Lone Wolf Lawman

by Delores Fossen

  “Leta Dooley,” Addie provided.

  Even though Cord was on the phone in the other room, he obviously heard her and nodded. He also repeated the woman’s name to the person he’d called.

  Apparently, both Cord and Addie knew the list of victims as well as Weston. Leta was the first known victim anyway. The Moonlight Strangler’s signature wasn’t to hide bodies, but it was possible he’d done that early on when he’d started his killing spree. If so, there was no telling how many victims there were.

  “You got what you need from Ogden?” Jax asked. “The jail guards are here to move him.”

  Weston nodded. “I got what I need for now. But, Ogden, if any of this is a lie, I’ll be making a personal visit to the jail.”

  Weston ended the call and turned to Jericho. Both Cord and he were still on their phones while Addie volleyed attention among all three of them.

  “Daisy has to be okay,” she whispered.

  Hell. Addie was shaky again. Looked ready for another round of morning sickness, too, so Weston had her sit back down on the sofa.

  “It’s possible Daisy was involved in the gunrunning operation,” Weston reminded her.

  Or involved with the murders.

  Weston kept that to himself since Addie was already pale enough. Best not to remind her that her former babysitter could have been an accessory to murder. Or even more.

  “My brother Chase is a marshal, but Jericho said Chase was tied up on an assignment and can’t get here in time to go to the safe house. Will you go with me?” she asked.

  That wasn’t a question Weston expected to hear. He’d been sure Addie wanted to put some distance between them. Especially since distance seemed to be the only thing that would prevent his mouth from locating hers again for more of those mind-clouding kisses.

  “For the marshals, I’ll be just a job to them,” she added, and she slid her hand over her stomach.

  Yeah, she would be. But not for Weston. “I’ll go with you.”

  And somehow figure out how to run his part of the investigation from the safe house.

  He hadn’t intended to do it, but he slipped his arm around her and pulled her closer. Along with brushing a kiss on her forehead. It didn’t help. Well, didn’t help with that jittery look in her eyes, and it earned him a really nasty glare from Jericho.

  Then one from Cord.

  Weston didn’t budge, not even when the pair finished their calls and came toward them.

  Jericho finally dropped the glare and cursed before he started talking. “According to his office, McCain’s on a leave of absence. Family emergency that just popped up, his assistant said. I just put out a BOLO on him. On Daisy, too. The county sheriff is on the way to her house to see if she’s gone back there.”

  Weston doubted she had. If Daisy was innocent, she was no doubt afraid for her life, especially since she’d already been injured in the latest attack. And if she was guilty, then she wouldn’t want lawmen to find her, and her house was the first place they’d look.

  “Did you freeze her bank accounts?” Weston asked.

  Jericho nodded. “I’m trying to do the same to McCain, but it’s a little trickier with him. He’s well-connected, and he’s trying to use those connections to stonewall us. It won’t work. We’ll find him.”

  Weston hoped that was true, but McCain had a head start on them, and the lawyer could use those very connections and his resources to disappear.

  Cord finally finished his call, and he made his way back toward them, as well. “Daisy’s husband, Ernest, died in a tractor accident on or very near the same day Addie and I were abandoned.”

  That fit with what Daisy had told them.

  “The coroner originally listed it as a suspicious death but then changed it to an accident,” Cord explained. “The coroner was Alton Boggs’s uncle.”

  Hell. That wasn’t a good connection. Well, except that it might make it easier to get Boggs’s DNA now if they could prove Boggs conspired with his uncle to cover up a crime.

  “I’ve got my sources working on finding a link between the gunrunning, Daisy, her husband, Boggs and Canales,” Cord added. “But the coroner died years ago, and his notes were destroyed in an office fire.”

  Convenient. But more likely a cover-up.

  “I’ll get my sources working on it, too,” Jericho insisted. “I also want to find out who the heck Steve Birchfield is and if that was an alias. It could have been Boggs or Canales using that name.”

  Cord only nodded, and he glanced at the notes he’d made. “The first victim, Leta Dooley, lived about ten miles from Daisy, and her body was found three days after Ernest’s tractor accident. She had a record for prostitution, and at the time of her murder, she was living with a lowlife who beat her on a regular basis. A few years later, he was arrested for—you probably guessed it—gunrunning.”

  Bingo. They were coming full circle now, all the players in place at the time of the gunrunning operation and the start of the murders. Maybe Leta had learned the wrong thing about the wrong person.

  Like Boggs.

  “Is Leta’s old heartthrob still alive?” Jericho asked, the sarcasm dripping from the term of endearment.

  Cord shook his head. “Dead, too. Car accident. And yes, the same coroner signed off on it.”

  And that meant Boggs had some explaining to do about this uncle.

  “There’s more,” Cord went on. “Leta had a son. The kid disappeared into the foster care system after she was murdered, but I’ve set tracers on him. He might know something about what really happened to his mom.”

  Weston hoped all of this would lead to something.

  The sound of a car engine had Weston, Jericho and Cord all drawing their weapons, but when Weston hurried to the window, he holstered his. That’s because he recognized the marshal who stepped from the car. It was Daniel Seaver, and he and his partner were there to take Addie, and him, to the safe house.

  Jericho headed to the front door to let them in.

  “You should get your things ready to go,” Weston told Addie.

  She nodded. “My bag’s upstairs, but I’d like to freshen up before I leave.”

  Since Addie still didn’t look too steady on her feet, Weston took her arm to help her navigate the steps. However, they didn’t make it far before Jericho’s phone buzzed. He put it on speaker, and Weston stopped when he heard Jax’s frantic voice from the other end of the line.

  “Bad news,” Jax said. “You need to shut down the ranch now. Lonny Ogden just escaped.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Addie figured she should feel panic over Ogden’s escape, but maybe she was past that point. This seemed like just another setback in a string of setbacks.

  “How did this happen?” she asked at the same moment Weston and Jericho voiced a similar version of the question. Hers, though, wasn’t laced with profanity like theirs.

  “I’m not sure,” Jax answered. He seemed out of breath as if he were running. “But it appears someone ambushed the prison guards when they were leaving the hospital with Ogden.”

  Sweet heaven. “Jax, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I wasn’t there. I was on my way to the station when I got the news. I’m heading to the hospital now to see if I can pick up Ogden’s trail.”

  “Be careful,” she said, but she wasn’t even sure if Jax heard her because he’d already ended the call.

  “Is that there trouble?” one of the marshals asked as he walked up the steps to the porch.

  At first, Addie thought he’d overheard the call from Jax, but the marshal’s attention wasn’t on them but rather on the black limo that was speeding up the road toward the house.

  What now?

  Weston didn’t wait to find out. He pulled Addie away from the door and back into the family room. “Stay put,” he insisted, drawing his gun again.

  Jericho, Cord and both marshals did the same.

  Since there was enough firepower to protect her, Addie went
to the window and peeked out. And scowled. Boggs and Canales stepped out of the limo. She should have known, since there weren’t many people who would arrive in a limo.

  She caught a glimpse of the personalized license plate, and the first three letters were AGB, Boggs’s initials.

  “It’s just me,” Boggs said as if that was all that was necessary for them to put down their guns.

  None of them did.

  “Really? Are all those weapons necessary?” Canales snarled. “We’re not criminals.”

  “The verdict’s still out on that,” Weston snarled right back. “Why are you two here?”

  “Well, I tried the sheriff’s office first,” Boggs explained, “but the deputy said Addie, the sheriff and you were all at the ranch. We have to talk.” Again, spoken like gospel, and he started toward the porch.

  “Don’t come any closer,” Weston warned him. “And keep your hands where I can see them.”

  “See?” Canales said to Boggs as if proving a point. “These people think you’re a criminal, and they’re treating you like one. This is what you have to stop if you want to stand a chance winning the election.”

  Canales shifted his attention to them. Specifically to Weston and Jericho. “You need to back off with the mud-slinging. If not, you’re both going to be facing defamation-of-character lawsuits. Addie, too. She’s telling lies when she should be keeping her mouth shut.”

  That brought her out of hiding. Not to her brothers or Weston’s approval, but Addie did step in the doorway.

  “I haven’t lied,” she insisted. “Can you say the same?”

  “Of course,” Canales quickly answered. Boggs stayed quiet. “I’m sure you told a boatload of lies to that Daisy Vogel. Now you’ve got her riled up. She called the newspaper, trying to get them to run a story about Boggs and me. Thankfully, the editor came to his senses.”

  More likely, the editor had been paid off by Canales, Boggs or both.

  “You know where Daisy is?” Weston asked him. There wasn’t a drop of friendliness in his tone. Nor was there in the look he gave her when he took up a protective stance in front of her.

  “At her house, I assume,” Boggs said.

  “You assume wrong. She’s missing,” Cord provided.

  “And who are you?” Canales asked, sparing him a glance.

  “Agent Cord Granger. My biological father is the Moonlight Strangler.”

  Clearly, neither Canales nor Boggs had been expecting that. And Addie wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let these two in on that information.

  “How do you know he’s your father?” Canales asked, stepping closer and studying Cord. However, he stopped moving when Cord aimed his gun at him.

  “I had a DNA test done.” Cord’s voice was calm, a discussing-the-weather tone. “I’d like for that word to get around. I’d also like for it to get around that I’m fully cooperating with the FBI so they can help me remember anything about the killer. Like his identity, for instance,” he said, staring at Boggs.

  Great. Cord was making himself bait. Maybe to protect her. But she didn’t want him hurt, and it didn’t matter that she’d just met him.

  “How long have you known about him?” Boggs asked Addie. He tipped his head to Cord.

  “Not long,” she settled for saying. “How long have you known about him?”

  Boggs jerked back his head, obviously not expecting the accusation. “I didn’t know.”

  She believed him. But Canales was a different story. He didn’t seem nearly as surprised as his boss.

  “You can handle these two clowns?” Cord asked Weston. “Because I’ve got errands to run.”

  Finding Daisy was no doubt part of those “errands.” They needed that to happen fast. Ditto for finding Ogden.

  Cord waited until Weston had nodded before he holstered his gun and headed down the steps. “I’ll be in touch,” Cord said. But he paused just long enough to glance at her. “Stay safe.”

  “You do the same.” She doubted he’d take her advice, though, especially since Cord wasn’t headed to a safe house and had just set up what he no doubt hoped would be a showdown with a serial killer.

  “We should be going, too,” Canales insisted when Cord got in his truck and drove away. “It’s obvious the only way to settle this is to go ahead and file some lawsuits.”

  Without taking his attention off Cord’s truck, Canales went back to the limo, got in and slammed the door.

  Boggs stayed put. He gave an uneasy glance over his shoulder. “Sometimes, Ira can have a very narrow focus.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Jericho snapped.

  Another uneasy glance from Boggs. “He just wants to make sure that you know I’m innocent. Which I am. I wish you’d believe me so we don’t have to go through with those lawsuits. That’ll only keep tongues wagging.”

  “If you’re as innocent as you claim, why don’t you submit to a DNA test?” Weston asked.

  Boggs looked just as surprised about that as he had Cord’s revelation. “Why would I do that?”

  “To prove you’re not the Moonlight Strangler.”

  That seemed to tighten every muscle in Boggs’s body. “I refuse to be a suspect in any of this.”

  “You can refuse all you want, but you’re a suspect whether you call yourself one or not,” Weston informed him. “Tell me about the gunrunning that was operating over in Comal County thirty years ago. When you’re finished, convince me that your uncle wasn’t a dirty coroner on the take.”

  Boggs cursed and his eyes narrowed. “You’re making some very dangerous assumptions, Ranger Cade.”

  “That’s not convincing me you’re innocent,” Weston told him. “How much do you know?”

  The look Boggs gave him could have frozen the Sahara. “I know nothing,” he insisted, and he stormed toward the limo and got inside.

  Almost immediately, the driver took off. Addie and the others stayed there, watching until the car was away from the house.

  Once it was out of sight, the marshals came onto the porch. “By the way, I’m Daniel Seaver,” the bulkier man said. “This is Kirk Vance. And we should get going to the safe house before you get another round of visitors who shouldn’t be here.”

  Weston introduced them to Addie, and then told her that he’d get her suitcase from her room upstairs.

  Jericho looked back at her. “Your brother’s either an idiot or he has a death wish.”

  Addie was thinking it was definitely the latter.

  “You’re my brother,” she reminded Jericho. Something she wanted to clear up right away. “I’m not sure what Cord is to me yet, but I have room for one more if it comes down to it.”

  The corner of Jericho’s mouth twitched. “You’re sure about that? That’s not what you used to tell Jax, Chase, Levi and me when you were a kid. You always said you had way too many brothers.”

  They shared a smile. Since Jericho was more of the scowling type, Addie took it as the rare gift that it was. From a brother she loved.

  Weston came back downstairs, his bag in one hand. Hers in the other.

  “You’ll be okay?” Jericho asked her. “You won’t take any stupid chances.” That last one wasn’t a question.

  She nodded. But Jericho took his brotherly/sheriff duties one step further. “Take care of her,” Jericho said like a warning to Weston.

  “I will.”

  Normally, Addie would have balked at her brother taking charge of her. And of Weston accepting the handoff. But after everything that’d happened, she was willing to take all the security she could get.

  Like the other times they’d been outside, Weston got her moving as quickly as possible to the car, and they got in the backseat with the marshals in the front. Marshal Seaver didn’t waste any time getting them on the road. When Addie looked back at the house, Jericho was already talking on the phone. No doubt trying to end this danger so she could come home.

  Of course, that would be just the start of yet another hurdle.r />
  With Weston.

  The baby was still months from being born, but they would need to make arrangements and set some ground rules. Too bad she had no idea what kind of ground rules to put in place. Or if they’d even do any good. Her body seemed to have its own rules when it came to Weston.

  “You know the drill,” Seaver said to Weston. “I’ll have to drive around until I’m sure we aren’t being followed. You might want to grab a nap,” he added to her.

  Addie thanked him, but no way would that happen. She was exhausted, but her mind was whirling with everything she’d just learned. Still, she closed her eyes and hoped to settle down the nerves. It didn’t work until Weston slid his arm around her and eased her against him so she could use his shoulder as a pillow.

  Yes, her body definitely had its own notions when it came to Weston.

  She could almost feel the tension drain from her. It didn’t last, though. They’d only been on the road for fifteen minutes or so when Weston’s phone buzzed, jarring her nerves right back to the surface.

  “Sorry.” Weston moved away from her so he could take his phone from his pocket.

  “Put it on speaker,” she insisted when she saw Jax’s name on the screen.

  “I decided to make this a conference call with Jericho,” Jax greeted, “so I could update you all at the same time.”

  While Addie was all for getting updates, she knew from her brother’s tone that he was about to deliver more bad news. She tried to brace herself for it and prayed that Cord’s challenge to the killer hadn’t led to some kind of violent confrontation.

  “The cops went to McCain’s house, and he wasn’t there,” Jax explained. “There were signs of a struggle. Some blood, too.”

  No. She’d been sure if they could find the lawyer that he’d eventually give them some info that would lead them to the Moonlight Strangler. Or at least to the person who’d actually hired him.

  “Someone’s tying up loose ends,” Weston grumbled. “Unless the scene was staged.”

  “Not likely on the staged part. Too much blood for that, and there were some expensive paintings and such that had been damaged. But SAPD did manage to get something from McCain’s computer records.”