All About Zane (Travis County Legal Book 1)

by Avery J. Moon

  “That’d be perfect. Where is he? Could me and Zane go look at him? Oh, wait, and Molly, too.”

  He shook his head. “I have to check some things out first before I promise anything. I’ll give you a call tomorrow and let you know what I find out.” He went silent, looking down at his boots.

  “Okay, if you have to give me the speech, just get it over with,” I said.

  He gave me a slow smile. “It isn’t that I don’t appreciate the leads you’ve given us. And if the blood comes back as Becca’s, then we should be able to pretty much nail the son of a bitch’s coffin shut.” That moment of silence again. “I just don’t want you to forget who we’re talking about here. If Mike wants something badly enough to kill once, he won’t hesitate to add another body to his tally. We have to tread carefully, and that means a code of strict silence on both our parts.”

  I nodded in agreement. As much as I would have loved to pay Michael a visit, that was for the law to do. Once we had a cast iron case built against him. Becca was right. Me going to jail over this wouldn’t help me keep Zane. And I wouldn’t be able to stop at talking with Michael. I wanted his head, not a friendly chat. So, yeah, I got what the sheriff was saying.

  Gabe moved around to open the door of his SUV, then looked at me over its roof. “Watch your back.”

  I gave him a wave as he drove off and then climbed into my car, a smile on my face.

  Wow, Sheriff, I didn’t know you cared.

  I made Thursday night all about Zane. Well, technically all the nights were about Zane, and the days too for that matter. But I tried to make that night extra special. I bought one of his favorite old movies through the Internet, and we popped popcorn and covered it with tons of butter just like at the movies. Then all of us huddled up in the living room and chomped and laughed at the funny cartoon antics of Disney magic.

  It was a good night.

  Right up until three in the morning, when I got the call.

  They’d found Becca.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: Bringing Becca Home (Gabe)

  When Gabe’s phone rang at nine that night, he just knew it couldn’t be good. A call after hours never was.

  This one sent him out to Lake Monroe where a police boat was waiting to transport him out to a tiny island in the middle of the huge lake. He was glad he’d remembered to throw on his jacket before leaving home, as the night was turning downright chilly. You never knew about November in Indiana. The weather could be mild and fairly warm or have the bite of Jack Frost winter to it. Tonight was somewhere in the middle.

  At least until you got out onto the water. Then the temperature seemed to drop about ten degrees instantly. Thank goodness it was a short boat ride.

  “What have we got?” He yelled over the boat’s loud motor.

  “Some cold weather campers found a body, sir,” the deputy responded. “This one might be the Shepard girl.”

  Gabe’s eyebrows raised. “What makes you say that?”

  The man shrugged. “She’s wearing a red plaid CPO jacket, just like that report said Rebecca Shepard was wearing the night she went missing. From what I’ve heard, the condition of the body seems pretty consistent with the time frame too.”

  “Another shallow grave?”

  He shook his head. “No, sir.” If it was possible for a man to turn green, the deputy did. “Her body must have gotten caught up in something in the shallows by the island.” He paused, swallowing before continuing. The deputy was fairly new to the force. This must be his first body. “Their boat’s motor tangled with the body—lodged in pretty good, sir.”

  The deputy excused himself and went to throw up over the side of the boat. Suddenly Gabe was regretting the second helping of dinner he’d eaten. Usually, he could keep his cookies down, at least until he was out of the range of his men. He hoped the extra food in his stomach wouldn’t do him in. It’d be hard to lose face now.

  Re-election time was coming up soon.

  The boat pulled up to the island, and they all put on waders to keep their legs dry as they walked up the shallows to the small little cove. There just wasn’t any way to stay dry getting there without them.

  The campers had pulled their boat up onto the shore. It was a bigger John boat, capable of holding four big men and all their equipment pretty easily. They must have dropped it when they realized what had clogged their motor’s blades. Heaven knows he would have.

  As it was, Becca’s body lay half on land and half in the water. One of the motor’s blades was firmly lodged in her chest. Yeah, he was definitely regretting those seconds. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

  Water does funny things to a body that’s been in it for the length of time hers had, but the deputy was right about the clothes. They matched the report precisely. It wasn’t enough for him to call yet, but he felt certain they’d found Colin’s sister.

  When they finally got the identification confirmed, it was just after two thirty in the morning. Gabe debated going home to bed and visiting Colin in the morning with the news. But that just wouldn’t have been fair to him.

  There was no way this was going to stay out of the morning news, and the last thing he wanted was for Colin to find out about his sister from a news story. So, at three in the morning, he made the call.

  A voice he didn’t recognize answered the phone. A strange feeling settled in the pit of his stomach that Gabe had trouble placing. Of course, it must be Joshua, the prosecutor. Belatedly, he remembered the court approved living arrangement prior to getting a nanny.

  He must have hesitated a second too long, because Joshua said hello again, this time not so friendly.

  “This is Sheriff Green,” Gabe said. “Is Colin Shepard there?”

  There was a span of only a few seconds before Colin was on the phone. Damn. They must be in bed together. Well, there went that fantasy. And Gabe finally recognized the feeling. He was disappointed.

  “You found her?” Colin’s voice didn’t have a trace of sleepiness to it.

  “Yeah. Some cold weather campers came across the body in their boat. She’s in the morgue now.” Gabe hesitated. “The coroner will have to do an autopsy, so it’ll be a few days before you can claim the body.”

  There was a pause. “You’re sure it’s her? Can I see her?”

  “I waited until the identity was confirmed before calling. And personally, I wouldn’t recommend seeing her in the condition that she’s in. But that is an option if you want it.” He knew that Colin would have to visit her in the morgue. He would need that for closure. But there wasn’t any way he would be ready for what he would see. No one could be.

  “Should I call my mom?”

  “One of us needs to,” Gabe said. “I’ll leave who up to you. But as much as we’d like to keep this quiet, I’m sure it’ll be a headline on tomorrow’s news.”

  He heard Colin sigh. “I’ll call her.” Then a pause. “What about Michael?”

  “I’ll make that call. A family courtesy call and no more. We don’t want to play our cards too early.”

  Colin grunted in answer. “Can you tell how she died? Please tell me she didn’t drown. That was always her worst fear, drowning. If Mike put her through that... ” his voice trailed off.

  “I don’t think she drowned, but we’ll know more after the autopsy. Right now there isn’t any way to know what damage was caused to her body before or after her death. But remember, there was blood in the trunk of that Caddy.”

  “Yeah, there was.”

  “And Colin?”

  “Yeah, Sheriff?”

  “I’m really sorry this happened to your family.”

  Colin gave a short laugh. “You forget, Sheriff, this was done by family. I’m counting on you to nail the bastard you know.”

  Gabe’s lips thinned. “You have my word on that.”

  They hung up and Gabe looked up Mike Lawson’s number and dialed it. His performance should have awarded him an Oscar, but he was pretty sure Mike had no idea he was under suspicion for B
ecca’s murder.

  Hell, he was probably sure he’d gotten away with it. It was going to feel really good to prove him wrong.

  *** (Colin)

  As soon as I hung up from Gabe, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and reached for my cane. Josh started to get up too, but I stopped him.

  “It’s okay, bud,” I said. “I think I need some time alone right now. And I’m going to need to figure out how I’m going to deal with the call to Mom.”

  “You sure?” He seemed disappointed that I wasn’t crying on his shoulder. But maybe I was reading too much into it right now. I probably wasn’t the best judge of emotions at the moment.

  I trudged down the steps and put on a pot of coffee. I hadn’t spoken to Mom since the day she walked out of that courtroom without so much as a single congratulation. But then she had been on team Michael.

  Wonder how she’ll feel when she finds out the reason Zane was up for grabs to begin with. I know how I felt. I wanted blood. And I wanted it now, not later.

  The handle to the mug I’d just taken from the cabinet snapped off in my hand. I swore and threw it away. Luckily it was thick enough glass that it hadn’t sliced my hand open.

  After I’d had a cup of java and some time to come to grips with all this myself, I called Mom.

  Of course, it was my step-dad that answered. Figured.

  “This is Colin. I need to talk with Mom,” I said. I wanted her to hear it from me, not him.

  “Why do you need her this late at night? You in jail?”

  No, but your bastard of a son will be soon, I thought.

  I was saved having to answer by my mom taking the phone from him.

  “Colin?” Her voice was shaking. She knew.

  “Yes, Mom, it’s me.” I paused, steeling myself for it. “They found Becca in Lake Monroe.”

  A small cry and a gasp. “Oh my God, not drowned. Please God, not that.”

  “The sheriff doesn’t think she drowned, but we won’t know for sure until they finish up. It’ll be a few days before we can claim the body for burial.”

  “Can we see her?” I could barely make out her words, her voice was so faint.

  “Sheriff Green says he doesn’t recommend it.” Of course, I was going to, recommended or not. But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

  “Oh.” She let that sink in. “Do they know anything yet?”

  “Just that they found her, Mom.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

  I hesitated but felt like I should at least make the offer. “Do you need me to come over?”

  “Hell, no, we don’t need him to come over,” my step dad said in the background. I heard Mom shush him, but she was polite about it.

  “No, dear. I’ll be okay.” I could tell she was crying. I was surprised to find that I was too.

  There was one more thing. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to take care of the funeral arrangements. I’ll use some of the money from Becca’s part of our account to cover the costs.” I paused. “Just so you know, the rest of her money will be going straight into a college fund for Zane.”

  “I know.” Then the phone was taken from her.

  “Let us know when the arrangements are made,” he said. “Have you called Michael yet?”

  Like he’d come first, I thought.

  “No, Sheriff Green said he’d make that call. He’s probably already been notified.”

  A grunt. “Guess that makes sense. Anything else we should know?”

  My hands clenched, and I was very grateful the phone’s receiver wasn’t made of glass. “That’s it. I’ll call when I know the details.”

  I hung up. It seems the bad apple didn’t fall far from the Lawson family tree.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Chain of Custody (Colin)

  With the finding of the body, things seemed to pick up quick. The police lab got the DNA match back on the blood from the taillight assembly. It was a clear match to Becca’s.

  I expected that to mean that the sheriff would be making an arrest, but he said the timing wasn’t quite right yet. Joshua backed him up. They said the chain of custody on the taillight was too suspect to be tied conclusively to Mike. A good attorney would argue that another possible scenario would have been that the mechanic himself had killed Becca and had forged evidence in an attempt to blackmail Lawson.

  It didn’t matter that I could see their point. I wanted the murdering son of a bitch put away. Preferably for good.

  If they needed more evidence then our search wasn’t over. And now at least we had the location where he had dumped her body. Chances were good that someone saw him that night.

  Of course, six months is a long time for anyone to remember that for a certainty. But one could hope.

  As much as I wanted Michael in jail, or better yet in a quiet little grave somewhere, there were things I had to do. Becca and I had each taken out substantial life insurance policies when our books started taking off. We wanted to make sure that if it was ever left to just one of us alone, the money would be there to help support Zane.

  Kids are expensive.

  So the first thing I did was file the claim with the life insurance company. Without a body that hadn’t been possible before. Then I called the mortuary.

  Being the planner type of people, me and Becca, you would have thought we would have had our burial arrangements already laid out. But while we had talked about it, we had procrastinated the actual setup. It had just seemed too morbid.

  That meant that now, I had to do everything from scratch. Molly didn’t have to go in to work until Saturday afternoon, so she offered to entertain Zane with a trip to the mall as long as one of us could drop them off and pick them back up.

  With them situated at the mall with enough money to buy a huge cookie and a small gift for each of them, Joshua and I headed to the local mortuary. There were actually two in town, but only one I would consider for Becca. She’d always hated attending funerals at the other one. She’d called it depressing.

  How a funeral home could not be depressing was beyond me.

  We spent the morning picking out a coffin and funeral plan. Luckily, they were affiliated with a cemetery just outside of town, so we were able to take care of those arrangements too. I ended up buying five separate burial plots. Mom had plots bought for me and Becca, but I didn’t want to risk being laid to rest in a space next door to the man who had killed my twin. And I sure as hell didn’t want Becca there.

  I’m going to admit here that I really, really wanted to go after Michael. And not with the sheriff by my side. No, alone and carrying my trusty Smith & Wesson revolver. In point, the truth was I didn’t want Mike in jail, I wanted him dead.

  The only thing keeping me from taking this action that every fiber of my being called for me to take, was a little boy named Zane. With me in jail for my vigilante killing, who would be left to raise the boy with love and affection? My mother had double-crossed me when she promised to take care of Zane until I got home. I had no faith that she wouldn’t do it again.

  Besides, I doubted her maternal instincts. After the court case, who wouldn’t?

  The funeral planned and paid for, we headed back to the mall to pick up Molly and Zane. My boy was fairly bouncing as he got into the car.

  “Daddy, the pet shop’s got a full-blood Shepard. Can we buy it?”

  I shook my head. “Not what we talked about, Zane, remember? The pet shop sells puppies, and we want an older dog, right?”

  His face fell, but he nodded, if a bit reluctantly and slid back onto his booster seat.

  “I do have a lead on a dog, though, so I haven’t forgotten our deal.”

  I gave Zane one more backward look in the rear-view mirror. He still didn’t know what was going on. I figured I had a few days to break it to him because I still hadn’t figured out the best way to do that. How on earth do you tell a five-year-old that the police found his mother’s body?

  There was one thing I’d made up my mind about, though, he wasn’t goin
g to see her body. That wasn’t the way I wanted him to remember her.

  When we got back to the house, Molly got dressed and left for work and Josh went upstairs with his briefcase. Normally if he had extra work to do on the weekends, he just went to the office. But with Molly finishing up her notice time at work, we didn’t want to take any chances on the court’s inspector dropping by and finding me alone with Zane.

  I was beginning to hate that stupid ruling. I’ll admit it had its purpose, but that didn’t stop me from hating it all the same.

  As physical therapy was up to me on the weekends, Zane and I hit the equipment in the garage. When we had set up the little exercise room, we had been unable to find a Zane-sized exercise bike, so we had rigged a stand for his regular bike, so he could pedal away and still not go anywhere.

  He happily climbed on his now stationary bike and started his imaginary journey. For me, it was the treadmill. At least I didn’t have to use my cane here as our treadmill had side bars to grip when needed. Of course, I tried to use them as little as possible, but it was really nice to have them there.

  The wall of the garage that the equipment faced contained a mounted flat screen television with one of those magical USB sticks that let us get Internet and Netflix while we did our work outs. I clicked on a family style Disney movie on Netflix to keep Zane entertained while he burned off some of his excess energy and started my ultra-slow walk.

  After a half an hour of walking at even a slow pace, I was starting to sweat and feel the burn. So I wasn’t upset at all when my cell phone rang in my pocket. A glance at the screen showed it was Gabe.

  “Hey, Sheriff,” I answered, reaching down to grip the rail for stability. “Can you hold on for just a sec?”

  Without even waiting for an answer, I put the phone in the tray and reached with my now free hand to turn off the treadmill. Once it had stopped moving and I had climbed off, reclaiming my cane, I picked the call back up.