Blame It on Texas (37 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

S
OMEONE KNOCKED ON
the apartment door. Before Zoe got it open, she heard a baby crying and pretty much suspected who was on the other side. Had Tyler’s sisters come back to ask about her intentions? And just what would she tell them now,
Don’t worry I’m only going to take advantage of him for two weeks
? Her chest hurt thinking about it.

Zoe opened the door to a very worried-looking Sam holding a crying baby. Her daughter, Anna, stood at her side.

“Come in.” Zoe smiled, and Anna stepped inside.

“Is Tyler here?” Sam asked.

“Is your cat here?” Anna asked.

“Tyler went to run some errands.” She looked down at Anna. “Yes, Lucky is here.”

“Can I see him?” Anna asked.

“He’s kind of shy.” Zoe wasn’t sure how Anna would take Lucky’s appearance.

“That’s okay,” Anna said. “All cats love me.”

Zoe grinned.

Sam frowned. “Why is it that I have seven siblings, and when I need one, not one is available?”

“Have you called his cell?”

“I got voice mail.”

Zoe looked at her watch. “He said he’d be back by five. That’s less than two hours. Why don’t you come in and wait?”

When Tyler got to his apartment, Sam wasn’t there. He tried calling her, but she didn’t answer. He decided to wait awhile, and, not wanting to waste time, he grabbed his phone to call the historian at Shadows County, hoping to get him this time. He saw he had a message. Someone must have called when he was meeting with Windsor.

It was Sam, asking him to come by.

He tried calling her back, but got her voice mail again. “Where are you, Sis?”

Then he dialed Burnett Bankhead. The old man answered this time, and Tyler had to remember his approach. Unfortunately, lying seemed the best bet.

“Mr. Bankhead, my name is Tyler Lopez; I’m a fellow history lover, and I’m helping a friend do some family research. Shadows County is always popping up. I was told by several people at the courthouse that you were the go-to guy.”

Tyler didn’t know what questions he might ask that would give him something useful, so he decided to ask a bunch of them.

For fifteen minutes, Tyler listened to the old man’s stories. Finally, Tyler got a word in and mentioned the Adams name.

“Yup, we had some Adamses here. One of them really hung their hat in Barker County.”

“Yeah, Barker came up, too,” Tyler said, hopeful.

“What was their first name?”

Burnett paused. “Ralph Adams. Father and son.”

“Father and son?” Tyler said. “I don’t remember there being a Junior on the name.”

“All I know is that they were father and son.”

Tyler started running everything he’d learned about the other Ralph Adams. And suddenly something clicked—something that could answer a hell of a lot of questions, too. But just to be sure, Tyler asked one more question. “The father, didn’t he own a funeral home?”

“Yup, he did.”

Before Tyler hung up with the old man, he’d turned on his home computer to see if his theory washed out.

Tyler had fifteen minutes before heading back to his office. But he’d wanted to stop by Tony’s office and see if he’d found the Bradford file. Tyler needed to confirm his suspicions.

“Hey.” Tony looked up from the file on his desk. “I was about to call you.” He motioned for Tyler to shut the door.

“You found it?” Tyler closed the office door.

Tony frowned. “It’s ugly. But at least now I understand how they misidentified the body.”

Tyler sighed. “The body was missing the head.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “How did you know? I don’t think they ever let that leak out.”

Tyler debated sharing what he knew, but maybe if he gave Tony what he knew, Tony would reciprocate. “Ralph Adams’s father ran a funeral home.”

Tony leaned in. “And?”

“A week after Caroline Bradford was kidnapped, a
mother and a five-year-old girl were killed in a head-on collision with an eighteen-wheeler. The papers stated the victims were decapitated and burned.”

Tony looked disgusted. “Ralph Adams stole a body from his dad’s funeral home and made it look like Caroline Bradford?”

Tyler nodded. “It explains why no one reported another child missing. The mother and daughter would have had a closed casket. I’m betting the girl’s casket was empty.”

“But why?” Tony asked.

“I haven’t figured that out yet. But it means it wasn’t planned. Adams couldn’t have known that a child’s body would show up. I know this sounds crazy, but considering that Zoe was never mistreated growing up, I can’t help but believe that he did it to try to help Zoe.”

“Wait,” Tony said. “The body wasn’t found until weeks later.”

“Considering he worked in a funeral home, he probably knew how long to wait for the body to decompose enough that very little information could be learned. How was the body located?”

Tony pursed his lips. “An anonymous caller said his dog kept going over there and he’d smelled something really bad.”

“He wanted them to find it.”

“But why?” Tony asked.

“Because he wanted someone to think Zoe… Caroline was dead.”

“The cops?”

“No, I think he wanted to convince the kidnappers that she was dead.”

Tony shook his head. “But how would he have stumbled
across a kidnapped kid? And if he had stumbled across the kid, why wouldn’t he have gone to the cops?”

“Maybe he was part of it in the beginning, and when it got ugly, he couldn’t go through with it. Or…” Tyler decided to toss out his less likely theory. “Maybe there was a cop involved in the kidnapping.”

“Come on, Tyler. You’re pushing it now.”

“I’m just thinking out loud. The lead detective, a Sergeant Phillips, retired right after the case. And he wasn’t retirement age yet. He’s coming by to talk to me tomorrow.”

“After a case like this, a lot of cops throw in the towel.”

“Maybe.” Tyler looked down at the file. “Who were they looking at for the crime?”

“All the employees were questioned. One of the lawn workers, Frank Campbell, had a record, but they could never find any proof of his involvement.”

“I don’t think that fits. He died five years ago. So it would’ve been hard for him to be taking potshots at Zoe.” Tyler raked a hand over his face. “Is there anything else in there that wasn’t leaked to the press?”

“One thing,” Tony said. “The day the kid came up missing, they found a clown mask in the weeds.”

Tyler’s gut tightened.

Tyler was five minutes late getting back. He’d made a quick stop to grab a bottle of massage oil. He stuck his head into the office to see Dallas. “Hey, I’m back. Did Tony call you and fill you in?”

“How did you know?” Dallas asked.

“I figured he would. Anything on this end?” Tyler asked, eager to go see Zoe.

“Nothing, but Austin put the Drake case to bed.
Finally got an image of the husband taking his assistant to the hotel.”

“But isn’t the assistant—?”

“A guy? Yup. Guess Mrs. Drake was wrong about him being a no-good womanizer.”

Tyler looked down the hall toward the apartment. “I’m going to—”

“Yeah, go to your girl. She might need your help.”

Tyler turned back. “Help with what?”

“All I can say is if we don’t make it in the PI business, we can always open up a day care.”

Tyler took off to see what the hell Dallas was talking about.

Zoe sat on the sofa and looked up when Tyler walked in. “Hey,” she said.

She had a baby carrier on the sofa beside her.

Suddenly, Anna came marching from the kitchen with Lucky in her arms.

“Hi,
Tio.
Did you know that Zoe’s cat only has one eye and three feet?”

“Yeah, I did.” Tyler looked at Zoe in puzzlement. “Where’s Sam?”

“She didn’t really tell me where she was going. Just that she really needed to be somewhere and wanted you to watch the kids.”

“She went to see Leo,” Anna said.

“Shit!” Tyler exclaimed.

“Tyler!” Zoe shook her head.

Anna giggled. “Oh, Mama will get mad at you for saying the
S
word!”

Tyler sat down beside Zoe, on the other side of his nephew. “How did this happen?”

Zoe frowned. “She looked desperate.”

Tyler grabbed his phone and dialed Sam’s number. It went to voice mail.

“Did you find out anything?” she asked, trying to distract him.

“Not about the Bradfords, but I did come across something.” He glanced at Anna. “Can it wait?”

Zoe nodded.

Thirty minutes later, he was pacing in the kitchen with a screaming baby in his arms while Zoe heated up a bottle. She looked up at him and smiled. “Nothing is sexier than a man holding a baby.”

He growled. “Don’t mention sex to me right now. I had a completely different plan for this evening.”

She moved in and kissed him. When the kiss ended, he juggled the baby to one arm and dialed Sam again. Still no answer.

“You worried?” Zoe asked.

“I always worry.” His sister never thought things out. For just a second, he remembered thinking he’d been doing the same thing with Zoe. But the difference was, Zoe was leaving and all of it would come to an end. As bad as it hurt to think about it, it gave him some reprieve from beating himself up for what he was feeling.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was wrong to offer—”

“It’s not your fault,” he told her, talking over the sound of the baby’s screams. He remembered all the things he needed to tell her about her case. He looked out to make sure Anna was watching the television.

She put a top on the baby bottle and handed it to him. He stuck the bottle in the kid’s mouth, and the baby
quieted down.
“Gracias a Dios,”
he muttered, and then sat at the tiny two-seat table in the corner of the kitchen to feed the child.

She moved in close. “What did you find out?”

He sighed, not sure if now was the right time to talk about it.

“Tell me,” she insisted.

But damn, he wouldn’t want to wait, either. “We think we know the real identity of the kid they passed off as Caroline Bradford.”

“Who?”

He read the ambivalence in her eyes. She needed to know, but didn’t want to know.

“It was someone who had died in a car crash.”

“But how…?”

“Ralph Adams worked at his father’s funeral home. That’s why he went to get his cosmetology license.”

“Why would he steal the child’s body?”

“We don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”

She bit down on her lip. And if he didn’t have Leo Junior in his hands he’d have reached for her to hold her. She looked up. “How did you find this out?”

“I spoke with a town historian over at Shadows County, where I learned about the funeral home. Then I did a search to see if there were any deceased kids around the time you were kidnapped. Plus, Tony finally got his hands on the Bradford case file. The pieces fit.”

“What else did the case file give you? Did they ever suspect Mr. Bradford of doing this? Or his daughter?”

“No. They were looking at one of the lawn people, but they could never get any proof.”

She nodded.

He had to ask. “Do you remember anything about… being abducted?”

“No. All I remember is the closet. That’s it. I swear.”

He debated telling her the other thing; he wasn’t sure why, but he suspected it would upset her.

“Why?” she asked as if she could read his mind.

“The day you went missing they found a clown mask in the adjacent property.”

He saw the pain flash in her eyes.

“I should have guessed, huh?” Her voice was laced with pain.

“No.” He stood up, with the baby still sucking on the bottle, and pressed a kiss on her brow. “It’s going to be okay.”

Then he told himself the same thing. Because like it or not, he had a feeling of impending doom. And it wasn’t just about the case, or about Sam. It was about… Zoe and the fact that he’d lost his ability to think logically anymore.

“You didn’t have to do this,” Rick said, helping Ellen load the dishes, but he was so friggin’ glad she had. He wondered if she knew how much it meant to him. He wondered if she minded if they made this a regular gig. Once, twice, hell, maybe seven times a week. But damn, he liked being with her. There was something… easy about her. No big fuss. He liked the way she did things. From how she prepared a meal to the way she decorated her place. She kept things mostly simple. He could really use some simple in his life, too.

When he’d picked up Ricky this morning, she had asked if they wanted to come over for dinner.

“Ricky asked to meet Britney,” Ellen said.

“I could tell he was excited to come.” Rick leaned over the sink to see Ricky and Britney playing outside. He felt Ellen lean in beside him.

Ricky, running after a ball, fell. “Ouch! You sure we shouldn’t be out there?”

She laughed. “You are acting like a brand-new parent.”

“I am a brand-new parent. Much to my shame.”

She went to the table to get the dirty glasses. “So how was he this afternoon?”

Rick frowned. “He finally spoke to me, I think it was six, no seven words.”

“It’ll get easier,” she said. “He’s scared right now.”

Rick peered out the window again, and he saw Ricky look at him and frown. “He’s scared of me, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

His gut clenched. “What do I do?”

“You be patient. You love him. He’ll learn.”

He looked back outside. “Shit! Where are they?”

The back door opened, and the two kids walked inside.

He heard Ellen chuckle, and she leaned in. “You need to relax.” She looked back at the kids. “Do you guys want some ice cream?”

That got two loud yeses. So ice cream was okay; Rick stored that away in his mind. So were hamburgers, fries, and carrot sticks. He had a lot to learn, and he planned to be an A plus student.

In a few minutes, Britney and Ricky had left to play in the other room. “You want a beer?” She started for the fridge.

“I would love one.” His gaze shifted to the soft sway of her backside. And he reprimanded himself.