Sawyer Read online

  “Including me?” Cassidy asked with a boatload of skepticism.

  And here was the part she was not going to like. Heck, Sawyer didn’t like it much, either. “You need to be in protective custody. So does the baby. Because the kidnappers could come after either of you again.”

  Cassidy’s mouth trembled a little. Not enough to stop her from arguing though. “But your family’s ranch? I won’t be welcome there.”

  “You won’t be turned away. Besides, there’s a lot of baby stuff already out there.”

  In addition, there were plenty of ranch hands who could provide extra security. To get that kind of security at the hospital, he’d have to tie up several of Grayson’s deputies. They were already busy enough with a murder investigation, the kidnappings and the search for Bennie.

  “We’d be in the same house with all your cousins?” Cassidy asked, nibbling on her lip.

  “No. There are a lot of houses on the grounds. Including mine. It’s on the back part of the property. It used to be my parents’ house before their divorce.”

  Definitely a no-frills kind of place, but it suited Sawyer, and it would have to suit Cassidy, too, since he wasn’t giving her another option.

  She still didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t have time to continue the argument. The bell on the front door jangled, and Sawyer pulled Cassidy into the office just in case there was a problem.

  And there might be.

  The man who stepped into the sheriff’s office had trouble written all over him. From his greasy black hair, prison tattoos on his neck and dingy gray muscle shirt.

  “I’m Willy Malloy,” he told the woman at the reception desk, who was Deputy Bree Ryland—his cousin’s wife. And as she stood, she slid her hand over the butt of her gun.

  If Willy was intimidated by that, he didn’t show it. The man’s gaze landed on Sawyer. “Are you Agent Ryland?”

  Sawyer nodded and gave him back the badass stare that the man was giving him. “Wait here,” he told Cassidy, and Sawyer walked a few steps closer to the man.

  “You gonna pay me back for gas?” Willy asked, propping his hands on his bony hips. “Because it was a long drive all the way out here, and I’m not made of money.”

  “Didn’t figure you’d mind the drive since this visit is about April, your ex.”

  Judging from the surprised look in his eyes, that got Willy’s attention. “She’s not my ex. She’s still my girlfriend, and I’ve been looking for her for months now. You know where she is?”

  Oh, man.

  Willy hadn’t heard about the murder, or else he was pretending not to have heard. In case it wasn’t an act, Sawyer decided to do this fast and hard.

  “April’s dead. Did you kill her?” Sawyer asked, and he studied Willy’s body language and expression.

  Sawyer expected the man to curse or howl his innocence, but he just stood there, his mouth open, staring at Sawyer. “Is this some kind of bad joke?”

  “No. Someone murdered her earlier today. Was it you?”

  Willy put his hands on each side of his head, and blowing out some loud breaths, he practically fell back against the wall. “Murdered,” he repeated. “Who the hell did that to her?”

  “I asked you first,” Sawyer fired back.

  “Well, it sure as heck wasn’t me. I love her. I wouldn’t have killed her.”

  Sawyer looked down at the notes he’d been reading. “According to your rap sheet, you were arrested for assaulting her not once but twice. Doesn’t sound like love to me.”

  “I slapped her around, yeah. And she deserved it. That woman’s got a smart mouth on her.” Willy stopped, shook his head. “Had a smart mouth,” he corrected, groaning. “She sure as heck didn’t deserve to die. How’d it happen? How was she killed?”

  “We’re still trying to determine that.” It was a lie. She’d been shot point-blank in the head, but Sawyer kept that detail to himself. Best not to give a suspect too much information because Willy could use it to concoct an alibi.

  Despite his warning, Cassidy stepped into the hall. “My brother’s Bennie O’Neal. Do you have any idea where he is?”

  Willy’s eyes instantly narrowed. “Bennie O’Neal,” he repeated like profanity. “He’s the no-good louse that April was cheating on me with. I warned both of them that it wouldn’t be a pretty sight if they kept it up.”

  “So you threatened them,” Sawyer concluded. He was detecting a pattern here, and he got in front of Cassidy to stop her from moving closer to the man.

  No more narrowed eyes. Willy no doubt realized that wasn’t the right thing to say to a lawman, especially since he was now a murder suspect. “I got a right to protect what’s mine, and April was mine.”

  Sawyer doubted that, and he asked a necessary question he didn’t really want to ask this thug. “What about the baby?”

  Willy’s mouth tightened. “What about it?”

  “You did know that April was pregnant?” Sawyer prompted when Willy didn’t add more.

  “I knew.” And that’s all he said for several moments. “April said the kid was mine. Wouldn’t believe her without one of those paternity tests. April’s not real good on telling the truth. So, she said she’d do the test they do on unborn babies. But if she had it done, she never showed me the results. Probably because the kid wasn’t mine.”

  Or maybe because April hadn’t wanted Willy in her and the baby’s life.

  Sawyer tipped his head to Bree and then the supply cabinet. “We’ll need to verify what April didn’t tell him.” And he didn’t especially want to leave Cassidy alone with this piece of work while that happened.

  “I’ll get a DNA swab kit,” Bree volunteered, moving out of the reception area and down the hall.

  “Now, wait a minute,” Willy challenged. Bree didn’t stop. She continued toward the supply cabinet. “If April’s dead, so is the kid, right?”

  “No.” Except Sawyer didn’t know if that was true or not. He was assuming the baby that the kidnappers gave Cassidy was April’s child. But maybe she wasn’t.

  “Are you saying she had the kid already?” Willy pressed.

  Sawyer settled for a nod.

  Willy cursed and his hands went back on his hips. “Then, the kid’s not mine. Can’t be. April and me have what you call an on-again, off-again kind of relationship. Nine months ago, we were definitely off.”

  “Then, how the devil do you still consider her your girlfriend?”

  “Easy. We got back together about six months ago. Things stayed hot and heavy for about a month, and then she lit out again after telling me she was pregnant.”

  Willy’s gaze shot to Cassidy. “And I figured that’s when she went to your slimeball brother.” More cursing. “If that was his kid, if April got knocked up by another man, then she deserved to die.”

  And that just spelled out Willy’s motive for murder.

  “You killed her,” Cassidy concluded. “Did you do something to my brother, too?” That time, Sawyer wasn’t able to hold her back, so he followed her to the front of the building.

  “I didn’t kill nobody,” Willy snapped. “But if I was planning to do something stupid like that, your brother would have been on my list.”

  Willy just kept digging that hole deeper and deeper.

  Sawyer and Bree exchanged a glance as she walked past him with the DNA kit. “Want me to move him to an interview room and take his statement?” Bree asked, and Sawyer nodded.

  “Statement?” Willy howled. “I don’t have time for that kind of nonsense.”

  “You’ll make time. If not, I’ll just arrest you now and charge you with murder,” Sawyer warned him.

  That obviously didn’t please Willy. It didn’t please Sawyer, either. Even though he wanted this idiot off the street, it wasn’t a good
time to make an arrest.

  Not with so many details to work out.

  Heck, Willy might even have an airtight alibi. A real honest-to-goodness one. But if Willy was the kidnapper and had helped orchestrate all of this, then maybe he was stupid enough to have left evidence behind.

  Bree handed Willy the swab from the kit. “You can do it yourself, or Agent Ryland here and I can do it for you.”

  Willy shot all three of them glares, but he rubbed the swab on the inside of his mouth past his chipped, yellow teeth, and he dropped it back into the plastic bag.

  “Let’s go to an interview room,” Bree insisted, sealing the bag and motioning for Willy to follow her. He did, after mumbling more profanity, but then he stopped when the woman approaching the door caught everyone’s attention.

  The tall, thin brunette stepped into the sheriff’s office. She closed her umbrella, set it by the door and looked around at all of them. She was dressed to the nines, all right. A pale gray suit and mile-high heels. Expensive, no doubt. Ditto for the chunky diamond wedding ring.

  Her expression was pleasant enough until it landed on Willy. “I see you’ve already brought him in,” she said. “I’m Dr. Diane Blackwell. I was April’s therapist. I understand you’d like to talk to me?”

  “I would,” Sawyer confirmed. He studied her a moment. “You look pretty young for a shrink.” He doubted she was even thirty yet.

  The corner of her mouth lifted a fraction. “Thank you, I think. I’ll accept that as a compliment and not a concern that I might be too young to be an effective therapist. Trust me, I’m very good at my job.”

  Sawyer considered that for a moment and decided to do a background check on her just to see how good she was. “I’m Agent Sawyer Ryland,” he said, making the introductions. “And this is Deputy Bree Ryland and Cassidy O’Neal.”

  The doctor’s gaze lingered a moment on Cassidy, maybe wondering what she had to do with all of this, but she didn’t ask any questions.

  “The doc’s nothing more than a quack shrink,” Willy snarled. “The judge made April see her once a week, and April was scared to death of her.”

  Until Willy had added that last part, Sawyer had been ready to stop this little confrontation, but maybe he could learn something that would help the investigation.

  Especially since Diane didn’t jump to argue with Willy.

  “Last time April and me talked,” Willy went on, “she said she thought this quack was messing with her mind.”

  Diane dismissed that with a cool glance at Willy. “April was a troubled woman, and she was terrified of you.”

  “So says you, and now that April’s dead, I got no way of proving different.”

  “That’s right.” Diane spared him another frosty glance with her cool green eyes before fastening her attention on Sawyer. “I’ll try to answer any questions you have. I want to help you catch April’s killer.” And judging from the quick glare she gave Willy, she thought he was that killer.

  “Come on,” Bree instructed Willy, and she led him to the first interview room.

  “Don’t believe a word that quack says,” Willy warned them. “And if she tries to pin this murder on me, she’ll be sorry.”

  Other than a single soft sigh, Diane had no reaction to Willy’s threat. Bree, however, did. She put her hand on Willy’s shoulder and practically shoved him into the interview room. Sawyer waited a moment to see if Bree needed some help, but obviously she didn’t. Bree might be on the petite side, but she had a tough lawman’s attitude and a whole lot of Ryland muscle to back her up if the attitude didn’t work.

  “Tell me where you were this morning,” Bree ordered Willy.

  While the doctor made her way toward them, Sawyer listened in on Willy’s answer.

  “At home sleeping in. And before you ask, no one can verify that ʼcause I live all by my lonesome. That still don’t make me a killer.”

  No, but it made him a violent man with no alibi and a strong motive for murdering April.

  Sawyer stepped into Grayson’s office with Cassidy, and Diane followed him.

  “We’ve met,” Diane said to Cassidy and extended her hand for Cassidy to shake. “At a fund-raiser last year in San Antonio. I don’t expect you to remember, but someone introduced me to you and your brother.”

  Judging from Cassidy’s reaction, that wasn’t much of a surprise. Probably because she attended a lot of functions like that.

  “Now, back to April,” Diane went on. “Like I said earlier, she was a troubled woman. I’d be happy to help you in any way that I can.”

  So, her offer of help was one possible roadblock removed, and Sawyer didn’t waste any time. “When’s the last time you saw her?”

  “Two weeks ago for our regular counseling session. When she didn’t show for her appointment yesterday, I had to report it to the judge. It’s part of her parole agreement.” She opened her mouth, no doubt to ask some questions of her own, but Sawyer went first.

  “April was still pregnant two weeks ago?”

  Diane nodded. Then she gasped, touching her perfectly manicured peach fingernails to her color-coordinated mouth. “Oh, God. Please tell me her killer didn’t hurt the baby, too.”

  “I don’t think so. We’re trying to determine if it’s her baby that we found. Any idea if April was involved in something illegal? Like kidnapping maybe?”

  Diane’s eyes suddenly weren’t so cool. There was concern in them. “She didn’t say anything about breaking the law again. Why, is that what happened?”

  “I’m not sure.” And that wasn’t a lie. Sawyer didn’t know. Just because the woman associated with thugs and had a criminal record, it didn’t mean she was up to no good this time around. She could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  “Did April say anything about my brother, Bennie?” Cassidy blurted out.

  “Only that she was seeing him. Why?” Diane asked. “Does your brother have something to do with her murder?”

  Sawyer hoped not. For Cassidy’s sake. “When you last saw April,” Sawyer continued, “did she seem unnerved about anything?”

  Diane drew in a weary breath. “Only Willy. She was trying to hide from him, but she was worried that he was going to track her down at one of our appointments. That’s why we changed the dates several times, and then I finally just moved our sessions to my home. She was terrified that Willy would do something to make her lose the baby.”

  Because Willy thought the baby wasn’t his. “Why did Willy think April was afraid of you?”

  Diane shrugged, then huffed. “Probably because the counseling sessions with April were court-appointed. He’s a career criminal with a violent streak. I suspect he doesn’t trust anyone or anything associated with the law.”

  That made sense. In a way. Still, Sawyer had to wonder if that was all there was to it.

  Diane opened her purse, extracted a business card and handed it to Sawyer. “Call me if you hear anything. Or if I can help. As I said, I’m anxious to help catch whoever did this to April.”

  She turned to leave, but Sawyer stopped her. “You didn’t ask how April was murdered,” he said.

  Diane blinked, and for just a split second there seemed to be some panic in her eyes. “I assumed you’d tell me if you could. Police hold that type of information back sometimes.”

  “Sometimes,” he repeated, continuing to watch her and continuing to give her a suspicious once-over.

  No crack in the composure this time. Diane issued a crisp goodbye and walked out, her pricey heels clicking on the tile floor.

  “You don’t trust her?” Cassidy asked.

  “The jury’s still out on that.” He wasn’t about to distrust her only because of the things Willy had said. Because Sawyer definitely didn’t trust April’s tattooed ex.

 
Sawyer glanced at the interview room. “I’ll call one of the other deputies, and once he’s here, we can leave for the ranch.”

  Where maybe Cassidy would get some rest. She looked ready to fall on her face. Sawyer took out his phone, but Cassidy’s rang before he had a chance to make the call. There was no name or number. The caller had blocked the info.

  He pushed the button to answer it and put the call on speaker so Cassidy could hear.

  “Ms. O’Neal?” the caller said in a mechanical voice. It was obviously being filtered through some kind of voice-alteration device. “We’re the people who have your brother.”

  “Is Bennie all right?” she immediately asked.

  “For now. You were late bringing that photo, and it’s going to cost you. Or better yet, it’ll cost your brother—”

  “No, please. Don’t hurt him.”

  “We won’t if you do exactly as we say. Tomorrow morning at ten, you and Agent Sawyer Ryland are to deliver the money to us. We’ll be calling back with details of the location.”

  “We need to speak to Bennie,” Sawyer insisted. “To make sure he’s still alive.”

  “Tomorrow you’ll get the chance to talk to him and see him if you follow the rules. A half-million dollars, and only the two of you will come for the exchange. Mess it up again, Ms. O’Neal, and you’ll get your brother killed.”

  “Please, let me talk to him,” Cassidy begged.

  But she was talking to the air because the kidnapper had already hung up.

  Chapter Six

  Cassidy stepped into the sprawling ranch house just ahead of Sawyer, and the first thing she heard were the sounds of children.

  Lots of them.

  “This way,” Sawyer said, and he led her down a corridor and to a massive playroom, where she spotted a man and three kids. Two dark-haired toddler girls and a little boy about the same age. The room was filled with all sorts of toys, books and games, and there were several playpens and cribs positioned against the walls.

  The man was stretched out on the floor while the children ran circles around him. Occasionally, the man would reach up and goose out of them on their bellies. They were clearly enjoying the game because they howled with laughter.