Chapter Three
Slater kept watch out one of the windows that would give him a good view of the road that led to his house. He wasn’t sure what the heck was going on, but he was hoping he could get some answers from “Officer Johnson” when he showed up to “take care of the kid and her.”
To prepare for that, Duncan had immediately arranged for a backup deputy to be with Slater and for Duncan and Deputy Sonya Grover to take Lana and the baby to the sheriff’s office in town. Lana had been plenty hesitant about leaving with Duncan and Sonya, maybe because she now had a distrust of cops or because the plan seemed too risky.
There was indeed a risk, but Slater wanted to face down Johnson when Lana and Cameron weren’t around to be hurt. Judging from the tone Johnson had used in that short phone conversation, he didn’t have good intentions.
Slater checked the time. It’d been nearly two hours since Lana had gotten that alert about the break-in, plenty enough time for Johnson to make the drive from San Antonio to Saddle Ridge. He glanced across the room at Deputy Luca Vanetti, who was keeping watch on the other side of the house.
“No sign of him,” Luca relayed, obviously noticing the glance Slater had given him.
“None here, either.” And the admission made Slater want to curse along with second-guessing himself.
He hadn’t officially alerted San Antonio PD about the break-in at Lana’s place because if Johnson was indeed a cop, Slater hadn’t wanted him to know they were onto him. Leaks could and did happen, so Slater had figured better to be safe than sorry. However, Slater had called his brother Ruston, who was an undercover detective with SAPD, and had asked Ruston to quietly monitor what was going on.
Ruston hadn’t even attempted to get to Lana’s house and intercept the intruder because Johnson had stayed less than a minute after telling the caller he was going “to Saddle Ridge, to the deputy’s place now.” In case Johnson had meant another deputy, all the cops in the sheriff’s office had been put on alert, and none were alone and without backup. Since everyone was texting Duncan every fifteen minutes, Slater knew Johnson hadn’t shown up at those other places, either. None of his fellow cops had been attacked or killed.
Slater felt the tightness come in his chest as the memories prowled into his head. He’d been a deputy for ten years now, and for the first nine years, he had, of course, been concerned about losing a family member or friend since two of his three siblings and his dad had been cops. But then his father had been gunned down, murdered by an unknown assailant, and the concern was much, much stronger.
It was a dark tangle of emotions, including fear and anger that he hadn’t given his father justice.
He wasn’t sure he could lose anyone like that again. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could get through this loss at all, ever, and as long as his father’s killer was out there, then Slater had failed at one of the most important things in his life. All the cop training and experience meant nothing until someone had paid for shooting his father in the chest and leaving him to die.
“You can tell me to mind my own business,” Luca said, snapping Slater out of his miserable thoughts, “but is the baby yours?” It was a reasonable question since Luca, too, had gone to school with Stephanie and Lana, and he knew that Slater and Stephanie had dated.
“No,” Slater assured him.
That was one of the few things Slater was certain of. He’d never had sex with Stephanie and had never visited a sperm bank or a surrogate clinic. And that meant Stephanie had lied.
“I’m guessing Stephanie was scared,” Slater added. “And she knew I’d protect Lana and the baby.”
Of course, that led Slater to a big question—who or what was Stephanie scared of? Her parents were a good guess, because there was that threat of losing her trust fund. But he couldn’t see her folks murdering their daughter. Still, it was possible, and it was why Pamela and Leonard Walsh were on his suspect list. Not at the very top, though. At the moment Officer Johnson held that position, and Slater needed to know how this man fit into the pieces of the puzzle.
His phone vibrated with a call, and Slater saw Ruston’s name on the screen. “I don’t think your guy is coming to your place tonight,” his brother immediately said. “I’ve had a monitor on the traffic cams, looking for this Officer Johnson, and there was an accident about an hour ago. Someone ran a red light, plowed into a black SUV, disabling it. The driver of the SUV ran from the scene, and he matches Johnson’s description.”
Slater cursed. “Do you have the camera footage?”
“I got a couple of still images from the footage. Sending them to you now,” Ruston said just as Slater’s phone vibrated again.
Even though they were grainy images, Slater had no trouble seeing that it was indeed Officer Johnson. The first photo was of the collision itself, and the next was of the man exiting the vehicle. The final shot was of him running away, and that meant the guy likely wasn’t a real cop. If he had been, there probably wouldn’t have been a reason to hurry away like that. However, staying put would have meant having to explain why he was wearing the uniform.
“I just filled Duncan in on this,” Ruston went on, “and he said for Luca and you to head on to the sheriff’s office so you can figure out what to do about Lana and the baby.”
Slater muttered more profanity. Not because he didn’t want to return to the sheriff’s office and deal with the situation of Lana and the baby. He did. But he’d also wanted to catch a possible killer.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” Slater said, ending the call so that he and Luca could head into the garage where he’d parked the cruiser.
Slater also reset his security system in case Johnson finally did show up, and then did something he rarely did. He activated the security camera that was part of his doorbell. It was something he normally reserved for when he was expecting a package and there was inclement weather in the forecast.
Even though Slater suspected Johnson wouldn’t be making a trip to Saddle Ridge tonight, he and Luca still kept watch. And saw nothing out of the ordinary. This was ranching country, where traffic pretty much dried up after dark, and tonight was no exception. They made it all the way to the sheriff’s office without encountering another vehicle.
When Slater stepped into the building, he immediately saw Lana in Duncan’s office. She was feeding the baby a bottle while she studied something on a computer screen that Duncan was showing her.
At the sound of Slater’s footsteps, her head whipped up, her gaze slicing across the bullpen and reception to meet his. There was plenty of concern and wariness in her green eyes, and he so wished he could tell her the danger had passed. But it obviously hadn’t. Not with Officer Johnson still out there.
Slater certainly wasn’t untouched by the fear he saw on her face. He hated that she was going through this especially when there wasn’t a surefire fix to the danger. Apparently, he also wasn’t immune to something else.
The realization that the old attraction was still stirring between them.
Well, it was for him, anyway. The heat had been there for years, lying dormant and then igniting every time he saw her. Each time, he’d shoved the attraction firmly aside. Or rather had tried to do that, since any kind of romance between them could create more ire for her from her parents. Added to that, Slater had dated her sister, and Lana had been in the military, nowhere near Saddle Ridge.
But she was here now.
And his body obviously wanted to remind him of that.
Once again, Slater pushed aside the heat and joined them in Duncan’s office while Luca went to his desk. Slater thankfully got the quick mental adjustment he needed. Because Lana was looking at images on the screen. It didn’t take Slater long to realize these were photos of Austin cops with the surname of Johnson. In the top corner of the screen was the close up shot of the man running from the scene of the wrecked SUV.
“He’s not a cop,” Lana immediately said. “At least not one with Austin PD.”
None of them seemed surprised about that, but Slater understood the sound of frustration that Duncan made. “We’re running facial recognition now to try to get a match,” he added.
That was a good step, but it might not be enough. “What about the hospital cameras? Maybe there’s something on the footage to tell us who he is.”
“Austin PD is still examining that.” Duncan made another of those heavy sighs. “The cameras in the hallway had been tampered with, so there’s no feed of the man going into or out of Stephanie’s room. He didn’t leave anything obvious behind, either, but the CSIs have gathered plenty of hairs and fibers and have sent them to the lab.”
Slater figured getting anything from that was a long shot since dozens if not hundreds of people could have gone in and out of that room in the past week. Still, it was something that had to be checked.
The baby caught Slater’s attention when he made a kitten-like sound after he finished the bottle. Lana set the bottle aside and moved him to her shoulder to burp him. The maneuver wasn’t completely smooth, but Lana was obviously taking good care of the newborn. And under bad circumstances. Her sister was dead, and there appeared to be a killer after her.
“Why?” Slater said, voicing the question that was running through his head. Both Lana and Duncan looked at him. “Why would Stephanie’s killer want to come after Lana? What’s your theory?”
Both Lana and Duncan considered that for several moments, and it was Lana who spoke first. “Johnson said he would take care of me and the kid,” she said. “So maybe that means someone is trying to cover up the fact that Stephanie had a child.”
Slater and Duncan made quick sounds of agreement. “Who would want to do that?” Duncan asked her.
“My parents,” she readily admitted. “And maybe the baby’s father.” Lana shifted her attention back to Slater. “Duncan’s already taken a DNA sample from the baby. That might give us some answers. Fast answers,” she emphasized, “since the lab will be using rapid analysis. We could have results in a matter of hours.”
True, but there was no need for him to spell out that the only way they’d get a match was for the baby’s father to already have his DNA in the system. That could happen if the guy had a criminal record or a job that required such info, but the vast majority of people weren’t in law enforcement databases.
They all turned toward the doorway when Sonya stepped in. She was holding her laptop. “The facial recognition program came up with a hit,” she said, turning the screen so they could see it. On the left was the image they’d gotten from the security camera, and on the right was the mug shot of a beefy bald man.
Lana made a soft gasp. “That’s him.” She repeated her words while she was making an obvious effort to rein in her emotions. Hard to do that while she was looking right at her sister’s killer. “Who is he?”
“Buchanan, aka Buck, Holden,” Sonya provided. Placing the laptop on the corner of Duncan’s desk, she opened a file of notes that she likely planned on using to do a report. “He’s thirty-nine and was arrested three years ago for stalking. He got probation.”
“Stalking?” Slater questioned. “That’s a huge escalation to murder, impersonating a police officer, and breaking and entering.”
Sonya nodded. “I’ll do a thorough background check since there could be something else. Maybe something expunged from his record,” she added. “A year ago, he and his younger brother inherited about thirty million when their parents were killed in a car accident, so unless he’s blown through it, he’s got plenty of money for legal fees.”
“Since he’s likely rich, maybe Stephanie and this Buck Holden ran in the same social circles?” Duncan suggested.
“Maybe,” Lana said, but she didn’t sound very convinced. “He doesn’t look like Stephanie’s usual type, though. She went more for the guys who were hot enough and good-looking enough to be on those calendars...” Her words trailed off when her attention slid to Slater, probably because she recalled that Stephanie had gone for him.
Slater refused to be flattered by what she’d just said. And he wanted to refuse to notice the slight flush that colored Lana’s cheeks. It was better to focus on other things. No shortage of those, because he had plenty of questions flying through his head. How had he gotten involved with Stephanie? And why had he killed her if they hadn’t been involved?
“I’ll go through all of Stephanie’s social media posts and see if there’s any mention of Buck,” Lana said after clearing her throat.
“I’ll do the same for Buck’s posts, if there are any,” Sonya tacked onto that.
That would likely take some time, but there was something else that had to go at the top of their to-do list. “Lana will have to give a statement to Austin PD,” Slater spelled out. “That won’t be a fast in-and-out since this is a murder investigation. And they’ll want her to give the statement in person. Added to that, Lana will have to get into the past eight months or so of Stephanie’s life at the safe house.” He looked at her. “Did you bend or break any laws to arrange that for her?”
“No,” she insisted, but then she paused. “There might be some legal questions about Stephanie using an alias when she had the baby. Questions, too, about those documents I gave you.”
Slater had to agree on that, but since Lana hadn’t done those documents, the blame for it would be on Stephanie. And she wasn’t alive to defend her actions or to be charged with any wrongdoing.
“I can take Lana to Austin,” Slater went on, “but with Buck at large, it might not be the safest trip.”
“You’ll have backup,” Duncan was quick to say, but then his attention went to the baby. He sighed. “Since we don’t know who his bio-father is, Austin PD might take custody of him until it’s all sorted out and then hand him over to the surviving parent.”
Lana shook her head. “I don’t believe Stephanie would have wanted that. She was hiding. And it’s a good bet that she was doing that because she was terrified of the bio-father.”
No one in the room could argue with her, and it was possible the baby’s dad had been the one to murder Stephanie. Either that, or he’d hired someone like Buck to do it. No way did Slater want Cameron in clear view of a killer or his henchman.
Lana turned to him. “For now, can you just keep it to yourself that Stephanie wasn’t your surrogate?” Slater groaned, but she talked right over that. “Yes, I know it’s withholding evidence, but this way, we can control who has him. We won’t have to hand him over.”
His heart wanted to go along with that. Mercy, did it, but he couldn’t. Slater tapped his badge to remind her she was talking to a cop. “That’s obstruction of justice.”
She huffed, closed her eyes a moment and then pled her case to Duncan. “All right, then can someone keep Cameron safe here in Saddle Ridge while I’m in Austin? Safe,” she emphasized. “Because it’s not just Buck we have to worry about. That call he made at my house means he’s working for someone or with a partner.”
“Cameron can stay at the ranch with Joelle and me,” Duncan readily agreed. “We have a baby and a full-time nanny, and I can bring in a reserve deputy to help keep watch.”
Slater could tell that still wasn’t ideal for Lana, but then there were no ideal scenarios as long as Buck was at large and free to kill. Still, Lana knew both Duncan and Joelle, and Lana and she had even been friends in school. Added to that, Joelle was a deputy as well and had the training to protect the newborn.
“All right,” Lana finally said, brushing a kiss on the top of the baby’s head before she eased him back into the carrier. “Do you need a statement from me, too?” she asked Duncan.
Duncan didn’t get a chance to answer, though, because of the sounds of voices. One of which was loud and insistent, and even though it’d been years since he’d heard this particular voice, Slater instantly recognized it.
Lana’s mother, Pamela Walsh, and she was calling out Lana’s name.
And she wasn’t alone. Her husband, Leonard, was with her and so was a tall, blond, thirtysomething-year-old man. Hell. They had enough to deal with tonight without adding visitors like this to the mix.
Deputy Brandon Rooney was working at the front desk, and he immediately got to his feet to direct the trio through the metal detectors. No alarms sounded, which meant none of them were armed.
“Lana,” Pamela repeated when her attention landed on her daughter.
Lana immediately moved into the doorway of Duncan’s office, and Slater thought she might be doing that so her mother didn’t see the baby. Possibly because Pamela might try to take him. No way would he and Duncan let that happen, not until they had sorted out Cameron’s paternity, but Pamela and her husband might try to cause a scene. Also, it was possible the blond guy with them was their lawyer.
Both Duncan and Slater moved into the doorway with Lana, positioning themselves on each side of her so they could face down what might turn out to be trouble. Luca and Brandon had moved behind the visitors while Sonya kept a watchful eye on them from her desk while she continued to work on her laptop.
Pamela and Leonard looked pretty much as they had years ago, and despite recently learning of their daughter’s murder, they didn’t look grief-stricken or disheveled. Just the opposite. Pamela was wearing expensive-looking brown pants and a cream sweater while Leonard was in a perfectly tailored suit. The blond guy had on khakis and a white shirt. He was the only one of the trio who appeared to be grieving or in shock.
So maybe not a lawyer, after all.
“How’d you know I was here?” Lana asked, taking the question right out of Slater’s mouth.
Pamela and Leonard both froze for a moment, but then Pamela hiked up her chin. “Leonard has friends in Austin PD. They told us you were here.”
This time Slater said the “hell” out loud, and he glanced at Duncan to see if they were on the same page with this. Of course they were. There was no way a cop should have divulged that kind of information.
“I’ll want the names of your friends in Austin PD,” Duncan insisted, aiming a hard glare at Leonard and Pamela.
“I don’t have to do that,” Leonard snarled.
“All right,” Duncan said, taking out his phone. “I’ll make an official complaint through Austin PD Internal Affairs to open an investigation into divulging information regarding a murder investigation to a civilian. I’m sure they can get to the bottom of it and then discipline the officers involved.”
Slater hadn’t thought it possible, but Leonard’s jaw tightened even more. “Detective David Sullivan,” he said. “His father used to work for me.”
Duncan put his phone away, but Slater had no doubts he’d be making a call to Austin PD to file a complaint against Detective Sullivan.
“David was doing me a favor,” Leonard added, maybe hoping to minimize the trouble he’d just gotten the detective into. “He knew Pamela and I were crushed by Stephanie’s murder, and we needed to find Lana, to make sure she was all right.”
“I pressured them, too,” the blond guy said, and then he came closer to extend his hand to Duncan and Slater. “I’m Marsh Bray. Stephanie and I were...close.”
“My parents wanted Stephanie and Marsh to marry,” Lana provided, earning her a sharp look from her mother.
“I’m in love with Stephanie,” Marsh further explained as if not bothered by Lana’s comment, “and it was my hope that Stephanie would someday agree to be my wife. That’s why I gave her this time she’d asked for. That’s why I waited.” His voice wavered on the last word. “And now she’s dead.”
The grief seemed genuine. Seemed. But Slater had too much cop in him to take this at face value. Maybe Marsh hadn’t been as patient as he was claiming. Maybe he’d gotten so enraged over Stephanie that he’d murdered her. But that left Slater with a huge question.
Was Marsh the baby’s father?
“We need you to come home with us,” Pamela said to Lana. “We need you to explain to Marsh and us exactly what happened to Stephanie.” She paused. “A nurse at the hospital said Stephanie had had a baby. Is it true?”
Slater kept his attention on Marsh. The man certainly wasn’t jumping to say the child was his. Just the opposite. There seemed to be some dread creeping into his expression.
“We know that Stephanie was a surrogate,” her mother went on. “We hired PIs to try to find her, and we found out about her visit to a surrogacy clinic. There was a charge for it on her credit card. Why would she do that? Why would she go to a place like that to get pregnant and carry a child for someone else?”
Since the questions were aimed at Lana and not him, Slater had to figure that the surrogacy clinic hadn’t given Pamela and Leonard that particular bit of info.
“I don’t know,” Lana muttered, and Slater knew it wasn’t a lie.
Her mother groaned and squeezed her eyes shut a moment. “I’m not asking out of idle curiosity. I need to know what happened to my daughter.”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Lana assured her, and she made a show of checking the time. “We need to leave so I can give a statement. That might help them find who killed Stephanie.”
Slater so wished she hadn’t just spelled that out to them, since he didn’t want anyone other than the cops here in the sheriff’s office to know that he and Lana would be on their way to Austin.
“I’ll call you after I give the statement,” Lana added.
Slater hadn’t thought that would be enough to make them leave, but they turned and headed toward the exit. Neither Pamela nor Leonard made a move to give their surviving daughter a hug or offer any words of comfort. That confirmed what Lana had already told Slater about being written out of her parents’ lives.
“We’ll need to take an alternate route to Austin,” Lana said the moment their visitors were gone. “I don’t trust any of them not to spill that we’ll soon be on the road.”
Good. He and Lana were of a like mind on this. “We can use the old highway and not the interstate.”
Duncan nodded. “I’ll have Luca drive with me to take the baby to the ranch, and Sonya can follow behind the two of you as backup. Brandon can man the office until I can get another deputy in here with him.”
Brandon and Luca both made sounds of agreement, but Sonya stepped forward with her laptop in hand. “I found something,” Sonya said, turning the screen so they could see the photo. “This was posted on Stephanie’s Facebook page fifteen months ago.”
Slater, Lana and Duncan all moved in to take a closer look. It was a couple’s shot of Stephanie at what appeared to be a party, but Slater didn’t recognize the smiling dark-haired man who had his arm draped around Stephanie’s shoulder. Lana must not have, either, because she shook her head.
“Who is he?” Lana came out and asked.
“Patrick Holden, Buck’s brother,” Sonya provided, and then she shifted to another open tab with a different photo of Patrick.
One for his obituary.
A quick glance at the date of death showed that he’d died only a week ago.
“Cause of death?” Duncan immediately wanted to know.
That grim look on Sonya’s face told him they weren’t going to like the answer. “He was murdered.”