Miss Joan shook her head. “No, thanks. You city people are much too fast for me.”
There was no way that Sully believed that or thought that Miss Joan actually believed it. But he knew enough not to laugh. “Nobody could even come close to you, Miss Joan.”
She merely smiled at the compliment.
* * *
They had just finished eating and looked as if they were about to leave the diner. “Since you’re going to be shorthanded while you two are caught up in this investigation, I called Clint Washburn while you were enjoying Juan’s efforts with breakfast. I asked Clint if he’d send over one of his men to the J-H Ranch to help out for a few days.”
Miss Joan paused. It was a foregone conclusion that Clint hadn’t turned her down.
And he hadn’t.
“He’s sending his brother Roy, which means that when you two get back to the ranch, you can get some sleep.” Her eyes narrowed as she shifted them from one fact to the other. “You both look as if you could use it.”
Sully grinned at the woman, discounting the assessment and accompanying suggestion. “I’m just getting my second wind, Miss Joan,” he told her. Then, turning toward Rae, he said, “But you could use some.”
Rae instantly pulled back her shoulders, looking every bit like someone who was bracing for a fight.
“I’m just fine,” she ground out between her teeth.
Clearing away their plates, Miss Joan just shook her head. “Never could tell that girl anything,” she told Sully.
Sully merely smiled, sharing the moment with Miss Joan. But he said nothing. He had no desire to set Rae off.
His cell phone vibrated just as they walked out of the diner. He pulled it out as he went down the last steps. Reading what was texted, he told Rae, “Looks like Valri has some information for us.”
Rae found it hard to believe. “Seriously? Already?” she asked.
He scrolled to the end of the message. “I told you she was fast.”
“Apparently,” Rae said under her breath. “Well, what does she say?”
But Sully didn’t answer her. The text on his phone kept updating. He continued reading the additional texts that his cousin was sending. Finished, he reread all of the texts again.
“What is it?” Rae repeated. She shifted in order to be able to read the cell screen he was holding. “Don’t play games with me, Cavanaugh,” she warned. “I’m not tired, but I’m short on patience.”
“No games,” Sully protested. He raised his eyes to hers. “Whoever that wrangler we found actually was, his name wasn’t John Warren.”
She didn’t understand what he was telling her. Was he saying that it was a case of mistaken identity on their part?
“You mean we didn’t find Warren, we found someone else?” It didn’t seem possible. The man Sully had pulled out of the muddy grave certainly looked like the man who had worked on the ranch for the last two months. “How’s that possible?”
Sully looked around to see if they were alone. He didn’t want this to get around until he had a chance to tell the sheriff.
But there was no one nearby, so he started to explain the circumstances to Rae.
“We found John Warren all right—except he wasn’t John Warren. He was really someone else. John Warren was his alias. According to what Valri found when she ran the fingerprints I sent her, the guy’s name was Jefferson Wynters. Valri is forwarding this information—as well as anything else she finds—to me via my laptop. I need to go back to the ranch so I can access it.”
This was all news to her. “You brought a laptop?” she questioned. “I thought you wanted to get away from all that.”
He’d thrown the laptop in as an afterthought. Now he was glad that he did. “I packed it just in case when I left. I guess it was lucky I did,” he commented.
She wasn’t going to say it, but she agreed with him—at least on that.
“Did Valri say anything else about this Jefferson Wynters?” she asked. “Like if she found out if he has any next of kin? And if she did, did she say where I can find them?”
“Not that I can see so far,” he answered. He’d scrolled down to the bottom, and there was no mention of any family. And then his phone vibrated again, indicating that another message was coming in. “Hold it.”
“What is it?” she asked.
Sully scanned the message. “Valri says that Wynters was wanted by the police for questioning.”
Rae thought of the mild-mannered, inept man who had been posing as a wrangler all this time. This seemed incredible. “Questioning about what?”
Sully went on reading as they walked over to her vehicle—the sheriff had had one of his deputies drive it into town, thinking she’d want to be able to drive herself and Sully back to the ranch.
Sully gave her the news as he read it. “Apparently, the firm he was working for just before he disappeared reported that a lot of money had gone missing. The manager thought that Warren—Wynters—might have had something to do with it,” he said just as they reached her truck.
He kept the phone open as he got into the vehicle.
Rae climbed in on her side. This whole thing was beginning to sound more and more unreal to her.
“What do they mean by a lot of money?” she asked. “Does it say how much went missing?”
Sully continued to scroll as his cousin sent more information. “Valri said she was emailing me all the details, but according to this last piece she’s just texted,” he said as he read, “it was—”
Sully abruptly stopped talking. His mouth dropped open as an amount appeared on the screen.
About to start the truck, she looked at him. “How much?”
“This can’t be right,” he murmured, still looking at his phone.
“How much?” Rae repeated. She had always hated not knowing things, and having him draw this out just underscored that for her. “Damn it, Sully, how much was Warren—Wynters,” she corrected, “supposed to have made off with?”
“According to this, he stole over half a million dollars.”
She stared at Sully in disbelief. “That’s not possible.”
The text terminated and he slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Whoever killed him obviously thought it was.”
Chapter 15
“Why are you stopping?” Sully asked.
He’d assumed that they were going to drive to the ranch, but instead, Rae had turned her truck in the opposite direction. She’d then driven the short distance to the sheriff’s office and now pulled up in front of it.
Sully looked at her quizzically. “I thought we were going to the ranch.”
“You said you want to go to the ranch to get your laptop,” she said, opening the door on her side. “Well, you can access your email account at the sheriff’s office.” A tolerant smile curved her mouth as she got out. “We’re not as backward as you think, and the sheriff does need to hear about this,” Rae reminded him.
He realized that he might have offended her when he said he needed to get his laptop to connect to the Aurora police department, but he hadn’t meant to. What he was guilty of was tunnel vision, because he was used to doing things a certain way.
Rather than bother wasting time explaining himself, Sully got out of the truck on his side and told her, “Lead the way.”
Without another word, she quickly went up the front steps and then went straight to the sheriff’s inner office.
Rick looked surprised to see them when they walked in.
“I thought you two would be on your way back to the ranch to get some well-deserved sleep. Something wrong with your truck?” he asked, leaping to the first reason he could think of that would bring them to his office. “Gabe said it made a strange sound when he put it into Park.”
“It always makes a strange noise,” she told him. “No, this i
s about some information that we found out about Warren.”
Beckoning them inside, he looked from one to the other. “What about Warren?” Rick asked.
Rae looked toward Sully, indicating that the news should come from him since, ultimately, it was his to give. “He’s not Warren,” Sully told the sheriff.
Confusion creased the sheriff’s forehead. “How’s that again?”
“Can I have access to one of your computers?” Sully asked him. “I’d like to download my email. I can explain all this a lot better once I can have it all in front of me.”
Rick didn’t hesitate. He moved back from his desk and gestured toward the desktop computer that he usually kept pushed over to one side.
“Have at it,” he told Sully.
Sitting down, Sully started typing. Pulling up the site he was looking for, he inputted his user name and password. Instantly another screen opened up. Within a few moments, Sully’s fingers were flying across the keyboard, pulling up lines upon lines of data.
Watching him, Rick marveled, “You type a hell of a lot faster than I do.”
“I’ve probably had more practice,” Sully answered. With more information in front of him now, he turned toward the sheriff. “Okay, the man everyone here knew as John Warren was actually Jefferson Wynters. His fingerprints are on file in a national database. Seems that being fingerprinted is required for more and more employees these days, and that includes accountants for firms overseeing the regulations for assisted-living facilities.”
“So you’re telling me that this Warren-Wynters was an accountant?” Rick asked.
Sully nodded. “According to this information that was just sent to me this morning by one of my cousins, he was.”
“An accountant,” Rick repeated, stunned. He looked as if he was rolling the word over in his head as he tried to comprehend what was going on. “Yeah, I suppose that makes more sense. The guy acted more like an accountant than a wrangler.” Which brought him to the next question. “So what was he doing here, posing as a ranch hand?”
“My guess would be that he was hiding,” Sully said. He scanned the screen to see if there was anything more coming in, but for now there wasn’t. “Wynters probably thought that no one would think to look for him working on a horse ranch.”
“That stands to reason. It wasn’t like he was any good at it. According to what I heard, the guy was pretty inept. But hiding?” Rick questioned as the word Sully had used sank in. “From what?”
This was what was called burying the lead, Sully thought, but it was better to offer the information slowly. He was surprised that Rae had indulged him and kept quiet while he filled the sheriff in.
“Apparently whoever he stole over half a million dollars from.” Sully watched the sheriff’s face as he divulged that piece of information.
“Wait, back up,” Rick ordered, certain that he had heard wrong. “What?”
Sully went into detail. “Wynters was wanted for questioning about half a million dollars that went missing from the company he worked for. The thought was that he embezzled it. When he took off, the likelihood that he was guilty increased tenfold and he became their chief suspect. However,” he concluded, “no charges were officially brought against him. Currently the police are still looking for him back in Arizona.”
Sully hadn’t mentioned another state before. “This happened in Arizona?” Rae asked.
Sully nodded, then specified, “Prescott.”
“I’ve got a question,” Rae told him. “Where’s the money now?”
Rick took a stab at the answer. “My guess is that whoever killed him has it.”
“Or,” Sully said, offering another version, “the person killed Wynters because he wouldn’t tell him where he—Wynters—had hidden the money.”
Rick frowned. He didn’t like where this was going. “You realize you just said that the whole town is now under suspicion for this man’s murder.” He shook his head. “I grew up here. I know these people. Some of them are hotheads and can lose their temper, but murder? I don’t think so.”
Sully wasn’t about to argue with the sheriff. He needed the man’s goodwill. So for now, he offered a compromise.
“Why don’t we start by questioning the people who were at Miss Joan’s party, asking them if they saw anything suspicious. We’ll go from there,” Sully suggested.
“You mean like asking them if anyone saw Warren leaving with someone,” Rae clarified.
He’d almost forgotten she was there, Sully thought. He glanced at her now. “Right. Like that. We could—”
“This is still my town, Sully,” the sheriff said. He wasn’t being territorial—he just felt that the residents would respond better to him than someone they didn’t know, as well. “I should do the questioning.”
Sully had no problem with that. He just wanted answers. “You’re absolutely right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep any line,” he said, getting up from the desk. “Force of habit.”
“Well, in this case I’m glad for any help you can offer,” the sheriff admitted. “Robbery on this scale isn’t exactly what I’m used to. Throw in murder and I don’t mind saying that I’m in over my head.”
“No shame in asking for help, Sheriff,” Sully told the other man. “I do it all the time.”
“You did it last night,” Rae reminded Sully. When Rick looked at her, a bemused expression on his face, she realized how what she’d just said had to sound to a third party. She could feel color rising up her cheeks. “When you sent those texts to your two cousins, asking them to check out Warren’s fingerprints and the stab wounds in his chest,” she quickly added.
She could see that the amusement on the two men’s faces didn’t abate. She pressed her lips together and stopped talking.
“Right,” Sully agreed amiably, although she could see the smile in his eyes. “See, Sheriff? No shame in asking.”
Rick pressed on. “There were a lot of people at that party,” he commented. “It’s going to take a while to question all of them.”
“Well, then, we’d better get started with it,” Rae said.
Sully glossed over the fact that Rae had said we and said to the sheriff, “They’re going to want to know why we’re asking if they saw Warren leaving and with who, if anyone,” he speculated. “For now, we should just tell everyone that Warren’s body was found on the north end of Miss Joan’s ranch. They don’t have to know that he was murdered—or that he stole over a half a million dollars.”
“Allegedly,” the sheriff interjected, wanting to keep all the facts straight.
Sully inclined his head. Keeping the questioning low-key was better suited to maintaining a calm situation. “Allegedly,” he echoed.
“What about my deputies?” Rick asked the other man. “I don’t want to keep them in the dark. I have to tell them the truth.”
“Do you trust them?” Sully asked before he answered.
Rick never hesitated. His answer was immediate. “Each and every one of them with my life,” he swore.
That was all Sully wanted to hear. “Then tell them,” he advised.
“That’ll make six of us,” Rae told the two men. “How do you want to split this up?” she asked. “We each question an equal amount of people?”
Rick and Sully exchanged looks. “I wasn’t planning on having you take part in the questioning—” Sully got no further in his answer.
“The man worked for me,” Rae informed him in a steely voice that left no room for argument. “I never picked up on any of this. That’s on me. And then someone killed him. Whether or not he stole that money doesn’t change the fact that someone stabbed that man to death. No one deserves to have that happen to them,” she insisted. She stood between the two men, a small, immovable force who was not about to be dismissed. “I intend to see this through and find out who killed him.”
Silence ensued for a very long moment. And then Rick smiled as he looked toward Sully. “You heard the lady, Cavanaugh.”
“She’s not part of law enforcement,” Sully maintained. “Whoever stabbed Warren isn’t playing games.” His eyes pinned her in place—or so he thought. “You could get hurt,” he argued. “Or—”
Rae turned away from Sully as if he hadn’t said a word. Instead, she turned toward the sheriff and looked at him. “Deputize me.”
“You can’t do that,” Sully protested.
She raised her head, tossing her hair with an air of defiance. “Yes, he can. Sheriff?”
Rick opened his middle drawer. As Sully watched, the he took out a badge and held it in his left hand. “Raise your right hand,” he told Rae.
Rae did as she was told, and Rick proceeded to swear her in as a temporary deputy sheriff.
When Rick finished with the oath and Rae dropped her right hand, he looked at Sully. “She goes with you,” he ordered.
“That’s defeating the purpose,” Rae complained. “Having me there is supposed to help divide up the number of residents each of us question. If I have to go with him, I’m just rubber-stamping Cavanaugh.”
But Rick intended to remain firm on this point. “Take it or leave it, Rae.”
Frustrated, Rae blew out an angry breath. “I’ll take it,” she answered.
Sully glanced at her. “I’m not pleased about this, either.”
Rae merely glared at him. Her eyebrows narrowed. “I don’t believe you.”
“Whatever you say,” Sully answered.
But one look at his face testified that he obviously was pleased.
“Okay, now that that’s settled,” Rick said, looking relieved, “let me call my men together. Once I explain all this to them, we can get started. Anybody have any objections?” Rick asked, looking from Sully to Rae.
“Wouldn’t make any difference if I had them,” Rae answered.
Sully laughed. “You sound just like one of my sisters,” he told her.
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