Shotgun Sheriff

by Fossen, Delores

  “What?” he asked.

  Livvy walked ahead of him, up the steps and onto the porch and went inside the cabin. “Nothing.”

  “Something,” Reed corrected, following her. He shut the door and turned on the overhead lights. “You’d dismissed me as just a small-town sheriff.”

  “No.” She shrugged. “Okay, maybe. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I dismissed you, too.”

  Since her back was to him, she smiled. For a moment. “Still do?”

  “Not because of your skill. You seem to know what you’re doing. But I’m concerned you won’t do everything possible to clear Shane’s name.”

  “And I’m concerned you’ll do anything to clear it.”

  He made a sound of agreement that rumbled deep in his throat. “I can live with a stalemate if I know you’ll be objective.”

  The man certainly did know how to make her feel guilty. And defensive. “The evidence is objective, and my interpretation of it will be, too. Don’t worry. I’ll check for that blood spatter in just a minute.”

  Riled now about the nerve he’d hit, she grabbed a folder from her equipment bag. “First though, I’d like to know if it wasn’t Woody Sadler, then who might have compromised the crime scene and stolen the phone.” She slapped the folder on the dining table and opened it. Inside were short bios of persons of any possible interest in this case.

  Reed’s bio was there on top, and Livvy had already studied it.

  He was thirty-two, had never been married and had been the sheriff of Comanche Creek for eight years. Before that, he’d been a deputy. His father, also sheriff, had been killed in the line of duty when Reed was seven. Reed’s mother had fallen apart after her husband’s murder and had spent the rest of her short life in and out of mental institutions before committing suicide. And the man who’d raised Reed after that was none other than the mayor, Woody Sadler.

  She could be objective about the evidence, but she seriously doubted that Reed could ever be impartial about the man who’d raised him.

  Livvy moved Reed’s bio aside. The mayor’s. And Shane’s. “Who would be bold or stupid enough to walk into this cabin and take a phone with me and your deputy only yards away?”

  Reed thumbed through the pages, extracted one and handed it to her. “Jonah Becker. He’s the rancher Marcie was supposed to testify against. He probably wouldn’t have done this himself, but he could have hired someone if he thought that phone would link him in any way to Marcie.”

  Yes. Jonah Becker was a possibility. Reed added the bio for Jonah’s son. And Jerry Collier, the man who ran the Comanche Creek Land Office. Then Billy Whitley, a city official. The final bio that Reed included was for Shane’s father, Ben Tolbert. He was another strong possibility since he might want to protect his son.

  “I’ll question all of them,” Reed promised.

  “And I’ll be there when you do,” Livvy added. She heard the irritation in his under-the-breath grumble, but she ignored him, took the handheld UV lamp from her bag and put on a pair of monochromatic glasses.

  “Shane said he was here when he was hit.” Reed pointed to the area in front of the fireplace. It was only about three feet from where Marcie’s body had been discovered.

  Livvy walked closer, her heels echoing on the hardwood floor. The sound caused Reed to eye her boots, and again she saw some questions about her choice of footwear.

  “They’re more comfortable than they look,” she mumbled.

  “They’d have to be,” he mumbled back.

  Though comfort wasn’t exactly the reason she was wearing them. She’d just returned from a trip to visit her father, and one of her suitcases—the one that contained her favorite work boots—had been lost. There’d been no time to replace them because she had been home less than an hour when she’d gotten the call to get to Comanche Creek ASAP.

  “I do own real boots,” Livvy commented and wondered why she felt the need to defend herself.

  With Reed’s attention nailed to her, she lifted the lamp and immediately spotted the spatter on the dark wood. Without the light, it wasn’t even detectable. There wasn’t much, less than a dozen tiny drops, but it was consistent with a high-velocity impact.

  “Shane’s about my height,” Reed continued. And he stood in the position that would have been the most likely spot to have produced that pattern.

  It lined up.

  Well, the droplets did anyway. She still had some doubts about Shane’s story.

  Livvy took her camera, slipped on a monochromatic lens and photographed the spatter. “Your deputy could have hit himself in the head. Not hard enough for him to lose consciousness. Just enough to give us the castoff pattern we see here. Then, he could have hidden whatever he used to club himself.”

  Reed stared at her. “Or he could be telling the truth. If he is, that means we have a killer walking around scot-free.”

  Yes, and Livvy wasn’t immune to the impact of that. It scratched away at old wounds, and even though she’d only been a Ranger for eighteen months, that was more than enough time for her to have learned that her baggage and old wounds couldn’t be part of her job. She couldn’t go back twenty years and right an old wrong.

  Though she kept trying.

  Livvy met Reed’s gaze. It wasn’t hard to do since he was still staring holes in her. “You really believe your deputy is incapable of killing his ex-lover?”

  She expected an immediate answer. A damn right or some other manly affirmation. But Reed paused. Or rather he hesitated. His hands went to his hips, and he tipped his eyes to the ceiling.

  “What?” Livvy insisted.

  Reed shook his head, and for a moment she didn’t think he would answer. “Shane and Marcie had a stormy relationship. I won’t deny that. And since you’ll find this out anyway, I had to suspend him once for excessive force when he was making an arrest during a domestic dispute. Still…I can’t believe he’d commit a premeditated murder and set himself up.”

  Yes, that was a big question mark in her mind. If Shane had enough forensic training to set up someone, then why hadn’t he chosen anyone but himself? That meant she was either dealing with an innocent man or someone who was very clever, and therefore very dangerous.

  Because she was in such deep thought, Livvy jumped when a sound shot through the room. But it wasn’t a threat. It was Reed’s cell phone.

  “Kirby,” he said when he answered it.

  That got her attention. Kirby Spears was the young deputy who’d assisted her on the scene and had carried the footprint castings back to the sheriff’s office so a Ranger courier could pick them up and take them to the crime lab in Austin.

  While she took a sample of one of the spatter droplets, Livvy listened to the conversation. Or rather that was what she tried to do. Hard to figure out what was going on with Reed’s monosyllablic responses. However, his jaw muscles stirred again, and she thought she detected some frustration in those already intense eyes.

  She bagged the blood-spatter sample, labeled it and put it in her equipment bag.

  “Anything wrong?” Livvy asked the moment Reed ended the call.

  “Maybe. While he was in town and running the investigating, Lieutenant Wyatt Colter made notes about the shoe sizes of the folks who live around here. He left the info at the station.”

  That didn’t surprise Livvy. Lieutnenant Colter was a thorough man. “And?”

  “Kirby compared the size of the castings, and it looks as if three people could be a match. Of course, the prints could also have also been made by someone Marcie met during her two years on the run. The person might not even be from Comanche Creek.”

  Livvy couldn’t help it. She huffed. “Other than you, who are two possible matches?”

  “Jerry Collier, the head of the land office. He was also Marcie’s former boss.”

  She had his bio, and it was one of the ones that Reed had picked from the file as a person who might be prone to breaking into the cabin. Later, she’d look into hi
s possible motive for stealing a phone. “And the other potential match?”

  Reed’s jaw muscles did more than stir. They went iron-hard. “The mayor, Woody Sadler.”

  “Of course.”

  She groaned because she shouldn’t have allowed Reed to stop her from arresting him. Or at least thoroughly searching him. Mayor Woody Sadler could have hidden that phone somewhere on his body and literally walked away with crucial evidence. Lost evidence that would get her butt in very hot water with her boss.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Reed said.

  “No. I’ll talk to him.” And this time she didn’t intend to treat him like a mayor but a murder suspect.

  In Reed’s eyes, she saw the argument they were about to have. Livvy was ready to launch into the inevitable disagreement when she heard another sound. Not a cell phone this time.

  Something crashed hard and loud against the cabin door.

  Chapter Three

  Reed drew his Smith and Wesson. Beside him, Livvy tossed the UV lamp and her glasses onto the sofa so she could do the same. Reed had already had his fill of unexpected guests today, and this sure as hell better not be somebody else trying to “help” Shane.

  “Anyone out there?” Reed called out.

  Nothing.

  Since it was possible their visitor was Marcie’s killer who’d returned to the scene of the crime, Reed approached the door with caution, and he kept away from the windows so he wouldn’t be ambushed. He tried to put himself between Livvy and the door. It was an automatic response, one he would have done for anyone. However, she apparently didn’t appreciate it because she maneuvered herself to his side again.

  Reed reached for the doorknob, but stopped.

  “Smoke?” he said under his breath. A moment later, he confirmed that was exactly what it was. If there was a fire out there, he didn’t want to open the door and have the flames burst at them.

  There was another crashing sound. This time it came from the rear of the cabin. Livvy turned and aimed her gun in that direction. Reed kept his attention on the front of the place.

  Hell.

  What was happening? Was someone trying to break in?

  Or worse. Was someone trying to kill them?

  In case it was the or worse, Reed knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He peered out from the side of the window.

  And saw something he didn’t want to see.

  “Fire!” he relayed to Livvy.

  She raced to the back door of the cabin. “There’s a fire here, too.”

  A dozen scenarios went through his mind, none of them good. He grabbed his phone and pressed the emergency number for the fire department.

  “See anyone out there?” Reed asked, just as soon as he requested assistance.

  “No. Do you?”

  “No one,” Reed confirmed. “Just smoke.” And lots of it. In fact, there was already so much black billowy smoke that Reed couldn’t be sure there was indeed a fire to go along with it. Still, he couldn’t risk staying put. “We have to get out of here now.”

  Livvy took that as gospel because she hurried to the table, grabbed the files and the other evidence she’d gathered and shoved all of it and her other supplies into her equipment bag. She hoisted the bag over her shoulder, freeing her hand so she could use her gun. Unfortunately, it was necessary because Reed might need her as backup.

  “Watch the doors,” he insisted.

  Not that anyone was likely to come through them with the smoke and possible fires, but he couldn’t take that chance. They were literally under siege right now and anything was possible. The smoke was already pouring through the windows and doors, and it wouldn’t be long before the cabin was completely engulfed.

  The cabin wasn’t big by anyone’s standards. There was a basic living, eating and cooking area in the main room. One bedroom and one tiny bath were on the other side of the cabin. There was no window in the bathroom so he went to the lone one in the bedroom. He looked out, trying to stay out of any potential kill zone for a gunman, and he saw there was no sign of fire here. Thank God. Plus, it was only a few yards from a cluster of trees Livvy and he could use for cover.

  “We can get out this way,” Reed shouted. The smoke was thicker now. Too thick. And it cut his breath. It must have done the same for Livvy because he heard her cough.

  He unlocked the window, shoved it up and pushed out the screen. The fresh air helped him catch his breath, but he knew the outside of the cabin could be just as dangerous as the inside.

  “Anyone out there?” Livvy asked.

  “I don’t see anyone, but be ready just in case.”

  The person who’d thrown the accelerant or whatever might have used it as a ruse to draw them out. It was entirely possible that someone would try to kill them the moment they climbed out. Still, there was no choice here. Even though he’d already called the fire department, it would take them twenty minutes or more to respond to this remote area.

  If they stayed put, Livvy and he could be dead by then.

  “I’ll go first,” he instructed. He took her equipment bag and hooked it over his shoulder. That would free her up to run faster. “Cover me while I get to those trees.”

  She nodded. Coughed. She was pale, Reed noticed, but she wasn’t panicking. Good. Because they both needed a clear head for this.

  Reed didn’t waste any more time. With his gun as aimed and ready as it could be, he hoisted himself over the sill and climbed out. He started running the second his feet touched the ground.

  “Now,” he told Livvy. He dropped the equipment bag and took cover behind the trees. Aimed. And tried to spot a potential gunman who might be on the verge of ambushing them.

  Livvy snaked her body through the window and raced toward him. Despite the short distance, she was breathing hard by the time she reached him. She turned, putting her back to his. Good move, because this way they could cover most of the potential angles for an attack.

  But Reed still didn’t see anyone.

  He blamed that on the smoke. It was a thick cloud around the cabin now. There were fires, both on the front porch and the back, and scattered around the fires were chunks of what appeared to be broken glass. The flames weren’t high yet, but it wouldn’t take them long to eat their way through the all-wood structure. And any potential evidence inside would be destroyed right along with it. If this arsonist was out to help Shane, then he was sadly mistaken.

  Of course, the other possibility was that the real killer had done this.

  It would be the perfect way to erase any traces of himself. Well, almost any traces. There was some potential evidence in Livvy’s equipment bag. Maybe the person responsible wouldn’t try to come after it.

  But he rethought that.

  A showdown would bring this fire-setting bozo out into the open, and Reed would be able to deal with him.

  “Will the fire department make it in time to save the cabin?” Livvy asked between short bursts of air.

  “No.” And as proof of that, the flames shots up, engulfing the front door and swooshing their way to the cedar-shake roof. The place would soon be nothing but cinders and ash.

  Reed was about to tell her that they’d have to stay put and watch the place burn since there was no outside hose to even attempt to put a dent in the flames. But he felt Livvy tense. It wasn’t hard to feel because her back was right against his.

  “What’s wrong?” Reed whispered.

  “I think I see someone.”

  Reed shifted and followed her gaze. She was looking in the direction of the county road, which was just down the hill from the cabin. Specifically, she was focused on the path that Woody had taken earlier. He didn’t see anyone on the path or road, so he tried to pick through the woods and the underbrush to see what had alerted Livvy.

  Still nothing.

  “Look by my SUV,” she instructed.

  The vehicle was white and barely visible from his angle so Reed repositioned himself and looked down the slope. At first, nothing
.

  Then, something.

  There was a flash of movement at the rear of her vehicle, but with just a glimpse he couldn’t tell if it was animal or human.

  “There’s evidence in the SUV,” she said. Her breathing was more level now, but that statement was loaded with fear and tension. “I’d photographed the cabin and exterior with a highly sensitive digital camera. Both it and the photo memory card are inside in a climate controlled case, along with some possible hair and fibers that I gathered from the sofa with a tape swatch.”

  Oh, hell. All those items could be critical to this investigation.

  “The SUV’s locked,” she added.

  For all the good that’d do. After all, the person out there had been gutsy enough to throw Molotov cocktails at the cabin with both Reed and a Texas Ranger inside, and he could have broken the lock on the SUV or bashed in a window.

  Livvy grabbed her equipment bag from the ground and repositioned her gun. Reed knew what she had in mind, and he couldn’t stop her from going to her vehicle to check on the evidence. But what he could do was assist.

  “Stay close to the treeline,” he instructed.

  He stepped to her side so that she would be semi-sheltered from the open path. Another automatic response. But this time, Livvy didn’t object. However, what she did do was move a lot faster than he’d anticipated.

  Reed kept up with her while he tried to keep an eye on their surroundings and her SUV. None of the doors or windows appeared to be open, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it’d been burglarized. Obviously, someone didn’t want them to process that evidence.

  He saw more movement near the SUV. A shadow, maybe. Or maybe someone lurking just on the other side near the rear bumper. Behind them, the fire continued to crackle and burn, and there was a crash when the roof of the cabin gave way and plummeted to the ground. Sparks and ashes scattered everywhere, some of them making their way to Livvy and him.

  Livvy didn’t stop. She didn’t look back. But when Reed saw more movement, he latched on to her arm and pulled her behind an oak. This was definitely a situation where it would do no good to try to sneak up on the perp because the perp obviously was better positioned. Despite the cover of the trees, Livvy and he were in a vulnerable situation.