Reining in Justice

by Delores Fossen

  Addison already knew the answer to both.

  Reed didn’t want another dose of her. Even if their safety hadn’t been on the line, it might take a lifetime or two for him to forgive her for not telling him about Emily.

  There was a sharp rap at the door. A split second later it opened, and Aiden stuck his head in. “You got a visitor.”

  “The kidnapper’s lawyer,” Reed grumbled.

  But Aiden shook his head. “It’s Judge Quarles.”

  That brought Addison to her feet. “What does he want?”

  “To see you two. Brace yourself. I don’t think his mood’s very good,” Aiden added. “He definitely didn’t like having to go through the metal detector.”

  Welcome to the club. Her mood wasn’t good, either, and after what they’d learned about Quarles, he might be responsible for all the bad things that’d been going on.

  “Is he armed?” Addison asked.

  Aiden shook his head.

  “I’ll take care of this,” Reed said, walking out ahead of her. That was probably his way of telling her to stay put, but despite the fear and Reed’s order, Addison wanted a chance to face down the judge.

  Reed shot her a scowl from over his shoulder. A totally different look than the one he’d given her before the kisses. However, that had ended in a scowl, too.

  Addison followed Aiden and him back into the squad area, and she immediately spotted the man in a charcoal-black suit. Pricey, of course. In fact, everything about Quarles fell into that category, including his precisely cut blond hair. There was something about him though that surprised her.

  Quarles smiled, and he walked to Reed with his hand extended in what appeared to be a friendly greeting. After his somewhat threatening phone call, Addison figured he would lash out at them again. Or rather try. But Reed and she were clearly in lashing-out moods of their own.

  “How’d you know Addison and I were here?” Reed demanded.

  When Reed didn’t shake his hand, Quarles lowered it back to his side, but he kept the demeanor friendly. “I heard about the arrest at the hospital, and I guessed you two would be here to talk to him.”

  If Reed was buying that, it certainly didn’t show on his face.

  “So?” Quarles asked, turning to her. “Anything from the kidnapper in custody?”

  “He’s still waiting on his lawyer,” Aiden answered for her. “You’re not here to try to talk to him, are you?” He didn’t wait for the judge to answer. “Because I can’t allow that.”

  Quarles nodded. “Fair enough. Reed and Addison are actually the ones I came to see. You don’t mind if I call you by your first names, do you?”

  “I mind,” Reed answered. “Now, why don’t you tell us about your relationship with the dead woman, Cissy Blanco?”

  That caused a quick shift in Quarles’s perkiness. His smile vanished. “Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more private?”

  “You can use the interview room,” Aiden offered.

  Addison could see Reed’s hesitation in his bunched-up forehead. He probably didn’t trust Quarles enough to be alone with the man. Still, it wasn’t likely that Quarles would attack them in the middle of the sheriff’s office, and Aiden had made sure Quarles wasn’t armed.

  “What about Cissy Blanco?” Reed repeated the moment they were inside the interview room. However, Reed didn’t shut the door.

  “I was just informed that she and her sister were in one my foundation’s programs. I didn’t know her, of course. Over the years, there have been hundreds of youngsters in and out of those programs.”

  It sounded as if Quarles had rehearsed that answer. And he probably had. After all, Reed and she were essentially implicating him in multiple felonies, including murder.

  “Are any of the other youngsters connected to the baby farms that have been in the news?” Reed asked.

  Quarles lifted his shoulder. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any personal connections to the foundation, but there’s someone else who does. That’s why we need to talk. I can clear up any misconceptions you might have about me while pointing your investigation in the right direction.”

  “And what direction would that be?” Reed sounded even more skeptical than he looked.

  “One where you turn your attention to the guilty party.” Quarles reached in his jacket pocket and took out a piece of paper. “That should get you started. There’s the proof you need to arrest Addison’s attorney, Dominic Harrelson.”

  Chapter Nine

  Reed’s first reaction was to curse. “Not again.”

  First, Rooney had suggested that Quarles might be involved in the baby farms or some other illegal activity. Now it was Quarles’s turn to point the finger at someone else.

  “Why would my attorney be involved in this?” Addison asked Quarles.

  She didn’t sound shaken by the judge’s accusation, merely riled. Reed was right there with her on that. He had already disliked Quarles because of that earlier phone call, and now Reed’s dislike for the man went up a major notch.

  “If you don’t believe me,” Quarles said, the smugness all in his tone and expression, “take a look for yourself.” He handed Reed the paper he’d taken from his jacket.

  With Addison right by his arm looking on, Reed unfolded the paper, not sure what to expect. There wasn’t much, just two names. “Lisa Morretti and Tonya Hanley,” Addison read aloud.

  Reed looked at her to see if she recognized them, but she only shook her head. “Are we supposed to know who they are?” she challenged Quarles.

  “I thought perhaps they’d already come up in your investigation, especially since they’re both missing and were surrogates at Dearborn.”

  Addison pulled in her breath, making a sharp sound of surprise. “How do you know this?”

  “An anonymous source. Someone sent me the names in an email. Don’t bother trying to trace the account. My people have already tried, and the sender covered his or her tracks.”

  Covering up that sort of thing was fairly easy to do if you knew your way around computers, but there was plenty about this that didn’t make sense to Reed. “Why send the names to you, and what the heck do those two women have to do with Dominic?”

  “I’m still trying to piece this together, but as I said, both women were surrogates at Dearborn, and Dominic was the attorney for both surrogacy arrangements.”

  Hell. Even if this was a coincidence, Reed figured it was a bad one. Because now there were four surrogates—these two women, Cissy and Mellie—who had connections to the Dearborn Agency and Dominic.

  Well, they had connections if Quarles was telling the truth.

  Reed wasn’t about to trust anything that came out of Quarles’s mouth.

  He fired off a text to Cooper and asked him to run checks on the two women. If this panned out, then they needed to bring Dominic back in for questioning.

  “There’s more,” Quarles continued when Reed finished his text. “It’s obvious that I’ve been implicated in this unfortunate chain of events, so I’ve had a few friends doing some research to clear my name. I think there might be a problem with Rooney, the P.I. you hired,” he added, looking at Addison.

  Oh, man. The bombshells just kept coming, but before Reed could even respond, the sounds in the hall stopped him.

  “The kidnapper’s lawyer is here,” Aiden let them know. The sheriff opened the door to the room where the kidnapper was waiting, and Aiden ushered in the rail-thin man in a suit.

  “Is this the lawyer you wanted?” Aiden asked the kidnapper.

  Not a usual question for a suspect, but considering everything that was going on, Reed was glad Aiden had asked it. Better to be safe than sorry. The person who hired the kidnappers could try to sneak someone in to kill the injured man who was hopefully
about to tell all.

  The kidnapper nodded. “He’s my lawyer, Al Crouse.”

  “Make sure that camera’s off,” Crouse told Aiden, and he tipped his head to the mirror. “I don’t want anybody watching us, either.”

  “It’s off, and you’ll have the privacy I’m required to give you.” Something that clearly didn’t please Aiden, but he shut the door and headed in the direction of his own office.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be long now before the lawyer could convince his client to accept a deal. One that would trade plenty of information for a reduced sentence. Of course, in this case reduced might simply mean taking the death penalty off the table. Often that was enough to get someone to confess.

  “Now, back to that accusation about Rooney,” Addison said to Quarles. “What kind of problem did you mean?”

  “Maybe the worst kind. Why exactly did you hire him?”

  “To do some background checks.” Addison huffed and folded her arms over her chest. “If Rooney’s done something wrong, I need to know.”

  “When you first met Rooney, did he contact you?” Quarles asked, obviously avoiding Addison’s need to know comment. “Or was it the other way around?”

  Addison stayed quiet a moment. “He contacted me.”

  And that’d been a red flag for Reed. Well, now after the fact anyway. The P.I. had gone to Addison. Maybe just looking for business.

  Or maybe Dearborn and Addison were his business.

  “Just tell us what you learned about Rooney,” Reed demanded from Quarles.

  Quarles’s forehead bunched up for a moment. “It’s all speculation at this point, but I’m hoping the three of us can get to the truth. In the anonymous email I received, the person claimed Rooney was actually working for the baby farms.”

  Reed cursed. Addison added some profanity, too, and she dropped down into one of the chairs. Good grief. After everything they’d been through, they darn sure didn’t need another suspect.

  “What proof did this person have to connect Rooney to the baby farms?” she snapped.

  “None that was given to me,” Quarles readily admitted, “but there might be something in Rooney’s financials to prove a connection. I can help with a court order if necessary.”

  Normally, Reed wouldn’t have been so suspicious of a judge offering help, but this situation was far from normal. “I want a copy of that email,” Reed insisted.

  Quarles nodded. “I had my secretary print it out. I’ll call her and have her courier over a copy. But the email itself won’t help resolve any of this. The person only said Rooney was involved and didn’t give any details about that involvement.” He paused. “I know you and Sheriff McKinnon made some arrests in the baby farms. Did Rooney’s name come up at any time?”

  “No.” Reed didn’t hesitate to answer, either, but he played around with that idea for a couple of seconds.

  There’d been a lot of covering up with the baby farms. People destroying documents and even the baby farms themselves. Reed wasn’t even sure they’d managed to close them all down. Most had been individually run, and while they’d shared some resources, such as doctors, nannies and security guards, there was no central database of information to link them. Or at least nothing that had been discovered yet.

  Maybe Quarles’s anonymous source would know more about that.

  “I’d like to have a better look at your computer, too,” Reed insisted.

  Quarles certainly didn’t jump to agree. “There are files from my foundations on the hard drives. Sensitive information about donations and clients. Wouldn’t want that to fall into the wrong hands.”

  “It won’t,” Reed promised him. Of course, it was a long shot anyway, but maybe some of that sensitive information would point back to Quarles himself. “I’ll make arrangements for someone to pick it up.”

  After several long moments, Quarles finally made a sound of agreement and then checked his watch. “I have to leave for another appointment. Let me know if you need help with the court order.” With that, he turned and walked out.

  “Rooney,” Addison repeated once Quarles was out of earshot. “You really think he’s involved in this?”

  “Maybe.” And Reed hated that the possibility of his involvement could take this investigation in an even worse direction. “Since Rooney came to you, he might be trying to tie up loose ends with the baby farms. If he works for one of them, that is.”

  “Loose ends,” she repeated, and shuddered. “You mean he could be murdering Dearborn surrogates who may be tied to the baby farms.”

  Reed settled for a nod. Addison looked as if she could use an arm around her, but this time he stayed back. There was already enough between them without adding more of that.

  Addison shook her head. “But why come after me and Emily?”

  Too bad Reed had a theory for that, as well. “Rooney could believe that Cissy told you something about the baby farm operation.”

  “She didn’t,” Addison said quickly.

  And he believed her. That didn’t mean Rooney or whoever was behind this believed Addison, though. Any loose end could be dangerous at this point because an arrest in the baby farms’ case would also include murder charges. As high profile as this case was, the death penalty would be involved. That meant the stakes were so high the culprit would do anything to cover his tracks.

  Reed took out his phone so he could call Cooper and ask him to bring in both Rooney and Dominic for a second round of questioning. However, before he could do that, he heard another sound that grabbed his attention.

  A sharp groan.

  Followed by a thud.

  “The kidnapper,” Addison said, already heading in the direction of the other interview room.

  Reed stepped in front of her because the kidnapper could have overpowered the lawyer and was maybe trying to use him to escape. He definitely didn’t want Addison walking in on that.

  “Stay back,” Reed warned her.

  There was another thud, and Reed drew his gun. So did Aiden when he came running up the hall toward them. Reed got there ahead of him, and he threw open the door of the interview room.

  And cursed.

  Because both the lawyer and the kidnapper were lying in crumpled heaps on the floor.

  * * *

  SINCE REED AND Aiden were in front of her, it took Addison a moment to see what had caused their alarm.

  There was no blood, but both men were lifeless.

  “Poison,” Reed said immediately.

  Addison looked around to see if anyone had gained access through the window, but not only was it shut; it had bars on it. There weren’t any vials or telltale signs of poisoning, but someone had certainly done this to them.

  “Are they dead?” she asked, pressing her hand to her chest to try and steady her heartbeat.

  Reed went to Crouse. Aiden, to the kidnapper. Aiden pressed his fingers to the kidnapper’s neck and then shook his head.

  Addison sucked in a hard breath and looked at Reed, who was hovering over the lawyer. “He’s still alive. Get an ambulance.”

  Aiden immediately stepped back to make the call, and Addison went closer to Reed. It was hard to be upset at the death of the kidnapper, the very man who’d taken her baby and perhaps also murdered Cissy. But a dead man couldn’t give them answers. And judging from the lawyer’s shallow breath and icy complexion, he wasn’t going to be alive much longer, either.

  “What’d you two take?” Reed demanded.

  Crouse’s eyelids fluttered open for just a moment. “Pills. It’ll kill us,” he whispered. “It has to kill us.”

  Obviously, it was doing just that—killing him. “Why did you do this?” Addison asked.

  Though his eyes were unfocused, Crouse managed to meet her gaze. “All necessary. I was dying anyway.
”

  And that was all he managed to say. Crouse’s breath rattled in his chest, and the life went out of his eyes. Even though Addison didn’t have any experience watching someone die, she was certain the lawyer was gone.

  Leaving Reed and her with no answers.

  “Hell,” someone said, and she whipped in the direction of the door to see Colt standing there.

  Aiden repeated the profanity. “Crouse was searched before I let him back here,” he insisted.

  It wouldn’t have been hard to conceal pills, especially if Crouse had come here to kill the kidnapper and then commit suicide. There didn’t appear to be any signs of a struggle so maybe that meant the kidnapper had cooperated with Crouse’s plan.

  “But why did this happen?” Addison asked. “If the kidnapper planned on killing himself all along, why come here to do it?”

  No one, including Addison, had an answer for that.

  “We’ll start with Crouse,” Reed finally said. “Someone almost certainly hired him to do this.”

  “I can get his financial records,” Colt volunteered.

  “And I can push to get an I.D. on the kidnapper,” Aiden added. “Once we have that, then maybe we can work out his connection to Crouse and anyone else involved in this.”

  It was a start, but Addison had to wonder if it’d be enough. The person who’d set this up had no doubt covered his or her tracks. Maybe there wouldn’t be any trail, financial or otherwise, to follow.

  “I need to get Addison out of here,” Reed said, and that was when she realized she was shaking. Something she’d been doing a lot of lately.

  She silently cursed her trembling hands and wanted to be stronger, but she was literally looking at two dead men. Plus, she wanted to get back to Emily and make sure she was all right. Addison certainly hadn’t forgotten about the danger, but this was a stark reminder of what their attackers were capable of.

  “I’ll follow you back to the ranch,” Colt said, and then he looked at Aiden. “You’ll call us as soon as you find out anything?”