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LEANNE WOULD’VE HANDCUFFED the good-looking cowboy for taking a picture of the hangman’s rope herself if the sheriff was cooperating. Since he wasn’t and she figured the two were in the same boat with Sawmill, she’d let it slide and figure out a way to find out what he was so interested in.
The cowboy was hard to miss at six-four and he was using her as a distraction, which had her mind spinning with even more questions. Did the man, who was professional-athlete tall with a muscular build and grace to back it up, know Clara? His hair was a light brown with blond mixed in and his eyes were a serious blue. Under different circumstances, she’d have enjoyed the view. But her niece had been taken down from that tree...
Leanne’s heart nearly burst thinking about it. As difficult as it was, she had to keep her emotions in check and focused. Keeping a tight grip on her sentiments was proving more difficult than expected, and she’d put the sheriff on the defensive already because she wasn’t restraining those very feelings.
For the sake of finding Clara’s killer, she would do almost anything and that included swallowing her pride. The last thing she wanted to do was cut off her best source of information.
She softened her approach. “I apologize for getting off on the wrong foot, Sheriff.”
The sheriff nodded. “If you’ll excuse me, this case needs my full attention.”
Sheriff Clarence Sawmill was much older than Leanne and he had more experience. She was a solid detective, but her emotions were getting in the way and she was blowing it big-time. The sheriff was already on high alert and, from the looks of him, had been since his town had gone crazy following the news of Maverick Mike Butler’s death. Leanne had read about the famous murder that was still an open investigation and she worried that her niece’s case would get swept under the rug.
“In the spirit of cooperation, I’d like to offer my assistance,” Leanne said, hoping the softer tact would sway him. She didn’t care how she managed to get the sheriff’s agreement. Only that she got it.
“Again, with all due respect, we have this covered.” His tone was final as he walked her toward the temporary barricade that had been set up to cordon off the scene. He seemed to realize the cowboy wasn’t following when he stopped and turned. “Dalton.”
The cowboy seemed to be taking full advantage of the sheriff’s split attention. She needed to figure out his interest in the case.
“I’m coming, Sheriff,” he said, jogging to catch up.
Since Leanne never seemed to learn her lesson about fighting a losing battle—and face it, this battle was lost—she spun around to try yet another approach. It was the equivalent of trying to grasp a slippery rope while tumbling down a mountain, but she’d do anything to find out what had really happened. “I can call my SO and have more resources here than you’ll know what to do with. Surely, you wouldn’t want to—”
“I doubt the city of Dallas will throw personnel at a teen suicide investigation in my small town.” The sheriff’s brow creased.
“Is that how you’re classifying it?” Leanne balked. “What makes you so sure it’s not murder?”
“For one. There were no other footprints leading up to the ladder against the tree.” The sheriff took in a sharp breath as though to stem his words. No doubt, he hadn’t meant to share this much. “I’ll include all the details in my report.”
“How soon will that be available?” she asked, figuring she was already overstepping her bounds. Might as well go all in at this point.
“You’ll be one of the first to know.” The sheriff signaled for one of his deputies to escort her and the cowboy, Dalton, the last few steps to the barricade.
A cruiser parked and the passenger side door opened. Leanne started to make a beeline toward the vehicle because she had a sinking feeling her sister would be the one stepping out. She wasn’t ready to reveal her relationship with the victim but that was about to be done for her.
“Excuse me.” The sheriff grabbed her arm to stop her.
Leanne muttered a curse, wishing she could shield Bethany.
“I’m afraid you’re done here,” the sheriff warned.
“Not anymore.”
“This is my county and my business.” The sheriff’s voice fired a warning shot.
“That may be true, Sheriff. But that’s my sister, and I have every intention of staying by her side through this,” Leanne ground out. Technically, Bethany was Leanne’s half sister. “So I’m not going anywhere until I know she’s all right.”
Bethany had been fragile before and Leanne was worried the situation was about to get a whole lot worse.
“The victim was your niece?” It was the sheriff’s turn to balk.
Leanne nodded.
“Why didn’t you say something before?”
“Would you have allowed me to stay? To have access to your investigation?” she shot back.
The sheriff hung his head in response, and she was certain Dalton made a shocked noise. Everyone knew the answer to that question, and she’d been forced to tip her hand before she was ready.
Dalton turned and then made a move toward the barricade. She couldn’t let him disappear without finding out what he’d captured on his phone.
She touched his arm and fireworks scorched her fingers.
Ignoring the heat pulsing between them, she said, “Please, stay.”
“What happened to my baby?” Bethany’s legs folded and a deputy caught her as she slumped against the cruiser. Leanne bolted toward her sister as her stomach braided.
Even with the best of intentions, Bethany would only hurt Clara’s case.
Chapter Two (#u01a94f79-530d-52fa-9732-ae0cb5779ad9)
“Please, sit down,” Sheriff Sawmill instructed, pointing to one of two small-scale leather chairs opposite his mahogany desk. He glanced toward Dalton, who was helping Bethany walk. “I thought I made my position clear at the scene, Dalton.”
“My presence was requested, Sheriff,” he responded. When she’d almost fainted a second time, he’d been there to scoop her head up before it pounded gravel.
“I asked him here, sir,” the detective interjected. “I’ll be sticking around the area for a few days and my sister is in no condition to offer assistance. I needed someone local to the area to give advice on the best place to eat and stay.”
“My office would be more than happy to make recommendations.” Sawmill stared at Dalton a few seconds too long before blowing out a breath and focusing on the victim’s mother.
To Dalton’s thinking, Bethany Schmidt didn’t look anything like her sister. Her shoulder-length hair was stringy and mousy-brown. Her red-rimmed eyes were a darker shade, a contrast to the honey-colored hue of the detective’s. Bethany’s sallow cheeks and willowy frame made her look fragile. She carried herself with her shoulders slumped forward and the bags under her eyes outlined the fact that she’d been worried long before today. Grief shrouded her, which he understood given the circumstances, and this much grief could change a person’s physical appearance. He’d seen that almost instantly with Alexandria’s parents.
His heart went out to her, knowing full well how difficult it was to lose someone and yet how much worse it must be when it was her child. Bethany had seemed too distraught to say a whole lot on the ride over, so he’d offered her a sympathetic shoulder.
The detective from Dallas hadn’t said much on the ride over, either, and Dalton figured she didn’t want to upset her sister by talking about the case. Besides, he could almost see the pins firing in her brain, as she must’ve been cycling through every possible scenario. He’d watched from his back seat view.
Alexandria’s mother had pushed him away and it felt right to be able to offer comfort to someone who was living out what had to be their worst version of hell.
“First of all, I’m deeply sorry for your loss, ma’am,” Sheriff Sawmill began. He sat down and clasped his hands, placing them on top of his massive desk, which was covered in files. An executive chair was tucked into the opposite side. The sheriff’s office was large, simple. There were two flags on poles standing sentinel, flanking the governor’s picture. In the adjacent space, a sofa and table upon which stood a statue of a bull rider atop a bronze bull that had been commissioned by Dalton’s father. Maverick Mike had been a generous man and had given Sawmill the gift after he’d gone above and beyond the call of duty in order to stop a gang of poachers. The heroics had cost Sawmill a bullet in the shoulder.
There was a half-empty packet of Zantac next to a stack of files. Dalton had been inside this room too often for his taste in the past few months. Activity down the hall had slowed since the last time he had been here. The temporary room set up for volunteers to take calls about leads in the Mav’s case was still in the conference room at the mouth of the hallway, but there were fewer phone calls now and leads had all but dried up.
Bethany sniffled, clutching a bundle of tissues in a white-knuckle grip.
Dalton kept to the back of the room, near the door.
“I apologize again for asking you to give a statement so soon. Anything you can tell us might help close the investigation.” Dalton noticed that Sawmill didn’t mention the word murder.Was he being careful not to set false expectations that he would treat this as anything other than a suicide?
The detective noticed it, too. She sat up a little straighter and her shoulders tensed. Her gaze was locked on Sawmill like she was a student studying for final exams.
“I’ll help in any way I can.” Bethany’s weak voice barely carried through the room in between sobs. Helping her walk into the coroner’s office to verify what they’d already known at the scene had been right up there with attending Alexandria’s funeral. Too many memories crashed down on Dalton. Memories he’d suppressed for fourteen years. Memories he had every intention of stuffing down deep before they brought him to his knees. His anger wouldn’t help find answers. Finding the truth was all that mattered now.
“Can you confirm the deceased’s name is Clara Robinson?” His voice remained steady.
“Yes.” It seemed to take great effort to get the word out.
“I identified the body at the scene, Sheriff,” Leanne interjected and the tension in Sawmill’s face heightened. It was just a flash before he recovered, but Dalton knew it meant he’d never cooperate willingly with the Dallas detective. That also made her of no use to Dalton.
“And your full name is?” Sawmill continued.
“Bethany Ann Schmidt,” she supplied before looking up.
“Okay. Mrs. Schmidt, can you describe your relationship with your daughter?” the sheriff continued.
“It was all right. I guess. I mean, she’s...was...a teenager. We talked as much as any mother and her seventeen-year-old can.” Bethany shrugged as if anything other than a complicated relationship would require skills no one could possibly have.
Dalton couldn’t speak on authority but he picked up on the tension between the detective and her sister.
“How were the two of you getting along lately?” Sawmill leaned forward.
“Okay, I guess,” she responded with another shrug.
“Had you been in any disagreements recently?” he asked. Dalton couldn’t help but remember a very different line of questioning when he was in the interview room with the sheriff. Another shot of anger burst through his chest, and he had to take a slow deep breath to try to counter the damage. The sheriff had spent too much time focused on the wrong person back then and because of it, Alexandria’s killer still walked the streets. He’d wondered if the man had ended up in jail for another crime or died, considering how quiet life had become until recently in Cattle Barge. If he’d been in jail, the timing of another similar murder could be explained by a release.
“No. Not us. Nothing lately. I mean, we argued over her helping out more around the house yesterday. Her little brother is a handful and she barely lifts a finger,” Bethany said on an exacerbated sigh.
Again, Leanne stiffened but this time it happened when her sister mentioned the boy.
“How old is her brother?” Sawmill continued.
“Hampton will be four years old in two weeks,” Bethany supplied before taking a few gulps of air and then picking back up on the conversation thread. “And we didn’t have a knock-down-drag-out or anything. It was more like me reminding her to help pick up toys and her rolling her eyes for the hundredth time. I swear that girl communicated more with her eyes than her mouth.”
The sheriff nodded like he understood and then waited for her to go on, hands clasped on his desk.
“We got along okay other than that,” Bethany said through sniffles.
Based on Leanne’s reaction so far, she didn’t agree. Questions rolled around in Dalton’s mind. Was Bethany telling the truth about her relationship with her daughter? Why was Leanne so tense? Was she expecting her sister to drop a bomb at any minute? Or was it fear? Was she afraid that her sister would say something wrong?
Leanne had secrets. Dalton intended to find out what they were, because if he could uncover any connection between this and Alexandria’s murder he might be able to bring peace to her family. Only this time, he wouldn’t involve the sheriff. Sawmill had let Dalton down all those years ago, still was with his father’s murder investigation, and he didn’t trust the man to do his job.
“How did the two siblings respond to each other?” Sawmill asked.
“About the same as any, I guess.” Bethany shrugged again. There was a note of hopelessness in her voice. “Hampton gets into her stuff and she goes crazy. My Clara is—” she shot a glance toward the sheriff “—was particular about all her belongings being right where she left them. She didn’t like anyone getting into her stuff and that caused a lot of friction in the house.”
“Between you and her?” the sheriff asked.
“No. I expected it to some degree. She was used to being the only child for most of her life and then suddenly she was not. She had all my attention before I met Gary.” She flashed her eyes at the sheriff. “My husband. She had a hard time with me being in a relationship and then Hampton came along quicker than we expected.” Bethany blew her nose and then took in a deep breath. “So, we decided to get married. Clara and me weren’t as close after that. I chalked it up to hormones. She was a normal teenager and she was thirteen when Gary and me tied the knot.”
Leanne shifted in her seat as though she couldn’t get comfortable. Her movements were subtle. If Dalton hadn’t been watching, he might’ve missed them. What was she holding back? Something was making her uncomfortable and she seemed a skilled-enough investigator to know to cover her physical reaction as best she could.
“How did your husband get along with your daughter?” Sawmill picked up a packet of Zantac.
“Clara didn’t like him much.” Bethany shrank a little more into her seat, a helpless look wrinkling her forehead. “Like I said, I spoiled her with my attention before we met.”
Leanne’s fingernails might leave marks in that chair if she gripped it any tighter.
“Those two were fire and gasoline from the get-go,” Bethany added.
“Which wasn’t Clara’s fault,” Leanne interjected hotly. “Gary yelled at Clara all the time and for no good reason.”
* * *
LEANNE FUMED. SHE shouldn’t have confirmed that Gary and Clara didn’t get along. Watching her half sister, whom she loved but would never understand, defend Gary over her own daughter lit the wick that caused an explosion she couldn’t contain.
The sheriff’s brow arched. He was looking for evidence that this was a suicide and Leanne might’ve just handed it to him with her outburst. She bit back a curse, wishing she’d inherited more of her mother’s ability to stay calm in a crisis. In times like these, she missed her even more than usual.
Leanne could feel the cowboy’s eyes on her, and there came a flitter of attraction that was out of line. Leanne had no plans to let him out of her sight until she knew what he’d captured with his phone, magnetism or not.
“The reason Clara didn’t get along with Gary is that he treated her more like a servant than a daughter,” Leanne said as calmly as she could. Someone had to stand up for the girl.
“That’s not true.” Indignant shoulders raised on Bethany like shackles on a scared or angry animal.
“A seventeen-year-old girl shouldn’t have more responsibilities around the house than her mother.” There. Leanne had said it. The truth was out.
Bethany gasped in what sounded like complete horror and guilt knifed Leanne. She didn’t want to upset her half sister, but Clara wasn’t around any longer to defend herself. Besides, the sheriff was getting the wrong picture. Clara wasn’t a mixed-up hormonal teenager who fought with her stepfather and then killed herself.
“Is that the real reason you came to pick her up?” Bethany blurted out.
More of the truth was about to come out, so Leanne may as well come clean. She turned her attention to the sheriff, ignoring the glare her sister was giving her. Another pang of guilt hit. Leanne didn’t want to cause her sister any more pain and losing a daughter was up there with the worst anyone could experience. But. And it was a big but.She wouldn’t allow her niece’s murder to be classified as a suicide when it wasn’t.
Or to let a killer walk around scot-free.
Nothing would ever be gained from skirting what had really happened, and a small part of Leanne couldn’t help but wonder if Bethany was somehow relieved that Clara was out of the way. Not necessarily that her daughter was gone, but that she wouldn’t have to fight with Gary anymore over doing the right thing for Clara.
“I came down here to pick my niece up so she could live with me,” Leanne explained.
“What do you mean live?I thought she was just going to stay with you a couple of weeks until I could smooth things over with Gary during Christmas break. Give the two of them some breathing room.” The hurt in Bethany’s tone wounded Leanne.
She turned to her sister. “I’m sorry you have to find out like this. But I know for a fact that Clara wouldn’t have done this to herself, and if we aren’t honest with the sheriff, none of us will ever know the truth about what happened.”
“What good would that do now?” Bethany shot back with the most fire Leanne had ever seen in her sister’s eyes. At least there was some spark there when all too often her sister looked dead since marrying Gary. “It won’t bring her back.” Her voice rose to a near-hysterical pitch. “Who cares why she’s gone. She’s gone.”
Bethany slumped forward in her seat and Leanne reached over to comfort her. Her sister drew away from her as though she was a rattlesnake ready to strike.
The sheriff’s gaze narrowed in on her. He didn’t seem to like the fact that Leanne had been withholding information. She’d been on the other side of that desk and could appreciate his position. She couldn’t, however, allow this farce to go on. Clara had been murdered.
“What really happened, Detective West?” The sheriff’s dark tone said he wasn’t impressed.
