Chapter Four
Lana kept watch out the window as Slater drove on the back roads toward Austin, and she knew Slater was doing the same thing. Keeping watch. Looking for any signs of an attack.
Sonya was behind them, also in an unmarked Saddle Ridge cruiser, and she, too, was no doubt in vigilant mode. If there were any signs of trouble, she’d be able to respond.
Part of Lana wanted Buck to resurface, to come after them so they could stop him and toss him in jail. Cameron was safe, and if a showdown was coming, maybe it would be better now than later. After all, she couldn’t keep Cameron in protective custody indefinitely. Even though the baby had had a horrific start to his life, he deserved a whole lot better. But better wasn’t going to happen with Buck at large.
Her interview with Austin PD might help with the at-large status. Maybe there was something she could say that would pinpoint Buck’s location. Then she and Slater could grab some sleep before returning to Saddle Ridge. A return that wouldn’t happen tonight because of the already late hour, and it was the reason Lana had arranged for them to stay at a small house owned by Sencor, the company she worked for. She hadn’t wanted to trust the security at a hotel or a short-term rental.
“Are you okay?” Slater asked.
She didn’t need to know what had prompted the question. Lana had heard yet another sigh leave her mouth. She’d heard the deep, ragged breaths she’d been taking as well. She’d never had a panic attack, but, mercy, it felt as if everything was closing in on her.
“There’s been no time to grieve,” she settled for saying. Lana nearly left it at that, but she knew the grief was just the tip of the iceberg. “I’m worried about Cameron. Worried what else Buck will do.”
Slater made a sound of agreement. Coming from most people, that would have seemed like a blasé response, but Lana could practically feel the emotions coming off him in hot waves.
“Stephanie and I weren’t close,” she admitted. “But she was my sister.” She paused, debating if she should even voice her next comment about his father. A check of the time convinced her just to go for it. They still had thirty minutes before they arrived in Austin. “How did you deal with the grief of losing your father?”
Slater stayed quiet for so long that she was about to launch into a forget I said that apology. “I haven’t,” he muttered, and then winced as if he hadn’t intended to spill that. “I’m still dealing,” he amended a moment later. “Maybe I always will be. It’s possible that’s something that never goes away. Sorry,” he tacked onto that. “I should have come up with something more, uh, supportive.”
“No,” she insisted. “I’d rather have the truth. I’d rather know what I’m up against.”
Again, he paused. “If your experience is anything like mine, then what you’re up against is what I call death plus. A natural or accidental death causes you to grieve in a thousand different ways. But murder, well, murder causes you to grieve, and hurt, and go through all the regrets and feelings that you should have done something to stop this from happening. That you should have done more.”
Yes, she was already feeling some of that. Clearly, Slater was, too.
“Find someone to talk to if you can,” he went on. “That might help. I did some grief therapy for a while. Just don’t shut down.”
The last part seemed as if it’d come from personal experience. “Is that what you did?”
“Yeah,” he admitted while he continued to keep watch. “I ended a two-year relationship because it didn’t feel right. Me, being happy, continuing with my life when my dad was dead. So I put everything aside but the job. Because it’s the job that’ll get my father justice.”
“And give you some peace,” she finished for him. Slater made another of those sounds of agreement.
Peace didn’t seem anywhere on her radar right now, but Lana was positive that catching her sister’s killer would be a start. “I keep going over every moment in the hospital,” she said, hoping that saying it aloud would trigger some fresh memory that would give them that start . “I don’t recall seeing Buck before then, but maybe he was around.”
Lana stopped, muttered some profanity and then groaned. “I work for a security company, installing systems and setting up protocols to keep people safe. I couldn’t do that for my own sister.”
“Trust me, I get that,” he said.
Of course he got it. He was a cop, and his father was dead. “I believe it was Buck who called Stephanie this morning.” Heavens, had it really been less than twenty-four hours? In some ways, it seemed an eternity.
“Austin PD will have her phone,” Slater reminded her. “They might be able to figure out if it was Buck.”
She knew the odds of that were slim, but, yes, the cops would try. Still, she figured Buck wouldn’t have been careless enough to use a phone that could be traced back to him.
“The hospital cameras were tampered with,” she explained. “And it’s no easy feat breaking into my house. I keep all the doors and windows double-locked. I have to assume that Buck or his accomplice has the skill set to do those sort of things.”
“Yes, but he didn’t disable your security system,” Slater pointed out in a tone to let her know he was giving that some thought. “Why not? I mean, if he was able to tamper with the hospital cameras, why not do that at your place?”
Lana immediately thought of a possibility. “My system isn’t easy to disable.” But then she had to shake her head. “The same should have been true of the hospital cameras.”
“True, and that could mean Buck didn’t care if you knew he’d broken in. Maybe he thought if you were there, he could just overpower you before anyone could respond to the security alarm.”
The thought of that sent a shiver down her spine. Because Buck could have possibly done just that.
Slater reached over and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “We’ll catch him. Something might turn up in his background check that’ll tell us just what his skill sets are when it comes to tampering with equipment.” He eased his hand back and gave her another quick glance. “Or it could be someone you know. Someone who would have known how to access your house.”
He sounded very much like a cop right now, and she was thankful for it. Focusing on the investigation was the only thing taking the edge off her nerves.
“I don’t have a boyfriend or anyone like that I’d trust with my security codes,” she stated.
Slater glanced at her, maybe a reaction to the no-boyfriend admission, but despite everything going on, she felt the blasted attraction again. Lana blamed it on the emotional cocktails swirling around in her body. Slater was like a safe harbor right now, and that had likely amped up the heat.
Or at least that’s what she was telling herself.
This wasn’t the time or the place to get into the fact that she’d always wanted him. And that he’d always been off-limits because of Stephanie. Now he was off-limits because it was obvious Slater wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with attraction and such.
“How about your parents?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to say they wouldn’t have broken in, but Lana had no idea if that was true. “They might have hired someone to break in if they thought Stephanie was there. But I can’t see them hiring, or even knowing, someone like Buck.”
“Maybe,” Slater muttered, not sounding at all convinced of that. “Consider this. Your parents find out Stephanie’s dead and they know she visited a surrogacy clinic. They must believe the baby was born from that surrogacy and isn’t their grandchild because they didn’t even ask to see him.”
No, they hadn’t. At the time, Lana had been thankful for that because she hadn’t wanted the risk of them trying to take the baby. But they hadn’t even asked if he was all right.
“I think I know what might be playing into this,” she said. “Might,” Lana emphasized. “My father’s planning on running for the state senate next year. A murdered daughter will generate press, but it’ll be the sympathetic kind. Some people, though, are opposed to surrogacy, and it could be my parents would rather keep that hush-hush.”
“Your dad would be that worried about negative press?” Slater asked, but then quickly waved that off. “Yeah, he would be. So, how exactly would he handle things if he finds out there was no surrogacy and that Stephanie has perhaps been in hiding all this time?”
“He wouldn’t handle it well,” she was quick to admit. “Neither would my mother. Or Marsh, for that matter. The plan is for Stephanie to marry Marsh in that whole traditional wedding deal that’ll flash across society pages all over the state. It would considerably sour the image if Stephanie had just given birth to another man’s baby. Right now, the surrogacy story likely suits the three of them just fine.”
But not Lana. Because she was certain the surrogacy was a lie. A lie that had led to her sister’s murder.
Lana was still considering that when a sound cut through the cruiser. She instantly got a jolt of adrenaline before she realized it was her phone. Austin PD came up on the dash screen, and because she figured Slater would want to hear this conversation, she took the call on speaker.
“I’m Detective Lisa Thayer,” the caller said after Lana had identified herself and informed the caller they were on speaker. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’ll need to reschedule your interview. The ME is finished with an autopsy, and I need to get a briefing from him.”
“My sister’s body?” Lana asked.
The detective paused. “Yes,” she finally said. “And I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you there for that,” she was quick to add.
Lana wasn’t sure she could have handled that anyway, but she was hoping the autopsy could confirm how Stephanie had died and who had killed her. She thought the “who” was Buck, but unless he’d left some form of trace evidence or DNA, then it would be hard to pin the murder on him. Just because Lana had seen him near Stephanie’s hospital room, it didn’t prove he’d been the one to kill her.
“Any chance you can come into the station tomorrow at ten?” Detective Thayer asked.
Lana glanced at Slater and got the nod. “Yes, ten is fine.”
“Good. I’m guessing you’re probably already on your way here to Austin,” the detective commented. Neither Slater nor she answered. They didn’t know this cop, and while she was likely trustworthy, there was no need to announce their location. “I just wanted to know if you needed an officer to accompany you to wherever you’ll be spending the night.”
“No,” Lana assured her. “We have backup with us.”
“Good,” Thayer concluded. “FYI, I just sent the background check report on Buck Holden to the Saddle Ridge sheriff. I haven’t had a chance to read it myself, but I will before the interview tomorrow morning. I’ll see you then,” she tacked onto that, and ended the call.
Since they weren’t going to the police station, Slater headed toward the safe house. She didn’t need to put in the address since she’d memorized the route. Best not to put that kind of info in the GPS in case someone managed to hack it.
“I’ll let Sonya know what’s going on,” Slater said, taking out his phone to call the deputy. “How good is the security at this place where we’re staying?”
“Good,” Lana verified.
“Enough so that Sonya can peel off and go home once we’re inside? She could come back tomorrow to escort us to the interview.”
Lana thought of the security measures she’d personally put in place on this particular house. “Nothing is hack-proof,” she admitted, “but it’s as safe as it can possibly be. We should be fine with Sonya returning home.” She hoped so, anyway. The sad truth, though, was if Buck was planning on attacking them, he would do that with or without Sonya being present.
Slater nodded and made the call to Sonya while he continued the drive to the house. It wasn’t a showy place, of course. A simple two-story stucco tucked into a cookie-cutter neighborhood. The lots were large, and the fences were high. This wasn’t a community where residents had block parties or stopped by to chat. It was the reason the house had been chosen. Most residents were couples who were at work all day and not around to see the comings and goings of others.
Slater finished talking with Sonya and then called Duncan to fill him in and request a copy of the report on Buck the detective had sent him. He’d just gotten the assurance from Duncan that it would be emailed to him as Slater pulled into the driveway of the house.
She used her phone to open the garage and immediately closed it behind them once they were inside. She also did a sweep of the place to see if any cameras and sensors had been triggered. They hadn’t been, but that wouldn’t stop her from doing a room-to-room search.
Slater was obviously in agreement with her about that because they went in together. And they both drew their guns. They stopped for a moment, listening for any sounds that someone was there. Nothing. Then he tipped his head to the left to indicate he’d start the search there. Lana went to the right and into the dining and kitchen area.
Since the house wasn’t huge, it didn’t take them long to go through the rooms there, and they went up the stairs together where she knew there were three bedrooms and two baths. She didn’t release the breath she’d been holding until they cleared each one and saw no signs of a security breach or break-in.
Slater texted Sonya to let her know all was well, and they made their way back to the bedroom that had been converted to an office and security command post. Once again, she used her phone to bring the monitors to life. Six of them mounted on the wall and each of them showing the feed from a different security camera.
“There are internal cameras and monitors,” she explained, “and if they’re triggered, then that’ll show up on the screens.” Lana motioned toward the door and windows. “This can become a panic room if necessary. The bathroom’s through there.” She tipped her head to the door. “And there’s even a supply of food and water. Backup communications, too.”
He made a sound of approval but then shook his head. “No way did you set all of this up since Stephanie’s murder,” he stated.
“No. It’s been here for about six months. It’s used to hide spouses of domestic abuse, victims of stalkers, that sort of thing. I set up something similar for Stephanie since I could tell she was scared.” She stopped. Had to. And Lana took a moment just to level out her breathing. “I just wish I’d pushed her harder to find out what had terrified her. If I had—”
Slater cut off the rest of that by pulling her into his arms. “You can’t do this to yourself, because I’m sure you did everything possible to keep her safe.”
“I didn’t arrange for a bodyguard at the hospital,” she was quick to point out.
“Because you didn’t know the threat was there. Stephanie probably didn’t, either, or she would have asked for more protection. She certainly had no trouble asking you to hide her away while she was pregnant.”
Lana knew that was true, but it still didn’t ease this guilt that felt like a deadweight on her shoulders.
They stood there for several long moments, and Lana became aware of their body-to-body contact. Nothing sexual. Well, nothing meant to be sexual, anyway. Slater had given her a hug of comfort, that was all, but being pressed against him reminded her body of the attraction. Since that attraction could be a deadly distraction, she stepped away, ready to explain that nothing could happen between them. She didn’t get a chance to do that, though, because his phone rang.
“It’s Joelle,” he relayed, giving her an instant jolt of panic. Lana prayed nothing had happened to the baby.
“Is Cameron all right?” Lana asked the moment Slater took the call on speaker.
“He’s fine,” Joelle was quick to assure her. “I know it’s hard, but try not to worry about him. He’s getting plenty of TLC.”
“Thank you,” Lana muttered, knowing that she would indeed still worry. However, she also owed Joelle and Duncan a huge thanks for taking care of the baby. No way had she wanted to bring him all the way to Austin.
“Are you settled in somewhere so we can talk?” Joelle asked a moment later. “I’ve just started reading through the report on Buck and something jumped out at me.”
“We haven’t had a chance to read it yet,” Slater explained, booting up the laptop that was on the desk. “What jumped out at you?” he asked as he started to log in to his account.
“The cops are investigating Buck for his brother’s and his parents’ deaths. In fact, he’s their prime suspect, but they don’t have any evidence to charge him.” Joelle paused, and it sounded as if she was muttering what she was reading. “Wow, listen to this. Their late parents’ will was worded so that any grandchild would inherit a hefty share of the estate, and Buck might have been willing to eliminate not only his own brother but his brother’s offspring.”
Lana’s stomach twisted, and her heart began to pound. This was why Buck had killed Stephanie. Well, maybe. Why had he waited until after she gave birth to get rid of any competition for family money? Maybe because he hadn’t been able to find Stephanie?
“Any other motive for Buck to kill other than the money he inherited?” Slater asked. He accessed the report, the pages loading on the screen.
Joelle paused again, and Lana figured she was skimming the report. “There’s a history of what I guess you could call sibling rivalry. Buck and Patrick were involved in a fistfight when Patrick was in college. It landed them both in jail. Temporarily, anyway, until their parents bailed them out.”
“Please tell me DNA samples were collected,” Slater said.
“They were, since the fight led to a serious injury of a bystander. Buck was initially charged with that, but the charges were pleaded way down. I’m guessing it was because of pressure or influence from the parents. Anyway, I just read a couple of witness statements that said Buck always seemed to have it in for his brother. I’m guessing because he didn’t want to share the family estate with him.”
That brought Lana back to a big concern. “Patrick’s only been dead a week so if Stephanine and he were involved, he could be Cameron’s father. If Buck sees Cameron as a threat to his family inheritance, then the baby will be a target.”
“Yes,” Joelle agreed. “That’s why I’m hoping there’ll be something in this report that’ll help the Austin cops find him. His face is being plastered on the media as a person of interest so that might...” Her words trailed off. “Oh, God,” she said on a gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Slater demanded, but he seemed to stop skimming the report, too. He froze, and Lana hurried to the laptop to see what had caused the reaction. She saw it the moment Joelle spelled it out.
“Oh, God,” Joelle repeated. “Austin PD thinks Buck might have been the one who killed our father.”