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“All right,” he finally said. “Let’s talk about the night your partner was shot and why you quit the force after that.”
“I’d rather not.”
He propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I don’t think you have a choice, Sophie. We have to start somewhere and that’s as good a place as any. Did you receive any death threats after that incident?”
“Police officers are always being threatened,” she insisted. “Almost nobody follows through.”
“Maybe this guy is the exception. Criminals can be very vindictive.”
The truth stuck in her throat. Was it possible Wes’s brother had made good on his wild threats and come after her at this late date? Why now and not sooner? Part of her mind wanted to brush away suspicion while another part felt as if the upcoming anniversary of Wes’s death might hold the answer. To voice that, however, was repugnant. The poor man and his family had suffered enough without blaming them needlessly and causing more pain.
Ryder had been studying her. “I want you to make a list of possible suspects. Don’t leave anybody out no matter how innocent you think they may be. Understand?”
She nodded as she noted his darkening mood and resigned herself to complying. “I’ll do it, but I don’t think you realize how difficult it will be for me.”
As soon as the words left her mouth she knew she’d inadvertently been insensitive again.
Ryder’s demeanor changed in a heartbeat. His eyes flashed, his jaw clamped and he stood so rapidly he almost knocked his chair over backward. Even before he said a word Sophie knew he was angry.
“Difficult?” he began. “You want to know what’s difficult? Looking at my wife’s picture posted with Carrie’s other victims and remembering how blind I was to the evil that was right under my nose every day. That’s difficult.”
She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, how sympathetic, but she knew better than to offer platitudes when he was upset so she clasped her hands around her coffee mug and remained silent. In seconds he’d turned and stormed out the door.
Ryder was absolutely right. His loss was worse than hers in many ways. Not only had he lost his beloved Melanie and been left to raise their baby alone, he blamed himself for not considering his wife’s killer could be a colleague. Carrie had presented such a mild-mannered facade they’d all been fooled.
As Sophie started to clear the table she recalled Ryder’s outburst and froze in place. He’d raised his voice again. And sounded furious. So why wasn’t she shaking like a leaf?
A glance toward the closed door allowed her to envision him slamming it behind him. No panic ensued. As a matter of fact, there were surprisingly warm and tender feelings flowing over and through her.
She closed her eyes and leaned on the table with both hands. Something momentous had happened tonight and it had nothing to do with snakes, at least not directly.
The emotional healing she had prayed for since she was a child had apparently begun. The scary question was, Why?
An even more disquieting answer came in the form of the admirable chief of police whose raised voice no longer set her nerves on edge. Why not? What had made the difference?
Phoenix came out from under the table and bumped her leg, wagging his tail and panting as he looked up expectantly. That gave Sophie her answer. She wasn’t afraid of Ryder for the same reason Phoenix had accepted her.
Trust. Plain, old, heartfelt trust.
And to nurture those feelings between herself and the chief she’d eventually have to break down and name her deceased partner’s disruptive brother Stan as one of her suspects.
She couldn’t expect Ryder to reflect her growing sense of trust if she weren’t totally honest with him.
Starting immediately.
A shiver sang up her spine and prickled at the nape of her neck. When Wes had died she’d blamed herself even more than Stan had blamed her, so his tirade at the grave site had seemed fitting.
In retrospect, it had been a lot worse than she’d realized. It wasn’t merely his voice, because the threat had been whispered. It was his eyes.
There had been hate sizzling in his gaze. Hate and murderous fury. The kind that lasted. Simmered. And sometimes boiled over.
FOUR (#ulink_47f121c5-bafe-52b3-a79e-01a69430d908)
As soon as Ryder left Sophie he headed straight for Mrs. Mullins’s home to pick up Lily. When he arrived at the small, Spanish-style house, he lingered outside in his cruiser long enough to regain the strong self-control on which he prided himself. A man in command could not afford to show anger or weakness or any other emotion that would be detrimental to his position. More importantly, he didn’t want to upset his little Lily.
He found her in the living room, playing with Opal’s cats and telling them all about her wonderful dog. Maybe it was time to retire Titus. Yes, he got very excited when Ryder strapped on his official K-9 harness or vest but Sophie was right. He also tired easily.
Opal joined him in the archway to the living room when he paused to listen to the involved tale Lily was telling.
“She’s been like this ever since you dropped her off,” the middle-aged woman said. “What in the world did you tell her? She keeps warning my cats to look out for bad snakes.”
“We had a call tonight, over at the head trainer’s place. She was shooting snakes.”
“The slithery kind or the two-legged kind?”
“Slithery. She just about emptied her gun until she remembered about the human kind of snake and saved a shot or two. Maybe now she’ll carry an extra clip.”
Opal smiled, brown eyes twinkling, and patted the waist of her jeans. “I keep mine on an empty chamber, for safety. Staying alert is important for old ladies who live alone, particularly when there’s so much trouble in town. Besides, I have your girl to think of.”
“Why do you think I trust you with Lily?” Ryder asked, returning her smile. “Anybody who was an MP is bound to be a good, safe guard.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“You never forget,” he countered. “It’s like riding a bicycle. The programming sticks in your mind.”
“And muscle memory.” Opal’s grin spread. “Wanna see me fieldstrip a .45 auto blindfolded?”
“Maybe later.” Ryder eyed his child. “I promised the princess some ice cream.”
“You spoil her.”
“And love every minute of it,” he said.
That made Opal chuckle. “Wait until she’s a teenager, and then tell me you feel the same way.”
He sobered. “I’m not in any hurry.”
Her touch on his arm was gentle, motherly. “You should think about a mama for her, you know. Every girl needs a mother, particularly as she gets older.”
Ryder chose to turn the serious moment into a joke and arched an eyebrow. “Are you applying for the job?”
“Hah! I sure would if I was about thirty years younger. Of course, if you like your ladies real mature...” Opal patted her short cropped hair with one hand and rested the other on her hip.
“I’ll keep you in mind,” Ryder promised. “I know you can cook.”
“Yup. And I shoot straight, too.”
“Yeah.” His eyes were on Lily. “I just wish this was a peaceful little town again. Even after losing Melanie it seemed relatively safe here. Everybody thought her murder was an isolated incident for a long time.”
Opal sighed. “I know what you mean. How were we to know those other two fellas were victims, too? How’d that Carrie person choose ’em in the first place?”
“Because they reminded her of me,” he said quietly. “I told you she killed Melanie out of jealousy. After that, she apparently fixated on a rookie officer who had light-colored hair like mine. When Mike Riverton didn’t ask her for a date to the Police Dance two years ago she made his death look like an accident by pushing him down stairs. The following year, Brian Miller ignored her too and ended up dying in a fire when his house went up in flames.”
“You never told me all that before.”
Ryder nodded. “We held back details about the case and Carrie’s motive to keep from causing a panic. Besides, Veronica Earnshaw didn’t fit the victim profile.”
Staring at him earnestly, the older woman said, “No, but Carrie might have thought you were interested in her.”
“We can’t rule it out,” Ryder told her. “That’s a big reason why I don’t dare show favoritism to any woman. Not until Carrie’s caught and jailed.”
“Meaning, no dating.” Opal turned to gaze fondly at Lily. “That’s too bad.”
“It’s more than just dating. It’s what goes on at work, too. If Carrie even imagines I’m spending too much time with another woman, that woman will be in danger.” Like Sophie has been.
He shivered, then pulled himself together and banished destructive thoughts as he called out to his daughter. “Time to go, Lily. If we don’t get there before the Cactus Café closes, we’ll have to buy our ice cream at the mini mart.”
She proceeded to tell each cat goodbye before getting to her feet. “They want to go, too, Daddy.”
“Miss Opal doesn’t want them outside,” he countered.
“’Cause of the snakes, huh?”
“Right. And traffic and coyotes and all kinds of dangers. They were raised inside. This is what they know.”
“But you could protect them, Daddy. You can do anything,” Lily said, gazing up at him in adoration.
“I wish I could.” Ryder was thinking back to the night he’d been too caught up in his job to pick up his wife from town. That was the night Melanie had been ambushed.
In Ryder’s mind, no matter who had actually shot and killed her, part of the blame belonged to him. He’d be atoning for the rest of his life.
Grasping Lily’s hand and holding tight he led her to the door, then paused to peer out into the yard. Nobody, Carrie Dunleavy included, was ever going to take someone he loved from him again. Not while he still had breath in his body.
And after that? He set his jaw. He knew he should trust God in all things, even the life of his darling Lily, but he kept remembering Melanie. They had believed together that the Lord had blessed their marriage, so why had He allowed her to be taken?
An overwhelming sense of doom enveloped him. He scooped his daughter into his arms, held her tight and jogged to the patrol car. This must be the way Sophie had felt when she’d imagined a menace besides the snakes, he concluded. Instinct for self-preservation had kicked in and she’d reacted to it on a basic level.
One thing was clear. Some gut feelings were God-given and had better be heeded. To ignore them was not only foolish, it was akin to laughing in the face of his heavenly Father.
“Forgive me, Lord,” Ryder whispered as he fastened Lily in the backseat. A scripture verse popped into his head. “Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.”
No lightning bolts shot down from heaven. No angels sang. But Ryder was calmer, stronger, more self-assured as he circled to the driver’s side of the car. The Desert Valley police were going to catch whoever had been threatening Sophie, whether it turned out to be Carrie or not. As chief, he would see to it.
Only one thing took priority. The innocent little girl in the backseat. She always would.
* * *
Nervous despite her dog and reloaded pistol, Sophie had trouble sleeping. It didn’t help that Phoenix hogged the bed. She shoved him over and threw back the covers as soon as the sun began to peek over the top of the red rock horizon. Morning was usually one of her favorite times in the desert, with fresh, cooler air and pristine silence.
Today, however, she had enthusiastic company. Phoenix spun in circles at her feet and raced from the room as soon as her bare feet touched the floor. “Okay, okay. I’m coming.”
Not knowing how well he was trained, she figured it would be smart to slip some clothes on and let him out quickly. Boots didn’t exactly go with cargo shorts but she wasn’t letting her dog set foot in the backyard until she was sure there were no live snakes left.
She snapped a leash on his collar, tucked her gun into one of the pockets on the shorts and opened the back door. Except for remnants of last night’s carnage, the place looked deserted. Sophie hesitated. There was no guarantee that her front yard was clear, either, but at least it wasn’t messy, so she opted to reverse direction and lead Phoenix out that way instead of turning him loose inside the fenced area.
While he sniffed and wandered, unconcerned and therefore safe, Sophie checked the ground around the sides of her house. During her nocturnal unrest she’d reasoned that she’d been imagining hidden menaces so it was a shock to come upon wadded-up gum wrappers in the very place where she’d thought she’d sensed danger lurking.
“Oh, my...”
Her reaction was strong enough to cause the dog to take up a defensive position with his side pressed to her leg and hackles raised.
She laid a comforting hand on his head. “Good boy. I think we’re all right now but I’m going to call this in.”
Backing off, she led Phoenix away in order to keep from contaminating possible clues. As soon as she started to dial 911 she thought better of it. The last thing she needed was to cause a full-blown police response when the clues might mean nothing, and she sure didn’t want to phone James Harrison and ask for his bloodhound when he was romantically involved with Canyon County Gazette reporter Madison Coles who would be likely to want to put her in the news. Sophie then thought about summoning Whitney but she was a single mother with a baby to take care of and it was barely dawn.
“Face it,” Sophie muttered, disgusted with herself. “You aren’t fooling anybody. You want to call Ryder.”
He also had a child, but Lily was old enough to bring along if he chose. Besides, it would be advantageous to introduce Phoenix to Lily on neutral ground.
“Right. I need to be sure the dog likes kids,” Sophie told herself, immediately recognizing the excuse for what it was. Lame. However, that was not enough to keep her from calling him at home.
Instead of making small talk, Sophie began with, “I found some clues—chewing gum papers and foil—next to my house. I’m pretty sure they weren’t there before.”
“I take it this is Sophie.”
“Of course it is. I told you I was being watched. Suppose there’s DNA on the gum wrappers? I didn’t stop to see if there was any old gum lying around. I didn’t touch a thing and I kept the dog back, too.”
“Good for you.”
“Look, do you want me to call somebody else? I don’t particularly want a bunch of red lights and sirens charging over here again, not after the uproar last night. Which reminds me. Didn’t you say you’d come check the yard this morning? How is that any different than coming by now?”
“Well, for one thing Lily wouldn’t be with me later.”
Sophie suddenly saw his concerns. “You’re afraid to bring her here?”
He huffed. “I’m afraid to let her out of my sight, period.”
“I understand. Now that I think about it, I know I’ve noticed that brand of gum at either the police station or training center. I just can’t place exactly where. I could pick up the evidence and keep it clean but it wouldn’t be admissible in court since I’m no longer an officer of the law.”
Ryder yawned. “What are you asking me to do?”
“Come and get it.”
“I have minions for that.”
Sophie could tell he was chuckling and was not amused. “I was trying to keep from making a big fuss about it and getting everybody all riled up. You want to keep the good citizens of Desert Valley calm, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Another yawn. “Okay. Leave your evidence alone and keep the dog from getting into it. I’ll get dressed and be there as soon as I can.”
