Deep in thought, Jordan nearly jumped out of her skin when Sandy appeared in the doorway, wiping the sleep from her eyes.
“Why are you still up?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” Jordan said, wishing her nerves would quit acting like hamsters on speed. “Get dressed, Sandy. Danny and the cops will be here any minute.”
Sandy’s eyes widened. “The cops?”
“Hurry, there’s not much time before they arrive. I’ll fill you in after you change clothes.”
Before Sandy finished dressing and came back into the living room, Jordan heard the wail of sirens nearby. She raced to the window and peered out from behind the thick green curtains just as Danny’s car pulled into the gravel driveway. Rushing to the door, she flung it open and waited while her brother climbed out of the car. Two police cruisers pulled up behind him, their sirens still blaring.
She waited at the door, and as Danny and four Ranchero police officers entered, she recognized two of them from a few months earlier when her apartment had been ransacked.
“Tell us the whole story, Jordan,” Danny prompted, sitting down next to Sandy, who still looked half-asleep.
Jordan recapped the events of the night.
“And you say this all took place at the North Texas Beef Distributors plant across the cove?”
“Yes,” Jordan said, turning to Sandy, who seemed instantly alert. “That’s probably what you hear every Friday night. They were processing the beef in the wee hours.”
Her face lit up as tears formed in her eyes. “You mean it isn’t ghosts?”
“It’s definitely not ghosts. Now you can move back out here without worrying.”
Sandy grabbed Jordan and squeezed. “Thank heavens, it’s finally over.”
“Okay, let’s get on over that way and take a look,” the policeman Jordan remembered as Officer Rutherford said. His demeanor left no doubt he was in charge. “I had the captain wake up a judge who lives a few miles from here. I’ve sent a uniform over there to get the signed warrant, and he’ll meet us at the meatpacking plant.”
“Stay here,” Danny said to the two women. “This may take a while, but I’ll come back afterward to let you know what we found.” He focused on his sister. “You should probably pack your bag and come back into town with me, Jordan. There’ll be a lot of questions for you once we sort out what’s going on.”
“I’m coming, too,” Sandy said matter-of-factly. “No way I’m staying out here by myself.”
“Good idea,” Danny said, reaching into his jacket for something.
Jordan’s mouth dropped when she saw the shoulder holster. “Since when do you carry a gun?”
“I’ve always had it, but I keep it hidden. Knowing you the way I do, I figured you might shoot me if you knew where it was.” He opened the front door. “Let’s go, guys. Make sure everyone’s wearing a vest. Unless my sister’s hallucinating, there’s been recent gunfire over there.”
Jordan locked the door behind the departing officers, and both she and Sandy packed their bags. Then there was nothing left to do but wait.
“Want to watch a little TV?” Sandy asked. “We have satellite out here, and I’m sure we can find something we both like.”
“First, I need another hot chocolate. My insides feel like they’re frozen.”
Huddled together under a blanket watching an old Charlie’s Angels rerun, Sandy fell asleep again. As tired as she was, Jordan knew sleep would not come that easily for her.
Not until her brother was safely back in Sandy’s house.
Jordan heard the sirens a good five minutes before she saw two ambulances fly past the house on the way to the other side of the cove. She said a quick prayer that no one was seriously hurt, but two speeding ambulances wasn’t a good sign.
She must have nodded off finally and woke up shortly before hearing the emergency vehicles again. A check of the clock told her Danny and the police officers had been gone for about forty-five minutes.
She was going crazy wondering what was happening over there, worrying that Cooper’s partner in crime had been shot. She’d never been a patient woman, and tonight was no different. By the time she heard a car approaching, she’d nearly walked a bald circle in the living room carpet.
When Danny finally walked in, she pounced. “Was anybody hurt?”
Danny glanced toward Sandy, snuggled in the blanket, blissfully unaware of her surroundings. “Is she okay?”
After Jordan reassured him she was only sleeping off a sedative, he continued. “That’s good. Hey, it’s frickin’ freezing out there. Got any coffee?”
Knowing she’d get no information until he warmed up, she pointed to the kitchen. “All she has that’s hot is cocoa.”
“Perfect.” He nudged her toward the kitchen. “Come on. I’ll tell you what went down while you’re fixing it.”
Jordan reached for a cup, filled it with tap water, and then put it in the microwave before turning back to her brother. “You’re killing me, Danny. If you don’t start talking, I swear I’m going to wring your neck.”
His eyes flashed their signature mischievous glare before he obviously decided it wasn’t the time or the place to verbally spar with her. “A man we identified as Johnny Lorenzo was lying in front of the doorway with a bullet in the back of his neck. We think he was trying to get away when he was shot.”
“Oh no!” Jordan said, taking the hot water out of the microwave and adding the chocolate mix. She was afraid to ask the next question but was unable to stop herself. “If I had gone back, could I have saved him?”
“According to the Grayson County ME, who, lucky for us, lives only about fifteen minutes away, the bullet probably severed the man’s brain stem. So, no, nothing would have helped him.”
Jordan released a long sigh of relief. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she thought the man was dead because of her inaction.
“I think you should sit down, Jordan.”
The relief of not being responsible for a man’s death quickly vanished, and a burst of panic raced through her body. “Why?”
Danny led her to the kitchen table and waited until she was seated. “There was another body there.”
She gasped. Two shots—two kills. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know who the other victim was but had to ask, anyway. “Who was it?”
“Diego Morales.”
Her heart sank, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “Oh my Lord, what will Maria do now?”
“I knew you would be upset. The preliminary exam shows they were probably both shot with the same gun, a forty-five, but we’ll have to wait for ballistics to confirm it.”
“Diego was the night watchman,” she said, wondering why she hadn’t remembered that before. She recalled hearing Lucas Santana talk about how stupid Diego had been to walk away from his job at Santana Circle Ranch and take the lower-paying job at the meatpacking plant.
“That may be true, but working security wasn’t the only thing he did out there—at least not tonight. He was processing beef when he was killed and was still wearing his bloody apron.”
“Maybe that was part of his job,” Jordan said, more concerned with what would happen to Maria now that both Diego and Rusty were gone.
“We checked with the owner. Diego’s only job was making sure the premises were secure on the weekends.”
“You spoke to Carole Anne?”
“Her dad. He has no idea why Diego was cutting up meat.”
“Do you?”
Danny rubbed his chin, his eyes thoughtful. “I have a theory, and if I’m right, it would explain why the cattle rustlers have been so hard to catch. I knew someone would slip up and give me the break I needed to solve this case.”
Jordan thought it through but was unable to follow his reasoning.
Danny leaned forward, his eyes animated with the possibility he might have a positive lead. “I’m thinking Cooper and the dead guy stole the cattle last night and took them dir
ectly to the packing plant where Diego was waiting to process the beef. By the time anyone could figure out they were missing livestock, the meat would already be wrapped in white butcher paper and hidden away in Cooper’s secret meat locker.”
Jordan nodded. “That’s actually very clever, but that means Carole Anne and her father must be in on it, too.”
“Not necessarily,” Danny said, shaking his head. “What if Cooper was using the beef exclusively for his barbecue business? That would certainly save on operating costs and line his pockets with extra cash.” He paused. “And it might explain why the food is so good at Beef Daddy’s. The livestock we found in the pen outside the plant were Wagyu cows.”
A flashback to the night Cooper had invited them all to his warehouse after he’d treated them to a free meal at his restaurant brought some clarity to the whole theory. Excited, she asked, “Remember when we were at Cooper’s warehouse for dessert and he nearly mauled me in his private office?”
“Yeah, but I still think you overreacted.”
“Maybe so, but I remember his office being in the back of a smaller refrigerated room.” She made a gun with her finger and pointed it at him. “And while I was overreacting, I noticed the room was filled with nothing but packaged Wagyu beef.”
Danny chuckled. “I think I love you, sis. My guess is Cooper either stole them from Marcus Taylor, or old Marcus and his southern belle wife, Brenda Sue, are up to their necks in a scam to double dip on profits from their stock.”
“By getting a kickback for the cows and then filing insurance claims saying they were stolen?” Jordan slammed her hand on the desk, and both of them turned when Sandy mumbled something.
Satisfied her friend was still asleep, Jordan continued, but this time in a much softer voice. “I suggested that after they found those cows up in Kansas with a legitimate bill of sale. You pooh-poohed me, remember?”
He had the good sense to look sheepish under her glare. “Okay, maybe I was wrong. Either way, I’ll definitely be having another talk with the Taylors tomorrow to test out my—your—theory and see their reaction. And there’s an APB out on Cooper. I’m betting he can be persuaded to shed some light on all this.”
Jordan was unable to bask in the compliment because of the sadness that suddenly gripped her. “Brenda Sue was practically raised by Diego and Maria Morales. There’s no way she could have been involved in his death.”
“What if she didn’t know he was going to be murdered? What if Diego and Cooper got into an argument over something and cooler heads didn’t prevail? Or what if Cooper was hell-bent on claiming the number one spot in the rustling ring and eliminated the competition? That might explain Rusty’s death, too.”
Jordan shook her head. “You might be jumping the gun here, Danny. You don’t even know for sure that Rusty was involved in the theft ring.”
“No, but I promise I’m going to find out. This latest lead is too good not to yield results. I hate to say this, kiddo, but you may have given me just what I need to show my bosses I know what I’m doing.”
“Not on purpose,” she teased.
“Who cares that you stumbled onto this because you’re forever sticking your nose into other people’s business?” When she frowned, he added, “Just kidding. If this pans out, I’ll owe you one.”
“What about the security camera I saw? Were you able to identity Cooper on it?”
“The tape was gone along with the murder weapon.”
“So now you think Cooper might’ve killed Rusty, too? What about the Taylors? The last I heard you were leaning toward Marcus as the perp.”
Danny laughed out loud. “Just because I said you might be right about this one little thing, don’t go trying to impress me with your Dirty Harry lingo.” His face turned serious. “It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we find out Cooper and Taylor were in cahoots for whatever reason. A couple of uniforms are knocking on Cooper’s door as we speak, and my guess is, he’ll open up like a yellow rose under the hot Texas sun.”
The flower analogy reminded Jordan of Karen’s greenhouse and the monkshood. “Did you ever talk to the waiter who served our drinks at the Cattlemen’s Ball?”
Danny stared, confusion on his face. “I thought I told you about him.”
“No, you didn’t. Were you able to link him to the poison that killed Rusty?”
“He wasn’t in his apartment when we served the warrant, but we found a vial of white powder that tested out as aconite. We’re pretty confident he was the one who slipped it into Rusty’s drink. We just don’t know why.”
“He won’t talk?”
“He can’t,” Danny said, finishing his drink and carrying the cup to the sink before turning back to face her. “That’s another thing I forgot to tell you. They found his body in an isolated wooded area close to the Oklahoma border last night.”
CHAPTER 20
After lowering the thermostat and closing up the house, Danny had insisted Jordan drive Sandy’s car home since she was still so groggy from the sleeping pill. He followed in his own car. Five miles down the road, Sandy had already fallen back asleep, and Jordan was left with only her own thoughts to keep her awake.
Danny had mentioned before they’d left the lake house that he’d made plans with Officer Rutherford to meet at Taylor’s ranch around ten fifteen that morning. Jordan was already anticipating another call from Brenda Sue later in the day to ream her out again.
Staring out the window at nothing in particular, Jordan couldn’t stop thinking about Maria Morales. She’d assumed the older woman’s fear had been for her own safety, but now she wondered if Maria had sensed Diego was in danger.
But why tell me? Did she think I could make it go away?
Jordan had no idea how expensive home health care had become now that Rusty was no longer around to help with the cost, but she guessed it was not easy making ends meet without the extra cash. With his lower-paying job at the meat-processing plant, Diego had probably had to supplement his income with a little butchering on the side. But he had to have suspected something was illegal about the whole operation. Why else would Cooper and his friend show up on Friday nights with cows and ask a night watchman to process them?
Thinking about Cooper, Jordan wondered if he’d recognized her when their eyes met for a brief moment as they were both running away from the gunshots. Although it had been dark, the moon had illuminated the parking lot enough so she had identified him, and common sense told her he must have ID’d her, too.
She shivered thinking about it, remembering how uncomfortable she’d felt around him even before she knew he was a thief—and possibly a killer!
A million questions ran through her mind. What if being top dog in the theft ring hadn’t been the motive, and Rusty had really been killed because he couldn’t keep it in his pants? What if the waiter that night secretly had a thing for Brenda Sue? He did work at the Taylors’ ranch and may have been tired of watching Brenda Sue throw herself at Rusty.
Or maybe he just hated Rusty because he seemed to have it all. She figured they’d never know since the waiter was now on a slab at the county morgue.
Jordan was still thinking about that after she’d parked Sandy’s car and made sure Sandy was safely inside her apartment. She hurried to Danny’s pickup and climbed in. They were almost to the city limits when Danny finally broke the silence.
“What are you frowning about?”
“Was I frowning?” When he nodded, she shrugged. “I was thinking about the waiter. What if he had no connection to the cattle rustling?”
Danny pulled the car behind the Empire Apartments and slid into one of the empty spots. After he opened the door and got out, she followed suit, waiting beside the car for his reply.
“What other motive could he possibly have?” he finally asked after giving it a lot of thought.
Again she shrugged. “I don’t know. Jealousy? Hatred, maybe?”
“Whoa! What’s going on under that mop of red hair, Jord
an? How did you come up with that?”
“Brenda Sue still loved Rusty. I saw it the minute she touched his arm that night. What if she and the waiter had a thing, too?”
“Guess that could be a reason, but my money’s still on him being just a hired gun—or in this case, a hired poisoner.”
Jordan smirked. “That’s not even a word, but you’re probably right. It seems a logical choice that Marcus Taylor was the one writing the check.”
They’d just started across the parking lot to the apartment building when a slight movement to her left caught Jordan’s eye, and she shrieked, grabbing Danny’s arm.
“Sheesh! You’re going to give me a heart attack.” He pointed to a calico cat making its way from the garbage cans to the alley behind the building. “Although I have to admit that is one ferocious-looking kitty.”
“Shut up.” She gave him a shove, wishing she wasn’t so jittery. “Guess my nerves are shot.”
“You should be reveling in all the good you did today. First, you solved the mysterious pounding thing at the lake house, and because of you, Sandy will be able to keep the house out of foreclosure. Plus, you handed me the biggest lead yet in my investigation.” He playfully punched her shoulder. “I should have this wrapped up by the end of the week and be on my way back to Amarillo by next weekend.”
“I will miss you, you know.”
He laughed. “Yes, you will, but don’t bust out the champagne just yet. I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot more of me in the next couple of months.”
She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow as his meaning sunk in. “Danny McAllister, are you saying you might be falling for Sandy?”
“Oh, hell no. Don’t go getting crazy on me, Jordan. I like Sandy, and I wouldn’t mind exploring the possibilities, but that’s all.” He unlocked the door and allowed her to walk into the apartment ahead him.
“I think she’d like that,” Jordan said, turning to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. She didn’t recognize this man who opened doors for her and talked about a woman without saying he’d like to serve her breakfast in bed. But she liked the new persona. “I can barely hold my eyes open. I’ll see you in a few hours.” She made her way to the bedroom.
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