Four #2
Waiting for Creed to arrive tested Jackson’s patience. He swept his gaze up and down the highway, half expecting the black truck to return.
Yet he had to admit that watching the truck take off when the sirens could be heard was a good indication the deputies were not involved. The two gunmen had taken off earlier upon hearing sirens, too.
Still, he wasn’t about to take any chances. Not when Nina’s life was on the line.
“Jackson?” Nina’s low voice had him turning toward her. “There’s something you need to see.”
“What’s that?” He frowned when she pulled a small photograph from her pocket. The image of a woman with the same mass of curly red hair as Nina, holding a newborn baby, gave him pause. “Wait a minute, is that you and your mother?”
“I believe so.” She bit her lower lip. “I found this tucked beneath my uncle’s leg back at the cabin.”
He stared at her. “You took evidence from the crime scene?”
“Shh.” She glanced nervously over to where the deputies were moving around the parking lot, placing markers near empty shell casings. Jackson belatedly noticed there were dozens of them, a testament to how many rounds the gunmen had fired. “Yes. If you look at the back, you’ll see the name Anna.”
Jackson took the photo, turned it over and saw the name. He gave her a look of reproach. “You shouldn’t have taken this.”
“It’s the only thing I have of my mother. Until today I didn’t even know her name.” Her beseeching gaze held his. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to know your mother was murdered but the case was never solved? Even worse to know she never had a name?”
Jackson winced. He didn’t know how that felt, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was more information here that Nina was holding back from him. Not that he wanted to get into a big discussion here, with the deputies nearby.
“We’ll need to talk about this,” he said after a moment. “If there’s anything else we should know, you’d better come clean, Nina. As you can see, these gunmen are not messing around.”
“I know. And I promise I want this mystery solved as much as you do.” Nina tugged the picture from his fingers.
“I realize I shouldn’t have taken it. And if you insist on sending it to the lab, that’s fine.
I guess I can take a picture of the picture.
” Her gaze was full of longing as she stared down at her mother.
“It’s just that I’ve waited years for this.
” She looked up at him. “Years, Jackson.”
“I understand.” He blew out a breath, his anger fading.
How could he blame her for wanting a picture of her mother?
His parents were alive and well, semiretired in Florida.
He couldn’t imagine what it was like to be an adopted baby, without ever knowing your parents.
“Okay, hold on to it for now. We should have it processed in the lab, although I doubt if the bad guys saw it, much less touched it.”
“Thank you.” Her wan smile made him feel bad for doubting her. He’d always admired Nina’s expertise when it came to assisting the Rangers.
It burned to know how close she’d come to being killed.
Headlights in the distance had him going tense. Grabbing Nina’s arm, he pulled her through the motel room door, shoving her behind him. His phone rang, and he relaxed when he saw Creed’s number.
“I’m approaching the motel,” Creed said without preamble. “Didn’t want you to worry the bad guys had returned.”
“Thanks.” He glanced over his shoulder at Nina. “See you in a few minutes.”
“Yep. Soon.” Creed ended the call.
“Where will we go from here?” Nina asked.
It was a fair question. Jackson hadn’t thought that far ahead. Seeing the resemblance between Nina and her mother had been jarring, but now they needed to strategize their next move. “I’m thinking Dallas, but we’ll see if Creed has any recommendations.”
“Dallas seems far away,” Nina said with a frown. “Shouldn’t we stick closer to the location of my uncle’s murder?”
“Nope. There aren’t enough motels here to give us the anonymity we need.” Then he remembered what Green had said about not finding her uncle’s phone. “You need to ditch your phone, Nina. If these guys took the one your uncle was using, maybe they figured out a way to track your device.”
“Yes, that’s possible.” Nina frowned as she pulled her phone from her pocket. With a few keystrokes she wiped the phone, returning it to factory settings. “I should have considered that, sooner.”
“You’ve been under a lot of stress.” He managed a smile, as he powered down her phone and tossed it into the damaged motel room garbage can. “We’ll do better moving forward.”
“We will.” A glint of steely determination settled in her gaze.
“Who are you?” Sewell loudly demanded. Seeing that Creed had arrived, Jackson went back outside to join his fellow ranger.
“Texas Ranger Creed Ramsey. Who are you?”
“Deputy Sewell. And this is Green.” The bald cop stared at Creed for a moment, then turned away.
His fellow ranger flashed a quick smile as he sauntered over to meet Jackson. “You okay?”
Remembering the blood on his face, Jackson nodded. “More than ready to get out of here.”
“Let’s go, then.” Creed glanced over to where Nina stood. “Hey, Nina.”
“Hi, Creed.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Appreciate the ride.”
“Let’s go.” Jackson rested his hand in the small of Nina’s back as they crossed the parking lot, stepping carefully around the evidence markers. Five minutes later, Creed was back on the road, leaving the deputies at the Sunrise Motel behind.
“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Creed suggested.
Jackson turned in his seat to look at Nina. She understood his unspoken request. She quickly filled Creed in on the details of her mother’s unsolved murder, ending with finding her uncle dead in what she believed was staged to look like a suicide.
“Why wouldn’t your uncle have listed your mother as missing?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t know.” Nina sighed. “That was one of many questions I had hoped to ask. Uncle Mark indicated he might be responsible for my mother’s death, but refused to say anything more over the phone. He insisted we meet in person.”
Jackson mulled that over, as Nina went on to explain about how she’d found the photograph of her mother tucked beneath her uncle’s thigh, shortly before the shooters showed up and chased her into the woods.
From there, Jackson took up the story about seeing the two men with semiautomatic rifles shoot up his SUV, then drive up to Nina’s uncle’s cabin, only to be scared away by the deputies’ arrival. Last, he described the shooting at the cabin.
“Three attempts in one night? Not good,” Creed drawled.
“No lie. I made Nina leave her phone behind, in case that’s how they were tracking her.
” He grimaced. “Unless I’m wrong about the gunmen following the squad car that dropped us off.
Maybe they were off on the side of the road somewhere, noticed the police cruiser driving past and watched as we got out at the motel.
But if that was the case, why wait to start firing? ”
“I don’t have an answer to that. Unless they wanted to make sure the cops were far away before striking the motel.” Creed glanced at him. “Two men with semiautomatic weapons almost sounds as if they’re members of a drug cartel.”
“Hold on, there’s no evidence to suspect Uncle Mark of doing drugs,” Nina protested. “I didn’t notice any drug paraphernalia in the cabin, and if that was the case, why not make his death look like an accidental overdose? That would be easier than staging a suicide.”
“Nina has a point,” Jackson admitted. “There’s no reason to suspect her uncle is involved with a drug cartel, but I agree with you, Creed. The two gunmen looked very much like they could be hit men for the cartel, or some other organized crime syndicate.”
Creed glanced at him, then turned his attention back to the road. “Maybe this isn’t related to Nina at all, but to the upcoming Diego Sanchez trial.”
“If not for Nina’s dead Uncle Mark, I’d agree with you.
Especially since the trial starts in two days, first thing on Monday morning.
” Jackson turned the facts as they knew it over in his mind.
“I just don’t see how Nina’s uncle could be connected to Sanchez.
Or to Nina’s mother’s twenty-eight-year-old cold case murder. ”
“I don’t know either, but it’s something to consider.” Creed shrugged. “It just seems like a big coincidence that your SUV was targeted. Unless the gunmen assumed Nina was inside?”
“I don’t like it either. But for now, we should stay focused on Nina’s mother’s murder,” Jackson said.
“I’ll start digging into Anna Lange as soon as we get someplace with internet access,” Nina said.
Jackson nodded, settling back in his seat. It was good to have a plan, but Creed’s suggestion nagged at him. Was his buddy right? Could the gunmen have connections that enabled them to identify the SUV as belonging to Jackson, one of the key witnesses against Diego Sanchez?
But then why chase Nina in the woods? The pieces of the puzzle didn’t quite fit.
Yet if he and Creed were the true targets in this mess, they needed to be extremely cautious moving forward. If they didn’t testify next week, Diego Sanchez would walk away a free man.