Finger on the Trigger

by Delores Fossen

  It wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned that in the past half hour, since they’d gotten the call from the PI at the hospital, and Griff knew it was frustrating for Rachel to be tucked away at her family’s ranch while not one but two of their suspects were being brought in for questioning. SAPD was on the way to McCall Canyon with Buddy, but at this very minute the doctors were also in the process of releasing Marlon, who would also be escorted to Egan’s office.

  And that was the reason neither Griff nor Egan wanted Rachel there.

  Either Marlon or Buddy could be the person who’d tried to kill her, and while it might give her some satisfaction to face them down, it was way too dangerous. Griff doubted that either man would attack her at the sheriff’s office, but a trip there would mean being out on the road. With the sniper still at large, it was a huge risk he didn’t want to take.

  Griff continued to set up his laptop while Rachel paced across her office. “You’ll be able to watch the interrogations,” he reminded her. “Egan will text us when he’s ready.”

  Griff was trying to link to the camera in the room where Egan would be conducting the interviews. She already knew all that, of course, but judging from the look she gave him, merely watching wouldn’t be enough.

  He considered playing the guilt card and mentioning that he didn’t want to be shot at again today, but he didn’t want to put that on Rachel. She already looked ready to drop, and that’s why Griff stopped what he was doing. He took her by the hand and had her sit on the small sofa.

  “Why would Buddy have even tried to see my mother?” she asked. Griff put a bottle of water in her hand, and she took a sip as if she were on autopilot.

  It was a question he’d been giving a lot of thought to in the short time since they’d learned about it. Part of him wanted to dismiss it as the actions of a druggie who might not even know what he was doing. But that couldn’t be right. Buddy would have had to remember Warren’s wife, along with also knowing that she was in the hospital. According to Warren, the man had never met Helen, so what could he have wanted to say to her that he couldn’t have said to Warren? In a simple phone call...

  Yes, something about that definitely didn’t make sense.

  Griff was in such deep thought that it took him a moment to realize Rachel was staring at him. “Please don’t keep anything from me. There have been too many secrets already.”

  Yes, there had been, and Griff didn’t want any more. He was just now starting to tear down the walls that Rachel had put up between them, and he didn’t want to do anything to ruin that. Of course, even without the walls, she still might never fully trust him again.

  The kisses might have been just that. Kisses. The attraction had always been strong between them, but that didn’t mean things were going to change. And Griff wasn’t even certain he wanted that, because in the back of his mind he would always wonder if he was good enough for her. Old baggage was a bear when it came to relationships.

  “This isn’t much of a secret because I told you I was going to let your father know about Buddy trying to see your mother, but Warren asked to watch Buddy’s interview,” Griff said. “That means he’d have to be in the office with us. He’ll understand if you say no.”

  She stared at him, then gave a heavy sigh. “Let him know it’s okay. He might see something in the interview that’ll help with the investigation.”

  That was Griff’s take on it, too, so he sent Warren a text to let the man know he could come to Rachel’s office. She stood, looking as if she was trying to steel herself for this. What she didn’t do was sit behind her desk, nor had she the entire time they’d been in the room. Instead, she went to the bookcase, which was chock-full of family photos.

  There was a tap at the door. Warren, no doubt. But he didn’t come in until Griff opened it for him.

  “Thank you,” Warren immediately said.

  Rachel didn’t look back at her father when he came in. She kept her attention on the photos. There were some old pictures of Egan, Court and her as children. Another of Griff and her after he’d just become a Ranger. There was also a picture of Rachel with some of her former coworkers at social services, where she’d once worked. That was four years ago, before she’d taken over as ranch manager.

  “I’ll probably go back to my job as a social worker,” she said. She gave another sigh. “Well, I will when someone stops trying to kill me.”

  “If that’s what you want,” Griff settled for saying. He looked at Warren to see how he was handling this. Not well, but then her dad must have known it was a strong possibility that Rachel wouldn’t want to keep working for him.

  “I can’t stay here. I can’t do this.” Rachel tipped her head toward the desk, then finally made eye contact with her father. “This isn’t about punishing you. It’s just what I need.”

  He nodded, ran his hand over his head and nodded again. “All right. I’ll see about getting some help in here. Any objections to Rayna coming in?”

  Rayna would almost certainly be Warren’s daughter-in-law soon, since she was engaged to Court. She was also a good choice since she was in the process of moving her horse training operation to the ranch.

  “I think Court and Rayna would like that,” Rachel said, and there wasn’t a trace of bitterness in her voice.

  For Warren, that lack of bitterness was probably not a good thing. If Rachel had been speaking out of anger, he could hold out hope that one day she would get past what he’d done and come home. But whatever she was feeling was a few steps past the bitterness stage, and she was clearly making plans for the future.

  Plans that might not include any of them.

  Griff’s phone dinged with a text message from Egan. “Buddy’s in the interview room,” he relayed, and that sent the three of them to his laptop. “Egan has Marlon in another room, and he’ll question him when he’s done with Buddy.”

  The moment Griff had the feed turned on, he saw Buddy already seated at the table. The man was hunched over, his elbows on the tabletop, his hands pressed to the sides of his head.

  “Can Buddy hear us?” Rachel whispered.

  Griff shook his head. “It’s a one-way feed for both the camera and audio. Buddy knows he’s being recorded, though.” And Griff hoped that didn’t cause the man to hold back any information that could incriminate him.

  “You’ve agreed to talk to me without your attorney present,” Egan reminded Buddy the moment he walked into the interview room.

  “Yeah, yeah.” The man wasn’t slurring his words, but he did seem agitated and hungover. “Let’s just finish this so I can get out of here. Last I heard it’s not a crime for a man to go to the hospital to visit someone.”

  “That depends on what you planned to do if you got in to see my mother,” Egan snapped. From the sound of it, he was agitated, too, but then he was probably working on caffeine and adrenaline.

  “Well, I wasn’t planning on hurtin’ her if that’s what you’re thinking.” He groaned, pressed his hands even harder to his head. Since Buddy was a junkie, he was likely in need of a fix. “I just wanted to ask her some questions, that’s all.”

  “What questions?” Egan demanded.

  “I just want to know what’s going on.”

  Egan pulled back his shoulders. “That’s exactly what I planned on asking you. Now start talking. And FYI, Helen McCall isn’t the one with answers about any of this, so in the future, you stay away from her. Got that?”

  “Yeah, I got it.” Buddy mumbled something under his breath that Griff didn’t catch. “But I don’t have answers, either. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but I figure it’s something bad or I wouldn’t have been dragged in here to the sheriff’s office.”

  “You’re right about it being bad,” Egan confirmed. “And it’s going to get a whole lot worse for you if you don’t start talking. For starters, why did you text my fa
ther and ask him to meet you in San Antonio two nights ago when you were actually in Silver Creek? And before you say that you weren’t there, we have this.” Egan took out the photo of Buddy in the parking lot at the inn.

  He picked up the picture, stared at it for a moment and shook his head. “Yeah, I was there. Warren sent me a text asking me to check out the place. He said his kid was staying there, and she might have crossed paths with somebody bad.”

  “I didn’t do that,” Warren insisted. “I wouldn’t have done that. I didn’t even know where Rachel was.”

  Griff believed him, and judging from the look Rachel gave him, she did, as well. “Is Buddy capable of setting up an attack and an explosion?” she asked her father.

  “No.” Warren seemed pretty certain about that. “The bombing and the shooting were part of an organized plan, and Buddy’s anything but organized.”

  Griff couldn’t argue with that, and while they could possibly rule out Buddy, they still didn’t know who was behind this. If Buddy couldn’t tell them, then maybe Marlon could.

  “Two nights ago, did you send Warren a text to have him meet you at a bar in San Antonio?” Egan asked, continuing with the interview.

  “No,” Buddy answered, but then he hesitated. “Maybe. I honestly don’t remember. Sometimes I forget things.”

  Yeah, probably when he was wasted. Maybe that’s what had happened. But Buddy could be concealing the truth because it would make him an accessory to attempted murder. Or even murder.

  Buddy had another look at the picture, and his brows drew together. “Who took this?”

  “You don’t remember?” Egan asked.

  Buddy kept studying it. “Was it that Marlon fella? The one who works there?” Then he cursed, and didn’t wait for Egan to respond. “It was him, wasn’t it? That little nitwit’s trying to set me up.”

  That got Griff’s attention. Apparently, it got Egan’s, too, because he immediately fired off another question. “How exactly is Marlon trying to do that?”

  Buddy cursed some more. “I don’t know, but he’s a meth head with a mean temper. He must have wanted me there in his town to set me up for something.”

  “You know Marlon well?” Egan said, taking the question right out of Griff’s mouth. Considering the sounds of surprise Warren and Rachel made, this was news to them, too.

  “I know him,” Buddy spat out. “I used to help him get his stuff every now and then, but we had a parting of the ways when I quit doing that sort of thing. It was too risky, and I didn’t want to go back to jail.”

  “Marlon never mentioned that he knew Buddy,” Rachel said. “He told us that he guessed Buddy was a CI, and made it seem as if that night was the first time he’d ever seen Buddy.”

  Marlon had indeed said that, and now Griff tried to think of a reason why Buddy would lie. He couldn’t think of one, but could certainly come up with a reason for Marlon lying. No way would he tell the truth if he was the one behind these attacks.

  “Now I’m thinking that maybe Warren didn’t send me that text to check on his kid,” Buddy went on. “Maybe it was this idiot Marlon.” He groaned. “He sent me a text to get me there so he could set me up, didn’t he? He planned for me to take the fall for what nearly happened to Warren’s kid and that Texas Ranger.”

  Rachel pulled in a breath and placed her palm on her chest as if to steady her heart. “Marlon is bad news,” she whispered. “He wants to get back at me for what happened with his girlfriend, and what better way to do it than to set up his former drug supplier, who also happened to be my father’s CI?”

  Buddy would indeed make a good patsy, and Griff wasn’t surprised when Egan excused himself from the interview and stepped out of the room. A moment later, Griff’s phone rang with a call from him.

  “You heard?” Egan asked.

  “Every word. You believe him? Because I certainly do.”

  “Yeah, I believe him, and that’s why I’m going across the hall now to talk to Marlon. I’d rather not wait until we can set up a feed from the camera to your laptop, so I’ll just have to let you know what Marlon says.”

  Griff thanked him, ended the call and turned back to the screen. Buddy was on his feet now, shaking his head and mumbling under his breath. Obviously, he was becoming even more agitated. That went on for a couple of seconds before he threw open the interview room door and stormed out into the hall.

  “I wanna talk to that meth head now!” he shouted. He added a lot of curse words. “You lied. You made the cops think I was in Silver Creek to kill somebody, and you know that wasn’t true. I was set up.”

  The camera angle wasn’t wide enough for Griff to see Egan or Buddy, but he had no trouble hearing them. Or Marlon.

  “What’s he doing here?” Marlon snarled. His voice wasn’t as loud as Buddy’s, but it was close.

  “You set me up,” Buddy repeated.

  “You stay the hell there,” Egan interrupted, and a moment later, Griff saw him putting Buddy back in the doorway of the interview room.

  Now Griff could see not only Egan’s face, but Marlon’s, too, and Marlon was not a happy camper. His eyes were narrowed, and every muscle in his face was tight.

  “I didn’t do anything to you,” Marlon insisted. “You just showed up in Silver Creek, where I happen to live.”

  “Buddy says you know him,” Egan told Marlon. “It’s true?”

  Marlon took his time answering that. “Yeah. I met him when I was using, but until the night before last, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him in two years.”

  “You sent me a text to lure me to Silver Creek,” Buddy snapped.

  “No, I didn’t.” Marlon turned to Egan and repeated that. “And I didn’t mention that I knew Buddy because I didn’t think it was important. What was important was that he was there spying on Rachel and that he was up to no good.”

  The accusation caused Buddy to try to launch himself at Marlon, but Egan put a quick stop to it. He practically shoved the man back into the interview room.

  “You need help?” someone asked. Court. He made his way up the hall toward them.

  Egan gave a quick nod. “Make sure Buddy doesn’t come out. I’ll finish the interview with him when I’m done with Marlon.”

  Even though he wouldn’t be able to see or hear Egan in the interview room with Marlon, Griff hoped that Buddy would say something else that would help them unravel what was happening. However, Rachel’s phone rang before Court could get Buddy seated.

  “It’s Dr. Baldwin,” she said, looking down at the screen.

  Since he was the doctor who managed her seizures, Griff hoped nothing was wrong. Obviously, Rachel thought that was a possibility, because she stared at the screen a moment longer, as if dreading to hear what he might say.

  “I’ll be right back,” she added to Griff and Warren, and went into the hall to take the call.

  “Is she okay?” Warren asked, keeping his eyes on her until she closed the door behind her.

  “I don’t know,” Griff answered honestly. It obviously wasn’t what Warren wanted to hear. He had enough to worry about, but Griff could tell that he’d just added his daughter to his worry list.

  Griff intended to stay put and respect her privacy, but when he heard Rachel gasp, he opened the door to check on her. Seeing her didn’t help relieve any of his worries. That’s because there wasn’t a drop of color left on her face, and without saying a word, she handed him the phone.

  “Dr. Baldwin? It’s me, Griff. What’s wrong?” He wasn’t sure he was ready to hear what had caused Rachel to react that way, but since she looked ready to slip to the floor, he hooked his arm around her waist, and he put the call on speaker.

  “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you,” the doctor said. “That should come from Rachel.”

  “Tell him,” Rachel insisted.

  Even with tha
t order, Dr. Baldwin hesitated several moments. “When you brought Rachel to the hospital, I had some tests run. Well, I just got back the results.” The doctor paused again. “Rachel’s pregnant.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Pregnant.

  Rachel kept repeating the word to herself, but it didn’t make sense. Apparently, Griff was having a similar reaction, because he looked as stunned as she felt. And she was confused, too. Because there was something about this that didn’t make sense.

  “The test results must be wrong,” she told Dr. Baldwin. “I took a home pregnancy test two weeks ago, and it was negative.”

  Judging from the look of shock that went through Griff’s eyes, he hadn’t had a clue about the test. But then, they hadn’t exactly had a chance to discuss something like that.

  “Were you having symptoms?” the doctor asked her. “Is that why you took the test?”

  “No. No symptoms. I just, uh, wanted to be sure.”

  “I would ask if you’re having symptoms now, but with all the stress you’ve been under, you might not have even noticed if you were. Anyway,” he continued, “home pregnancy tests are reliable, but not as reliable as the test I had done. I can repeat it, of course, but with everything that’s going on in your life, I didn’t think you’d want to leave the ranch.”

  Dr. Baldwin didn’t seem especially hopeful that there’d be a different outcome if she took a second test, but Rachel had to know for sure. “Is there any way you can have someone bring a test kit here?”

  “Of course. But if it’s positive, I’ll need to examine you again, because we might need to adjust your seizure meds.”

  Oh, mercy. She hadn’t even thought of that. The possibility of a pregnancy didn’t seem real, but if it was, there was no way she would want the meds to affect the baby.

  “What should I do?” she asked, and tried not to sound as if she was about to cry. That’s because Griff had his attention pinned to her, and she could see both the worry and the guilt written all over him.

  He was blaming himself for this.