by Rita Herron
But she also might be a murderer. Or hiding one—her own husband.
Hell, had any one of them considered how his own mother had dealt with raising a child alone? Granted, having an affair with a married man wasn’t exactly something to admire, but it took two to tango, and she’d been left holding the responsibility on her lonesome.
Had Jim ever wondered what had happened to him after his mother’s death? When he’d been all alone…
Jim could have at least sent flowers to his mother’s grave.
Jim cleared his throat. “All right, Cole. Why did you really come?”
“To help track down Sarah Wallace’s killer.”
Jim’s blue eyes narrowed.
“You didn’t know that your two sons requested my help?”
Jim shook his head. “Things have been crazy around here with the fire and the sheriff being shot.”
“Exactly.” He glanced at Joey and saw her watching him. Maybe he should have left her at the inn so she wouldn’t have witnessed his humiliation, but he’d run from Justice and his family long enough. He refused to be ignored anymore.
“I suppose you’ve read all the reports on the investigation,” Jim said in a low voice.
Cole nodded. “Did you kill Sarah Wallace?”
Jim gave him a sharp look. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”
“No. Someone also attacked Miss Hendricks last night. They either wanted to kill her or scare her off. Did you hire someone to do that?”
“No.”
“Did you kill Sarah Wallace?” he asked again.
Jim shook his head. “No.”
“What about Lou Anne?”
Silence registered, full of tension. Jim removed his Stetson and ran a hand over his thick, graying hair, avoiding eye contact. “You read the report. I was inebriated that night. I don’t remember what happened.”
“You could undergo hypnosis to recover your memory.”
“Actually I’ve discussed it with Sloan and Zane. Stella was against it. Then she had the breakdown…”
Maybe she was too afraid of the answers they’d find. Either that he killed Lou Anne or she had.
“What about Stella? Do you think she might have killed Lou Anne?”
“Absolutely not.” Jim shifted restlessly, toying with the snake braid on his hatband. “Stella has always been weak, fragile. She wouldn’t have the guts to murder anyone.”
“Not even a woman who might steal her husband from her?” Cole’s voice resonated with anger. “After all, Lou Anne wasn’t your first indiscretion. Maybe she was just the one who sent Stella over the edge.”
Jim shoved his hat back on his head. “I told you, she’s not capable of murder.”
“Anyone is capable of killing another person,” Joey cut in. “Especially if they’re driven to it.”
Jim blasted Joey with an angry look, then started to stand.
“We’re not finished, Mr. McKinney,” Joey said.
He grunted. “I am.”
Cole thumped his hand on the table. “One more question.”
Turmoil registered in Jim’s eyes. Did he think Cole was going to ask him something personal? Like why he’d never tried to see him, not even once during all the years he’d been so nearby?
“Whom else did you sleep with at the time?” Cole asked.
Jim’s expression registered surprise, then confusion. “Why is that relevant?”
“I’m just trying to be thorough. If you, Stella, Leland or Donna didn’t kill Lou Anne, perhaps one of your other lovers did? Maybe some woman who saw Lou Anne as a problem between the two of you?”
“If that’s true, then why not kill Stella? She was my wife.”
Cole nodded. “Maybe she thought she could convince you to leave your wife.”
Jim stared at him for a long moment, emotions warring on his face. “I would never have left her,” he said in a gravelly voice. “Every woman I slept with knew that.”
Jim turned and walked away, leaving Cole’s heart racing with fury and his message ringing in his head. Cole’s mother had slept with him knowing he’d never leave his wife, but she’d loved him anyway.
COLE’S MOUTH tightened as he balled his hands into fists. Joey sensed he was at the end of his restraint, that he was about to chase down his father and punch him. She couldn’t say that she blamed him.
The man had made no personal acknowledgment of his third son, no apology, no I-love-you declarations.
Then again, she and Cole had been interrogating him on possible murder charges. And she supposed she had to admire the fact that he had some decency and hadn’t left his wife, especially since Stella seemed so fragile and needy.
“I need to get out of here,” Cole said.
She reached out to comfort him, but he shook his head. Pain radiated from his features, making her heart swell with unwanted emotions. She wanted to soothe him and ease the pain.
Instead she started toward the exit. “I guess we meet my father now.”
He gave her an understanding look, then his cell phone jangled. He answered it as they stepped into the heat and walked to the sedan.
“Sergeant McKinney speaking.”
She climbed in and fastened her seat belt while he spoke in a low voice. When he hung up, he started the car and the air conditioner, then shifted into gear and drove from the parking lot.
“That was Deputy Burns. He’s been reviewing Sarah Wallace’s phone records.”
“Did he find anything?”
“Just that Sarah called Jim McKinney before she died. Apparently Jim told him about the call, but he didn’t speak to Sarah. He was gone and Stella took the call.”
Joey tapped her nails on her thigh. “What if Stella thought Sarah wanted to pick up with Jim where her mother left off?”
“It’s possible.” Cole paused, twisting his mouth in thought. “Or Stella might have been worried that Sarah had the evidence to send either her or Jim to jail so she killed her.”
Joey hesitated to bring up the painful subject, but they couldn’t skirt it. “You’re not buying Jim’s story that Stella is too weak to commit murder?”
Cole shook his head. “I agree with you. Anyone is capable if they’re pushed far enough. And Stella…had her reasons,” he said tightly.
“Was there anything else?” Joey asked.
“They checked Donna’s and Rosa’s phone records as well. It seems Rosa was on the phone with her mother while Anna was strangled so that rules her out.”
Joey’s heart fluttered with shock. “You suspected Rosa of killing Sarah?”
He shrugged. “They’ve been looking into every conceivable angle, Joey. Apparently Donna has a bank account Sloan and Sheriff Matheson are investigating, so they examined all their phone records and are reviewing their financial statements.”
Joey thumbed her fingers through her hair, raking the mass away from her cheek with a frown. She’d have to ask her mother about that account.
And Rosa was close to Donna and had been dedicated to her over the years. But Rosa had loved Justin more than life itself. She would have never been involved in a plot that might endanger him. Not loving, sweet Rosa who’d made sure Joey’s clothes were clean and pressed for school, who’d made her enchiladas and baked chocolate fudge cookies for Justin. Rosa who had been a mother to Joey and Justin when Donna had her own affair with the bottle.
Nerves tightened every cell in her body as Cole drove up the oak-lined driveway to her father’s estate. Looking at his magnificent spread now, it was difficult to believe that Leland had ever been financially strapped.
But even if he had, it wouldn’t have justified kidnapping his own son.
Cole parked, killed the engine, then turned to look at her. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“No.” A nervous laugh escaped her, and Cole’s mouth tilted into a smile.
“I like your honesty, Joey. That’s rare these days.”
She tensed. If she was totally hones
t, she’d admit to him how terrified she was that her parents might be guilty. That she wanted Jim McKinney to be the culprit.
Oddly Cole might understand. He must have mixed feelings about his father just as she had about her own.
They were very much alike in that manner. Both ignored, abandoned in some ways, yet putting up a tough front as if they didn’t care about the outcome. But living with the stigma of being a murderer’s child would only add to the pain they’d already been saddled with.
“We can come back later if you want.”
How chivalrous of him to offer her a way out. “No, let’s get this over with.” Besides, she didn’t intend to let him question Leland alone.
He opened the door and met her by the passenger side before she could climb out. As she led him up the brick walkway, he placed a hand to the small of her back, a gesture that felt comforting and intimate at the same time. She rang the doorbell, and he gave her a questioning look. This was supposed to be her home, but she had never felt at home here. Not like she had in the tiny house she remembered as a child, the one where her parents had still been happy.
A servant she didn’t recognize answered the door. “Miss Hendricks, welcome. My name is Broderick, so let me know if you need anything. We’ve been wondering when you’d stop by.”
“Is my father home?”
The balding, thin man dressed in a butler’s uniform glanced suspiciously at Cole. “Yes. Who shall I say is here to visit?”
“Sergeant Cole McKinney, Texas Rangers.”
Broderick nodded curtly, then gestured for them to follow him to her father’s study, a massive room filled with leather couches, sleek cherry furniture, volumes of collector’s books and journals and magazines filled with information for entrepreneurs and oil barons.
Broderick excused himself to retrieve her father, and Joey paced the office, feeling caged, and aching to run and escape the confrontation destined to ensue. Cole claimed a seat in one of the wing chairs, stretching his long legs out and looking at ease as he studied the room.
Five minutes later, an aproned woman appeared with a tray of cakes, tea and coffee. Joey’s stomach revolted, but Cole accepted coffee. Her father strode in seconds later, wearing an expensive suit, his shoulders rigid, his gaze traveling from her to Cole in a condescending manner. He looked older and grayer, Joey noted, although he still dominated a room with his presence.
“Well, this is interesting,” Leland said. “I didn’t expect my first contact with you in years to be in the eyes of the Texas Rangers. Especially the bastard son of Jim McKinney.”
Cole set his coffee cup down on the tray, the only indication that her father’s comment angered him. But Joey knew differently. She was beginning to read the man and hated for him to have to endure such ridicule.
“Father, rudeness doesn’t become you.”
Her father snapped his head her way with a flare of indignation in his eyes. “I only spoke the truth.”
“So, if you’re into telling the truth these days, why don’t you start with your part in the Wallace murders?” Cole asked in a voice steeped with barely controlled rage.
Leland picked up a cigar and rolled it between his fingers and thumb. “I’ve already given my statement to the sheriff and to the other Texas Rangers.”
“We’ve read it,” Joey said. “And you claim that you didn’t have anything to do with Justin’s kidnapping or murder?”
The agony that flashed into her father’s eyes seemed so real and heart wrenching that Joey’s throat closed. Her own guilt surfaced, causing pain to ricochet through her in waves that nearly made her double over.
Cole gave her an odd look, then piped up. “Did you?”
Leland sank into his desk chair and wiped at perspiration on his forehead. “I would never have hurt a child. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish Justin had been found.”
Missing his son didn’t mean he hadn’t orchestrated a plan that had gone awry. And he probably wanted Justin to be found to take suspicion off of himself.
Joey’s resolve hardened. She remembered how convincing her father had been in court when he’d ruthlessly taken her and Justin from Donna. How he’d lied to have his affair.
“Dad, did you set up the kidnapping to get the insurance money?”
He shook his head. “How can you even ask me that, Joey?”
“How can I not?”
“Mr. Hendricks,” Cole cut in. “Did you know about your wife’s secret account?”
“No. If I had, I would have asked for help.”
“Maybe you did and she refused you,” Cole suggested.
Leland bristled. “That’s ridiculous. I said I didn’t know, and that’s the truth.”
Cole didn’t look convinced. “We’re aware that Lou Anne Wallace had an affair with Jim McKinney. Was he the only man she was seeing before her death?”
The question seemed to take him off guard. He rolled the cigar between his fingers again, then tapped it on the desk as if he wanted to light up but was trying to give up the habit.
“Dad?” Joey asked. “Was there another man…or men in Lou Anne’s life?”
Confusion, anger, then hope sparkled on Leland’s face as if he just realized the implication of the question. “Obviously there were, since there were two semen samples in her body when she died. But I don’t know any names. And the police never pursued it. They just came after me.”
Joey hadn’t known about the second semen sample. She wondered if Cole had, if he’d intentionally kept the information from her.
Cole’s phone jangled and he frowned, checked the number, then stood. “It’s Zane. I’d better take it.”
Joey nodded, and her father watched Cole leave the room. Leland moved to the wall behind his desk, revealed a safe, methodically keyed in the combination, then opened the door. With a sigh, he removed a small, black worn book and handed it to Joey. “This belonged to Lou Anne. It was private. I…never showed it to the police.”
“What is it?” Joey asked.
“Lou Anne’s date book where she kept an account of all her…meetings. It might prove helpful.”
Excitement raced through her veins. “Why didn’t you show this to the police?
“I didn’t want all of Lou Anne’s indiscretions plastered over the papers. Her affair with McKinney was humiliating enough.”
Cole’s boots pounded on the marble floor, and she jammed the date book in her purse. She’d check it out first and see if it offered any information. Then she’d decide whether or not to show it to Cole. After all, it might prove to be nothing…
Then again, it might lead to Lou Anne and Sarah Wallace’s killer.
And what about Justin—did the book contain information about her brother’s kidnapping and murder?
IRRITATION CRAWLED through Cole as he drove Joey back to the Matheson Inn. Zane had phoned to inform him that the doctors had sedated Stella and were worried that she might permanently slip into a catatonic state. He had warned Cole not to visit her again.
Hell, he was sorry that Stella was so weak and ill. But she had made her choices years ago. And she might have killed Lou Anne or covered for her husband.
Jim had chosen her over Cole’s mother who had loved him with all her heart. Barb Tyler had been a strong gutsy woman who’d deserved better.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him that they had missed lunch altogether. Storm clouds darkened the sky as they neared town, a town filled with secrets and deception.
A town where a murderer still lurked, probably gloating over the fact that he—or she—had gotten away all this time.
He cut his gaze toward Joey. She had been quiet since climbing in the car and kept worrying her purse strap with her fingers. He knew the meeting with her father hadn’t gone as she’d probably hoped.
“Do you want to stop for a late lunch, or early dinner?”
She bit down on her lip, and he reached up and touched her chin. “Joey?”
Behind
him, a car raced up on his tail, and he jerked his gaze from Joey to the rearview mirror. He’d been mentally distracted and hadn’t noticed the traffic, much less this car approaching so quickly.
He sped up slightly. The car sped up as well, then suddenly zoomed up close to his tail and swerved sideways. Seconds later, a loud popping sound echoed through the air, then a bullet pinged off the side of the car.
“Dammit. Hang on!”
Joey clenched the dashboard as he jerked the car sideways. “What was that?”
“Someone’s shooting at us!”
He pressed the gas, and the sedan vaulted forward. Joey turned to look at the car, but he swerved the opposite way and the sudden movement flung her against the car door. The gunfire pinged again, and he pulled to the left, but the right front tire popped. Damn. They were hit. Then the car raced up on his tail and slammed into them, sending them into a spin. Tires squealed and the scent of smoke spewed from the wheels. He cursed again. The shooter must have hit the gas tank.
A small hill sloped downward to a wooded area. He tried to maintain control, but lost it as the car spun and rolled toward the woods. Joey screamed, and he threw out his arm to shield her as glass exploded and the air bags deployed. The car rolled over, bounced, skidded, then slammed into a tree. Immediately the front of the car erupted into flames.
He yelled Joey’s name. They had to get out before the car blew up completely!
Chapter Ten
Panic shot through Joey as the car skidded into the tree and fire burst from the hood. The air bag trapped her, and she was hanging upside down between it and the seat. The scent of smoke and gas permeated the air, raising her fear another notch. Her chest ached from the impact of the bag, and her arm from being thrown against the door, but she was alive.
Next to her, Cole grunted and swiped at the air bag. “Joey, are you all right?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Yes. But we have to get out of here fast. The car’s going to blow any second.”
“I know.” She jiggled her seat belt trying to free it. “Cole, my seat belt is stuck!”
Cole ripped the air bag open with a pocketknife and shoved it away from her face, jerked off his own seat belt, then split the seat belt with the sharp blade, freeing her. She gripped the door handle and pushed her hand up to brace herself as her body slid down and her head hit the roof.