At least he didn’t hear a scream of agony or any cry for help. But would she shout for aid if she’d been shot, or would she lie in the snow and die silently? She was so tough and obviously a lone wolf.
He made it to the rear of the shed just in time to see a figure dart out of the back door opening. He recognized the cut of the dark coat and the baggy jeans beneath. He’d seen them earlier in the dining room.
Billy Bond.
“Jordon, in the back,” he yelled and took off running after Billy.
Billy ran fast, but Gabriel ran faster, fueled by anger and determination. “Billy, halt! Don’t make me shoot you in the back.”
Instead of shooting at him, Gabriel got close enough to lunge at his back. Billy hit the ground hard with Gabriel on top of him.
Jordon appeared and leaned down to place the barrel of her gun against the side of Billy’s head. “If you twitch, I’ll shoot,” she said firmly.
“Please, don’t shoot me!” Billy exclaimed.
“Billy, what in the hell are you doing?” Gabriel said as he got to his feet and yanked the man up by the back of his coat. As Gabriel handcuffed Billy, Jordon searched his pockets and pulled out his gun, then did a more thorough pat-down.
“It’s a meth lab,” Jordon said. “I ran through the shed and there’s enough material in there to keep the whole state high for a very long time.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Billy replied, a surly snarl curving his lips.
“Then why were you shooting at us?” Gabriel asked as he led the man back the way they had come.
“I wasn’t shooting at you. It must have been somebody else. I was just out here trimming some tree branches.”
“And I’m the freaking queen of Scotland,” Jordon retorted with a laugh.
Gabriel led Billy into the shed, where he looked around in stunned surprise. A hot plate was plugged into an electrical socket that hung from the lightbulb in the ceiling. Mason jars gleamed red and purple, and jugs of drain cleaner, paint thinner and a variety of other items used to make the deadly drug littered what was left of the workbench.
Anger once again ripped through Gabriel. Fighting the making and use of meth was a full-time job. It was a scourge that not only ripped apart families, but killed. And this had been going on right under his nose.
Was Billy just a dope manufacturer and dealer or was he a killer, as well?
“Let’s go,” he said and roughly yanked Billy out of the door.
Within minutes they were in his car and headed to the police station. They rode in silence. Gabriel drove slowly although he was eager to get Billy into an interrogation room and have a long talk. He needed to find out if they now had the killer under arrest.
Thankfully, the main roads had been cleared, but the side streets remained a grim testimony to the storm that had roared through overnight.
He felt the tension that wafted from Jordon and knew that she had the same questions that he had about Billy Bond and his potential relationship to the murders that had taken place.
Had he been the person who had attacked Jordon? Had he climbed through the window with the intention of killing her? Gabriel gripped the steering wheel tightly and tried to quell his anger.
Once at the station, he put Billy into the small interview room and then instructed his right-hand man, Lieutenant Mark Johnson, to gather up the team trained for cleaning up drug labs in the area and get out to Diamond Cove.
Jordon stood just outside the interrogation room door, peering in through the small window to where Billy sat at the table with his head in his hands.
“We now know why we thought he was a creep,” she said. “He definitely had something to hide.”
“A damn meth lab.” Gabriel shook his head.
“And potentially our killer?” Jordon looked at him with darkened eyes.
“Let’s get in there and see just how much he has to hide,” Gabriel replied, hoping that this would be the end of the search for their murderer.
Billy looked up as the two of them entered the room. His smirk was gone, replaced by eyes that held nothing but despair and hopelessness.
Gabriel sat across from him and Jordon remained standing just behind Gabriel’s chair. He read Billy his rights and thankfully the groundskeeper waived his right for a lawyer.
“I’m in big trouble, aren’t I?” he asked.
“You’re looking at fifteen years just for the drug charges. If I add in attempted murder then you’re probably looking at life,” Gabriel replied.
Billy’s eyes widened slightly. “I wasn’t trying to kill you. I just wanted to scare you off. Dumb, huh.”
“Duh, we’re the law. We run toward bullets, not away from them,” Jordon said drily.
“Methamphetamines? What on earth were you thinking, Billy? Just how long has this been going on?”
Billy grimaced and shook his head. “My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer three months ago. She needs money for treatment and I was desperate.”
“Desperate enough to murder three innocent people?” Jordon asked.
Billy’s gaze shot to her and then back to Gabriel, his eyes widened once again. “Don’t try to pin that on me. I don’t know anything about those murders—you’ve got to believe me.” He leaned forward, his eyes filled with fire as he held Gabriel’s gaze. “I’ll admit I’m guilty of the meth lab, but I did not kill those people.”
A weight dropped inside Gabriel’s chest and lay heavy in the pit of his stomach. He believed Billy. And if Billy wasn’t their killer, then who was?
Chapter Nine
They interviewed Billy for almost two hours, and it was only when Gabriel wanted the names of anyone else involved in the meth operation that Billy finally demanded a lawyer.
He was taken to a jail cell to await a meeting with legal counsel, and Jordon and Gabriel got in his car to head back to Diamond Cove.
“I hate to admit it, but I believe him,” Jordon said as she adjusted the car heater vents for maximum warmth on her face. “I believe that he wasn’t in the woods last night and I believe him when he said he wasn’t the person who attacked me. I just don’t think Billy is our man.”
“I agree and that’s good news and bad news,” Gabriel replied. “The good news is we can take him off our suspect list. The bad news is that means our murderer is still out here somewhere.”
Jordon stared out the passenger window, her mind working over the few suspects they had left. The Rollings brothers, they were it. Was one of them the killer or was the person they sought completely off the grid, flying under their radar? That was definitely a depressing thought.
She gazed back at Gabriel. “I’m assuming we’ll be checking some alibis for last night at some point today?”
“Definitely, although the first order of business is seeing to it that the window in your room is fixed.”
He pulled into the Diamond Cove entrance, where two police cars and an evidence van were already parked. Several officers stood around, and it appeared that the van had been packed with all the items that had been in the shed.
“Chief,” Mark greeted them as they got out of the car. “We’re loaded up and ready to leave. Thank God it looked like he hadn’t cooked for a couple of days and the fumes weren’t too bad at all. It definitely helped that there were no closed windows or doors and the storm blew through the building.”
“Good,” Gabriel replied.
“Did you find any actual meth?” Jordon asked.
Mark grinned. “Enough to keep Billy cooking up slop in prison for a very long time.”
“One more bad apple off the streets,” Jordon replied.
“We’ll just let you finish up.” Gabriel touched her arm. “Let’s go check in with Ted and Joan.”
She f
ollowed behind Gabriel as they headed inside. She couldn’t help but think about how nice it had been to have his arms around her through the night, how comfortable she felt with him. Their conversations were so easy, as if they’d known each other for months instead of days. She didn’t feel the need to censor herself with him. She trusted that she could just be herself and that was okay with him.
She’d misjudged him at first impression. He wasn’t inflexible; he was determined. He wasn’t uptight—he was focused, and he was so much more than those things. He was intelligent and could be funny. More important, he seemed to get her.
Maybe she was just feeling particularly soft about him because he’d thrown her to the ground and covered her body with his own when the bullets had flown. His first instinct hadn’t been to get to cover himself, but rather to protect her.
Not that any of that mattered. She tamped down a strange wistfulness that tried to take hold of her as they entered the main dining room.
Ted sat on one of the chairs by the fireplace and Joan sat at one of the tables. There was an underlying thrum of tension in the air. Joan stood as they entered and worried her hands together.
“We didn’t know,” she said. Her blue eyes were darker than Jordon had ever seen them. “You have to believe me—we had no idea what Billy was doing out there in the shed.”
“A meth lab...murder,” Ted said in disgust and gazed at his wife. “All of it happening right here where we live with our children. This would have never happened if we’d stayed in Oklahoma City, where we belonged.”
It was obvious the crimes were fracturing what Jordon had presumed was a good and loving relationship.
“Sit down, Joan,” Gabriel said calmly. “Nobody believes that you and Ted had anything to do with Billy’s meth business.”
Jordon walked over to the coffeepot to get a cup of the hot brew while Gabriel took a seat next to Joan.
“How long has this been going on? How long has Billy been cooking drugs on this property?” Ted asked, his voice almost a growl.
Jordon sat at the table next to Gabriel and faced the fireplace and Ted. A rich anger radiated from the man, an anger that appeared to be pointed not only at the circumstances, but also specifically at his wife.
“I checked that shed when Samantha Kent was killed in the woods and there was nothing there. According to what Billy told us, he started just after Christmas when he found out his sister had cancer and needed money,” Gabriel said.
“Did he kill those people?” Ted asked. “Is he the killer who is trying to destroy us?”
“We don’t believe so,” Jordon said.
Ted frowned. “So, we still have a killer running loose around here.” He shook his head and gazed at Joan once again. “Happy wife, happy life—yeah, right.” He got up from his chair and slammed his coffee cup down on the table. “I’ve got work to do in the office.”
“I’m sorry,” Joan said as soon as he’d left the room. “He’s upset. We’re both upset. This has all been so difficult.” She looked utterly miserable as the glint of tears shone in her eyes.
“Don’t worry—we understand,” Jordon said softly.
“Has Ed come in yet?” Gabriel asked.
“He arrived just a few minutes before you did.” She glanced at Jordon. “I sent him right to your room to take care of the window issue.”
Gabriel stood. “We’ll go check out the progress.”
Jordon took a big gulp of her coffee and then got up, as well. “Joan, stay strong. We’re going to get this all taken care of.”
“I hope so. I was the one who insisted we make this move. Ted really only did it to make me happy.” Her hand trembled as she reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I just want this to all go away so we can live the dreams we had.”
“We’ll do everything we can to make that happen, Joan,” Gabriel replied.
“Tensions are definitely rising,” Jordon said once they were on the path to her room. “I hate to see what’s happening between Joan and Ted.”
“Collateral damage,” Gabriel replied. “There are always more victims than the dead ones when something like this happens.”
“The ripple effect,” she replied. Her stomach clenched. “I want to get this guy so badly I can taste it.”
“Speaking of tasting it, we’ll stop and get lunch after we leave here and before we start interviewing anyone.”
Jordon glanced at her cell phone, shocked to see that it was already almost three. It was amazing how a chase in the woods and an interview with a drug dealer could eat up the hours of the day.
The door to her room was unlocked and they walked in to find Ed in the bathroom installing a new window lock. “I put up a new screen and this should take just a minute,” he said after their initial greetings. “I told Ted a month ago that this lock had an issue, but with everything else going on around here, I guess we both forgot about it.”
He finished using his screwdriver and then opened the window and tried the new latch several times. “That should do it,” he said.
“Just a minute, Ed,” Gabriel said before the handyman could leave the suite. “We have a few questions to ask you.”
“Questions about what?”
“Where were you last night?”
Ed looked at them in surprise. “I was at home. In fact, Kevin and Glen came over and wound up spending the night. We played cards and drank some beer, and this morning Millie made us all sausage and French toast with my favorite strawberry syrup.”
Jordon stared at the man with a rising frustration. She still couldn’t be certain if he was off the hook for being the man who had attacked her, but how convenient that he’d just provided an alibi not only for himself but also for his brothers.
“Is there anything else?” Ed asked with his usual pleasantness. “I’ve got some other work to attend to around here.”
“That should do it,” Gabriel replied. Once Ed was out the door, Gabriel turned and looked at Jordon. “We’ll grab some lunch and then I think it’s time we talked to Millie.”
“Do you really think she’ll say anything different than what Ed told us?”
“Doubtful, but maybe we’ll see something in the house that will tell us something different.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather talk to her first and grab lunch afterward,” Jordon said. She wanted to tie up any loose ends that they could from the attack the night before as soon as possible.
He shrugged. “Fine by me.”
“Will she even let us in the front door?” Jordon asked as they left her room.
He flashed her a quick smile. “It would be downright rude to keep people standing on the front porch on a cold winter’s day.”
“And Branson is known for its down-home friendliness,” she replied.
Why couldn’t she get Gabriel’s friendliness out of her brain? Throughout the interview with Billy, she’d flashed back to the night before and the intimate moments with Gabriel. When they’d entered the room to find Ed, her gaze had shot to the bed where they’d made love the night before.
He’d somehow managed to get under her skin in a way no man had done since Jack. She’d hoped never again to feel the wild electricity, the slight flutter in her heart, for any man. As crazy as it sounded, when she left here the chief of police would have more than just a little bit of her guarded heart.
She mentally shook herself and realized there was an unsettled piece of her brain, as if she’d forgotten something important. But, try as she might, she couldn’t figure out what it was, like having a snatch of a lyric to a song going around and around in her head and she couldn’t quite remember the title.
Gabriel pulled down a narrow road that thankfully had been plowed earlier in the day. The houses were small and set far apart.
“
Unfortunately, Ed’s house is fairly isolated and the last place before a dead end. It’s doubtful that anyone in the neighborhood would know whether Kevin’s and Glen’s cars were parked there overnight or not.”
Jordon released a deep sigh. “A dead end is where we’re at. Nothing is coming easy with this case. I can’t go back to Kansas City without this being solved. It would totally ruin my reputation.”
“And what reputation is that?” he asked.
“My kick-ass-and-get-it-done reputation,” she replied.
He cast her another one of his charming grins. “I certainly wouldn’t want to mess with that reputation, so that means we need to kick ass and really get it done.”
“Amen,” she replied.
He parked in front of a little house painted a dreary brown with a bright red front door. Unfortunately, the driveway was completely shoveled, making it impossible to see whether one car or three cars had been parked there overnight.
She definitely hoped an answer was inside. She not only wanted to catch this guy sooner rather than later, but she also needed to get back to Kansas City before Gabriel dug any deeper into her heart.
* * *
MILLIE ROLLINGS WAS a painfully thin woman with mousy brown hair and faded blue eyes that gazed at them warily as she ushered them into a small neat living room that smelled of lemon furniture wax and old coffee.
Gabriel had never had much to do with Ed’s wife, whom he saw only occasionally at the grocery store. He’d always gotten the impression of a nervous little bird, and as he introduced her to Jordon, his impression of Millie didn’t change.
“Ed told me there was a pretty FBI lady staying at Diamond Cove,” she said and self-consciously reached up to touch a strand of her limp hair.
“Do you mind if we have a seat and ask you a few questions?” he asked.
“Of course, please, although I can’t imagine what you would want to ask me.” She gestured toward the sofa and sat in a chair opposite them.
“We spoke with Ed earlier and he mentioned you had houseguests last night,” Jordon said. “Is that correct?”
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