Cowboy Behind the Badge (11 page)

“It's Darren,” he relayed to her. “What do you want?” he demanded, putting the call on speaker.

“I need to tell you something that might pertain to Rhonda.”

Whatever it was, it obviously wasn't good, because Laine could hear the doom and gloom in Darren's voice.

Tucker glanced at the door and then the screen, and led her to the break room at the end of the hall. Probably because he didn't want Rhonda or the gunman behind door number two listening in on the conversation.

“What about Rhonda?” Tucker prompted Darren once he was sure the chat would be private.

“I just found a message on my voice mail from Dawn. Things have been so hectic around here, and I just got around to checking it.”

Tucker jumped right on that. “When did she call?”

“Yesterday. She sounded terrified and wanted me to come pick her up. She said she was in Sweetwater Springs. Is that where she was killed?”

“You said this was possibly about Rhonda,” Tucker reminded him.

“Yeah.” Darren sounded more than a little irritated, maybe because Tucker hadn't answered his question. “It's a bit hard to understand what Dawn is saying, but it sounds as if she says ‘I'm running from her. I thought I could trust her, but I can't.'”

Tucker huffed. “And why would you think that meant Rhonda?”

“Because why else would she have lied and said Dawn was afraid of me? She wasn't. And the only reason Rhonda would have lied would have been to make you suspicious of someone other than herself. She's a suspect, right?”

“I'm not sure what she is,” Tucker admitted. “But I do want a recording of that message. Send it to me here at the sheriff's office so I can get it to the Ranger lab for analysis.”

“I will, but so help me, McKinnon, you'd better not try to use this against me in some way.”

“You got something to hide?” Tucker was already talking to the air, because Darren had hung up.

Tucker looked at her, and she could practically see the wheels turning in his head. “Her manicure means something, huh?” he mumbled.

“I'd like more proof than that, too,” Laine countered, “but maybe it's a start.” She paused. “Unless Dawn was talking about me when she said she thought she could trust
her.
”

“You?” he challenged. “She came to you for help.”

“Maybe. Or maybe she got to my office and thought I'd betrayed her or something. Maybe she even thought that I was the one who sent those killers after her. I could be the
her
in the message she left for Darren.”

“She still trusted you enough to ask you to protect her twins.” Tucker stayed quiet a moment, then scrubbed his hand over his face. “I need to question Rhonda more about her relationship with Dawn.”

Laine agreed, and this time she stayed back, not wanting to compromise what was now an official interrogation of a possible suspect and not just an interview with a possible informant.

Tucker threw open the door of the room where they'd left Rhonda, and he cursed.

The room was empty, and Rhonda was gone.

 

Chapter Eleven

Well, this day sure as heck wasn't going as Tucker had planned. Rhonda was on the run again, and he was no closer to solving the case than he had been when he'd woken up. Something had to give, and it had to give soon.

“Maybe we can catch up with Rhonda,” Laine suggested. “She couldn't have gotten far.”

“Not
we,
” he instantly corrected. “No way do I want you out there trying to hunt down a suspect.”

And since Reed was the only deputy in the sheriff's office, Tucker didn't want him out there, either. He was about to ask Reed to call for someone from the jail to look for Rhonda, but then his phone rang, and he saw the woman's name on the screen.

“Where are you, Rhonda?” Tucker demanded the moment he answered.

“I'm sorry, but I just couldn't stay there. I heard you talking to Darren, and I figured he was setting me up to take the fall for him. Or to be attacked. I don't want to die like Dawn.”

Tucker groaned. “No one was going to attack you while you were here.”

He hoped. Still, Tucker couldn't rule out the possibility that Rhonda had a legitimate concern. Laine's expression let him know that she felt the same way. Darren had the means necessary to go after anyone who could link him to Dawn's murder, and maybe Laine's ex thought Rhonda fell into that category.

“My offer stands,” he added to Rhonda. “I can arrange for you to go to a safe house.”

It wasn't a totally selfless offer on his part. Tucker could send her to a place where someone could keep an eye on her if it turned out she'd had some part in the baby farms. A place where he could also keep her alive if she was innocent in all of this.

“I don't want your safe house,” she insisted. “I just want to be
safe,
and I'd been doing a good job of that on my own. I hope I didn't make a stupid mistake coming to see you,” Rhonda went on, but then she stopped, mumbled some profanity. “I think someone's following me again. I need to go.”

Before Tucker could say anything that might stop her, Rhonda hung up. He immediately hit Redial and tried to get her back on the line, but the call went straight to voice mail. She'd no doubt turned off her phone.

Great.

Tucker didn't want to know how long it'd be before he could speak to her and coax her into coming back in for questioning. And besides, maybe it wasn't a good idea bringing her back if someone was truly following her.

Of course, that
if
was just that. An if. Rhonda could be lying through her teeth about everything, especially her lack of involvement in Dawn's murder.

“You still need to talk to Hague,” Laine reminded him.

Yeah, because Rhonda's cousin had some things to explain that might shed some light on this case. Or at least some light on Hague himself. Tucker located his number, and the man answered on the first ring.

“I'm on my way there to see Rhonda,” Hague said right off the bat. “I'll be at the sheriff's office in about ten minutes, and I'm bringing my lawyer with me.”

“Too late. Your cousin's already left. But how the heck did you know she'd be here?”

Hague paused and made a huffing sound, maybe because Tucker hadn't bothered to ask nicely. Tucker wasn't in the mood for stroking egos.

“She called me, all right?” Hague finally answered. “She said she was going to see you, and I thought it'd be my chance to talk to her, to see how she's doing. I also thought she might need a lawyer since she could be involved in something illegal.”

Interesting. Especially since Rhonda had her doubts about Hague's innocence. Or maybe she'd just wanted to cast a guilty light on him.

“Illegal, as in the baby farm?” Tucker pressed.

“I don't know. I just know that she's acting even stranger than usual. I figure she's in some kind of trouble. Did she really just leave?” Hague asked, sounding genuinely disappointed. Or else he was doing a good job of faking it.

“She did. She called me right after she left and said someone was following her again. Is it you by any chance?”

“No.” Hague stretched that out a few syllables. “And if you're only going to accuse me of more crimes, then this conversation is over.”

“It's not over. Not until you explain to me where you got all that extra money in your bank account. Rhonda seems to think it comes from the referral fees that adoptive parents pay you. Is that true?”

It was silent for several long moments. “Rhonda can have a big mouth. She shouldn't have said that.”

Maybe not, but Hague wasn't denying it. “Is it true?” Tucker repeated.

“I've done nothing wrong,” Hague countered, which was practically code for
Yeah, it's true.

Now it was Tucker's turn to huff. “I need you back here to give a statement on those funds,” he insisted. “Not today, though.” One look at Laine's weary eyes, and he figured the last thing she needed was to go another round with Hague. “Be here tomorrow morning, ten o'clock.”

“You'll do the interview yourself?” Hague asked.

Normally, a simple question like that wouldn't have put a knot in his gut, but Tucker didn't like the idea of a possible suspect pinning him down to a specific time and place.

It was downright dangerous.

If Hague was guilty, he could use it as an opportunity to attack them again. And even if Tucker left Laine at the ranch for the interview, which he would likely do, it might prompt Hague to go there, knowing that Tucker wouldn't be around to stop him.

“One of the deputies can take your statement,” Tucker said. It might or might not have been true.

Tucker hung up, trying to prepare himself to talk with the moron looking for a plea deal, but he needed a moment. Clearly, Laine did, too. Tucker took her back to the break room and poured them each a cup of coffee.

“Uh-oh,” Laine mumbled, studying his face. “Are you about to lecture me?”

He was sure he frowned. “A lecture's the last thing on my mind.”

Her eyebrows flexed. “Oh.”

For a simple little word, it conveyed a lot. So did her gaze, which dropped to his mouth. “Not that, either. I figure it's a good idea if we don't kiss, don't think about kissing and don't even bring up the subject.”

The next sound she made was a short
hmm
as she sipped her coffee. “You're right, of course.”

It didn't feel or sound right at all.

“Obviously, there's still something between us,” he added. “But that kind of something can make a bad situation worse.”

An image of her mother flashed through his head. And his family. No one on any side of this mess with Jewell and Whitt Braddock would want to see Laine and him together.

“Maybe that's it,” she mumbled. “It's the whole forbidden attraction thing that's drawing us together.”

Tucker thought about that a moment. Dismissed it. And because he clearly didn't have much of a brain left, he leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers.

It was nothing—just a touch of their lips. At least it should have been nothing. But as usual with Tucker, things were never simple.

“Nope, nothing to do with anything forbidden,” he assured her. “It was there a long time before we ended up on opposite sides.”

A knock at the door caused him and Laine to fly apart as if they'd been caught doing something wrong—which they were. It wasn't Rhonda or either of their other suspects. It was the dirtbag's lawyer. The woman was pale, and had beads of sweat above her upper lip.

“I'll be there when I'm ready,” Tucker snapped.

“No need. My client's changed his mind. Mr. Buford doesn't want a plea deal after all.”

The lawyer would have just darted right out of there if Tucker hadn't snagged her by the arm. “What gives?”

She looked over his shoulder and then shook off Tucker's grip. “I'm not at liberty to say. My client wishes to be returned to his cell now. He's advised me that he intends to remain silent.”

Tucker cursed when the lawyer walked away, and he went back through the past half hour to try and figure out what'd gone wrong.

It didn't take him long to come up with something.

“Buford saw Rhonda when she opened the door to the interview room,” Tucker said with a groan. “Darren, too. If one of them is his boss, Buford could have seen their presence as some kind of veiled warning for him to keep quiet.”

“Well, it worked,” Laine said. “What about the one in the hospital? Any chance he'll be willing to make a plea deal?”

“Maybe. But I need to make sure both Darren and Rhonda stay away from him. Hague, too, because Hague could have called Buford's lawyer and told him he was on the way here.”

Maybe Buford had thought he could make the deal and be placed in witness protection before his boss learned what was going on. Now something—or more likely,
someone—
had spooked him.

Tucker took out his phone to call the private security company that was guarding the guy, but before he could make the call, his phone rang.

“It's the Ranger crime lab,” he relayed to Laine, and he answered it.

“We just got back the results of the babies' DNA tests,” the tech said.

Tucker had hoped they'd be back this soon, but he hadn't realized just what an emotional punch it would be when the crime lab called. His stomach tightened again, and when his lungs started to ache he realized he was holding his breath.

“And?” Tucker managed to ask.

“They're fraternal twins, and their mother was indeed the dead woman, Dawn Cowen.”

Laine sucked in a lot of air. Not that this was a surprise to her. After all, Dawn had brought the babies to her office, but still it was hard hearing it all spelled out for them.

“And the babies' father?” Tucker asked, though he figured the tech wouldn't have that info. There was no reason for Darren to be in the system, and there wouldn't have been time for his DNA sample to be processed yet.

“It's a man named Kurt Laverty.”

Tucker looked at Laine to see if she knew who the man was, but she only shook her head. “You're positive?” he asked the tech.

“Yeah. This is standard paternity test, and it was an easy match since we have Laverty's DNA on file.”

There were only a few reasons why the DNA would have been in the system, and knowing Dawn's history, Tucker was betting Laverty wasn't a state or federal employee. It was because he was a criminal.

“Tell me Laverty's in jail,” Tucker added, because he didn't want to hand over the babies to some sleazebag who just happened to get Dawn pregnant.

“Oh, he's in jail, all right, and he's been there for the past four months. He pled out on a double murder charge so he could get the death penalty off the table. He got two consecutive life sentences.”

Good. Well, not
good
for the twins. It would have been better if they'd had a decent father who could give them a good life. But at least this way, Laverty wouldn't get his hands on them.

Nor would Darren.

“Now we know,” Laine mumbled when Tucker ended the call. She opened her mouth, closed it, then started to pace. “I want to adopt them.”

It wasn't exactly a surprise. Tucker had seen her getting attached to the babies, but attachment and motherhood were two different things.

“Dawn could have next of kin who would want them,” Tucker reminded her. And if any of Dawn's or Laverty's family members were around, they would have a legal claim.

For that matter, so would family services.

With the results from the DNA test back and the confirmed death of the birth mother, the state could and would take the twins while they sorted it all out.

“Sleep on that,” Tucker advised her. Though part of him—an obviously stupid part—hoped she didn't change her mind. Laine would be a good mother.

He didn't have any doubts about that.

Tucker had seen the way she'd handled the babies. He'd also seen how much she'd wanted a child, especially since he now knew she couldn't have one of her own.

“I'd planned on adopting anyway,” Laine continued, as Tucker led her out of the break room and toward the front of the building.

“Twins,” he reminded her. “They're double the work.”

She looked up at him. “Do you really want them to go to strangers?”

“No.” Tucker didn't even have to think about that. “I just want what's best for them. And for you.”

He groaned, hating that Laine now factored into this. It darn sure didn't help things that he was thinking of what was best for her, rather than what was best overall.

That dang kiss had changed everything.

He stopped by Reed's desk and waited until the deputy had finished a call. “Laine and I are heading out,” Tucker told him. “Any word on Dawn's next of kin?”

Reed shook his head. “Her parents are both dead, and she has no siblings. Her mother has a sister, but the Rangers haven't had any luck tracking her down so far.”

“Does she have a criminal record?” Laine asked right off the bat.

Another head shake from Reed. “She's a secretary at a bank in San Antonio, but she's on vacation and isn't answering her phone.” His eyes widened. “You don't think she's been hurt, do you?”

“No.” At least Tucker hoped she hadn't been. “But just in case, have someone from SAPD drop by her place for a welfare check.”

Reed nodded, assured him that he would.

So, the babies had an aunt. Maybe one who would want them and crush Laine's dream of adopting them. Tucker hated how this could all turn out, but he especially hated that they had no control over the fate of the newborns they'd been protecting.

“Come on,” Tucker said, opening the door.

He glanced around to make sure no one suspicious was lurking in the halls, including Hague, who was still possibly on his way over. Tucker didn't see anyone, so he got Laine moving toward the side parking lot. They were halfway between the sheriff's office and his truck when he spotted movement on the roof just across the street.