Cold Case at Carlton's Canyon

by Rita Herron

  Dry farmland and terrain passed by him as he veered onto the highway toward Sunset Mesa. He’d heard that the town had gotten its name because of the beautiful colors of the sunset.

  Radiant oranges, reds and yellows streaked the sky, painting a rainbow effect over the canyon that was so beautiful it made him wish he was here on vacation, not hunting down a killer. But he never stayed in one place more than a few days and wouldn’t get attached to this town either.

  He navigated the road leading into Sunset Mesa, wondering about the new sheriff in town.

  He’d met her once and she seemed okay, but he hoped to hell she wasn’t some flake, that she had a head on her shoulders and would cooperate with him. Police work was his life, and he couldn’t tolerate a law officer who wasn’t committed to the job.

  A small ranch pointed to the north; then the sign for Sunset Mesa popped into view. Like every other small town he’d been in, the town was built on a square. The buildings looked aged, a Western flair to the outsides, a park in the middle of town with small local businesses surrounding it.

  The sheriff’s office/jail/courthouse was housed at the far right, an adobe structure painted the same orange that he’d noted in the sunset.

  Early-evening shadows flickered along the pavement as he parked in front of the building, climbed out, adjusted his Stetson and strode to the front door. When he’d first spoken to Sheriff Blair, he’d formed an image of her in his mind.

  Her voice had held a husky note, a sign she was probably mannish. Then he’d met her briefly once and realized she was nothing like he’d pictured.

  Even the sheriff’s uniform hadn’t disguised her curves and beauty. Not that it mattered what she looked like. He was here to do a job and nothing else.

  The dead girl’s face taunted him, and he straightened and opened the door. Getting justice for that victim was his priority.

  Once he’d failed at his job and it had cost another young girl her life. He wouldn’t fail this time.

  No one would stop him from finding answers.

  Wood floors creaked with his boots as he entered, the pale yellow walls and artwork reminiscent of days gone by. A row of black and white photographs of the town and the canyon lined one wall, rugged landscapes on another.

  A noise echoed from the back and he frowned. Heated voices. A man’s.

  No, two men’s.

  He rapped on the wall by the door leading to the back. A minute later, a woman appeared wearing the sheriff’s uniform.

  A petite woman with lush curves and hair the reddish-brown color of autumn leaves. Amanda Blair. Rather—Sheriff Amanda Blair.

  Her looks sucker punched him again.

  Eyes the color of a copper penny stared up at him, a strained look on her pretty face.

  “Hello, ma’am.” He tipped his Stetson. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Sergeant Justin Thorpe with the Texas Rangers.”

  She looked him up and down, and for the first time in his life, he wondered if he came up lacking. Not that he usually cared about a coworker’s opinion of him, but something about her made him want her admiration.

  But her look gave nothing away. “Yes, I remember.”

  He couldn’t tell from her tone how she meant the comment. But it didn’t sound good.

  “Did someone call you about coming here today?”

  He frowned, confused. Maybe she’d already heard about the body they found. “No, I needed to talk to you about the missing-persons cases.”

  “You heard about Kelly Lambert?”

  “Kelly Lambert?” Justin tried to remember the names of all the women on the list so far, but hers didn’t ring a bell. Had she received word about the identification of the body before he did?

  Her expression clouded. “The girl who just disappeared last night. Her father and fiancé are in my office now.”

  Justin’s gut clenched. That explained the raised voices. But Kelly Lambert wasn’t the woman they’d found in the creek because that woman had been there for months.

  Which meant Kelly Lambert might still be alive.

  Dammit, he and Sheriff Blair needed to find her before she ended up dead like the poor woman they’d just dragged from the water.

  Chapter Two

  Amanda fought the fluttering of awareness that rippled through her at the sight of the tall, dark handsome Texas Ranger. She’d met him briefly once when Sheriff Camden from Camden Crossing had asked them to confer on the case involving his sister, and had finally managed to get his sexy image out of her head.

  Now he was here. Back. Planning to work with her.

  And dammit, she needed his help.

  She couldn’t help but stare at him. He towered over her, his massive shoulders stretching taut against his Western shirt, his green eyes a surprise with his dark coloring and black hair.

  She sized up his other features—a chiseled jaw, a crooked nose that had probably been broken and a cleft in his chin. By themselves his features didn’t stand out, but the combination made him look tough, rugged, a man not to be messed with.

  But that silver star of Texas shining on his shirt reminded her that he was here on business.

  Amanda never mixed business with pleasure.

  She’d worked too hard to overcome the stigma of being a female in a man’s world and couldn’t backtrack by getting involved with a coworker.

  No one would respect her then.

  “I think we’d better start over,” Sgt. Thorpe said. “You said that another woman has gone missing?”

  Amanda nodded. “Kelly Lambert. She didn’t make it home last night and her father and fiancé haven’t heard from her.”

  “So it’s been less than twenty-four hours,” Justin said. “Too early to file a report.”

  Amanda shrugged. “Actually it has been over twenty-four hours. They haven’t heard from her since early yesterday morning. She’s been planning her wedding, and she never made it to her bridal shower this afternoon. A shower she was supposedly excited about.”

  “Maybe she got cold feet and ran off.”

  “It’s possible, but I didn’t get the impression that she was that kind of girl from her father and the groom-to-be.” Amanda folded her arms. “Wait a minute. If you didn’t know about Kelly, why are you here?”

  The Ranger’s mouth twitched. “Because the body of a young woman was discovered in Camden Creek earlier.”

  Amanda’s chest started to ache. “You think it’s Kelly?”

  Suddenly a choked sound echoed from behind her, and Amanda spun around to see Mr. Lambert and Kelly’s fiancé standing at the doorway.

  “You found her?” Mr. Lambert asked in a broken voice.

  Kelly’s fiancé, Raymond Fisher, paled. “Please, God, no...”

  Amanda tensed and glanced at Sergeant Thorpe. “Mr. Lambert, Mr. Fisher, this is Sergeant Thorpe with the Texas Rangers. Sergeant Thorpe?”

  Justin motioned with his hands as if to calm the panic in the men’s eyes. “We haven’t identified the young woman yet, but it’s not Kelly. The ME thinks this woman has been dead a couple of months.”

  Relief mingled with horror on the father’s face. “But you think this woman’s death is related to Kelly’s disappearance?”

  The fiancé stumbled forward and sank into a wooden chair near the desk. He leaned his head on his hands, a sob escaping. “You think she’s dead, don’t you?”

  Amanda’s mind raced to the missing-persons file on her desk. Carly Edgewater and Tina Grimes were recent names on the list. It could be one of them.

  But compassion for the fiancé and Kelly’s father forced her to keep her thoughts to herself. She was a professional. Her job was to find answers.

  She also needed to keep these men calm. If Kelly had been abducted, they might know something to help track down the kidnapper.

  “It’s too early to tell that,” Amanda said as she patted Fisher’s shoulder. “Right now all we know is that Kelly didn’t show up for her bridal shower and hasn�
��t contacted you. Maybe Sergeant Thorpe is right and Kelly just needed some time alone. She could have ducked out to think things over before the wedding.”

  “No,” Fisher said with a firm shake of his head. “Kelly wouldn’t run out on me. She loved me, and I loved her. She was excited about the wedding.”

  “He’s right,” Lambert said. “Kelly wasn’t the kind of girl to run out on anyone. She was dependable, smart, had a good head on her shoulders.” He fumbled with his phone and angled it toward Amanda. “Even if she did want some time, she would have told one of us. I’ve called her at least fifty times in the last few hours, and she hasn’t answered or returned my calls.”

  “I’ve called her, too,” Fisher said, pulling out his phone. “I’ve sent dozens of texts, too, but she hasn’t responded. I even drove by her place, but her car wasn’t there and neither was she.”

  “What kind of car does she drive?” Amanda asked.

  “A red Toyota.”

  “Do you know the license plate?”

  He jotted it on a sticky note from her desk.

  Sergeant Thorpe exhaled. “I understand your concern,” he said in a gruff voice. “Sheriff Blair and I will do everything we can to find your daughter.”

  Amanda’s lungs squeezed for air as she stepped aside to call her deputy, Joe Morgan. She quickly explained the situation.

  “Drive around and see if you can find Kelly’s car. She drives a red Toyota.” She gave him the license plate and hung up. Maybe if they located Kelly’s car, they’d find a clue as to what had happened to her.

  She just hoped they found her alive.

  * * *

  JUSTIN CONSIDERED THE circumstances and knew he had to remain objective and treat this woman’s disappearance like he would any other case. To assume Kelly had been abducted by the same person who’d killed the woman in the creek—and possibly a half dozen others who still hadn’t been located—was too presumptuous.

  Making assumptions was dangerous. It could lead him to miss important details and send him on a wild goose chase.

  After all, it was possible that Kelly’s fiancé was lying. He and Kelly could have had a major blow-up and she could have run off. She might need time to compose herself before contacting her father. Or hell, she might be off planning some sort of surprise for her fiancé.

  But his gut instincts told him they were dealing with a serial criminal who’d been kidnapping female victims for nearly a decade and would continue until he was stopped.

  But he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t explore every option. With the publicity surrounding the ongoing missing-persons case, someone could use the disappearances as a smoke screen to cover up a more personal murder.

  Like a fiancé getting rid of his girlfriend if she decided to call off the wedding...

  “Sheriff, why don’t you take Mr. Lambert back for coffee while I talk to Mr. Fisher for a few minutes?”

  Amanda’s gaze met his, questions looming, but separating victims or suspects was customary, so she nodded.

  “Come on, Mr. Lambert. I’ll start the paperwork for the missing-persons report.” She glanced at Justin and Fisher. “Would you guys like coffee?”

  Fisher shook his head no. “I don’t think my stomach could handle it right now.”

  “Coffee would be good,” Justin said. “Black.”

  Her brows rose a second as if to say that she wasn’t his maid, and his mouth quirked. After all, she had offered.

  She led Lambert back through the door to the back and returned a moment later with a bottle of water for Fisher and a cup of coffee for him.

  “Thanks,” he said with a small smile.

  A zing of something like attraction hit him when her hand brushed his as she gave him the mug. Her mouth twisted into a frown as if she’d noticed it, too, and she jerked her hand away and rushed back to talk to Lambert.

  Sweat trickled down Fisher’s forehead. Was he simply upset about Kelly’s disappearance or was he nervous because he was hiding something?

  Justin took a sip of coffee, surprised at the taste. Most law enforcement workers could handle a gun but didn’t know a flying fig about how to brew decent coffee.

  Amanda Blair could do both. Intriguing.

  “Mr. Fisher, how long have you and Kelly been together?” Justin asked.

  Fisher gripped the water bottle with white-knuckled hands. “We knew each other in high school but didn’t date until our senior year. We got engaged last Christmas. Kelly took some time after high school to do some mission trips, then decided to get her teaching degree. She just graduated with a masters in education and is looking for a teaching job.”

  “What do you do?”

  Fisher shrugged. “I’m a financial consultant. I just started with a new company in Austin. We were moving there after the wedding.”

  “Any problems between you and Kelly lately?”

  Fisher shook his head, his leg bouncing up and down. “No.”

  “No recent fights? Arguments over where you’d live? Money?”

  “Not really. We get along great.”

  “Do you and Kelly live together?”

  Fisher nodded. “We moved in together our senior year of college.”

  “What did her father think about that?”

  “At first he wasn’t too happy,” Fisher admitted. “But eventually he realized it made sense. And when a student was raped on campus, he said he was actually relieved she was living with me.” Emotions made his voice warble. “He felt like she was...safe.”

  Justin heard the guilt in Fisher’s tone. He understood that kind of guilt. “Do Kelly and her father get along?”

  Fisher frowned up at him. “Yeah, why?”

  “Anything you tell us about Kelly might help us find her,” Justin hedged. “So they get along?”

  Fisher nodded. “Kelly’s mother died a while back and they went through a rough patch. That was before we started dating. But they were both grieving and adjusting. She said the last two years they’ve been close.”

  “How did her mother die?”

  “Cancer. She was sick a long time.”

  So no skeletons that might suggest Lambert had hurt her. “What did Mr. Lambert think about the upcoming marriage?”

  Fisher sipped his water again. “He was cool with it.”

  “But?”

  Fisher shifted in the seat. “At first he wanted her to wait until we saved more money. But Kelly assured him we’d be okay.”

  “You have money?” Justin asked.

  Fisher shrugged. “A little. I had scholarships for college, so I saved over the summers, enough to get us by until we both started getting paid.”

  “So Mr. Lambert gave you his approval?”

  “Yes,” Fisher said a little curtly. “Now why all these questions? Shouldn’t you be doing something to find Kelly?”

  “We will do everything possible, Mr. Fisher. But like I said earlier, we need to know everything about Kelly to help us.” He hesitated and decided to take another tactic. “You said Lambert wanted you to wait until you were more financially sound. Did he offer to help out financially?”

  Fisher shook his head. “He was paying for the wedding, but not our rent or bills. I saved the money for a down payment on a house.”

  Admirable of the young man. Maybe he had nothing to do with Kelly’s disappearance.

  If not, he’d have to look at the father.

  And the serial killer they had nothing on yet...

  “How are Lambert’s finances?” Justin asked.

  “He owns the bank in town. How do you think?”

  “Being a smart ass won’t help you,” Justin said, his voice sharp with warning.

  The young man shoved his hands through his hair. “Sorry, I’m just nervous and worried.” He gripped the edges of the seat. “I feel like I need to be out looking for Kelly.”

  He’d check Lambert’s financials just to verify Fisher’s statement. If Lambert needed money and had an insurance pol
icy on his daughter, that would provide motive. Although, the man appeared visibly distraught.

  If he had money and had nothing to do with her disappearance, and this case wasn’t related to the serial kidnapper, Lambert might receive a ransom call.

  Fisher unscrewed the lid of the water bottle and swallowed a huge gulp.

  “What about arguments between the two of you?”

  A slight hesitation. “We disagreed over seating my uncle Jim next to her cousin Monique ’cause Monique will talk your head off. But that was small stuff. Nothing she’d leave me over.”

  “How about exes?”

  His lips tightened, and he glanced to the doorway. “Her old boyfriend, Terry, called her a couple of weeks ago. Said he heard she was getting married and wanted to talk to her before we tied the knot.”

  “Talk to her about what?” Justin asked.

  Fisher shrugged, dropped the water bottle cap, then bent over and picked it up.

  “She didn’t tell you?” Justin pushed.

  “No,” Fisher said. “I asked her if she still had feelings for him, but she laughed it off.”

  “Did he still have feelings for her?”

  Fisher toyed with the bottle cap, rolling it between his fingers. “She said he didn’t.”

  “But?”

  Fisher scowled. “But I saw a text he sent her and it sure as hell sounded like he did.”

  The anger in the man’s tone raised Justin’s suspicions. “Did she agree to see him?”

  Fisher squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them and took another sip of water. “I don’t know. When she didn’t come last night, I thought...maybe she’d met up with him.”

  Justin pushed a pad in front of Fisher. “I’ll need his name and any information you have on him.”

  “I don’t know his number, but his name is Terry Sumter.”

  “When was the last time you saw or spoke with Kelly?” Justin asked.

  Kelly’s fiancé dropped his head into his hands with a pained sigh. “Yesterday morning for breakfast,” Fisher said. “We had waffles, then she said she had a million things to do—a dress fitting, shopping for bridesmaids’ gifts.... The list went on and on.” Regret flickered in his eyes. “I was only half listening. I had no idea it might be the last time I ever saw her.”