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 re
action 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.”
April certainly hadn’t seen that coming. Great day. “Why would Malcolm visit the man responsible for his friend’s murder?”
“I’m not sure. The guards recorded all of Crossman’s visitors, but those particular conversations have a lot of static, making it impossible to hear what they’re saying.”
April doubted that was a coincidence. “How could that have happened?” she asked Chase.
“Malcolm probably sneaked in some kind of jamming device.”
Of course. But that didn’t answer the big questions. “Why would Malcolm do that? What did he say to Crossman that he didn’t want anyone else to know?”
Chase checked the time. “I’m not sure, but you can wait here with Jax while I find out. I’m going to the prison right now to have a chat with Crossman.”
Chapter Eleven
Chase wasn’t even sure this was worth the risk—visiting Crossman in jail. And he especially wasn’t sure it was worth the risk to bring April with him. However, April had made a pretty convincing argument—that since she was Crossman’s target, she wanted to be the one to confront him about the kidnapping and attacks.
And about those visits from Malcolm.
Chase wanted to confront the man, too, and considering that Crossman was a piece of slime, he just might spill everything about Malcolm. Well, if there was anything to spill, but it wasn’t looking good for the man since Malcolm had a connection to both Crossman and a dead cop.
“I hope Bailey will be okay,” April said while they waited for the guards to bring in Crossman. “Other than the kidnapping, this is the longest I’ve ever been away from her. When she was in the hospital, I slept there.”
That didn’t surprise him. But it did rile Chase a little that he hadn’t had the opportunity to do the same thing. “Bailey will be fine, and once we’re done here we can go back to the safe house.” Where he hoped April would stay put until he had gotten their new WITSEC identities.
Of course, Chase was hoping that would be soon. Or at least part of him was hoping that. But the thought of turning in his badge for good made it feel as if someone was squeezing the life right out of him.
April fidgeted in the chair, glanced around, checked the time. “Nervous?” he asked.
“Impatient and ready for answers. I never got a sense that Malcolm hated me and wanted revenge.”
“People don’t always show you what’s really going on in their heads,” Chase reminded her.
She stared at him, as if looking for some deeper meaning in that remark. And there was one. It was aimed at Quentin, though April seemed to have gotten the big picture on her scummy brother.
“Are we talking about the kisses now?” she asked.
All right, so her
train of thought hadn’t exactly gone in the same direction as his. Not that his thoughts ever strayed too far from those kisses. Or from her.
“No,” he answered.
April continued to stare at him, the corner of her mouth lifting. Almost a smile. Despite the cruddy situation they were in, it was nice to see she could manage even a half smile.
“It’s always like this between us,” she said. “I’m a criminal. A former one anyway. And you’re a lawman. Not exactly a match made in heaven.”
She was right. That kind of fire had a completely different origin than heaven.
“Maybe it was an opposites-attract thing,” he suggested.
The slight smile returned for a moment, vanished, and it seemed as if she had something to say to him, that maybe it’d been a whole lot more than just opposites attracting. However, she didn’t get a chance because at that very moment the guard ushered Crossman into the visiting area.
Despite having been in jail for the past six months, Crossman hadn’t changed that much. Heavily muscled, bald and a nose that’d been broken a time or two. He looked exactly like the thug that he was.
Crossman’s smile certainly wasn’t a slight one. He flashed them a big grin when his gaze met Chase’s. Then April’s. The grin stayed in place as Crossman sat in the chair on the other side of the Plexiglas partition and picked up the phone.
Chase picked up the phone on his side, too, and he held it so that both April and he would be able to hear the conversation. Of course, that meant more close contact between them.
“April,” Crossman greeted. “You’re looking a little frazzled, like you haven’t had much sleep. Something bothering you?”
“Yes,” she readily admitted. “Tell me about your visits with Malcolm Knox.”
For just a second, there was a flash of surprise in Crossman’s mud-brown eyes. “They were just chitchat.”
“That’s a lie,” Chase snapped. “You warned us about him. Why?”
The slight smile returned, and Crossman leaned back as far in the chair as he could. Which wasn’t very far considering he was cuffed and wearing leg chains.
The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4) Page 10
