Trail of Lies (7 page)

The next thing she realized was that Daniel was sitting down beside her on the couch, dangerously close, his lime-scented aftershave teasing her nostrils. “What did your husband do?”

“I don't know, but I think it involves his restaurants.” She tilted her head around to peer at him, the dark orbs of his eyes mesmerizing. “When I became suspicious something wasn't right, I tried to discover what, but he found out and threatened me.”

His expression softened. “Why do you think his restaurants were involved in something illegal?”

“I overheard him telling a man that nothing better go wrong with the shipment to the Riverwalk restaurant and that it better be turned around and out of there before the employees showed up the next day for work.” She shuddered when she remembered Axle's lethal tone. “I'd never heard him talk like that.”

“This man came to the house?”

“Yes. Axle wasn't too happy about that. The next time I saw the man was a week later. He and Axle were talking
late one evening right before dark at the stable where we have a couple of horses. I never saw that man here again.”

“Could you describe him for a sketch artist?”

“I could but I think it's the man who's been in a coma since September.”

Daniel shot to his feet. “It is? Why didn't you come forward? The day of Captain Pike's murder, the man in the coma was found at the captain's house, shot and close to death himself. He may be the only one who can tell us what happened to Gregory, and we haven't been able to identify him.” Anger slashed across his face as he glared down at her.

She opened her mouth to answer him when a scream curdled her blood.

“K
aitlyn!” Melora leaped to her feet and raced to her daughter's bedroom.

She heard Daniel right behind her. Silence came from Kaitlyn's room, which only heightened her fear. Had someone gotten to her?

It seemed to take forever to get to her daughter's doorway at the far end of the hallway on the second floor. Before she could charge into the bedroom, Daniel grabbed her arm and halted her.

“Let me,” he whispered and withdrew his gun.

He peered inside, and the tension that gripped him melted as he holstered his weapon. Melora didn't wait for his go-ahead. She surged past him and hurried to Kaitlyn sitting straight up in her bed, tears coursing down her cheeks, her lower lip quivering.

“Honey, what's wrong?” She sat next to Kaitlyn and drew her against her.

“I dreamt…” The little girl swallowed the rest of her words and threw her arms around Melora.

“You're okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you.” Her daughter hugged her so tightly it was hard to breathe. Melora ran her hand down Kaitlyn's back over and over, trying to calm the fear the dream had
unearthed. For the past few years she'd had her own share of nightmares.

When Kaitlyn leaned back several minutes later, her eyes still glistened with tears, but none ran down her face. She inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly. “Why did that bad man keep hitting our car?”

Melora combed her daughter's long hair back then cradled her head between her hands. “I don't know, but Ranger Riley is here to help me figure it out.”

Daniel came to the bed and knelt near Kaitlyn. “I won't let anything happen to you and your mommy. We'll find the bad man.”

“Promise?” Kaitlyn murmured, her arms still loosely about Melora.

He looked at Melora for a long moment then at Kaitlyn, a fierce resolve in his expression. “Promise.”

In that second Melora knew she'd done the right thing by confiding in him. Staring at his commanding features, rugged, tan, she felt safe for the first time in years.

“Melora, is everything okay?” Juanita asked from the doorway.

With her coat still on, her housekeeper took a step into the room, clutching her purse and a small sack from the drugstore. Melora gave her a reassuring smile. “Yes, Kaitlyn had a bad dream and woke up scared.”

Juanita's dark eyes clouded. “Do you need me to help with anything?”

“No, I know you have dinner to start. We're fine.”
Or we will be when we find the person threatening us.
Again, another look at Daniel bolstered the feeling she'd done the right thing in telling him what was going on.

“Okay. Kaitlyn, there's some more of your favorite ice cream and I know how much you love it.”

Her daughter's eyes bugged out. “Two bowls in one day?”

Juanita nodded. “If it's okay with your mom.”

“Mommy, can I have some? I think it will make me feel better,” Kaitlyn said in all seriousness.

The sight of her child's cuts hammered home how serious a situation they were in. She forced a light tone and a smile as she said, “Sure, honey. I need to talk with Ranger Riley.”

Kaitlyn hopped off the bed. “Great.”

Before she ran from the room, Melora added, “Don't forget to feed Patches in a little while.”

“I won't,” Kaitlyn said as she hurried out the door right behind Juanita.

“So strawberry ice cream will make things all better with Kaitlyn. I wish real life was that easy.” Daniel moved closer to her. “Why didn't you come forward when we splashed the sketch all over the news asking if anyone knew the man's identity?”

Melora rose. “Because I'm not sure it is him and I had other problems—like staying alive. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to the authorities.”

“Staying alive?”

“Yes. The break-in last week wasn't the first. Right after my husband disappeared, there was one. Two men wearing ski masks just like last week. I was upstairs and had just finished putting Kaitlyn down for the night after being at Uncle Tyler's all day for Thanksgiving. I heard a noise downstairs, and I knew it wasn't Juanita. She'd gone to one of her sisters' for the long holiday weekend.” She glanced around at her child's possessions and realized this wasn't the place to tell Daniel about what happened. “Let's go into Axle's office. I wouldn't want Kaitlyn to overhear. She doesn't know anything about this.”

Melora left her daughter's bedroom and descended the stairs. She hated moving to the office, but it was the most private room and one that Kaitlyn didn't come into much.

“Let me make sure she's okay in the kitchen with Juanita.” With a gesture toward the door to the office, Melora strode to the kitchen and peered in. Kaitlyn was helping Juanita put away some groceries and telling her about what happened at the hospital. She backed away and headed for the meeting with Daniel.

Inside the office she found Daniel staring out the window. “I see the stable from here.”

“Axle always liked to look out that window at the horses and stable. He loved to ride and planned to teach Kaitlyn when she was old enough.” At one time she'd thought that at least Axle loved his daughter, but in the six months before he disappeared, she'd come to think that he'd only considered Kaitlyn another possession—one he'd used to threaten Melora with.

Daniel pivoted. “Is Kaitlyn okay?”

She nodded and took the chair nearest her. The emotional roller coaster she'd been on the past couple of days had caught up with her. And from the frown that settled on Daniel's face, she knew this meeting would be difficult at best.

He fit his long length into the chair across from her. “You were telling me about the first time your house was broken into. How did they get in?”

“I don't know. I suppose they could have come in when I took Kaitlyn up to her room. She'd fallen asleep in the car. I shut the door from the garage but didn't lock it. It took all I could do to turn the alarm off without waking Kaitlyn. She hadn't been sleeping well so I didn't want her to wake up.”

“So you went downstairs to investigate a noise? You didn't call the police?”

“Truthfully, I wasn't really thinking. Like Kaitlyn, I hadn't been sleeping well, either. I thought it was Patches. He can get into things he shouldn't.”

“So what happened when you confronted the two men?” Tension laced every word in Daniel's voice.

“I came into the office to find it trashed and one man standing by Axle's desk. The other was behind the door. I started to run out of the room when he caught me. I thought I was dead. Instead, they told me what they would do if I said anything to the police about the break-in or Axle. They made it very clear I would suffer the same fate as Axle if I didn't keep quiet and stay put in San Antonio.”

“You mean to tell me that you knew Axle was dead and that something was going on with his business?” He gripped the arms of the chair. “If you had come forward two years ago, maybe Captain Pike wouldn't have been murdered.”

His tightly spoken statement stunned her. For a moment she couldn't draw in a decent breath. Her lungs burned as did her thoughts. Had her silence caused Captain Pike to be murdered? What did Axle's death have to do with his? “That's a low blow.” She bolted to her feet. “How can you say that?”

“Because somehow the captain's murder is tied to your husband's. I'm here to find the connection and the people responsible.”

“I don't know anything about it. Axle has been gone for two years so he wasn't the one.”

“You're involved somehow. There is a tie to both murders. Don't you want to find out who killed your husband?”

No, she wanted to shout. “They—the intruders from two years ago and the one last week—said I had more than
myself to think about. That's all they needed to say to keep me quiet. I'm all Kaitlyn has. And I also have to consider Uncle Tyler who has done so much for me. I couldn't let anything happen to them.”

“You said they were looking for a flash drive. Where is it?”

She rounded the back of the chair and clasped it, leaning against it. “I don't know. A few months before Axle went missing, he started wearing one around his neck. I guess that was the one they were looking for. I assumed it was on Axle when he was murdered. I told the men that.”

“Nothing like that was found with the body. So either whoever killed him took the flash drive or he put it somewhere before he was murdered. Does your husband have a safety deposit box or something like that?”

“Yes and I checked it. Uncle Tyler and I went to it to secure any papers for the business. Although my husband worked a lot from home, he did have an office at his corporate headquarters. I cleaned it out, too, and brought his personal items here.” She waved at some boxes in the corner. “I left the business papers there for William Thompson.”

“Could there be something in those that might help us?”

“I didn't see anything and my uncle looked over everything. He knows more about running a business than I do. Nothing seemed out of place.”

“Would you allow us to look into the business and see if we can find anything?”

Once she said yes, she would be fully committing herself to this plan of action, which would put her and Kaitlyn in danger. But she already was a target. “Yes.” She wanted this to end.

“Then I need to move on this right away. Can you call
Mr. Thompson and tell him to cooperate fully with the Texas Rangers I'll be sending to his office?”

She nodded. “Are you going?”

“No. You trusted me with your secret even though it might put you and Kaitlyn in danger. I promised your daughter I would protect you two and I will. I'll be staying here until you're safe.”

“Staying here?” she murmured, not sure how she felt about that. Part of her was comforted; another part was scared of the feelings he aroused in her. She hadn't felt safe in a long time and with him she did. But it was more than feeling safe. It was a connection that went beyond his work.

“Yeah, and when I can't be here another Ranger will be. I'll call my office and send two Rangers to begin going through your husband's business today. I don't want to waste any more time or give anyone a chance to cover up something.”

“I'll go check on Kaitlyn and make sure she's still all right and call William to tell him to expect some Rangers.” She left the office and strode to the kitchen, withdrawing her cell as she walked.

At the kitchen entrance she spied Kaitlyn sitting at the table with a big bowl of ice cream, which would no doubt spoil her dinner, but she knew what Juanita was doing. Trying to get her daughter to forget about the wreck. She entered the room. “I see you're enjoying your ice cream.”

With some on her upper lip, Kaitlyn nodded then spooned some more into her mouth.

“Juanita, Daniel will be staying for dinner.”

A slight widening of her housekeeper's eyes was the only indication she was surprised. Since Axle's disappearance she had rarely entertained.

Kaitlyn bounced up and down in the chair and said, “Oh, goody. I'll get to show him Patches.”

“Have you fed him?”

“Not yet. I will when I finish my ice cream.”

Melora turned and strolled toward the large picture window in the dining room and stared out front while she called William Thompson. When she informed the man of her wishes, she could hear the censure in his voice. “I must insist on this. Someone murdered my husband and needs to be found. Wouldn't you say so?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Then we agree. There will be two Rangers showing up in a little while. Accommodate them any way you can.”

After she hung up, she called the hospital, hoping that the cab driver was out of surgery by now. She had a friend on duty in the recovery room.

After learning the driver was in serious but stable condition, Melora slipped her cell into her pocket, thinking about the cab driver who had gotten caught up in what was happening to her. She couldn't let that happen to anyone else. Although she hadn't driven the truck that caused the wreck, she felt responsible. If she hadn't tried to run away, this might never have happened. She couldn't live like this anymore, and she hoped Daniel was the answer because she was placing her and Kaitlyn's lives in his hands.

 

Daniel let himself into his apartment and headed for his bedroom to pack a bag. With Gisella staying temporarily at Melora's, he would grab what he needed to stay indefinitely at her house. Both he and his captain felt she was a pivotal player in this case involving the Lions of Texas. That meant he had to keep her alive to help him get to the bottom of what was going on. Why had Axle been murdered? Who did it? What was Axle's connection to the Lions of Texas?
Where was the flash drive? What was on it? Question after question tumbled through his thoughts.

Anderson and Oliver were at Axle's business, reviewing the business papers under the watchful eye of William Thompson. His own interview with Thompson a few days ago had proved fruitless, but maybe something would come of going through the paperwork at Hudson Restaurant, Inc. Ben had already heard from Tyler Madison demanding to know what was going on. His captain was fielding the man's inquiries, but threats to go to the governor were being tossed around.

When Tyler had called Melora, not two hours after his visit to his niece's, she'd been upset, telling her uncle that she needed to help with the investigation into Axle's murder. Her shaken demeanor after the phone call momentarily made Daniel forget that she'd kept quiet when she shouldn't have. In his job he lived with danger and fear. Melora didn't. He had to remember that. They needed to work together to find the connection between Axle's and Captain Pike's murders.

Daniel threw together the clothes and toiletries he would need for a week, then glanced around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything before making his way toward the door. A knock on it slowed his pace. He wasn't expecting anyone. Dropping his bag at his feet, he leaned forward and checked who it was through the peephole.