A Threat To His Family. Delores Fossen

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       Chapter Three

      Owen hadn’t wanted to spend half the night in the sheriff’s office, where he spent most of his days, but he hadn’t had a choice. This was not just a simple B and E, and with the shooting death of one of the intruders, it was a tangled mess.

      One not likely to be resolved before morning.

      That was because Laney had denied hiring the intruder, and the intruder was insisting he was telling the truth. That put them at a temporary stalemate. Or at least it would have if Owen had any faith in the intruder. Hard to trust someone who’d come to his home and broken in while his baby daughter had been there. Of course, the reason the intruder had come was Laney.

      That meant this was another stalemate.

      One that he hoped to break soon.

      There was an entire CSI team going through his place, which meant he wouldn’t be going home tonight. The only silver lining was that Francine had taken Addie to her place. Not alone, either. Owen had sent Gunnar with them just case this “mess” got another layer to it with a second attack.

      In the meantime, Owen had been in the mind-set of collecting as much information as he could through phone conversations and emails. He hadn’t done all of that under Laney’s watchful eyes and alert ears, either. He’d left her in his office for some of those calls and was now trying to process everything he’d learned.

      Laney hadn’t been idle, either. She’d made a call, too. With a cheap, disposable cell phone, he’d noticed. And Owen had made sure he kept his ears alert during her conversation. She’d spoken to someone she called Joe and told him to be careful.

      That was it.

      The chat had lasted less than five seconds and then Laney had immediately surrendered the phone to Owen. Not that it had been of any use to him since Joe hadn’t answered when Owen had tried to call him. Laney had briefly—very briefly—explained that Joe Henshaw was her assistant, and that she didn’t know where he was. Neither did Owen or the San Antonio cops helping him look for the guy.

      “I didn’t hire that man to kill you,” Laney repeated when Owen finished his latest call, this one to the medical examiner.

      Declaring and redeclaring her innocence was something Laney had been going on about during the entire five hours they’d been there. He suspected she would continue to go on about it until the intruder either recanted or Kellan and he were indeed able to prove that he was lying.

      Owen figured proving it wouldn’t be that hard.

      However, they couldn’t even start doing that because the guy had lawyered up and they now had to wait for the attorney to arrive from San Antonio. Until then, they were holding not only the intruder but also Laney. Owen had not yet decided if she was a suspect, but he was pretty sure Laney—or rather Elaine—was going to be the key to them figuring out what the hell was going on.

      “The guy you shot and killed was Harvey Dayton,” Owen told her. He’d just gotten the ID during his call with the ME. “Ring any bells?”

      “No,” she answered without hesitation. “And I’m sure I’ve never seen him before, either. His prints were in the system,” Laney added in a mutter. “That’s how you got the ID this fast?”

      He nodded. “Dayton had a record,” Owen settled for saying.

      What he didn’t spell out for her was that the rap sheet was a mile long, and yeah, it included a couple of assault charges with a pattern of escalating violence. Along with a history of drug use, which made him a prime candidate for becoming a hired gun for people who wanted cheap help.

      “Did Dayton say what he took from the guesthouse?” Laney asked.

      Good question because, other than a gun, Dayton hadn’t had anything on him when Kellan and Gunnar had found him. The CSIs would search the area, but Dayton had been captured by the road, a good quarter mile from Owen’s ranch. There was no telling where he’d put whatever it was he’d taken.

      “Your laptop is missing,” Owen added, and he instantly saw the frustration and anger in her eyes.

      “I keep copies of my files in online storage,” she said with a heavy sigh. “But everything was also on my hard drive. It means whoever took it won’t have trouble accessing everything.”

      Later, he’d want to know more about exactly what was on it. For now, Owen went with giving her more info that would then lead to more questions. Hopefully, more answers, too. “Your toothbrush was there, so that axes your DNA theory. Your purse was open, and your wallet and cell phone were gone. No jewelry around, either, so if you had any—”

      “The only jewelry I have is this.” Laney touched her fingers to the gold dragonfly necklace that she’d gotten back from Addie. СКАЧАТЬ