Cold Case at Cobra Creek

by Rita Herron

  “But—”

  Her words were cut off as he raised his gun and slammed it against her skull.

  Pain ricocheted through her temple, and then the world went black.

  Chapter Twenty

  Dugan parked in the woods by Hangman’s Bridge, his instincts on alert. The fact that the anonymous caller had chosen this area to meet aroused his suspicions.

  It was called Hangman’s Bridge for a reason—two teenagers had died in a suicide pact by hanging themselves from the old metal bridge.

  He pulled his gun, surveying the trees and area surrounding the bridge, looking for movement. An animal howled from somewhere close by, and the sound of leaves crunching crackled in the air.

  He spun to the right at the sharp sound of twigs snapping. Then a gunshot blasted. Dugan ducked and darted behind an oak to avoid being hit.

  Another shot pinged off the tree, shattering bark. He opened fire in the direction from where the bullet had come from, searching the darkness.

  The silhouette of a man lurked by the bridge, the shadow of his hat catching Dugan’s eye. Dugan crept behind another tree, careful to keep his footfalls light so as not to alert the man that he’d spotted him.

  Another shot flew toward him, and he darted beneath the rusted metal rungs of the bridge and returned fire. His bullet sailed into the bushes near the man, then leaves rustled as the gunman shifted to run.

  Dugan raced from one hiding spot to another, quickly closing the distance, and snuck up behind the man just before he ran for his truck in a small clearing to the left.

  Dugan tackled the guy from behind, slamming him down into the brush. The man struggled, but his gun slipped from his hand and fell into a patch of dried leaves and branches.

  They wrestled on the ground as the bastard tried to retrieve it, and the man managed to knock Dugan off him for a second. Dugan scrambled back to his feet as the shooter jumped up to run. But Dugan lunged toward him, caught him around the shoulders and spun him around.

  Lloyd Riley.

  “Riley,” Dugan said. “Give it up.”

  But Lloyd swung a fist toward Dugan and connected with his jaw. A hard right.

  Dugan grunted and returned a blow, the two of them trading one after the other until Dugan kicked Riley in the kneecap and sent him collapsing to the ground with a bellow of pain.

  Dugan kicked him again, this time a sharp foot to the solar plexus, rendering him helpless.

  Riley curled into a ball, hugging his leg. “You broke my damn kneecap!”

  “You’re lucky you’re alive.” Dugan flipped the big man over, pressed one foot into Riley’s lower back to hold him still while he jerked his arms behind him, yanked a piece of rope from his pocket and tied his wrists together.

  Riley growled an obscenity into the dirt. Dugan rolled him over and shoved his gun into his face.

  “Why the hell were you shooting at me?”

  Riley’s lips curled into a hiss. “I had to,” he muttered.

  Dugan gripped Riley’s shirt collar, yanking it tightly to choke the man. “What does that mean?”

  Blood trickled down Riley’s forehead near his left eye, another line seeping from the corner of his mouth. Then Dugan noticed the leather tassel on Riley’s gloves. One was missing.

  “You damn bastard, you broke into Sage Freeport’s bedroom and tried to strangle her.”

  “I’m not talking till I get a lawyer.”

  Dugan laughed, a bitter sound. “You will talk to me. I’m not the law, Riley.” He shoved the gun deeper into the man’s cheek. “Now, why were you trying to kill me?”

  Riley’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

  “Spit it out,” Dugan snarled.

  “Gandt told me to.”

  Dugan’s stomach knotted. “What?”

  “That Freeport broad found out he was in cahoots with Lewis, and he knew you were on to him.”

  “So it’s true, Gandt and Lewis were working together?”

  “Not at first,” Riley said. “But Gandt figured out Lewis was a con man and wanted in.”

  “Then he got greedy and killed Lewis so he could have the land to himself.”

  Riley nodded. “He told me I could keep my ranch if I helped cover for him.”

  “If you killed me?” Dugan asked.

  Riley spit blood from his mouth. “He said he’d frame me for killing Lewis. Then I’d lose my ranch and go to jail.”

  “What about the driver of that car that ran me and Sage off the road?”

  Riley’s face twisted with pain. “He was one of my hired hands.”

  Dugan gripped the man’s collar tighter. “Where is Gandt now?”

  Riley averted his eyes, and Dugan cursed. “Where is he?”

  “He went after the Freeport woman. Said if I took care of you, he’d take care of her.”

  Dugan went stone-cold still. He had to get to Sage.

  * * *

  SAGE STIRRED FROM unconsciousness, the world a dark blur. What had happened? Where was she?

  Gandt... God, the sheriff had been in on the scam. And now he had her....

  And he was going to kill her.

  She had to find a way out, call Dugan. Make the sheriff confess what he’d done with Benji.

  She blinked to clear her vision, then realized she was tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back, her feet bound at the ankles. She struggled to untie the knot at her wrists as she searched the darkness.

  The scent of hay and horses suffused the air. She must be in a barn. But whose?

  The sheriff didn’t own a ranch...did he?

  Maybe it was one of the properties he’d confiscated through the phony land deals.

  But which one? And where was he now?

  The squeak of the barn door startled her, and she whipped her head to the side and saw a shadowy figure in the doorway.

  “What are you going to do, kill me, too?” Sage shouted.

  His footsteps crushed the hay on the floor as he walked toward her. A sliver of moonlight seeped through the barn door where it was cracked, painting his face a murky gray.

  “I warned you not to keep poking around,” Gandt said in a menacing tone. “You should have listened.”

  Still struggling with the ropes behind her back, Sage clenched her teeth. “Where is my son?”

  Gandt lumbered toward her, tugging at his pants. His gun glinted in the dark as he trained it on her. “I don’t know.”

  Sage’s heart raced. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  His scowl deepened, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “When I got to Lewis that night, he was alone.”

  Sage’s head throbbed from where he’d slammed the butt of the gun against her temple, but she gritted her teeth at the nausea. “You’re lying. We found Benji’s shoe by the creek near the crash site.”

  Gandt waved the gun around. “I’m telling you the kid was already gone when I met up with Lewis.”

  Fear engulfed Sage. He had to be lying. “I don’t believe you. Benji had to be with Ron.”

  Gandt cursed. “Listen, Ms. Freeport, I’m telling you, he wasn’t. Lewis must have dropped him off before he came to meet me.”

  “You were going to meet him about the land?”

  “Yeah,” Gandt said with a smirk. “You think I’m not smart enough to figure out what he was doing?” He paced in front of her, his jowls jiggling. “Well, I am. Once I talked to a couple of locals and they told me he’d offered to buy up their property, I started looking into him. Ain’t nobody messin’ with my town.”

  Sage almost had one end of the rope through the back loop. “So you blackmailed him for a cut of the money?”

  “I wanted that land,” Gandt said. “First off, he said no way, but I can be convincing.”

  “You killed him, didn’t you?” Sage’s stomach rolled. “Then you forged papers so you could take over the rancher’s properties.”

  “Hell, they’d rather be beholden to me than let some stranger turn the
ir ranches into shopping malls and those damn coffee shops.”

  He lit a cigarette, then lifted it and took a drag. The ashes sparkled against the dark.

  “Then that Indian friend of yours had to find Lewis’s body, and you started nosing around.”

  Panic seized Sage. “All I want is my son. Just tell me where he is, and I promise I won’t tell anyone what you did to Ron.”

  A dark laugh rumbled from Gandt. “Sure you won’t. You talked to people at the bank. You went to the stinking press.”

  Tears burned the backs of Sage’s eyes. “Please, just tell me. Is Benji all right?”

  Gandt blew smoke through his nostrils, smoke rings floating in the air between them. “I told you the truth. I don’t know what happened to the boy.”

  Sage struggled to understand. Could he have been in the car when they crashed and ran when he saw Gandt? “What happened?”

  “I set fire to the car to cover up the murder. And it would have worked if you hadn’t come along asking questions.”

  Sage’s mind tried to piece together the facts. Had Ron left Benji with someone else when he went to meet the sheriff? Maybe one of the women from his past?

  Not Carol Sue—she was dead.

  Sandra Peyton...

  Her conversation with Maude Handleman, then Janelle Dougasville echoed in her head. Sandra had lost Ron’s baby, and so had Maude. And Janelle said he’d never had a real family.

  Was that what Ron was chasing? The reason he’d chosen her in the first place, so he could take Benji and raise him with Sandra, his first love?

  Frantically she worried with the ropes, but the sheriff inhaled another drag from his cigarette, then dropped it onto the floor of the barn. She gasped as the embers sparked and a blade of hay caught fire.

  Gandt leered at her and backed toward the door, and fear paralyzed her. He was going to burn down the barn with her in it.

  * * *

  DUGAN CALLED SAGE, panicked that Gandt had hurt her. Her phone trilled and trilled, his heart hammering as he waited to hear her voice.

  But on the fifth ring, it rolled to voice mail. “Sage, the sheriff is dirty. If he shows up, don’t open the door. And call me so I know you’re okay.”

  He ended the call, then punched her number again, but once more he got her machine.

  Dugan jerked Riley up and hauled him to his SUV. “Where would Gandt take Sage?”

  Riley’s eyes bulged. “I don’t know.”

  Dugan shook him hard. “Tell me, dammit. If he hurts her, you’re going down for it, too.”

  “I told you I don’t know,” Riley bellowed. “He ordered me to take care of you and said he’d handle her.”

  Dugan wanted to kill him on the spot. But he had to find Sage.

  He searched Riley for another weapon, but he was clean, so he shoved him into the backseat. For a brief moment, he considered calling the deputy, but the deputy might be in cahoots with Gandt.

  Jaxon was the only one he trusted.

  He reached for his phone and started to shut Riley’s door, but Riley’s phone buzzed from his pocket.

  Maybe it was Gandt, checking in.

  Riley frowned as Dugan retrieved the rancher’s phone from his shirt pocket.

  Dammit, not Gandt.

  He flipped it around to show Riley the name on the caller ID display. Whalen.

  “Who is that?” Dugan asked.

  “The only ranch hand I have left,” Riley said.

  On the off chance that Gandt was at Riley’s, Dugan punched Connect and held the phone up to Riley, tilting it so he could hear the conversation.

  “Riley?”

  “Yeah, what is it?”

  “The barn on the south side of the property is on fire!”

  “Good God,” Riley shouted. “Call the fire department.”

  The man yelled that he would, and Dugan took the phone, fear riddling him.

  He’d wondered where Gandt would take Sage....

  What if he’d taken her to Riley’s? He could have planned to kill her there, then frame Riley for her murder.

  Heart hammering, Dugan jumped in the SUV and tore down the dirt road, slinging gravel and dust in his wake.

  “Take me to my place,” Riley yelled.

  “That’s where we’re going,” Dugan snapped. Although Riley would be going to jail when this was over. “I have a bad feeling Gandt is there with Sage, and that he’s behind the fire.”

  A litany of four-letter words spewed from Riley’s mouth. “He was going to set me up.”

  “Yeah, and probably frame you for it.” Dugan couldn’t help himself. He enjoyed the terror on Riley’s face.

  He pressed the pedal to the floor, speeding over the potholes and bumps in the road. The ten miles felt like an eternity, but finally he veered down the drive onto Riley’s ranch.

  “Turn left up there to go to the south barn,” Riley said.

  Dugan yanked the steering wheel to the left and careened down the dirt path. Pastureland and trees flew by. He passed a pond and saw flames shooting into the air in the distance.

  “Holy hell,” Riley said. “If that spreads, my pasture will be ruined.”

  Dugan didn’t give a damn about the man’s property.

  He phoned the deputy to meet him at Riley’s property to arrest the rancher as he zoomed down the narrow road. He wished the fire engine was here, but he’d beat them to it. An old beat-up pickup truck was parked by a shed, and he spotted an elderly man pacing by the fence.

  His tires screeched as he slammed on the brakes and came to a stop. He jumped out and ran toward the burning building.

  “Did you see anyone inside?” Dugan shouted.

  “I didn’t go in,” the old man said with a puzzled look on his craggy face. “We didn’t have any livestock in there.”

  But Sage...what about Sage?

  The old man hadn’t checked because he had no reason to think she’d be inside.

  Panic streaked through Dugan. But he didn’t hesitate.

  “Don’t bother to try and get away,” he told Riley. He grabbed a blanket from the back of his SUV, wrapped it around himself and ran into the blaze.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sage struggled against the ropes as the fire began to eat the floor and rippled up the walls. The smoke was thick, curling through the air and clogging her lungs.

  She was going to die.

  And then she’d never know where her son was.

  No...she couldn’t leave him behind. He needed her.

  She kicked the chair over, searching blindly for a sliver of wood to use as a knife. She managed to grab a rough piece that had splintered from one of the rails and clutched it between her fingers. Then she angled and twisted her wrists and hands to get a better stab at the ropes.

  Heat seared her body and scalded her back, and she used her feet to push herself away from the burning floor to a clear patch. Her eyes stung from the smoke, and each breath took a mountain of effort. She curled her chin into her chest, breathing out through her mouth and focusing on sawing away at the ropes.

  Wood crackled around her, the stall next to her collapsing. Sparks flew as the flames climbed the walls toward the ceiling. The building was so old, places were rotting, and it was going to be engulfed in seconds.

  The sliver of wood jabbed her palm, and she winced and dropped it. Panicked, she fumbled to retrieve it and felt heat burn her fingers.

  Tears trickled down her cheeks as pain rippled through her, then a piece of the barn loft suddenly crackled and popped, debris flying down to the floor around her.

  * * *

  DUGAN RACED THROUGH the flames to the inside, where the fire blazed in patches across the barn. The raw scent of burning wood and leather swirled in an acrid haze around him. He scrutinized the interior, searching as best he could with the limited visibility.

  Tack room to the left, completely engulfed in flames.

  Three stalls to the right. Two were ablaze.

  Flames in
ched toward the third.

  Smoke clogged the air like a thick gray curtain, forcing him to cover his nose with a handkerchief.

  “Sage! Sage, where are you?” Maybe he was wrong, and she wasn’t here.

  He hoped to hell he was wrong.

  Wood splintered and crashed from the back. He dodged another patch as he ran toward the last stall. Fire sizzled and licked at the stall door.

  “Sage!”

  He touched the wooden latch. It was hot. Using the blanket to protect his hand, he pushed it open.

  Sage was lying on the floor, her hands and feet tied to a chair. She wasn’t moving.

  Terror gripped him, and he beat at the flames creeping toward her, slapping out the fire nipping at his boots. His feet were growing hot, but he ripped his knife from his back pocket, sliced through the ropes, then quickly picked Sage up in his arms.

  She was so still and limp that fear chased at his calm. But he had to get them out.

  “Sage, baby, I’ve got you.” She didn’t make a sound, but he thought he detected a breath. Slow and shallow, but she was alive.

  He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, tucked her close to him and covered her with it, then darted from the stall. The front of the barn was sizzling and totally engulfed.

  He scanned the interior, searching for a way out. An opening near the back door. Just enough to escape.

  He clutched Sage to him, securing her head against his chest and tugging the blanket over her face as he ran through the patches of burning debris and out the back door. Flames crawled up his legs, but he continued running until he was a safe distance away. Then he dropped to the ground, still holding Sage as he beat the flames out with the blanket.

  A siren wailed and lights twirled in the night sky as the fire engine raced down the dirt road toward them. They were too late to save the barn.

  He hoped to hell they weren’t too late to save the woman in his arms.

  * * *

  SAGE STIRRED FROM UNCONSCIOUSNESS, disoriented and choking for a breath.

  “Here, miss, you need oxygen.” A blurry-looking young woman pushed a mask over her face, and someone squeezed her hand.

  “You’re okay, Sage. Just relax.”

  Exhaustion and fatigue claimed her, and she closed her eyes, giving in to it. But her mind refused to shut down. Questions screamed in her head.