OUTLAW LAWMAN

by Delores Fossen

  In addition to Sherry, Harlan also needed to go through the list of suspects who could have helped Sarah Webb kill her SOB of a husband.

  The Rangers had Caitlyn and him on that list.

  But there had to be someone else, someone who’d actually done the crime.

  “Who’s your best guess for Sarah’s accomplice?” he asked Caitlyn.

  “Rudy Simmons,” she answered right off the bat.

  Yeah, the caretaker was on Harlan’s suspect list, too. But so far, there’d been no evidence pointing to the man. Plus, Webb and Rudy had actually been friends. Maybe Webb’s only friend.

  “Kirby,” Caitlyn mumbled.

  He hated to hear her mention his foster father’s name in the context of a murder, but Kirby could have indeed done it, especially after the beatings that Webb had given Harlan and his foster brothers. Kirby knew about the abuse, had been working hard to try to stop it, but maybe his foster father had reached a boiling point.

  “Rocky Creek was supposed to be closing,” Caitlyn continued, “but there were rumors that Webb had found a way to keep it open. If Kirby thought he couldn’t get any of you out...”

  She didn’t finish. Thank God. Because that was indeed a huge motive, one that made his stomach tighten and churn.

  “I’m worried about Declan’s alibi,” Harlan confessed.

  Or rather his lack of an alibi. Declan should have been in the infirmary that night, since Webb had given him a hell of a beating earlier that day. But no one had seen Declan there, and so far his foster brother wasn’t volunteering any information in that department. Of course, Harlan hadn’t pushed too hard either, because if Declan did confess, then Harlan would be duty bound to do something about it.

  Declan knew that, too.

  “There are plenty of other suspects,” Caitlyn went on.

  It sounded as if she were dismissing Declan as the accomplice. Maybe because of that warm and fuzzy hug. But Harlan couldn’t argue with her. Declan had been barely thirteen at the time and small to boot, and there was a long list of people who would have gladly helped Sarah squash a monster.

  Including her own son, Billy Webb.

  “Neither the Rangers nor any of us has had any luck finding Billy. What about you?” Harlan asked.

  “None. I know he tried to commit suicide, so God knows what Webb did to him to mess up his head. I’m sure the routine beatings didn’t help. Webb gave many of us enough physical and psychological scars to ruin us for life.”

  And Billy and Declan weren’t the only ones on the receiving end of those beatings. Webb had come after most of them—including Sarah and even Caitlyn.

  She made a hmm sound. “He had a wicked punch,” Caitlyn mumbled, rubbing her jaw. “He was the first man who ever hit me, and I swore he’d be the last.”

  That tightness in his gut moved to his chest, and it didn’t matter that all of this had gone down sixteen-plus years ago. It still stung to know what Caitlyn had gone through.

  What they all had.

  He hated that this attack had brought so many of those old wounds to the surface.

  “I have to get some things out of my car,” Caitlyn said when they passed the vehicle she’d left parked near his house.

  “I’ll have one of the ranch hands do it.” There were plenty of trees and shrubs just across the road from her car, and he couldn’t rule out that someone could hide there and take a shot at her.

  He came to a stop in front of his house and was glad to see his brother Slade on his porch. Harlan was equally pleased to see the two armed ranch hands in the pasture between his place and the main house. That meant Slade had already taken some security measures.

  There’d need to be more.

  Seated in one of the white rocking chairs, Slade was armed with a rifle and his Glock in his waist holster. He looked like an Old West outlaw in his battered jeans, boots and black shirt.

  “Harlan,” Slade greeted when they got out of the car.

  Then Slade’s dark blue eyes landed on Caitlyn. No huggy welcome like the one Declan had given her. Slade wasn’t the huggy type, and besides, like Harlan he was still pissed off about that article—which seemed close to being petty considering all the other crud that was going on now.

  “Inside,” Harlan instructed. And he didn’t waste any time getting Caitlyn on the porch and through the already open front door. “Has the house already been processed for prints and evidence?”

  Slade nodded. “Nothing so far, but it’ll take the lab a while to work on everything they collected.”

  No doubt. Harlan was also betting they wouldn’t find anything useful. He’d caught only a split-second glimpse of the man who’d used the Taser on them, but he was pretty sure the guy had been wearing gloves.

  “All the ranch hands are armed,” Slade continued. “And Wyatt’s on his way back from the hospital with Kirby and Stella.”

  “The hospital?” Caitlyn and Harlan asked in unison.

  “Kirby was just there for his cancer treatment, but as soon as they’re back at the house, Wyatt will lock up and set the burglar alarm.”

  Good. Kirby was too weak to fight off a killer, and while Kirby’s fiftysomething-year-old friend Stella was a decent shot, Harlan didn’t want to test her marksmanship if someone managed to get onto the ranch. He considered taking Caitlyn to the main house as well, but he figured Kirby had already had enough upsets for the day.

  “Stella?” Caitlyn asked. “The one who used to work at Rocky Creek?”

  The very one. Harlan settled for a nod, but he saw that little flicker go through her eyes. Caitlyn had been pretty close to Stella in those days, but the bottom line was the woman was still a suspect as accessory to Webb’s murder. Not in Harlan’s mind. But apparently in everyone else’s.

  Including Caitlyn’s.

  “How long has Stella been here?” Caitlyn pressed.

  “Not long.” And this wasn’t a subject he cared to discuss. Not with other things that needed to be done. “I want the road watched,” Harlan told his brother, glancing back up at Caitlyn’s car.

  “Got two men heading out there now,” Slade answered. “More will cover the back fence.”

  Yeah. Because that was the most vulnerable part of the ranch. The pastures had been designed to hold and feed livestock, not to ward off gunmen, and there were plenty of places where someone could climb the fence and gain access to the ranch.

  “Any sign of our missing attacker?” Harlan asked, sweeping his gaze around the house and grounds.

  Slade shook his head and opened his mouth, but he stopped when they saw an SUV approaching. A vehicle that Harlan recognized, thank God. It pulled to a stop in front of Harlan’s house, and he spotted his brother Wyatt at the wheel. Stella was riding shotgun and a sickly-looking Kirby was slumped in the backseat.

  Slade’s phone rang, and he went out to the porch to take the call while Harlan went toward the SUV. So did Caitlyn, and before she even got there, Stella stepped out. The women greeted each other with open arms and squeals of delight.

  “Girl, you are a sight for sore eyes,” Stella declared.

  “You, too. And you haven’t changed a bit.”

  Stella touched her fingers to her graying auburn hair. “You and Wyatt could always lay on the sweet talk, but I’m a shallow woman and bent by flattery.” She smiled at the joke, but the humor didn’t quite make it to her weary eyes.

  Caitlyn’s attention landed on Kirby.

  “Marshal Granger.” Caitlyn’s voice was clogged with emotion, probably because it looked as if the man was critically ill.

  And hell, he might be.

  One of Harlan’s biggest fears was that Stella and Kirby were trying to keep the bad news about Kirby’s prognosis to themselves.

  “Caitlyn.” Kirby managed
a thin smile but didn’t move from his position on the backseat. “Does this mean Harlan and you are back together?”

  So no one had told him about the attack. Good. Harlan wasn’t opposed to holding back some bad news, too, especially since it would only worry Kirby.

  “Caitlyn’s just visiting,” Harlan settled for saying.

  Kirby studied them both. Shook his head. “That’s not a just-visiting kind of look on her face. Always thought you two were more suited for each other than you were willing to let on.”

  Harlan wasn’t sure he liked this turn in the conversation, and he wanted to remind Kirby about the article Caitlyn had written, but behind them Slade cleared his throat and tapped his cell phone.

  Oh, man. Not more bad news.

  Harlan helped Stella back into the SUV. “You best get Kirby home.”

  Wyatt and Harlan exchanged a glance, and even though he’d call Wyatt to remind him about taking some extra security measures, his brother and he were no doubt on the same page.

  “Was that call about Jay Farris?” Caitlyn asked Slade the second the SUV drove away.

  Slade shook his head. “Don’t know anything about Farris yet.” He looked at Harlan. Then Caitlyn. “No. This bad news is about the two of you. The Rangers have sworn out a warrant for your arrests. They’re on the way here now to take you both into custody.”

  Chapter Six

  Caitlyn stared at Slade and mentally repeated the bombshell he’d just dropped. It didn’t get any more clear the second time it went through her head.

  “Arrest us?” she asked. “Why?” And that was the real question, because none of this was making sense right now. “We were the ones who were nearly killed.”

  Slade’s eyes were already an intense steely-blue, but that darkened them even more. “This doesn’t have anything to do with the attack. At least I don’t think it does. Someone anonymously sent the Rangers so-called proof that you two are responsible for the disappearance of Sherry Summers and the murder of Tiffany Brock.”

  A lot more things went through her head—including a good God or two. It had to be a joke that anyone would think she or Harlan had anything to do with what had happened to the two women, but Slade wasn’t the joking type.

  “Proof?” Harlan questioned.

  Slade immediately shook his head. “The Rangers haven’t shared it with the marshals, so I don’t know what they have. All Ranger Morris would say was that you’d both be taken into custody. I’ve put out a few feelers, and maybe someone will know what’s going on.”

  Harlan scrubbed his hand over his face. “Then I guess I’ll have to see what Morris has when he arrives.”

  “Probably not a good idea for you to be here much longer,” Slade warned. “As far as the Rangers are concerned, you’ve gone rogue and are on your way to being a full-fledged outlaw.”

  Caitlyn saw the slight flinch Harlan made, but she figured that reaction was just the tip of the iceberg. This had to cut him to the core, because if there was one thing he wasn’t, it was a rogue lawman. She doubted Harlan had ever even had a parking ticket.

  “And since they plan to charge you both with murder, there won’t be bail,” Slade continued. “They’ll throw both your butts in jail.”

  Mercy. That didn’t help Caitlyn deal with this. She tried to understand everything Slade had just told them, but it didn’t make sense.

  “First of all, there’s no proof that Tiffany was even murdered,” she said, trying to latch on to anything that would shed light on this. “I talked to her fiancé, Devin Mathis, and he said she died in a car accident.”

  “A suspicious one,” Slade supplied.

  And Caitlyn couldn’t argue with that. Devin had indeed believed the accident had been staged, even though at that time the police hadn’t been able to find any evidence to prove foul play. Maybe they’d found something now, but Caitlyn couldn’t see how it would be linked back to Harlan and her. She hadn’t seen or heard from Tiffany in years.

  Then there was Sherry’s disappearance. It fell into the suspicious category, too. In fact, it was Caitlyn’s former roommates’ circumstances that had made her believe Harlan—or someone else—could be trying to off residents of the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility.

  She was, of course, leaning to her someone else theory now.

  “I also talked with Sherry’s business partner, Curtis Newell,” she continued. “And he doesn’t think Sherry’s away on some impromptu vacation. The hard drive on her computer has been wiped clean, and there’s no money or clothes missing. Only her. He’s thinking foul play, too. In fact, he hired a P.I. to try to find her.”

  Caitlyn turned to Harlan to get his take on this, but he just shook his head. “Whatever the Rangers have must be fake. We’ll have to talk with them and sort it out.”

  Slade stepped in front of Harlan when he started to go inside. “Didn’t you hear me? If you stay, they’ll arrest you, and God knows how long it’ll take to clear your names. It’d be a heck of a lot easier if you could figure out what’s going on, and that won’t happen if you’re in Ranger custody.”

  Harlan didn’t seem overly concerned with that, but Caitlyn sure was. She’d spent some time in jail before being transferred to juvenile hall and then reform school, and she didn’t want to go back. Especially because someone had manufactured evidence against them.

  “Can you talk to the Rangers again and try to find out what they have before they get here?” she asked Slade.

  Harlan and Slade exchanged glances, and even though Slade didn’t look too hopeful, he took out his phone and made a call. Harlan looked around the grounds again as if searching for bogeymen, and he nudged her inside. She had no idea how much time they had before the Rangers arrived, but they needed to make every second count.

  “I need a phone,” she insisted. Caitlyn glanced around but didn’t see a landline or a cell. “I can try to track down Farris. He’s the one who probably sent false evidence to the Rangers.”

  “Farris wasn’t at Rocky Creek,” Harlan reminded her. “And so far, everything seems to connect back to that.” He paused, shook his head again. “And yet it doesn’t connect at all.”

  “Unless Sherry or Tiffany saw something to do with Webb’s murder.” Caitlyn hadn’t tossed that out there off-the-cuff. She’d had days to go over every single scenario, and that was one of them. “If they did, then maybe Sarah’s confession brought this all back to the surface, and now her accomplice is trying to tie up loose ends.”

  Harlan didn’t disagree. Nor did he make any move to give her a phone. “Maybe Farris is behind Tiffany’s car accident and Sherry’s disappearance. He could have done that as a way to draw you out.”

  Maybe. She had practically been in hiding prior to that. Always moving and working mainly from home. And the threats and suspicious activity had indeed brought her out into the open. It sickened her to think that Farris could have used her old childhood connections to do that.

  “I need a phone,” she repeated. “I can find out when Farris left the private institution.”

  But even the timing might not give him an alibi for these crimes. With his money, he could have hired someone to kill Tiffany and stage it to look like a car accident.

  But that didn’t make sense.

  “If Farris had killed Tiffany to draw me out, he would have wanted me to know it was murder. It’s the same for Sherry. A disappearance doesn’t have the same emotional punch as murder.”

  Harlan made a sound of agreement, and he looked at her. Their gazes connected, but she hadn’t needed that connection to know he was exhausted and frustrated. Just as she was. He forced out a long, weary breath and ran his fingers down the length of her arm.

  It was far more comforting than it should have been.

  So was the gentle grip he put on her wrist before his han
d slipped into hers. Despite the mess they were in, she managed a weak smile.

  And that was how Slade found them when he stepped into the entry with them. His expression stayed stony, but his eyebrows rose a fraction.

  “Reliving the past?” he asked, and the tone of his voice wasn’t friendly.

  Caitlyn and Harlan moved away from each other. Not that they could go far. The entry was small, barely five feet across.

  “I’m guessing you have something to tell us?” Harlan snapped at his brother.

  “Yeah. Any chance either of you was near the site of Tiffany’s car wreck?” Slade asked.

  “No,” Caitlyn and Harlan answered at the same time.

  “Didn’t figure you were, but someone sent the Rangers two eyewitness accounts that say otherwise.”

  “The eyewitnesses are lying.” Which might be easy to prove if she and Harlan had solid alibis. Judging from Slade’s expression, though, that wasn’t all the news he had for them. “What else do the Rangers have?” she asked.

  “My source says there are emails. Lots of them. From both of you to Sherry. And in those emails, you threaten her to stay quiet.”

  Despite the bone-weary fatigue, that sent a roar of anger through her. “Stay quiet about what?”

  Slade shook his head. “Not sure, but I’m betting it has something to do with the Webb investigation.”

  Yeah, it almost certainly did. “But I didn’t send any emails. In fact, the only reason I tried to contact Sherry was because of the threats I’d received.”

  “And I haven’t been in touch with her at all,” Harlan confirmed. “In fact, I didn’t even know she was missing until Caitlyn showed up at my house in the middle of the night.”

  “I’ll get someone on the emails,” Slade explained. “And disproving those two eyewitnesses. Still, I think you should both lie low—away from the Rangers— because someone’s clearly trying to frame you, and it’s my guess they’re doing that to take you out of commission.”

  So they couldn’t investigate whatever the heck was happening to them.