“You and I go to the same church.”
“I know, but you two were better friends in high school.” A grin skittered across the police chief’s face, but only for a second.
“So you’re officially asking me to participate in the investigation?”
“Yes.”
“Since when have we stood on protocol? We’ve known each other since childhood, and you know the Texas Rangers are here to help with local cases when needed.”
“As I said, we can’t make any mistakes with this case. I can already imagine Bradley breathing down my neck, and I won’t blame the man when he does. I don’t have children, but if something happened to my niece or nephew, I’d be all over it.”
“I haven’t been here long. What kind of kid was Jared? Like his father?”
“Yes. Jared is a popular guy and well-liked from what I’ve heard. He’s on the football team as the quarterback. This will be a blow to the whole team and school.”
Ethan walked to the red Porsche, still dripping water, and studied the boy, his body leaning back, held in place by his seatbelt, his head bent to the right. “Are there signs of foul play?”
“Not that I can see, but the Medical Examiner is on the way. I didn’t want to move him from the car until he got here. I’ll push to have the autopsy done immediately.”
“Suicide?”
Cord frowned. “It doesn’t feel right. He has everything going for him. That’s why I want to be here when the ME arrives. Nothing about this scene looks like a suicide.”
“What are you afraid of? That this is drug or alcohol-related, and Bradley’s active campaign against drugs is known all over these parts?”
Cord nodded. “Why here? Yes, I suppose he could have driven into the lake because of the boat ramp here,” he pointed at the pavement ending in the water, “but it’s set out of the way from the parking lot where the road forks.”
“Which brings us back to suicide. He could have purposely driven it into the lake. Or someone else did. So who would have it in for Jared if he’s so popular?”
“You see how many questions there are. Bradley will want them all answered and then some. He’ll be looking for someone other than his son to put the blame on.” Cord removed his trademark toothpick from his front shirt pocket and stuck it into his mouth. According to him, chewing on it helped him think since he’d stopped smoking.
“I’ll be back after I notify Bradley. I want to look at his room and check for a suicide note. It’s early, he won’t have left for church yet. In this region, there have been several deaths in the past couple of months from prescription medications not belonging to the deceased person. But no foul play has been determined in those cases.”
“Appreciate the help. See you in a while.” Cord gestured toward an arriving black van. “Ah, the ME is finally here. I woke him up this morning.”
“He got to sleep in. My dog had me up at the crack of dawn to let him out.”
“Get a doggie door.”
“Can’t. That creates a hole in my perimeter in which someone could enter my house. Not comfortable with that.”
Cord chuckled. “Ain’t police work grand? It makes all of us paranoid.”
Ethan began walking toward his blue SUV. “I’d much rather think of it as making us alert and prepared for anything.”
Cord’s laughter increased. “You keep thinking that.”
Ethan climbed into his car and backed away from the scene until he could turn his SUV around and head toward the highway leading to Bradley’s ranch. Usually he didn’t notify the next of kin about a death, at least not since he’d been a Texas Highway Patrol Officer. That was one duty he didn’t miss.
Lexie’s wheels squealed as she turned onto Bluebonnet Road, her stomach tight with tension. She prayed she wouldn’t throw up again. Kelly needed her, and she wanted to be there for her best friend, even if lately they had drifted apart since Kelly began dating Jared Montgomery.
Passing Fifth Street, she began looking for the sign for Sixth. The area around here was creepy, buildings abandoned with several vandalized. Scanning one after another sent a shudder down her length. She hoped Kelly was watching, and she didn’t have to get out of her car. Even though her Ford was over eight years old, someone around here might want to steal it, leaving her and Kelly to walk home.
That thought panicked her, and she nearly missed Sixth Street. Lexie slammed on the brakes, and her tires screeched. She fishtailed. Great. If that didn’t call attention to her, she didn’t know what would short of laying on her horn. She quickly moved her hands away from the horn and turned the steering wheel toward the way she needed to go.
A minute later, she pulled up at the back of a brown warehouse that at one time must have been white. Patches of the color peeked out every once and a while. For a second she contemplated honking, but she took a quick glance around and decided against it. The parking lot was as deserted as these buildings appeared, but beyond them a large, low-income apartment complex backed up to the area.
She’d call Kelly to come outside, but when she rummaged for her cell phone in her purse, she couldn’t find it. She’d left it on her bed. Well then, she would give Kelly a few minutes to come outside.
Lexie tapped her hand against the steering wheel, trying to keep rhythm to an imaginary song running through her mind. A beat-up car drove down Sixth Street. Lexie held her breath. Her pulse coursed through her at a maddeningly fast rate. If Uncle Ethan knew what she was doing, he would go through with his teasing threat and really have her frozen until she was twenty-one.
“Mom! A man is here to see you,” Sadie Thompson’s son, Steven, yelled from the entry hall.
She cringed and wondered how many people in the neighborhood heard that announcement. A man at the door for Sadie Thompson. No doubt one of them would immediately run to her parents and tell them their daughter was seeing a man. She laughed out loud. That was the farthest thing from the truth. After Harris walked out on their short-lived marriage, she hadn’t had time for anything but raising her children and trying to make a living.
She finished running a brush through her hair, slipped on some sandals and hurried from her bedroom. When she emerged from the hallway and saw the man standing in her home for the first time in ten years, she stopped, placing her hand on the wall to keep her balance.
Harris Blackburn. What was he doing here? What did he want from her? The last time she’d seen him he’d had the nerve to ask her for money—money she didn’t have. He’d left then, like he had right after the twins were born, three years before that, and to her relief she hadn’t once seen him.
Until now.
Steven eyed the man who was his father, but she doubted her son recognized him. He then turned to go to the den where he played his video games every waking moment she would let him sit in front of the screen. She gritted her teeth to keep from saying anything to Harris until she heard the door to the den close.
“What do you want?” she asked in a surprisingly civil tone although her first urge was anything but civil.
“To see my kids. I heard you came back to Summerton.”
“Who told you that?”
“A friend in town.”
“You still have friends?”
He winced. “Yes. In fact, I returned last week. I have a job here. I’m staying for a while so I thought it was a good time to get to know my son and daughter.”
She’d so desperately wanted to hear those words from Harris in the past. Now she dreaded them the most. “No.”
“Did I tell you one of those friends is a lawyer?”
“Jeffrey Livingston.”
“Yes, you remember what good friends we were back in the day.”
“You can have visitation rights when you pay me for all those years of back child support. The amount is over a hundred thousand dollars. Come back then and we’ll talk.” Harris could never keep money for long, so the thought he had that kind of cash was ludicrous.
He stuf
fed his hand into his jacket pocket, withdrew a wad of money, and tossed it to her. “That’s five thousand. The courts will look at it as an attempt. All I want is to see them and get to know them. You can be there.”
She unrolled the money, all hundred-dollar bills, and examined them. They looked real, but she couldn’t believe it. “What bank did you rob?”
“I’ve changed over the past few years. I’ve got a steady job as a private investigator, and I’m good at my job. Been at it for three years. I’ve settled down. My kids have a right to know their dad.”
“Do you even know their names?” Derision dripped off each word. Lord, I’m trying not to lose it. But it isn’t easy.
“Steven.”
“And?”
“I don’t know my daughter’s name. You know how I am with people’s names.”
“These people are your kids. You call yourself a private investigator? You could have at least found out before showing up here.” As much as she could use the money, she put the rubber band back around the wad and threw it at her ex-husband. “I don’t want your money. Get out. If you don’t leave, I’ll call my brother. Just in case you haven’t heard, he’s the police chief of Summerton.”
“I’ve heard.” He snatched up the money and returned it to his pocket. “This doesn’t change anything. You’ll be hearing from me soon.” Stepping back, he rotated toward the door and left, the slamming sound echoing through the house.
Shaking, Sadie finally collapsed back against the wall and slid down. She drew her legs to her and dropped her head on her knees. She’d never thought Harris would come back to Summerton. While growing up here, he’d loathed the town and couldn’t wait to get away.
Being a teacher, she still had most of the school year to finish out. She was tired of doing everything alone. She needed her family around her, but she couldn’t have Harris in her children’s lives.
Can I wait until next May to leave again?
“Is Mr. Montgomery here?” Ethan asked the man who wasn’t technically the butler because Bradley would scoff at that term. But the guy was always there to answer the door and bar anyone from seeing Bradley if he thought his employer didn’t want to see the visitor.
“He’s getting ready for church and—”
“This is official police business.” Ethan showed him his badge, staring down the large employee with beefy arms and bowed legs.
“He hates to be disturbed at this time.”
“He’ll want to talk to me. It’s important.” Ethan stressed the last word, narrowing his eyes on the gatekeeper as though Ethan could will him to move.
“Very well. I’ll ask Mr. Montgomery, but don’t be surprised if he tells you to come back another time.”
The man escorted Ethan to the formal living room, sterile and stuffy, containing expensive pictures with a western theme on the walls and bronze Remington statues on the tables. There was a time when Bradley would have opened his own door to Ethan. Millions of dollars later his friend kept barriers between him and the townspeople. He missed the days when Bradley and he had ridden a bit recklessly across his family ranch, much smaller in those days.
“Ethan, it’s great to see you.” Bradley offered him his hand.
He shook it. “I wasn’t sure I would get through your man at the door.”
Bradley grinned. “I pay him well to keep the riffraff out, but I’ll have a word with him about you. I’ll let him know you’re a longtime friend, even though we’ve lost touch lately. What brings you here that couldn’t wait until church in half an hour?” He waved his hand toward a chair while he fit his long, lean length in one across from where Ethan stood.
“I won’t be at church today, and this is something I must tell you in person as soon as possible.”
Bradley sat forward, his shoulders thrust back. “What’s happened?”
There was never an easy way to inform a parent their child was dead. “Jared was found this morning by hikers in Red River City Park. He’s dead.”
The color drained from his friend’s face. He gripped the arms of the chair and leaned so far forward that Ethan was afraid Bradley would topple from his seat. “No, this has to be a mistake. My son is . . .” His mouth moved up and down, but no words came out.
“I’m sorry, but it’s Jared. I saw the body. The police chief ID’d your son. Of course, you’ll be asked to make a formal ID.”
“How could it be Jared? He should be upstairs.” Bradley shot to his feet and strode from the room. “He refuses to go to church, so I haven’t seen him yet today, but I’m sure I’ll find him sleeping in.”
Ethan followed Bradley to his son’s bedroom. For Bradley’s sake, he hoped Cord was wrong, but the car’s registration was to Jared Montgomery.
When the man thrust the door open and stepped inside, he came to an abrupt halt. His hands balled. “No. No. Not Jared. It can’t be.”
Ethan guided Bradley to the neatly made bed. “Sit. Is Annabelle home?”
“No, she’s in Dallas. I’ll have to call her.” Bradley sank onto the mattress, but he didn’t move to get in touch with his wife. “How did this happen? Why Jared?”
“We don’t have the answers yet on those questions. Cord stayed to make sure we processed the scene quickly. He knew you would want to know what occurred as soon as possible.”
“Was—was he . . .” Bradley brought up a shaky hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his palm.
“We don’t know the cause of death yet. He was found in his car in the Summerton Lake by the boat ramp.” He decided not to mention suicide. Bradley had enough to process at the moment.
“An accident? Why in the world was Jared at Red River City Park? That isn’t his normal hangout. And how did he end up in the water? We keep a boat at Monarch Lake.”
“Good questions. Ones we will get answers for. Did you see him last night?” Ethan made a visual sweep of the tidy room—nothing like what he’d had when he was growing up.
“Yeah, right before he went out on a date.”
“With who?”
“This girl he’s been dating for a couple of months. I don’t think he was serious about her, but she is beautiful and Jared is always . . .” Tears glistened in Bradley’s gray eyes, making them shine like polished silver. He dropped his head. “I don’t think I can get used to saying was. He’s all I have.” Bradley fell silent for a long moment, then he lifted his head and directed his intense, cold gaze to Ethan. “I want you on this case. Actually, I want you to be in charge of the case. If I have to, I’ll call the governor. I need to know what happened. Who’s responsible?”
“Cord already asked me to assist him.”
“No. I want you running it. I want the state lab to run all the tests. I need to know.” The urgency and fierceness in Bradley’s tone heightened the tension already gripping his friend.
“I’ll take care of it. I’m sure Cord will be fine with that.” Ethan captured Bradley’s full attention. “Understand I will dig until I discover what happened, but I won’t put up with you dogging my every step about the case.” He knew if his friend called the governor he would have to oversee the case, and he really wouldn’t have a say on how Bradley conducted himself. Like Cord, he suspected this was the tip of something big going down in his hometown.
“Fine, but I ask you to keep me informed of any progress.”
“I will, but I can’t have you hampering my case.” Because you might not like what I find.
“I understand.”
Ethan didn’t think Bradley really did. What if it were suicide? Or murder? Either situation brought a whole slew of questions that were hard on a family. “I have a few questions for you before I go back to the scene. Did you see your son return after his date?”
“No. He’ll be—would have been eighteen in six months. He didn’t have a curfew, but he was always home at a reasonable hour.”
“But you don’t know if he returned last night and went out this morning or if he was out all nigh
t?”
Bradley scowled. “No. He never gave me a reason to question his judgment. What are you saying?”
“Nothing. I need to figure out what he was doing last night. What’s the name of the girl he was dating?”
“Kelly Winston.” Bradley bit out the words, a nerve in his cheek twitching.
Ah, Bradley had dated Kelly’s mom in high school, nothing too serious, but he imagined it didn’t set well with Bradley since Mary Lou and he didn’t end on a good note. Wasn’t Lexie friends with Kelly? He’d seen the girl over at his niece’s house a few times in the past month since he’d returned to Summerton.
Bradley pushed to his feet, his gaze fixing on a photo on his son’s desk of a younger version of Bradley with someone who looked like Mary Lou. Kelly, the girl he’d seen his niece with. “I didn’t want Jared dating her, but I was afraid he would go behind my back if I told him not to.”
Like Bradley had with Mary Lou. “So you tolerated him seeing her.”
“Barely. Do you think she had something to do with this? Her mother certainly could mess with a guy’s mind. I should have listened to my gut and put my foot down concerning Kelly.” Bradley began to pace.
Ethan walked to the desk. “Teenagers love to oppose what you think is good for them. Sometimes we have to let them make their own mistakes. You did what you thought was right.”
Bradley swung around, his strong jaw line hard. “But Jared is dead.”
“Kelly might have nothing to do with this. We don’t even know if she was really with Jared last night. Let me do some investigating. Let me do my job.”
“My son didn’t lie to me. If he said he was going out with Kelly, then he was. Talk to her.”
Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4 Page 2