by Barb Han
“Just routine under the circumstances in which—” Tommy glanced at one of the plastic-covered cards “—Ms. Davidson was found.”
When Tommy took down the information and then returned the cards, Milton refocused on Jennifer.
“I can’t believe I almost lost you,” he said, his voice had more syrup than Granny’s pancakes when she’d started losing her sight but refused to wear glasses.
If anyone asked Tyler’s opinion, and Tommy would as soon as they were alone, he’d say the guy was a fake. That didn’t exactly make him a criminal.
“Mr. Milton, do you and Ms. Davidson mind answering a few questions?” Tommy asked.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Sheriff, but I’d like to spend some time alone with my fiancée,” Milton said.
Tyler would bet his horse Milton would. He stifled a snicker.
“But I do understand that you’re just doing your job,” Milton added and Tyler was sure it was part of the concerned-fiancé act.
“Given that you seem to sympathize with my position, I hope you won’t mind if I ask Ms. Davidson a question,” Tommy said.
“Of course,” Milton responded.
“Ma’am, would you be more comfortable giving me your statement alone?” Tommy asked. “I’d be happy to clear the room.”
Milton balked at the request. Before he could puff up again, Tommy held out a warning hand.
“It’s part of the job,” he said to Milton. Then he turned his full attention to Jennifer. “Ma’am?”
She looked to be contemplating her answer.
“Why on earth would she want that?” Milton’s cheeks turned a shade of red as he focused on Jennifer.
Her weak smile died on her lips as soon as he turned back to the sheriff and didn’t that make the hair on Tyler’s neck stand at attention. Was she being manipulated? Abused? Milton didn’t seem to want her to speak up for herself.
Tyler ground his back teeth, thinking about a man being physical with the opposite sex.
“No, thanks,” she said to Tommy.
“Were the two of you riding ATVs earlier today?” Tommy asked Milton.
“Yes, and I lost her on the trail so I left and went back to our motel to wait for her,” Milton said.
Tyler’s eyebrow shot up about the same time as Tommy’s. Tyler also noted that she’d deliberately kept the truth from him earlier about being alone on the trail. He’d seen the tracks himself. What was she hiding?
The two of them might have gotten into a fight and it could have gotten physical. He could’ve taken off and then she could’ve chased after him before the crash.
“You decided to leave her unprotected in unfamiliar territory?” Tommy asked.
“We’d had a fight.” James turned toward Jennifer with a stern look.
“I searched everywhere for her once I lost her on the trail. I figured she was mad and needed to blow off steam.”
“Do you realize there are black bears in these parts of Texas?” Tommy asked, incredulous.
“No. I didn’t. I would never...” Milton let that sentence hang in the air. “I searched for her everywhere and couldn’t find her so, like I said, I decided to give myself time to cool off, as well. I went back to my room, got worried, and when she didn’t answer her cell I called around local hospitals.”
“But not the police station?” Tommy asked.
Milton shook his head.
“Did you take off before or after she’d been in an accident?” Tyler asked, since he hadn’t had a chance to brief Tommy on the situation yet.
Milton whirled on Tyler.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“I was just wondering if you knew she’d been in an accident before you took off to ‘cool down’ as you said,” Tyler elaborated.
“If I’d known anything had happened, I’d have stayed with her,” Milton shot back, turning his attention to Jennifer with another overexaggerated look.
That rang more warning bells.
And there was another thing bugging Tyler. If these two were engaged, wouldn’t she be wearing a ring?
“You said the two of you were getting married,” Tyler began. “Set a date yet?”
“We’re working on it,” Milton said. “Why?”
“Just checking to see how far along your plans are,” Tyler said coolly.
“And why would that be any of your business?” Milton asked, not bothering to hide his disdain. He’d been reasonably respectful to Tommy since he was the law, but the man must see Tyler as an inconvenience. A lot could be said about a man who treated people poorly if he saw them as beneath him.
Tyler shrugged, his casual demeanor was clearly getting to the guy. “Thought it was customary for the woman to wear a ring.”
Milton’s gaze shot to Jennifer. “We haven’t made it that far. I just asked her.”
Tyler studied Jennifer’s reaction. Her expression was blank, her eyes dead as she forced a smile.
She was doing exactly what Milton said and yet she feared the man. Had Tyler read this situation wrong? Sure, none of it was adding up and she looked less than thrilled to be around Milton, but no one was forcing her to be with the guy.
Tyler couldn’t figure why anyone would stay in a bad relationship. And yet it happened all the time.
“There are two sets of tracks leading up to the accident. And one left. How do you explain that, Mr. Milton?” Tyler asked.
“I can’t because I wasn’t there,” Milton responded.
“Is that true?” Tommy asked Jennifer.
She glanced up at Milton first, and then nodded.
If she was going to corroborate Milton’s story, then maybe Tyler needed to mind his own business. He’d tried to defend a few buddies who were in the middle of domestic fights and had learned just how quickly tempers could escalate. Tyler wasn’t afraid of Milton; he could handle that jerk. But he couldn’t make Red leave the guy.
If she wouldn’t give him anything to work with, then he had to come at this from another angle.
“Have the two of you had any lifestyle changes lately?” Tommy asked Milton, picking up on Tyler’s tension. “In preparation for the wedding?”
Milton’s face scrunched up. “No.”
“Haven’t taken out any life insurance policies on each other? Named the other as the beneficiary?” Tommy pressed.
“No. Nothing like that.” Milton’s face looked ready to explode from anger. “Am I under arrest, Sheriff?”
Not yet, Tyler wanted to say.
“Can I see you in the hall for a minute?” Tyler asked Tommy.
“I was just about to suggest the same thing,” Tommy said and then turned to Milton. “I’ll be back as soon as I take a statement from the landowner.”
The door had barely closed when Tyler turned around and asked, “How is it that a man could, first, leave his fiancée outside in a strange place alone and, second, not call the police when she’s missing for hours?”
“Good questions,” Tommy said. “He’s a jerk. I just don’t have anything that I can charge him with. I need something solid in order to take him in.”
“Did you notice how scared she looks?” Tyler asked. “Or the fact that he was so concerned about her that he decided to take a shower before he bothered to figure out where she’d gone or what might’ve happened to her?”
Tommy frowned, nodded. “It’s not illegal, though.”
“His story doesn’t add up and he’ll most likely run out of town the minute our backs are turned.” Frustration ate at Tyler.
“You’re right on both counts, but he has every right to go where he pleases for now. As far as I can tell no crime has been committed.”
“He’s hurting her.” Tyler clenched his fists.
>
“Which is a shame, but not against the law unless someone witnesses it or she steps forward on her own to press charges.”
“It should be.” Tyler knew this guy was up to no good.
“I’ll stay on him. If he so much as makes a wrong turn while he’s in town I’ll question him for it,” Tommy said.
“There has to be more you can do than that,” Tyler said.
“We can scare him,” Tommy said after thinking about it for a minute. “We better get back inside. I don’t want to leave him alone with her longer than we have to.”
“I have a few more questions for him,” Tyler said through clenched teeth.
Tommy paused before opening the door. “Go ahead and ask everything you want. See if you can get him to mess up and admit to something. Without her willing to go against him, we have nothing otherwise.”
Milton stood, rising to his full height when they reentered the room, which was still considerably less than both of the other men.
“Earlier, you said you lost your fiancée after a fight?” Tyler took up his position leaning against the wall near the doorjamb.
“She was tired and decided to turn back but I wasn’t ready to go, so I told her how to find her way to our original meet-up point.” Was Milton changing his story?
“I thought you said the two of you got into a fight,” Tyler said.
Milton glanced down and to the right, a sure sign he was about to lie.
“That’s what we fought about,” he said, quickly recovering, as pleased with himself as if he’d just won the big stuffed animal at the state fair.
Clearly the man had just made another mistake. First he said he lost her, then he said that she turned back on purpose—which was it?
“You can’t have it both ways, so pick one,” Tyler said point-blank.
“Well, originally she said she was going to turn back, but then I got a bad feeling about her being out there alone in a place she didn’t know and so I turned back to look for her, thus find her.” Another satisfied smirk crossed Milton’s features.
If that wasn’t a sack of dung bigger than a bull, Tyler didn’t know what was. Who did Milton think he was fooling?
Tyler’s right hand fisted. He flexed and then forced it to relax.
“Good that you had time to clean yourself up, you know, while you were so busy being worried about your fiancée here,” Tyler pressed.
Another frustrated pause.
“When I couldn’t find Jennifer I figured she got angry at me for leaving her, so I decided to be ready to smooth things over when she came back to the motel,” Milton said.
“Even though you couldn’t find her when you went looking for her? You still assumed she’d be able to find her way back?” Tyler asked, not letting up. “And where was this meet-up point you mentioned?”
Milton didn’t answer.
In all honesty, the man could walk out at any time. But then, that would leave Jennifer alone with Tyler and the sheriff. No way did James Milton want that.
“What are you doing in town, anyway?” Tyler continued.
“We came for the...nature. We wanted to get out of the city for a long weekend and decompress before kicking our wedding plans into high gear,” Milton said. “Life from here on out is going to be crazy, isn’t it, honey?” Milton shot another look at Red.
“What trail were you on? Do you remember anything about it that stuck out?” Tyler asked.
“Not really.” Milton shrugged.
“Was it rocky or were there trees?”
“Trees,” Milton said, trying a little too hard to sound convincing.
“Which direction did you come from?” Tyler asked.
“We came from the north,” Milton supplied.
Tyler didn’t immediately respond.
“You sure about that?” he finally asked.
“Yeah. North, right, honey?” Milton said, glancing down at Jennifer.
She managed a weak smile and a nod.
No one got to Diablo’s Rock from the north on an ATV. Tire tracks at the scene indicated the opposite. Tyler slanted a look at Tommy.
“That’s impossible,” Tyler said. “Tracks came from the south.”
Anyone could get confused in an area they aren’t familiar with, but this guy wouldn’t be confused about direction because he was wearing one of those expensive compass watches.
“Guess I didn’t notice.” Milton shrugged. “If I’m not under arrest, then can we be finished with this conversation?” His lips flattened, indicating his patience had run out.
Well, guess what, buddy? So had Tyler’s.
And they were far from done.
Chapter Three
“Where’s the doctor?” Milton asked, rotating toward Jennifer and effectively turning his back on Tyler and Tommy. “How much longer do you have to stay in here?”
“In a hurry to go somewhere, Mr. Milton?” Sheriff Tommy asked, blond eyebrow arched.
“I’d like to get her home where I can take better care of her,” Milton said. “It’s impossible to get any rest in one of these places.”
“And where is home?” Tommy asked.
“Louisiana, like on my license. You saw that earlier,” Milton said. “You’d like to come home with me, wouldn’t you, darling?”
There he went with that darling business again. Tyler wanted to vomit. Again, Milton was pouring it on a little thick.
While Tommy was finishing his interview, Tyler excused himself in order to talk to Jennifer’s doctor, Dr. McConnell.
McConnell was a no-nonsense middle-aged woman who’d been working at the hospital since graduating medical school. A local, she wore jeans and boots under her white coat and she’d been a close family friend since longer than Tyler could remember.
“Is there any chance she’s being abused?” he asked McConnell when he was sure they were out of earshot.
“I’m bound by oath not to respond to that question,” Dr. McConnell said. “However, since you found her, I don’t mind telling you that she has quite a few bruises on both of her arms.”
“I’m guessing that’s a yes,” he said.
“She’s been through a lot.” McConnell frowned. “I’m not saying she’s been abused, but even if she has there’s no way to prove anything. And, of course, nothing can be done unless a victim is willing to talk about it or press charges.”
“In theory, would you have offered that kind of help by now?” he asked.
“I would’ve. We’re not talking about a child here, where I’d be forced to report suspected abuse and Tommy could step in,” Dr. McConnell said. “I can only help patients who want it.”
Tyler didn’t like what he heard.
“When I see a patient with bruising like we’ve discussed, I’m always sure to have another conversation with her. I can promise that she’ll know that there are folks who can help. I’ll offer assistance, but it’ll be up to her to accept,” Dr. McConnell said, placing her hand on Tyler’s shoulder. She had to reach up, considering she wasn’t more than five foot three.
“Much obliged to you, doc,” Tyler said.
“Before you go, any word on the investigation? It’s been two weeks since I submitted the results from the third-party analysis of the toxicology report,” she said, and he knew that she was talking about his parents. She’d been one of his mother’s closest friends and he could see how much the doctor missed her in the dark circles under her eyes. The recent news that his parents had been murdered hit their friends hard, their children harder.
“Nothing so far, except that Tommy is reviewing the case file personally,” he said. Tyler and his brothers benefitted the most from their parents’ deaths so they’d be at the top of anyone’s suspect list. There were no other leads at the t
ime.
Dr. McConnell gave that a minute.
“Give your brothers a hug for me,” she finally said.
“I will.”
Walking toward Jennifer’s room, Tyler’s footsteps fell heavy. Even though he wanted to take James Milton out back and teach him a thing or two about why real men didn’t hurt women, the reality was that there wasn’t much else he could do at the hospital.
Tommy seemed to be wrapping things up by the time Tyler returned to the room. As much as it soured him to do so, Tyler shook James Milton’s hand. Milton’s wasn’t moist or hot, indicating that he was fairly relaxed about the situation.
But should he be?
A man who hit a woman might be a practiced liar. Tyler didn’t care much for people who couldn’t be bothered to tell the truth. And this jerk was poised to walk right out the door and go scot-free. He hadn’t violated any laws that Tommy could arrest him for. Tyler could see Tommy’s frustration written all over his face.
“One last thing,” Tommy said to Milton. “Did you have permission to ride on the O’Brien ranch?”
“Permission?” Milton echoed. His eyes widened when he heard the name O’Brien. Most people knew it and had a similar reaction.
“The land that you and your fiancée were riding ATVs on is owned by the O’Brien family,” Tommy continued. “It’s protected by a fence and No Trespassing signs are posted everywhere. I’ve been out hunting on that property myself. So, my question to you is, were you aware that you were breaking the law when you took your recreational vehicles on the land?”
“Well, no, we hadn’t planned on being on his property. We got lost. Is that a crime?” For the first time in the interview, Milton looked like he might break a sweat.
“Being lost? No. Trespassing on someone else’s land and destroying their property? Yes.” Tommy turned to Tyler. “Will you be pressing charges today, Mr. O’Brien?”
Tyler might not be able to stop Jennifer from walking out of the hospital with this jerk but he could slow them down.
“As a matter of fact, I will,” Tyler said, shifting his gaze to Milton. “You say that you innocently got lost, but how do I know that you weren’t out on my property, illegally hunting?”