Justice (A Rocky Mountain Thriller Book 3)

by Ann Voss Peterson

  “I’ll bet in your world, you’re good at setting your mind to what you want, aren’t you?”

  “I suppose.” She wasn’t one of those women who relied on others to do it for her, if that’s what he meant. Not like her mother had been. “But that’s not the same thing.”

  “Actually it is. The horse is reading the signals you’re sending him. Those signals aren’t making sense because you’re not thinking about what you want, you’re focused on the mechanics of riding.”

  “So I need to think about the fact that I want to go over there.” She nodded at the gate on the far side of the arena.

  “Yes. When you’re driving in traffic, you focus on getting from here to there. You signal, you press down on the gas, you move the steering wheel this way and that, but you don’t concentrate on all those little things.”

  “Got it.” At least she thought she did. She took in a deep breath of heady mountain air and focused on the gate. I want to go to that gate. I want to go to that gate. She slid her reins to the left, moving the horse off the fence. She pressed her legs against his sides. And miracle upon miracles, he stepped forward. She kept her focus glued to the gate and in no time, her mount had crossed the arena. She raised her hand and sat back in the saddle, and the gelding stopped in front of the gate.

  “See?” Nick said.

  A warm rush flowed through her body. “I can do this.”

  “As long as you don’t let your horse down, he won’t let you down.”

  “I can see why people vacation here.”

  “Yeah? Why?” He gave her a grin.

  “To escape reality. Fill themselves with the rush of accomplishment.”

  “Getting a horse to walk from one side of the pen to the other?”

  “Hey, that’s a big deal for some of us.”

  “Nah, you’re a natural.”

  “Are you flirting with me?”

  “Don’t point it out. You’ll spoil the mood.”

  And Melissa had to admit, she liked the mood. More than she should. “Flirting isn’t going to change anything, you know. We still have to talk.”

  The grin fell from Nick’s face.

  “I’m just setting my mind to what I want.” Melissa said. But she couldn’t help wishing she’d kept her mouth shut and soaked in the atmosphere a little longer.

  By the time she walked side by side back to the house with Nick and Jason, she was sore and exhausted. Maybe that was his plan. Wear her out, so she no longer had the energy to mount a convincing argument. If so, she was concerned it might be working.

  A brown delivery truck parked in front of the house. The driver hefted a box out of the back and carried it to the front porch. There he stacked it with three other boxes already there.

  “What the hell?” Nick said under his breath.

  “Not expecting anything?” Melissa was so used to ordering things online and seeing delivery trucks buzzing around Denver that she hadn’t thought twice. But apparently, a delivery truck sighting was a rare thing on the Circle J Ranch. “Do you know the driver?”

  “Yeah. I probably give him half his business.”

  They reached the truck and Nick flagged down the driver before he could pull yet another box from the back. “What’s all this?”

  “Delivery from Denver. You Nick Raymond?”

  Nick nodded. “Who is it from?”

  “I need you to sign for it.” The driver motioned to Nick to follow and circled to the front of the truck.

  As he pulled out his clipboard to make it all official, Melissa and Jason climbed the steps to the porch. Melissa paused when she reached the boxes. Leaning down, she focused on the return address. No name, just a street. She turned to find Nick climbing the porch steps. “I have to call my office.”

  “Phone’s in the house. If you want, I’ll drive you to Jackson. You can get cell service and a car rental there and be on your way back to Denver tonight, if you like.”

  “I’ll have to take these boxes with me.”

  “Come again?”

  “Do you recognize the return address?”

  Nick peered down at the printed label. “Who sent them?”

  “Your wife.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “EX,” HE SAID AUTOMATICALLY. NICK felt dizzy, his mind whirring with what Melissa had just said. Gayle had sent boxes? After all these years, why would Gayle send him boxes?

  “And the date they were picked up…” She trailed off.

  He looked down at the date printed on one of the boxes. It held no significance to him, but he had a bad feeling he could guess what the date meant. “What about it?”

  “It’s the day.”

  Melissa didn’t have to elaborate about what day she meant. There was only one day it could be.

  The boxes had been picked up the day Gayle was murdered.

  Nick glanced at his son. The boy looked tired. After all they’d been through yesterday, little sleep last night, and their active adventure today, surely he’d need a nap. And now was the right time. “Hey buddy, let’s get something to eat and take a nap. How about it?”

  Jason set his chin in a clear sign of mutiny.

  Whatever points Nick had earned with the horseback ride, he had a feeling he’d just lost them. He looked to Melissa.

  “Hey Jason, come with me. Your daddy is going to make us lunch.” Melissa held out her hand.

  Jason gripped her fingers, beaming as she led him inside.

  Nick watched them disappear down the hall. He should have known mentioning the word nap wasn’t a good idea. He just hadn’t given it much thought. His mind was still careening with the idea that these boxes could have come from Gayle herself on the day she died.

  He hauled the boxes into the den, then joined Melissa and Jason for what they were calling lunch, even though the stock would soon be looking for their evening feeding. Then while Melissa got the little guy settled in bed for his nap, Nick grabbed a box cutter and returned to the den.

  He knelt beside the closest box and eyed the return address. After three years of nothing, no word, no call, not even a damned Christmas card, she sent him five boxes? None of it made sense. But then, Gayle had never made much sense to him. And even before she’d left, she’d made it perfectly clear he’d never made sense to her.

  Pressure assaulted his chest and tightened his throat. He wasn’t in love with Gayle any longer. Her abandonment and all the time he’d devoted to trying to find his son had killed any feelings he’d had toward her. But seeing how dependent Jason was on Melissa just drove home how much the little guy had lost when his mother died. And even though the love he once had for Gayle was dead, she still had a tight hold on him. His attraction for Melissa was evidence of that.

  He slipped the blade out from the box cutter’s plastic handle.

  “Wait.”

  He started slightly at the sound of her voice. He turned around to see Melissa standing in the doorway.

  “Don’t open them. I need to take these back to Denver sealed in case they contain some kind of evidence.”

  Nick brought razor’s edge against packing tape and slit. “I’m not going to Denver, and I want to know what Gayle sent.”

  Melissa stepped to his side for a better view.

  He opened the cardboard flaps. Removing crumpled newspaper, he exposed a jumble of action figures and a tangle of Hot Wheels tracks.

  Melissa craned her neck to see. “Toys?”

  Nick opened another box. This one was packed with Legos, Lincoln Logs and various stuffed animals.

  “Jason’s.” Too bad he hadn’t opened the boxes before the little guy fell asleep. He’d probably be thrilled to have his own toys back. But that was the only thing about this that Nick found clear. “Why would Gayle send Jason’s toys?”

  Melissa’s eyebrows hunkered low over sharp eyes. “Maybe she was planning to move back here to the ranch. Or at least to send Jason.”

  “You’re kidding, right? After all this time? Why would
she do that?”

  “To get him away from whatever was going on in Denver? To hide him? Keep him safe?”

  Nick cut the tape of the third box and opened the cardboard flaps. Paper packed this one, some contained neatly in file folders, some loose. He fished out a package of snapshots of Jason as a baby. The only photos Gayle had sought fit to take when she’d left.

  Melissa stepped to the couch and sat down beside him. Her scent drifted over him, something light and floral mixed with fresh air and a warm hint of horse.

  He focused on the papers in the box. “Apparently she wanted to hide more than Jason.”

  She reached into the box, pulled out a folder and started sifting through the papers inside. “Financial records. Credit card bills. Utility bills.”

  “Why would she want to hide things like that?”

  “And why the paper records? It seems a little antiquated. Everything is online. Unless...”

  “Unless she was documenting something?”

  Melissa nodded. “And sending it to you for safekeeping.”

  Nick rubbed his jaw, the light stubble making a rasping sound against the pads of his fingers. “The whole thing is strange.”

  “Credit cards could tell us where she was and what she was doing during certain time periods.”

  He leaned forward to get a look at the credit card bills in her hands. “Those dates are a year old.”

  Melissa frowned and nodded toward the box. “See what else is in here.”

  “What should I be looking for?”

  “Anything unusual, anything with the name José Sanchez, any photos, bank and phone records, personal correspondence of any kind. If there’s something here that can tie your ex-wife directly to Sanchez, that would be very helpful.”

  “José Sanchez. That’s the guy who killed her?”

  Melissa nodded. “Jimmy arrested him two days ago.”

  Somehow, having a name for the man who had killed Gayle didn’t make Nick feel better. Neither did seeing the fake name she’d been using—Gayle Rogers—the reason the authorities and his private investigators hadn’t been able to track her down.

  Nick fished out another folder and opened it. “Credit card statements.”

  He scanned line after line of charges for restaurants, fancy hotels, clothing boutiques and shoe stores. All the things Gayle loved and couldn’t get on a ranch in Middle-of-Nowhere, Wyoming, as she used to call the Circle J. He flipped through month after month, noting other charges, too. Ones for tot karate, tot piano lessons and the educational children’s toy stores that Gayle favored. All advantages Gayle wanted Jason to have, all things that were hard to come by around here without driving an hour or more. “See anything unusual?”

  Instead of answering, he handed the folder to Melissa and reached for another.

  Records for Gayle’s cell phone this time, lists of numbers there was no way for him to recognize, what seemed like an astronomical bill for the extra minutes she’d racked up, and little more. “You said you were interested in phone records?”

  Melissa glanced up from the file folder she’d been looking through. “Yes.”

  He gave her the folder.

  Eyebrows dipping low, she flipped through page after page. “I’ve seen the records for her iPhone. Jimmy got a warrant for them. But I didn’t know she had a second phone.”

  Nick pulled another file from the box, this one filled with year-to-date credit card bills. The expenditures themselves seemed much the same as the previous year.

  “Huh.”

  Nick looked up. “What is it?”

  Melissa frowned down at the cell phone records. “I don’t know. This is weird.”

  “Not sure I know what weird means anymore.”

  “This number… she’s called it over and over in the months leading up to her death.” Her tone dipped. More than serious. Closer to shocked.

  “What number?”

  Melissa looked up from the paper, her eyes latching on to his. “The district attorney’s office. This might be even more complicated than I thought.”

  ______

  Melissa’s fingers trembled as she punched the number into Nick’s satellite phone. When she saw her office’s number on Gayle’s bill, she hadn’t known what to think. But she aimed to find out what was going on.

  She reached reception and was put through to Seth.

  Seth picked up on the second ring. “Melissa? Are you all right? Your car—”

  “Was found in the mountains. I know. Have authorities identified the men in the sedan that went through the guardrail?”

  “No. Mel—”

  “Were they dead?”

  “Yes.”

  “There were two of them, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you get the license—”

  “Stop right there. What happened to you? Are you okay? Where are you? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you since I got the call about your car this morning.”

  Melissa pulled in a breath. Her relationship with Seth had always been all business from her first day on the job. He’d been one of the few of her male superiors who respected her immediately for the work she did, rather than focusing on the way she looked. And he’d always supported her. But his concern for her well-being was something new. And she had to admit, it felt good. “I’m fine. I’m in Wyoming.”

  “Wyoming?”

  “At Nick Raymond’s ranch.” She peered out the window. The sun had already sunk behind the mountains. Their shadows loomed against a sky still too bright to be considered twilight. She’d awakened so late, her day at the ranch seemed to be ending before it had really begun.

  “Why the hell did you go all the way up there?”

  “It wasn’t my idea, trust me. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

  “You’re calling about Essie Castillo.”

  Essie. She hadn’t even thought of Essie. “How is she?”

  “You don’t know then.”

  Heaviness weighed on her chest. A sob caught in her throat. She didn’t have to ask. The tone of Seth’s voice told her everything. But she forced the words out just the same. “Know what?”

  “She didn’t make it, Melissa. I’m sorry.”

  Melissa pushed back a flood of tears. She couldn’t afford to give in to her feelings over Essie and Jimmy. Not yet. All she could do for them was find the rest of the men who’d shot them down in cold blood. That was what she had to focus on now.

  “Are you okay?”

  She willed her voice to sound less shaken than she felt. “I’m fine.”

  “It’s sad about Essie. Wrong place, wrong time. Calhoun is more certain than ever that the shooter’s target was Jimmy Bernard.”

  Melissa nodded, although something illogical inside her still resisted the idea that someone would want to kill Jimmy.

  “So you need a witness warrant for Raymond?”

  “I’ll get back to you on that.”

  “Melissa, you’re playing with fire. Two of these guys already tried to follow him to Wyoming. He’s in considerable danger here.”

  Melissa knew she should say yes to the warrant, but the thought of putting Nick in jail because he had the bad luck of witnessing a murder didn’t sit right with her. She needed to keep him safe, but there had to be another way.

  “I’ll call Judge—”

  “I’ve stumbled upon more evidence.”

  “More evidence? What?”

  “Five boxes were delivered here. Gayle Rodgers sent them the day she died.”

  “You opened them.” Not a question, but a statement. Obviously he could read her voice despite her efforts.

  “I know. I should have left them sealed, brought them back.” She could have blamed it all on Nick, saved herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Besides, it would just bring Seth’s attention back to the warrant. And when it came down to it, Melissa had wanted to see what was in those boxes as much as Nick had.

  “What was inside?�
�� Seth asked.

  “Most of them contained toys and kids’ books. I think she might have planned to bring Jason back to the ranch. Maybe to get away from some threat she felt.”

  “A threat?”

  “It makes me doubt Sanchez’s motive was simple robbery. I wonder if she knew him, if she felt some kind of pressure from him that she was looking to escape.” The thought that Gayle might have gotten into drugs and Sanchez was her supplier had occurred to Melissa, even before this. But she had no real evidence.

  “Interesting. But you found something else, too.”

  Again, it was as if he’d read between the words she’d said, and added up the ones she hadn’t. No surprise. Seth was good at his job. “Papers. Financial stuff, credit card statements, that kind of thing.”

  “And there was something that caught your eye?”

  “Records for a cell phone I’ve never seen before.”

  “And?”

  “She made some calls, a lot of them, actually.”

  “To?”

  “Our office.”

  Silence answered her.

  “Why was Gayle Rodgers calling our office, Seth? And why didn’t I know about this before?”

  The faint sound of a heavy exhale rasped over the phone. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

  “Find out what?” She wished she could read Seth like he could read her. “Tell me.”

  “Come back to Denver. Bring Raymond and the boy.”

  “What were you referring to, Seth? What didn’t you want me to find out?”

  “I can’t tell you this over the phone, Melissa.”

  “Can’t tell me or won’t?”

  “Won’t.”

  She gripped the phone, hoping by holding on tight she could keep her hands from shaking along with her voice. “No good, Seth. I have to know what’s happening. I’m not going to drag Nick and Jason back to Denver without understanding what’s going on.”

  “Knowing and understanding are two different things.”

  “Tell me.”

  “If I tell you, you’ll bring the cowboy and the boy back?”

  “It depends. I have to be able to assure him they’ll be safe.” And convince Nick to do something he had insisted he wasn’t going to do.

  “And you think they’re safe at Raymond’s ranch?”