Chapter 9 Last Hope #2
“Close enough.” He buried his face against the side of her neck, just breathing her in. “I was afraid this day would never come. After you leave, I’m going to spend the rest of the day convincing myself this actually happened.”
His words squeezed her heart. “Would it help if I pinched you?”
He dipped her recklessly over his arm, making her squeal in surprise and cling to him. “I’d like to see you try.”
She playfully nipped at his mouth instead, earning herself another toe-curling kiss.
She didn’t know what they taught in dental school. All she knew was that her favorite dentist was highly skilled at turning her into one gigantic pile of nerve endings. Joyful ones. Exultant ones. He made her want to climb the pyramids and dig for the treasure he’d joked about earlier.
With her joy came fear. It was the math of love. The more a person cared, the more they had to lose, and she had every reason to suspect that someone was already lurking in the shadows — someone who would do everything in their power to make sure her newfound happiness with Ben didn’t last.
She mentally balled her fists, preparing for the fight of her life.
Bring it!
It felt like her entire life had been working up to this moment. This wasn’t just about her and Ben. It was also about her Aunt Tiana Dakota, whom she’d never gotten to meet. It was about all the other Dakotas, who’d been ridiculed, attacked, and harmed for daring to love a Haywood.
This fight was for all of them; and this time, she was going to win it.
Two days later
“Alright, Doc!” Gil Remington ushered April into the auto bay at the car impound lot behind the police station. “Your turn at bat.”
Luke was present, all dark and brooding behind his burn scars. As usual, he had the brim of his Stetson pulled low enough to hide as much of them as he could. He met April’s gaze. “It only seemed fair to give you a swing at it after my deputies struck out.”
Struck out?
“I’m sorry to hear that.” If Verity’s car was a bust, the police would have a much harder time building a case against her. The charges might not even stick. “You know I don’t mind lending another set of eyes to the task.”
“You, me, Gil, and everyone else on the right side of the law,” Luke growled.
She darted a sideways glance at him when he wasn’t looking, hating that whoever had nearly burned him alive in his home had gone unpunished for so long.
The Heart Lake Police Department had an excellent track record for closing its cases, but the arson case that had nearly ended the young sheriff’s life wasn’t one of them.
She had a sudden desire to review the evidence herself, with Kaya looking over her shoulder. Maybe they could thaw another cold case together, but not before they solved the one she’d been brought into town for.
She stood between Luke and Gil as they faced Verity Haywood’s silver Corvette. It chilled April to know they might be staring at the murder weapon that had claimed Tiana Dakota’s life.
And now it’s up to me to prove it.
She wasn’t simply at bat; she was the last person they were bringing to the plate. If she failed, it was game over for justice.
“My turn at bat,” she echoed, honored to pieces that Gil and Luke were asking for her expertise again. Since Lonestar Security had a few forensic artists and other experts on board, she hadn’t been sure they would ask for her help this time around. She’d been hoping, though.
She slowly walked around the car, eyeing the glittering paint and the glossy wax job someone had applied to it. It was a well-cared for vehicle, no denying it.
A flick of her wrist sent Gil to the controls of the hydraulic lift. He raised the car enough for her to step beneath the undercarriage.
She flipped on her headlamp and took a long, hard look at the aluminum suspension components. Her eyes traced the extensive underbody shielding and exhaust systems. At first glance, she couldn’t detect so much as a scratch on any of it.
“Everything I see looks new.” That figures!
She gestured in disgust. “None of these are the original parts.” No wonder Luke’s deputies had declared it a bust. It was difficult to examine the weapon used in a cold case when so many pieces were no longer present.
Standing beneath the car felt like a lesson in defeat.
The authorities had succeeded in pushing a search warrant through in record time, but the joke was on them.
It wasn’t the same car that Bear was convinced Verity had hit his sister with. Not really.
“This might help. I dunno.” Gil moved to her side, holding out a pair of forensic sketches. “Rock and Mila from the Lonestar Security team drew these. There are plenty more where these came from, but these two seemed like the best place to start.”
“I’ll say.” April accepted them and scrutinized the details of the hood and front bumper area. Like the car she was standing under, the details of the sketches were clean. By looking at them, a person would never have guessed that the car had been involved in a fender-bender.
She stepped away from the Corvette and motioned for Gil to lower it back to ground level. Then she squatted down in front of the stainless steel mesh covers over the fog lights. Like everything else, they looked brand new, which rendered them useless to the investigation.
“Would you mind removing the mesh covers? I’d like to look behind them.” She doubted she’d find anything, but she wasn’t going to skip any steps in her due diligence.
“I don’t mind at all.” Gil’s gloved fingers deftly went to work on them. The fog light covers were seated with a simple pressure fit, so he had them out in two snaps.
April leaned closer to peer at the exposed bulbs, adjusting her headlamp to better illuminate the space.
Someone had done a thorough job of detailing the car, including the crevices around the bulbs — recently, if she had to venture a guess.
She leaned back to catch Luke’s eye. “I assume your team already swabbed everything down?”
“Every inch of it.” His mouth settled into a hard line. “It’s being processed at the lab as we speak, but we can take any new samples you’d like.”
She cocked her head at him. “Did they find anything at all? A hair? A broken fingernail? Any paint transfer from the alleged victim’s bicycle?”
“Nothing,” he returned grimly. “The whole car is as clean as a whistle. The Haywoods submitted a receipt for the detailing it underwent yesterday, claiming they didn’t want us to have to wade through old candy wrappers and whatnot.”
“How considerate of them,” she grumbled, angling her headlamp at the fog light bulbs again.
If Verity Haywood was skidding ever closer to a homicide charge, she’d want to destroy any evidence that would help the police build a case against her.
Why she’d kept the car all these years was a bit of a mystery.
Was she really that emotionally attached to it, or was she motivated by something more sinister?
If she’d used it to run Tiana off the road, she might view it as something of a trophy — tangible proof that she’d gotten away with murder.
Just like the aerial photographs hanging at the Haywood Dental Clinic that Bear had reported to the police.
“It sure makes the Haywoods look like they have something to hide, but our opinions won’t hold up in court.” Gil bent down beside her, frowning at the fog light bulbs.
“What about Dr. Haywood’s testimony?” April had to ask. According to Bear, the guy had a thousand misgivings about his wife and the role she might’ve played in Tiana’s disappearance.
“His story is all over the place.” Gil shook his head. “We need irrefutable evidence tying Tiana to Verity’s car. Otherwise, we won’t have a case.”
“Understood.” No pressure. April heard what he left unsaid.
She was their last hope of uncovering something that would lead to an indictment against a family that had been getting away with murder for years — all the way back to their undocumented skirmishes with the Comanches in the area.
After all this time, the Haywoods probably thought they were invincible.
“It hurts my heart,” she murmured, “to know the motive for Tiana Dakota’s murder could boil down to nothing more than superstition and prejudice.
Bear told me about the old Comanche practice of replenishing their ranks after battles by abducting settlers, but the feud between the Haywoods and the Comanches wasn’t based on that.
If it had been, the federal marshals would’ve gotten involved years ago and rescued the Haywood women.
It’s a shame their ancestors let old prejudices get so far out of hand. A real shame.”
“Spoken like a woman in love,” her long-time friend intoned in her ear before leaning away with a knowing chuckle.
“What?” She swiveled her head to meet his gaze, trying not to blush. Was he really bringing that up now? In front of Luke?
“You’ve changed.” Gil met her admonishing look with a piercing one that had made many a criminal tremble in their boots. “In the few weeks you’ve been in town, the quiet, scholarly Dr. April Chandrakanta has burst into full bloom. Don’t bother denying it. We go back too far.”
“Whatever, Gil.” She shook her head reproachfully and returned her attention to the car, or tried to. She wasn’t going to deny the truth, but that didn’t mean she was going to giggle and gossip about it with him like a high school teenager.
“My powers of deduction say Bear Dakota is behind the lovely change in you,” he mused in a low voice. “Maybe with a little help from Kaya. She’s a great kid, isn’t she?”