Warrior Son

Rage darkened Barbara’s eyes. “Listen to me, Deputy. Bobby and I have suffered enough. We have both been locked up because of that family, but we did not kill Joe. Now leave us alone.”

She whirled around and gestured toward the guard. “Take me back to my cell, please.”

The guard glanced at Roan, and he shrugged and gestured okay. But before Barbara stepped through the door, he cleared his throat. “Know this, Barbara. If you or Bobby did kill Joe, I’ll find out. And any chance of you getting free will disappear.”

She shot him a venomous look, then shuffled out the door with the guard.

Roan contemplated her reaction.

Had she been so desperate to protect her son and see him get what was owed to him that she killed the man she loved?

* * *

MEGAN’S HEART HAMMERED as tires squealed and the car roared toward her. Terrified for her life, she rolled sideways toward the sidewalk seconds before the car screeched to a stop.

If she hadn’t been so fast, the car would have hit her.

Her life flashed in front of her. Playing with her sister when she was little. Losing her. Losing her mother... Her father looking at her like she was nothing.

Being so lonely sometimes she thought she’d die...

Then that night with Roan...his handsome face. Him bending over her, making love to her.

She wanted to live, to be with him again.

Shouts and screams echoed around her, then a man raced to her and helped her up. “Are you all right, miss?”

The driver of the car jumped out, the woman’s face ashen as she stumbled toward Megan. “Oh, God, honey, are you okay?”

“Yes,” Megan said. She glanced around the street and saw several people watching while others had dispersed in fear. “Someone fired a gun.”

“I heard it,” the man who’d helped her up said. “But I didn’t see where it came from.”

“I think it was a car backfiring,” a gray-haired man said.

“No, no, it was definitely a gun,” another woman said.

Megan didn’t know what to think. But...she’d also thought she’d felt someone push her before she fell.

You’re just being paranoid.

Although she had expressed suspicions about Joe McCullen’s death, the only people who knew that were Howard and Roan. And they were on her side.

Of course Tad Hummings’s brother had cornered her in the bar—would he try to kill her because she’d helped send his brother to prison?

“Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance?” the driver of the car asked.

“I’m sure.” All she wanted to do was call Roan.

Then hide in the morgue where she was safe.

Except she needed to talk to Dr. Cumberland. And he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

* * *

ROAN CONSIDERED QUESTIONING Bobby but decided he needed concrete proof before he did. Something that would force Bobby to confess.

He climbed in his SUV to leave the prison and phoned Megan as he drove onto the highway. Her phone rang three times before she answered. When she did, she sounded breathless.

“Megan, are you all right?”

“No. I mean, yes,” she said. “I’m on the way back to the morgue.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I went to meet Howard to discuss the tox results, but on the way back to the hospital a gunshot sounded. The crowd panicked and started running, and I fell in the street.”

Roan went very still. “You fell?”

“Yes, well, I don’t know. I thought for a minute I was pushed, but I could have imagined it. Everyone was running to get away.”

“Who fired the gun?”

‘I have no idea,” she said. “The street was crowded and it happened so fast. One man said he thought it was a car backfiring, but I don’t think so.”

“Did you see anyone suspicious?”

“No. But like I said, it happened really fast and a car was coming so I had to roll out of the way.”

He didn’t like this one damn bit. First, she’d come to him questioning Joe McCullen’s death. Now a gun had gone off in the street and she’d fallen and nearly been hit by a car.

Too coincidental.

Roan clenched the phone with clammy hands. “Who else did you tell about the tox report?”

Tension filled the air. “Just you and Howard, the lab tech and Dr. Cumberland. But I haven’t seen him since I met with Howard earlier.”

“What were the results?”

“There was definitely cyanide in Joe’s system, Roan. Probably administered in small doses over a long period of time so as not to draw suspicion.”

Roan veered onto the road leading toward the McCullens’ ranch, Horseshoe Creek. He needed to find out who’d visited Joe on a regular basis.

“I know this will upset Dr. Cumberland,” Megan said. “He and the McCullens are good friends.”

“So how did he miss the fact that his patient was poisoned?”

“Like I said, it was probably administered in slow doses. Since Joe was already ill, Dr. Cumberland must have assumed his weakening condition was due to the disease.”

Roan’s mind raced. Barbara was his prime suspect, but her shock had seemed real. “But one question is still bothering me—why kill a dying man?”

“Maybe Barbara and Bobby knew about the will, but thought Joe was going to change it and take them out. She could have wanted him dead before he could make the change.”

“That’s possible. I put a call in to Joe’s lawyer to find out.”

His phone beeped. Maddox. “Listen, Megan, Maddox is calling. Let me talk to him.”

“Are you going to tell him his father was murdered?”

Roan hesitated. That was not a conversation he was eager to have.

“Not yet. I want some proof of a viable suspect before I go to him.”

“I don’t blame you. The McCullens have been through a lot. But they will want to know.”

He was well aware of that. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell him when the time is right.” He hesitated, then remembered her close call on the street. “Be careful, Megan. And don’t talk to anyone but Dr. Cumberland about this.”

She agreed, and he hit Connect to respond to Maddox. “It’s Roan.”

“I think I’ve tracked Romley down. I’m staking out a motel where he was last spotted.”

“Do you need backup?”

“Not yet. I’ll let you know if I do. Is anything going on there?”

Roan swallowed hard. He hated to lie, but...he wasn’t ready to divulge the truth. “No. I’ll ride out and check on the ranch soon.”

“Thanks. That security detail Brett hired should have it covered. But I’m worried about Mama Mary and Rose staying at the house while I’m gone. I tried to get them to stay with a friend, but they’re both as stubborn as they come. Mama Mary said no one would run her off from her home, and Rose insisted on staying with her.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll check on them.” In fact, Mama Mary was the one person who’d been by Joe’s bedside when he was ill. She’d lived with the family since before the boys’ mother passed and was the cook, housekeeper and surrogate mother. According to Maddox, she was as much a part of the family as anyone.

She would know exactly who’d visited Joe. And if he had other enemies, she could provide them with a list of names.

* * *

MEGAN COULDN’T SHAKE the uneasy feeling that someone had meant to harm her in the street.

The man from the bar, Tad Hummings’s brother?

She should report her altercation with him to the police. To Roan.

But...she had no real proof that he’d pushed her today. And he was already angry with her over the injustice he’d perceived she’d done to his family. If she accused him of pushing her in front of a car or firing a weapon at her, he would be furious.

She didn’t want to deal with that kind of rage. Or to falsely accuse anyone of anything.

She finished filing the results on Morty Burns and sent them to the sheriff in Laredo. This was his case, not one for Roan or Sheriff McCullen. But she was curious about the man so she entered his name in her database and ran a background check.

Information filled the screen.

Morty Burns, age fifty-nine, five-ten, a hundred and ninety pounds, no preexisting conditions.

He was married to a woman named Edith Bennett.

Bennett—why did that name sound familiar?

A knock sounded at her office door, but before she could respond, Dr. Cumberland stormed in.

“What the hell are you doing, Megan?” He slashed his hand through the air. “I just found out you ran more labs on Joe McCullen. I thought we settled that issue.”

Megan pivoted, forcing a calm to her voice.

She hadn’t let her father intimidate her and she wouldn’t let this man.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but the fact that there were two different results bugged me. So I decided to run it one more time.”

Dr. Cumberland rammed his hands through his hair, spiking the white strands in disarray. “I can’t believe you’d go behind my back—”

“This is not about you,” Megan said. “It’s about your good friend Joe. If someone did hurt him, wouldn’t you want to know?”

“Of course,” he stuttered.

“I still don’t understand about the false negative.”

Dr. Cumberland looked away. “Sometimes our samples get contaminated and it throws off the results.”

That had happened before. “I know you cared about him,” Megan said softly. “And so did his sons. I just want the truth.”

He paused in his pacing and turned to look at her, his expression pained. “What are you saying, Megan? That someone killed my best and oldest friend? That it happened while he was under my care?”

Chapter Five

Dr. Cumberland looked completely distraught.

Megan stepped over to him and squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Doctor, I know this is upsetting.”

The man’s face contorted with emotions. “How could I have missed that? I saw him all the time...”

“It happened so slowly, there was no reason for you to look for it, not with Joe already dying.”

“This makes no sense,” he said. “Why would anyone kill Joe? He didn’t have long to live.”

“That’s the big question,” Megan said. “And one I’m sure his sons will want the answer to.”

Dr. Cumberland looked stricken, and then he slumped into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. “Good God, Joe...what have I done?”

The guilt in the man’s voice tugged at Megan’s heartstrings. “You didn’t do anything. Joe knew you were his friend. If he’d thought someone was poisoning him, he would have told you.”

“But I was his primary physician. I should have realized, should have seen something.”

“Like I said, whoever poisoned him did it in small doses over a long period of time.” She drummed her fingers on the desk. “Can you think of anyone who had a grudge against Joe?”

“Just Barbara. And maybe Arlis Bennett, but he’s in jail.” He pushed himself up, but staggered slightly. His pallor was gray, his breathing unsteady.

Megan reached out to steady him. “Are you okay? You aren’t having chest pains, are you?”

He shook his head no, then straightened and swiped at the perspiration beading on his forehead. “I have to go.”

“Wait.” She caught his arm. “Maybe you need to see a doctor.”

“I’m fine, I just need some air.” He shrugged off her hand and hurried toward the door before she could stop him.

* * *

ROAN’S GUT CHURNED with the news of Joe McCullen’s murder.

For a fraction of a second, he considered the possibility that this could have been a mercy killing. Mama Mary supposedly loved the McCullens like family—she’d taken care of Joe during his illness.

What if she’d hated seeing him suffer and decided to speed death along?

Although slowly poisoning someone was not merciful. If Mama Mary or someone else, say Dr. Cumberland, had wanted to keep Joe from suffering, he or she would have found a faster way.

As he drove down the long winding drive to the main farmhouse at Horseshoe Creek, he scanned the property. It was an impressive spread. Now it belonged to Joe’s three sons.

Horses galloped across the fields while cattle grazed in the pastures. Brett had brought more horses in to train and planned to offer riding lessons and was rebuilding the barns that burned down. He’d taken his wife, Willow, and his son away for a couple of weeks in hopes Maddox would track down the culprit sabotaging the McCullens.

Hopefully Maddox would arrest Romley and the trouble would end.

But the fact that Joe had been murdered changed everything. Was Gates responsible? Or...Barbara or Bobby?

Sunshine slanted across the graveled drive and farmhouse as he parked. The ground was dry from lack of rain, although winds stirred dust and scattered leaves and twigs across the yard. Hopefully spring would come soon with warmer weather, new growth and the ranch could get back on track.

But he wouldn’t be a part of it. He didn’t belong.

Still, he had to get justice for his father.

The sound of cattle echoed above the low whine of the wind, and he spotted a cowboy at the top of the hill herding the cows toward the pasture to the east.

A gray cloud moved across the sky shrouding the sun as he strode up to the front porch.

He knocked, noting that the repairs on the house were complete.

He knocked again, then heard shuffling inside. “Hang on to your britches, I’m coming.”

Roan shifted and scanned the perimeter of the property again, searching for anyone lurking around, but nothing suspicious stood out. A second later, Mama Mary lumbered to the door and opened it.

The scent of cinnamon wafted toward Roan, making his mouth water.

The short, chubby lady wiped her hands on her apron as she invited him in. She’d wound a bandana around her chin-length brown curls and flour dusted her blouse and apron. Her brown eyes were so warm and loving that Roan couldn’t help but envy the McCullens. Although alarm tinged them at the sight of him. “Deputy Whitefeather, Is something wrong? Did you hear from Maddox?”

“Maddox is fine,” Roan assured her. “I spoke to him earlier today. He has a lead on Stan Romley.”

Relief softened her face. “Thank goodness. Maybe they’ll lock him up, and my boys can get back to work here on the ranch where they belong.”

Her boys. She said it with such affection that if he’d ever considered the possibility of her doing something to hurt the family, that thought vanished like dust in the wind.

“May I come in? I’d like to ask you some questions.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Something is wrong. Something you don’t want to say.”

Roan jammed his hands in his pockets. She was damned intuitive. “I’m just trying to help Maddox identify the arsonist.”

She nodded, although she scrutinized his face as if she didn’t quite believe him. Still, she waved him in. “You want some tea or coffee?”

“Coffee would be good,” he said. Maybe it would put them both at ease if he at least acted like this was informal, not a hunting expedition. Although, if she knew her boss and family friend had been murdered, he had a feeling she would want to help.

She gestured toward the den where a fire crackled in the fireplace, and she disappeared into the kitchen while he surveyed the room. A family picture of Joe and his three sons hung on one wall—the boys were teenagers then. A bookshelf held other pictures, a couple of Joe and the woman who must have been his wife, Grace. A third one showed Grace holding a baby in her arms with two toddlers beside her—Ray had to be the baby, Maddox and Brett the toddlers.

How would she have reacted if she’d known that Joe had another son at that time? Roan was probably just a few months older than Maddox.

His hand stroked his wallet where he kept a picture of his mother. There had been no father in the picture because she’d chosen not to tell Joe about him. What would Joe have done if he’d known? Would he have offered to marry Roan’s mother?

Would he have grown up a McCullen and lived on a ranch like this?

A wave of disappointment hit him, but he tamped it back. No use wondering. It hadn’t happened.

Footsteps sounded, and Mama Mary waddled in carrying a tray with a coffee craft, two mugs and a plate of cinnamon rolls. She set them on the coffee table, handed him a plate with a cinnamon roll on it, then served them both a mug and offered cream and sugar.

“Black is fine,” he said as he cradled the warm mug in his hand. Even the coffee cups had an M on them for McCullen, another reminder that if his mother had married Joe, that would have been his last name, too.

Mama Mary studied him with a frown. “All right, what’s really going on, Deputy? Maddox is after Romley and we know that he worked for Boyle Gates, the man Maddox put away for cattle rustling. I’m aware you all looked into his cousin Bennett. Do you have new information?”

He sipped his coffee, choosing his words carefully. “We’re still hoping that Romley will give us a confession regarding the fires.”

“So why are you here?”

Roan nodded. “The last few months Joe was sick, Dr. Cumberland came often to check on him?”

She nodded, then stirred sugar into her coffee. “Almost every day. He and Joe went way back. He even delivered Joe’s boys.”

Except for him. And Bobby. But they obviously didn’t count. “Joe and Boyle Gates had trouble?”

Mama Mary sighed. “Well, I guess you could say that. Boyle tried to get Joe to sell some of his land to him. He wasn’t happy at all when Joe refused.”

“Did Gates visit Joe while he was sick?”

Mama Mary nodded. “A couple of times. I couldn’t believe he kept persisting. He must have thought that Joe was weak and would give in, but Joe was adamant that his ranch belonged to the McCullens and didn’t intend to let any of it go.”

Gates would have had to have administered the poison more than twice for it to show up in the tox screen. Maybe he hired someone to sneak it into Joe’s food or drink?

“How about other visitors?”

“Well, a few of the hands dropped by. The foreman and Joe were close. He stopped in at least once a week.”

“You said they were close? Did he have any trouble with Joe?”

“No, Joe was always good to him. They were more like brothers than employee-employer.” She made a clicking sound with her teeth. “Why are you asking about Mr. Joe’s visitors?”

“I’m trying to get the full picture of anyone involved with the ranch or Joe. It’s possible Gates paid someone other than Romley to sabotage the ranch.”

She chewed on her bottom lip and looked away. “Mr. Brett already checked out the hands. Romley turned out to be dirty, and Maddox found out he was working with another hand named Hardwick. They were both on Gates’s payroll.”

“What about visitors outside the ranch? Other than Dr. Cumberland, who came to see Joe while he was sick?”

She set her coffee on the tray and rubbed at her knee as if it hurt. “Barbara stopped by a few times, always when Maddox wasn’t around. Once I heard her up there crying over him. I tried to stay out of the way when she was here. She didn’t much care for me.”

“She was bitter,” Roan said. “Did she bring Joe any gifts or food when she visited?”

Mama Mary’s face crinkled as she scrunched her nose in thought. “Sometimes she brought him cookies. Said they were his favorites, that she made them for him the first time they met.”

“Did Joe eat them?”

“One or two here and there. To tell you the truth, he wasn’t into sweets that much. He was a meat and potato man.”

Still, she could have poisoned the cookies.

“What about Bobby? Did he visit Joe?”

She scoffed. “That boy was like vinegar, sour and bitter as they get. He came some, but I stayed out of his way. He upset Mr. Joe. Sometimes I could hear them shouting all the way in the kitchen.” She made a sound of disapproval. “When Joe took sick, you’d have thought Bobby would have softened and been nicer. But one night I heard him asking Joe when he was going to tell the other boys about him. He was always demanding money, too.”

Roan’s pulse jumped. “What about Joe’s will? Did Bobby know he was included?”

“Joe hinted that he’d included him, but more than once he told Bobby if he wanted any part of the McCullen land, he had to get help.”

Roan considered their argument. “Did Joe ever talk about changing his will?”

Mama Mary glanced down at her fingers where she was knotting the apron in her lap. “He did. I told him once he should take that boy out. He was ungrateful and a mean drunk, and he didn’t deserve what Joe had worked so hard for.”

“Did Joe talk to the lawyer about it?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Mama Mary said with a sigh.

There was one way to find out. Roan had to talk to Joe’s lawyer Darren Bush.

* * *

MEGAN SPENT THE rest of the afternoon working on the autopsy of a car crash victim.

By late afternoon, she was so concerned about the doctor that she phoned him to make certain he didn’t need medical attention, but his voice mail kicked in. Her phone buzzed a second later.

Thinking it was him, she quickly snatched up the phone.

“Dr. Lail, this is Deputy North in Laredo. I got the results for that autopsy on Morty Burns.”

“Yes.”

“Did you find any forensics?”

“I’m afraid not,” Megan answered. “But the bullet that killed him was from a .45.”

“Hmm.”

“Something bothering you about the report?” she asked.

“Not the report per se. But I talked to Sheriff McCullen from Pistol Whip. Apparently Morty Burns was married to a woman named Edith Bennett.”

“Yes, I saw that,” Megan said.

Deputy North grunted. “Well, her brother is Arlis Bennett, a man the sheriff suspects is working with Boyle Gates.”

There was the name Bennett again. “Has Burns’s wife been notified of his death?” Megan asked.

“Not yet,” the deputy said. “I phoned and there was no answer at her place. She lives near Pistol Whip, not Laredo.”

Megan drummed her fingers on the desk. “I can go out and talk to her.”

“We really should have an officer present. This is a murder investigation now.”

“All right, I’ll get Deputy Whitefeather to accompany me.”

“Good. Sheriff McCullen thinks Burns’s murder may be related to the trouble at his ranch. That he might have been paid to set the ranch fires and that he might have been killed to cover up what he did.” He paused. “Anyway, I was hoping you’d found some DNA to tie his death to Gates or Bennett.”

“I’m sorry, I wish I could tell you more.”

He thanked her and hung up, and Megan stewed over the information.

It hadn’t occurred to her that a murder victim who’d been on her table might be connected to the McCullens.

She texted Roan to relay the deputy’s statement and explained that she’d meet him at the woman’s home to make the death notification—and question the woman in case she knew who’d taken her husband’s life. There was always the possibility that this murder was not related to the McCullens, that it was a domestic dispute gone bad or that Burns had gotten himself in some kind of trouble. Maybe he owed someone money...

Her phone beeped indicating a response to her text, and she read Roan’s message. At Horseshoe Creek now. Will meet you at the Burns farm. Wait for me.

She texted back OK, then grabbed her purse and rushed down the hallway.

Outside, the sun was setting, storm clouds rolling in, the wind picking up. The parking lot at the hospital was still full, though; the afternoon-evening shift hadn’t arrived, and an ambulance was rolling up.

She hit the key fob to unlock her car, jumped in and headed toward the address for the Burnses’ farm.

Traffic was thin as she drove through town, the diner starting to fill up with the early supper crowd. She made the turn to the highway leading out of Pistol Whip, and ten minutes later found the farm, a run-down-looking piece of property that had seen better days.

Overgrown weeds choked what had once been a big garden area, the fences were broken and rotting and the house needed paint badly. Her car rumbled over the ruts in the dirt drive, dust spewing in a smoky cloud behind her.