Warrior Son

by Rita Herron

  Forever.

  Although, maybe he’d only perceived the night with Megan was so special because he’d been in pain...

  That had to be it. If they slept together again, he’d probably be disappointed.

  Perspiration rolled down his neck as he crossed through town, then veered down the drive to his cabin and parked. He climbed out, the wind rustling the trees, the sound of a coyote echoing from somewhere nearby.

  Shoulders squared, he let himself inside the cabin, the cold empty room a reminder that he was alone.

  Sometimes, he imagined walking in and seeing Megan in his kitchen or in his den. But most often he imagined her in his bedroom.

  Waking up with Megan in his arms that night had been pure bliss. But when he’d looked at her sweet innocent face, the guilt had overwhelmed him.

  Guilt for feeling pleasure when his mother had died. Then guilt for taking advantage of Megan.

  Because he’d known that she wasn’t the type of woman to hook up on a whim. That she might perceive their night of sex as the beginning of something—maybe a long-term relationship.

  And he couldn’t go there. Couldn’t care about anyone.

  Losing them hurt too damn much.

  Just like he wouldn’t allow himself to care about the McCullens. Sure, he’d find Joe’s murderer—if he was murdered—but then he’d step away.

  And the McCullens would never know his secret.

  * * *

  THE NEXT MORNING, Megan couldn’t shake her encounter from the night before with the man outside The Silver Bullet. Pistol Whip was a small town, but she worked for the county hospital and medical examiner’s office, which covered a much larger territory.

  Her boss and the senior medical examiner Frank Mantle had overseen all her cases the first year, but now he pretty much left her alone. He was nearing retirement age, suffered from arthritis and wanted to spend more time with his wife, so Megan shouldered the majority of the autopsies.

  She struggled to recall the case the man she’d run into was talking about, then searched through her files. The fifth file she pulled had to be it.

  The murdered man’s name was Carlton Langer. He was twenty-five, just graduated from college and was traveling across country to sow his oats before he settled into a full-time job.

  She rubbed her forehead as she recalled the details of the case. Carlton had been brutally stabbed three times in the chest. The knife had sliced his aorta and he’d bled out immediately.

  Judging from the angle of the blade and the fact that the knife was missing, she’d had to rule it a homicide. She turned to her computer and pulled up the news reports that had followed the stabbing and noted that a man named Tad Hummings had been arrested the day after the brutal assault.

  According to the officer who arrested him, Hummings had been high on drugs and the murder weapon had been found in his house with his fingerprints on it. Later, when he’d come down off the drugs, he didn’t remember anything.

  She rubbed her temple. It sounded as if he’d blacked out. She read the drug tox screen. Cocaine.

  His brother Dale had hired a lawyer who’d argued that the drugs had caused Hummings’s erratic, violent behavior.

  But a man was still dead, and Tad Hummings was sent to prison.

  She closed the file. Dale Hummings blamed her, but she hadn’t made a mistake. His brother had. There was no question about Langer’s cause of death, either.

  Joe McCullen was a different story. She picked up the phone to call Howard and see if he’d finished that tox screen.

  * * *

  ROAN DROVE TOWARD the prison where Barbara had been incarcerated. He might be jumping the gun, but he’d always suspected she’d lied about setting the fires on Horseshoe Creek.

  A cigarette butt had been found in the ashes of the barn fire, the same brand she smoked.

  His phone buzzed. Maddox. “Deputy Whitefeather.”

  “I got a lead on Romley. He was spotted in Cheyenne. I’m on my way to check it out. You’re in charge.”

  Stan Romley worked for Gates and Arlis Bennett and had taken a job at Horseshoe Creek to spy on the McCullens.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Roan said, although he was thirty miles from town. But if anything came up, he’d rush back.

  “Call me if you need backup,” Roan said.

  Maddox agreed and hung up. Roan pulled up to the guard’s station and identified himself. The guard waved him through and he parked. The wind howled as he waited outside to enter, then it took him another ten minutes to clear security.

  Barbara had been placed in a minimum-security prison to serve out her year sentence for aggravated assault against the sheriff and against Scarlet Lovett. She’d cut the brake lines on the woman’s car, and Scarlet had nearly been killed when she crashed into the side of the social services building where she worked.

  Barbara had pled out to a lesser sentence and had to sign an agreement that she wouldn’t file for an appeal in return.

  He took a seat at the visitor’s station, and a guard escorted Barbara to a chair facing him through a Plexiglas partition. A seed of sympathy for her sprouted inside him—he knew the story. She and Joe McCullen had had an affair when Maddox and his brothers were children, and she’d gotten pregnant with Bobby.

  When Joe’s wife, Grace, had died in a car accident, Barbara had no doubt expected Joe to marry her. But that hadn’t happened. Her bitterness had festered. When Joe died, she’d hoped her son would inherit his share of Horseshoe Creek.

  Joe had included him in the will, but neither Barbara nor Bobby were satisfied.

  The woman looked pale and angry, her dyed blond hair now mixed with muddy brown. For a moment, she studied him, obviously wondering what his agenda was.

  She’d been volatile when she was arrested. Prison had drained the fight from her.

  He picked up the phone and waited until she did the same.

  “Ms. Lowman,” he began. “Thank you for seeing me.”

  She shrugged, her eyes fixed on him. “Didn’t realize I had a choice.”

  No, she was at the mercy of the justice system now. “How are you?”

  She frowned. “What? Like you care?”

  She was right. He didn’t really care. She’d tried to kill an innocent woman. Scarlet was one of the nicest people he’d ever met.

  “Why are you really here, Deputy?” Barbara asked.

  Roan narrowed his eyes. “I thought you might be ready to tell the truth about the fires at Horseshoe Creek. I could speak to the judge on your behalf and arrange an early parole if you confess.”

  Barbara’s sarcastic laugh echoed over the line. “Right. I confess to another crime and you’ll get me out of here earlier? What kind of fool do you think I am?”

  “I don’t think you’re a fool at all,” Roan said. “I think you resented Joe for not marrying you, especially after you waited for him all these years.”

  “Who said I waited for him?”

  “You never married.” He leaned closer to the Plexiglass. “Did you even date anyone else, Barbara? Or did you sit at home hoping he’d call?” He lowered his voice, taunting her. “Did you keep thinking that next month or next year he’d finally admit that he loved you and make you his wife?”

  Barbara’s nostrils flared. “How dare you.”

  “I understand your anger,” Roan continued. “You gave Joe a son just like Grace did, but her sons got to live on the big ranch. They got to have Joe’s name and grow up in the house with him. They got a real father. Yet McCullen kept you and Bobby on the side. Made you live in the shadows and take whatever little pieces he had left over from his real family.” He paused for effect. “He was ashamed of the two of you.”

  She lurched up, body shaking with fury. “You bastard. Joe loved me and Bobby.”

  “If he’d loved you, he would have introduced you to his sons. He would have married you.” Roan remained seated, his expression calm, his eyes scrutinizing her. “But he didn’t, and eve
ry day, every month, every year that went by, your bitterness grew. Then...what happened? Maybe you gave him an ultimatum, that you’d expose him to Maddox and Brett and Ray, if he didn’t marry you.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Barbara said, although the guilt that flashed in her eyes indicated he’d hit the nail on the head.

  He raised a brow. “But he still refused. That must have torn you up inside.”

  Barbara sank into the chair again and looked down at the floor, her face wrenched in pain. “He felt guilty about his wife’s death. That’s why he never married me. Even from the grave she kept her tentacles embedded in him.”

  “Then you finally snapped, didn’t you, Barbara. You decided that if he wouldn’t marry you, you’d get rid of him. At least then you and your son could get what he owed you.”

  “He did owe us,” Barbara snapped. “We loved him and kept his secret to protect him, and he still let us down.”

  “That was the final straw, wasn’t it?” Roan said. “He refused to marry you. Maybe he even said he’d never marry you.” He arched a brow. “Maybe he threatened to cut you out of the will.”

  Her chin lifted and tears glittered in her eyes.

  “So you decided to get rid of him. He was sick already so you poisoned him. Nice and slow, just a little at a time.”

  “What?” Barbara’s jaw went slack. “Poisoned Joe?”

  “Yes. Did you take him food or a drink when you visited him? Did you slowly poison him and watch him die?”

  Barbara’s face blanched. “What are you saying? That Joe was murdered?”

  “You tell me, Ms. Lowman. Did you kill Joe McCullen?”

  * * *

  MEGAN CLOSED THE door to her office as she waited on the lab to answer. Finally Howard picked up. “Howard, it’s Megan.”

  “I was just getting ready to call you,” Howard said.

  “Did you finish the tests?”

  “Yes. Meet me at the coffee shop across from the hospital.”

  “I’m on my way.” Megan snatched her purse, hurried from her office and locked the door behind her. She caught the elevator from the basement floor where the morgue was housed, then wove through the corridors of the hospital past the gift shop and outside. She had to cross the street to the corner café.

  By the time she arrived, Howard was ordering coffee. She ordered a latte and then they claimed a booth in the back corner.

  “What did you find?” she asked, unable to stand the wait.

  Howard glanced around the coffee shop, then spoke in a hushed tone. “You were right, Megan. There were definitely traces of cyanide in McCullen’s system.”

  Megan’s pulse pounded. That meant Joe was murdered.

  “What are you going to do with this information?” Howard asked.

  Megan blew the steam rolling off her coffee. “I have to go to the police.” In fact, she already had.

  “Joe was the sheriff’s father, right?”

  “Yes.” And she had no idea how he would react.

  “Didn’t the sheriff live with his father?” Howard asked.

  Megan frowned. “Yes.”

  “How did someone poison his old man without him knowing it?”

  “I have no idea, but I know someone who’ll find out.” She pulled her phone from her purse and punched Roan’s number. His phone rolled to voice mail, and she left a message for him to call her.

  “What about Dr. Cumberland?” Howard asked.

  “He was close to Joe, but with Joe’s illness, I guess he never thought to look for another cause.”

  “You’ll tell him?” Howard asked.

  “Of course.” She didn’t look forward to it, either, not after the way he’d reacted when she’d questioned the tox screen.

  They finished their coffee and Howard had to rush back to the lab. She lingered, hoping Roan would return her call, but finally decided to go back to work. When she stepped outside, a chilly wind rippled through the air. The sky was dark with clouds, although it hadn’t rained in days.

  She shivered, and had an eerie feeling as if someone was watching her. Remembering her encounter with Hummings’s brother the night before, she checked around her as she walked to the crosswalk, but she didn’t spot the man anywhere.

  She stepped up to the street where a group had gathered waiting on the traffic signal. Her phone rang just as the light turned. She pressed Answer and fell into step with the crowd, but suddenly a gunshot blasted the air. The crowd screamed and began to run, and she felt someone shove her from behind, then lost her balance.

  She landed on her hands and knees, and her phone went flying across the street.

  She looked up and screamed as an oncoming car screeched toward her.

  Chapter Four

  Roan studied Barbara for a reaction. She seemed shocked at his accusation. “Did you poison Joe McCullen, Barbara?”

  Barbara’s handcuffs jangled as she waved her hands dramatically in the air. “Of course not. I can’t believe you’d ask me such a thing. I loved that man more than life itself.”

  “You loved him, but we both know you resented the fact that he never married you.”

  Barbara looked down at the jagged ends of her nails. “Did someone really poison him?”

  “There were traces of cyanide in his system.”

  She jerked her gaze up, eyes flaring with surprise. Or guilt? “Cyanide?”

  “Yes. Fertilizer has cyanide in it, Barbara. And you have plenty of that at your house. You use it in your gardening.”

  Another flicker of unease in her eyes. Then she seemed to pull herself together. “Gardening was a hobby of mine. But a lot of people garden. That’s not a crime.”

  “No, but slipping cyanide into food or a drink that someone ingests is.”

  “I didn’t slip cyanide into anything.”

  Roan worked his mouth from side to side. “Then maybe your son did.”

  Anger slashed her tired-looking features. “My son did no such thing.”

  Roan arched a brow. “Are you sure about that, Barbara? He resented Joe more than you did. He hated all of the McCullens. Maybe he even went to see Joe and Joe told him not to come back, that he didn’t want his real sons to know about him.” He paused. “Maybe he told Bobby that he’d never be a McCullen. That if he got any of the land, he’d have to work underneath Maddox like he was some kind of servant.”

  Barbara shot up. “Stop it. Joe wouldn’t have talked to Bobby like that. He loved our son.”

  “But not like he did Maddox or Brett or Ray,” Roan pressed.

  Rage darkened Barbara’s eyes. “Listen to me, Deputy. Bobby and I have suffered enough. We have both been locked up because of that family, but we did not kill Joe. Now leave us alone.”

  She whirled around and gestured toward the guard. “Take me back to my cell, please.”

  The guard glanced at Roan, and he shrugged and gestured okay. But before Barbara stepped through the door, he cleared his throat. “Know this, Barbara. If you or Bobby did kill Joe, I’ll find out. And any chance of you getting free will disappear.”

  She shot him a venomous look, then shuffled out the door with the guard.

  Roan contemplated her reaction.

  Had she been so desperate to protect her son and see him get what was owed to him that she killed the man she loved?

  * * *

  MEGAN’S HEART HAMMERED as tires squealed and the car roared toward her. Terrified for her life, she rolled sideways toward the sidewalk seconds before the car screeched to a stop.

  If she hadn’t been so fast, the car would have hit her.

  Her life flashed in front of her. Playing with her sister when she was little. Losing her. Losing her mother... Her father looking at her like she was nothing.

  Being so lonely sometimes she thought she’d die...

  Then that night with Roan...his handsome face. Him bending over her, making love to her.

  She wanted to live, to be with him again.

  Shouts and scre
ams echoed around her, then a man raced to her and helped her up. “Are you all right, miss?”

  The driver of the car jumped out, the woman’s face ashen as she stumbled toward Megan. “Oh, God, honey, are you okay?”

  “Yes,” Megan said. She glanced around the street and saw several people watching while others had dispersed in fear. “Someone fired a gun.”

  “I heard it,” the man who’d helped her up said. “But I didn’t see where it came from.”

  “I think it was a car backfiring,” a gray-haired man said.

  “No, no, it was definitely a gun,” another woman said.

  Megan didn’t know what to think. But...she’d also thought she’d felt someone push her before she fell.

  You’re just being paranoid.

  Although she had expressed suspicions about Joe McCullen’s death, the only people who knew that were Howard and Roan. And they were on her side.

  Of course Tad Hummings’s brother had cornered her in the bar—would he try to kill her because she’d helped send his brother to prison?

  “Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance?” the driver of the car asked.

  “I’m sure.” All she wanted to do was call Roan.

  Then hide in the morgue where she was safe.

  Except she needed to talk to Dr. Cumberland. And he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

  * * *

  ROAN CONSIDERED QUESTIONING Bobby but decided he needed concrete proof before he did. Something that would force Bobby to confess.

  He climbed in his SUV to leave the prison and phoned Megan as he drove onto the highway. Her phone rang three times before she answered. When she did, she sounded breathless.

  “Megan, are you all right?”

  “No. I mean, yes,” she said. “I’m on the way back to the morgue.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I went to meet Howard to discuss the tox results, but on the way back to the hospital a gunshot sounded. The crowd panicked and started running, and I fell in the street.”