Killing Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 2)

by Kate Allenton

  “Three of them were twenty-five years ago, before Carson joined the Marines. The other two were after he’d been gone.”

  “Okay, so we do this methodically. Start with a list of everybody who Carson went to school with and hung out with.”

  “Why do you think it would be someone he knew?”

  “It had to be someone close enough to steal his knife and plant the evidence without being questioned.” That worried me. Someone got close enough to do this damage and Carson hadn’t even suspected a thing. I swallowed hard. “Then expand the search for any troublemakers in town and anyone else that seems unusual. Something was missing. Something that happened twenty-five years ago that nobody is talking about, and we need to know what that is.”

  “After the chilly reception we got at the diner, I don’t think any of the locals are going to talk to us,” Sam said.

  We didn’t need just any of the locals. We needed one family to trust us enough to give us the details. And I knew just where to find them. “Do me a favor and start by getting me everything you can find on Betty Dawson. And then start working on all her boys and see what you can dig up on any other Dawson women about Carson’s age. If Cody was behind the bleachers with one, I want to know who it was and where we can find her. I need to know everything I can about that family if I’m going to get any of them to talk.”

  “So, you really think Betty Dawson can finger a killer?”

  “Not only do I think Betty Dawson knows who the killer is, I can almost bet that she knows the motive too.”

  “The only flaw with that is Betty Dawson and Drake Tines were the same age, not her and Carson. Betty Dawson didn’t go to school with Carson or Cody.”

  “Her boys are about the same age as Carson.”

  “So, while I’m doing all this, what are you going to do? Are you going to touch the bodies to see if you can connect?”

  I rose from my spot on the railing and walked inside, with Sam following behind me. He plopped down in his computer chair and turned to face me.

  “I have to wait till my anger subsides because it will mask and skew any other emotions that I come into contact with. Until then, can you program everyone’s number into my cell.” I pulled the phone out of my pocket and handed it to Sam. “I’m going to need their numbers to call when I catch this son of bitch.”

  “Sure, where did you get the phone?”

  “Compliments of Sloan,” I said.

  “Lucy, you have to know that I tried to talk Noah out of this. I mean, yeah, Carson looks like he could break any of us in half, but he didn’t do this. I know he didn’t.”

  I rested my palm on Sam’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Sam, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make them realize that Carson isn’t a killer, even if I have to steal the evidence and destroy it. When I’m done, they won’t have anything to hold Carson in jail.”

  Sam cleared his throat, and his eyes widened as he nodded toward the door with his head.

  I glanced over my shoulder to find Noah and Grant standing in the doorway with Carson still wearing cuffs.

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that,” Noah said.

  I turned toward them and crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s the matter? Is the jail too full?”

  Noah’s lips twitched. “I’m in charge of this investigation. He goes where I say he goes.”

  “That’s the first smart thing you’ve said during this entire investigation.”

  “Good, I’m glad you see it that way, considering Carson will be sleeping in your room. It’s the only one without a window for him to escape. You can take the couch.”

  “I can do that.” I grinned. “That way, I won’t wake anyone up when I sneak back in.”

  I had some hunting to do.

  Sam pressed some buttons on my phone and handed it back to me. Noah unlocked Carson’s cuffs and tossed me the keys to the lake house. “No need to sneak. Solve this and let’s go home.”

  I grinned and Grant stopped me as I headed for the door. “You can’t go like that.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  He glanced down at my bright top and jeans. “Everyone will see you coming a mile away.”

  I glanced down at my clothes to see them in a new light. He was right. “Fine, I’ll go change.”

  “Good, I’ll change, too, because you aren’t going alone.”

  “I can take care of myself, Grant,” I said on a sigh.

  Grant pulled a syringe out of his pocket. “Yeah, and when your emotions are tipped, are you going to remember to stick yourself? And then who’s going to take care of you while you’re unconscious? You’re already emotionally invested in this case. Don’t be careless.”

  “Fine. You can come. Just stay out of my way.”

  Grant grinned, and we both knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  Chapter 18

  I filled Grant in on where we were going and why. At first, he didn’t believe me. He didn’t believe that a single woman in a small town had the pull that I was suggesting. It didn’t matter if he believed me, because I knew.

  “And what are you suggesting that we do, knock on her door?”

  “With the number of guns that were on the porch, we’d never make it to the door.”

  I had a much quieter plan in mind. Sneaking onto the property in the dead of night might provide us more clues than the amount of questions that would actually get answered. If this family was somehow involved in those deaths, I was going to make it my mission to prove it.

  “And you say that you met two of them at the diner?”

  I parked on a deserted road that ran the length of both Master Sergeant Farley and the Dawsons’ property lines. Sloan’s two friendlies parked behind me. I hadn’t been introduced to the security people Sloan assigned to me, but I was about to get up close and personal with both of them.

  “I met Mikey and Betty at the diner. They weren’t giving off any killer vibes but they may be pro’s at hiding their emotions.”

  Grant met me around the back of the SUV. “And what do you do about Lenny and Squiggy?”

  “They can be our lookout.” I chuckled as I jogged to their SUV.

  I knocked on the glass and smiled at the men inside, who both looked like they belonged in the FBI. Not too big and not too small, tight haircuts, but dressed in jeans and T-shirts.

  They exchanged a look before rolling down the window. The driver’s brows dipped. “Yes, Dr. Bray?”

  “Hi, listen, I know you guys are supposed to follow me, so I thought it would be in both of our interests if I just tell you what I’m about to do next. Maybe you guys can just stay here in the air conditioning and be our lookout.”

  “Our orders are that we’re supposed to follow you.”

  “And you did, but actually, I think you’re supposed to keep me safe, and being a lookout would do that,” I said, raising my hands. “But now, I’m about to go sneak onto some property, and you two don’t look like the quiet kind of guys that can traipse over dead leaves without making a sound. Am I right?”

  “Sorry, Dr. Bray, but keeping you alive is our only mission.”

  I sighed. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want this. I slipped my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number Sloan had stored.

  It rang three times before going to voicemail.

  “Call off your hounds before they blow my cover,” I said and was about to hang up when I paused. “And don’t call me back. I’m playing hide and seek with the locals.”

  I walked back over to our SUV where Grant was waiting. “Did you convince them to stay put?”

  I shook my head. “They’re apparently company men. They follow orders, and their orders are to follow me to make sure I don’t get killed.”

  “Lucy.” Grant glanced over his shoulder. “I’m not sure we should risk it. They’re liable to get us caught.”

  “My gut is telling me that Betty has the answers we need.”

  “She
might be willing to talk if you just ask her.”

  “She’s not,” I answered, knowing the truth. Betty could be as ruthless and calculating as I was. I could feel it. I was jeopardizing more than delicious pancakes. If caught, I could be picked up for trespassing or, worse, tossed off a boat into the lake.

  “Listen, I can’t afford you coming with me. I need you to stay behind.”

  Grant’s brows dipped. “Not happening, Lucy. Gigi would kick my ass.”

  My sister would kick his butt but it wasn’t going to happen while she was in a coma and if she didn’t know, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. I patted his chest. “If I get caught, someone is going to need to bail me out of jail. We both know that Noah isn’t going to do it.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Besides, I’ll have those guys with me.”

  “I don’t like it,” Grant said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You don’t know those guys. You can’t trust them.”

  “There’s no other way,” I argued.

  “Are you guys lost?” Mikey asked as he and his four brothers, who looked just like him, stepped out from the trees with guns pointed in our direction. Two came up behind the SUV. They opened the SUV doors and gestured for the guys to get out.

  “Take me to your leader,” I said, holding my hands up, palms out.

  “You ain’t no damn alien, but you must be psychic because that’s exactly what Maw instructed us to do,” Mikey said, pointing to the camera up in the tree.

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Grant growled.

  Sloan’s guys stepped closer. “I’m afraid we’d have to agree. She’s not going with you.”

  “There’s five of us with guns and only three of you. What are you going to do?” Mikey prodded.

  “First of all,” I said, holding up my finger, “there aren’t three; there are four,” I said, pointing to my chest. “You need to go back to school to learn to count because I’m really dangerous, and second of all…” I turned toward all of them. “Talking to her is the only reason I’m here.”

  “In the dead of night.” Mikey chuckled. “I doubt that.”

  I shrugged and grinned. “Well, a girl does have to do her recon, right?”

  I rested my palms on Grant’s arms. “You know where to find me if I don’t return.”

  He held Mikey’s gaze over my head before I grabbed him by the neck and tugged down until his gaze bore into mine. “You know where I’ll be. She’d be stupid to kill me with witnesses knowing where I went.”

  “Let’s go, lady,” Mikey said.

  I held up my palms to stay Lenny and Squiggy. “Follow Grant’s lead while I’m gone.”

  “Sorry, Doc. We can’t do that.” Sloan’s men pulled guns and had disarmed one of the brothers before he could even move. Squiggy held a Sig pressed to the brother’s temple.

  “Okay, now everyone just calm down,” I said, gesturing with my hands. “This is getting out of hand. I want to talk to Betty. I’m not going against my will. I can assure you. No harm will come to me.”

  “You don’t know that,” Lenny announced.

  “Yeah, I do,” I said.

  “She’s right,” Betty said, stepping out of the bushes. Red laser lights danced across my bodyguards’ shirts as teenagers stepped out next to Betty.

  “Aw, look, she has young gunslingers too,” I said, cooing. “They’re just one big gun-toting family.”

  Chapter 19

  “So, you’re a doctor,” she said.

  “Yeah, but not the stitching-up kind. Can you have your family lower their weapons? We can talk about this woman to woman. I mean we are kind of outnumbered now.”

  Betty lowered her gun, and the rest followed suit. “Now your guys.”

  “Oh, these aren’t my guys,” I said, gesturing to Sloan’s employees. “Well, this one is my brother-in-law,” I said, bumping shoulders with Grant. “The other ones were paid to keep me alive, seeing how a serial killer is trying to track me.”

  “Really?” she asked with enthusiasm. “Why is that?”

  “I kind of put him in a coma and sliced him up pretty good when he kidnapped my sister. Turnabout is fair play, right?”

  Betty grinned. “You’re a girl after my own heart.”

  I didn’t know if that was supposed to be reassuring or not. “Uh, thanks, I guess? But now, since we’re all out here and I don’t have to sneak onto your property, maybe you can help me sort out a few things.”

  “Come on. Let’s take this back to the house. I have a feeling we’re going to need a drink.”

  No way was I drinking their moonshine. Not if I had any hope of connecting with those killer tendencies. My emotions were raw and untrustworthy just thinking about Carson.

  “You good?” Grant asked, lifting my clenched hand.

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said, shaking my hands as if I were air-drying them.

  We all started walking through the woods, Grant by my side and Sloan’s guys behind us with the brothers behind them. I felt like they were marching us to our death. Until we broke through the trees to a campfire that was roaring, where other women were sitting nearby with babies. One of the women was trying to sooth her toddler and was trying to get him to laugh by showing him a coin disappear from her hands.

  “We’ve got company,” Betty hollered. “Make them feel welcome.”

  The Dawson men paired off next to what I assumed were their women. Some additional people came out of the house, carrying jugs and glasses as Betty gestured toward the logs by the campfire. “Take a seat anywhere and drink up while the Doc and I talk.”

  “Lucy Bray,” I said as I followed behind her toward the big red farmhouse in the distance. I glanced over my shoulder to find Grant watching me.

  I kicked my leg up and gave him the thumbs-up. Only he would know what that meant. We’d used the sign before when tracking killers and he’d wondered if I had a weapon. He’d been my handler. Usually, he knew what I was thinking without saying a word.

  She shoved open the doors with the force of a burly man and stepped inside. Instead of horses and hay or sharp hanging knives and tools, I walked into a barn turned into a she-shed with the furnishings of a luxury five-star resort. Everything from a fireplace complete with slow-burning logs and remnants of paper and ashes to bookshelves, comfy couches, and throw rugs, along with a hanging crystal chandelier.

  I was totally jealous. “Remind me to get the name of your designer.”

  “Mikey did it for me,” Betty announced, and I met her gaze across the room, where she was pulling a crystal pitcher from a 1950s Tiffany-blue fridge.

  “This is incredible.”

  “It’s the place I come to relax. As you can image, even though our house is a three-story, sometimes I just can’t breathe. It gets overcrowded with the boys and their families. Most live in town, but a few of them live here.”

  She set a cup in front of me, and I stopped her from pouring. “I can’t have alcohol.”

  She chuckled and poured anyway. “Give me a little credit, Lucy. While my boys are out there getting your boys hammered, I figured I needed to keep a straight head on around you.”

  “You’re smart.”

  “That’s what they tell me,” Betty said. “I have the school ribbons to prove it too.” She winked. “So, what brings you out to my neck of the woods, twice in one day?”

  “Carson was arrested for those deaths.”

  She nodded and plopped down into one of her chairs, leaving her gun within reach. “You don’t say.”

  “I guess you already knew that.”

  “I heard rumors,” she answered. This woman knew more than rumors. “I also heard that you’re here to find the person really responsible.”

  “I am,” I announced, crossing my legs and keeping my gun within reaching distance to level the playing field. “Carson is a friend of mine and a colleague.”

  Her gaze zeroed in on the ankle holster and the weapon stashed in its casing. “You one of the feds?”

&nbs
p; I shook my head. “I came with them, but I’m not one of them. The difference between them and me is that I’m willing to break a few rules to get to the truth if it means saving someone I care about.”

  A grin split Betty’s lips, confirming my suspicion that she wasn’t above breaking a few either.

  “You’re right about Carson. He didn’t do it.”

  “Do you know who did?” I asked.

  “I have my suspicions,” she said, tilting her head. “You do know Bishop plays for the other team and it was his lover found dead.”

  “I know,” I answered.

  She lifted a single brow.

  “I also heard rumors that you and Mr. Tines got a little friendly back in his drinking days,” Lucy said.

  Her lips turned into a full-out smile. “You’ve been busy, but you shouldn’t believe every rumor you hear. Half of them are started based off lies, and even those lies get twisted being told from one person to the next.”

  “So, are you saying you and he never got together?”

  “Oh, we did. More than once after his wife died. But we were never in a relationship, just friends with benefits. Mainly when we were both drunk and horny. The Tines men don’t make a habit of committing to much of anything.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I said, sitting forward and resting my hands on my knees. “Carson committed to the Marines and the FBI, and now Michael wants to marry Carson’s ex. I don’t think they all share the same problem as their daddy.”

  “Drake Tines was a broken man,” Betty announced. “And had he not disappeared, I’d had every intention on mending him when the time was right. There’s a lot that goes on in the seedy underbelly of this town.”

  It was my turn to grin. “Seedy underbelly?”

  Chapter 20

  “You’d best watch your back in these parts. They’ll smile to your face while someone is stabbing you in the back.”

  I knew all about those kinds of friends. The ones that weren’t afraid to steal your boyfriend and spread lies and untruths. Yeah, I knew. I’d had my share of those types of friends.