The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4) (10 page)

She nodded, probably reading between the lines on that. “Anything new on Renée?”

He had to shake his head. “The dead gunman is a wash for now, too. No ID, and his prints aren’t in the system.” And with Rooks still not talking, Chase was still way short on answers.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

April’s gaze met his, and he was pretty sure she knew he wasn’t just asking about her in the general sense. “You mean that kiss.”

Bingo. She zoomed right in on that.

“I thought you’d want to see it as a lapse in judgment,” she said. “And nothing more.”

That was indeed how he wanted to see it, all right. But parts of him were struggling to keep that view. “How did you see it?” he asked, despite the fact that it was stupid to continue this conversation on any level.

She stood, meeting him eye-to-eye. “You really want to know?” But she didn’t wait for an answer. “I see it as a reminder of how things led to us getting Bailey. A reminder that’s still there. Don’t worry,” April quickly added. “I know it’s not what you want so it won’t happen again.”

Heck. For some reason that riled him. So much so that Chase took hold of her and kissed her again.

It wasn’t the powerhouse kiss they’d had in the hospital. Just a quick brush of his mouth to hers to remind her that if they didn’t put some distance between them, that it would indeed happen again. And it might have happened a lot sooner.

Like instantly.

If Chase hadn’t heard someone come into the sheriff’s office.

“Wait here,” he told April, and he stepped into the hallway to see Jax ushering a dark-haired man through the metal detectors.

Chase didn’t recognize the guy, but he was tall, thin. Late thirties. And while he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Chase was betting that both had designer labels on them.

“Marshal Crockett,” the man said, his attention going straight to Chase. “I’m Shane Hackett, Renée’s husband. I believe I know where you can find her.”

Chapter Ten

April went into the hall when she heard their visitor.
Finally.
This could be the break they were looking for.

“Where’s Renée?” April asked while hurrying into the squad room. Something that Chase obviously didn’t want her to do. But if they could find Renée, they might be able to learn if she or someone else was behind the attack.

“You’re Quentin’s sister.” Shane studied her for a moment, disapproval written all over his face. Disapproval maybe just for Quentin or perhaps because she happened to be the sister of the man who’d had an affair with his wife.

Shane slipped his hand in his jeans pocket, a move that sent both Jax and Chase reaching for their guns. Even though Shane had obviously cleared the metal detector, that didn’t mean he still couldn’t be dangerous. But it wasn’t a weapon that he pulled out. It was a piece of paper, and he handed it to Chase.

“Those are the addresses of mine and Renée’s properties. Some aren’t in our names. My real estate company owns them. The first one is a cabin only about thirty miles from here. That’s my best guess as to where she’d go, but the others are possibilities, too.”

“I’m on it,” Jax said. He took the paper and headed for the phone. No doubt so he could get someone out there to check the place since it wasn’t in the jurisdiction of the Appaloosa Pass Sheriff’s Department.

“If you believe she could be there,” April said, “why didn’t you go out and check?”

Clearly, Shane wasn’t comfortable with that, and he took his time answering. “Because Renée made it clear that she didn’t want to see me. She said if I tried to find her, that she’d harm herself. I figured you’d do a better job protecting and restraining her than I could.”

April thought about that a moment. It was possibly true. From everything they’d learned about Shane, he did still care for his wife. Though April had no idea why.

“Has Renée been in contact with you recently?” Chase asked the man.

Shane nodded without hesitation. “She called me yesterday, said she might have gotten into something over her head and wanted me to give her as much cash as I had on hand, that she’d have a courier pick up the money. She didn’t want to take anything from her accounts because she said someone was after her.”

Chase tapped his badge. “Someone is. She’s a suspect in the kidnapping of a baby and two attacks.”

Shane hadn’t shown much emotion. Until hearing that. He didn’t stagger back exactly, but he suddenly looked very unsteady on his feet. “Renée’s off her meds. That’s not good. Because she does impulsive things without her meds.”

“Does that mean you believe she’s responsible for the kidnapping?” Chase asked.

Now Shane paused, groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. “Possibly.” He looked at April again. “Does this have anything to do with your brother?”

“I honestly don’t know but maybe. Renée was at the hospital earlier when my brother was kidnapped.” Or when he faked a kidnapping, that is. April had no idea which—not yet.

Shane’s jaw tightened. “Renée was with Quentin.” Now there was another emotion, one that April had no trouble figuring out. Jealousy.

“I don’t know if they were together or just happened to be there at the same time. As I said, my brother’s missing, too.”

Shane’s next groan was louder. “He’s bad news for her, you know.”

Yes, April did know that. But she thought the relationship might have been toxic for both of them. “Was Renée ever pregnant?”

Shane’s nod was slow in coming. “She was, but she miscarried about five months ago.”

Only about a month after Quentin had gone into WITSEC. As emotionally invested as Renée was in Quentin, April wondered if that had triggered the miscarriage.

April stared at Shane. “Was it my brother’s baby?”

“Renée said he was the father,” Shane admitted almost hesitantly.

“Was he?” April pressed.

“Yes,” Shane answered after another long pause. “Renée can be unstable when she’s off her meds, but she didn’t lie about being in love with your brother. After Quentin went into WITSEC and she lost the baby, she tried to kill herself.”

That didn’t sound so much like love, but April knew her brother didn’t always bring out the best in people.

“Look, I just want you to find her,” Shane continued, “so she can get the help she needs. Just promise me you won’t hurt her if you find her.”

“I can’t make a promise like that,” Chase snapped. “But I can tell you if she’s behind the kidnappings and the attacks, I will find her and I’ll arrest her. Because there was a woman killed by one of those thugs. If Renée hired them, then she’ll be charged with murder.”

Of course, Shane must have known that, but it clearly bothered him to hear it spelled out. He reached in his pocket, took out a business card that he handed to Chase. “If you arrest her, call me so I can get her a lawyer. Am I free to go?”

“Not just yet. I need to ask you a few more questions.” Chase looked back at Jax. “Why don’t you go ahead and take April to Jericho’s office?”

April was about to protest, but then Chase tipped his head to the windows. The blinds were all down, and the glass was reinforced and bullet resistant, but it was still risky for her to be out there. Risky for Chase, too, but April doubted she’d be able to get him to leave until he was certain he’d gotten everything he could from Shane.

Jax ushered her to Jericho’s office, but he didn’t leave once she was there. In fact, he checked the window to make sure it was secure. It was. And he positioned himself in the doorway. Guarding her and keeping watch over Chase.

“You think Shane could have brought hired guns with him?” she asked.

“No.” And that’s all Jax said for several moments. “I don’t think Shane had anything to do with the stuff that happened. But if Renée wants to silence him so he can’t help us find her, she might have her goons try to kill him.”

April hadn’t even considered that. Heck, she wasn’t even positive the woman was an actual threat to anyone but herself, but Jax obviously felt she was capable of murder. And maybe she was.

Jax continued to look around the squad room. Continued to glance back at her, as well.

“Sorry you drew the short straw on guarding me,” April said after one of Jax’s glances looked more like a glare. “I know I’m not someone you actually want to protect.”

No glare. But he did frown and seemed a little puzzled. “I don’t hold a grudge against you.”

“You should. I made a mistake.”

“And it seems as if you’ve paid for it a couple times over,” Jax countered.

Now she was the one who frowned. “You don’t have to be nice to me.”

“I know. But I don’t want to stand in the way of Chase getting to raise his baby even if it means he’s got to move and that we might not be able to see him for a long time. If ever. Plus, I also figure he’s got feelings for you. After all, he slept with you, and Chase isn’t the one-night stand sort.”

No, he wasn’t, but it hadn’t been feelings that had caused him to take her to his bed. Well, not love-related kinds of feelings anyway.

“I think Chase started out just wanting to lend me a shoulder. I was upset.” An understatement. And the shoulder he’d lent had turned to a heavy kissing session. Then more.

“You have feelings for him, too,” Jax tossed out there. “Are you in love with him?”

April nearly choked on the quick breath she sucked in. “No.” She was almost certain of that. Almost. “What I feel for him is complicated.”

“Yeah,” Jax agreed.

She heard the voice of experience. No doubt because his relationship with his late wife, Paige, had fallen into that same
complicated
category. Despite having a young child, they’d divorced, only for Paige to be murdered by the Moonlight Strangler.

April heard the footsteps, and Jax stepped back from the doorway to let Chase into the room. “I didn’t get anything more from Shane,” he said. “But I believe he’s genuinely worried about Renée.”

So did April. Chase opened his mouth to add something else, but his phone rang before he could say anything.

He glanced at the screen, cursed. “What now?”

April hurried to his side to see Unknown Caller on the phone. Her heart sank. This couldn’t be good. Chase hit the answer button and put it on speaker.

“Marshal Crockett,” the caller said. Not a normal voice, either. The person was speaking through a scrambler, which made it impossible to know if this was any of their suspects. “We need to speak about Quentin Landis. And by
we
, I mean me, you and his sister, April.”

Even though she was just a few inches from Chase, she moved even closer to him. “What about my brother?” she asked.

“Do you want to see him alive again?” But the caller continued without waiting for her to respond. “Then, you’ll pay up. The ransom is a quarter of a million in cash. I’m giving you two hours to get the money.”

She’d known right from the start that a ransom demand might come, but it knotted her stomach to hear it. “That’s not enough time,” April argued. “I’d need at least a day.”

Chase motioned for her to stay quiet. “How do we even know for sure you have Quentin?” he pressed. “You could have heard about the kidnapping and be someone just trying to capitalize on it.”

Sweet heaven. April hadn’t even considered that. She’d gotten so caught up in her emotional reaction that she hadn’t realized this could all be a hoax.

Maybe even one put together by Quentin himself.

“I want to speak to Quentin,” Chase went on when the caller didn’t say anything. “I want proof that he’s actually with you and that he’s still alive.”

More silence. April heard some shuffling around, some whispers, and for a moment she thought the kidnapper was going to refuse. But finally she heard her brother’s voice.

“April, I’m so sorry,” Quentin said. “I didn’t want to involve you in this.”

More shuffling sounds. “There, you heard him,” the kidnapper said. “Now get that money together. I’m not giving you a day, either. I want the cash within twelve hours. I’ll call you back with the drop-off point.” And with that, the kidnapper ended the call.

“You’re sure that was Quentin?” Jax asked her.

April nodded. “But I’m not sure if this is a hoax or not. If Crossman had him kidnapped, he probably would have just killed Quentin. And I doubt Renée would be asking for a ransom.”

“Shane said she asked him for cash,” Jax pointed out.

“True. She might have done that just so she could pay off the hired gun who rescued her when you were bringing her into the sheriff’s office,” Chase answered. “Or she could want money so she could hide out for a while.”

That made sense. “The loan shark could have kidnapped Quentin, though.” April gave a heavy sigh. Because it might be true. And even if it wasn’t, if Quentin had put all of this together, not getting the cash was still too big of a risk to take.

April reached for the phone. “I’ll call the bank and start the process to get the money.”

But Chase stopped her. “Think this through. This could be Crossman’s work after all. He could be planning on having you make the ransom drop so he can kill both Quentin and you.”

That caused her heart to skip a beat. Because it was exactly the sort of plan that Crossman would put together.

“That means if the kidnapper demands you do the drop, you have to refuse,” Chase added.

And that kind of refusal could get Quentin killed.

April hated that her brother had gotten himself into hot water with the loan shark. It was possible this was all of his own making. Of course, it was just as possible that he was innocent. Of the kidnapping anyway.

“I won’t do the ransom drop,” she assured Chase. “I hope you won’t, either.”

He shrugged. “It’d be the best way to figure out who’s really behind this.”

But it would also put him right smack in the middle of danger. Of course, that was true of anyone who made that drop.

While April phoned the bank, both Chase and Jax stepped away to make their own calls. It took April several minutes to work her way through to the bank manager and to give him the security information that would allow him to access her savings and trust fund. Even though she was certain the manager was suspicious that she was withdrawing such a large amount, he didn’t question it when she asked for it to be delivered to the sheriff’s office.

By the time she was done, Jax had already finished his call, but Chase was still on the phone.

“The money will be here in about six hours,” she relayed to Jax.

He nodded. “The sheriff over in Raymond Creek checked that cabin Shane told us about. Renée wasn’t there, and there was no sign that anyone had been there in a while.”

Too bad. In a best-case scenario, Renée would have been there with Quentin so that Renée could be arrested and April could have a long chat with her brother.

“Still no word back on the other addresses,” Jax continued. “We might get lucky with one of them, though.”

They certainly needed a huge dose of luck, but after glancing at Chase’s expression, she doubted that’s what they were going to get. “What’s wrong?” she came out and asked.

“I had the Rangers do a thorough background check on Malcolm and there’s a red flag. A couple of them, actually. Malcolm was a close friend of Tina Murdock.”

That put her heart right in her throat. April shook her head. “Malcolm never said anything about knowing the cop who was killed.” The cop whose blood was on her hands.

“I didn’t think so. I also doubt Malcolm met you by accident at the hospital when Bailey was born. According to one of Malcolm’s business associates, he was torn up when Tina was murdered.”

The thoughts started to race through her head. “Torn up enough to want to get revenge on my brother and me?”

“Possibly,” Chase admitted.

April tried to go back through all the conversations she’d ever had with Malcolm, including the most recent one in the hospital. He’d said nothing to indicate he was out to do her harm, but that didn’t mean that wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

“Are you thinking Malcolm could have kidnapped Quentin?” Jax asked.

Chase cursed. “He could have, but there’s more. I finally got the list of Crossman’s visitors, and in the last three months, Malcolm has visited him four times.”