Shotgun Sheriff--A Western Sheriff Romance of Intrigue

by Delores Fossen

  Or something to hide.

  They passed through the gate just as his phone rang. From the caller ID, he could see that it was Kirby.

  “Don’t tell me something else has gone wrong,” Reed answered.

  “No. Well, not that I know of anyway. I still haven’t been able to reach Ben Tolbert like you asked. But I did just get a call from the crime lab about the gun Shane was holding when he was found standing over Marcie’s body.”

  Reed took a deep breath and put the call on speaker so Livvy could hear this as well.

  “That gun was the murder weapon,” Kirby confirmed.

  Hell. Reed glanced at Livvy. No I-told-you-so look on her face. Instead, her forehead was creased as if she were deep in thought.

  “They also IDed the gun owner. A dealer in San Antonio who said he sold the piece over a week ago to a man named Adam Smith.”

  Reed shook his head. “Let me guess—Adam Smith doesn’t exist.”

  “You’re right. The documents he provided for proof of identity are all fake.”

  So, either Shane had faked them, or this was looking more and more like a complex, premeditated murder of a person who could have been a potential witness against both Jonah and Jerry for their involvement in that shady land deal.

  Yeah. Reed really needed to do some more digging on both men.

  “Kirby, could you please have the lab courier the murder weapon back to Reed’s office?” Livvy asked. “I want to take a look at that gun.”

  “It’s already on the way. Your boss figured you’d want to examine it so he sent it with the courier about an hour ago. Should be here any minute.”

  “Thank you.”

  Reed hung up and opened the door so that he could toss in Livvy’s equipment bag. He heard the sound.

  The too-familiar rattle.

  And he reacted just as much from fear as he did instinct. He pushed Livvy to the side.

  It wasn’t a second too soon.

  Because the diamondback rattler that was coiled on the seat sprang right at them.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Everything was a blur. One minute Livvy was getting ready to step inside the truck, and the next, she was on the ground.

  She heard the rattling sound, and it turned her blood to ice. Livvy rolled to her side and scrambled to get away.

  The rattler shot out of the truck again, aiming for a second attempt to strike them, and she shouted for Reed to move. He did. And in the same motion, he drew his gun.

  And fired.

  The shot blasted through the countryside, and he followed it up with a second one. That didn’t stop the snake. Livvy watched in horror as the rattler made a third strike. Its fangs stabbed right into Reed’s leather shoulder holster. He threw it off, fired a fourth shot, and this time the bullet hit its intended target.

  Still, the snake didn’t stop moving. It continued to coil and rattle before it slithered away.

  “Did it bite you?” Livvy managed to ask. Her heart felt as if it were literally in her throat.

  Reed shook his head and looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  She took a moment to assess her situation. “I’m fine, but what about you?” Livvy got to her feet and checked out his arm and shoulder.

  “I wasn’t hurt.” He checked her out as well, and when his gaze landed on her now-muddy jeans and shirt, he cursed. “This wasn’t an accident. That snake didn’t open my truck door and crawl in.”

  No. And that meant someone had put it there. “Who would do this?”

  “The same person who’s been trying to make our lives hell for the past two days.” He paused to curse again. “The snake probably wouldn’t have killed us even with multiple bites, and the town doc keeps a supply of antivenom. But it would have made us very sick and put us out of commission for God knows how long.”

  “And it scared us. Scared me,” she corrected. Livvy flicked the loose bits of mud off her clothes. “But it won’t scare me enough to stop this investigation.”

  “No, it won’t,” Reed readily agreed. He checked his watch, eyed the truck and then eyed her. “You think you can get inside?”

  She could. Livvy had no doubts about that, but she couldn’t quite control her body’s response to nearly being the victim of a snake attack.

  “You believe Ben Tolbert is capable of this?” Livvy took a deep breath and got inside.

  Reed did the same, and he started the engine. “He’s capable all right. Rattlesnakes aren’t exactly hard to find around here, and some people trap and sell them. There’s a trapper about twenty miles from here who runs a rattlesnake roundup. I’ll call him and see if anyone’s recently purchased a diamondback from him.”

  It would be a necessary call, just to cover all bases, but Livvy doubted the culprit would go that route where he could be easily identified. “What about Jerry Collier? He left the ranch house in plenty of time to plant the snake.”

  Reed nodded. “And he was riled enough to do it.”

  Yes, he was. “But that would indicate premeditation.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe he spotted the snake as he was driving out and did it on the spur of the moment.”

  She tried to imagine the suit-wearing, nervous head of the Comanche Creek Land Office doing something like picking up a live rattler on a muddy road, but it didn’t seem logical. Well, not logical in her downtown office in Austin, but out here, anything seemed plausible.

  “Don’t worry—I’ll question Jerry,” Reed continued, his voice as tight as the grip he now had on the steering wheel. “Ben, too. And I’ll have the outside of the truck dusted for prints. We might get lucky.”

  “I’m sorry,” he added a moment later.

  Since his tone had just as much anger as apology, she looked at him. Yes, he was riled. Maybe it was simply because of the leftover adrenaline from the attack, but Livvy got the impression that he was angry because of her, because she’d been placed in danger.

  And because there was now something between them. Something more than the job.

  She was about to remind him that the kiss and attraction really couldn’t play into this, but he grabbed his phone from his pocket, scrolled down through the recent calls he’d made and pressed the call button.

  “I want to speak to Jerry,” Reed demanded of whoever answered. There was at least a five-second pause. “Then take a message. He needs to call me immediately, or else I’ll arrest his sorry ass.”

  Reed ended that call and made another. This time, he put it on speaker, and she heard the call go straight to Ben Tolbert’s voice mail. Reed issued another threatening order very similar to the one he’d left for Jerry. But he didn’t stop there. Reed continued to call around: to the mayor, then someone on the city board, and he asked both men to help him locate Jerry Collier and Ben Tolbert. He was still making calls when he pulled to a stop in the parking lot of his office.

  Livvy knew it wasn’t a good time to be close to Reed, not with so much emotion still zinging around and between them, so she grabbed her equipment bag, got out of the truck and, with Reed right behind her, she hurried inside.

  Eileen, the receptionist, gave her a warm smile and a hello. Livvy tried to return the greeting but wasn’t pleased to hear the tremble in her voice. Her hands were shaking, too, and since she didn’t want to risk a meltdown in front of anyone, she mumbled something that she hoped would sound composed and raced into Reed’s office.

  Livvy hurried to the desk that he’d set up for her to work, and she took out the trap and fabric swatch so she could start the paperwork to send them to the lab in Austin.

  It also gave her hands and her mind something to do.

  She wasn’t a coward and knew full well that danger was part of the job, but she wasn’t immune to the effects of coming so close to Reed and her being hurt.

  She heard the door shut and glanced over her shoulder at Reed. He stood there as if trying to collect himself, a response she totally understood.

  “Here are the trap and the fabric,”
she said. Her voice was still shaky, and Livvy cleared her throat hoping it would help. “When the courier gets here with the murder weapon, I’ll have him go ahead and take the items to the crime lab for testing.”

  Livvy picked up a note. A message left for her by Kirby. She read it out loud: “‘The lab checked on the number I gave them for the missing phone. It was one of those prepaid cells, and the person who bought it must have paid cash because there’s no record of purchase. That means we can’t trace the buyer, and we won’t be able to find out about any calls he might have made.’”

  Reed didn’t respond to that latest dose of disappointing news. Instead, he reached behind him, locked the door and pushed himself away. But he did more than just walk toward her. When he reached her, he latched on to her arm and hauled her against him. Reed pulled her into a tight embrace.

  “I’ll try very hard not to let something like that happen again,” he said.

  Confused, Livvy looked up at him. “You mean the snake or the kiss?”

  He smiled, but it was short-lived and there was no humor in it. “The snake.”

  Yes, but both were dangerous in their own way, and Reed and she knew that. Still, Livvy didn’t move away, even when he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Not even when her breasts pressed against his chest. Not even when she felt his warm breath push through the wisps of her hair.

  Livvy could have sworn the air changed between them. The nerves and adrenaline were still there, but she felt another emotion creep into the already volatile mix.

  Attraction.

  Yes, it was there, too, and all the talk and headshaking in the world wouldn’t make it go away. She opened her mouth to say, well, she had no idea what to say. But despite the hot attraction, she knew she had to say or do something to stop the escalation of all these crazy emotions.

  But she didn’t stop it.

  Instead, she did the opposite. She came up on her tiptoes…

  And she kissed him.

  Not a peck, either, like the other one at the ranch, though it started that way. Reed took things from there. He made sure this one was hard, French.

  And memorable.

  Livvy didn’t do anything to stop this either, despite the intense argument going on between her head and the rest of her body. No. She made things better—and worse—by slinging her arm around his neck and moving even closer.

  That taste.

  It was amazing. And the man moved over her mouth as if he owned her. She did her own share of kiss-deepening as well, and they didn’t break the intimate contact until they both realized they needed to catch their breaths.

  Reed looked stunned and confused when he drew back. Livvy knew how he felt. They were both in a lot of trouble, and she didn’t think they’d be getting out of this trouble any time soon.

  “The evidence,” she said as a reminder to both herself and Reed.

  “Yeah.” Still, he didn’t pull away. He pressed his forehead against hers and groaned. “I would promise not to do that again, but you and I both know it’s a promise I can’t keep.”

  “We can’t just land in bed, either.” Though that suddenly seemed like a great idea. Sheez. Her body really wasn’t being very professional.

  Now, he smiled and looked down at her. “The bed is optional. Sex with you? Not so optional.” He pressed harder against her. So hard that she could feel the proof of their attraction. “I want you bad, Livvy, and all the logic and the danger in the world won’t wish that away.”

  That seemed to be a challenge, as if he expected her to dispute what he was saying. She couldn’t.

  The sound of his ringing cell phone shot through the room, and that sent them flying apart. Good. They weren’t totally stupid.

  Just yet, anyway.

  “Kirby?” he answered after glancing at the caller ID screen.

  Livvy welcomed the reprieve. Well, part of her did anyway. But she knew it was just that: a reprieve. Somehow, she would have to force herself away from Reed. Maybe she could move her side of the investigation to the inn, just so they wouldn’t be elbow to elbow. That might minimize the temptation of the mouth-to-mouth contact.

  But then she looked at him.

  All six feet plus of him. With that rumpled dark hair and bedroom eyes, he wasn’t the sort of man that a woman could minimize.

  “As soon as he steps foot in his office, let me know. Thanks, Kirby.” He closed his phone and shoved it into his pocket. He tipped his head to the fabric and trap. “I’ll have Eileen arrange to have that taken to the crime lab, but it might not happen before we get to question Jerry. He’s on his way back to his office.”

  “Good. We can ask him about the rattlesnake.” Livvy put the evidence into the locker so it would be safe until the courier arrived.

  “We can ask him more than that. Kirby just learned the results from the footprint castings that you took. And they’re a perfect match to Jerry Collier.”

  Livvy sank down into the chair just a few inches from her worktable. “Is there any valid reason why his footprints would be there?”

  “None that I know of. Plus, he has one of the strongest motives for wanting Marcie dead. If she had managed to stay alive long enough to testify against him, Jerry would have ended up in jail. Without her testimony, the state doesn’t have a strong enough case.”

  That was a huge motive indeed, and Livvy was about to use her laptop to request a full background check on Jerry, but there was a knock at the door. Reed crossed the room, unlocked the door, and when he opened it, Kirby was standing there. The young deputy looked puzzled and maybe even suspicious as to why the door had been locked.

  Great.

  If Kirby sensed the attraction between Reed and her, God knew how little time it would take to get around town. She was betting everyone would know by lunchtime.

  Livvy took the bagged and tagged gun from Kirby and initialed the chain of custody form. He also handed her the report file from the lab. While Kirby and Reed discussed whether or not they should issue an APB for Ben Tolbert, Livvy put on her gloves and got to work examining the gun.

  It was a Ruger .22 Rimfire pistol. Common and inexpensive. A person could buy it for under three hundred dollars at any gun store in the state. Just about anyone who wanted a gun badly enough could afford it.

  Including all of their suspects.

  The Ruger had already been processed, and even though it was indeed the murder weapon, according to the report, it contained no DNA. Just fingerprints that had been dusted and photographed. The photographs had then been fed into AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The result?

  They were Shane’s prints.

  The fact there was no DNA was odd, especially since the lab had run a touch test, which should have been able to detect even a minute amount of biological material.

  Yet, nothing.

  Since Shane had supposedly shot Marcie at close range, there should have been some blood spatter or maybe even sweat from Shane’s hand. First-time killers normally weren’t so calm and cool that they didn’t leave a piece of themselves behind at the crime scene.

  She set the gun aside, and went through the report file. There were several photos of the fingerprints on the weapon, and the tech who’d taken them had been thorough. Livvy could see the placement of every print, including the one on the trigger, which had a much lighter point of pressure than the others.

  Also odd.

  It should have been about the same, or maybe even heavier. Killers didn’t usually have such a light touch when it came to pulling a trigger.

  She picked up the gun again and took a magnifying glass from her case so she could look at the actual pattern. Even though some of the fingerprint powder and the prints themselves had been smeared during transport and processing, she could still see where the shooter had gripped the gun. That created a vivid image in her mind.

  Shane pointing the gun at Marcie.

  Then firing.

  Livvy replayed the
scene again. And again. Each time, she made tiny mental changes to see if she could recreate the end result: Marcie’s murder with Shane pulling the trigger.

  “Something about this doesn’t look right,” she mumbled. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Reed had heard her, but his attention wasn’t on her. It was on the phone call that he’d just answered.

  “Good, because we want to talk to you, too,” Reed snarled. But his expression morphed into concern. “We’ll be right there.”

  “What happened?” Livvy asked when he slapped the phone shut.

  “That was Jerry Collier, and he’s back in his office. He says someone is out to kill you, and he knows who that person is.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “If you’d rather stay at the office and finish examining the gun, I can do this alone,” Reed offered, though he knew what Livvy’s answer would be.

  “No, thanks.” Her response was crisp and fast, like the speed at which she exited the building. “I’d like to learn the identity of the person who wants me dead.”

  So would Reed, but he wasn’t certain they would be getting that information from Jerry. Still, he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to question the man about the dangerous attempts that had been orchestrated to prevent Livvy and him from doing their jobs.

  They went into the parking lot, and he spotted one of the loaner deputies who was examining his truck for prints and other evidence. Reed didn’t want to interrupt that or destroy any potential evidence by using the vehicle. The other deputies were apparently still at the crime scene or else on patrol because his official vehicle was nowhere in sight. That left the one cruiser, which Reed hated to tie up in case Kirby had to respond to an emergency.

  The Comanche Creek Land Office was just up the street about a quarter of a mile away, but it wouldn’t be a comfortable stroll. It was already turning into a scorcher day with the heat and humidity. Plus, there was the potential danger, which mostly seemed to be aimed at Livvy. Maybe it wasn’t wise to have her out in the open.