Cowboy Truth: Cowboy Justice Association #3 (27 page)

“Check the perimeter,” Logan directed Drake. “See if there are any signs of forced entry, footprints. You know the drill.”

Drake nodded while Logan walked over and sat next to the shaking housekeeper. Logan felt like ten kinds of shit making this woman relive what she’d seen but he didn’t have a choice. Pulling a small notebook and pen from his pocket, he took a deep breath.

“I need to ask you some questions.”

Alice nodded, a tissue mopping at her eyes. “I understand, Sheriff.”

Sometimes his job sucked.

“What time did you arrive?”

Alice sniffled but her shoulders straightened as if bracing herself. “About seven. Since Mr. Bryson’s divorce, he likes me to come early and start the coffee and breakfast.”

George had recently divorced his third wife. From what Logan knew, all three of them had a motive to kill George. There’d been no love lost when they’d split.

“Was the front door unlocked when you got here?” Logan asked already knowing the answer. People in Corville didn’t lock their doors.

“It was wide open. I walked in and found Mr. Bryson lying on the floor.” Alice’s voice broke. “I couldn’t tell if he was dead or not, but there was a lot of blood.”

Logan scribbled down the details as Alice recounted her story.

“What then? Did you touch the body?”

Alice’s eyes went wide with fear. “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t touch him. I called 911 immediately. The operator had me hold on the phone until someone showed up.”

That was standard procedure, especially as the killer could have been in the house.

“I’d hoped he was still alive.” Alice was shaking her head and new tears were running down her cheeks. “He was a nice man. He treated me well.”

The way the blood had congealed and darkened on George’s chest indicated he’d been dead for some time.

Logan continued to question the distraught woman but it was clear she’d been too shocked to notice much of anything but the dead body on the floor. The killer had probably been long gone anyway so she wouldn’t have seen anyone run from the house.

Logan stood up and patted Alice on the shoulder. “If you remember anything else, I want you to call me. Day or night, understand?”

She nodded and another of his deputies escorted her to her car. The deputy knew to follow her to make sure she got home safe. Drake must have finished his investigation of the perimeter because he was standing in front of Logan with a grim expression.

“Nothing?” Logan asked.

“Nothing,” Drake replied, a muscle ticking beside his mouth. “No footprints, no broken glass, not a damn thing. Do you think it’s the vigilante?”

Fighting the overwhelming feeling of frustration, Logan shrugged. “Ballistics will tell the story. I think we have to deal with the idea that if it is, the Bryson family knows the vigilante. Whoever did this didn’t break into the house. Bill’s killer didn’t either. They were welcome.”

Drake stroked his chin. “Friends. Or family. But why kill all those other people? Did he kill them for the same reason?”

“Or to cover up what they did to Bill and George?” Logan finished the unspoken thought. “I don’t know. But we’re getting close. I can feel it.”

*   *   *   *

Ava was watching the monitor again in Logan’s office. This time she could see the faces of Lyle, Wade, Aaron, and Deke Kennedy, their lawyer. Logan had his back to her but she could hear the tension in his voice.

He’d wanted to question each one of the brothers separately but Deke wouldn’t allow it, saying that it was all together or none. Logan had given in but she wouldn’t call it gracefully. He’d cursed a blue streak when he’d told her about the ground rules the attorney had set down. Deke also said he reserved the right to stop the interview at any time. So much for wanting Logan to enter the Bryson family fold. Battle lines had clearly been drawn and Logan was on the opposite side of his half-brothers.

So far that didn’t seem to bother him but he’d been rather stoic this entire time even as secret after secret had been revealed. If it had been her, she would probably have retreated to her fantasy world with a large box of dark chocolate and a bottle of wine. He might be doing fine now but eventually he would need to deal with everything.

But today wasn’t that day.

Logan opened the folder he’d retrieved from the kitchen island spreading the photos of a battered and bruised Margaret Bryson on the table in front of the brothers.

“Did you know about this?” Logan asked.

Aaron’s mouth fell open and he reached for one of the pictures. “Dear God. Where did you get these?”

“Police files. Seems your father liked to use your mother as a punching bag. I’ll ask again, did you know about this?” Logan’s tone was hard and unforgiving.

Lyle shook his head, his complexion pale. “No. No way. I can’t believe this. There has to be some mistake.”

Lyle’s voice was hoarse. He truly may not have known. He’d been quite young when Margaret died.

Logan fingered one of the pictures then pointed to the black and blue marks on Margaret’s face. “Does this look like a mistake? Does it?”

His voice grated and Wade stood up, his expression angry. “Leave him alone. We didn’t know, okay? How could we possibly know something like this?”

Wade’s voice had gone up an octave but Logan didn’t reply. Instead he reached for another file. Ava tensed as he pulled out the police report from when Margaret Bryson had died. “Sit down.”

Wade hesitated but his attorney put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down, murmuring in his ear. Wade sat back in his chair.

“I can’t believe you’re saying I knew this, Logan. Goddamn, you’re one of my best friends in the world. Do you think I knew Dad did this?”

Logan didn’t answer for a long time and then finally slid the paper across the table so it was in front of Wade. “According to this statement you said your father pushed your mother off that balcony. Are you saying you lied?”

Lyle and Aaron jumped up in shock, both of them talking at once so Ava couldn’t tell exactly what they were saying. Logan let the three brothers go at it until Wade cut them off.

“Logan’s pulling some police trick. I never said that.” He turned back to Logan. “I never said anything of the sort. It’s cruel of you to say that. When did you become like this, Logan? You’re a real son of a bitch, you know that?”

Ava wished she could see Logan’s face but she only saw the imperceptible tension in his body. If she hadn’t spent the last several days in close proximity to him she never would have noticed.

“I became like this when dead bodies started showing up in my town.” Logan pointed to the chairs. “Sit down.”

His voice was low and deadly, and Lyle and Aaron sank into the chairs, their expressions wary. It was clear this had turned into an adversarial conversation. There was no pretense of brotherly love or even friendly camaraderie.

Logan pushed the statement over to Lyle and Aaron so they could peruse it. “So you’re saying this statement was made up? It isn’t true?”

Wade shook his head, his face growing red. “I don’t know where you got that but it isn’t true. I never saw that.”

Ava searched Wade’s features for even a flicker of deceit but found none. He seemed to truly believe what he was saying.

“I suppose that signature at the bottom is a forgery as well?” When Wade didn’t respond, Logan moved on. “Do you know of any reason someone would want to kill your uncle?”

Wade looked at his brothers and then at his lawyer. “From what Dad said, Uncle George liked gambling. Maybe he owed somebody money.”

“That’s possible. I’ll be getting a subpoena for your uncle’s personal accounts. Do you know what I’ll find?”

Wade shrugged, his eyes looking everywhere but at Logan. “I don’t know. I didn’t get involved with Uncle George’s personal finances.”

Logan continued to pepper the three brothers with questions but they continued to plead ignorance of anything. They apparently thought their father was a saint and the only issue their uncle had was a proclivity to bet on slow horses.

“One more question.” Logan paused. “Do you think George killed your father?”

Lyle and Aaron shook their heads vigorously, but Wade finally turned to Logan and looked him right in the eye.

“Yes, I think he did.”

*   *   *   *

Ava helped Logan unload the groceries they’d picked up at a small general store into the cute little log cabin. Several hours from Corville, the house was tucked into the mountains north of Lincoln. Logan had found Helen Main but she currently wasn’t answering her phone. They’d left a message and hopefully she’d get back to them soon. In the meantime they would stay in this cabin Logan had borrowed from one of his sheriff friends, Jared Monroe.

The cabin wasn’t large but it was warm and cozy. The air was colder this high up in the mountains but the home had been built to last. The main room was half a kitchen and half a living room with a fireplace on one end. The furniture was old but clean and comfortable indicating this Jared person either cared for the cabin himself or hired someone to do it for him.

Every surface in the kitchen and bathroom were spotless and the sheets on the bed appeared to be fresh. Ava could happily hole up here for weeks and write.

She sat the bag onto the kitchen counter with a huff. “You barely said a word on the drive up here. I’m starting to worry about you.”

Logan began to unload the bags into the refrigerator. “I didn’t have much to say. I’ve been mulling everything over in my mind.”

“And?” she asked, stowing the dry pasta in one of the cabinets. “Have you come to any conclusions?”

“Sure have,” Logan grinned. “Thinking gives me a headache. What about you? Have you figured anything out?”

“I think Wade believes what he said,” she admitted.

“About his dad or about George?” Logan tossed the bags into the trash and popped open a beer.

“About his dad. But that thing about George? That was just weird.”

“I agree. I think Wade knows more than he’s letting on.”

“Is that why you asked him?” Ava had been shocked when the question had come out of Logan’s mouth. She’d been even more surprised when Wade had answered in the affirmative.

“Wade’s the oldest son. He was thirteen when his mother died. I can see the younger ones not knowing what was going on in their home, but Wade? I don’t think so. I vaguely remember he was very protective of his mother. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but now I firmly believe he knew his father was beating up on his mother.”

Logan sank down into one of the kitchen chairs and Ava sat opposite him. “When you say protective…” Ava prompted.

“He kept Lyle and Aaron from being around her at times. I distinctly remember Lyle scraped his knee and he was going to run to his mother. Wade grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into the kitchen, determined to put a band aid on it himself. I just thought he didn’t want his little brother to be a cry baby. Now I see he may have known his mother was covered in bruises.”

Logan’s tone was bitter and she couldn’t blame him a bit. Seeing his friends and half-brothers protect their father and uncle couldn’t be easy, although he still didn’t appear to have fully processed everything that had happened. He was too calm. Too matter of fact.

He should be pissed as hell.

She couldn’t stop herself from asking the question. “Do you think one of them is the killer?”

It sounded farfetched and ludicrous but if they knew what their father was like it was a motive. He may have killed their mother. Had George Bryson known what his brother was like and eventually killed him? If so, why had he waited? What had set him off that night?

Logan was staring off into space, gone somewhere again, but he finally turned to her and nodded. “I think it’s a possibility. I have no evidence, of course. That’s why I have Jared working on their credit cards. Maybe one of them made a purchase that will give us a clue.”

“What are you hoping for? That one of them bought a gun?”

“I’d love it but that would be too easy,” Logan snorted. “I was just thinking one of them might have used their card close to a vigilante crime scene. If I can place them near one of those murders, I can tie them to Bill’s.”

She screwed up her courage and placed her hand on his. “I’m still worried about you. You aren’t dealing with everything we’ve learned in the last few days.”

A flicker of irritation crossed Logan’s face but he hid it quickly, his expression bland. “I don’t know what you mean, good girl.”

“You know exactly what I mean. Everything that we’ve uncovered should be making you angry. You barely reacted to Frank Jesse’s actions. Plus the fact that your father turned out to be a wife beater. Don’t you care about that at all?”

Logan’s beautiful blue eyes turned cold. “Leave it, Ava. I’ll deal with things in my own time. Until then, just leave it alone.”

His words cut her to the quick but she valiantly tried to hide the hurt. He was in much more pain than she was whether he’d admit it or not.

“Fine.” She got up from the table and opened the refrigerator. “How about a steak and baked potato for dinner? I’m getting hungry.”

As quick as he’d turned icy, he was back to his former self. “That sounds great. I could eat a horse. I’ll go outside and cut some wood so we can have a fire tonight. It gets cold up in these mountains when the sun goes down.”

The sun was already dipping close to the horizon. Ava shooed him out of the kitchen. “Off with you. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

Logan laughed and headed out of the door leaving her to start dinner and contemplate everything that had happened. She feared their conversation with Helen Main would only uncover more trauma for Logan that he wouldn’t be able to handle. So far he’d played it cool, but Ava knew it couldn’t last.

He was a powder keg just waiting for the right spark.

Chapter Twenty-One