Either one of those options wasn’t too likely.
“Paige and Al—find a spot to take a nap. We’ll trade off in four hours.”
Al knew not to argue. Sometimes time to rest was just as important in a case as the next piece of evidence. If the eyes weren’t sharp enough to catch everything, something vital could very well be missed.
And she didn’t want to be the one to miss it.
Chapter 23
SHE was too keyed up to sleep but Paige made a good attempt. She’d insisted Al take the couch and Al hadn’t protested. Paige took the small loveseat instead.
She listened partially to the conversation of the men around her. Ken and Sebastian spoke softly and easily. It was obvious that they liked each other, respected one another. They had a great team.
Paige finally managed to drift off. When she woke Sebastian was leaning over her. “Hey. You in there yet?”
“I’m awake. Anything yet?”
“Not yet. Everyone’s asleep.”
Paige sat up and looked around for a moment. Al was snoring slightly on the couch, Ken had somehow crammed his big strong body into an extremely feminine chair. His legs, almost as long as Mick’s, were stretched out in front of him. The early morning sun was starting to push through the windows. It was probably close to eight already. The guys had let them sleep longer than they’d said. No surprise—Sebastian did that sometime, with all of them. “Gillian?”
“She’s upstairs in her bedroom. Poor woman is feeling guilty and terrified.”
“Do you think she has an idea who is doing this?”
Paige thought for a moment. “I don’t know. This is such a small place. How can she not have people in mind? It all goes back to connections. Look at our team alone. You, me, Al…then hop over to Hellbrook’s team. You, Carrie, Georgia, Ed…Everyone is somehow connected. And that’s just through our careers. Gillian has to have connections too.”
“Mostly to her family.”
“Of course.” Sebastian looked at the walls of Gillian’s home. There was the major difference between Gillian’s and her brothers’ homes. “Look at the walls. She loves her family. Dearly. And she’s never felt that she fit in. Over and over there was probably rejection. Yet she persists in caring about them. What does that tell you?”
“That she’d cover for them if she did suspect one of them. Especially if it was the older brother. I don’t think there was anything she wouldn’t do for Geoff. Look at how many photos there are of him up there.”
“Three times as many as the others, even her niece and parents.”
“Maybe it is him. Maybe. There’s been some serious isolation on their parts; I don’t know if that’s because of their parents or because of their personalities. Maybe something broke in him and he focused on her? We’ve seen sibling relationships that have been turbulent before.” Paige could think of one such pair of brothers from her own past that described.
“Get over there. Take Ken and Al with you. I’ll work on Gillian. Marshall left a few deputies in the drive.”
“You sure Al should go?”
“She’s fine. Go.”
“Aye-aye, boss.” She’d just leave Al in the car for this one.
Chapter 24
IT took a moment for Al’s eyes to focus and her mind to sharpen enough to follow what was going on around her. By the time she tuned back in it had already been decided that Paige and Ken would be the one to confront Geoff Birch, while she stayed in the car.
That was something she definitely wasn’t happy about, but she would take that up with Paige later. Her sister-in-law was just being over-protective. That wasn’t exactly unexpected, was it? When Paige needed it Al was just as protective.
It was part of being a family.
But Gillian Birch’s family apparently wasn’t the same way. “How are we going to do this?”
“Seb wants us to push. I’d be happy to do it.” Paige’s voice was grim.
“What’s eating at you about this?”
“Nothing. Not really. I’m a little angry at myself for misjudging. I thought…”
“He did remind me a lot of Mick. But that doesn’t mean we were wrong.”
“I know. But we have to at least consider all the angles. And it makes sense that it was someone in her family. But why?”
Al didn’t know. But there was always a why. Even if they didn’t necessarily understand it, it still existed.
The Birch brothers’ home was dark. Surprising, considering the time. Didn’t ranchers generally rise early with their herds?
But this place was far too still.
Al stayed by the car, weapon ready. If the crud hit the fan with the Birch brothers, she’d be the one responsible for calling in backup from the TSP and any other local law enforcement agency in the vicinity. Sebastian had already notified Chief Marshall about their theories and he was supposed to have three cars in their general area if they needed it.
Paige and Ken headed up the front porch and knocked. Al kept her eyes trained on her friends.
Something definitely wasn’t right.
Chapter 25
PAIGE knocked again. “Funny. You think they’re out riding around with the cows?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. They’ve probably been awake since well before dawn.”
“Even crazy stalkers have to make a living, don’t they?” Paige peered through the window and into the kitchen of the small house. “There’s someone at the table.”
“Did he not hear us knocking?” Ken pulled his weapon and held it at his side, ready for anything like he always was. “Or is he ignoring us?”
Paige looked closer. “Kenny, he’s not moving!”
Ken looked at her. “Exigent circumstances?”
“Exigent circumstances.” Paige tried the doorknob, not surprised to find it locked. She looked at the former line-backer in front of her. “Break it in.”
He was so good at that, wasn’t he?
Paige went in first, weapon drawn. Ken would cover her while she checked the vitals of the man she now recognized as Geoff Birch.
Al would have called for backup the moment Ken broke through the door. She had absolute faith in that.
She holstered her weapon and put her fingers on Birch’s neck. “He’s alive.”
Al was coming through the door, and the sounds of sirens wailed in the distance. “He alive?”
“I think so. But I think he’s been dosed with something, something strong.”
“Where’s the other brother?” Al asked.
“He wasn’t upstairs.” Paige pulled her phone and dialed Sebastian with one hand. The other she kept on the pulse, faint but steady, in Geoff’s neck.
He hadn’t moved since they’d burst through his door. Whatever he’d been given had done its job, that was for sure.
Bad memories threatened to flood her mind, and she pushed them aside to focus on what needed to be done.
As long as his vitals didn’t change, Birch would be fine—wouldn’t he?
Chapter 26
PAIGE watched Birch get loaded into the ambulance, and pushed Al into accompanying him to the local hospital. Someone needed to go, and like it or not, Al was the best choice this time.
Whatever had been done to Geoff Birch changed the course of their investigation. Everyone realized that.
If it wasn’t him, then it was someone else close to Gillian.
And Paige would bet good money on it being someone in her family.
That just felt right, and she knew the rest of her team agreed with that assessment.
She and Ken sent the deputies off toward one edge of the property that connected with the one owned by Gillian’s parents and they took the other.
It wasn’t an overly large ranch by Texas standards, but it was one of the largest Paige had ever been on. They’d probably be pulling all of Marshall’s deputies—and possibly some of the other agencies in the area—to search the place once they had a proper warrant.
And that would wait until they had word on exactly what had happened to Geoff Birch.
There was a lot of waiting in the investigative world; it wasn’t like it could be solved in sixty minutes minus commercials like on television.
Paige had never waited easily. “We need to find Clayton.”
Ken nodded. “Why was Birch drugged instead of killed? I definitely feel this is more than just a stalking case, but what kind is it?”
She knew what he was getting at. “We need to pull every financial record and talk to everyone who is connected to this family at all. Someone knows something. We just have to find that someone.”
Chapter 27
AL stayed at the hospital for the next few hours. Birch had been drugged with something extremely strong—someone had to know it would come close to killing him—and the doctors were trying to identify what it had been.
It didn’t matter much to the course of the investigation at this point—Paige had relayed that nothing had been disturbed at the Birch brothers’ home, and all the doors had been locked from the inside.
Whomever had drugged him, he’d either let that person in, that person had a key, or the person lived with him.
And from what Gillian said, only immediate family had access to that house with keys.
Gillian had arrived at the hospital with Jaz and Hernandez. She hadn’t left her brother’s side since. She had answered some of Al’s questions though. Most notably that Geoff—nor their brother Clayton—wouldn’t have shared keys to their house with anyone outside of the family.
That left only a very small handful of people that could have been responsible.
Sebastian was working with Nugent to find Gillian’s sister.
There was no word anywhere about Clayton Birch.
Sebastian had called St. Louis and had Carrie specifically searching every database she had for anything on the Birches.
Something was out there to give them some sort of clue where to go next.
Chapter 28
PAIGEwas absolutely certain that Texas went on forever. At least the three connecting properties owned by the Birch family did.
Ken worked closely with Chief Marshall to coordinate the searches of the area. Paige and Sebastian headed toward the one set of relatives of Gillian Birch that they hadn’t interviewed yet. Gillian had been insistent early on that her elderly parents were too infirm to be much help, that they probably wouldn’t have remembered anything relevant or vital anyway.
It had to be hard for—Gillian seemed so alone, didn’t she? And with Geoff in the hospital, still unconscious, Gillian had to feel like her entire world was crumbling.
Paige understood how that felt, in every way imaginable.
One of the hardest parts of her job was when she actually liked the victims. When their pain almost became hers in a way.
People had no right to hurt others, yet so many of the ones she ran into on the job did just that.
How much longer could she go on dealing with these types of people?
The thought of her younger brother, a victim of people’s cruelty himself, rescued by people just like her just a short time ago, hit her.
If there weren’t people like her—and like the agent who’d first met Simon when the boy had needed him—then that kid would be dead. Gone before she ever had a chance to know—and love—him.
It was for people like Simon, and like Gillian, that she kept doing this, wasn’t it?
They were her strength, and her resolve.
She and Sebastian drove to the elder Birches home. It sat in the center of the three properties, and was getting older—and a bit shabby. There was grass, sparse in places, but what was there needed mowed. The house itself needed painted and a new roof.
Fifteen minutes later and she understood why the place was starting to fall to pieces.
Gillian Birch’s parents were more than just infirm, they were fading fast. Gillian had obviously been a very late in life baby, and her parents were well into their seventies.
It took them a moment to even recall the name of their youngest child.
Sebastian was very kind when he wound up the interview, and refrained from mentioning what condition their oldest son was in. He simply told them that Geoff was ill and being treated. It would be up to Gillian and her siblings what the elder Birches were told.
But Paige didn’t think the two would remember them, anyway.
“Sad.” Was all Sebastian said.
“Yes it is. Why are so many families messed up, Seb?”
“I’m not sure. People get consumed with their own needs, and one bad choice leads to another.”
“I suppose. Gillian’s going to be alone if this is one of her siblings.”
“I know. But she’s also got a vein of strength that runs through her. She’ll find her way. And she and Geoff are close.”
“If he pulls through.”
“I think he will.” Sebastian paused a moment when a TSP vehicle pulled up in the driveway. “There’s Al.”
“Wonder what’s going on?”
Chapter 29
CHIEF Marshall had been kind enough to give her a ride to the Birch parents’ home and Al appreciated it. She easily sensed what was happening with the Birch family had touched a real nerve for him and she’d subtly asked him about it on the drive.
He’d said only that he knew what it was like to lose his family. There had been so much pain in his eyes she hadn’t pushed the questions further.
Carrie had called while she’d been at the hospital with Gillian and her brother. Al had asked the nurses at the nurses’ station to print the information Carrie had gathered.
After reading it over, she saw several patterns that had her focus shifting.
It was that information she handed her brother-in-law when he met her at the edge of the driveway. “Look at the Birches’ will. Last page.”
Sebastian read it quickly, Paige right next to his shoulder. Al knew the moment when the two of them recognized what she had. “It speaks to clear motive, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does.” Sebastian glanced over at Chief Marshall. “We need to speak with all of the Birch siblings. Think your people can find them?”
“Of course. I won’t stop until I do.”
In the meantime, they’d be searching the entirety of this property—even if it took all day.
Geoffrey Birch, Sr. owned a car. A 1984 Buick. Cream in color.
***
The car was in the barn nearest the Birch brothers’ property. It was covered with a canvas tarp, but it was no doubt the same car Hernandez had chased. Body damage on the left rear panel made that clear. “Who drives this car?”
Chief Marshall looked at the plates. “Expired about six years ago. But I’m betting that anyone on this property knows about it. And has access to the keys.”
“Our suspect pool is shrinking, isn’t it?” Of course it was; it always did. Eventually.
“It seems that way. My men are bringing Carolyn and her daughter in as we speak.”
“Still no word on Clayton?”
“No. No one’s seen him all day, apparently. We’re still looking.”
“I think when we find him, we’ll find our answers.”
“I think you’re right on the money with that. I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of us. It’s easier to look farther away for our answers.” Lessons Al had learned the hard way when that so-called family friend had nearly killed her own brothers and Jules—and Paige—so many months ago.
Chapter 30
CAROLYN Birch Robertson was sweating. And for a woman who obviously took pride in her appearance and in being in control that said a lot.
She looked at Paige, irritation in her dark brown eyes. “Shouldn’t I be at the hospital instead of in a police station?”
Paige had dealt with women like her before. She wasn’t about to be intimidated. “I’m glad
to hear your brother’s going to make a full recovery.”
“Yes. Yes. He’ll be fine. Where’s my daughter? She’s got cheerleading practice in twenty minutes.”
“She’s going to have to miss it this evening, I’m afraid. And don’t worry. She’s with a social worker now.” She wasn’t, but Paige wasn’t about to tell her mother that.
The girl was just as much a suspect as her mother.
“Why?”
“Ms. Robertson, do you know where your brother Clayton is?”
“Of course I don’t. I assume he’s out on his ranch working.”
The woman was so belligerent. Defensive. Why? “We need to speak with him. But that’s not really why you’re here.”
“Then why am I?” The woman twirled the end of one graying blonde lock of her hair. She was probably a pretty woman twenty years ago, but as she closed in on fifty she was losing the battle with her vanity.
Mostly because of her attitude, which hadn’t improved from the last time Paige had spoken with her.
Of course it was a stressful family situation, but nothing the woman had done convinced Paige that she was the least bit concerned with her siblings’ well-beings.
She’d worried more about her daughter’s cheerleading than her brother in intensive care.
That told Paige quite a lot about her right there. “Ms. Robertson, do you care to tell me why you had this particular brand of stationary in your desk?”
“It’s paper. Why does that matter?”
“You have to know why we’re here.”
“Because Gillian got herself into trouble. She stood have stayed home with our parents instead of going out on her own. None of this would have happened.”
Perhaps, especially if Paige’s theory held true. “Tell me about that. Who is the primary caregiver for your parents?”
Knocked Out Page 5