The pain in her expression and voice twisted Sean’s gut. From the pictures of Jack’s apartment, his little brother had been tortured, too. He wanted to know why. After two years of searching for answers, Sean hadn’t come close to solving his death, nor Samuel Madison’s.
“I couldn’t even box up Samuel’s possessions. Mama took care of that while I was trying to act like everything was all right for Camy’s and Sammy’s sakes and trying to keep up with two toddlers who didn’t understand where their daddy was.” She stared at her half-eaten lasagna for a long moment then lifted her head, looking right at him. “And now someone returned my husband’s wedding ring. It doesn’t make any sense. Why now?”
“If I knew that, I could figure out who killed him.”
“I want justice for my husband, but dragging it all up again also brings pain.”
“I know. I feel the same way about my younger brother.” Sean finished the last bite of his lasagna. “I need to leave, but if you think of anything more I should know, please call me. And if you receive another threat, call immediately.”
Aubrey rose and stacked his empty plate on hers. “I will. Should I notify the local police?”
He brought their glasses to the sink. “Yes, and the sheriff’s office. The guards at the courthouse need to be aware of what happened. I’ll be talking with the police chief and the sheriff about the incident. Tomorrow I’ll go look at the security tapes to see if there’s anyone acting suspicious. Also, I’ll check at Sweet Haven. It’ll give me a good reason to have a chocolate ice-cream cone. I might just have a triple-dip one. I haven’t been there for months, not like someone I know.” He grinned, winked and picked up his cowboy hat then set it on his head.
Aubrey accompanied him to the entry hall. “I appreciate you coming over. I wasn’t sure what I should do.”
He stepped out onto the porch and turned back to her. “Ma’am, it’s my pleasure to help you.” He tipped his cowboy hat then left her.
When he slid behind the steering wheel, he swung his attention to the front door. Aubrey still stood there, her petite body framed in the entrance. She had a reputation of being a tough judge, but at the moment there was nothing tough about her. Her vulnerability drew him to her.
As he drove away, he called the police chief. “Juan, I need a police car posted outside Judge Aubrey Madison’s house.”
“Why?”
Sean explained what had happened. “I’m looking into this threat, but with the trial she’s overseeing, she should have someone escort her to and from the courthouse as a precaution for the time being.”
“I’ll have one out there right away.”
“Thanks, Juan. I’ll keep you up-to-date on what I find out.”
“But you don’t have a good feeling about this?”
“No.” He thought about the recent cartel violence in the past few months. He was afraid Aubrey was caught up in the middle of what was going down. Bento Villa was the right-hand man for the head of the Coastal Cartel and like a son to Sanchez, who ran the whole organization from Mexico. Now the man was in jail and on trial for murder. And her husband’s murder had no doubt been carried out by a cartel member or possibly Villa, a hands-on leader, according to his informant.
* * *
Saturday morning before everyone else was up, Aubrey made another cup of tea and sat at the table, staring out into the backyard at the bright sunlit day. She’d gone through the house and opened all the blinds over the windows on the sides and rear of the house. She kept the front ones closed because there was a patrol car parked in her driveway.
When Sean called her last night to tell her about the police officer assigned to guard her, she’d had mixed feelings. Sammy had told her on a number of occasions that he was going to be a police officer when he grew up—just like his daddy. Having a police officer around would keep that dream in the foreground for Sammy. She didn’t want that for her son. She’d lost her husband to the job, and she didn’t want to lose anyone else to it. She’d even prayed for the Lord to change his mind before he was an adult.
With this new trial, she didn’t see any way around the protection. It had been a good move to have a police presence at her house to discourage anyone who wanted to do her harm. But she didn’t want Sammy to know she could be in danger.
“There’s police outside.” Sammy ran into the kitchen, still in his pajamas, with the biggest smile on his face. “Can I go out and say hi?”
“No. You’re in your pj’s.” Before she could say anything else, her son whirled around and raced out of the kitchen.
Aubrey started to go after him in case he decided to ignore what she said, but the sound of him stomping up the staircase stopped her. Most likely he was going upstairs to get dressed. She took a sip of tea then stood. Knowing Sammy, she headed for the entry hall and leaned back against the front door, arms crossed over her chest. Aubrey had left the alarm system on, and she didn’t want her son to trigger it if he tried to sneak outside. Both her mother and daughter were still sleeping. And as expected, he came down the steps, wearing shorts, a T-shirt and cowboy boots.
He didn’t notice her until she asked, “Where are you going?”
“To see if Brad can play.”
Sure, with a stop at the police car. “It’s too early, and you haven’t had breakfast.”
Sammy plopped down on the last step and frowned.
There was no way to hide the fact that a patrol car would be there for the time being. She didn’t want to scare her son, but she couldn’t ignore that she was being protected. “Tell you what. Let’s both go eat a bowl of cereal, and then I’ll get dressed and we’ll go out front to say hi to the police officer.”
Sammy jumped to his feet and ran toward the kitchen. Aubrey followed at a sedate pace, wishing she had her son’s energy.
It was an hour later before Aubrey opened the front door and her two kids raced outside and down the porch steps. She’d called the police to let the patrol officer know her kids wanted to meet him. She’d also received a text from Sean saying he was coming by, and he should be here soon. Heat suffused her face when she thought about the extra care she’d gone to when he texted her about seeing her today. She’d hurried back up the stairs and changed into a new pair of jeans and a white blouse instead of sweatpants and an old T-shirt.
While her twins sat in the front seat of the patrol car, the officer told them about the different things he did as a law enforcement officer. They got to turn on the red lights, but the young man stopped short of sounding the siren.
So intent on her children, she didn’t realize that Sean had parked along the curb and approached her until he said in a soft voice right behind her, “One day I’ll let them try the siren in my car.”
Her heartbeat tripled its rate, leaving Aubrey sucking in shallow breaths. With a laptop bag slung over his shoulder, Sean moved to her side while the officer showed her kids the equipment in the trunk. Sammy was smiling from ear to ear while Camy began looking bored. Aubrey turned toward Sean. “Did you find out who put the rat in my car?”
“Not who, but at least where he did it, I believe. I went through all the surveillance tapes available last night and this morning. After talking to you, I left here and went to the courthouse to look at its surveillance tapes. Nothing happened in its parking lot that I could tell, but your vehicle was parked in a blind spot at Sweet Haven. I went by the ice-cream parlor first thing this morning. Their security cameras were focused on the front and back doors and inside the place, not the parking lot. They didn’t show anything unusual. I’ve obtained traffic cam footage around the time you went to Sweet Haven and would like you to view it with me. The rat must have been placed in your trunk during the twenty minutes you were inside the ice-cream parlor. Did you notice a car following you when you left at lunchtime yesterday?”
“No, but I have to confess—” she paused, hating
to admit she’d been careless “—I wasn’t paying attention. I was relishing getting away from the courthouse for an hour. I’ve felt so confined since the Villa trial started.”
“For a good reason. Bento Villa is high up in the Coastal Cartel and its drug ring component.”
“He sure isn’t cooperating with the prosecution. He was offered a good deal in exchange for information on the cartel. He refused it. Not that I thought he would take a deal.” Thinking about the threat now hanging over her, she approached the police officer. “Sammy and Camy, it’s time to go back inside. What do you say to Officer Carter?”
“Thank you,” Sammy said in a loud voice that half the neighborhood probably heard, while Camy mumbled her thanks.
“I appreciate you doing this,” Aubrey said then tried to corral her two children toward the front porch. Finally Sammy glued himself to Sean while Camy took Aubrey’s hand and practically dragged her toward the house.
“Is your car like that?” Sammy asked Sean, slowing his pace.
Sean patted Sammy’s shoulder and kept walking right behind Aubrey. “Similar.”
Her son pointed to the top of Sean’s SUV. “Where’s your siren?”
“Inside the vehicle. I stick it on top if I need to.”
At the bottom of the steps, Sammy’s forehead winkled. “But no one will know you’re a policeman.”
Sean chuckled and proceeded up the steps to the porch. “Sometimes I don’t want them to know.”
Aubrey held the front door open. “Hurry up, Sammy, or the mosquitoes will invade the house. You know how much they love biting me.”
“Me, too,” Camy said and hurried into the house and down the hall toward the kitchen.
When everyone was inside, Aubrey shut the door and locked it. Her son remained next to Sean. “Sammy, I need to talk to him. Grandma is fixing breakfast.”
He stuck out his bottom lip. “I already had cereal.”
“That was to tide you over until Grandma got up to fix our big breakfast we have on Saturday as a family.” Her mother also did it Sunday before church. She drew in a deep breath. “It smells like pancakes, probably chocolate chip.”
Sammy took off for the kitchen.
“He has two speeds, fast or slow. Usually with no in between.” Aubrey gestured toward her office. “We can talk in here.”
Inside the room, she closed the door. “I appreciate your quick response on this. Anything I can do to help, I will. Let’s look at the traffic cam footage. Maybe it’ll jog my memory.”
“I hope so.” He made his way to the couch and sat. After he took out his laptop, she joined him on the love seat. Sitting next to him, only inches away, caused her heart to beat faster. A faint musky scent wafted to her as she tried to focus on the video.
“I’m starting when you left the courthouse, and we’ll follow your trip as best as we can, since Port Bliss only has traffic cams in the downtown area and a few roads in and out of town.”
The sight of a white sedan a couple of cars behind her while she drove from the clothing store to Sweet Haven nagged at her mind. When she drove into the parking lot on the side of the ice-cream parlor, the white car passed on by, not even slowing down. For the next twenty minutes, she kept expecting to see it, but she didn’t.
“I thought for a moment the person in the white sedan might be following me, but it kept going.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because...” Her voice faded as she searched her mind, trying to remember why it had bothered her. Other cars had been behind her. Why that one?
Because the white car had been in the parking lot at the clothing store and pulled out into traffic when she left the shop—it was the only vehicle that started following her from there.
THREE
Sean rewound the video footage, paused it and zoomed in on the white vehicle, trying to make out the license plate. The last three numbers were 249, but he couldn’t make out the first part of it. “Is there something that makes you suspicious of that car?”
Aubrey sat back on the couch. “When I saw it on the screen, it provoked a memory. I don’t remember seeing it when it was behind me. It was at least six cars back and hidden from my view in the rearview mirror. But when I left the parking lot at the clothing store, that white car pulled into it. The person must have turned around fast to be behind me when I went to Sweet Haven.”
“Did you see the driver?”
“I glanced for maybe a second or two in that direction. The glass was tinted too dark to make out the driver.”
“White is the most common color for a vehicle. What makes you think the one in the parking lot is the same car on this footage?”
“The driver’s-side back fender has a dent in it.” Aubrey leaned forward and tapped the computer screen. “There.”
Sean focused onto the area she indicated. “It’s a Chevy Malibu. So the driver must have turned around in the clothing store parking lot as you said and quickly pulled back out into the traffic. I’ll follow up on this and see who owns the car.”
She smiled. “I’m glad you could tell what make it was, because all I saw was a white car.”
He chuckled. “It’s a man thing.” He punched the key to forward the video. “He didn’t park near the Sweet Haven Parlor.”
“But he could have driven around to the street behind Sweet Haven and parked there, then made his way to where my car was. The lot was almost full. I parked at the back in the last space.”
“There are a lot of ice-cream lovers in Port Bliss.” Sean closed his laptop and turned slightly toward her—only inches separated them. A blush tinted her cheeks pink. The dark brown—almost black—in her eyes transfixed him for a long moment.
Finally she slid her gaze away. “Sweet Haven also has sandwiches for the lunchtime crowd.”
Until that moment, he hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. He inhaled deeply and rose. “I’ll keep you updated on what I find.”
“What about the police officer outside? How long is he staying?”
“If you go somewhere, an officer will follow you while another one will remain at your house.”
“What do I say to Sammy, who’ll ask me a ton of questions about the officer being around?”
“That you’re an important part of a case.”
“What case?”
“A secret one? Kids love secrets.”
“Do you have children?”
“No. I’m not married.” He had been once, but that ended the day he walked in on his wife with another man. He’d wanted to try to work it out, but she didn’t. They had gotten married too young, not even a full year after high school, where they had dated for their junior and senior years. She changed a lot, but so did he. He hadn’t realized how much until that moment of finding her with a man in their house.
“Once I tell Sammy it’s a secret, I’ll never have any peace. He’ll want to know every detail.”
He towered over Aubrey, still sitting on the couch. “Then simply tell him...” Sean couldn’t think of anything to say. “I have two nephews and one niece but haven’t seen them as much as I used to when I lived in Amarillo. You’ll figure something out.”
“I’m glad you have so much confidence in me.” Her gaze latched onto his.
And he couldn’t look away. There was something about her that had kept him up a good part of last night viewing the courthouse surveillance tapes and the traffic cams all around the places she went yesterday. Then early this morning, he got up and called the owner of Sweet Haven Parlor about their video footage. The man agreed to meet Sean at his store. He was there before the owner arrived. It gave him an opportunity to look around the building and parking lot next to it.
Breaking eye contact, he stepped back, and in response to her last comment, he said, “Your reputation as a judge is excellent. Tough but fair
.”
“Some think those two words are opposites.” She stood and smiled. “But thank you. Coming from a law enforcement officer, your words mean a lot to me.”
The temperature in the room seemed to rise. He moved back another couple of feet and bumped into the chair across from the couch, then tipped his hat. “I’ll keep you informed. ’Bye.” He started for the office door.
“You forgot something.”
His laptop. Heat burned his cheeks from embarrassment. He slowly rotated toward her and grabbed his computer. “Thanks.”
When he left the house, he headed to the police officer sitting in his car in the driveway. “Officer Carter, call me if there’s anything odd going on.” He handed the younger man his business card. “And have the officer who replaces you do the same.”
“Yes, sir. It’s been quiet. The only things that have happened are Judge Madison’s kids coming out here and you arriving.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way.” Sean strode to his SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat.
He drove to the police station, not far from the courthouse, to see the police chief, who usually worked Saturday mornings. Sean found him in his office and shook hands with him.
“Officer Carter says everything is quiet at the judge’s house. What can I do for you?” Chief Juan Perez asked.
“I’d like your officers to be on the lookout for a white Chevy Malibu, most likely a recent model with a dent in its driver’s-side back fender near the bumper. I have a partial Texas license plate number. The last three digits are two four nine. I’m heading to my office to run the information through the DMV, and I’ll let you know what I find. I believe the driver was responsible for putting the dead rat and the judge’s deceased husband’s lost wedding ring in her car trunk yesterday.”
“Sure, I’ll let my police force know. Anything to help Judge Madison. I want the trial of Villa to go smoothly. Has anyone approached her about it?”
Lone Star Standoff Page 3
