Murder Under The Mistletoe. Terri Reed

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СКАЧАТЬ squatted down next to Tyler and handed him the phone. “He wants to talk to you.”

      Tyler held the phone to his ear. “Griffin here.”

      He listened, his mouth pressing into a grim line. “Yes, sir. I understand, sir. The local sheriff is on his way here. Thank you, sir.” He pressed the end button. “My boss will be in contact with the sheriff’s department.” He held out the phone. “Are you satisfied?”

      “I suppose.” Her fingers curled around the phone.

      His hand clasped around her wrist.

      She let out a little yelp and tried to break his hold. His grip was warm, tight, but not painful.

      “Not so fast,” he said. His intent gaze held her captive as surely as his hand. “I want my gun back.”

      Her heart beat wildly. “It’s in my pocket.” Why did she sound as if she’d run a marathon?

      With his free hand, he reached into the pocket of her robe, retrieved his weapon and jammed it into his holster.

      “Uh, you can let go of me now.” She stared at the point where his big hand circled her slender wrist. She had no doubt he could break her bones with a quick snap if he chose to.

      He let go, holding his hands up, palms out. “Sorry.”

      “Tell me what you meant when you said my brother was working with you. And why did he think something would happen to him?”

      Tyler scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Your brother informed my office that your family’s tree farm was being used to smuggle cocaine into Canada.”

      She dropped from a squat to her knees. “Cocaine?”

      The official ruling in her brother’s death flashed in her mind. Overdose of injectable cocaine. She’d had so much trouble accepting the coroner’s findings. Seth had been belonephobic. He abhorred sharp objects, especially needles. He’d snorted, smoked and swallowed his drugs.

      Plus he’d promised her he was clean. She’d believed him.

      However, the sheriff hadn’t believed her when she’d claimed Seth wouldn’t have injected himself with drugs. She could tell the sheriff had thought she was fooling herself. He’d said junkies would do whatever they could for the high, even overcome a lifelong fear.

      Without any evidence to the contrary, she’d had to come to terms with Seth’s death as an accident. But now...?

      “Someone here on the farm was involved in drug smuggling?” It didn’t make sense. “That can’t be. Most of our employees have been with us for years. I trust them. I can’t imagine any of them partaking in drugs, let alone using our farm for nefarious purposes.”

      “Not all of your employees are long-term, right? You do have some transient workers.”

      She chewed on the inside of her lip. An anxious flutter started low in her tummy. “True. We do have a few seasonal laborers who come in the fall and stay until Christmas day. Then they travel back to their homes. But those few have been coming for years, as well.”

      “You can’t always predict what people will do if given the right motivation.” He slowly stood.

      His words sent a shiver of apprehension crawling across the nape of her neck. She rose to face him. “Where is the cocaine coming from?”

      “We don’t know the direct route, but we do know the source of the cocaine coming into the US is from Central America. There are many drug cartels in various countries south of the border infiltrating both the US and Canada. And more recently, Australia.”

      Her mouth went dry. “There’s a drug cartel here?”

      “Possibly.” Tyler sank down on the dining room chair. “I’m working with IBETs—Integrated Border Enforcement Teams—we’ve been investigating rumors of drugs crossing the US–Canadian border for months. Two weeks ago Seth reached out to me and my team.”

      Pride filled Heather. She could only imagine how scary it had been for Seth to seek help. Going up against a drug cartel was no small feat.

      “Apparently last year he’d needed some extra cash,” Tyler continued. “He had allowed a shipment of cocaine to hitch a ride into Canada with a shipment of trees from your farm. He’d thought it was a onetime deal. But when they came back to him this year, he realized he’d gotten in over his head.”

      Heather silently groaned. One step forward, two steps back. Seth had always courted trouble with his decision making.

      “We—” Tyler grimaced “—I convinced him to find out as much as he could and keep a record of everything he learned, including who, what, where and when.”

      Stunned, Heather rocked back on her heels. “Let me get this straight. My brother came to you with information about an illegal drug operation on our farm and you—” A cold sweat broke out on her skin. “He was spying for you?”

      A grim expression stole over Tyler’s face. “Yes.”

      Heather backed away. Her mind scrambled to make sense of what she was hearing. It was one thing for Seth to be a whistle-blower and another entirely for him to play the role of spy. “That was a dangerous thing for you to ask of him.”

      “Yes, it was.”

      She stilled as a thought burned through her brain. Her blood turned to ice. “He didn’t die of an accidental overdose. Someone killed him.”

      “That’s what I believe.”

      “He’s dead because of you!”

      Tyler closed his eyes. When he opened them, the bleakness in his gaze confirmed her accusation. “Yes.”

TWO

      Tyler held Heather’s gaze with what he hoped was dispassion and not the swirling maelstrom of guilt laying siege to his psyche. He wouldn’t shirk the responsibility of Seth Larson’s murder.

      Despite Seth’s past addictions, Tyler had sensed his sincere need to get out from under the thumb of the drug cartel. Though Tyler may not have injected Seth with the lethal dose of cocaine, he felt responsible. Tyler had no doubt that someone had found out that Seth was keeping an account of the illegal activities going on at the Larson family Christmas tree farm. And that someone then killed Seth. He gritted his teeth against the throbbing in his head.

      Heather stared at him with wide eyes full of flashing anger. “How could you let this happen?”

      It was a valid question. One he’d been asking himself for the past five days. One his superiors were asking, as well. “Your brother initially wanted us to raid the farm, but we didn’t know who we were looking for and where the drugs were stashed. And Seth claimed he hadn’t been privy to how the smuggling took place. At least at first. A raid too soon would have only shut down the operation here, not stopped the flow. We needed evidence. We needed facts. Still do. Seth began to gather intel and had thought he had enough to shut the ring down, but then he СКАЧАТЬ