by Desiree Holt
Zoe frowned. “I’ve been going over it in my mind again, trying to recall all our conversations in the weeks before that night. She worked for the Lewis and Clark County Attorney as a paralegal, so she was always busy. I know she loved her job, although sometimes she said she wished days were eighty-hours long.”
Hank nodded. “I don’t think there’s a county attorney’s office anywhere that isn’t always busier than shit. But did she seem more distracted than usual? Can you remember?”
“It’s hard to say. Usually by the weekend she was trying to finish a hundred things so she could have some free time. Somehow, I had the idea she was dating a new guy, but she never specifically said so. I guess I just figured we’d gossip about it over the weekend if it was true.”
“So, nobody hassling her?” Sean asked. “The new boyfriend, if there was one? Someone in the office? Maybe someone the county attorney was filing charges against?’
She shook her head. “As far as I know, Justine never hooked up with men like that.”
Sean snorted. “Half the time you don’t know if a man is ‘like that’ until he does something, and by then it’s too late.”
Zoe shook her head. “No. I’d be able to tell.” Then she nibbled her bottom lip. “But there was definitely something. I just hope after ten years my imagination isn’t making things up. Besides, I’ve talked to Warren Craig, the county attorney, again, and he would have said something if that was true. He wanted this solved as much as anyone else. Justine was very valuable to him.”
“Okay, let’s it go for now.” Sean knew there was always something simmering below the surface, something people didn’t even realize. It would take some time to fish it out. “Hank, did you want to get those fingerprints to the sheriff?”
“As a matter of fact, that’s why I walked out here. Alex is back in the office and can talk to us right now. I gave him a bare outline of the situation, and he wants to get all the details. See where he can help. If he can do some investigating on his own, you know he will.” He looked at Zoe. “In case whoever this is decides to follow you here.”
Sean glanced at Zoe and again saw the color fade from her face. But then she hauled in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Just give me a minute to get ready.”
Hank drove, and from his place in the shotgun seat Sean took time to look at the scenery. He needed something to distract his mind from the woman in the back seat. He hadn’t paid much attention on the drive from Bozeman, but now he could see stretches of land that belonged to ranches, the Crazy Mountains as a backdrop. There was something so soothing about them, a peaceful feeling he hadn’t known in a very long time. He’d have to make time to do some exploring when they got Zoe and her stalker taken care of.
Maybe Zoe will go with me.
The minute the thought flashed in his brain, he gave himself a silent order to squash it. He hadn’t the faintest idea where this was going. He considered it a small victory that she agreed to see what happened between them. Not fight it. But how much of that was the situation that now bound them together? Why was he even thinking that far ahead?
Because this woman got to me like no other woman has in forever. And the night with her was maybe the best sex of my life.
She was a pistol, that was for sure. And for certain a pain in the ass to protect. But the desire to be the one doing it slammed into him. Maybe it was time to get his head out of his ass and stop feeling sorry for himself. Maybe it was time to see if his hard-earned SEAL skills still worked. And maybe there was a reason why Zoe had walked into that bar and into his life.
But he’d have to be careful. Not crowd her. He wanted her invested in this as much as he was. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel he was crowding her emotionally. But damn! He really, really wanted her in his life. And he was going to find ways to let her know.
Chapter 5
Zoe sat in the back seat, looking out the window and enjoying the scenery. She’d been to Alex Rossi’s office before, following up on stories, and she loved this part of the drive, a winding two-lane highway with a mixture of tall ponderosa pines and vast grazing land stretching on both sides. She was glad for the gorgeous scenery because, despite their chat, there was still an air of tension vibrating around Sean. Maybe she could make him comfortable enough to share with her. Help him try to get past it.
Maybe in bed.
She immediately wiped that out of her mind. She’d have to get him to trust her first. Not only that, she’d noticed that as the day wore on he acquired a slight limp which he did his best to conceal. She was still turning her thoughts over in her mind when Hank rounded a curve and turned down a short gravel road. He came to a stop in the parking lot next to the one-story light-tan block building with a porch across the front.
Janet Cochran, Alex’s office manager, greeted them when they walked in, smiling at them. “Hey, Zoe. Hank. Nice to see you guys. Is Sheriff Rossi expecting you?”
“He is.” The voice came from the inner doorway.
“Hi, Hank.” Zoe smiled at him. She was always impressed with how much he looked the part of his job. He was tall, lean, broad-shouldered, dressed in the official khaki uniform of his office. A holster holding a gun rode on one hip, and a sheriff’s badge was pinned to his shirt.
“Thanks for seeing us, Alex.” Hank shook the man’s hand. “Meet my cousin, Sean Patterson.”
“Welcome to Montana, Sean. Nice to meet you. Hank tells me you’re a former SEAL. We should spend some time talking.”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Zoe could see Sean was a little out of his comfort zone, but he nodded and shook hands.
“And, of course, you know Zoe.”
“I do. Nice seeing you again, Zoe. Hank says you have a little problem. One that might not be so little.”
Zoe nodded. “Yes, one that came out of nowhere.”
“Well, not exactly nowhere,” Hank corrected. “It’s been brewing for a long time.”
Alex looked at her, one eyebrow lifted. “Is that right?”
“The situation’s from ten years ago,” Hank explained, “but she’s just recently kicked the can and turned over a pile of trouble.”
“Zoe? Trouble?” He grinned. “Imagine that.”
“In fact, someone broke into her apartment today and left this present for her.” He handed over the plastic bag with the fake dead body in it. “I figured you might be able to check this stuff over better than I could.”
“I don’t know, Hank. That’s some pretty sophisticated stuff you’ve got out there.”
“Maybe. But I also believe this needs to have a lawman’s fingerprints all over it. Just in case.”
Alex lifted an eyebrow but took the sack from him as a serious look washed over his face. “Okay. Come on in and let’s have the details. Janet? We’re taking the conference room. Keep everyone out and tell whoever needs me I’m busy.”
“As usual?” she teased. Then her face sobered. “It’s okay, guys. I’ve got it.”
Alex locked the bag in his office before opening the door to the conference room. Zoe noticed that when they sat at the table, Sean made sure to take a chair on one side of her. She realized with a start that just his presence next to her gave her a secure feeling. How had all this happened in less than twenty-four hours?
Alex made sure everyone had water or coffee before he took his seat at the table.
“Okay, Zoe.“ He dipped his head at her. “Hank says the fingerprints he wants me to run have to do with a book you’re working on. Another true crime, right?”
“Well–” she began.
Hank interrupted her. “Yes. A lot to do with her.”
“Okay.” Alex held up a hand. “How about telling me what’s going on here. And from the beginning. Zoe, you’ve written some great stories about cases that had some impact on us. Hopefully, we can return the favor.”
“Thank you.”
She was glad she’d gone over the details of Justine’s murder so many times becaus
e she was able to give Alex the details in a clear, concise manner. Retelling it always hurt and made her sad, but at the same time it angered her that whoever had committed the crime had gotten away with it. Someone had dropped the ball, and she was determined to find out who and why.
When she’d finished, she sat back in her chair and took a long drink from her bottle of water.
“That’s some story,” Alex agreed. “With a lot of questions left hanging.”
“And I’m going to get answers,” she told him. “Justine was one of the best friends I ever had. Even when our work didn’t let us hang out as much as we liked, we kept in constant touch. She was a special person. I want her killer caught and punished, and I’m hoping researching this book will give me some answers.”
Alex leaned forward on his arms. “Are you willing to share all your notes with me? You have my word I’ll keep them locked up and not pass them around to anyone. No one will know what we’re doing unless it is imperative to get answers.”
She hesitated a moment before nodding her head.
“I trust you, Alex. And I want you to have whatever you need to look into this.” She swallowed a sigh. “I’m not saying the police department and sheriff’s office that serve Helena didn’t do a good job, but hell. I’ve seen them solve cases with a lot less. Just give me a second here.”
She booted up her laptop and opened her email, finding the address she had for the sheriff.
“I could be way off base,” Hank said, while she clicked away, “but this smacks of either politics or wealth or both. That’s what it takes to bury something like this.”
Sean shifted in the chair beside her. “I’m the amateur here, but I agree with you, Hank. It takes power and position to kill an investigation and bury any clues or evidence.”
“I wouldn’t call a former SEAL an amateur,” Hank protested.
“But not law enforcement,” he pointed out.
“Sometimes those are the best kind,” Alex told him.
“If we’re talking conspiracy here, that would take a lot of people,” Zoe pointed out. “You know that. How could you make sure that many people kept their mouths shut?”
“Easy,” Alex told her. “You involve as few people as possible. Cherry pick the ones you do, hide evidence, and create a story that they sell. Look very busy for a few weeks then come up with nothing.”
“Okay, Alex, the doc is on its way to you. Guard it with your life.” Zoe sat back in her chair, all the air suddenly leaving her body.
“Will do. But that means we have to start at ground zero,” Hank pointed out,“ and look at every single person in her life at that time. And every case she worked on for the prosecutor. And who her friends were.”
“That’s correct,” Sean agreed.
“Alex, I can’t ask you to do all that.”
“There are things that I can do,” he told her, “and I want to. There’s stuff I can look into, people I can talk to who wouldn’t be available to you. Also, I can check the NCIC. The National Crime Information Center database. Almost every law enforcement officer has access to it.”
“But won’t they know if you access it?”
Alex shrugged. “Maybe, but I’d say not likely. Not unless they have it flagged to let them know if someone does. But just to camouflage a little, I’ll access a bunch of other cases, too. Similar ones, as if I’m looking for a pattern.”
Fear washed through Zoe at his words.
“Do you think that might be what this is, Alex? That she’s part of a string of killings?”
He shook his head. “No, and for a lot of reasons. For one thing, her car is missing. Hasn’t been found in all this time. If it was a pattern, then it would have been dumped after the next killing and the asshole grabbed a new car. No, I think there was some kind of DNA in there the killer didn’t want left. I’ll check NCIC to see if it might be, but my gut tells me no.”
“Which makes it personal,” she spat. “Which is what I thought all along.”
“If you can dig into that stuff,” Sean told him, “we’ll do the rest of it.” He looked at Zoe. “You and me.”
A warm feeling surged through her at his words.
“Wait just a minute.” Hank smacked his hand on the table. “You’re supposed to be keeping her safe, not dragging her into danger.”
“She’ll be safe. I promise you that.”
“Did you not hear what I said earlier about her not leaving the ranch?”
Sean chuckled, a rusty sound. “Tell me you don’t actually believe you can enforce that. You want me to protect Zoe, and I will. I’ll be sticking to her like a second skin. I’ve known her less than twenty-four hours, and I already know you can’t lock her up on the ranch until this gets settled. She’ll find a way to get off and by herself, if you try, which defeats the whole purpose.”
Zoe watched Hank wrestle with himself over this. Finally—and it was a battle—he nodded.
“Okay. But if even one hair on her head gets crinkled—”
Sean held up his hand. “It’s on my head, I get it. But take my word. That’s not going to happen.”
Zoe thought how interesting it was that for a man who was totally removed from everything at the start of this situation—or whatever the hell it was—and not even sure he wanted the “assignment,” he was now fully engaged and committed. Was it selfish of her to hope she personally had a little to do with that?
“And I’ll be keeping an eye on things, too, Hank,” Alex told him. “I’m going to start my own investigation so I’ll know if things are heating up. But I’m going to do it very quietly.”
“Fine.” Hank glared at her. “But home every night, and when the two of you leave to do anything, you make sure both Alex and I know about it.”
“Yes, Dad.” She touched his arm. “Look. I’m not stupid enough to deliberately put myself in danger. I obviously tripped somebody’s wire for them to send those two warnings. I’ll go over everything I’ve done for the past three days and be extra alert. And Sean will make sure of that. Okay?”
He gave one sharp nod.
“Good.” Alex rose from his chair. “Well, come on, everyone. Let’s get this fingerprint thing taken care of so we can get started.”
He did Zoe’s fingerprint first so they could run the ones Sean had brought against them and see if any could be eliminated. Out of the fourteen in the envelopes, eight of them were Zoe’s, which didn’t help them much. She watched as Alex ran the rest of them through AFIS—the national Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Two of them came back unknown, but the other four got hits.
“Well, well, well.” He stared at the computer screen in front of him.
“Good news or bad?” Zoe was almost afraid to ask.
“Both. Maybe. One of these is what I call a nickel and dimer. Picks up spare change doing odd nasty jobs for nastier people. Ronnie Destin. We’ll get the word out on him.”
“Is he from around this area?” Hank wanted to know.
“Mostly these three counties. He’s slippery so we might need some time tracking him down, but we’ll get him.” He looked at the prints again. “Of course, it’s been discovered that fingerprints aren’t necessarily as specific as we’d like. A report published by the US National Institute of Justice concluded that automated systems are significantly less accurate than well-trained examiners. But at least it gives us a place to start.”
“And the other one?” Zoe asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“That’s a little more difficult. The prints are barely legible. Not enough to make an identification, for sure.”
“So now what?”
“First thing,” Alex said, after exchanging glances with the other two men, “is to pick up Ronnie Destin and see what we can squeeze out of him. If his half a brain is working, I’m sure he’s not hanging around here close to us, so I’ll put the word out to neighboring counties. No other prints to check at the moment?”
“No.” Sean shook his head.
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“Okay. I’m going to quietly put some feelers out and see what we get back. Zane Halstead is real good at ferreting things out without letting people realize what he’s doing.”
“How’s he coming along?” Hank asked.
“Great. And Lainie’s like a new person. He tells me all the time that coming out here was the best decision he made.” He looked at the others. “Zoe, you wrote the piece about what happened, right?”
She nodded. That had been a great story to write. “Zane had been a SEAL like you,” she told Sean. “Dealing with a medical discharge and not too well. His sister, who’s an ER nurse and a friend of the woman now his wife, knew he was coming out here to see Alex and begged him to take Lainie with him. Her fiancé’s ugly side had come to life, and he was beating the hell out of her.”
She saw a spark of interest flash in Sean’s eyes. “So, what happened?”
“He followed them out here, tried to grab her, and Zane shot the fucker dead.”
“Language,” Hank warned.
“Puhleeze. There’s no other word that could describe him.”
“And now,” Alex added, “they’re married, and he’s one of my top deputies. Don’t know what I’d do without him.” He glanced at Sean. “We’re building a good team here with former SEALs.”
Hank laughed. “Trying to steal him already?”
“Just putting it out there. I imagine you’ve already introduced him to Brotherhood Protectors.”
Zoe saw interest flare in Sean’s eyes, but then in a moment it was gone, and he leaned forward.
“Glad he found a place for himself, but right now keeping Zoe safe is my priority.”
A tiny thrill raced through her at his words. Then she grinned at Alex. “And I’m a full-time job.”
“To say the least,” Hank agreed. “Okay. So where are we now?”
“Okay, don’t everyone explode, but I want to go back and take a look at the place where Zoe’s body was found.” She held up a hand. “Before you all chop my head off, you know I’m going to do whatever I want on this. And you know I will be extra careful. I want answers, but they won’t do much good if I’m dead.” She looked at Sean. “And my bodyguard will make sure I don’t do anything stupid. .”
