“How old is he now?”
“He’ll be ten next month.”
“Are you feeling up to me asking you a few questions?”
Her gaze narrowed, and then she flinched with pain. “About?”
“The night Keith was killed.”
“I was at the dance until eleven. I don’t think I could help you.”
“What about Rayland? Was he there all night?”
“As far as I know. We entered the hall together, then went our separate ways. You know how that goes.”
Trace nodded, though he really didn’t. He hadn’t been married long enough to know how couples acted after a number of years together.
“I was with my girlfriends. Rayland stayed with his friends.”
“I see. I have a witness who has your husband outside Keith’s around ten.”
“Really? Who’s that?”
“I’m not at liberty to say. How about earlier in the day? Was he working?”
“Yeah, I believe so.”
“All right. Thanks for your time, Sally. Put some ice on that eye and tell those boys of yours to keep the football out of the house.”
She smiled.” I will. Have a good day, Sheriff.”
“You, too.”
Trace started for the car. He could tell Sally had no idea Rayland had left the dance that night. He just hoped she wouldn’t confront him about it. This time she might get more than a black eye for her trouble.
On his way back to the station, his mind drifted to his visit to Regina’s and the way she’d looked in the sexy aquamarine, just-above-the knee sundress. The woman had the best legs he’d seen in his life. But was what he experienced real? It sure as hell felt like it.
He took a left onto Groves Drive and pulled up next to the town’s only insurance agency. He glanced around for Rayland’s BMW but didn’t see it. The sign in the window said OPEN, so Trace got out and walked to the door. Inside, he smiled at Rayland’s secretary, Katie Dawson.
“Afternoon, Katie. How are you?”
“Fine. What brings you in to see us today?”
“I wondered if you could tell me whether Rayland was working the afternoon of the thirteenth.”
The woman frowned but picked up a book from her desk and leafed through it. “It shows here in his datebook he had a meeting with someone that afternoon out of town. It doesn’t say with whom though.”
“Is that strange?”
“Usually there’s a name, but maybe he just forgot to write it down. He has all his dates in his iPhone. The paper version is just in case the phone has technical problems.”
Trace nodded. “Where is Rayland now?”
“I think he went to Gatsby.”
“Do you know why?”
His question appeared to make her nervous. “It’s personal business.”
“I see. Thanks for your time, Katie. Have a pleasant evening.”
“You, too, Sheriff.”
Trace left the office, his thoughts on who Rayland knew in Gatsby. Did he have a woman he visited? Had Sally found out about it, and was that how she got the shiner?
Or maybe he had this all wrong.
He jumped back into the cruiser and headed for the station. He was going to do a little digging. If Rayland were hiding something—or someone in Gatsby, Trace was going to find out.
* * *
Regina snatched the binoculars from Tiah and spied on the Grimes’ home. The two were tucked behind an outer building, watching for Rayland to get back. They’d been holed up since dark, and Regina would give just about anything to stretch her legs, since she was crouched down, out of sight of the house.
“I see a car coming,” Tiah whispered next to her ear.
Regina swung the binoculars toward the road, her tension multiplying tenfold when she saw it was Rayland pulling into the driveway.
She nodded to Tiah, who gestured back she knew it was him.
He opened the front door and was met by a huge dog that chose to shoot out of the house, headed straight for them.
Please, go back to the house. Please.
The dog had his nose to the ground and then started barking and raced close to them.
Rayland stuck his head out the door. “Get in here, Max.”
The dog turned tail and ran back to the house.
Regina released the breath she’d been holding. “That was close,” she said to Tiah before adjusting the binoculars and peering through the picture window that had to be the living room.
“See anything?” Tiah tried to grab the glasses.
“Wait. He just moved into sight.” Regina saw Rayland and his wife enter the room. The woman’s eyes were glassy; the two were clearly arguing. He raised his hand and struck her. Regina’s heart sank. “He just hit her. We have to call Trace.”
“Then he’ll ask us what we’re doing out here spying on them. Do you want that?”
“I don’t care. I can’t sit by and watch a man beat a woman. Not after what happened to me.” Regina grasped her cell phone from her jacket, found Trace’s number, and punched CALL.
He picked up on the second ring. “Hello.”
“Trace. I’m out at Rayland’s, and he’s inside his house, hitting his wife. You have to come out here and stop this.”
“What? Why are you out at Rayland’s, Regina? Don’t you know that’s trespassing? You could get in trouble.”
“Please, Trace. He struck her in the face. You have to put a stop to this.”
“All right. You and Tiah go home. I’ll just stop by and talk to Rayland, and if she wants to press charges, then I’ll run him in. If she refuses, then I can’t do anything.”
“Thanks, Trace.”
“Go home, and I’ll stop by later and let you know what happened.”
Regina closed the phone. “He’s on his way. He told us to go home, and he’ll tell us what’s going on later.”
Before she gathered her things, Regina looked at the house, through the window. She could no longer see Rayland’s wife. Had the woman run from the room, or was she lying on the floor, hurt?
She hated to leave, but knew it was the right thing to do.
As quickly as she could, she grabbed her belongings, and they shot off toward their car parked a few hundred feet from Grimes’ driveway. It was crazy to think Rayland would be stupid enough to have brought Sharon to his home. He’d had to have taken her somewhere else, and they didn’t have the resources to find out where.
* * *
Trace drove like a bat out of hell down the road. He was furious with Regina for staking out Rayland’s, but he really should have expected as much. Everything led to the man being involved in Keith’s murder and Sharon’s kidnapping.
He took a sharp right into the man’s driveway and jumped from the vehicle. He rapped at the door, and Rayland opened it, his eyes turning dark at the sight of Trace.
“Haven’t I answered enough questions, Langston?”
“I came by earlier today to talk to you, but your wife told me you were at work. Of course, your secretary said you were out of town. I just have a few more questions to ask you and Sally. She’s around, isn’t she?”
“She’s in bed.”
“This is pretty important. I’m going to need you to go wake her up.”
Rayland scowled. “This is harassment. I think I need to call my attorney.”
“That’s fine, but I’m still going to need to talk to Sally. You might as well go get her.” The longer the man stalled, the more concerned Trace became. Why didn’t he want Trace to see his wife? Had he beaten her black-and-blue?
“Come back with a search warrant, Langston. Then maybe I’ll bother my wife.”
Trace had no intention of getting anything. He rammed past the man into the house and called for Sally.
Rayland shouldered him back, his face red with anger. “I don’t have to put up with this shit. You’ve been on my ass since you came to Groves with your big city ways. I have half a mind to knock you down a peg o
r two.”
Trace gaped at the man. No way had he been the one walking around with an attitude. Rayland Grimes had had an axe to grind with him the minute Trace had taken office as sheriff. “Look, Grimes. I’m just here to talk to you and Sally. That’s all. Now are you going to make this easy or hard?”
Trace turned when he heard shuffling behind him.
Sally stood in the doorway, her face sporting a new bruise. Trace wanted to haul off and bust Rayland in the mouth, but he held back. That would only get him in hot water, and he had too many things to deal with to add police brutality to the list.
“Are you okay, Sally?”
She looked at her husband, then at Trace. “I’d like to ask if you’d take me and the boys to my mother’s.”
“Of course. I’ll wait for you to grab some things. Go ahead and get ready to go. I’ll stay here and talk with Rayland.”
She smiled weakly at Trace, then turned and left the room.
Trace cleared his throat. It took every ounce of restraint not to rip the man apart for striking a woman and making her too scared to stay in the same house. “I wish I could have you arrested for hitting her,” he said, turning to face the man. “But if she won’t press charges, then there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.”
“And you just hate that, don’t you?” He sneered.
Trace wasn’t going to let the man goad him. “While I’m waiting for your wife, I have a few questions I’d like to ask. That is if you don’t insist on having your attorney present. If that’s the case, I’ll call you in the morning, take you away from work. It’s clearly up to you.”
“Ask your damn questions.”
“Where were you last night?”
The man frowned. “Why? What do you think I did?”
“Sharon Evans is missing. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?” Trace watched his reaction closely.
“Why would I know where Sharon is, and why the hell would I care?”
“Did you know Kelly Marley?”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Yeah. We went to school together. She went missing or something when I was at Arkansas State as I recall. Are you trying to accuse me of something, Langston?”
“Rumor has it all the girls were scared to death of you in school. After seeing Sally tonight, well …”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to get at, Sheriff, but I didn’t do anything to that Marley girl. Her mother would hardly let her out of the house, and like I said, I was at college when she went missing.”
“What about Sharon? According to her mother, she was raped in high school, and she pointed the finger at you.”
Rayland laughed. “Right. I can’t deny Sharon and I dated and had sex back in school. Her controlling mother probably found out, and Sharon lied and told her I raped her to save face. I don’t need to force a woman to have sex with me. I can get what I want whenever I want.”
Trace snorted. “You have one of those in Gatsby?”
“What the hell you talking about?”
“Katie told me you were there this afternoon when I stopped by your office.”
“What I do on my personal time is none of your damned business.”
“It might not be his, but I believe it’s mine,” his wife said from the doorway, her boys standing beside her, rubbing their eyes.
“We’ll talk about this later.” The tone of Rayland’s voice was filled with barely controlled anger.
“I don’t think so. In the morning, I’ll be filing for divorce. You come anywhere near me or the boys, I’ll be calling the sheriff.”
Trace turned to Sally and smiled. “You ready to go?”
“Yes, we are.”
Trace clasped the handle of the bag she had sitting on the floor and led them to the patrol car. He was glad she was getting out. This way, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding her dead in the morning. A man who hit a woman would have no qualms about going further. He’d take her to her mother’s in the next town over, and then he’d drive to Regina’s. From what he had learned of the woman, he imagined her pacing the floors, waiting to find out what happened to Sally. Having been abused herself, he could completely understand why, and he wasn’t going to let her worry if he could do something about it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Regina sat at her kitchen table, a mug of chamomile tea in front of her, her mind running a mile a minute. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and sighed. It had been hours since she’d left the Grimes’ place, and she still hadn’t heard from Trace. The first hour and a half, she’d paced the floors. The last half hour, she sat alone in the kitchen, every scenario from the woman lying dead to Trace being caught in a shootout with Rayland crossing her mind. She almost wished she hadn’t gotten Trace involved. What if she had caused him to get hurt? She’d never forgive herself.
A knock at the front door had her racing to answer it, praying it was him.
Relief rushed over her when she found Trace standing on the stoop.
“So?” Regina was impatient to know what happened.
“Can I come in?” he asked, looking more than a little tired.
“Oh, sorry. Of course. Can I get you something.? Coffee, maybe?”
“Coffee would be great.”
She led him to the kitchen and quickly started a pot, then turned to him as it brewed. “Is Mrs. Grimes okay?”
“Yes. Right now her and her two boys are at her mother’s.”
Regina sighed. “I’m glad. It killed me to see Grimes strike her like he did.”
“I’d gone by their house earlier in the day and noted a nice little shiner on the woman, but she told me one of her boys threw a football at her face. I knew she was lying, but unless she wanted to press charges, there wasn’t anything I could do.”
“Sometimes even then, there’s not.” Regina knew that from her own experience.
“I think the police can drop the ball. That’s not me. I have enough trouble in town. I don’t need a man beating his wife to death.”
“Did his wife leave him, then?”
“I believe so. I think she got the black eye because she found out something about him and confronted him with it. What that was, I’m not sure, but the man may have a mistress over in Gatsby. He was there today.”
“Are you sure? Maybe he was getting rid of Sharon’s body.”
“According to Rayland, and I don’t know if I should believe him or not, Sharon and he had a relationship in high school that led to sex. Carol found out about it, and her daughter lied and said he raped her. It’s hard to say if that’s true or not. I’d have to talk to Sharon, and well, she’s missing.”
“Yeah, Mrs. Evans came by the store earlier and …”
“And what?”
“Nothing really. She threatened to have me run out of town if you didn’t find her daughter.”
“She’s just scared. I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
“I really couldn’t blame her. I’ve brought nothing but trouble to Groves. Maybe I am some sort of catalyst to all this.”
“That’s crazy. I don’t believe that. I’ve only been sheriff for eight years. What went on in Groves before I came is a total mystery to me. Hell, I’d never heard of Kelly Marley until you and Tiah dug her case up. I’m going to see if I can learn who I replaced as sheriff, find the man, and see what happened to Kelly fifteen years ago.”
Regina smiled. “I appreciate you not thinking I’m evil.”
“I do want to apologize for reacting like I did. It was stupid and thoughtless. I did some research on your religion. What I found calmed some of my concerns.”
She was glad he didn’t think she was a witch, but some kind of dark forces seemed to have settled into Groves, and Regina felt as if her arrival had somehow triggered them. She wasn’t going to dwell on that with Trace, but she sensed it was true. What she was going to do about it, she wasn’t sure, yet.
“I’d better go out to the cruiser,” he said drawing her att
ention back to him.
“You’re more than welcome to sleep on the couch.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
His refusal crushed her. He said he didn’t think she was bad, yet his actions spoke otherwise.
“Let me get you some coffee before you go.” Her voice sounded surprisingly calm considering how hurt she felt. She filled a mug and handed it to him.
“Thanks. I’ll be outside if you need anything.”
“All right.” She followed him to the door.
“Lock up when I leave.”
Regina did as she was told, bolting and chain-locking the door, then dragged herself back to the kitchen and took a sip of her now cold tea.
She shoved the cup aside, fighting to control the tears clouding her eyes.
If Trace believed she wasn’t some evil sorceress, then why would he refuse to stay with her? Had he used her for sex? Maybe he’d lied to her about everything.
No. She refused to believe that. Trace was a good man. He just had too much going on to want to add to that right now.
She switched off the kitchen light and headed for her bedroom, where Tiah had gone earlier.
A creaking floorboard stopped her heart from beating for a split second.
She turned to see a shadow next to the door. Had Rayland gotten into her house when she and Trace were talking? Was she going to be his next victim?
When the shadow started to move, Regina let out a scream she prayed Trace would hear.
“Jesus, Regina. I think you pierced my ear drum,” a familiar voice said.
* * *
A scream had Trace scrambling to get to the house. At the door, he pounded away, calling out to Regina. He heard the chain being slid back, and his heart restarted its crazy rhythm.
She threw open the door, and he reached for her, encircling her in his arms, squeezing her tight. He pulled away and frowned. “Why’d you scream?”
“Sorry. Tiah scared me to death. She was sneaking around the house.”
Tiah came up behind her. “I wasn’t exactly sneaking.”
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