Trouble with a Badge

by Delores Fossen

  Because that kind of connection could get James killed. Alexa was already on edge, and Levi wasn’t sure she could handle another death associated with her or her investigation.

  Levi led Alexa to the observation room, and he immediately spotted Marcos through the mirror. Levi hadn’t actually met the man, but he recognized him from his pictures. Early thirties, spiky reddish-brown hair, the kind of style that stood out in a cowboy town. Ditto for the slick silver-gray suit. He looked more like a rock star on the way to an awards ceremony than a criminal on his way to prison. Hopefully.

  Marcos was well past the basic criminal stage. Alexa would be testifying against him for money laundering and extortion, but Levi was betting that was just the tip of the iceberg. Too bad the cops hadn’t been able to pin something on him that would get him off the streets for the rest of his life. And maybe they could. After all, someone had murdered those two men.

  There was another suit seated next to Marcos. His lawyer, no doubt. The man was at least twenty years older than Marcos and was poring over some kind of document in front of him. He was talking in hushed tones to his client, but Marcos had his attention nailed to the mirror.

  “Alexa is here, isn’t she?” Marcos asked the moment Jericho stepped into the interview room. He didn’t wait for Jericho to answer and definitely didn’t stop staring at the mirror. “Why doesn’t she come in here so we can talk face-to-face? I like her face. I dream of doing...things to it.”

  And, yeah, that sounded like the threat it probably was. While there was no way the man could see her, Levi felt Alexa’s arm tense.

  “I hate that he scares me,” she whispered.

  “You’re smart to be scared. Marcos is a dangerous man.”

  “I’m here,” Jericho announced to Marcos, and he flashed a sappy sweet smile that was a little scary. “Guess you’ll have to dream of doing things to my face instead.”

  Marcos angled his cold blue eyes at Jericho, silently dismissing him, but Levi thought Jericho might have managed to tap into just a bit of the temper Marcos was known to have.

  Jericho dropped the pictures on the table in front of Marcos. Alexa tensed again, and Levi knew why. The bodies had been cleaned up some in the footage the ME had streamed to them, but these photos were of the bodies as they’d been found.

  Bloody.

  Levi slipped his arm around Alexa, something he’d been doing a lot lately, and she melted against him. A good fit. Something he shouldn’t have noticed. Or felt. But he did.

  “Friends of yours?” Jericho asked, tipping his head to the photos.

  Marcos spared each a glance. “Former employees. I believe their names are Hector Litton and Charlie Hagerman. Is that why you had me dragged in here?”

  Jericho took his time responding. “In part. In part, too, because I just like dragging you places.”

  There it was. Another flash of Marcos’s temper. His eyes narrowed.

  “Where were you last night?” Jericho pressed. “And in case you missed the cue of being in an interview room, I want to hear your alibi.”

  The lawyer leaned in and whispered something in Marcos’s ear.

  “I was at a party with friends and stayed the entire night,” Marcos answered. “My attorney will provide you with a list of names of the half dozen guests and host who can vouch I was there.”

  “Of course,” Alexa muttered. “If he orchestrated the attack, he would have made sure it couldn’t be pinned on him.”

  “That’s a pretty darn big alibi. Those two brainless wonders didn’t have alibis though.” Jericho motioned toward the photos of the dead men. “Reminding you that this is an official interview and that lying will get your butt in even hotter water, convince me those two former employees weren’t following your orders last night.”

  The lawyer leaned in again, no doubt to whisper something else to his client, but Marcos pushed him away, and when he turned back to Jericho, there was a cocky look on Marcos’s face. “There’s a presumption of innocence in the law, I believe, so if I tell you those men weren’t working for me, then it’s your job to either believe it or prove otherwise.”

  Jericho looked just as cocky. “Yeah, I’m working on the proving otherwise part since there’s no way I’m buying that you’re innocent.”

  If that bothered Marcos, he didn’t show it. “Do I get to play with Alexa now?”

  “No, our playtime’s not over yet. Tell me about Marshal Elroy Lockwood,” Jericho demanded without pausing.

  For the first time since the interview started, Marcos seemed surprised. And uncomfortable. “What about him?”

  “I asked first,” Jericho countered.

  Marcos huffed. “I know Lockwood. I was friends with his younger brother back in high school. Why? Is Lockwood accusing me of something, too? Because if he is he’s lying. I haven’t seen Lockwood or his brother in a long time.”

  Alexa glanced at Levi, the question in her eyes—was this for real? Or was Marcos simply trying to get them off Lockwood’s trail? Of course, maybe Marcos really didn’t know that Lockwood could have been one of the names involved in the money laundering scheme.

  “You’re sure about that?” Jericho pressed. “Because presumption of innocence doesn’t hold water if I’ve got a credible witness who says you’ve dealt with Lockwood recently.”

  Jericho wasn’t telling the truth about the credible witness since the info had come from a secondhand source—the PI who’d told Alexa. But Marcos didn’t know where Jericho had gotten the info.

  Maybe it would stay that way until they could find James and give him the protection he might need if he did indeed have some kind of proof as to this dirty partnership in the money laundering.

  “So, are you or have you ever been in business with Lockwood?” Jericho asked.

  “No.” Marcos smiled, looked straight in the mirror again. “Alexa.” He clucked his tongue. “Are you trying to frame me again?”

  “I didn’t frame him,” Alexa spat out. “I found evidence against him, turned it over to the cops. And because of that snake I can never have a normal life.”

  Levi tightened his grip on her and braced himself for the tears to start.

  “Alexa?” Marcos called out. He stood, tried to go closer to the mirror, but Jericho blocked his path. “Come out, come out wherever you are. It’s not like you to hide behind a mirror. Or a badge.”

  “Don’t let him goad you,” Levi insisted. But if she heard him, she gave no sign of it. She had her attention fixed to Marcos.

  “If I’m the bad guy you think I am, then why don’t you look me in the eyes when you say it?” Marcos taunted. “I mean, it’s not like you won’t have to face me in court. You will.” His teeth came together for a moment. “And my lawyers will bury you and any of your Crockett lawmen who have ganged up against me.”

  “That’s enough,” Jericho warned him.

  “Nowhere near enough.” Marcos smiled at him. “Must feel like a knife to the gut for Alexa to be sleeping with your brother. It’s surprising that she would bring Levi into this since she believes I’m capable of killing. You’d think she’d be worried about her precious pretty cowboy with that shiny new badge.”

  Alexa bolted before Levi could stop her. “He knows I’m here. And if he tries to attack me then we win because you can arrest him.”

  “I don’t want you in there with him,” Levi insisted.

  It didn’t work. Nothing short of going caveman and throwing her over his shoulder would have stopped her. And he couldn’t blame her. Marcos had essentially just called her out.

  Alexa threw open the door to the interview room and glared at Marcos. “You have something to say to me?”

  The lawyer didn’t just lean this time, he got up and moved between Marcos and her. Jericho did some moving, too.

  �
�Not a good idea,” Jericho said to Alexa. But then he looked at her. “Of course, if I were in your shoes, I’d want to face him down, too. Maybe give him a good swift kick where it’ll hurt the most. But just remember, you’ll get plenty of satisfaction from putting him behind bars.”

  Levi stepped behind her, eased his arm around her waist. Marcos didn’t miss the gesture, and it probably confirmed in his mind that Alexa and Levi were indeed sleeping together.

  Marcos smiled, glanced at her stomach. “Funny, you don’t look as if you just had a baby.”

  “Looks can be deceiving,” she countered. “I just want you to know that you can’t intimidate me into backing off.”

  Marcos made an I-beg-to-differ sound. “The trouble with caring for someone is that the caring makes you vulnerable. Like Levi, for instance. Right now he wants to come at me and beat me to a pulp.” Marcos slid his gaze from Jericho to Levi.

  Levi forced himself to shrug. “Well, you do talk a lot and that’s annoying, but why would I want to beat you up? All I have to do is wait a few weeks and you’ll have plenty of inmates who’ll do that for me.”

  Marcos sure didn’t shrug. The flash of temper came again. “I won’t be railroaded by a bunch of cowboy cops and her.” He jabbed his index finger at Alexa. “So help me, you’ll all pay for this.”

  “How exactly will you do that?” Levi asked calmly.

  Now it was Levi who was on the end of Marcos’s finger jab. “You’ll soon find out. Do you think I’ll just let this slide?” His voice got louder with each word. “Do you think there won’t be payback?”

  Levi wanted to move Alexa out of the way, but she held her ground even when Marcos started toward her. He didn’t get far, and this time it wasn’t Jericho who intervened. It was the lawyer. He latched on to his client’s arm.

  “We should be going now,” the lawyer warned Marcos. The man looked at Jericho. “Call me if you’re filing new charges against my client.”

  Marcos obviously wanted to hold his ground, but the lawyer was persistent and finally got him moving toward the front door. Levi didn’t do anything to slow them down because he wanted Marcos far away from Alexa and Violet. Of course, because of the upcoming trial he couldn’t keep Marcos away from Alexa forever, but at the moment he wished he could do just that.

  Great.

  Now he was feeling protective of her. Not a good combination with the attraction. And worse, Levi figured it was only a matter of time before Alexa, he or both of them acted on that attraction.

  Marcos shot them all one last glare before his lawyer manhandled him out of the door. As soon as they were outside, Marcos threw off the lawyer’s grip with far more force than necessary. And then Marcos punched him.

  “Look, he’s having a temper tantrum,” Jericho joked.

  The lawyer rubbed his jaw, dodged another punch and wrestled Marcos into the limo waiting just outside the door. Too bad Marcos hadn’t let that temper fly and assaulted Levi. But Levi figured there was no way the lawyer would have let that happen.

  “Are you okay?” Levi asked Alexa.

  She nodded. But it was a lie. Alexa was shaken and rightfully so. Marcos had just threatened all of them, and the threat wasn’t over unless they could figure out how to tie Marcos to the recent attacks.

  “I’ll check on Violet,” she said, turning in that direction.

  However, she didn’t get far before the front door opened again. Levi automatically drew his gun in case Marcos had decided to act on his threat right here, right now.

  But it wasn’t Marcos.

  It was Scottie.

  Scottie didn’t have a weapon visible, but he was still wearing that bulky coat. He also had an envelope in his left hand.

  Levi so wasn’t in the mood to deal with another fool right now, but he had asked Scottie to bring in the so-called evidence he claimed to have. Still, the timing sucked.

  “Wait in Jericho’s office,” Levi told Alexa.

  But Scottie had already gotten a good look at her. His expression was pleasant enough. Until it landed on Alexa.

  “The lady PI,” Scottie said, and it wasn’t a friendly greeting. “Finally we meet.”

  “Former PI,” Alexa clarified. She sounded a lot steadier than Levi knew she was. “What did you do to Tasha?”

  Scottie held up his hands. “Nothing. I’m here to find out what you did to her. Did you convince Tasha to hide from me?” He didn’t give Alexa even a second to answer before he continued, “If so, tell me where she is.”

  Levi had heard more than enough. He holstered his gun and went closer to Scottie so he could frisk him. No gun. Of course, Scottie could have left it in his car since he must have known he’d be searched.

  “This isn’t a good time to test my patience,” Levi warned him. “Now, unless you’ve got something for me, then you’re about to be under arrest for withholding evidence, obstruction of justice, trespassing at the ranch and any other charge I can come up with.”

  That got Scottie’s glare off Alexa and on Levi. Good. Now, maybe she’d go into the office with the baby so he could finish up with Scottie.

  “You have no grounds to arrest me,” Scottie said once he got his jaw unclenched. “There’s the evidence I have regarding the Moonlight Strangler. But if you want to file those charges, you should look at the woman cowering behind you.”

  Levi wanted to groan. Or punch the guy. “And why would I arrest her?”

  Scottie smiled. “Because this evidence belongs to Alexa.”

  Chapter Eight

  Alexa just stared at Scottie, waiting for an explanation about that stupid accusation. But Scottie only handed the envelope to Levi.

  “I don’t have any evidence connected to the Moonlight Strangler,” Alexa insisted, and she repeated it after she turned to Levi.

  No matter what was in that envelope, Levi had to believe her. He was just starting to trust her again, and she didn’t want to lose what little ground she’d gained with him. She didn’t want to lose him.

  Not that he was hers to lose.

  But he certainly wouldn’t be offering her his shoulder or his arms if he thought she had kept information about the Moonlight Strangler from him.

  She hurried to Levi to get a better look. Jericho made his way there, too. It was a plain white envelope and it was addressed to her or rather to her WITSEC identity. It’d been sent to the house that the marshals had arranged for her. The house where she’d never actually stayed.

  “I’ve never seen that before,” she insisted. Then she snapped toward Scottie. “How’d you get it?”

  Scottie ignored her question and kept his attention on Levi. “Look inside,” Scottie instructed.

  The envelope had already been opened, and it had no return address or postmark on it.

  “What is this?” Levi asked. “And you can also answer Alexa’s question about how you got it.”

  “Just look inside,” Scottie repeated. “Read it and then we can talk about that deal you promised me. Tasha’s whereabouts in exchange for information about the Moonlight Strangler.”

  Levi shook his head. “The only deal I promised you is that I’d arrest you if you withheld evidence.”

  Scottie clearly didn’t like that, but he motioned for Levi to take out the letter. Both Jericho and Alexa leaned in so they could read it. It was short, just a single typed paragraph. Her attention zoomed to the bottom where she saw the sender’s name.

  The Moonlight Strangler.

  “‘Alexa-girl’,” Levi read aloud. The killer, if this was indeed from the killer, had used her real name instead of the aliases she’d used while in WITSEC. “‘You’re a hard person to find. Bet you’re sleeping with one eye open, huh?’”

  She did. And not solely because of the Moonlight Strangler. She had another bogeyman,
Marcos, that she had to watch even more.

  “‘You don’t have to be scared of me,’” Levi continued to read. “‘I’ve decided I don’t want you dead after all. Better for you to stay alive so you can keep beating yourself up about your friend’s death. I do so love watching a girl in misery. If you want to talk about it, go to the Starry, Starry Night website and log in to the chat room. That’s where you’ll find me. Limited time only, though. Hurry.’”

  Levi studied the words a moment longer before he looked at her. “You’ve never seen this.” It wasn’t a question, and his gaze slashed to Scottie. “Because I’m guessing you stole it.”

  Scottie shrugged. “Not really. It was on her porch, and I was going to put it the mailbox, but then the letter fell out.”

  “What a crock,” Levi concluded. “You stole it, opened it and read it. When did all of that happen?”

  Jericho didn’t wait around to see if Scottie was going to add to that lie. He said something about checking out the website and he went to one of the desks to use a computer.

  “Day before yesterday,” Scottie admitted, though he didn’t seem the least bit concerned that he’d withheld possibly critical evidence for hours. Alexa hoped the killer was still checking into that chat room so Jericho could try to contact him.

  And find him.

  Of course, she doubted the Moonlight Strangler would just give her his location, but he might let something slip. That was a big might, but mights were the only thing they had when it came to the killer.

  “How did you find me?” Alexa asked. “How did you find the house where I was supposed to be staying?”

  Scottie froze. For just a second. “I didn’t find you, exactly. But rather I found Tasha. I knew she was about to deliver the baby, so I got in touch with hospitals, looking for someone who matched her description.”

  “I’m betting that involved hackers,” Alexa said, and she filled in the blanks. “So, you managed to locate Tasha, saw me with her and then what? You didn’t follow me to the house, because I didn’t go there.”

  “No, but I got some photos of you. Asked around the area, and when I learned your name, or rather your fake name, I got your address, went to the house to talk to you. That’s when I found the letter.”