“She wasn’t, and you’re saying that just because you’re riled that I wouldn’t pay you off.”
Frantically shaking her head, Rhonda turning to Tucker. “We need to talk, but not with him around.”
Rhonda threw open the door to the other interview room. Gene Buford was cuffed at his hands and feet, and he was seated with his court-appointed attorney. Both turned in Rhonda’s direction, as did the guard who’d brought Buford over from the jail.
The moment seemed to freeze. Gene Buford was in the process of getting to his feet when he looked into the hall where Laine, Tucker, Rhonda, Darren and his lawyer were standing.
Buford eased back into his chair.
“We’ve waited long enough,” Buford’s attorney snapped. She was a petite brunette who looked as if she’d just finished law school. Hardly the voice of authority.
“And you’ll wait some more,” Tucker snarled back, shutting the door. He tossed Darren one of his hard glares, and both Darren and his lawyer finally left.
“Sorry,” Rhonda mumbled. “I’m just shaken up.”
“Because of Darren Carty?” Tucker asked.
She nodded. Then shook her head. Her fingers were trembling when she brushed her hair from her cheek. “It’s not a good idea for me to be here.”
“You’re safe,” Tucker assured her, and he led Laine and Rhonda into the empty interview room. “Why are you scared of Darren?”
“My cousin Martin told me that Darren was a suspect in Dawn’s murder and that he might be the person who’s been following me.”
Rhonda sat next to Laine, and the woman turned to her when she continued. “I’m pretty sure someone’s been following me, and I think it’s connected to Dawn.”
“How?” Laine asked. “Why?”
“I’m not positive, but I think it has to do with that black-market baby operation where we were held captive.”
Laine was almost certain of that. “How well did you know Dawn?” Laine pressed.
Rhonda drew in another shivery breath. “We were held together for a while. Until they moved her to another place. That’s around the time Sergeant McKinnon here rescued me.” She paused, looking up at him. “I can never thank you enough for that.”
Tucker nodded. “We hope you can help us find Dawn’s killer.”
“You mean it isn’t Darren?”
“It could be, but we’re looking into several possibilities.” Tucker didn’t mention that her cousin was one of those suspects. “Tell us what’s been happening since you were rescued.”
Rhonda put her hand on her stomach. “Well, obviously I had my baby. A boy that I gave up for adoption. I can barely manage to take care of myself, much less a baby.”
Laine couldn’t argue with that. She’d read through the woman’s bio on the drive to the sheriff’s office, and even though she was in her early thirties, Rhonda had never held a real job for more than a few months. She was smart, though, and had managed to finish a college degree while serving time for embezzlement and extortion. She’d been out of jail for six years now and in that time had stayed clean and off the radar.
Well, until she’d been taken captive and then rescued at the baby farm.
Of course, Rhonda looked as if she had gotten past her shady roots. At least when it came to her appearance.
“Dawn talked about Darren while you were both being held captive?” Tucker continued.
Rhonda nodded. “She was scared of him and even hinted that he might be the reason she was there. Dawn had tried to get away from him, you see. He didn’t really want her, only the baby, and after they had an argument, she told him she didn’t want him to raise the child. She’d planned to give it to someone else, someone who’d be a good father.”
That meshed with some of the other things they’d learned, but Laine still had a hard time imagining Darren kidnapping his pregnant girlfriend to keep her from giving up his baby. Of course, she also understood this need to be a parent and have a family. Maybe Darren had just taken that need too far.
Rhonda twisted a plain gold ring on her thumb. “What about the baby? Wait, I remember right before Dawn was moved, she found out she was carrying twins.” She leaned closer to Tucker. “Are they here? God, please tell me Darren can’t get his hands on them.”
“No, they’ve been moved to a safe house,” Tucker said.
A lie, of sorts, since the babies were actually at the ranch, but Laine was glad he wasn’t giving out their whereabouts. Especially to this woman, who unnerved her. Maybe it was the perfect clothes and manicure, but something about Rhonda didn’t feel right.
“Good.” Rhonda repeated it as she eased back deeper into her chair. “Dawn would have wanted them kept out of harm’s way. Did either of you get a chance to see Dawn before she was killed?”
Tucker shook his head, and Rhonda turned to Laine, obviously waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t know her,” Laine settled for saying.
“Really? Because I’d heard you were involved with the baby farm investigation.”
“I was, uh, removed from the case.”
“Oh.” Rhonda cast an uneasy glance at Tucker, who thankfully didn’t elaborate.
“Tell me about your cousin Martin Hague,” Tucker went on. “Any chance he was involved with the baby farm?”
Rhonda’s eyes widened, and it seemed to take her a moment to realize Tucker was being serious. “Why?”
“Because he’s shown a lot of interest in Dawn’s babies, that’s why.”
Rhonda just shook her head again. She looked to be on the verge of dismissing any possibility of her cousin’s guilt. Then she blew out a long, frustrated breath. “Maybe.”
That got Tucker and Laine’s complete attention. “Maybe?” Tucker pressed.
“Martin’s always been ambitious. Always looking for an angle to make money.”
“Then why’d he become a social worker?” Laine asked.
“I think it was because of the adoption opportunities. There’s a lot more money in that than people think, and the job would give him contact with women he could coax into giving up their babies.
“You didn’t know he’d helped with some adoptions?” Rhonda added when they just stared at her.
“No, and I’d like some details about that,” Tucker insisted.
“Well, there won’t be records, that’s for sure. Martin’s too careful for that. He just connects pregnant women with potential buyers...I mean, parents who’ll pay for a private adoption.”
“And how do you know this?” Laine asked.
“Because that’s what he tried to do to me. He found some family that would have paid me twenty grand for my baby. I didn’t like them when I met them so I said no. A couple of weeks later, I was kidnapped and taken to that hellhole of a place that the press dubbed the baby farm.”
She and Tucker exchanged relieved glances. Finally, this was some fodder to stop Hague and that blasted court order. Maybe. Rhonda had already said there’d be no records, but it was possible to connect the extra money in Hague’s bank account to the adoptions of his clients.
Rhonda shook her head again. “I don’t think Martin’s responsible for my kidnapping. He’s greedy, but I don’t think he has the grit to do something like that. Besides, he probably thought he could just set up another private adoption for me. That’s what he did after I was rescued and had my son.”
“Hague helped with that?” Tucker asked.
“Yes. It was a different family from the first one, and I really liked them.”
Tucker frowned. “They paid you?”
Rhonda nodded. “I didn’t exactly have any extra cash after you rescued me, so yes, I took some money for the private adoption. That money’s almost gone now, and I need a safe place to stay.”
Well,
that money explained the expensive-looking clothes.
Tucker hesitated a moment. “I’ll see what arrangements I can make for a safe house. Wait here.” He motioned for Laine to follow him. She did, and when they stepped out into the hall, he shut the door.
“I don’t trust her,” Laine immediately whispered. “Women in hiding from a would-be killer don’t usually have time for a manicure.”
Tucker made a sound of surprise to indicate it wasn’t something he had even considered. “I want to get Rhonda’s accusations about Hague on record.” He glanced at his watch. “All this might take a while, and I still need to talk to the idiot who wants a plea deal. I can have someone take you back out to the ranch.”
It was tempting, but Laine didn’t even get a chance to consider it before Tucker’s phone rang.
“It’s Darren,” he relayed to her. “What do you want?” he demanded, putting the call on speaker.
“I need to tell you something that might pertain to Rhonda.”
Whatever it was, it obviously wasn’t good, because Laine could hear the doom and gloom in Darren’s voice.
Tucker glanced at the door and then the screen, and led her to the break room at the end of the hall. Probably because he didn’t want Rhonda or the gunman behind door number two listening in on the conversation.
“What about Rhonda?” Tucker prompted Darren once he was sure the chat would be private.
“I just found a message on my voice mail from Dawn. Things have been so hectic around here, and I just got around to checking it.”
Tucker jumped right on that. “When did she call?”
“Yesterday. She sounded terrified and wanted me to come pick her up. She said she was in Sweetwater Springs. Is that where she was killed?”
“You said this was possibly about Rhonda,” Tucker reminded him.
“Yeah.” Darren sounded more than a little irritated, maybe because Tucker hadn’t answered his question. “It’s a bit hard to understand what Dawn is saying, but it sounds as if she says ‘I’m running from her. I thought I could trust her, but I can’t.’”
Tucker huffed. “And why would you think that meant Rhonda?”
“Because why else would she have lied and said Dawn was afraid of me? She wasn’t. And the only reason Rhonda would have lied would have been to make you suspicious of someone other than herself. She’s a suspect, right?”
“I’m not sure what she is,” Tucker admitted. “But I do want a recording of that message. Send it to me here at the sheriff’s office so I can get it to the Ranger lab for analysis.”
“I will, but so help me, McKinnon, you’d better not try to use this against me in some way.”
“You got something to hide?” Tucker was already talking to the air, because Darren had hung up.
Tucker looked at her, and she could practically see the wheels turning in his head. “Her manicure means something, huh?” he mumbled.
“I’d like more proof than that, too,” Laine countered, “but maybe it’s a start.” She paused. “Unless Dawn was talking about me when she said she thought she could trust her.”
“You?” he challenged. “She came to you for help.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she got to my office and thought I’d betrayed her or something. Maybe she even thought that I was the one who sent those killers after her. I could be the her in the message she left for Darren.”
“She still trusted you enough to ask you to protect her twins.” Tucker stayed quiet a moment, then scrubbed his hand over his face. “I need to question Rhonda more about her relationship with Dawn.”
Laine agreed, and this time she stayed back, not wanting to compromise what was now an official interrogation of a possible suspect and not just an interview with a possible informant.
Tucker threw open the door of the room where they’d left Rhonda, and he cursed.
The room was empty, and Rhonda was gone.
Chapter Eleven
Well, this day sure as heck wasn’t going as Tucker had planned. Rhonda was on the run again, and he was no closer to solving the case than he had been when he’d woken up. Something had to give, and it had to give soon.
“Maybe we can catch up with Rhonda,” Laine suggested. “She couldn’t have gotten far.”
“Not we,” he instantly corrected. “No way do I want you out there trying to hunt down a suspect.”
And since Reed was the only deputy in the sheriff’s office, Tucker didn’t want him out there, either. He was about to ask Reed to call for someone from the jail to look for Rhonda, but then his phone rang, and he saw the woman’s name on the screen.
“Where are you, Rhonda?” Tucker demanded the moment he answered.
“I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t stay there. I heard you talking to Darren, and I figured he was setting me up to take the fall for him. Or to be attacked. I don’t want to die like Dawn.”
Tucker groaned. “No one was going to attack you while you were here.”
He hoped. Still, Tucker couldn’t rule out the possibility that Rhonda had a legitimate concern. Laine’s expression let him know that she felt the same way. Darren had the means necessary to go after anyone who could link him to Dawn’s murder, and maybe Laine’s ex thought Rhonda fell into that category.
“My offer stands,” he added to Rhonda. “I can arrange for you to go to a safe house.”
It wasn’t a totally selfless offer on his part. Tucker could send her to a place where someone could keep an eye on her if it turned out she’d had some part in the baby farms. A place where he could also keep her alive if she was innocent in all of this.
“I don’t want your safe house,” she insisted. “I just want to be safe, and I’d been doing a good job of that on my own. I hope I didn’t make a stupid mistake coming to see you,” Rhonda went on, but then she stopped, mumbled some profanity. “I think someone’s following me again. I need to go.”
Before Tucker could say anything that might stop her, Rhonda hung up. He immediately hit Redial and tried to get her back on the line, but the call went straight to voice mail. She’d no doubt turned off her phone.
Great.
Tucker didn’t want to know how long it’d be before he could speak to her and coax her into coming back in for questioning. And besides, maybe it wasn’t a good idea bringing her back if someone was truly following her.
Of course, that if was just that. An if. Rhonda could be lying through her teeth about everything, especially her lack of involvement in Dawn’s murder.
“You still need to talk to Hague,” Laine reminded him.
Yeah, because Rhonda’s cousin had some things to explain that might shed some light on this case. Or at least some light on Hague himself. Tucker located his number, and the man answered on the first ring.
“I’m on my way there to see Rhonda,” Hague said right off the bat. “I’ll be at the sheriff’s office in about ten minutes, and I’m bringing my lawyer with me.”
“Too late. Your cousin’s already left. But how the heck did you know she’d be here?”
Hague paused and made a huffing sound, maybe because Tucker hadn’t bothered to ask nicely. Tucker wasn’t in the mood for stroking egos.
“She called me, all right?” Hague finally answered. “She said she was going to see you, and I thought it’d be my chance to talk to her, to see how she’s doing. I also thought she might need a lawyer since she could be involved in something illegal.”
Interesting. Especially since Rhonda had her doubts about Hague’s innocence. Or maybe she’d just wanted to cast a guilty light on him.
“Illegal, as in the baby farm?” Tucker pressed.
“I don’t know. I just know that she’s acting even stranger than usual. I figure she’s in some kind of trouble. Did she really just leave?” Hague asked,
sounding genuinely disappointed. Or else he was doing a good job of faking it.
“She did. She called me right after she left and said someone was following her again. Is it you by any chance?”
“No.” Hague stretched that out a few syllables. “And if you’re only going to accuse me of more crimes, then this conversation is over.”
“It’s not over. Not until you explain to me where you got all that extra money in your bank account. Rhonda seems to think it comes from the referral fees that adoptive parents pay you. Is that true?”
It was silent for several long moments. “Rhonda can have a big mouth. She shouldn’t have said that.”
Maybe not, but Hague wasn’t denying it. “Is it true?” Tucker repeated.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Hague countered, which was practically code for Yeah, it’s true.
Now it was Tucker’s turn to huff. “I need you back here to give a statement on those funds,” he insisted. “Not today, though.” One look at Laine’s weary eyes, and he figured the last thing she needed was to go another round with Hague. “Be here tomorrow morning, ten o’clock.”
“You’ll do the interview yourself?” Hague asked.
Normally, a simple question like that wouldn’t have put a knot in his gut, but Tucker didn’t like the idea of a possible suspect pinning him down to a specific time and place.
It was downright dangerous.
If Hague was guilty, he could use it as an opportunity to attack them again. And even if Tucker left Laine at the ranch for the interview, which he would likely do, it might prompt Hague to go there, knowing that Tucker wouldn’t be around to stop him.
“One of the deputies can take your statement,” Tucker said. It might or might not have been true.
Tucker hung up, trying to prepare himself to talk with the moron looking for a plea deal, but he needed a moment. Clearly, Laine did, too. Tucker took her back to the break room and poured them each a cup of coffee.
“Uh-oh,” Laine mumbled, studying his face. “Are you about to lecture me?”
He was sure he frowned. “A lecture’s the last thing on my mind.”
Cowboy Behind the Badge Page 10