Cold Case at Cobra Creek (17 page)

“I didn’t know you had a working ranch.”

Dugan shrugged. “I have a small herd, and I train quarter horses in my spare time.”

“And you still have time to consult on cases?”

“Search-and-rescue missions mostly. I have a couple of hired hands, teens from the rez, who help out here.”

They climbed out, and she noted the big ranch house. It was a sprawling, rustic log house with a front porch, a house that looked homey and inviting.

A large chocolate Lab raced up and rubbed up against Dugan’s leg. He stooped down and scratched the dog behind his ears. “Hey, Gus. I’ve got a job for you.”

The dog looked up at him as if he understood.

“Did you train him?” Sage asked.

Dugan nodded. “I need to grab a quick shower and change clothes.”

Memories of the two of them making love the night before teased her mind, but she reminded herself that he’d stayed with her because someone had tried to kill them, not because he was in love with her.

“Gus, come.” Dugan instructed the dog to stay at the front door when they entered, and she noted the Native American artifacts and paintings of nature and horses on the wall. Dark leather furniture, rich pine floors and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace made the den feel like a haven.

Dugan disappeared into a back room, and she heard the shower water kick on. She tried not to imagine him naked again, but she couldn’t help herself.

Trace and Ron had been good-looking men, but more business types than the rugged, outdoorsy rancher Dugan was.

She spotted a collection of arrowheads on one wall and handwoven baskets on another. But there were no personal touches, no photographs of family or a woman in the house.

She couldn’t imagine why a sexy, strong, virile man like Dugan didn’t have a woman in his life.

He probably has dozens.

She dismissed the thought. She had to concentrate on finding Benji. When she brought him home, he would need time to acclimate. Like Humpty Dumpty, she’d have to put the pieces of her family back together again.

Dugan appeared, freshly shaven and wearing a clean shirt and jeans, and nearly took her breath away. Lord help her.

He attached his holster and gun, then settled his Stetson on his head and called for Gus. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She nodded and pushed images of Dugan’s sexy body from her mind.

Finding Benji and rebuilding her family was all that mattered.

* * *

D
UGAN PARKED AT
the site of the crash, and they climbed out. He knelt and held Benji’s blanket up to the dog to sniff. Gus was the best dog he’d ever had. He had personally trained him, and so far the dog had never let him down.

Although with two years having passed, it was doubtful he’d pick up Benji’s scent.

Gus took a good sniff, then lowered his nose to the ground and started toward the creek. Dugan followed him, Sage trailing him as Gus sniffed behind bushes and trees and along the creek bank.

But Gus ran up and down the creek, then stopped as if he’d couldn’t detect Benji’s odor.

Dugan wasn’t giving up. He began to comb the area, pushing aside bushes and bramble. Sage followed his cue.

Weeds choked the ground, the dirt dry and hard along the bank. Dugan leaned down to see something in the brush.

A second later, he pulled a tennis shoe from the weeds.

The devastation in Sage’s eyes told him the shoe had belonged to her son.

Chapter Seventeen

“That’s Benji’s shoe.” Sage stepped closer. “How did it get in the bushes?”

Dugan didn’t want to frighten her with speculations, so he tried to put a positive spin on it. “He could have lost it near the car and an animal found it and carried it here.”

Gus sniffed the ground again, and Dugan searched the bushes for the other shoe or any signs of Benji.

Grateful when he didn’t find bones, he released a breath. Gus turned the opposite direction and sniffed again, then followed the creek, heading closer to the town and the inn. But again, the time and elements made it impossible to track.

However, they did find an area used for putting boats in and out.

Sage wrung her hands together as she looked across the creek. “Maybe Ron realized he was in trouble, that someone was on to his scam, and he planned to meet that woman Sandra here. Or Carol Sue, one of his other girlfriends or wives?”

Dugan knew she was grasping at straws, but he didn’t stop her. “Sounds feasible.”

“Maybe he handed Benji off to this woman before he was shot,” Sage said.

Dugan shrugged. He doubted that was the case, but he’d be damned if he destroyed Sage’s hopes without proof.

They spent another hour coaxing Gus with the blanket and shoe, but they turned up nothing, and Gus kept returning to the site where Dugan thought a boat had been.

The fact that they didn’t find Benji’s other shoe meant he could have still had it on or that it had floated downstream.

His phone buzzed, and he checked it. Jaxon.

He connected the call. “Yeah?”

“I have an address for Martin’s girlfriend, Carol Sue.”

“Text it to me.”

They hung up and the text came through. Carol Sue lived about forty miles from Cobra Creek.

With no traffic, he could make it there in thirty minutes.

But as he and Sage and Gus headed back to his SUV, he spotted something shiny in the grass. He paused, bent down and brushed a few blades away, then plucked a bullet casing from the ground.

“What is it?” Sage asked.

He held it up to the light. “A bullet. I’ll send it to the lab for analysis.”

If it was the same one that had shot Lewis, identifying the bullet could lead them to the gun that had shot the man.

And to his killer.

* * *

S
AGE FOLLOWED
D
UGAN
into the lab, where he dropped off the bullet casing he’d found in the weeds by the creek. He introduced her to Jim Lionheart, who ran the lab.

“It’s bent, but it looks like it’s from a .38,” Lionheart said. “I’ll run it. Lots of .38s out there, though. If you bring me a specific gun, I can match it.”

“I’m working on it,” Dugan said. “Did you see the M.E.’s report on Wilbur Rankins’s death?”

Lionheart shook his head no. “You want me to pull it up?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Dugan followed Lionheart to the computer. “Why are you interested in his autopsy?”

“Rankins’s grandson called me and said he heard his father and grandfather arguing before he heard the shot.”

“You mean his grandson thinks his own father killed his grandfather?” Sage asked.

“He was suspicious. Of course, Gandt didn’t even question it.”

Lionheart accessed the report, a scowl stretching across his face. “Hmm, odd. Rankins was shot with a handgun. But most of the ranchers around here use rifles or shotguns.”

Sage saw the wheels turning in Dugan’s head.

“Find out if the bullet I brought in is the same kind that killed Rankins.”

“Will do.”

“Didn’t they do an autopsy?” Sage asked.

“It’s standard in a shooting, but I don’t think they’ve ordered one. Since Junior’s daddy was dying of cancer anyway and was humiliated by the questions I was asking about the land deals, Junior figured his father just wanted to end the pain.”

“I’ll call you when I get something.”

Dugan thanked him, and Sage walked with him back to his vehicle. “But why would Junior kill Wilbur?” Sage asked. “If he wanted his land, he’d eventually get it.”

“Good question,” Dugan said. “And one I intend to find the answer to.”

* * *

Q
UESTIONS NAGGED AT
D
UGAN
as he drove toward the address he had for Carol Sue. There were too many random pieces to the puzzle, but they had to fit somehow.

If Junior had killed his father, had he also killed Lewis? And why kill his old man if he was going to die and leave him his property, anyway?

The motive for Lewis’s murder was clear. Someone—either a woman or a man Lewis had deceived—had gotten revenge by murdering him. If a female had shot him, she’d probably wanted to lash out against him for his lies and betrayal. She might have seen Benji and decided to take him as her own.

On the other hand, if one of the ranchers Lewis had swindled killed him, he wouldn’t have wanted the kid. And he certainly couldn’t have kept him in Cobra Creek.

There was always the possibility that someone from Lewis’s past, another identity Dugan knew nothing about yet, had traced him to Cobra Creek under his new name and shot him.

A half hour later, he turned into a pricey condo development that featured its own stable, tennis courts and country club.

“Carol Sue lives here?” Sage asked.

“That’s the address I have. Either she has her own money or Lewis did well when they were together and she benefited.”

“Maybe she’s just a hardworking woman Ron tried to con.”

Dugan stopped at security and identified himself. The guard let him in, and Dugan checked the numbers for the buildings until he found Carol Sue’s condo, an end unit at the rear of the complex.

Designated spots were marked for visitors, but each condo had a built-in garage. He parked, and he and Sage walked up to the door. Dugan punched the doorbell and glanced around, noting that the small lawns were well tended, each unit painted to create a unified feel.

When no one answered, he rang the doorbell again, then stepped to the side to peer in the front window. There was no furniture inside.

“Looks like she’s moved out,” Dugan said.

Sage sighed. “Are you sure?”

“There’s no furniture in the living room. Let me check around back.” He descended the brick steps, then walked around the side of the condo. A small fenced-in yard offered privacy, and when he checked the gate, it was unlocked.

Sage followed on his heels as he entered the backyard. The stone patio held no outdoor furniture,. He crossed the lawn to the back but the door was locked.

Damn.

He removed a small tool from his pocket, picked the lock, then pushed the door open. The back opened to a narrow entryway with a laundry and mudroom to the left. Sage trailed him as he stepped into a modern kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances.

“There’s no table.” Sage opened a few cabinet doors. “No food or dishes, either. You’re right. She’s gone.”

A noise sounded upstairs. Footsteps?

Dugan pulled his weapon and motioned for Sage to move behind him. Then he crept through the hallway. He checked the living and dining area. Both empty.

The footsteps sounded again. Then a woman appeared on the stairs. She threw up her hands and screamed when she saw them.

She was dressed in heels and a dress and wasn’t armed, so he lowered his gun.

“Sorry, ma’am. Are you Carol Sue?”

The woman fluttered her hand over her heart, visibly shaken. “No, I’m Tanya Willis, the real estate broker for the development. Who are you?”

Dugan identified himself and introduced Sage. “We’re looking for Carol Sue.”

“I have no idea where she is,” the woman said. “Why do you want to see her?”

“We think she was connected to a man, Ron Lewis, whose body was recently found in Cobra Creek. Carol Sue knew him by another name, though, Mike Martin.”

Tanya gasped and gripped the stair rail. “You said Mike was murdered?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dugan replied.

Sage stepped up beside him. “He also took my little boy, Benji, with him the day he was killed. You may have seen the story on the news.”

“Oh, my God, yes.” Tanya swept one hand over her chest. “You think Carol Sue had something to do with that man’s murder and your little boy’s disappearance?”

“That’s what we’re trying to discern.” Dugan paused. “Does Carol Sue own the condo?”

“Yes,” Tanya said. “She was so excited when she first bought the place and moved in. Told me she’d never had a nice home before, and that her boyfriend had a windfall and they were planning to get married and live here together.”

“When was that?”

“A little over three years ago,” Tanya said. “I stopped to see her a couple of times after that, thought I’d meet her fiancé since he sounded so wonderful, but both times she said he was out of town.”

“Her boyfriend’s windfall was due to the fact that he was a con artist,” Dugan said.

Again, the real estate broker looked shocked.

“When did Carol Sue move out?” Sage asked.

“Just a couple of days ago,” Tanya said. “That was weird, too. She called me and said she had to relocate and wanted me to handle putting the unit on the market.”

Dugan traded looks with Sage. Had the discovery of Lewis’s body prompted her quick departure?

“Did she say why she had to relocate?” Sage asked.

Tanya shook her head, her lower lip trembling. “No, but she definitely sounded upset. Like she might be afraid of something.”

Dugan considered that comment. Had Carol Sue been upset because she’d learned Lewis was dead and feared his killer might come after her? Or because she’d killed him and didn’t want to get caught?

Or had the publicity about the murder and Benji’s disappearance made her run because she had Sage’s son?

* * *

S
AGE TWISTED HER HANDS
together as they left the condo complex. Dugan phoned his friend Jaxon, with the rangers, and relayed what they’d learned about Carol Sue.

Sage’s cell phone buzzed, and she checked the number. An unknown.

Curious, she hit Answer. “Hello.”

“You need to stop nosing around.”

A chill swept up her spine. It was a woman’s voice this time. “Who is this?”

“It doesn’t matter who it is. If you don’t stop, you’re going to end up dead.”

The phone clicked silent.

Sage’s hand trembled as she lowered the phone to her lap.

“Who was that?” Dugan asked.

“I don’t know,” Sage said, shaken and angry at the same time. “A woman. She warned me to stop nosing around or I’d end up dead.”

Dugan checked her phone. An unknown number. Probably a burner phone, but he called Jaxon to get a trace put on Sage’s phone in case the caller phoned again.