Gambling on a Dream (23 page)

Glancing over his shoulder as if he sensed her staring at him, he cocked an eyebrow, and a lopsided grin tilted his lips. “I can almost see the X-rated thoughts in that head of yours.”

She laughed and leaned back in her chair. “Guilty as charged. What will you do with me, Lieutenant McPherson?”

He turned away from the stove with two plates in hand, one stacked with steaming golden pancakes and the other heaping with fragrant crispy bacon. As he sat next her, he set the plates on the table. He leaned toward her and kissed her. “Oh, Sheriff Madison, be careful of what you’re asking. You might find yourself in trouble.”

Before she had a chance to respond, a loud bang sounded from the entry as if something had been thrown at the front door.

“What the hell?” He rushed into the entry, unlocked the door, and threw it open.

Dawn had followed him to the doorway of the kitchen and leaned on the frame. “What happened?”

He ran onto the porch, but no one was there. “I don’t know.” He picked up a brick with a piece of paper wrapped around it and held it up. “But I think this is what hit the door.”

He headed toward her and removed the rubber band and a sheet of copy paper. “Damn.”

As she watched his face turn from one of curiosity to anger, her gut tied into knots. “Wyatt?”

He handed her the paper. “You better read this.”

The print was typed and in bold. She turned and leaned her backside onto the counter beside the door, taking the weight off her sore knee. “This is your warning, bitch. Drop out of the race for sheriff or the whole world will know you were pregnant and had an abortion while you were in Dallas, and that Wyatt McPherson was the father.”

Only her family had known about the baby. Until yesterday, not even her best friend had known she’d once been pregnant. Did Wyatt’s family even know? She looked up and swallowed. However, the reactions from his family and their friends didn’t scare her, something else did.

Wyatt took her hand and helped her back to her chair. As she dropped into the seat, he kneeled before her. “We both know this isn’t true.”

“But I was pregnant. I did lose a baby.” She stared at the paper in her shaking hand. “If the lawyers for the bastard who shot me find out our past relationship, they could have reason to request a mistrial. It was your testimony that put Eduardo Guerrero behind bars for the duration of his miserable life.”

“You can’t drop out of the race, Dawn.” He took the note from her and tossed it aside, and then he held both of her hands. “First of all, you didn’t have an abortion, and there’s no proof I fathered the baby.” He swallowed and shook his head. “We should come clean with our closest friends and family, but as for the rest, they can go straight to hell.”

She nodded as a thought slithered into her mind. “If I drop out of the race, Chet will be uncontested.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why would the killer want Chet to be sheriff?”

“Because Chet is convinced my brother is the suspect and would spend all of his resources trying to prove it, buying the real killer a chance to get away.” She closed her eyes as the gravity of everything swamped her. “We have to find the killer before he has a chance to make another move.”

Her cell phone ringing startled her. Wyatt handed it to her, and she answered. “Sheriff Madison.”

“It’s Agent Green,” said the male voice of the FBI agent-in-charge also working the case. “We found the truck that stopped at the Quick Fill the morning Larson was killed.”

She looked at Wyatt. “Agent Green, I’m going to put you on speaker phone. Lieutenant McPherson is here with me.”

As she set the phone on the table and put it on speaker, Wyatt sat in the chair beside her. “Agent, go ahead.”

The agent cleared his throat on the other end. “As I was saying, the truck in the surveillance video from the Quick Fill the morning Larson was killed is owned by North-South Transport. When we finally found the truck and stopped it just north of the border, it was filled with textiles from Alvarez
Textil.
”

“Will the driver talk?” Dawn fisted her hand as she remembered her conversation with Wyatt the other night regarding the Mexican textile company owned by relatives of the Cotreras Cartel, one of the biggest drug organizations in Northern Mexico.

“Yeah.” The agent chuckled. “He’s talking, especially after we found bags of cocaine sown into the shoulder pads of the garments and threatened to charge him with the murder of Christopher Larson.”

“What’s he saying?” Wyatt leaned over the table as if he was afraid he’d miss what the agent said.

“He pulled up at the Quick Fill to deliver a shipment of coke, when a kid with a switchblade knife attacked him. According to the driver, the kid was demanding more money. The owner of the Quick Fill, Gene Murphy, pulled the kid off him and turned the knife onto the kid, stabbing him in the chest. Murphy and the driver then carried the body behind the Longhorn where y’all found him.”

Dawn gasped and stared into Wyatt’s wide eyes. Gene Murphy was the killer? When the silence grew too long for the FBI agent waiting on the other end, he said, “You still there?”

Wyatt swallowed and shook his head as if to clear it. “Yeah. It’s just a shock that’s all. We’ve known Gene for a long time.”

“Keep us posted on the processing of the blood analysis from the Demello scene.” She was numb.
Gene
was their killer?

“I’ve requested a rush on it. But if the kid can ID him, it would be quicker. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out something.”

“Thanks, Agent Green.” She disconnected the call and leaned back in the chair. The air rushed out of her as she closed her eyes. “Well, it all makes sense now. The killer wants Chet to be sheriff because he would never suspect his own brother-in-law.”

When she opened her eyes again, Wyatt had his cell phone out. “I think it’s time to find out if Tyler Demello is awake yet.”

* * * *

“I won’t allow it. My son just woke up.” Elizabeth Raines crossed her arms before her. “Up until now I’ve been able to keep his name out of the paper, but it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out he wasn’t in an accident.”

“All you ever think about is yourself.” Dr. Tony Demello scowled at his ex-wife. “He’s my son as well. Tyler wants to talk to them, and I think it’s the right thing to do. The sooner he identifies who did this to him the sooner the authorities can catch the creep.”

Dawn bit her tongue to keep from saying the comments running through her mind. The woman was back to her egocentric self. By the eye roll she caught Wyatt trying to hide when he lowered his head, she knew he thought the same thing.

Wyatt shifted his hat in his hands. “Mrs. Raines, we won’t be long.”

Elizabeth looked from Wyatt to Dawn. “All right, but you only have five minutes.”

The nurse let them into the room after Dr. Demello instructed her to do so. The FBI guard nodded in silent salute as they passed by and entered the door.

The dim room smelled of antiseptic, and the beat of a heart monitor provided a constant reminder of how close this boy came to losing his life. Dawn limped over to sit on the stool next to the bed.

Tyler watched her. “What happened to you?”

She smiled and shrugged. “You and I have something in common, I guess. The bad guy wants us dead.”

He glanced at Wyatt as he stood behind her and licked his dry lips. “I guess I’m lucky to be alive.”

“You could say that.” Wyatt’s deep voice trembled through her. “Tyler, do you know who did this to you?”

He closed his eyes and slowly nodded. “I don’t know his name, but I recognized him before he stabbed me.”

She looked over her shoulder at Wyatt. Excitement bubbled up at the prospect of finally having enough evidence to arrest the killer. She pulled out a photo of Gene Murphy. “Is this the man who stabbed you?”

He squinted at the photo and nodded his head. “That’s the guy who runs the gas station in town. Yeah, he’s the one.”

Dawn’s heart stopped as the implication settled on her. “Are you sure?”

Tyler shifted a shoulder under his green hospital gown. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

She stood with help from Wyatt’s hand on her elbow. “Thank you, Tyler.”

Before they could rush out of the room, his weak voice stopped them. “But there was another guy there too. A sheriff’s deputy.”

Dawn was happy Wyatt was still holding onto her. The betrayal that someone in her department was a dirty cop shook her to the core. Killing kids was one horrible thing, but they had also murdered one of her best deputies. How someone could get that close to Doug and put a bullet in his chest now made sense. Doug had known his killer just as they had suspected. “Do you know who the deputy is?”

He nodded again and swallowed. “Deputy Hendricks.”

They rushed out of the hospital as Wyatt called the Texas Rangers and she called Tilly. “Tilly, Demello woke up and told us who stabbed him. Keep everyone there and sitting tight. I’ll be in as soon as I can.”

“Who?” His voice shook with the question. He wanted these bastards off the street as much as she did, especially after they killed Doug, who Tilly had taken under his wing when the kid first started on the force. She couldn’t trust Tilly not to do something stupid, like going after Chet or Gene alone. That could end up getting him killed.

“I’ll tell you when I get there.” She glanced at Wyatt as they rounded his truck to get in. “It’s probably best if we keep this on the down low. I don’t want anyone else to know Demello woke up. Got it?”

She heard him swallowing and could imagine the older man nodding, despite her not being able to see him. “Tilly?”

“Yeah, got it.”

Dawn opened her door and climbed in. “Dawn, you and Wyatt be careful.”

“You bet.”

Wyatt jumped in behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. “My captain will notify the FBI and send backup.”

He backed out of the space in the parking garage. She gripped her phone in her sweaty palm as they stopped at the intersection onto the busy Dallas street. “I can’t believe this, can you?” She met his gaze as they waited for the green. “Chet has always been a bully, but God… A killer? Gene wasn’t born in Colton, but he’s been a pillar of the community since marrying Chet’s sister and buying the Quick Fill.”

Wyatt rubbed his jaw and shook his head. “Who would have pegged Leon Ferguson as a fraud and a killer, or Jake and Brent Parker as cattle and horse thieves?” The light turned, and he rushed out onto the street. “Just shows you really never can know.”

She rested her head on the back of the seat, sudden exhaustion threatening to drag her under. “It means you can’t trust anyone.”

“That too.”

* * * *

Chet sat down in the old worn leather chair at his desk and tossed his traffic book on top of the clutter of reports and campaign posters he’d hoped to post around town. He had to get rid of Demello before the kid woke up and talked. Hell, maybe Dawn and McPherson were already speaking to him. Wyatt had passed by Chet hiding out in his favorite spot for catching speeders on Highway Six not long after he’d thrown the brick at his house. At the time, Chet had wondered if he’d been spotted when he’d run into the stretch of woods between Wyatt’s ranch and the Quinn’s place.

He’d done some research on the date stamped on the sonogram photo he’d seen at Madison’s house. It had been taken the day Dawn was shot in a drug bust gone bad. He’d also learned McPherson had killed the shooter’s lieutenant, and his testimony put the other thug in prison for life.

It didn’t take too much to figure out those two had probably been fuck-buddies. He didn’t care. He had every intention of using that piece of information to his advantage.

When he heard Tilly at his desk, muttering something to himself, he narrowed his eyes on the old geezer. What was he mumbling about? “Hey, have you heard from the sheriff?

Tilly glanced at him. “Yeah. I hung up with her a moment ago. I just can’t believe what she said.”

He had to know what rattled Tilly so badly. “You okay, old man?”

Tilly shook his head and leaned over his desk. “Demello woke up and told Dawn and Wyatt who stabbed him.”

Fuck!
He cleared his throat and hoped like hell his voice came out normal. “Good. Do we know who?”

Tilly shook his head as if to clear it. “Dawn wouldn’t tell me. Said she and Wyatt were coming here.”

Chet had to get out of here and warn Gene. The idiot. If he’d listened to Chet from the get-go, they’d be kingpins in drug trafficking between the Cotreras Cartel in Mexico and Dallas. His plan was for Gene to buy a small trucking company and run the drugs. That hadn’t been good enough for Gene. He wanted to go bigger, or so he thought. Gene had contacted an old college buddy, Lester Gilman, and bought into his trucking company, North-South Transport.

They still had to figure out a way to keep the law off their asses, and the solution seemed to offer itself up on a platter when Zack Cartwright resigned as sheriff. Gene had assured him there’d be no way in hell the town council and mayor would appoint Dawn Madison as sheriff, despite her being Cartwright’s lieutenant. After all, Chet was the most logical choice, and if they went with seniority, Tilly Kennedy was an old fool with only two more years until retirement. Chet wasn’t as sure as Gene. Everyone knew the damned Cartwrights owned this town, and they'd always looked out for those fucking Indian bastards.

However, Dawn’s appointment hadn’t been the only problem. When the kids they’d enlisted to deal the drugs started wanting more money and making demands, Gene insisted they had to die. Chet should have offed the dickhead before he had the chance to kill Christopher Larson. Hell, he should have gotten rid of him long before Larson had a chance to figure out the North-South truck that always stopped at the Quick Fill every Monday morning at four AM was their drug supplier. Now Chet had to save the idiot’s ass.

Tilly said something, and he tuned into his ramblings. What did Tilly know? “…we’re to stay here. I think they’re going after whoever it is.”

“If she knows who, surely she and Wyatt don’t think they can take them down by themselves.” Chet cleared his throat.