Always a Lawman

by Delores Fossen

A person who might have tried to kill them today.

  And that someone might have murdered his parents.

  “I know you’ve gone over every case file your father had worked on,” she reminded him. “Were you able to exclude everyone connected to his investigations?”

  “No.” He cursed and rubbed the back of his neck. “There was a file with notes about Hattie Osmond that didn’t make sense.”

  “Hattie?” she asked. Jodi knew the woman. Or rather, had known her. Hattie was a widow and had owned a big ranch not far from Gabriel’s. She’d stayed pretty much to herself until she’d passed away a couple of years ago.

  “My dad thought Hattie was being swindled or else blackmailed,” Gabriel explained. “She was selling off her livestock and was making weekly trips to the bank.”

  Yes, that would have been out of the ordinary for her. “Maybe she was sick or wanted to spend her money on her family.”

  “That’s just it. She didn’t have a family. I’m talking no heirs except for some distant cousins who didn’t even know her. Anyway, when she died, her estate was valued at a fraction of what everyone thought she had, and she’d destroyed a lot of records that people normally keep.”

  Jodi tried to figure out where he was going with this. “You think Hector was involved in that?”

  “Maybe. But your father could have been, too. Or August. Hell. Anybody could have been. It might not even be connected to anything. It’s just a loose end, and right now loose ends are all I’ve got to figure this out.”

  “Yes,” she softly agreed. “And it might be hours or days before you can get in to see Billy Coleman.”

  Hours that she could be using to find out who’d gotten into her apartment and if Hector did indeed have any old ties that she should know about. While she was at it, she could maybe sneak in to see Billy.

  “Do you still have a break room here in the sheriff’s office?” she asked. “Because my nerves are a little shot, and I could use some rest.”

  Gabriel stared at her as if trying to figure out if that was the truth. It wasn’t.

  “I need my meds,” she added, since it was obvious he wasn’t going to buy anything other than the truth. Jodi went with a half lie. “I came really close to a panic attack earlier, and the meds are the only thing that’ll help. Unfortunately, they sometimes make me drowsy.”

  More staring, then he nodded and tipped his head to the left side of the building. “The break room is still there. I’ll let you know if I hear anything about Billy or the knife.”

  The knife. She certainly hadn’t forgotten about that. Especially since her prints were on it. But that was yet another reason for her to get the heck out of there. The FBI might try to take her into custody while they got that all sorted out. No way did she want to spend hours waiting in an interview room.

  Jodi made her way through the building, one that she knew like the back of her hand. That’s because she’d come here often enough with Ivy. First, just because Ivy’s dad would give them money for ice cream. Then, later, Jodi came so she could flirt with Gabriel.

  Not that he’d flirted back.

  But she hadn’t given up. Not until that night ten years ago anyway.

  The break room was just as it had been the last time she was there. Same old leather sofa. Same fridge from the looks of it. Judging from the smells in the air, someone had recently eaten pizza and had coffee.

  There were two ways out—the emergency exit and a window. The door had an alarm on it. It was nothing fancy—just something to alert the lawmen if it opened. Since Jodi didn’t want to do that, she checked out the window. No obvious wires or sensors to indicate it was connected to the security system, so she unlocked it and lifted it a fraction.

  No alarm.

  If it had gone off, she could have told Gabriel she just needed some fresh air. At least now she wouldn’t need to lie to his face.

  Jodi lifted the window the rest of the way up, pushed out the screen and shimmied outside. She started running the moment her feet landed on the ground.

  She didn’t get far. The moment she rounded the corner, she smacked right into someone.

  Gabriel.

  “Back inside,” he snarled. Before she had a chance to protest, he took hold of her arm, his grip hard. “You’re under arrest.”

  Chapter Six

  This was the first time that Gabriel had brought someone in his custody to his family’s ranch. Of course, it was also possibly the first time he’d arrested someone because he was pissed off at them.

  It’d been stupid—along with being dangerous—for Jodi to try to run from him, but he’d known from the moment she said she needed a nap that she was going to try to sneak out of the sheriff’s office. And if he’d let her out of his sight, she would have tried it again. That’s why he’d arrested her, so he could hold her as a witness in his criminal investigation.

  Even though Gabriel wouldn’t want to have to explain himself to a judge, he was on solid legal ground. As the sheriff, he had a right to compel someone to give a statement if they’d witnessed a crime. He could do that by detaining them, and while detention and protective custody might keep Jodi alive, it wasn’t winning him any brownie points with her.

  Not that he wanted points, that is.

  Gabriel would settle for her just not glaring at him. And for her being safe. God, he needed for her to be safe.

  If he’d trusted Hector, that might be the best place for her, but there were too many questions about the man. Taking Jodi there could be walking her right into the lion’s den. Although Gabriel wasn’t doing much better by her. He was taking her back to the scene of the crime.

  Less than a quarter of a mile from it anyway.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” she said the moment he pulled to a stop in front of his house. It didn’t help that it was late, and the muggy heat was practically smothering them. Conditions that were almost identical to that night when she’d been left for dead.

  From his truck window, she looked up at the bright moon. Yet another thing that had been in place during the attack. Too bad it hadn’t given her enough light to have seen her attacker’s face. If she had, then she might be convinced that her father was a killer. Of course, that wouldn’t help them with a copycat, but now that Billy was locked up, at least they didn’t have to worry about him.

  He hoped.

  “It’s just for tonight,” Gabriel assured her. “I can make other arrangements for you tomorrow.” Along with having one of the deputies get her car. Right now, it was still parked on the road near the old house. He definitely didn’t want to go there tonight.

  “I can make other arrangements,” she insisted.

  “Yeah, I’m sure you can, but I didn’t think you’d want to be alone.”

  Jodi didn’t argue with that, though that’s likely what she wanted to do. After all, she could have reminded him that she lived alone and had for the past decade. But this wasn’t an ordinary night.

  “I know you don’t want anyone to realize that you seeing the knife and the dead body shook you to the core,” he went on. “That’s probably because you think I’ll take it as a sign of weakness. I wouldn’t,” he assured her.

  “Yet you felt I was weak enough to bring me here,” she huffed, pushing her hair from her face. “And I was weak enough to let you do it.”

  Now, Gabriel huffed. Definitely no brownie points. “Come on in. You can grab a shower, rest or eat. Whatever you want. I’ll call and see if there’s an update on the knife.”

  Some of the anger eased in her eyes when she looked at him. “Thank you.”

  Well, it was a start, and Gabriel took that as a green flag to get her moving out of the truck and onto the porch. Every step had to be a trip down memory lane for her. That’s why he hurried and got her inside. There shouldn’
t be any of those memories of that night in the house since they’d had their short conversation on the porch.

  The conversation where he’d turned her down.

  He looked at her just as she looked at him, and he saw that she was reliving that little chat, too. And judging from the way her eyebrow lifted, she was maybe waiting for him to say something about it. But what he could say? Nothing that would make this better, that’s for sure.

  “I thought I was doing the right thing that night,” he finally admitted. “I thought I was doing you a favor.”

  She laughed. Not from humor. Because there wasn’t anything funny about what he was saying. Ironic that doing what he thought was the right thing had nearly gotten her killed.

  Gabriel wouldn’t be able to forget that. Ever.

  Jodi went past him and into the living room. She glanced around, maybe noticing that he’d had the place redecorated. It was more him now and not just the house he’d inherited from his grandparents.

  “Is the downstairs guest room still where it used to be?” she asked.

  He nodded, and she immediately headed up the hall toward it. Only then did Gabriel release the breath he’d been holding. She was staying, for now, but just in case she decided to climb out the window, he set the security system. All the windows and doors were wired to sound the alarm if someone opened any of them. However, the only sound he heard was when she turned on the shower.

  Gabriel went into the kitchen, put some sandwiches together and got started on checking for updates.

  Nothing.

  Well, nothing good anyway. Billy had been checked into the facility and wouldn’t be evaluated by the psychiatrist until tomorrow morning. Heaven knew how long it would be before Gabriel could see him after that. Maybe not at all if the shrink deemed him incompetent.

  That left Billy’s lawyer and the knife.

  There was no proof yet as to who was paying the attorney, and the knife was just as much of a puzzle as it had been when Gabriel had seen it on the doorstep of the old house. Jodi’s prints combined with the dead guy’s blood. Definitely not a good combination.

  The broken tip appeared to be a match for the weapon used to kill both his parents and the man they found, but the lab would have to test both to be certain. Maybe during that testing, the techs could confirm whether Jodi’s prints had been left there that night or if they’d been planted on it later. And he was certain if it was the latter that someone had indeed planted them. Because Jodi wasn’t a killer.

  Gabriel had just taken a bite of his sandwich when he heard a strange sound. A gasp, maybe. Definitely not something he wanted to hear. He ran to the guest room, praying that nothing was wrong. He knocked and tested the knob to find it locked. He was just on edge enough to break it down, but that wasn’t necessary because Jodi opened it.

  The lights were off in the bedroom, the shower still running in the adjoining bathroom, but Jodi was there. She hadn’t run away after all, though she certainly looked ready to bolt.

  Along with only being partly dressed.

  Her jeans were on the bed, no doubt where she’d tossed them before taking her shower. Even though her top was long enough to cover her panties, Gabriel still noticed plenty of her bare legs. Jodi didn’t seem to notice since her attention was on the other side of the room. Judging from her stark expression, something had spooked her.

  “I thought I saw someone.” She had a firm grip on her gun, but she took him by the hand and practically dragged him to the window. Not that she had to work hard to do that. Gabriel headed there while drawing his own weapon.

  She didn’t go directly in front of the window but instead stood to the side and peered out. Gabriel did the same.

  And he cursed.

  He rarely went in this room and hadn’t realized it had a view of the old house. The moonlight was glinting off the tin roof of the place. It was like a beacon in the night and looked more than a little creepy.

  “It might have just been a shadow,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper. A whisper that was filled with nerves.

  Gabriel tried to pick through the darkness and see if he could spot anyone. There used to be plenty of shrubs that lined the path between his place and the house. He’d had a lot of them cut down after that night because Jodi’s attacker had used them to sneak up on her. He hadn’t liked the idea of keeping something like that around. But over the years, some cedars had popped up. They were full and bushy, making them a perfect place for someone to hide.

  “I don’t suppose Ivy, Lauren or Jameson would be out there at this time of night?” Jodi asked.

  “No. Jameson built a big log cabin by the river.” It was a good half mile from here, and besides, he was still at work. “Ivy left the week after our parents were killed and hasn’t been back to the ranch. Lauren didn’t come back after she went off to college.” He paused. “I figured you knew about Ivy since you two were so close.”

  Jodi’s shoulders stiffened. “No. I haven’t seen or heard from her.”

  Too bad. “Other than the occasional Christmas card and email, she hasn’t stayed in touch with anyone. She left around the time that she and your brother broke up.”

  “Yes,” she said under her breath. “They were in love. Or at least they thought they were. Theo blamed Ivy for not believing he was innocent of the murders. He thought she’d put you up to bringing him in for questioning.”

  Ivy hadn’t, but then she hadn’t exactly jumped to defend Theo, either. Gabriel wasn’t sure why, but in the end Theo’s name had been cleared, and he’d gone on to be a DEA agent. All had worked out as well as it could for those two. But Gabriel knew his sister was still broken in some ways. Maybe clinging to the past, too, since Ivy had been the one to insist they not tear down the old house. Of course, she’d insisted that years ago, so maybe it was time to revisit that issue. He didn’t like having the nightmare staring him right in the face every day when he drove past it.

  His folks would hate that he hadn’t been able to keep the family together. Would hate even more that Gabriel hadn’t tried too hard to bring his sisters back home. But in the moments when it ate away at him, he rationalized that they had their own lives. Maybe not especially good ones since both Ivy and Lauren had lost their partners.

  Yeah, his dad and mom wouldn’t care for him not stepping up to the parent role. But Gabriel hadn’t seen any reason to drag them back to a place where the memories might be more than his kid sisters could handle. Hell. Sometimes, it was too much for him to handle.

  Gabriel continued to look around, also glancing at Jodi to make sure she wasn’t about to go into panic attack mode. She wasn’t. But her attention kept going back to that section of the trail where she’d nearly died.

  “I remember so many things about that night,” Jodi said, breaking the silence. “Except for his face.”

  He remembered plenty of things, too, even though there were times when he wished he didn’t. Gabriel certainly remembered finding Jodi. Later he’d had to piece together what had happened to her when she’d left his house that night.

  After her attacker had cut her up, he’d dragged her just off the trail and put her in a makeshift “grave” that he’d dug out with his own hands. It really was just a couple of inches of topsoil that the person had scraped away, and then he’d tried to cover her body with some dirt and leaves.

  It’d been a miracle that Gabriel had even seen her, especially since by then he’d gotten the frantic call from Ivy to let him know that something “bad” had gone on at the house. After hearing Ivy say that, his focus had been on getting to the house.

  Fast.

  Gabriel had started running immediately after Ivy’s call, and if he hadn’t looked down at the exact moment he did, he might not have seen the blood on the ground. He might not have even looked at the grave where the killer had put Jodi.
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  She could have died right there in that spot.

  “I guess it was a false alarm,” she added several moments later. “I don’t see anyone out there.”

  Neither did he, but he didn’t budge. Jodi did, though. She went into the bathroom to finish getting dressed, but as soon as she’d done that, she hurried straight back to the window.

  “Did you get any new info on the investigation?” she asked.

  “Not yet. Maybe by morning we’ll have something, though.” He paused. “You should know that I’ll be investigating Hector, to see if he had any connection to our dead guy. Any connection to Hattie, as well.”

  Jodi didn’t seem to have any objections to that. Maybe because she was still upset at her boss having her followed. “August knew her, too, of course.”

  True. Hattie had lived just up the road from Jodi’s family. Gabriel had looked for anything obvious to link August, and anyone else, to Hattie. Now, he needed to dig even deeper because, so far, he hadn’t found anything.

  “You think August could have killed your father because he was investigating him,” she said. It wasn’t a question, but if it had been, the answer would have been—it was possible.

  “At the time of the murders, August was twenty-eight, broke,” Gabriel explained. “He didn’t get his trust fund until he was thirty, two years later. He could have milked money from Hattie to pay for all those things he couldn’t afford. August always had expensive tastes in cars, women and clothes.”

  All of that was purely circumstantial, though, and it didn’t mean Travis was innocent. Travis could have still murdered Gabriel’s parents, and August could have been an accessory.

  It could have even been August who’d attacked Jodi.

  She tipped her head to the bathroom, probably to say that it was time to put an end to this impromptu surveillance and finish getting cleaned up, but she didn’t speak. Something had caught her eye. Just as it’d caught Gabriel’s.

  There was some movement on the road in front of the old house.

  Not a shadow. It was either a deer or a person. The knot in Gabriel’s stomach told him it wasn’t a deer.