Fourteen #2
“What’s this?” Creed’s voice feigned surprise. “A gun. Hey, Jackson, what are the chances this gun will match the bullets we recovered from the crime scene?”
Jackson had to smile when Corrine’s expression faltered.
Creed was being deliberately vague about which crime scene, not a difficult thing to do as there had been so many.
Based on Zane’s arrival here, Jackson suspected he’d for sure been at the rental property.
He wasn’t positive the same guy had been at Mark’s cabin, or the Sunset Motel.
Hopefully the officers and crime scene techs who’d been combing the rental property had recovered slugs from the shooting.
“I’m sure they’re a dead match,” Jackson drawled, giving his support to Creed’s story. “And that places Zane Cartland at the scene of an attempted homicide. That’s a much bigger deal than a measly drug trafficking charge from five years ago, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Absolutely. A minimum of ten years jail time, easy. Maybe longer.” Creed had to raise his voice to be heard above the wailing sirens. Jackson wondered how many officers the Temple PD had on duty during the overnight shift. There had been at least four officers at the rental property.
Now this. Jackson doubted the residents in this upscale neighborhood had ever watched one of their own being arrested.
“I only have that to protect myself,” Zane protested weakly. “I didn’t shoot anyone.”
“Stop talking, Zane. Right now.” Corrine’s voice was almost as shrill as the sirens. “Not another word!”
“Now, don’t lie, Zane. I know you tried to kill me, my friend Jackson over there and Nina,” Creed continued, ignoring Corrine. “You followed them around the lake after I took out your buddy Kirk Fletcher. You jumped on a boat and tried to finish them off.”
The sirens were so loud now that Zane couldn’t reply even if he wanted to. Jackson approached Corrine, roughly pulling her wrists down and behind her. He fished a pair of zip ties out of his pocket and used them to bind her hands.
Two Temple police cars arrived on the scene. Nina stood off to the side, looking shell-shocked as the officers swarmed the area.
“We’re Texas Rangers Woodlow and Ramsey,” Jackson shouted. “We have two suspects in custody, both wanted in connection with the earlier shooting at the rental property.”
“We were called about a car wreck,” one of the officers said. “Not a suspect takedown.”
Jackson realized a neighbor must have called it in before Nina had been able to. He or she must have witnessed Nina’s crashing into Corrine’s car to keep her from fleeing.
“I’m defense attorney Corrine Kimbal and I demand to be released this instant.” Corrine glared at the officers. “There is no basis for this arrest.”
The officers exchanged a look. Jackson sighed. The woman was persistent; he’d give her that much.
“She’s in our custody,” he told the officers. “We need your help in bringing them in, but you don’t have the authority to release her. Only a Texas Ranger can do that.”
His comment made Corrine flush red with fury. But she finally took her own advice and clamped her lips shut.
“We need this guy’s hands tested for gunshot residue.” Creed pushed a cuffed Zane forward. “And we’ll have his weapon tested to see if it matches the slugs recovered from the rental property shooting.”
“We can do that.” The officer walked to the trunk of his squad, removing a small handgun residue testing kit.
That was all it took. As the officer approached Zane with the towelettes to wipe his hands and to take his clothing, the guy caved.
“Okay, okay! I did it. I was there at the house and on the lake, but only because she told me to!” Zane practically shouted the words.
“She threatened me, told me she’d have my parents killed if I didn’t cooperate.
She represented me, then demanded I do favors for her. It’s her fault, it’s all her fault!”
“That’s not true. He’s delusional.” Corrine was still trying to get out of this mess. Then she abruptly slumped against the officer who was escorting her to the squad car. “Officer, please, I need to be taken to the hospital. I don’t feel well.”
“Don’t fall for it,” Jackson warned. “She’s a good actress.”
“I’m…” Corrine dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap.
Jackson swallowed a sigh. Yet before he could do or say anything more, an ambulance pulled up near the two police cars. No doubt because the 911 call had been about a car crash.
“You’d better get her checked out,” Jackson said. He had no doubt the lawyer would play this up to the hilt if they didn’t follow protocol. Not that he was buying her sudden illness act. “But one of you needs to stay with her at the hospital at all times, understand?”
“Maybe one of us should go along,” Creed said in a low voice. “I don’t want the locals to be intimidated by her profession.”
“Yeah, okay.” Jackson was torn between guarding Corrine and questioning Zane Cartland.
Creed had established a rapport with Zane, so it made sense to leave the questioning to him.
He moved out of the way to allow the EMTs to work on Corrine.
The woman had her hand draped over her forehead like some movie star playing a damsel in distress.
He turned back to Creed. “I’ll go to the hospital with her.
Nina can come with me—she should be checked out, too. ”
“I’m fine,” Nina quickly said. “But I’d like to stay with you, Jackson.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “That’s fine. The good news is that the danger is over.”
She nodded. “Corrine is either married or possibly divorced from my biological father, Douglas Tillman. I never considered looking into her as a suspect. I was too focused on my father.”
“There’s no way we could have known a high-profile lawyer was married to your father. Especially as she kept her maiden name.” Jackson gave Nina a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re okay. That’s all that matters.”
“Thanks to you and Creed,” she murmured. “And you were right about having preconceived ideas. If I hadn’t been so single-minded…”
“Don’t. We’ve been on the run and under fire since this started. We did our best with the resources we had.” Jackson stepped back as the EMTs lifted Corrine’s gurney into the back of the ambulance. “Officer Sands? Can you please give us a ride to the hospital?”
“Of course. I’ll need your statements, too.” Sands was young, and looked a little out of his depth. Possibly a rookie.
“We can do that.” He urged Nina forward. “Let’s go. Follow that ambulance.”
Jackson gave Nina the front seat while he took the back.
“Do you think she hired Zane and the others to come after me because my father asked her to?” Nina asked after a few minutes of silence.
That was a question swirling around in his mind, too. “I don’t know. But you can be sure we’ll ask him about that, among other things.”
“Okay.” Nina glanced at the officer driving, then fell silent. Jackson suspected she had other questions about the case, too, but had decided to wait until they were alone.
Once they were in the emergency department, the medical staff cut through Corrine’s zip ties to examine her. As soon as they’d finished, Jackson took the cuffs from Officer Sands and slapped one around her wrist and the other to the frame of the bed.
“That’s hardly necessary,” Corrine protested.
“It’s our protocol for all suspects in custody.” Jackson wasn’t swayed by her words. “You tried to flee the scene of the crime and that makes you a flight risk.”
“I was interviewing my client,” Corrine insisted. “Nothing more.”
“Tell it to the judge.” Jackson secretly wished he’d recorded the bit of conversation he’d overheard. But he hadn’t. At this point he could only hope and pray Zane Cartland saw the light and cooperated with the investigation by agreeing to testify against Corrine.
Nina tugged on his arm, drawing him a few feet from Corrine’s bed. “Is it possible she’ll skate on this? That the conversation you overheard will be deemed inadmissible because of attorney-client privilege?”
“No, I don’t think so.” He took her hand and gave it a quick squeeze.
“For one thing, they were talking outside in the open, not in a closed conference room. And for another, you heard Zane. He’s already figuring out that he’s in deep trouble.
I’m sure Creed will convince him to save himself.
She’ll go down for her role in this, Nina. ”
“I hope so.” Nina gripped his hand tightly. “She deserves jail time and more. The way she used her clients as hit men is despicable.”
“Agreed.” He longed to pull her into his arms, but a commotion out in the hallway caught his attention.
“I don’t care if she’s in custody, I demand to see my wife!”
Another part of the protocol was to deny prisoners any visitors. That was because there were several cases across the country where a visitor had smuggled a weapon into the hospital to help a prisoner escape.
In this case, though, Jackson wanted to see Douglas Tillman for himself. As it turned out, Tillman didn’t bother to follow the rules. The man barged into the room, stopping abruptly when he saw Nina standing there.
“Anna? Is that you?” The older man’s shocked reaction was too genuine to be faked.
The guy’s expression said it all. There was no doubt in Jackson’s mind that Nina was this man’s daughter.