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If that had truly happened, then Court felt bad that he hadn’t been able to do more. But that was a big if. Most folks had liked Bobby Joe and gotten along with him just fine.
Court wasn’t one of those folks.
Bobby Joe and he had always seemed to be bristling at each other. Maybe because Rayna and Court had dated through most of high school. Bobby Joe could have been jealous, and Court figured his own bristling stemmed from the fact that Rayna had crushed his heart when she’d broken up with him.
But that was water under a very old bridge.
“Are you ever going to at least consider that Bobby Joe could be alive?” Rayna asked.
He didn’t have to figure out what his answer would be because Clyde Selby, the lab guy, finally came back on the line. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Clyde said. “I wanted to see what we had on the second woman before I spoke to you. Anyway, the first woman, the blonde, is Hallie Ramon. She is, was, a college student. She was in the system because of a drug arrest when she was eighteen. But she didn’t have any gunshot residue on her hands, so I don’t think she’s the one who shot your dad.”
Court felt the slam of disappointment. Whoever had done this was still out there.
He immediately pulled up everything he had on her. There wasn’t much. No record other than the drug possession. The woman was twenty-four and didn’t even have a traffic ticket. But then something caught his eye.
“She was a drama student.” Court hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but it certainly caught Rayna’s attention.
She moved to the edge of her seat. Court hated to disappoint her, but there likely wouldn’t be anything else from the lab. Any new info now would come from working the case, and that meant talking to Hallie’s friends to find out how she was connected to what had happened in McCall Canyon.
“You mentioned the second woman,” Court prompted Clyde.
“Yes. Janet Bolin. Egan sent me her prints, and there’s no match for her. Don’t know who she is because unlike the first woman, she’s not in the system. No driver’s license, nothing.”
Court groaned. That meant she’d lied when she’d applied for the waitress job. Had probably even used a fake ID. That was going to make it a whole lot harder. Because until they knew who she was, they wouldn’t be able to figure out how she was connected to this.
“Is she here?” someone yelled. “I want to see her now!”
Court instantly recognized the voice and knew this would be trouble. It was Mitch Hawley, Bobby Joe’s brother. And the she that he was yelling about was almost certainly Rayna.
She got right up out of the chair and whirled to face Mitch. And not just face him. She went straight out into the squad room. If she was the least bit afraid of him, she didn’t show it.
But she should have.
Unlike Bobby Joe, Mitch was not well liked, and he had a nasty temper. Court had had to arrest him on several occasions for fighting. That was why Court hurried to get between them. He didn’t mind arresting Mitch again, but he didn’t want the man hitting Rayna. Mitch was a big guy, around six-two, and he was heavily muscled. A build that suited him because he worked with rodeo bulls, but his fists could do a lot of damage.
“Why isn’t she locked up?” Mitch snarled.
“Because I haven’t done anything wrong,” Rayna answered.
“Right. You killed my brother, and now you shot his dad.” His gaze flew to Court. “Please tell me you’re not covering for her.”
“No need. There’s no GSR on her, and at the time of the shooting, someone was attacking her. What do you know about that?”
That put some fire in Mitch’s already fiery brown eyes. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“Not at the moment. Right now, I’m asking a question. Depending on how you answer it, I’ll make an accusation or not.”
Rayna shook her head, maybe asking Court not to fight her battles, but he wasn’t. With everything else going on, he hadn’t had time to work on who’d attacked Rayna, but because of their history, Mitch was an automatic suspect.
“No. I didn’t go after her. Didn’t have anything to do with this hell-storm that hit town today.” Mitch snapped toward Rayna as if ready to return some verbal fire, but he stopped, smiled. “Looks like somebody worked you over good.”
“Was it you who did it?” Court pressed, getting Mitch’s attention back on him.
The man had to get his teeth unclenched before he could speak. “No. I wouldn’t waste my time on a killer. But I can’t believe you’d just let her walk. She had motive to shoot your father.”
“Yeah, and so do you,” Court reminded him. “In fact, I seem to remember you pressing my dad and the rest of us to put Rayna behind bars. We did, and she was acquitted. End of story.”
“No, hell, no. It’s not the end.” He flung his index finger in her direction. “If she’s capable of killing my brother, she’s capable of anything.”
“Apparently not,” Rayna spoke up. “I’m not capable of convincing anyone that not guilty means I didn’t do it.” She spared Court a glance to let him know he fell into that category, too.
“Because you bought off the jury or something. I begged Warren to try to reopen the case against you—”
“There’s no case to reopen,” Court interrupted. He was getting a glimpse of what Rayna had been dealing with for the past three years. “She can’t be tried again because that’s double jeopardy.”
“Then find something else. Conspiracy or tampering with evidence.” Mitch paused only long enough to curse. “Next week is the third anniversary of my brother’s murder, and no one has paid for that.”
And no one might pay. Court kept that to himself though. Simply put, Rayna had been their one and only suspect.
“Why’d you go to my father with all of this?” Court asked.
Mitch huffed, clearly annoyed with that question. “I went to him because I don’t get anywhere with Egan and you, that’s why. I figured I could get him to sway you into doing something. Warren told me to let it go. To get a life. Can you believe that?”
Yeah, he could. Warren could be steel-hard and cold. Even though his father hated that Rayna had been acquitted, he hated even more that Mitch was blaming the McCalls for that.
Mitch rubbed his head. “I can’t let it go. I keep dreaming about Bobby Joe. Nightmares. It’s as if he’s trying to tell me from the grave to get justice for him.” He looked up, blinked, the expression of a man who felt he’d maybe said too much. Or maybe Mitch just hadn’t wanted them to hear the raw emotion that was still in his voice.
“There is no new evidence to charge Rayna with anything,” Court said. “Not Bobby Joe’s murder and not my father’s shooting.”
“Then you’re not looking hard enough,” Mitch snarled. His face hardened. “And she’s responsible for that. She’s got you convinced that she’s the same girl you loved back in high school. Well, she’s not.”
Mitch moved his hand toward Rayna as if he might take hold of her, but Court snagged his wrist.
“It’s time for you to go,” he warned him.
Mitch threw off Court’s grip with far more force than necessary. “You should have known she’d pull something like shooting your dad. The signs were there. Even Janet said so.”
Court pulled back his shoulders. “Janet?”
“Yeah, the new waitress at the diner across the street. I was in there earlier this week...” Mitch stopped. He must have realized Rayna’s and Court’s expressions had changed.
“What did Janet say about me?” Rayna demanded.
Some of that fire started to cool a bit, and Mitch got quiet for several long moments. “She knew a lot about you. About what’d happened with Bobby Joe. She asked me questions about it.”
Court jumped right on that. “What kind of questions?”
Mitch volleyed some glances at both of them and shook his head. “Things like how often Rayna came into town and such.”
Bingo. It meant she was spying on Rayna. “Did Janet ever say anything about hurting Rayna or getting back at her for some reason?” Court asked.
Mitch’s eyes widened. “No. Of course not. She wouldn’t have. I mean, what with her being a private detective and all.”
Now Court was certain his own eyes widened. “What made you think she was a PI?”
“She let it slip, and I saw her ID once when it fell out of her pocket. I thought you knew.”
Court glanced at Rayna to see if she had any idea about this. She didn’t. She shook her head.
“I thought you knew,” Mitch repeated. “After all, Janet was working for your father. Warren’s the one who hired her.”
Chapter Four (#udea1731e-d63d-5247-ac0e-9699744a5aca)
Answers. That was what Rayna needed right now. Along with another place to stay. She only hoped she managed to get both soon.
Her place wasn’t exactly safe, so that was why Court had brought her to the guesthouse on the grounds of his family’s ranch. She felt as if she’d slept in the enemy’s camp. With her enemy, since Court had stayed the night with her. She was betting though that there hadn’t been much sleeping going on. There certainly hadn’t been on her part. She hadn’t been able to turn off her mind. Hadn’t been able to forget that someone was trying to frame her for murder.
Again.
If Bobby Joe was truly behind this, then she prayed he’d just go ahead and show his face so she could put an end to this once and for all.
Since the cabin wasn’t that large, Rayna had no trouble hearing someone moving around in the kitchen. Court, no doubt, because she also smelled coffee. While she wasn’t especially anxious to face him, she did need some caffeine, and maybe he would have updates that would give her those answers. Specifically, updates on his father. She needed to know if Mitch had been right when he said that Warren had hired the now dead waitress.
If he had, then maybe this was Warren’s twisted way of trying to send her to jail. This time for good.
But Rayna had to mentally shake her head at that thought. From all accounts, Warren could have been killed when he was shot. If this was a plan he’d orchestrated, he wouldn’t have put his life at risk like that.
Rayna took a deep breath to steady herself and walked into the kitchen. Not a long trek at all, only a few yards. She immediately saw that she’d been right about it being Court in the kitchen. Right about the coffee, too, because he was pouring himself a cup.
“You’re up and dressed,” he commented, sounding relieved.
That relief was probably about the being dressed part though. It would have been too much of a trip down memory lane if she’d just been wearing her nightgown—or nothing at all—since Court had brought her here a couple of times when they’d still been dating.
“I wore my clothes to bed,” she said, making a beeline for the coffee. That way, if they were attacked, she would be ready to run or fight back. “I’ll need to go back to my place and check on the horses.”
“I sent a couple of the ranch hands over to do that. I didn’t think it was a good idea for you to be out in the open like that.”
No. It wasn’t a smart idea, but Rayna still wished she could at least see the horses. Just being around them usually calmed her, and she desperately needed that right now.
“Thanks,” she muttered. She was surprised and glad that Court had thought to do something like that. Of course, she’d probably been on his mind most of the morning, not in a good way, either.
“In case you’re still in pain.” Court slid a bottle of pain meds across the counter toward her. It was the prescription stuff the doctor had called into the pharmacy for her. Apparently, someone had picked it up and brought it to the ranch.
She thanked him again but wouldn’t take any. Her head was already cloudy enough without adding those to the mix. “Please tell me you have good news.”
His shrug didn’t give her much hope. “My dad’s still not conscious, so we haven’t been able to ask him about Janet or whoever the heck she is. But we did get back your results from the blood test the doctor took, and you were drugged. It was a barbiturate, definitely meant to knock you out.”
Then it was mission accomplished for her attacker, and he’d likely done that so she wouldn’t show up in town at the same time as Hallie Ramon, the woman in red who had been near the sheriff’s office. And either the woman had been there to shoot Warren or else Hallie had been set up, just as someone had attempted to do to her.
“What about you?” he asked. “You remember anything new about the person who drugged you?”
She had a long sip of coffee and shook her head. “But last night I called the company that installed my security system. They insist no one who works for them would have given out my code to disarm the system.”
“Even if they had, there’s the problem with the key,” Court pointed out. “There were no signs of forced entry.”
“No, but getting the key would have been easier than getting the security code. I don’t take my house key off the ring when I give it to the mechanic for an oil change.” Though she would do that in the future. “I also don’t know if the locksmith I used made a copy of the key and gave it to someone.”
She knew she was sounding a little paranoid, but Rayna needed to look at all angles here. Unfortunately, there were probably other times when maybe her purse, and therefore her keys, had been out of her sight long enough for someone to make a molding of the house key.
Yes, definitely paranoid.
He paused to have some coffee, as well. “Unless you forgot to lock the door. Maybe forgot to set the system, too.”
Rayna was shaking her head before he finished talking. “I don’t forget those things. Not after what happened with Bobby Joe. I know you don’t believe it, but he’s out there.”
No, Court didn’t believe it. She could see the doubt in his eyes. And maybe he was right.
Rayna huffed. “If Bobby Joe’s dead, I didn’t kill him, and that means if he’s not out there, then his killer is. That’s why I lock the doors. That’s why I have a security system.”
He made a sound that could have meant anything. “Why did you stay if you think Bobby Joe or his killer will come back?”
She heard more of those doubts, and while Rayna didn’t think she could make him understand, she tried anyway. “I wasn’t born into money. And, no, that’s not a dig about you and your family. It’s my clumsy way of saying that I can’t just pick up and leave even if that’s what I wanted to do.”
Which she didn’t. That house was her home where she’d been raised. Where once she’d been happy. She was hoping to reach that happy status again.
“Besides,” Rayna added a moment later, “training horses is something I love doing, and I’m fortunate enough that it pays the bills.” That along with the money she got from boarding horses from some folks who lived in town. The occasional riding lessons, too.
Court stared at her, and he obviously had something on his mind. “You never collected Bobby Joe’s life insurance money. It was for fifty grand, and he left it all to you.”
Yes, he had. Considering the big blowup Bobby Joe and she’d had just weeks before his disappearance, it surprised her that he hadn’t changed his beneficiary. But then if he’d truly wanted to set her up for his murder, he would have left her name on the policy.
“I have no intentions of touching that money,” she said.
Court stared at her, cursed under his breath, and he paused a long time. “I’m sorry about what happened yesterday when I tackled you like that. I was half crazy when I went out to your place.”
That was true, but it was a craziness she could understand. She didn’t get a chance to tell him that though because his phone rang, the sound shooting through the room. Her nerves were so frayed and raw that it caused her to gasp.
“It’s Thea,” he said when he glanced at the screen.
He knew the call could be important, and that was why Court answered it right away. He also put it on speaker.
“Your dad’s awake,” Thea stated, and with just those three words, Rayna could hear the relief in the deputy’s voice. “He’s still pretty groggy, but I thought you’d want to come and see him.”
“I do.” Court reached for his keys and his Stetson. He was already wearing his holster and weapon. But he stopped and looked at Rayna.
She could see the debate he was having. He didn’t want to leave her there alone, but Court probably didn’t want her near Warren, either. The debate didn’t last long though.
“Rayna will be with me,” he said to Thea. “What kind of security is in place at the hospital?”
