Desire and Protect

by Lori Ryan

  She held her hand at the base of her neck, as though breathing through the idea of Cade trying to find her brother was difficult.

  Shane cut in. “Let’s talk to Martha first and see if she can get the Army to do this. They know the area, the players. If not, I think the General might be able to connect us with the right people to send into the region. Hell, right now, I don’t even know exactly where he is, and we don’t know for sure that he’s…” He didn’t finish the thought. They all knew what he meant.

  “I’ll go see Martha.” Laura looked to Shane as she said this.

  “Are you sure? I can take care of it for you,” Shane said.

  “No, it’s all right. She’s been seeing Jamie these last few months. We meet at the park every other week. When she’s old enough, I’ll explain who Martha is to Jamie and why she’s in her life.” She gripped Cade’s hand. “She’ll help.”

  Shane nodded. He knew it would kill Laura to ask the woman for help. Laura had lived for three years in a marriage where she was brutally battered. It would have been impossible for Martha Kensington not to know what was happening. The woman had never once lifted a finger to stop her son.

  Laura had once told Shane she thought Martha had probably been subjected to something similar when her husband was alive, but Cade and Shane were both less forgiving than Laura. Still, if she could help them find out if James was alive and get him out of whatever hellhole he was in, it would go a long way toward making up for what she’d done to Laura for all those years.

  May stood, leaning heavily on her cane. “Shane, let’s go on down to the barn and let Laura and Cade have a few minutes to absorb this. You can tell me all about Phoebe on the way down.”

  They stopped on the porch to trade out May’s cane for the wheelchair she used out on the ranch. Theirs was probably the only ranch in Texas with paved wheelchair access paths and ramps between the house and all the barns and out buildings.

  As Shane pushed her toward the barn that held the rescued animals Cade worked with, May opened her interrogation. “Phoebe makes you very happy. I can see it, even when you’re here to deliver news like this.”

  Shane didn’t answer, but he was smiling, nonetheless.

  His mother let out a snort. “And, heaven knows she’s better than those vacuous empty-headed women you usually have on your arm.”

  “Ma!” May Bishop was always kind. Always.

  “Well, it’s true. And you need to hear it. You’ve had this notion that your wife needs to fit some set of criteria like a little checklist in your head. It’s about time you threw that damned checklist out.”

  Shane couldn’t help but think that Phoebe matched every check on his list. His new list, anyway. She was sexy as hell, but she was also smart and funny and she made him laugh. She made him want things for different reasons than he'd wanted them before.

  In the past, wanting a wife and family had been something he just thought he needed to do. Maybe it had been some part of wanting to prove he could do it better than his dad. That he could support them and give them whatever they needed.

  Phoebe made him see family for what it would be with her. It would be about coming together, putting their best selves into their children. As they approached the barn, Phoebe came out carrying Jamie with Josh by her side making faces at the little girl. Phoebe laughed, that free laugh she always had. The one that said it came from her heart, her soul. The one that filled his heart and soul each time he heard it.

  He had planned to take things slow with her. To make sure this didn’t go too far, too fast, in case they wanted to back out. In case they decided they needed to go back to just working together.

  Looking at her now, he knew that was hopeless. It had already gone past the point of no return for him. He only hoped she was on the same page as he was.

  27

  Pity him who makes an opinion certainty.

  Irish Proverb recorded in Fiona O’Malley’s Journal

  Shane was going to have to wait through the weekend to see if Phoebe was on the same page as he was. Her dad stayed in town for the weekend, taking up most of her time. Shane joined them for dinner on Saturday evening, but keeping his distance during the meal had been hard. No leaning over to the table to brush a quick kiss over her lips, no hands running up and down her arm or leg at the table. And there definitely wasn’t any talk of what she felt for him.

  For the first time in memory, dinner at his mother’s house on Sunday was a little subdued. They all laughed and talked about how cute Jamie was in her new cowboy hat, but Shane could see the strain on Laura’s face as they began the long wait for news of her brother.

  And if Shane were honest, he was missing having Phoebe there with him, which was stupid since she’d only accompanied him twice before.

  He was on his way back from dinner when his phone rang. He hit the car’s Bluetooth button and answered, hearing Garret’s voice in reply.

  “Hey Shane, do you have time to talk this evening? Maybe I can swing by your place if you’re headed home?”

  “Sure. I can meet you there in twenty minutes?”

  “You got it.”

  Just shy of twenty minutes later, he pulled up to his place, seeing Garret waiting for him in his car.

  “Hey, I thought you had your deputies covering most weekends so you could have some time with Ashley?” Shane unlocked his door and let them in, tossing the keys on the small shelf by the door. Garret was in uniform, so he didn’t bother to offer him a beer.

  Instead, he poured two glasses of water and led the way to the living room at the back of his apartment.

  Garret answered as they settled into the large recliners that sat in front of the television. Not that Shane used the space much anymore, but at one point, watching baseball and hockey in the room had been one of the ways he unwound.

  “I usually do, but the medical examiner let me know he faxed the results of the autopsy over to my office late last night. I wanted to get on it right away.”

  “Did he find anything?”

  “Yeah.” Garret’s expression was grim. “Fiona overdosed on Propranolol—her blood pressure medication. The empty bottle was near her body when we found her. There was a partial print on her prescription bottle that doesn’t match Fiona’s. I’ve asked Elliot for his prints to rule them out. He swears he didn’t handle her medication. He says she kept it in a cupboard in the kitchen and took it each morning when she made her tea so she wouldn’t forget to take it.”

  Shane frowned. “The finger print alone doesn’t mean much, does it? A friend could have been visiting and handled it. She might have asked them to hand her the bottle?”

  Garret shook his head. “We found something else. There were traces of Rohypnol on the bottle.”

  “Rohypnol? The date rape drug?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “Was it in her system?”

  Garret shook his head. “It’s too hard to tell right now. It won’t show up in the blood or urine. They have to test her hair to know for sure and those results will take time.”

  “What the hell, Garret?”

  “I know. I can’t believe I almost missed this.” Garret looked wrecked.

  “You wouldn’t have. You asked for an autopsy and you hadn’t made up your mind one way or the other about her death. You only told the daughter it looked like suicide.” He had a feeling nothing he said would ease Garret’s conscience.

  Garret didn’t answer. “You knew her better than I did. Who are the people in her life I should be looking at? I need to look at Elliot. It’s a given, but who else?”

  Shane rubbed his chest as though he could make the uneasy ache disappear. “I think Elliot lost his wife years ago. I don’t remember the details. He didn’t live in town when it happened, but of course the story went around when he moved here. And Fiona has an ex-husband, but they seemed to be on decent terms. They’d argue sometimes, but not much. I mean, they went through the tough part of getting the divorce years ag
o and there weren’t any custody issues because their daughter was an adult at the time.”

  “Did you represent Fiona in the divorce?”

  “No. She had already started the divorce when she moved to town, so she used an out-of-town lawyer.”

  “You have her ex-husband’s name?” Garret took out his phone and opened the notes app.

  “Aengus O’Malley. He’s got a bit of a temper, but I think he’s just loud that way. When Fiona sold her house to Elliot, he came tearing into my office one day telling me he planned to sue me for letting the sale happen.”

  Garret’s brows shot up.

  “Yeah, it was ridiculous. He just wanted to blow off steam.”

  “Elliot owns Fiona’s house? I just assumed it was hers.”

  “Oh, yeah. Most people around town know, I think. It wasn’t any secret. Fiona wanted money to travel and things, even though Elliot could have paid for that. She sold him the house so she could contribute to some of what she wanted them to be able to do together.”

  “Are you sure it was her idea?” Garret asked.

  “I think so. And like I told Aengus the day he came into my office, the sale was perfectly legit. She owned the house flat out. I think she bought it with the money the couple divided from the proceeds of the family home in the divorce. She and Elliot had two realtors come in and price the home for her, and the price he paid was based on what the realtors said the comparables were worth.”

  Garret nodded and made a few more notes. “You know where the husband lives?”

  “I think he’s over in Johnson City, same as the daughter. They were a lot closer than Fiona and her mom,” Shane said.

  “Yeah, I got that. The daughter didn’t seem like she could get out of town fast enough after the funeral.”

  Shane sighed. “She blamed Fiona for the divorce. It was Fiona’s decision to leave, and Aengus wanted her back. I think he tried to resolve things for a year or more, but Fiona always said she simply wasn’t in love with him. Fiona and her daughter seemed to make up for a while there, but when Elliot came along, that strained things again. It was hard for her daughter to accept having a man so much younger than her mom in Fiona’s life. They weren’t completely estranged or anything. Fiona visited her grandchildren, but I don’t think she and her daughter were ever really close again after the divorce.”

  “Anyone else you can think of who might have had a reason to hurt Fiona?”

  Shane rubbed at his jaw. “I can’t think of anyone. She and Elliot were the kind to make friends, not enemies. You know Elliot owns the pharmacy in town?” He received a nod from Garret. “He still runs it most days, and Fiona spent her days down at the senior center. Elliot brought in another pharmacist last year to cover a few days a week or when he and Fiona went on trips. They liked to travel.”

  Shane didn’t think you could get Rohypnol in US pharmacies. He was pretty sure that was something you’d have to buy on the street, but he didn’t ask.

  “Do you know where they traveled to recently?”

  Shane thought back to the conversations he’d had with Fiona. “They tried to keep it to places they could fly directly out of Austin, since it was a long drive to the airport and then a flight. She talked about trying to do a trip to Europe, but she hated the idea of spending so much time traveling instead of enjoying the destination. Mostly they went to New Orleans, I think Mexico a few times because she liked the Mayan ruins. I think Memphis once or twice. Bev would know for sure. She and Fiona were very close.”

  “Did she and Elliot have any big fights or arguments that you know of?”

  Shane shook his head. “Nothing I’m aware of.” It gave him a sick feeling, but he knew why Garret was asking. Whoever drugged Fiona had to be someone close to her. Someone she would have taken food or a drink from.

  “So, you think someone slipped Rohypnol into her food or a drink and then, what, forced the pills down her throat?” Hell, the thought left him cold. Who would have done that?

  Garret shook his head. “I don’t think they’d have been able to force her to swallow the pills. But with Rohypnol in her system, they might have been able to put the blood pressure medication into her food or drink without her tasting it. The Rohypnol is tasteless. The blood pressure medication would have been harder to cover up, although it’s not actually that bad. The medical examiner said there was a famous case of a guy’s salad being laced with Propranolol.”

  “Was there anything else in the autopsy results?” Shane asked.

  Garret appeared to be weighing how much to tell Shane, but he must have come out on the side of sharing. “I probably don’t need to tell you this all needs to be kept confidential, but I will anyway. It might become crucial to have information no one knows outside of the investigation team during questioning.”

  “Absolutely. I understand.”

  “She was drinking alcohol. Whiskey, to be exact.”

  Shane snorted. “Yeah, she did that. I mean,” he rushed to say, “not to excess or anything. She and Bev would try different cocktails out on the porch in the evenings one or two nights a month. They’d call it their around-the-world club. They’d have margaritas one night and then try Saki another. She liked trying different drinks. Said she’d lived her life for other people and drank wine because it was expected of her. This was about ‘breaking the mold,’ she’d tell me.”

  He grinned when he said it, remembering the way Fiona liked to break the mold. She liked anything that got her out of any category people expected her to be in. She said she’d spent most of her life in a box and she wouldn’t stay there a minute longer.

  Garret made a few more notes, then stood and offered his hand to Shane. “Thanks, Shane. I’m sure it’ll get around town soon that we have reason to question the suicide, but I appreciate you keeping everything else confidential.”

  Shane walked Garret to the door and said goodbye, letting his eyes trail across his porch to the small house Elliot and Fiona had shared. The house was dark, save for a single light burning in the living room and Shane had a feeling Elliot was sitting in the near-dark alone, thinking about Fiona.

  It startled Shane when the front door opened and Beverly stepped out. He stepped back into the shadow of his porch and watched as she pulled the door shut, then hurried across to her own porch.

  Shane stepped into his own house and shut the door. There was nothing wrong with Bev going over to comfort Elliot or to check on him. And yet here Shane was, questioning her motives. It was a shitty feeling when you started questioning all your neighbors’ motives and wondering if they’d had a hand in the death of a friend.

  28

  Coffee: Serenity in a Cup.

  Seen somewhere on a t-shirt and recorded in Fiona O’Malley’s Journal

  “This town is cute.” Her father looked around the diner. He’d taken them to the last booth and sat facing the door, so he had the view of the entire place.

  Phoebe knew what he’d be seeing. Groups of friends or families tucked into booths, the two sisters who owned the diner bickering as one served food and the other cooked and dished it up. There would be tourists, too, discovering Evers for the first time.

  “It is,” she said, a genuine smile crossing her lips. “I really like it.”

  “And you’re dating your boss.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I don’t think I’ll discuss that with you, Dad.” She said this with just as much finality in her voice as he had in his, but there was affection there to temper the bite of her refusal.

  “We’ll see,” he mumbled into his cup as he tried the coffee. His brows went up at the first sip. “This isn’t diner coffee,” he said.

  “No, it’s not, and thank heavens for that.” Gina quipped, one hand on her hip as she approached. “I take that back. You can thank me.”

  “Dad, this is Gina. She and her sister Tina own the diner.”

  Phoebe almost laughed at the look on her dad’s face. He stood. He actually stood and shook Gina’s han
d. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Tell me, Gina, did you make the coffee?”

  Gina fanned herself and Phoebe didn’t know whether to laugh or gag. She knew her dad was a good-looking man. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him flirt, though. He held Gina’s hand between his two and waited for her to answer as though his life depended on the question.

  “I did, handsome. I sure did,” she said with a wink in his direction. “It’s my own special blend I mix from five roasts.”

  Okay, gagging was going to win out. She wasn’t sure she’d ever have picked Gina out as a woman who would entice her dad. The woman had blonde hair that came out of a bottle, just as clearly as her sister’s bright red did. Despite her heavy figure, Phoebe had always thought she was pretty, with a wide smile for everyone, but she still wouldn’t guess Gina was her father’s type of pretty. She wasn’t sure why, though. Part of it was probably that she hadn’t ever seen her dad date or flirt with a woman in front of her.

  Had her father hidden his dating from her all these years? She’d always kind of thought he didn’t date, but maybe she’d been wrong.

  Her father slid back into his seat as Gina took a notepad from her pocket. She nodded and called out a greeting and Phoebe turned to see the man she thought was Aengus O’Malley slide into the booth behind them. Phoebe waved, as well. She didn’t know him well, but everyone in town waved when they saw anyone else. It was how the town was. Even if the person was only in town occasionally, like Aengus.

  “Be right with you, honey,” Gina said, then turned her smile back to Phoebe’s father. “All right, big guy, what can I get for you?” She said this you in a different way than Phoebe had ever heard. There was an emphasis on it, as though for him, Gina might just run back behind the grill and get his food herself, and they all knew that wasn’t going to happen. Well, come to think of it, her father wouldn’t know that, but anyone in town knew Gina couldn’t cook worth a lick. She handled the coffee and the tables, and Tina took care of the food.