A Threat to His Family

by Delores Fossen

  Chapter Eleven

  Laney wasn’t sure what she’d expected Terrance to say, but that wasn’t it. She shook her head. “Nancy was a criminal informant.”

  Terrance groaned and, with his gaze back on Nancy’s picture, sank into the chair next to Kellan’s desk. Laney couldn’t tell if he was genuinely upset or if this was all some kind of act.

  “Nancy sold info to the cops every now and then,” Terrance admitted. “But I’d also hired her to keep an ear out for any information about Hadley’s murder.” He looked at Laney again and some of his anger rekindled. “I figured eventually you’d try to pin your sister’s death on me. Just to get back at me. If you ended up doing that, I wanted some ammunition I could use to defend myself.”

  Laney didn’t take her gaze from his. “I want to find her actual killer, not simply pin it on someone.”

  “Right,” he said as if he didn’t believe her. He tipped his head to the photo. “Who did that to her? Who killed her?”

  Owen stepped closer, standing directly in front of Terrance. “That’s what we’re trying to find out. Start talking. When’s the last time you saw her?”

  It was a simple enough question, but it only seemed to bring Terrance’s rage. “I didn’t kill her, and I refuse to stay here and be accused of it.” He sprang to his feet, obviously ready to bolt, but Owen took hold of his arm to stop him.

  “You can either answer that here, or I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice and withholding evidence,” Owen warned him. “Then you’ll wait in a holding cell until Austin PD can come and pick you up.”

  Terrance slung off his grip with far more force than was necessary before he got right in Owen’s face. “Are you doing Laney’s bidding now? Her witch hunt?” Terrance practically spit the words out.

  “I’m asking a question.” Owen definitely didn’t back down. “One that it sounds like you’re evading. When’s the last time you saw Nancy?”

  They continued to glare at each other for several long seconds before Terrance ground out some raw profanity and dropped back a step. “Three days ago. She called to say she needed some cash and wondered if I had any jobs for her. I told her I didn’t, but that if I found something, I’d get back to her.” He paused. “Did she do something stupid to get the money she needed?”

  “It looks that way,” Owen conceded. “Posing as Hadley, she went into the very bank where your PI had followed Hadley shortly before she was killed.”

  Terrance cursed again, but this time when he spoke, his voice was much softer. “Someone obviously hired Nancy to do that and then killed her after she’d finished the job. And no, it wasn’t me,” he quickly added. He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have had a PI on her or the bank so I can’t tell you who did this.”

  Laney considered not just what he’d said but also his body language. Terrance looked and sounded sincere, but this could definitely be an act. If so, then why had he used one of his own employees to get into the bank? Maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology. By putting himself in the center of this, he perhaps thought it would make him appear innocent.

  Laney had no intentions, though, of taking him off her suspect list.

  “I’ll speak with my PIs,” Terrance said, glancing over at Kellan before staring at Owen. “Do you plan to arrest me?”

  Owen took his time answering. “Not yet, but we’ll need an official statement.”

  “I’ll take it,” Kellan volunteered.

  Terrance’s mouth tightened again. “I’ll want my lawyer here.”

  “Then call him and tell him to get over here ASAP. Until he arrives, you can stay in the interview room.” Kellan led him in that direction.

  Laney waited until they were out of earshot before she turned to Owen. “I just don’t know if what he said was true,” he commented before she could ask. “But even if it was, I still don’t trust him.”

  So they were on the same page and, while it was comforting to have him on her side, they were in a very frustrating position. Someone else was dead and they still didn’t have the photos or whatever else her sister had left in the safe-deposit box. Worse, they couldn’t arrest anyone to make sure no one else got killed. Or that there were no more attacks on Laney and him.

  Owen stared at her a moment, slipped his arm around her and eased her to him. “I’d like to be able to get you out of here, to take you back to my grandparents’ house.”

  She filled in the blanks. Yes, he wanted to do that, but it wasn’t safe. “We can stay here as long as necessary.” Laney paused. “Maybe we should put out the word that we’re here. It could put off someone sending hired guns to the ranch.”

  He pulled back, met her gaze. “And make ourselves targets. Especially you.” Owen cursed softly. “You’re thinking of Addie. Thank you for that.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. Of course, I’m thinking about her. I’d rather thugs come after me here than there. In fact, maybe it’s time to use me as bait.”

  This time his profanity wasn’t so soft and he jerked away. “No,” he snapped. “No.” When he repeated it, his voice was a little softer, but filled with just as much emotion. “And that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with that kiss. Or this one.”

  She didn’t even see it coming, but his mouth was suddenly on hers. Taking. And his right hand went to the back of her neck, holding her in place. There was no gentleness here, only the raw emotion of the moment. It was rough, punishing, but even then she could feel the heat in it. Could feel the need that it stirred in her.

  “No,” he repeated for a third time. His hand was still on her neck, his fingers thrust into her hair, and he stayed that way for several moments before he finally backed away from her.

  “I just want Addie safe,” she managed to say when she gathered enough breath to speak. “I want you safe.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted, but the amusement vanished as quickly as it had come. “Now, that’s the kiss talking.”

  No, it wasn’t. It was what she felt for him, but rather than say that, Laney kept things light. “Well, it was a good kiss. Memorable,” she added, trying out one of those partial smiles. Like his, hers was short-lived. Because it hadn’t been just memorable.

  The kiss had been unforgettable.

  Owen was unforgettable.

  And when this was over and they’d caught the person trying to kill them, she was going to have to deal with not only the aftermath of the violence but also something else. Having her heart broken into a million little pieces.

  The thought of having sex with him flashed into her head, and she nearly blurted out that they should go for it at least once so they could burn off some of this fire that was flowing through them. Thankfully, she didn’t get the chance to spill all—something she would have no doubt regretted—because someone came in through the front door of the squad room.

  Nettie.

  Great. Laney didn’t have the mental energy to deal with the woman, and she figured Owen didn’t, either. But Nettie stopped the moment her attention landed on them. Laney was no longer in Owen’s arms, but she realized that he hadn’t taken his hand from her hair. He eased his grip away as he turned toward Nettie.

  “I’m glad you have time for that sort of thing,” Nettie said, irony and bitterness in her voice.

  Laney was a little surprised when Owen didn’t move away from her. He stayed shoulder to shoulder with her, still touching her as they faced the woman.

  “You’re supposed to be looking for Emerson,” Nettie added. She marched toward them. “But I find you here with your hands on the very person who’s responsible for the mess we’re in.”

  “Excuse me?” Laney said at the same moment Owen snarled, “What the hell does that mean?”

  “We didn’t have trouble until she came here. She lied to you, turned you against Emerson and me, and now Emerson is missing.” Each of Nettie�
�s words snapped like a bullwhip, but the fit of temper must have drained her because on a hoarse sob, she sagged against the door frame. “I need to find my husband. Please.” She looked at Laney when she added the please.

  Laney wasn’t immune to the woman’s pain. That seemed like the real deal. But she didn’t trust Nettie any more than she did Terrance or Emerson.

  “I take it that Emerson didn’t return your call?” Owen asked as he helped Nettie to a chair. He also turned the computer where the photo of the dead woman was still on the screen.

  “No. I called him six times. Maybe more. And he hasn’t answered.” A fresh round of tears came, but Nettie quickly brushed them away. She looked up at him. “Tell me what happened to him. I have to know what’s going on.” Nettie added another whispered please.

  Owen stared at her a moment then dragged in a long breath. “Just know that Emerson isn’t going to thank me for telling you this.” He paused several long moments. “Someone’s been trying to blackmail Emerson.”

  Nettie looked up at him, blinked. Judging from her stunned reaction, she hadn’t been expecting that. “Wh-what?”

  “A blackmailer who’s called him several times to try to extort money from him.”

  Nettie shook her head and volleyed wide-eyed glances at Laney and him as if looking for any signs this was a joke. “Blackmail him for what?”

  Owen just stared at her.

  The woman did another round of glancing before she shook her head. “No. My husband didn’t have an affair with her sister.” She flung an accusing finger at Laney.

  Laney figured she was the one who looked surprised now. “What do you know about my sister?” she prompted. Of course, Terrance had said there’d been a meeting between Hadley and Nettie, but Laney hadn’t known if he was telling the truth or not.

  “I know my husband didn’t have an affair with her.” Nettie seemed adamant about that, too, and when she got to her feet, she seemed a lot stronger than she had just seconds earlier. “Yes, I’ve heard talk, but I know it’s not true. Emerson wouldn’t cheat on me.”

  Laney didn’t argue with her, but she would mention something else. “Why else would someone try to blackmail your husband?”

  Nettie’s chin came up. “There are plenty of reasons. Emerson’s an important man, and he’s prosecuted a lot of bad people. One of them could be trying to get some revenge.”

  “This doesn’t seem to be about revenge,” Owen quickly pointed out. “Blackmailers usually want money to keep a secret. Of course, they usually end up wanting more and more money.”

  Nettie stared at him again and Laney thought she was maybe trying to find a reasonable comeback. But Nettie only huffed, “I don’t know why someone would demand money. But it’s not because he cheated.” She started to pace across Kellan’s office. “It probably has something to do with that mix-up about the eavesdropping program being on my computer.”

  It wasn’t a mix-up. The program had been there, but obviously Nettie wasn’t going to accept responsibility for that.

  “Was Emerson upset about that?” Owen asked, sounding very much like a cop who was fishing for information from a potential suspect.

  “Of course, he was. But he knows I was set up, that there’s no way I would do something like that.” Nettie stopped the pacing so she could glare at Laney. “Why would I care about eavesdropping on you anyway?”

  Laney didn’t even have to think about the answer to that. “Because you’re worried that your husband did indeed have an affair with my sister and you wanted to know if I’d found any proof of it.”

  “No!” Nettie’s glare got worse. “I didn’t do that because there’s no proof to find. I know you want to find your sister’s killer, but you’d better keep my husband and me out of your lies.”

  Owen took Nettie by the shoulders. “What if she’s not lying?” he asked. “What if Laney’s telling the truth?”

  Laney steeled herself for another lash from Nettie’s temper, but the woman stilled and shook her head. There was nothing adamant about that head shake, though, and the tears shimmered in Nettie’s eyes again.

  Owen turned at the sound of footsteps. When Kellan stepped into the doorway, he looked at the three of them, obviously piecing together what had been going on. He motioned for Owen to join him in the squad room and extended the gesture to Laney. They stepped out, but Kellan didn’t say anything until he was back in the hall and out of Nettie’s earshot.

  “Terrance called his PIs,” Kellan told them. “All of them claim they hadn’t seen Nancy in days and that they don’t know who hired her to go into the safe-deposit box.”

  “You believe them?” Owen asked.

  Kellan lifted his shoulder. “Terrance put the calls on speaker so I could hear, and the PIs seemed to be telling the truth. Of course, Terrance could have coached them to say that. After all, we would have found the connection between Nancy and him, and he would have known that would eventually lead to us talking to his PIs.”

  Yes, it would have, and coaching was something Terrance would have done. He would cover any and all bases rather than go back to jail.

  Laney glanced in the direction of his office just to make sure Nettie hadn’t come out. She hadn’t. “As far as we know, Terrance is the only one of our suspects who knew Nancy.”

  Kellan nodded. “So, I ask myself, why would he use her? But maybe he did that because he might not be the only one of our suspects with links to Nancy. I want to take a look at Nancy’s phone logs and financials that Austin PD will be getting. There might be something there to help us with our investigation.”

  Laney agreed, and her gaze drifted back to Nettie. “And her financials?”

  “I’m working on it,” Kellan said with a sigh. He opened his mouth to say more but a loud shout stopped him. It had come from the squad room, and it had both Owen and Kellan drawing their weapons.

  “Get out here now!” someone yelled.

  Emerson.

  Kellan and Owen both moved in front of Laney and rushed into the squad room. From over their shoulders, she immediately saw Emerson. And he wasn’t alone. He had a man with him.

  Emerson was also armed.

  He had a gun pointed at a man he was dragging in by his collar. When Emerson slung the man onto the floor, Laney could see that his hands were tied behind his back.

  “I had him meet me,” Emerson huffed, his breath gusting. His clothes were torn, too, and there was a bruise forming on his right cheek. “And then I bashed him on the head so I could bring him here.”

  “Who is he?” Kellan asked.

  “The blackmailer.” Emerson spit the word out like a profanity. “Arrest him now.”

  * * *

  OWEN HAD ALREADY had too many surprises today, but obviously they weren’t finished when it came to that.

  “Give me the gun,” Owen ordered Emerson.

  Owen intended to get to the bottom of...well, whatever the heck this was, but he didn’t want to start until he got that weapon out of Emerson’s hand. That wild look in his brother-in-law’s eyes let Owen know this was still a very volatile situation.

  “Arrest him now,” Emerson repeated.

  “I’ll start doing that when you give me your weapon,” Owen countered. He made a quick check to see if Kellan was still in front of Laney. He was. Kellan also had his arm hooked around Nettie, no doubt to prevent the woman from rushing to her husband.

  The fire in Emerson’s eyes heated up even more, and it didn’t look as if he had any intentions of surrendering the weapon. Not until Nettie spoke.

  “Emerson, you’re hurt,” she said, her voice cracking. “He needs an ambulance,” she snarled to Kellan.

  Emerson glanced at his wife, at the man on the floor, and seemed to realize what he’d just done. He passed the gun to Owen, and Owen handed it off to Gunnar.

  “What happened?
” Owen asked Emerson.

  But he didn’t get a chance to answer. Nettie broke away from Kellan and ran to her husband. She landed right in his arms. Owen considered pulling them apart so he could pat down Emerson for other weapons, but Kellan came forward to do that. Judging from both his and Nettie’s glares, neither cared much for that.

  “He needs an ambulance,” Nettie repeated. She was crying now, but they all ignored her. Even Emerson. Though she did gently touch her fingers to that bruise on his face.

  “I did what I needed to do,” Emerson snapped. “What you wouldn’t do.” He glanced at both Owen and Kellan when he added that. “He was blackmailing me, and I put a stop to it.”

  “I wasn’t blackmailing him,” the man insisted. There was a bruise on his cheek as well, and the anger radiated over every inch of his face. “I told this nutjob he has it all wrong.”

  “He met me to take the money that he’d demanded,” Emerson insisted. “I didn’t have the cash, but I’d stuffed some newspapers in a big envelope to make him think I had it. That’s how I got him close enough to hit him.”

  “I didn’t know it was blackmail,” the man snapped. “I was just doing somebody a favor.”

  A bagman. Or else he was claiming to be one.

  “Who are you?” Owen demanded. He hauled the man to his feet so he could pat him down. No weapons, and his hands had been secured with a pair of plastic cuffs.

  “Norman Perry.” The sour tone matched his expression.

  “Running him now,” Gunnar volunteered.

  While Owen waited for Gunnar to do that, Nettie looked up at her husband. “What happened? Why would this man be trying to blackmail you?”

  It wasn’t a question Owen had intended to ask—because he already knew the answer—so he paused to give Emerson a chance to tell his wife. Emerson certainly didn’t jump to do that. He took his time while he looked at everyone in the room but Nettie.

  “Someone lied and said I did something I didn’t do,” Emerson finally said. He tipped his head to Perry. “He had a gun, but I took it from him. It’s in my car, and it’s unlocked out front.”