  “I can’t tell yet. But it’s a woman, and she was obviously murdered. It’s pretty...messy.”

  So, there’d been blood and lots of it.

  “The victim is a woman, and it appears she was killed at point-blank range with gunshot wounds to the head—just like our other victim. The body was on the road not far before the turn into town,” Court added.

  That was fairly close to where Lorena’s body had been dumped. That meant the escaped sniper could have tossed her out there after he’d fled from the ranch. Or maybe there was a third hired thug who’d done the job.

  One thing was certain, Egan knew that Leeroy or Kirk hadn’t personally dumped the body because they’d been at the sheriff’s office not only during the attack but in the time following it. If either of them had left the building, Thea would have told him about it.

  That left Christian. The cop certainly hadn’t been under Thea’s watchful eye so he could have been the actual sniper. As a cop, he certainly would have had the firearm skill to pull off an attack like that.

  “Could the body be Irene Adair?” Jordan’s voice was so hoarse that Egan had to repeat the question to Court.

  “Possibly. She’s the woman who got one of Shanna’s organs, right?”

  “Yeah,” Egan verified. “I don’t have a picture of her, but her file is on my work computer. There’s contact info in there for her and her family.”

  “I’ll check,” Court assured him. “I’m waiting with the body until the medical examiner, CSIs and a reserve deputy arrive. They were on their way out to you, but I think they need to process this scene first since it’s closed down the road.”

  Egan agreed. It wasn’t pleasant having a dead guy on the ranch, but the body on the road might give them more clues about the attacks than a hired gun would. Of course, he wanted answers from both bodies and both scenes. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get them, too.

  “Is Dad with you?” Egan asked.

  “No. The hands are dropping him off now at Griff’s. They’ll head back here to wait with me once they’re done with that.”

  Good. Even though Court didn’t seem to be the target of this sick piece of work who was behind these attacks, Egan didn’t want his brother out there alone where he could be an easy target. Besides, their attacker could use Court to try to get to Jordan and him.

  “I’m thinking it’s not a good idea for you to have Jordan out on the road right now,” Court added.

  Egan was thinking the same thing. The body could have been left there as a way to draw them out into the open. As the sheriff, he wanted to see the crime scene firsthand, but that would be way too risky. Of course, there wasn’t exactly a safe place for him to take Jordan to make sure the sniper didn’t get to her again.

  “You can use my place,” Court said, no doubt knowing what was on Egan’s mind. “Or the guesthouse or the fishing cabin.”

  Court’s house and the cabin were at the back of the property. The guesthouse was much closer, which would cut down on the risk of Jordan being outside any longer than necessary. Still, there was a problem. Jordan and he had been lovers there, and he was sure every room would bring back memories. One look at Jordan, and he knew she’d be remembering the same thing. That was better, though, than having her stay in the main house with the shot-up windows.

  “The guesthouse,” Egan finally answered. “Once we’re there, I’ll have some of the hands help guard the place so I can send Ian back to work.”

  “You can keep him there if you want,” Court suggested.

  It was tempting, but the sheriff’s office was already short of help because of the first murder investigation and the attacks. Now, with a second murder, a dead gunman and missing sniper, Court would need all the help he could get. No way could Egan justify tying up a deputy—even if that was what he wanted to do.

  Twice now someone had come close to killing Jordan. Too close. And even though the hands were good with weapons, they weren’t cops. Plus, the ranch was a b
ig place, and it would be fairly easy for someone to sneak in on foot. The dead gunman outside the house was proof of that. Despite all of that, Egan was running out of options, and the guesthouse was the safest solution right now.

  “Is it okay if I call Thea right now and have her reschedule Kirk’s and Leeroy’s interviews?” Court asked.

  “Yes, do that.” With everything going on, it was possible that Thea could end up manning the office alone, and Egan didn’t want her there by herself with not one but two of their suspects. “Also have Thea remind Tori that she could be in danger and that she needs to be careful when she leaves.”

  “I will. And I’ll call you once the medical examiner and reserve deputy are here to take over the crime scene,” Court added. “It’s possible the dead woman has an ID on her. She has a wallet sticking out of her pocket, but I don’t want to touch it until the CSIs have had a look at it.”

  “If it’s Irene, she’ll have a scar on her belly from the transplant surgery,” Jordan said, getting to her feet.

  “I can’t see her stomach. She’s wearing jeans, but she has a lot of stab wounds on her torso.”

  Again, like their other victim. It ate away at him that this monster was doing this to innocent women. It was obviously having the same effect on Jordan because she shuddered and closed her eyes for a moment.

  Even though Egan knew he should keep his hands off her, it was hard to do with that fear in her eyes. Not just fear for herself, either, but because this snake might include him and others in the killings. Egan slipped his arm around her, pulled her to him and brushed a kiss on the top of her head. It wasn’t nearly as intimate as the other kiss had been, but it still reminded him that every time he got close to her like this, he was playing with fire.

  And losing focus.

  The first one might land them in bed, but the second one could get them killed, and that was why he eased back from her.

  “We should go to the guesthouse,” he said. He grabbed his laptop and the bag of supplies he’d gathered, and he got Jordan moving toward the door.

  There were signs of the attack all around them. His father’s blood in the doorway. The bits and pieces of wood that the bullets had torn from the door frame. There was broken glass on the porch. Of course, the worst sign was the dead gunman, and Jordan gave the guy more than a lingering glance when Egan was getting her into the back seat of the cruiser.

  “You did what you had to do,” Egan assured her.

  He knew the assurance wouldn’t mean much, but he had no idea what else to say. He’d killed someone once in the line of duty, and it wasn’t something you forget. Jordan would carry this with her for the rest of her life, and she was already carrying too much baggage from Shanna’s death. Now she was probably blaming herself for the two dead women, too. Egan got confirmation of that when he saw the tears shimmering in her eyes.

  It was blurring more of those boundaries between them, but Egan still slipped his arm around her. As she’d done in the house, Jordan settled against him, reminding him of just how stupid that kiss had been. Because everything no longer felt like old times between them. It felt just as it had years ago when they’d first felt the attraction for each other.

  Yeah, definitely a distraction.

  Thankfully, it was a very short drive to the guesthouse. In fact, they could have easily walked if this had been a normal situation. It wasn’t. But Egan used the couple of minutes to fill Ian in on the plan for him to return to the sheriff’s office. Egan also texted Art, their ranch hand, to let him know that there would need to be someone watching not only the guesthouse but also the road that led to the ranch. Egan didn’t want any surprise visitors, though if the sniper returned, he likely wouldn’t use the road but would rather sneak onto the grounds.

  When Ian pulled to a stop directly in front of the guesthouse, Egan got out first so he could unlock the front door and have a look around. It didn’t take long since it was basically a living room-kitchen combo area, a bedroom and bathroom. Once he was certain that no one was lurking inside, he went back to the cruiser to hurry Jordan inside. He didn’t waste any time locking the door and setting the security system.

  “The windows are wired, too,” he let her know. He hoped that would cause some of the tension to leave her face. It didn’t, though.

  Jordan stood in the living room and glanced around before her attention came back to him. She didn’t say anything, but he figured she had noticed that the place hadn’t changed that much since they’d last been here. His mom had had it redecorated a little with some fresh paint and a new sofa, but that was it. Once she went into the bedroom, she would see that it was the same, too.

  “There should be bottled water in the fridge if you’re thirsty,” Egan explained. “There’s also soup and stuff in the pantry, but I can have someone bring us in something to eat. There’s plenty of food in the main house.”

  “Thanks. Maybe later I’ll be hungry.”

  Egan wasn’t counting on that. Her stomach was probably turning the same way his was. Still, she would have to eat something soon.

  He went to the window to check and see if Ian had already driven away. He had. But Egan also saw two hands drive up in a truck. Maybe they wouldn’t have to stand guard for long, but he wanted them there at least until the deputies showed up with the medical examiner and the CSIs. Considering they were just now getting to the other body, though, that might be at least several hours.

  “Maybe you should try to get some rest,” Egan added.

  She nodded, scrubbed her hands along the sides of her jeans. In addition to the fatigue and weariness, Jordan’s nerves were showing. Maybe because of the leftover adrenaline from the attack. Or maybe just because of him. Egan was certainly feeling some nerves, too.

  Jordan started for the sofa, but before she even made it there, her phone rang. She huffed when she looked at the screen and then showed him the name of the caller.

  Christian.

  “I can talk to him if you like,” Egan offered.

  “Thanks, but I can do it.” She pressed the answer button, put it on speaker and then laid her phone on the coffee table as she sank down onto the sofa.

  “Jordan, are you okay?” Christian immediately asked. “I just heard about the attack at the ranch.”

  “Who told you?” Jordan fired back.

  He didn’t jump to answer that, maybe because Jordan’s tone had been so sharp. “A fellow cop. He has a friend in the medical examiner’s office. Did you really have to kill a gunman?”

  “Yes. What did your cop friend tell you about that?” Again, her tone wasn’t exactly friendly.

  That was probably why Christian muttered some profanity. “I can tell that Egan’s turned you against me.”

  Blowing out a heavy breath, Jordan groaned and leaned the back of her head against the sofa. “Was there a reason you’re calling? Because I’m tired, and I don’t want to have another argument with you.”

  “Yes, there’s a reason,” Christian practically growled. “The criminal informant who told me about Kirk being at the chop shop is missing. He was supposed to meet me so I could pay him for some information he’d given me, but he didn’t show. That’s definitely not like him. When money’s involved, he doesn’t miss our meetings.”

  “You think someone silenced him?” Egan asked.

  Judging from the huff Christian made, he hadn’t known the call was on speaker and that Egan was listening. “Yes, that’s exactly what I think, and this is on your shoulders. You should have found and arrested the person responsible for these attacks. If you’d done your job, Jordan wouldn’t be in danger and my CI wouldn’t be missing.”

  Egan agreed, but he hadn’t failed at finding the person from lack of trying. And he would continue to try. “Let me know if your CI turns up,” Egan insisted.

  Since that definitely sounded like a goodbye, Egan exp
ected Christian to end the call. He didn’t.

  “I think someone’s been following me,” Christian said after a short pause. “I just want to make sure it’s not one of your deputies.”

  “It’s not.” Now it was Egan’s turn to pause. He wasn’t sure that Christian was telling the truth, but if he was innocent, then it was entirely possible that the killer had the cop in his sights.

  “Then I’ll have to watch my back,” Christian grumbled, and he ended the call.

  Jordan immediately looked up at Egan. “Christian could have said that to make himself seem innocent.”

  Egan nodded. “And that’s why I want to keep digging in the cold cases you’ve been researching.” He brought his laptop to her. “If you could access the file, I can work on that while you get some rest.”

  Jordan shook her head but then winced a little when her shoulder moved, as well. She was no doubt still in pain from the fresh stitches. “We can work on them together.”

  Since Egan knew the pain would only get worse, he went to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and came back with some over-the-counter stuff. “It won’t make you drowsy,” he reminded her, and he gave her a bottle of water so she could take two of the pills.

  “Thanks.” She didn’t look at him when he sat next to her. And Egan knew why. Even with the interference from the pain, the leftover heat from that kiss was still zinging between them, and it was best not to tempt fate by kissing again.

  She opened the files and went to the two cases that she had already pointed out to him when they’d been at the sheriff’s office. Egan moved the computer to his lap so he could have a closer look. Not at the files themselves. But rather at Jordan’s notes.

  “You’ve been suspicious of Christian for a couple of weeks now,” he pointed out.

  “Yes. I keep going back to the theory that he could have been, or still could be, running a human trafficking ring.” She paused. “Since Shanna was the parole officer for both men associated with this case, I wonder if one of them mentioned something to her about that.”