Garrett’s breath froze in his lungs. The need to protect Mandy rushed in, blocking any other thought from his mind.
Rolling his magazine into a tight cylinder, Garrett brushed past them deliberately bumping into J. J. as he put himself between the men and Mandy.
“Watch where you’re going,” J. J. snarled.
Aaron said loudly. “Sheriff, why don’t we look through our receipts and see if there were other sales made around the same time. It might jog my memory.”
In the curved mirror on the wall, Garrett could see Mandy moving in their direction.
Spike pulled on his buddy’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Not until this clodhopper says he’s sorry.”
“Is there a problem?” Mandy stood at the end of the aisle watching them with narrowed eyes.
Spike rubbed one hand over the stubble on his chin. “No problem, Sheriff.”
She took a step closer. “Hello, Spike. Hello, J. J. You two been here long?”
“All morning,” J. J. answered quickly, then looked down as he shifted from one foot to the other.
Garrett tensed as J. J. slipped his hand into the pocket of his baggy pants.
“Be cool, J. J.,” Spike cautioned in a harsh whisper.
Mandy took a step closer. “In that case, I’ve got some questions for you. What do you know about a shipment of meth that left here an hour ago?”
J. J.’s eyes went wide. He pulled his knife, but Garrett brought the rolled magazine down hard on his wrist. The four-inch blade clattered to the floor.
Mandy advanced with her gun drawn. “Hands up, all of you!”
J. J. clutched his wrist, muttering curses under his breath.
Spike raised his hands quickly. “I’m not armed. I had no idea he was.”
Mandy motioned to Garrett with a jerk of her head. “Step away from the knife.”
He backed up a pace. In retrospect, it had been a really stupid move on his part. She was armed with a gun and trained to take care of herself in dangerous situations. He had a rolled-up copy of Kansas Ranch. All he would have needed to do was to call out a warning.
Only none of that occurred to him when he saw she was in danger. He’d been driven to protect her.
Because he cared about her.
The thought caught him broadside with its intensity. She was the last woman he should be interested in. She thought he’d murdered his ex-wife. She could prevent him from keeping custody of his son.
He was a no-account cowboy eking a living out of a rundown spread. She was one of the most respected women in the county. She hadn’t looked at him twice until he became a suspect in Judy’s murder.
They had nothing in common.
So they’d spent a few minutes talking politely over a stroller that morning. It was hardly a sign she’d welcome his attention. Even dreaming about something between them was as foolhardy as facing a man with a knife.
Spike, his hands still raised, said, “I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t know he had a knife.”
Mandy’s gun didn’t waver. “Back up against the wall and sit down with your legs straight out in front of you and your hands on your head. You, too, Garrett.”
So much for her being grateful for his help. He and Spike did as she instructed. Within moments, she had J. J. in handcuffs, had called for backup, read him his rights and then began searching him.
When she pulled the brown vial from his pocket, she smiled. “Look what I found.”
“That’s not mine.” J. J.’s gaze darted to Spike.
“No? Who does it belong to?” she asked.
J. J. nodded toward Garrett. “That cowboy must have slipped it in my pocket.”
“That’s right.” Spike spoke up quickly. “He bumped in to J. J. as soon as he saw you come in. He was getting rid of the evidence.”
Garrett tensed. Would she believe them? Or would he be arrested again for something he hadn’t done?
Had his desire to protect Mandy just cost him his son and his freedom?
Mandy watched as a shuttered look dropped over Garrett’s face. Until that moment, she didn’t think he’d been involved, but now she wasn’t so sure. Reading Garrett was like trying to navigate by the stars on an overcast night. Not easy.
She clapped a hand on J. J.’s the shoulder. “If that’s the case, then you won’t mind taking a drug test, will you?”
He seemed to shrink before her eyes. He was going to test positive and he knew it.
The bell of the door jangled and Mike walked inside. He glanced from Mandy to his partner who was still behind the counter. “What’s going on?”
Aaron shrugged. “I think it’s a simple misunderstanding.”
“Not so simple,” Mandy replied. “One of your tow truck drivers pulled a knife on me.”
Mike slapped his welding gloves against his thigh. “Then he’s fired. Bowen, your truck is done.”
“What?” J. J. squawked. “Bowen gets away with murdering his ex-wife and you’re gonna fire me for having a pocket knife? Where’s the justice in that?”
J. J. continued whining until the backup Mandy had called for walked in the door. She turned her prisoner and the evidence over to her deputy, then came back to stand in front of Spike and Garrett.
She made each of them stand in turn and face the wall while she searched them. Finding nothing, she stepped back and said, “I could hold both of you as material witnesses and maybe as accessories, but I’m not in the mood for more paperwork today.”
Garrett relaxed when he realized she wasn’t going to lock him up.
“Let me make this clear,” she continued. “I won’t tolerate meth in my town. If you’re involved, you’ll find yourself behind bars. Do I make myself clear?”
Spike settled his cap on his head. “Clear as a bell, Sheriff.”
As he left the building, Mandy looked at Garrett. “You can go, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He started toward the door, but she called after him.
“Garrett, I know you meant well, but next time don’t interfere like that. You could have gotten hurt. I can take care of myself.”
He stopped, but he didn’t look back or answer her. After a long moment, he walked out the door.
An odd sense of loss came over Mandy as she stared after him. She couldn’t decide if Garrett was foolish, brave, a criminal—or all three.
After finishing her interview with Aaron and his tight-lipped partner, she didn’t find much that was useful.
While she didn’t care for either of the station owners, Aaron had at least been helpful. The receipts had jogged his memory into putting her suspects in conversation with an out-of-town customer who bought gas, a soda and some chips when the men she’d arrested had also been in the store. They could have met outside without being seen.
Aaron’s description of the man had been vague to the point of being almost useless. A white male, thirty to forty years old, wearing a dark cowboy hat. Mandy’s hopes that the video surveillance would yield better information had been dashed when she learned the cameras were only for show. They’d never been hooked up. The partners thought their presence was enough to deter people from driving away without paying.
Mike couldn’t recall anything about the truck or the other customers. Mandy wasn’t sure if he honestly paid that little attention or if he just didn’t like talking to a cop.
Despite coming up empty-handed at the gas station, Mandy had the satisfaction of knowing her office had taken a large shipment of meth out of circulation. Her hopes of uncovering a connection between her suspects and the drug manufacturer were now riding on the men in jail. She would ask Tom Wick to offer them a deal in exchange for information.
It wasn’t the best solution, but it might be the only way to catch bigger fish.
When she was done at Turner’s, she drove back to the office. Her plan was to let J. J. and the truck drivers stew for a while. She was sure there was a connection between the three men. It was just a li
ttle too coincidental that J. J., a known user, had been at the truck stop at the same time.
J. J. was a small-time crook. He’d been arrested for petty crimes a couple of times in the past year. She didn’t believe for a minute that he was the brains behind the operation she was battling, but he could well be a cook or distributor.
If she could get the county attorney to agree to cut J. J. a deal on his possession and weapons charges today, he just might roll over and give her the names she needed.
Fred was at his desk when she walked in. She didn’t pause as she headed toward her office. “Have J. J. Fields taken to the interrogation room. I want to have a word with him.”
“It won’t do you any good.”
Mandy spun around. “What do you mean?”
“All three of your prisoners have lawyered up and are refusing to talk.”
“Are you serious? How did their lawyers get here so fast?”
“Both attorneys were already at the courthouse on other cases this morning.”
Pressing her fingertips to her suddenly throbbing temples, Mandy sighed. She would go ahead with the plan to offer the men deals, but she had hoped to be able to question them first. “We can’t catch a break.”
Fred said, “J. J. was yelling that Garrett Bowen was the one who slipped the meth in his pocket. Seems like a big coincidence that he was at Turner’s at the same time that your drug mules stopped there. How come you didn’t bring him in for questioning?”
Glancing at him sharply, she noticed he was alone. “Where’s Donna?”
“I sent her out for some lunch. She should be back soon. You didn’t answer my question.”
“I didn’t bring Garrett in because he tried to protect me when J. J. pulled a knife. Besides, he was with me at eleven thirty.”
Fred’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that so? Still, that doesn’t mean he didn’t meet those men before they pulled out of Tucker’s.”
She’d already considered the possibility. She just didn’t want to accept it.
“I’ll be in my office for the next hour or so. Put through any calls that come in about the arrests this morning. I might as well get some paperwork done while I wait to hear if the KHP comes up with anything else on those truckers.”
The next two hours of Mandy’s day was spent filling out paperwork and running down leads with the KHP. According to the highway patrol, the Tulsa trucking company seemed to be legit, as did the rancher shipping the cattle on the other end. The KHP, like her office, simply didn’t have much to go on. It would take a couple of days to process the evidence in the truck. Hopefully, that would offer some new leads.
By the end of a long and frustrating day, she was ready to go home and take a well-deserved soak in a steaming hot bath.
She did just that, but neither the honeysuckle-scented bubble bath nor the lavender-scented candles she liked so well eased the restlessness that plagued her.
Rather than pace the small floor of her living room, Mandy got dressed again and headed for the door. On the way out, she scooped up the clothes she’d purchased for Colin.
Had it really only been that morning? It felt like years had passed.
Within minutes, she was driving down the highway toward Garrett’s ranch. She simply couldn’t get the man out of her mind. He was such a contradiction. One minute he’d been sweet and kind, talking with her about baby equipment, God and Wiley’s neurotic behavior. The next time she’d seen him, he’d been picking a fight with J. J. and Spike. What was up with that?
Had it been for her benefit or had it been designed to throw her off the track by making it look as if he wasn’t involved with them?
She wished she knew.
To her surprise, Garrett’s house was dark when she drove into the yard, but lights shone from the small square windows of the barn and spilled out of the open doorway in a broad rectangle.
Sitting off to the side of the barn was an older model black Ford pickup truck.
Black, like the one that had forced Judy Bowen off the road.
An ugly suspicion popped into Mandy’s head. Who was the owner? What were they doing in Garrett’s barn at this time of night?
Slipping out of her Bronco, she closed the door quietly. If they hadn’t already been alerted to her presence, so much the better. Unsnapping the flap of her holster, she cautiously approached the truck to check the front end. Even in the poor light she could see it wasn’t damaged.
She relaxed slightly until the murmur of voices from inside the building reached her. One of them belonged to a woman.
“You’re too soft, Garrett. Put the little thing out of his misery.”
“I will if I have to, but I’m not giving up yet.”
Mandy walked inside, her boots making almost no sound on the soft dirt floor. The interior of the barn smelled of animals and hay and old wood. She followed the sound of the voices to the very back of the building.
“Suit yourself,” the woman said. “It’s not like you don’t already have enough on your plate.”
“I’m managing.”
Mandy approached the gray-haired woman leaning on the door of a straw-filled stall. There was a stroller near her feet. Garrett sat in the middle of the stall with a tiny black calf in his lap, trying to get it to take an oversized bottle with a red rubber nipple.
Mandy quietly snapped the flap of her holster closed. No drug ring, no meth lab or murder plots being hatched. Just a weary-looking rancher, trying to save one small animal.
So much for her suspicious mind. Sometimes, it was a curse, as well as a blessing.
Pasting a smile on her face, she stepped close to the gray-haired woman. “What’s going on here?”
The elderly lady spun around with a hand pressed to her chest. Mandy recognized her as Garrett’s neighbor, Ina Purdy.
“Land sakes, girl. Don’t go sneaking up on a body like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry. I thought you heard me drive in.”
Mandy saw Wiley sitting beside the stroller Garrett had purchased that morning. He trotted over to her and she stooped to pet him. Stepping close to the stroller, she saw Colin was sound asleep and sucking his thumb.
“What are you doing here?” Garrett asked. He had that guarded look in his eyes again.
Don’t admit you’ve been asking yourself that same question for the last ten minutes.
“I stopped by to drop off the clothes I bought for Colin at the yard sale. I meant to give them to you earlier, but I got…distracted. Hope you don’t mind my dropping by. I guess I should have called.”
“I think you stopped in to see if I’ve been letting Colin puff on my crack pipe.”
She couldn’t really blame him for his sarcasm.
“Why would the sheriff be interested in cracked pipes?” Ina scowled at both of them.
“Crack, crank, ice, speed, they’re all names for meth,” Garrett explained.
Ina looked ever-more puzzled. “That stuff’s illegal. Sheriff, if you think this young man is doing something criminal, you’ve got bad instincts, and I’m sure not gonna vote for you come election time. ’Course, you’re better than that lazy Fred Lindholm. He always takes my brother’s side. Neither one of them have any respect for women. If you need someone to arrest, go haul in my worthless brother.”
Mandy tried not to smile as she listened to Ina’s tirade. “On what charge?”
Ina slapped her hand on the wooden stall door. “Being mean and ugly, that’s what for.”
“My jail would be full before daybreak if I arrested every mean or ugly man in the county.”
“That’s the plain truth, but Garrett here wouldn’t be one of them. He’s a soft-hearted fool, that’s what he is, and he didn’t kill that ex-wife of his.”
“The sheriff isn’t interested in opinions, Ina. She needs proof,” he muttered and began trying to feed the calf again.
Mandy hadn’t expected Garrett to greet her with open arms, but she had hoped for a litt
le warmer welcome.
She turned her attention to Colin. Dropping to her knees beside the baby, Mandy reached out and stroked his cheek. She’d missed him so much.
“Hey, little guy. I come all this way to see you and you’re just gonna sleep? What kind of greeting is that?”
Garrett said, “He’s had a long day.”
“Me, too,” Mandy admitted with a weary sigh.
Garrett continued to coax the tiny calf to eat, but when he glanced at Mandy, his gaze softened. “At least you got a few bad guys off the street today. That should make you happy.”
“It does, actually, but they’ll be out on bail in a few days, so I’m not gloating. J. J. is claiming the whole thing was a frame. I hope you are willing to testify as to what happened.”
“I will.”
“Thanks. A lot of people don’t want to get involved when it comes to actually appearing in court.”
“Don’t blame them,” Ina interjected. “There are more crooks who work in the courthouse than get arrested. And most of them were elected!”
Rising, Mandy opened the stall gate and stepped inside. Her boots sank deep into the fresh straw. “What seems to be the trouble with this little fellow?”
Ina didn’t wait for Garrett to answer. “He was born prematurely. He wasn’t meant to survive.”
“His mother rejected him.” The pain in Garrett’s voice touched something deep inside Mandy. He knew exactly what that felt like. According to Fred, Garrett’s mother had left him when he was a small boy.
Garrett tried again to get the calf to suckle on the bottle. It showed no interest, but bawled pitifully instead.
“Let me try.” Mandy took the bottle from Garrett. Opening the lid, she dipped her fingers in the milk, then offered her hand to the calf.
Ina shook her head and gave them both a pitiful look. “Sheriff, I know you think I’m being cruel, but it’s best to let nature take its course. He’s too weak. There isn’t any point in trying to save him.”
Mandy met Garrett’s eyes. “Maybe the point is to try, even if we don’t succeed.”
Ina sighed loudly and shook her head. “Fools rush in. I can tell when my opinion isn’t wanted. I’m gonna take Colin up to the house. When you two figure out it’s a lost cause, I’ll be watching the late show.”
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