Protecting Her Daughter (Wrangler's Corner) (12 page)

THIRTEEN

T
he drive to Knoxville passed in a blur and soon Aaron found himself staring up at a large house in one of the best neighborhoods in the city. “Nice,” he said.

“Yeah.” Lance put the car in Park. A local police cruiser sat at the curb across the street and Lance nodded. “Good. They’re here. I called before we left Wrangler’s Corner and asked that someone monitor the house and let me know if anyone left. So far, everyone must still be here.”

Walter reported in, and Aaron thought about Zoe sitting at home waiting for news. He hoped they’d have some to give her soon enough. Lance stepped out of the vehicle, and Aaron shivered when the cold air blasted him. “I’m going to just hang here, is that all right?”

Lance nodded. “That’s fine.” He paused. “Actually, why don’t you go with us?”

“Why?”

“You got a look at the intruder last night. Let’s see if you recognize Gregory Bishop.”

Good point. “All right.” Aaron got out of the car and Lance nodded Parker to go first. Parker led the way followed by Lance and Aaron.

“Stand off to the side,” Lance said. “If it’s him and he recognizes you then there could be trouble. I don’t want him to see you until the last minute.”

“Right.” Aaron stood where directed. Parker knocked and then stepped back and to the other side. Just in case someone decided to shoot through the door? Possibly.

But no bullets came through the door. Instead, it swung open and a woman in her late twenties with blue eyes and auburn hair stood in the entryway. “Yes?”

Lance flashed his badge as did Parker. “We’re deputies working a case. We’re also friends of your sister-in-law, Zoe Collier.”

“Zoe?” Surprise lit the woman’s eyes. “Is she all right? And Sophia?”

“Yes, they’re both fine for now.”

“Oh, good.” She placed a hand over her chest. “You scared me.”

“Do you mind if we come in and ask you a few questions?”

The request seemed to fluster her for a moment but she stepped back and let them in. She didn’t question Aaron’s presence, and he didn’t offer her an ID or explanation.

She led them into the family room and gestured for them to take a seat on the large leather sofa. “You said Zoe and Sophia are all right.”

“Yes, ma’am. Is your husband home?”

“Yes, he’s in the garage. We just got back from vacation last night and he’s cleaning out the car.”

“Vacation? Where did you go?”

“Just to Radnor Lake. We have a house there.”

“I see.” Aaron figured Lance was making notes to check that out. “Do you mind asking your husband to come in here? It’ll save me the trouble of having to ask the same questions twice.”

A small frown drew her brows together, but she simply shrugged. “Of course.” She stood and Parker followed her. Aaron figured he wasn’t taking a chance she’d go after a weapon. Lance’s phone beeped while the two were gone. He looked at it then muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?” Aaron asked.

“Sorry. Clay texted. He just got the autopsy result for Pete, the guy you shot.”

“Yeah.”
The guy you shot.
Aaron didn’t think he’d ever get used to hearing those words.

“Looks like he didn’t die from your gunshot wounds.”

Aaron blinked. “He didn’t?”

“No. He was suffocated.”

* * *

Zoe checked the clock and frowned. Sophia should have been home by now. She thought about giving Ginny a few more minutes, but then decided she might as well check in now. She dialed the number and waited. When it went to voice mail, she hung up and tried again. Anxiety kicked in. She dialed Clay’s number. “Hello?”

She could hear the baby crying in the background. “I’m so sorry to bother you.”

“Zoe? It’s no bother. What can I do for you?”

“Sophia was supposed to be home about fifteen minutes ago. I tried Ginny’s number, but she didn’t answer. I know it’s silly to panic because of a fifteen-minute delay, but I was wondering if you could get in touch with Ginny and just see where they are.”

“Of course. Stay by your phone and I’ll call you right back.”

“Thank you.” She hung up and fought the urge to crumple to the floor and wail. Somehow, she knew something was dreadfully wrong.
Please, God, let Sophia and Ginny be all right.

Her phone buzzed. “Clay?”

“Actually, this is your father-in-law, Zoe. How are you doing?”

“Alexander? I-I’m fine. How are you? How did you get this number?”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly sure it was you, just hopeful. Nina said she’d had someone call and hang up from a number she didn’t recognize. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it might be you. It’s good to hear your voice, sweetheart.”

She used a shaky hand to shove a lock of hair behind her ear. “Yours, too, Alexander.”

“How’s Sophia?”

“She’s fine.”

“Well, I...ah...was wondering if you’d be willing to meet me and have coffee somewhere. I have some things I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Like what?” She glanced at the clock. Why hadn’t Clay called her back yet?

“Like the fact that you just disappeared with Sophia. I miss her, Zoe. I want her home.”

Zoe let out a little sigh. “I know, Alexander. That’s what I want, too, but someone tried to kidnap her. And then someone tried to run me off the road. The police said they couldn’t do anything so I had to run. And since we’ve been here, you wouldn’t believe what’s happened.”

“Then come home where I can protect you. Go pack your bags and I can come get you and Sophia.”

She closed her eyes and searched her mind for the right words. He just didn’t get it. “I’ve got help and I’ve got protection right now. Coming back to Knoxville wouldn’t be the safest thing for us to do right now.”

“Zoe—”

Her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen then pressed the phone back to her ear. “I’ve got to take this call, Alexander. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Zoe—”

Another beep from Clay. The last one before the call would go to voice mail. She switched lines. “Clay?”

“Zoe, I can’t reach Ginny, either.” His grim tone made her stiffen. “Sophia never showed up to school,” he said.

She gasped. “What? Why didn’t the school call me?”

“They said a woman called claiming to be you and said Sophia was sick and would be staying home today.”

“No I didn’t! Who? Who called?”

“I don’t know. I’ve requested phone records from the school, but it’s going to take a little bit to get them. I’m also cross-checking the records against Nina’s and Gregory’s numbers.”

“How long is a little bit? What about Sophia?” Tears threatened, but she had to hold it together.

“I’ve got every available deputy searching for her and Ginny. I’ve tried pinging her phone, but it’s not registered as being on. But I’m also checking her phone records and texts as we speak.”

“What do I do? How can I help? Where is she, Clay?”

“I don’t know, Zoe, but don’t panic. We’ll find her. Stay by the phone, I’ll be in touch.”

He hung up and Zoe sank onto the couch, her legs no longer having the strength to support her. She buried her face in her hands and tried to gather her thoughts. Sophia, her child, her baby, was missing and she didn’t know who had her. Zoe dropped to her knees. “Please, God, take care of her and bring her and Ginny back safely.”

FOURTEEN

A
aron sat back, his breath leaving his lungs with a whoosh. “Suffocated? Is he sure?”

“He’s sure.”

“But how? Why? Who?”

“All good questions.” Footsteps interrupted the conversation. Aaron looked up to see Nina enter the living area followed by a man in his early thirties. He looked tanned in spite of the time of year. He also looked unfamiliar. This wasn’t the man he’d tackled. He looked at Lance and gave a subtle shake of his head. Gregory wasn’t the man he’d chased last night.

Lance pursed his lips and took a seat. The Bishops did, as well. “What’s this all about?” Gregory asked.

“It’s about your sister-in-law, Zoe Collier.”

Gregory frowned. “What about her?”

Lance launched into the explanation of the attempts on her life and the results of his investigation. “It appears that one of the men hired to kidnap or kill—we haven’t determined exactly which one they were attempting—received a phone call from this number.” He read the number.

Gregory rocked back, and Nina gasped. “What?”

“That’s your home number, right?” Lance asked.

“Well, yes, but—”

Their surprise was real. Aaron grimaced. Would they never get to the bottom of this?

He let his gaze wander the room once again. He noticed the collage of horse pictures on the far wall and figured they portrayed the horse Trevor and Zoe had owned. He stood and began looking at each picture, wondering if Zoe or Sophia were in any of them. He found them in several. They looked happy enough. Trevor was a handsome man. Sophia looked a bit like him. In the last picture, Aaron stopped and looked closer. The man petting the neck of the horse looked familiar.

“I don’t believe it,” Nina said. “Gregory?”

Gregory spread his hands. “When was the call made?”

Lance told him, and Gregory shook his head. “That’s impossible. There’s been no one here.”

“Did you have a house sitter? A pet sitter? Anyone that might have come in to put your mail on the counter?”

“No. We don’t have any pets, and we stopped the mail service until tomorrow. I’m telling you, there’s no way someone managed to get in our house without setting off the security alarm, much less use our phone.”

Lance rubbed his head. “All right, then is there anyone else who has a key to your house, the code to your alarm, who might have decided to come in for any reason without your knowledge?”

“No, no keys out there, but...” Nina bit her lip.

“But what?” Parker asked.

She sighed. “We have a garage code. There are several people who have it and can get in the house that way.”

Lance ripped a sheet of paper from his notebook. “Write down their names, will you?”

She took the paper and pen from him and began her list. While she wrote, Lance cleared his throat. “I know that this is a rather delicate subject, but we’ve done some investigating into your backgrounds. We’ve noticed you’re having some financial issues.”

Nina’s head snapped up. “Investigating
us
?”

“Yes. Everything points to you or your husband being behind everything that’s happened to Zoe and Sophia over the past few weeks. We had to run down every lead.”

Her face turned a bright red and she stood, dropping the paper on the floor. “That’s ridiculous. What leads? How would we benefit from anything happening to Zoe?”

“You get Sophia if she dies,” Lance said without raising his voice or changing his expression.

Nina sank back into her seat and looked at her husband. “Yes. That’s true, but she doesn’t come with any money.”

“Thunderbolt,” Gregory said.

Lance nodded. “And with Sophia, you get Thunderbolt whose worth is estimated at around two hundred fifty thousand dollars. That would go a long way toward paying off some of those creditors you’re going to have knocking on your door soon.”

“Why do you think we’ve been up at the lake house this time of year?” Nina demanded. “We’re getting it ready to put on the market to sell.”

Lance leaned back and Gregory stood to pace while Aaron watched him. There was something in his expression, something he wasn’t saying. “What is it?” Lance asked him.

Gregory stopped midpace. “I don’t know. Nothing. I’m just trying to think.”

“About?”

“Nothing.”

“Something. What is it?”

Gregory spread his hands in a beseeching gesture. “Look, I made some bad investments. My father-in-law talked me into investing in several companies owned by a friend of his. A little over two years ago, the bottom dropped out. I managed to get out before I lost everything. My father-in-law hasn’t been so fortunate. I warned him. I told him I thought he needed to sell, that something was wrong with the way the stock was dropping, but he insisted on hanging in there. We’ve been helping him as much as we can, but we’re about at the end of our resources.”

“This is all his fault,” Nina said. “And yours,” she directed to Gregory. “If you hadn’t listened to him, we would be fine.”

“We’re still fine,” Gregory snapped. “As soon as the lake house sells, everything will be okay again. It’s just going to take some time.”

“Time that we don’t really have.”

“Yes, we do. We’ll get through this.” He moved to sit beside his wife and took her hand. She sniffed and looked away, but left her hand in her husband’s. He looked at Lance, then Aaron. “And we don’t need to kill my sister-in-law to do it. You’re looking at the wrong people.”

Lance nodded and rubbed his head. “One last question. Why would you call the men at the ranch?”

“What men?”

“The men who were after Sophia and Zoe. The men who held a law enforcement officer and three innocent people hostage,” Lance said.

Gregory’s eyes widened, then he frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just told you that we weren’t here. There was no one
in this house
to make any calls
from this house
. You must be mistaken.”

Lance stayed silent for a moment. When he didn’t seem to have anything else to say, Aaron tapped the picture that held the familiar figure. “Who’s this guy with the horse?”

With a perturbed look at Lance, Gregory turned his attention to Aaron and walked over to squint at the picture. “Oh, that’s Brian Cartee. He’s Thunderbolt’s jockey. Why?”

Before Aaron had a chance to answer, Lance’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. “Excuse me, I need to take this. It’s Clay calling, hopefully with an update.” He stood and walked into the foyer. Aaron followed him with every intention of eavesdropping. Plus, he’d just placed the man in the picture.

“Missing?” He heard Lance suck in a deep breath. “All right. Ginny, too? Yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell him.”

When he turned around, Aaron didn’t like the expression in Lance’s eyes. “Tell me.”

“Someone attacked Ginny’s car. There are bullet holes in the side of the car and blood on the ground. She and Sophia are missing.”

Aaron felt light-headed for a moment. “Missing? Blood?”

“I’m asking for help from the FBI. We don’t have the resources they do and I don’t want to take any chances on this not ending well.”

“We need to get back now.”

“Yes.”

“But first. That man in the picture on the Bishops’ mantel? Brian Cartee? He’s the jockey for Sophia’s horse. I’ve seen him before.”

“Where?”

“When I tackled him outside of Zoe’s house. He’s the one who attacked Joy and the one who ran from me.”

Lance sucked in a deep breath. “This just keeps getting more and more interesting. We need to let Zoe know.”

“I’ll be in the car. I’m calling her to fill her in and let her know we’re on the way.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and hit her speed-dial number.

* * *

Zoe was still in a state of numbed shock when the three men walked into the house five hours later. She stood when they stepped into the den. “Brian? Brian Cartee is the man who attacked Joy? Who managed to overpower Ginny and grab Sophia? And where is all the protection she said was in place?”

Lance and Clay exchanged glances. “Protection? What are you talking about? You mean about Parker and Walter?”

“No, she said Clay had called some friends from Nashville and they were watching the school and the house and—” At Clay’s blank look, she snapped her lips together. “She lied. Why would she lie?” She shuddered and bit back a sob. “She’s a part of it.”

Clay pulled his phone. “I’ve got some calls to make.” He looked at Zoe. “I’m sorry. Ginny’s new, but she came with good references, and I’ve never had any reason to believe she’d do something like this. I’m going to figure out what’s going on right now.” He paused. “But before I do, why would Brian be in Nina and Gregory’s house?”

She rubbed her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. None of this makes any sense.”

“Let’s think about this. Why would Brian come after you or Sophia now? What does he gain if you’re dead and Sophia in his possession?”

“Nothing! That’s what I’m saying. If I die, everything goes to Nina and Gregory. Including Sophia.”

“What if they’ve worked a deal with him?” Aaron said. “You said he wanted the horse. How bad do Nina and Gregory want Sophia? You said Nina wanted the two of you to come live with her?”

“Well, yes, but she wouldn’t do this.” She shook her head. “No, something’s not adding up. We’re missing something else.”

“Does Brian have access to Nina and Gregory’s house?”

She rubbed her forehead. “No, not that I know of. He and Trevor were really close, but Gregory is a bit of a snob. He doesn’t associate with people he considers not on his level. So to speak.” She grimaced. “In other words, no. There’s no reason Brian would have been in their house.”

“Unless he broke in,” Aaron said.

Zoe shook her head. “He would have set the alarm off.”

“Not if someone gave him the code,” Lance said.

“Which Gregory would do if Brian was doing his dirty work.”

“Maybe,” Aaron said and shrugged. “It’s all speculation.”

Clay pursed his lips. “All right. You think some more on it. I’ve got a BOLO out on Brian. He wasn’t home when officers went by his house earlier. They stopped by the barn and there was no sign of him there, either.” He exchanged a look with Lance. “Which could mean he’s somewhere close by. Be sure to keep your eyes open.”

“Of course.”

“Now about—”

Zoe tuned them out as her thoughts went to Sophia. She knew Brian. Trusted him. Would feel safe with him. Would he hurt her? Scare her? Know to give her her medicine? Sophia kept an emergency insulin kit in her backpack. She stopped and spun toward the men. “Did Sophia have her backpack with her?”

Clay pulled the phone from his ear. “If she had it when she left the house, she—or whoever has her—probably has it with her. The car was cleaned out.”

A slight tug of relief found its way into her shattered mother’s heart. She continued to pace and pray while Clay made his calls and Lance and Aaron discussed the incident.

Incident.
Her daughter’s kidnapping was an incident. The thought made her want to throw up. How could this have happened? She’d been so careful. Her thoughts continued to circle that loop until she couldn’t get past it. “I did everything you said,” she whispered. Lance and Aaron turned toward her. The pain in Aaron’s eyes fueled her own. “How could this happen? How could Brian just take her away from Ginny? How could Ginny let his happen?” Her voice rose with each word and she couldn’t seem to stop the sweeping anger mixed with hysteria and downright terror. “I. Did.
Everything
. You. Said!”

Aaron caught her by the forearms. She resisted for a brief moment then let him pull her against his chest. His heart thumped beneath her cheek as she saturated his shirt with her tears. He said nothing, just held her. With each sob, she mentally ordered herself to stop, to get control, but the thought of never seeing her child again set off more spasms of pain and grief. Finally, she drew in a deep breath and pulled away from the comfort of his embrace. He let her go, but led her into the den area. She noticed Clay and Lance had made themselves scarce. Aaron pressed a tissue into her hand and she dropped onto the couch.

“This probably isn’t the best time to ask, but maybe talking about something else will help.” He lowered himself beside her.

She eyed him warily. “Okay.”

“I’ve been thinking. You said something the other day that I’ve been meaning to ask you about and haven’t gotten around to it.”

Oh. That. She figured she knew what was coming.

“Will you tell me about the drug problem you mentioned?”

Yep, she was right. Oh, boy. She’d known he would address it at some point, but had hoped to avoid that conversation a bit longer. “Why do you want to know?”

He frowned. “Because if Brian is behind this—and it looks like he is—he could be working with someone. It already looks like Ginny’s involved. Three men were hired to try and kidnap Sophia. We need to make sure no one else is in this loop. So can you think of anyone who has a past with drugs and might have found his or her way into your present for some kind of revenge? Someone who would be willing to take money to get rid of you?”

She pressed her fingertips to her burning eyes. “It was such a long time ago. I don’t think this is related to that.”

“It might not be, but Clay needs to address every possibility. And if you used to hang out with—” He paused and grimaced.

“Junkies?”

“Well, yes, but I was trying to find a better way to say it.”

“There’s not a better way. We were rich kids, but we were still addicts.” She groaned and shook her head. “It was stupid. I was stupid. My dad went to prison when I was thirteen. Three years later he was home and wanting to make his marriage work. My mother would have none of it. She wanted him out of the house and he refused to go.”

“So why didn’t your mother leave?”

“She did eventually. But when everything started happening—when my father was finally released from prison and home—she had nowhere to go. She had no real friends. She was too ashamed to go to the church for help. But she finally had a friend say she could move in with her for a short time.”