Elise had expected the denial. She certainly hadn’t believed that Leo would confess to murder right here, right now. Though it would have made her life a whole lot easier, and safer, if he had.
“How about hiring Martinelli to come after Elise?” Colt countered. “Did you have something to do with that?”
“No!” he shouted at the same moment Meredith answered, “You’re not dragging my brother into this. He’s innocent, just trying to help me.”
Elise doubted Leo was innocent, but she also doubted that just knowing a hit man was enough to arrest Leo.
Maybe Leo would throw a punch or something, after all.
“Call and put a freeze on their bank records,” Colt told Reed, and the deputy immediately took out his phone to do that. “I want to see if either of these clowns have some suspicious payouts that could have gone to Martinelli.”
“You can’t do that,” Meredith insisted.
“Let ’em,” Leo disagreed. “They won’t find anything.”
Meredith made a sound of outrage that caused her mouth to tremble. “I’ve already had my privacy violated enough. Come on,” she said, taking hold of her brother’s arm.
Leo obviously didn’t want to budge, but Meredith got him moving. “This isn’t over,” Meredith warned them, and she hurried out the door with Leo in tow.
“Good catch,” Colt told Reed the moment that the pair was out of earshot. “How’d you find the connection between Leo and Martinelli?”
Reed lifted his shoulder. “I didn’t. It was a bluff. I figured a thug like him would probably know another thug.”
It was a bluff that’d worked since Leo had indeed admitted an association with the hit man.
“Thanks,” Colt told him, and he kept his attention pinned to Meredith and Leo, watching them drive away before he turned back to Elise. “After your appointment, I’ll see what I can do about getting you out of here. I figure sooner or later Joplin will want to pay you a visit.”
He would. “You’re talking about taking me to the safe house with the Ranger?” she asked.
“You could use my place instead,” Reed quickly offered. “It’s not that far out of town, it has a security system with all the doors and windows wired. Plus, I have two dogs who bark at everything. You’re welcome to it since I’ll be pulling duty here tonight. I can even call a couple of your ranch hands if you like and have them stay over just to keep watch.”
Elise liked that idea much better than being taken miles and miles away.
Colt made a sound of agreement. “Thanks. Call the Rangers and cancel the plans for a safe house.”
He’d hardly finished telling Reed that, however, when he snapped toward the window, and she saw yet someone else making their way toward the sheriff’s office. It was a short woman with auburn hair, and she was carrying a bulky briefcase.
“I’m Suzanne Dawkins,” their visitor said the moment she stepped inside the building. Her attention went straight to Elise. “I’m here for your hypnosis appointment.”
Elise had known this was about to happen. But she still dreaded it. “I’m ready.” A lie, but then she was as ready as she’d ever be. “Would it be okay, though, if Colt stayed with me during the session?”
Suzanne nodded, sighed and glanced around, looking as uncomfortable as Elise felt. “I need to tell you up front, though, that if you recall anything during the session, I can’t swear it’ll stay between us. I’m not your physician or a psychiatrist, so it’s possible I can be subpoenaed to testify about what you recall.”
And Joplin would definitely do that if it helped clear Jewell’s name.
“You’ll probably remember everything you say while under hypnosis. That includes any bad things you might have witnessed. It could mean dealing with some, well, disturbing images. So, you still want to go through with it?” Suzanne asked.
Elise looked at Colt, and he finally nodded. Elise nodded, too, though she hoped this didn’t turn out to be a mistake.
One that could send Colt’s father straight to jail for murder.
* * *
COLT STOOD NEAR the door of the flop room and waited for the hypnotist to continue questioning Elise.
He was saying a few prayers, too.
Prayers for his father, and for what could be a whole boatload of nightmarish memories that Elise might have to relive.
He hated that she had go to through this.
Suzanne had already given Elise some kind of meds, and her eyelids were drooping while she drifted in and out of consciousness. Something that the hypnotist had explained would happen. She’d also been adamant that Colt not say a word because it could interfere with whatever Elise might say.
“Elise, you’re back by the creek next to the Braddock cabin,” Suzanne said, her voice a soothing whisper. “You’re nine years old. Remember?”
“Yes,” Elise mumbled. “I’m mad at Colt.”
Despite everything, he smiled. Then he frowned. He’d been a nine-year-old butthead to upset her like that.
“But Colt’s not with you at the creek, now, is he?” Suzanne went on. “Are you alone?”
Elise nodded. “I’m stirring the water with a stick.”
Maybe trying to put that curse on him she’d mentioned.
“Did you go near the cabin or look in the window before you went to the creek?” she asked.
“I’m not allowed to go near the cabin. Gran’s rules. Mr. Braddock doesn’t like kids playing around it. Even his own kids. They aren’t allowed to go there.”
“Okay,” Suzanne answered. “Do you hear anything or see anyone while you’re stirring the water with the stick?”
“No.” But then Elise paused. “Yeah. I hear a door closing, I think, and someone walking. He’s walking up from behind the cabin.” Another pause. “It’s Colt’s dad. Hi, Mr. Roy.” Elise’s voice was small now, and she was no doubt deep into that childhood memory.
“Did Mr. Roy answer you?” Suzanne asked.
Another head shake. “He stumbled on the porch step of the cabin and said some bad words that I can’t repeat. Gran’ll wash my mouth out with soap if I do.”
Colt pulled in his breath, praying it was his father’s stumbling and nothing else that’d caused the profanity.
“Elise,” Suzanne said, “don’t repeat the bad words, but I need you to look at Mr. Roy. Did he actually come out of the cabin?”
“Maybe. I heard a door close.”
“But you’re not sure that Mr. Roy was the one who closed it?” Suzanne asked the very question that Colt wanted her to ask.
“No. Not sure.”
Good. Yeah, it was only a little doubt, but it was far better than Elise having seen his father come out of the cabin.
“Is it windy?” Suzanne continued.
Even though her eyes were closed, he could see them moving behind her eyelids. “Yes. The leaves are rattling on the trees.” She paused. “I guess the wind coulda blown the door shut.”
Colt added another good. Of course, that didn’t clear his father. From what Elise was recalling, the door had been open and that meant someone had opened it.
“Is Mr. Roy alone, and what’s he wearing?” the therapist asked.
Elise’s forehead bunched up, the expression a person would make when concentrating. “Nobody’s with him. And he’s got on jeans, boots, a brown shirt and his hat.”
“You’re sure he’s alone?”
“I’m sure,” Elise said after several moments. “I don’t see or hear anybody else. If somebody was inside, I’d think they’d hear Mr. McKinnon cussing and come out. He’s not being very quiet ’cause he’s banging his fist on the front door right now.”
That put a too-clear picture in Colt’s mind of what his dad was going through. Drunk and furious that his wife was having an affair with a man he considered his enemy. His father had gone to the cabin no doubt to confront them.
But Jewell and Whitt hadn’t been there.
Well, Whitt hadn’t been there aliv
e, anyway. It was possible while all of this was going on that Whitt’s body was inside and that his mother was hiding.
“Mr. Roy’s still banging on the door,” Elise continued several moments later. “And he’s yelling for Mr. Braddock and Miss Jewell to open up. But I don’t think anybody’s in there. The place was quiet before Mr. Roy got there. If I’d seen Mr. Braddock, I wouldn’t have hung around the creek. Gran’s rules.”
It was a good rule, too. Whitt wasn’t a friendly sort, and Colt had been on the receiving end of some of Whitt’s yelling when he’d caught him playing too close to the cabin. Of course, in hindsight, Whitt might have done that because he’d been trying to conceal the fact that he had Jewell in there with him. Since his mother had stayed quiet about the subject, Colt had no idea how long the affair had been going on.
“Is there anything odd about Mr. Roy’s clothes?” Suzanne pressed when Elise didn’t continue. “Is there maybe mud...or something else on them?”
That question required Colt to hold his breath again, and it didn’t help that it seemed to take Elise an eternity to answer. “No mud, but his hair’s messed up bad, and he’s stumbling again. Cussing, too. I think he’s had too much to drink.”
Yeah, he had. Drunk, which left a lot of gaps in his memory. Gaps that Elise could be about to fill.
“You’re sure about the mud?” Suzanne asked. “Take a closer look. Is there anything on Mr. McKinnon’s clothes, anything wet maybe?”
Again, Elise took her time thinking about that. “No.” She paused. “But he’s got something in his hand.”
Oh, man. Not a knife or a gun. If so, it would put his father at the murder scene with a potential murder weapon.
“What’s in Mr. Roy’s hand?” Suzanne asked.
Yet another pause. Even longer than the others. “A bottle. Of whiskey, I think. He keeps drinking from it in between all the yelling.”
Colt tried to make his breath of relief as silent as possible.
“That’s good, Elise,” Suzanne said, sounding a little relieved, too. “Is there anything else you notice about Mr. Roy or the cabin? Think hard.”
“Nothing else,” she said after several moments. “I have to go home now. Can I leave?”
“Of course. Elise, I’m going to count to three, and when I reach three, you’ll open your eyes, and you’ll be back in the Sweetwater Springs Sheriff’s Office.” Suzanne counted off the numbers, and just as she’d said, when she reached three, Elise opened her eyes.
Despite the obvious fatigue, Elise’s gaze went straight to Colt. “I remember everything I saw. No blood,” she mumbled. “Your father’s innocent.”
Colt was glad she remembered what she’d told them. Glad of the outcome, too.
Of course, this was just the beginning, and while it cleared his father, it didn’t mean the danger was over for Elise. Just the opposite. Buddy was still missing, and it was obvious that Joplin, Meredith and her idiot brother, Leo, had the potential to cause plenty of trouble.
“Elise might be a little drowsy for a while,” Suzanne said, standing and gathering up her things. “And someone should stay with her just in case she has any adverse reactions to the mild sedative that I gave her.”
“I’m not leaving her,” Colt assured her.
The moment Suzanne left, Elise sat up, touching her fingers to her head.
“Are you in pain?” Colt immediately asked.
“No.” She took several deep breaths. “In fact, I feel better than I have in the past couple of days.” And to prove it, she got to her feet.
Colt was right there to catch her, but she didn’t so much as wobble. “Did Joplin or Meredith come back while I was under?”
He shook his head.
“But they will,” she added. “What are the odds that we can get out of here before then? Maybe go to Reed’s house? I don’t think I’m up to another battle today.”
Colt wasn’t at all sure about moving Elise, especially so soon after Suzanne had given her that mild sedative, but he wasn’t up to doing battle, either. With his arm looped around her, they went back into the squad room, ready to ask Reed for the keys to his place, but the deputy was already one step ahead of him. He handed Colt a key and a piece of paper with the code for the security system.
“Stay as long as you need,” Reed offered, and he hitched his thumb to the other deputy, Pete Nichols, who was already getting to his feet. “Pete’ll be driving out there with you, and I’ll make that call to your ranch hands to have a couple of them meet you at my house. If anything goes wrong, I can be out there in ten minutes.”
It all sounded like a good plan, except for Elise. She wobbled, giving Colt two choices. He could carry her back to the flop room and let her sleep off the medication, or he could take Reed up on his offer.
“Joplin called,” Reed added as if reading Colt’s mind. “He’s at the jail with Jewell right now but said he’s heading up here when he’s done.”
Elise groaned, and Colt knew he’d get her out of there. Part of him wanted to stay, to confront Joplin and see if he could get the lawyer to back off, but Elise would still be able to hear that confrontation even if she stayed out of sight. Plus, he doubted he could say anything to make Joplin change his mind.
“Did Joplin petition to have me removed from Colt’s custody?” Elise asked.
Reed nodded. “And he just might get it approved. Yet even more reason you should get the heck out of here,” he added to Colt. “When Joplin shows, I don’t intend to tell him where you are.”
Good. Because Elise needed at least a few hours of peace and quiet. Heck, so did he.
“I’ll follow in my truck,” Pete said, following them to the door. “It’s parked right next to yours.”
“Thanks,” Colt told both his fellow deputies. When this was over, he owed them, big-time. His brother, too, since Cooper had made protecting Elise a top priority.
Colt put on his coat, helped Elise with hers and he paused in the doorway. He had a look around. Nothing seemed out of place, but still he hurried as much as he could. He used his keypad to unlock the truck, and reached for the passenger’s-side door so he could get Elise inside fast.
But his hand froze on the handle when he saw what was on the driver’s seat.
Hell.
“Get down!” Colt yelled.
Chapter Thirteen
Elise was woozy, everything swimming in and out of focus, but she still managed to see what had caused Colt’s reaction.
A gun rigged with some kind of device.
Colt ran, dragging her along with him, and he pulled her to the rear of the nearest vehicle—one parked on the side of the street by the parking lot. Not a second too soon. He’d barely gotten them on the ground when the shots started.
That jolted away some of the wooziness, and her heart slammed against her chest. Mercy, not this, not now.
“The gun’s activated by remote control,” Colt said, drawing his own weapon and crawling on top of her to protect her.
“Get down!” he shouted again.
Elise couldn’t see anyone other than Pete, the deputy, and he’d taken cover on the side of a truck. He, too, had his gun drawn and ready, and like Colt, his gaze was firing all around them.
It hit her then that the gun in Colt’s truck could be some kind of ruse to draw their attention away from the person who’d launched this attack.
Elise lifted her head a fraction to look around. Or at least she tried, but Colt put her right back down.
The shots continued, and even though she could no longer see Colt’s truck, she could hear the bullets ripping through the door. If this was like the remote-control gun at her ranch, then the shots would be hitting the same spot. She prayed that spot wasn’t the sheriff’s office or any of the other nearby buildings.
This monster might be after her, but he or she could end up killing an innocent bystander.
Colt reached up and tested the door handle of the vehicle they were using for cover, but he c
ursed when it was locked. Maybe the owner would realize what was happening and open it from wherever he or she was.
That created another slam of fear inside her.
“What if this car is rigged to blow up or something?” she asked, though she wasn’t sure how Colt could understand her with her words slurred and her voice shaking as hard as the rest of her.
“Any of the vehicles could blow up,” he reminded her. “But this car doesn’t belong to the shooter. It belongs to Herman Vinton, and he’ll be in the diner this time of the morning.”
That was something at least, but it didn’t mean the shooter hadn’t managed to get into Herman’s car, as well.
“See anything?” Colt shouted to Pete.
“No. He might be on one of the roofs.”
Mercy, there were plenty of them, including the sheriff’s office itself. With all the activity going on inside the building, it was possible that no one had noticed the person who’d broken into Colt’s truck and left that remote-control gun. Worse, the gun could have been put there during the night when no one would have been likely to see what was going on.
“The gun should run out of bullets soon,” Colt said to her over the deafening blasts.
Elise could hear the frantic shouts and cries from the people in the diner across the street. At this time of morning, it was possible there were even schoolchildren out and about. But until the shots stopped firing, Colt and she were literally pinned down and unable to help.
It was hard to tell exactly where the shots were going, but, thankfully, it wasn’t toward them or the other deputy. Also, other than the initial sound from Colt’s truck window, she didn’t hear any breaking glass.
Maybe that meant the shots weren’t going into any of the buildings.
“Tell Reed we need eyes on the roofs,” Colt shouted to Pete, and the deputy took out his phone to make a call. He was no doubt calling for some kind of backup, too, since they would need to search the entire area.
Maybe this time they’d get lucky.
Of course, the person who’d set all of this up could be just another hired gun like Martinelli. That meant any of their suspects could be responsible.
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