Taken in Texas

by Susan Sleeman

  “I’ll pretend I understand what you just said.” He chuckled.

  He expected a smile, maybe a chuckle, but she was too intensely focused right now. “It’ll take some time to run, so I’ll get it going.”

  This latest evidence was another reason not to believe Eve’s disappearance had something to do with dating. After all, why would a man she dated need to erase her hard drive?

  “Okay.” Kendall stood. “No point in watching this when Eve’s bank accounts could very well give us the lead we need.”

  She left the room and got Tessa to lock up before rushing toward the exit. He appreciated Kendall’s sense of urgency in locating Eve, as each minute that passed worried Cord that if someone had indeed taken her, he could kill her.

  After the station’s air-conditioning, the sun beating down hard in the parking lot was a sharp contrast, and the sizzling heat felt oppressive even for a native Texan like Cord. But that didn’t stop him from taking his time to search the parking lot for any potential danger, including the dumpster enclosure by Kendall’s car, before she stepped out.

  When he felt it was safe, he moved aside, and she started for the car. He matched her step for step, and only when she was safely seated behind the wheel did he run around the back and get in.

  He grabbed his seat belt and clicked it into place. “I hope the bank manager’s in a cooperative mood.”

  When Kendall didn’t respond to his comment, he looked up. She sat staring straight ahead, her face ashen, her hands frozen in midair above the steering wheel.

  His heart plummeted. “What is it?”

  She pointed at the rearview mirror, and then he saw it. Right there. Dangling on the mirror. A small noose looped over the metal. The implication obvious: back off or you’re dead.

  EIGHT

  Cord watched as Tessa scooted out of Kendall’s car. It was important to process the vehicle for any evidence, but he felt the morning slipping away as Tessa meticulously worked.

  “That’s it,” Tessa said, holding cards with fingerprints she’d lifted from the interior and the door. “Looks like I got several good prints that aren’t yours. I’ll have our print expert run these immediately, but you’re not the only one who drives this car, so they could be from other deputies or even Cord.”

  “Then they’ll show up in the database,” Cord pointed out, as all law enforcement officers, himself included, were printed so techs could eliminate any of their fingerprints lifted at a crime scene.

  Kendall dug out her car keys. “We’re off to the bank. Call me with what you learn.”

  “Wait, what?” Cord gaped at her. “You need to tell your dad and Matt about the noose first.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Kendall said. “After the bank visit.”

  Cord eyed her. “Your dad won’t like it if we wait.”

  Her lips turned down in a mega frown. “The minute I show him the noose, he’ll try to lock me up at home, and we need to find Eve.”

  “I need to find Eve,” he clarified. “You can lie low.”

  She scowled at him. “Are you saying because Eve’s not my aunt that I don’t need to find her? Well, let me tell you. I take my job seriously, and I aim to do it no matter what.”

  Exactly what he feared. “Even at the risk of your own life?”

  “I’ll be careful. You’ll make sure of that.”

  “You’re right. I will.”

  “So it should be fine to go to the bank, then,” Tessa said. “After all, Cord, you’re a top-notch officer, and you’ll keep her safe.”

  Of course she’d weigh in on her sister’s side.

  Cord curled his fingers into fists. “Fine. But your dad will want to actually see the noose, so we need to sign it out.”

  “Let me grab the form and the bag.” Tessa hurried inside the office.

  Cord didn’t know what to say to Kendall that wouldn’t sound pushy and demanding, so he didn’t say anything at all. Tessa returned with the noose and a clipboard holding an evidence-checkout form. Kendall filled it out, and in the car, she laid the noose on the floor in the back seat.

  They were only a mile from the bank, but Cord kept glancing at the noose and wondered if he was making the right decision by letting Kendall go to the bank after finding this latest threat. Not like he could stop her. She was still her own person, and if he was honest with himself, he admired her independent streak and didn’t want to squash it.

  She pulled into the lot for the older building with decorative pillars and gold-etched windows likely from back in the 1800s, when the quaint town of Lost Creek was founded.

  She parked and turned to him. “Want to do a quick recon while I stay here?”

  He nodded, surprised at her cooperation. “And thank you for understanding.”

  “I get it, Cord. Not only are you a good officer, but you’ve lost so many people, you have to be cautious.”

  He heard a but coming. The last thing he wanted to get into now was his personal life. He quickly exited and made a thorough search of the area before escorting Kendall to the front door. As they entered the modern space with a large decorative vault at the back, he stowed away all thoughts of his losses. He’d been putting them everywhere but where they needed to be right now. His problems with Lucas weren’t life-threatening, and his attraction to Kendall didn’t threaten anything but heartache, but Eve needed him. Desperately needed him.

  Kendall marched straight across the lobby to a desk in the corner, where a blond male wearing a gray suit and tie sat. A nameplate on his desk read Manager Finn Jepson.

  “Afternoon, Kendall.” Finn stood but quickly changed his focus to Cord. “And you must be Eve’s nephew. You look a lot like her.”

  Cord had been told that in the past, though he didn’t see the resemblance. “I’ve brought my financial power of attorney and would like to review Eve’s accounts.” He took the forms from his pocket and handed them to Finn.

  Finn gestured at the chairs by his neat desk. “Take a seat, and I’ll look these over.”

  They all sat, and Kendall tapped her foot while Finn reviewed the form. She’d been on edge since they’d found the noose. In his opinion that was a good thing, as it would hopefully keep her more alert to any potential danger.

  “Everything’s in order.” Finn set the papers down. “Now, exactly what do you need?”

  “A printout of her account transactions for the last month,” Kendall said.

  “Sorry,” Finn replied. “But the request has to come from Cord. He has power of attorney, and you don’t have a warrant.”

  “Like she said.” Cord smiled to diffuse the situation. “Checking and savings accounts, please.”

  “Give me a minute.” Finn settled wire-rimmed glasses on his narrow nose and turned his attention to his computer. “Hmm. Interesting.”

  “Something wrong?”

  “Wrong? No. Just unusual.”

  Kendall sat forward. “What?”

  “Cord can share that with you after he looks at the documents.” Finn’s printer started spitting out pages, and he swiveled to grab them. He tapped the paper on the desk, patting the corners and aligning them in a neat stack.

  Cord wanted to rip them from his hands, but he resisted the urge as he didn’t want to alert Finn to his concerns. The moment Cord had the report in hand, he leaned closer to Kendall so she could see it, and he started scanning down the page.

  “What in the world?” He quickly flipped through the report. He kept looking at the documents, but his brain refused to register what he was reading. Both Eve’s checking and savings accounts were nearly empty, the money having been withdrawn in cash over a period of a few weeks.

  “What do you make of this?” he asked Kendall.

  She looked up at Finn. “I see bank branch IDs for her recent withdrawals. Each one is different. Does that mean Eve
took the money out at different branches?”

  Finn started to answer, but then looked to Cord for approval.

  “Go ahead, and you have my permission to answer all of Kendall’s questions and show her anything she asks for.”

  “In that case, then yes,” Finn said. “She went to six different branches. Most interesting to me, beyond the fact that she took out so much cash, is that she never came here, where she’s always done her banking.”

  “So she was trying to hide the withdrawals,” Cord mused. “I want a list of those branch locations to compare to the statement.”

  “You got it.” Finn grabbed a brochure and jotted ID numbers by the branch addresses.

  “Go ahead and give us the prior two months of statements, too,” Cord said.

  As Finn worked, Cord fired Kendall a questioning look. She shrugged, seeming as baffled as he was. The printer started whirring.

  “Might as well print her credit card statements for the past six months, too,” Kendall said.

  Finn looked like he wanted to ask permission again, but Kendall gave him a pointed look. The barest of frowns turned down his lips, but he handed the printed reports to Cord and started typing again.

  Cord held out the prior month’s statements so Kendall could review them at the same time. He pointed at additional withdrawals that were made in smaller amounts. He wanted to discuss the statements with Kendall, but not in front of Finn.

  Cord looked up to see the manager watching them, the credit card statements in his hands. Cord took them. “Eve had smaller cash withdrawals on the older statements, too, but they were all taken out at the same branch. Were those done here?”

  Finn glanced at the computer. “Yes.”

  “Does she have a safe-deposit box?”

  Finn shook his head. “She has some investment accounts, which I’d be happy to print statements for.”

  “Sure, thanks,” Cord said.

  Finn chewed on his lower lip as he worked on his computer. “Is everything okay with Eve?”

  With Gladys in the know about Eve missing, word would get around town fast, but for now he preferred not to help the news spread. “Give us the investment reports, and we’ll get out of your hair.”

  Finn nodded, his expression that of a consummate customer service professional who wouldn’t ask again. When the statements finished printing, he handed them to Cord, who stood but wasn’t out of the chair as fast as Kendall.

  “Thanks, Finn.” She spun to leave.

  Cord shook hands with the manager and forced himself to slow his steps as he crossed the lobby. Kendall was already out on the sidewalk, pacing back and forth.

  “Why would Eve take out all that money and where did it go?” she asked the moment Cord joined her.

  She’d forgotten all about her own safety. “Let’s discuss this in your vehicle, where it’s safer.”

  “Right.” She started to take off.

  Cord grabbed her arm. “Hey, slow down. I want to find Eve, too, but we have to keep an eye out for your attacker.”

  She nodded and kept her head on a swivel all the way to her patrol car. Once seated with the doors locked, he took a moment to look at the investment statements.

  “Thankfully, the investment accounts are untouched.” He handed her the report.

  She quickly scanned the statements and gave it back. “What if Eve really did stop trusting the banking system and has been hiding the money at the house or on her property?”

  “We would have found more than the ten grand.”

  “Not if she buried it or hid it in the shed. Maybe the attic.”

  “Then we need to go back and do a more thorough search.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Regardless of what she did with it, the thing that bothers me is why she took the money out in the first place and didn’t want anyone to know about it.”

  “She didn’t try to hide the earlier withdrawals, though. She did those at the local branch.”

  “What if someone else is draining her account or making her take the money out?” Cord asked, but he sure didn’t like the implications.

  “Could be, I suppose.” She set down the report. “The withdrawals are most likely above her daily ATM cash limit, which means she had to go into the bank to get the money.”

  Cord gave that some thought, calling up everything he knew about banking transactions as regards to a criminal investigation. “At ten thousand dollars a pop, they’re also under the bank’s large-withdrawal reporting requirement to the feds.”

  Kendall nodded. “And with the withdrawals happening on consecutive days, someone likely knew about the law and made sure she kept them at ten grand and under.”

  “True,” Cord said. “But I doubt Eve would have known about that law. Most people don’t. I love my aunt, but finances were never her strong suit.”

  “Then we need to see if she made the withdrawals under duress. I’ll request warrants for all of the branches so we can see if she took out the money or if another person did it.”

  “Or if she did, maybe someone was with her.”

  “She could have met up with someone in the parking lot, so I’ll request exterior footage, too.” Kendall tapped a finger on her chin, a faraway expression on her face. “I want to look for her bank statements at her house, too.”

  “Why? We have them.”

  “The intruder broke into her house for a reason. Maybe he was going through Eve’s purse and records, looking for receipts and statements, hoping if he took them he’d cover up the withdrawals or other expenditures.”

  “More likely he was looking for the money,” Cord said.

  “You’re probably right.” She met his gaze, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head. “After all, why take statements when there’s fifty thousand dollars to be found?”

  Her phone rang, and she pulled it from a holder on her bulletproof vest to answer.

  “Mom.” She tapped a finger on the steering wheel as she listened.

  Cord could hear Winnie’s rushed words, but he couldn’t make them out. Still, she sounded worried, and when Kendall frowned, Cord assumed it was bad news.

  “We’ll be right there.” Kendall listened again. “I know, but I’m sure Cord will insist on coming out there.”

  She tapped her screen and stowed her phone.

  Had something bad happened to Lucas? Cord had lost so many people, and he couldn’t lose his nephew, too. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Lucas. He’s been injured.”

  “How bad is it?” Cord steeled himself for the answer and envisioned them rushing to the ER, the boy maybe not making it.

  “Not bad, but the wound might require stitches.” Kendall met his gaze. “And I figured you’d want to check it out in any event.”

  “You’re right about that.” He tried for a lightheartedness in his tone that he not only didn’t feel but couldn’t even imagine.

  He reached for his seat belt and was shocked to find his hand trembling like he was a scared preschooler. Yeah. This was big. Not as in a big injury, but a big revelation.

  He’d been wasting too much time thinking about his interest in Kendall. Was he interested in her? What did it mean? Did he want more?

  All a waste of time. Every bit of it.

  Lucas’s accident proved one thing. Cord wasn’t about to let her get close again, only to risk losing someone else. No way.

  * * *

  Kendall could barely keep up with Cord as he pummeled the dry ground, heading toward the barn like an unbroken bronc that had gotten free and had finally gotten his momentum going. She rushed into the barn behind him.

  He stood in front of Lucas, who sat on a hay bale, his hand bandaged. Her mother stood behind the boy.

  Her granddad took a step closer to Lucas. “I’m real sorry
this happened.”

  Cord didn’t reply, but his shoulders rose and fell with deep breaths that weren’t caused by his rush across the property. He’d seemed calm and quiet on the drive, but now he appeared totally freaked out over Lucas’s injury.

  Kendall stepped around him and knelt by Lucas. She glanced up at Cord to see if he might join her, but he didn’t move. Love for his nephew burned in his eyes, but it was clouded with outright terror. He was afraid of losing the boy, too. Who wouldn’t be after what Cord had experienced in life? But he was probably scaring Lucas, who likely didn’t know what to make of Cord’s reaction.

  She had to draw Lucas’s attention. “Looks like my mom did a good job bandaging you up.”

  “It’s temporary,” her mother said. “He’s going to need stitches.”

  Cord growled under his breath but didn’t speak.

  “Who knew hay hooks were so sharp?” Lucas tried to laugh but it fell flat.

  “Actually,” Kendall said, meeting his gaze. “I do. Hit my hand much like you did when I was little.” She displayed a scar on her palm. “I needed stitches, too.”

  “Really? I’m not totally lame at being a ranch hand?”

  “Nah,” she said. “I’m sure once you get your wound stitched up, Granddad will still be glad to have your help.”

  “That I will,” he said. “Accidents happen. We try to minimize them, but they happen.”

  The last bit was said as her granddad looked at Cord.

  “You’re right. They do.” Cord snapped out of his trance and squatted by Lucas. “You sure you’re all right?”

  “Yeah, don’t make such a big deal of it.” Lucas jumped up and stomped across the space to the stall holding Beauty.

  Kendall kept her focus on Cord as he tracked Lucas’s movement. He suddenly looked down at his empty hands, his shoulders slumping. She’d feel as dejected if she had so few living family members and one of them treated her like Lucas was doing. She had a heart for helping the boy, but she also wanted to give him a good talking-to.