Chapter Seven
Slater fought the adrenaline crash with another cup of strong black coffee. Even though it was his third cup, he could still feel the fatigue all the way to his bones. Judging from the exhausted look on Lana’s face, she was dealing with the same thing.
That and the flashbacks.
Yeah, those had already started, and Slater figured they wouldn’t be letting up anytime soon. Buck had come darn close to killing both of them, and that wasn’t something they’d just be able to shut out.
Lana stood at the window of the break room in Austin PD headquarters, drinking her own cup of coffee and staring out at the crime scene that was now being processed in the parking lot below. Buck’s body had already been moved, and there was a final canvass going on for any evidence Buck might have left behind.
Slater had had to surrender his gun, of course. That was standard procedure, though he was certain none of the cops here thought he’d overreacted. Deadly force had been necessary, period, and if Slater hadn’t shot and killed Buck, then Lana might be dead. There were plenty of witnesses and even surveillance footage to back that up.
He and Lana had already given their statements of the incident. Technically, they were free to go, but Lana hadn’t jumped at the chance to go back to the safe house only to return so that Slater could observe Marsh and her parents’ interviews.
And Slater couldn’t blame her.
Buck’s words were no doubt repeating like gunfire in her head. Lana and you are going to die . The thing was they just didn’t know if the threat was real or if it’d been one last shot by a dying man. Buck had indeed spoken to someone on the phone when he’d broken into Lana’s house, so he hadn’t been working alone. However, that didn’t mean the accomplice would continue to do his bidding now that he was dead.
It was somewhat of a miracle that Lana hadn’t been seriously injured, but Slater had still insisted she be examined by the EMTs. Thankfully, they hadn’t found any damage from her being hit with the stun gun.
“Are you okay?” Lana asked, turning from the window and fixing her gaze on him.
Slater knew it wasn’t a simple question. Nor did he have a simple answer. Only three hours earlier, he’d killed a man. A man who’d seemed hell-bent on murdering Lana. But Buck had been more than their attacker. He’d been a suspect in the murders of Stephanie and Slater’s father. Maybe Buck had ended both their lives.
And maybe he hadn’t.
“Now I know how people feel who’ve had loved ones disappear,” she muttered. “No real answers. Only speculation.”
Yeah, he understood that. Of course, a disappearance wasn’t necessarily a murder. Murder was final. But without the answers as to the who and the why, he and Lana wouldn’t have that elusive closure. Mercy, he needed that, and he was certain Lana did, too. It was the only way they were going to be able to look past the now and move on to the future.
At the thought of “future,” the baby came to mind, and he knew Cameron was weighing heavily on Lana right now. It was obvious she loved the baby and was worried about him. That’s why it was critical for them to find out the identity of Buck’s accomplice.
Slater had plenty of wheels in motion for that. Both his fellow cops and Austin PD were digging through Buck’s phone records and financials, looking for anything that could give them a lead. Slater wanted to dive right in to that research, too, and he would just as soon as they got these interviews out of the way. Maybe Marsh or Lana’s parents would spill something that would help.
The door to the break room opened, and both Slater and Lana automatically reached for guns that weren’t there. Lana, too, had had to surrender her gun since personal firearms weren’t allowed in the headquarters.
Their reaction, though, wasn’t necessary since it wasn’t a threat. It was Detective Thayer, and judging from her troubled expression, something else had gone wrong. Lana must have picked up on it as well.
“Is the baby all right?” Lana asked, the frantic edge in her voice.
“As far as I know,” Thayer said. “I haven’t gotten any alerts or anything.”
That verbal assurance didn’t appease Lana, and Slater saw her fire off a text to Joelle. Something Lana had already done several times since Buck’s death. His sister’s response was equally fast and told Lana that all was well.
“I’m not here about the baby,” Thayer went on once Lana looked up from her phone. “I wanted to let you know that someone leaked to the press.” She walked closer to them, bringing up some images on her phone.
Slater steeled himself up to see pictures of Buck’s body. Or maybe even Slater shooting the man. It was so easy these days for people to post such things on social media. If the photos were “compelling” enough, then media would pick them up, too.
Both he and Lana leaned in to take a look, and he heard the soft sound of surprise that Lana made when she realized what she was looking at. Not Buck. But rather Stephanie. And these weren’t death photos but rather of Stephanie clearly in party mode.
In the first shot, Stephanie was wearing just her underwear and was dancing. Since she had a cocktail glass in her hand, she had likely been drinking. The second one was of another party with Stephanie making out with some guy. Neither shot was flattering. Ditto for the third. It’d been taken from behind, and a grinning, inebriated Stephanie was looking over her shoulder just as she was about to dive into a pool.
“Who posted these?” Lana wanted to know.
“We’re not sure, but they were on Stephanie’s Facebook page,” Thayer explained. “Stephanie obviously hadn’t used the page in a while, but she had it set to public, which means anyone could have tagged her so they’d wind up there.”
“You can trace the person who posted these?” Slater asked.
Thayer shrugged. “The photos were published from a new account, one without an actual profile name, only numbers, but we’ll try to find who’s responsible.” She paused. “And the pictures were also put on every one of Stephanie’s friends’ pages.”
Lana dragged in a long breath. “Could Buck have done this?”
“No,” Thayer was quick to say. “These showed up an hour ago, and they hadn’t been scheduled in advance. Maybe it’s some kind of smear campaign from his accomplice, but that doesn’t feel right.”
Slater made a sound of agreement. “An accomplice wouldn’t want to draw this kind of attention.” That got nods from both Lana and the detective.
“So why do it?” Lana asked. “Stephanie’s dead. She...” She trailed off and muttered some profanity under her breath. “This could be meant to get back at my parents.” Lana stopped again and groaned. “Or someone who wants to make people believe Stephanie was irresponsible and deserved to die.”
That could be a large pool of people. Stephanie had likely made some enemies, and Slater had no doubts that her parents had, too.
“Anyway, I thought you should know about this before the interviews,” Thayer said, checking the time. “The Walshes and Marsh Bray will be here soon, and any info about Stephanie’s potential enemies might come out in their statements. If they haven’t seen the photos already, I’m sure they soon will.”
No doubt, and maybe that would set one of them off enough that they’d reveal something they’d rather keep secret.
“I’ll come back and get you when the interviews are ready to start,” Thayer told Slater right before she walked out.
Since Lana looked unsteady on her feet, Slater went to her and took a huge risk. By pulling her into his arms. Hugs, even one of comfort, could still spur the heat between them. And it did this time, too, but they obviously had way too much on their plates to think about acting on it.
He hoped.
Sighing, Lana dropped her head on his shoulder. “I want to ask my boss to use some of the Sencor resources to help us. Traffic cam footage, deep background checks, informal interviews with anyone who was near the hospital when Stephanie was murdered. Anything that’ll link to Stephanie, Buck or anyone he might have been working with.”
Slater had already considered this angle. “I can’t agree to anything illegal,” he spelled out.
“It wouldn’t be. But they’ve got the manpower to interview anyone who crossed paths with Stephanie and Buck. Somebody must know what happened and why Stephanie went into hiding when she realized she was pregnant with Buck’s child. Unless the blowup between them was totally in private, then there might be something to find.”
That was a long way to go back, eight months or so, but Slater could see the reasoning for that to be the starting point. With Stephanie in hiding, Buck might have been digging to find her location, and if so, there could be traces of that. Traces that then might link back to his partner.
“All right,” Slater said.
The moment the agreement was out of his mouth, Lana eased away from him so she could compose a text, no doubt to get the ball rolling on the search. When he heard the swooshing sound of the text being sent, he expected Lana to move back to the window. Or anywhere else in the room that wasn’t so close to him.
She didn’t.
Lana came right back into his arms, and he heard the whisper of a soft sob that she managed to choke down. She was grieving. Scared, too, and Slater wished he could do something to help. The only thing he could manage, though, was to stand there and hold her.
The moments slid by, and he wasn’t sure exactly how much time passed before she moved again. This time, she looked at him. Their gazes locked. Held. Her breath met his. Slater saw the grief. But the heat was there as well, and it didn’t seem to matter that neither of them wanted to feel like this. Not now, anyway. That didn’t stop it. Didn’t stop Lana from moving in and doing the unthinkable.
She pressed her mouth to his.
It wasn’t a hard, hungry kiss born of need. Not solely, anyway. The need was there, but this seemed to be so much more. Slater tried to give her exactly that—more—without pushing this too far. He simply kissed her.
Of course, there was nothing simply about it since this was Lana. The heat rose as the pressure of her mouth went up a whole bunch of notches. That wasn’t all, either. With the new level of the kiss came the maneuvering of their bodies, and that didn’t stop until they were pressed against each other. Until this felt like a whole lot more than just a kiss.
Thankfully, they both seemed to regain their common sense at the same moment because they stepped away from each other. Slater was sure he looked as if someone had sucker punched him, because he was gulping in breaths as if this had been a making-out marathon. Lana wasn’t faring much better. She looked shocked and maybe appalled that she had done such a thing.
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” he insisted when she opened her mouth. “No need. You can blame it on the grief and the fact that we were nearly killed today. You can blame it on whatever you need it to be.”
She stared at him a long time and shook her head. “I try not to lie to myself,” she murmured. “So I’ll blame it on this pull I’ve had to you for...too long,” she added in a whisper.
Slater had known the heat was there, but he might have questioned that “too long” part if the door hadn’t opened. Even though he and Lana were no longer standing close to each other, they still moved farther apart, and the guilt was probably flashing like a proverbial neon sign on their faces.
Detective Thayer stuck her head inside the partially opened door, and she seemed to hesitate for a second or two before her gaze went to Lana. “Your parents and Marsh are here. But they’ve asked to speak to you before the interviews. I told them I’d check. You can say no,” Thayer tacked onto that.
Lana didn’t just say no or anything else, but then she nodded. “I want to see how they react to Buck coming after me.”
Slater wanted to see that reaction, too. Heck, he wanted to see them respond to a lot of things, including if they had any part in their daughter’s murder. Of course, neither of them would likely just admit to that, but they might say something off the record.
Thayer waited as if checking to see if Lana was certain, and then she murmured, “I’ll bring them here to the break room.”
Lana pulled back her shoulders and ran her hand through her hair, obviously trying to make herself look as steady as possible. She was pulling it off, too. For the most part, anyway, but Slater dreaded that Lana was about to have to face the emotional wringer her parents would no doubt put her through.
It didn’t take long before the door opened again, and the detective ushered in Leonard and Pamela. Marsh was right behind them. None of them rushed to Lana, but Leonard gave Thayer a dismissive glance before insisting, “We’ll speak to our daughter alone.”
“No, you won’t,” Lana said before Slater or Thayer got the chance. “Slater and the detective are staying put.”
Oh, that did not please Leonard, and Slater saw the anger tighten every muscle in the man’s face. “Fine,” Leonard spat out. “We only wanted to make sure you were okay. I understand from news reports that you were attacked in the parking lot.”
Lana nodded. And didn’t add anything else.
Pamela huffed and aimed a glare at Thayer. “Obviously, you’ve failed at your job if a thug can go after my only surviving daughter right under your nose.” Tears sprang to her eyes, and Slater wondered if they were genuine.
“Lana wasn’t under police protection when she was attacked,” Thayer said, the annoyance coating her voice. “And my team and I are not only investigating the attack but your other daughter’s murder.”
“But you let that thug get to her,” Leonard said. His voice cracked. “A thug who must have raped Stephanie since he fathered her baby.”
Thayer fired a quick glance at Lana and Slater to see if they’d spilled. Both shook their heads, indicating they hadn’t.
“What makes you think Stephanie had Buck’s baby?” Slater came out and asked.
Judging from the way his face went tight again, Leonard was sorry he’d admitted knowing that. Slater made a mental note to check and see if anyone in Austin PD was continuing to feed Leonard information.
“That horrible man was the father of Stephanie’s baby?” Pamela asked, and the woman seemed genuinely shocked. She turned her wide eyes toward Marsh as if checking to see if he knew.
Marsh shook his head. “Did he rape Stephanie?” he immediately wanted to know. But he didn’t wait for an answer. He groaned and closed his eyes for a moment. “Did he?” he repeated, posing the question first to Leonard and then to Lana.
“I don’t know,” Lana admitted.
“It would explain so much,” Marsh went on. “There was no reason for Stephanie to go into hiding the way she did unless she was scared of Buck.”
Slater had to admit that rang true with him. But it might have only been a part of it. “And maybe she didn’t want to face you and her parents.”
Another flash of anger crossed Leonard’s face, but Pamela and Marsh didn’t have the same reaction. Marsh groaned, stepped away and pressed his forehead against the wall. Pamela went to him, patting his back.
“I don’t know why Stephanie wouldn’t have gone to the police,” Pamela murmured. “Instead, she went to Lana, and now she’s dead. Lana could have been killed, too,” Pamela quickly tacked onto that, but the arrow had already found its mark. Some of the color had drained from Lana’s face, and she was no doubt going through another round of guilt over her sister’s murder.
“Did Buck confess to killing Stephanie?” Marsh asked when he turned back around to face them.
Slater had to shake his head. “He said no comment.” Slater debated if he should say more and then decided to go for it. “He claimed he had an accomplice.”
That got the expected reactions from the three visitors. Shock, followed by concern. Leonard’s concern, though, quickly morphed into what seemed to be his default reaction. Anger.
“You should call in the Texas Rangers,” Leonard snarled, snapping toward Lana. “And I can arrange for private security for you—”
“I can arrange my own security,” Lana interrupted.
Leonard made a show of rolling his eyes. “Clearly, that’s worked out well for you. How close did you come to dying today, Lana?”
“Close,” Lana admitted, and she didn’t wither under her father’s intense glare. “But I’m not handing over my safety to you.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Leonard demanded.
Again, Lana didn’t verbally respond. She just stared at her father, waiting. It was a good ploy, and Leonard lost the waiting game because he muttered more profanity.
“I don’t know what it is you think I’ve done, but you’re wrong,” Leonard grumbled.
“If you’ve got the resources to find out the identity of the man who fathered Stephanie’s baby, then I figure you know a whole lot more,” Lana spelled out. “Enough that you could have maybe stopped Buck from killing Stephanie.”
“No.” Leonard’s denial was fast and loud. It took him a couple of seconds to rein in his temper. A temper so fierce that it made Slater believe this was a man who was capable of murder. Or at least capable of getting someone to commit murder for him.
But why would Leonard want Stephanie dead?
Was he so consumed with his image and reputation that he thought she was better off dead? If so, then he could have joined forces with Buck, who had his own strong motive for wanting Stephanie eliminated. But then, that left the baby. Slater didn’t want to think Leonard or even Buck capable of harming a child. And maybe that hadn’t been the plan. The baby could have simply been given to someone who had no idea of his paternity. That would mean, though, eliminating anyone who might spill the secret down the road.
Such as Lana.
Yes, the theory of Leonard and Buck teaming up might work, but the teaming could have been done with Marsh and Buck. Or Buck and Pamela. Slater silently groaned. Because the accomplice could be someone else, and maybe the trio in this room were indeed innocent.
“Did any of you know Buck?” Slater came out and asked.
Marsh was the first to respond. “I didn’t know him, but after I saw a picture of him, I think he might have been at parties that Stephanie and I attended. He seemed familiar.”
“But you never spoke to him or vice versa?” Slater pressed.
Marsh shook his head. “And I don’t recall Stephanie showing any interest in him.”
“Of course she wouldn’t,” Leonard snapped. “The man was scum. Stephanie wouldn’t have given him the time of day.”
Maybe. But there was that whole bad-boy, forbidden-attraction thing, and while Slater wasn’t certain if that would have appealed to Stephanie, he couldn’t rule out that the sex between them hadn’t been consensual.
“What about the two of you?” Slater continued, glancing at both Pamela and Leonard. “Did either of you know Buck?”
“No,” Pamela said, and Leonard repeated that, but it seemed to Slater there wasn’t a whole lot of conviction in the man’s answer.
“You’re sure?” Lana challenged. “Because as we speak, there are people combing through old social media and articles. If there’s any connection between Buck and the three of you, they’ll find it.”
“They won’t find anything,” Leonard snapped, and his glare had returned. But Slater thought he saw plenty of nerves beneath that steely stare.
“If I’ve crossed paths with Buck, I don’t recall,” Pamela muttered. “And I think I would have.”
So, she’d given herself an out. Maybe a genuine one, but Slater didn’t intend to trust any of them. His cop’s instincts told him that they knew more than they were admitting.
“Like I said, I think I saw Buck at parties,” Marsh spoke up. “It’s possible, too, that he was an acquaintance of my ex. I seem to recall Taylor mentioning Patrick, and that means she likely knew Buck, too.”
“Taylor?” Slater questioned, recalling the text Lana had gotten from a woman by that name.
Marsh nodded. “Taylor Galway,” he provided.
Leonard muttered the woman’s name like profanity. “She should be arrested for stalking and harassing both Stephanie and Marsh.”
That got Slater’s attention, and he also remembered Lana mentioning that Stephanie and Taylor had been friends but had a falling-out. “Stalking?” he prompted, aiming that at Marsh.
Marsh’s sigh was long and heavy as if he was tired of rehashing this particular subject. “I ended my relationship with Taylor two years ago when I started seeing Stephanie. It was never serious between Taylor and me,” he was quick to add. “Stephanie was always my one true love.” His voice trailed off, and he blinked back tears.
“I assume Taylor didn’t take the breakup well?” Slater asked.
“She didn’t,” Leonard snarled. “Like I said, she stalked and harassed Stephanie and Marsh. Always trying to tear them apart. I wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor was the reason Stephanie went into hiding.”
Slater considered that a moment. Maybe it had played into it, but his money was still on the pregnancy and Buck. “Did you report any of Taylor’s behavior to the police?” But he already knew the answer.
“No,” Leonard said, confirming Slater’s thoughts. The man wouldn’t have wanted that publicity. “Marsh kept a file with dates and stuff in case...well, in case things escalated,” Leonard explained.
“I’ll want to see that file,” Thayer was quick to interject.
Marsh nodded. “I’ll send it to you.” He swallowed hard. “I saw the photos of Stephanie that someone posted. I think Taylor might have done that.”
“Any proof?” Thayer asked.
“No, but it’s something Taylor would do. She hated Stephanie,” he added in a murmur. “Taylor hired a PI to look for Stephanie when she disappeared.”
“What?” Lana blurted. “Why would she do that?”
Slater had the same question. If Taylor hated Stephanie so much, she’d want her gone, not found.
Marsh gave another of those weary sighs. “Because Taylor said until I had a clean break with Stephanie that I could never move on. She wanted Stephanie to tell me to my face that it was over between us.”
Slater decided they were painting a picture of a deeply troubled woman. One who might not be emotionally stable.
Marsh took out his phone. “Yesterday, shortly before I learned that Stephanie had died, I got a text from Taylor,” he said, scrolling through his messages. “It was about Stephanie.”
“A text about Stephanie?” Lana said. “And you’re just now telling us?”
“I just now remembered,” Marsh muttered. “Once I heard Stephanie was dead, I forgot all about it. All I could think of was the woman I loved had been murdered.”
Marsh’s hands were trembling now. So was his voice. The cynical cop in Slater wondered though if it was all an act. Marsh continued to scroll until he found the one he was clearly looking for, and he held up the screen so Slater and Lana could read it. According to the contact, it was indeed from Taylor.
I found Stephanie , Taylor had texted. Now, this can all finally be over.