Nate.
She felt herself moving. Running toward him. Yes, it was stupid with his brother and heaven knows who else around. But she went to him. And was more than surprised when Nate closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m okay,” he whispered.
It was the same thing Grayson had told her, but this time she believed it. Still, the panic already had hold of her. Her breath broke, and Darcy disgraced herself by crying. Nate came to the rescue again and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
His hands were already damp. His hair, too. And the rain had soaked his shirt.
“How are the children?” Nate asked. He leaned down, cupped her face and looked her straight in the eyes.
It was the one subject that could get her to focus. “They’re fine.”
“Good.” He pushed her hair from her face and brushed a kiss on her mouth. His lips were also wet from the rain. “Don’t worry. We’ll find Ramirez.”
Again, she believed him and wished she could stay longer in his arms. But the sound of footsteps had them pulling apart. It was Grayson, and even though Darcy felt better, it was clear that Nate’s brother didn’t share her relief. No doubt because of the kiss he’d just witnessed.
“Where’s Mason?” Grayson practically growled.
Nate kept his arm around her waist, causing Grayson’s gaze to drop in that direction. “At the ranch, waiting for the rangers and the FBI,” Nate told him. “After they arrive, he’s driving Bessie to her sister’s house.”
Darcy hated that she was causing this tension between Nate and his brother, but she would hate even more having to distance herself from Nate. This attraction probably couldn’t lead anywhere, but she wasn’t ready to let go of it just yet.
Grayson continued to stare at the embrace for several moments. Then he mumbled something and headed back down the hall, saying what he had to say over his shoulder. “I have Adam Frasier in an interview room writing a statement. Darcy can fill you in on what’s happening.”
Well, at least Grayson hadn’t said her name as if it were profanity.
“Adam says now that his father could be behind the kidnapping. Or Marlene,” she explained. “Grayson is already digging to see if it’s true. Or if Adam is just trying to cover up his own guilt.”
Nate wearily shook his head. “Maybe when we catch Ramirez, we can get him to talk.”
Darcy was about to remind him that at best Ramirez was a long shot, but then she heard the voices. One familiar voice in particular.
Wesley Dent.
She turned and spotted him making his way down the hall toward them. Tina, the dispatcher, was right behind him, telling him that he would have to wait in reception.
“It’s okay, Tina,” Nate assured the woman, and he stepped in front of Darcy. Probably because Dent looked riled enough to explode.
“You’d better not be here to threaten Darcy again,” Nate warned.
“No threat. I’m here because I found something.” Dent started to reach into his jacket pocket, and before he could get his hand inside, Nate had his gun drawn and pointed it right at the man.
Dent glanced at the gun. Then Nate. Dent looked as if he tried to smirk, but he failed. “I’m not the killer, Lieutenant Ryland.” Now, he managed some smugness. “But I have something that could blow your investigation wide open.”
That got her attention. Nate’s, too. And Dent waited until Nate eased his gun back down before he reached into his pocket and extracted a small black leather-bound book. One look and Darcy immediately knew what it was.
Sandra Dent’s missing diary.
“Read it,” Dent said, thrusting it toward Nate. “And then you’ll know who killed my wife.”
Chapter Twelve
Nate didn’t touch the diary, but he figured if this was the real deal, then any fiber or print evidence on it had already been compromised.
Still, they might get lucky.
With Grayson and Darcy right behind them, Nate led Dent into Grayson’s office, took a sterile plastic evidence bag from the supply cabinet and placed it on the center of the desk. Nate motioned for Dent to place the diary there.
“Where did you find it?” Nate asked Dent. But he didn’t look at the man. He grabbed a plastic glove, as well, and lifted the diary’s cover.
“In the back of Sandra’s closet. It’d been shoved into a coat pocket.”
Nate was certain the cops had gone through Sandra’s closet, but it was possible they’d missed it.
“Go to the last entry,” Dent instructed.
Nate did, and Darcy and Grayson moved closer so they could look, as well. The handwritten words practically jumped off the page.
Adam and I argued tonight again. Money, always money. He’s too much like his father. Let’s see how sorry he is when his allowance is gone.
“Sandra was about to cut off Adam’s allowance,” Dent emphasized.
Nate mentally went back through his notes. Adam’s allowance was a hundred thousand a year and was paid out through a trust fund, but it was a trust fund with strings. Adam could only get the hundred grand per year and that was it. He couldn’t touch the principal amount itself for any reason.
A hundred thousand wasn’t a huge sum by Sandra’s standards, but maybe this was motive for Adam to kill her—especially since the allowance would have continued for the rest of his life. Well, it would continue unless Sandra managed to disown him and rewrite the conditions of the trust.
“Adam didn’t say anything about this during his interview,” Grayson mumbled, the disgust and frustration in his voice.
Nate understood that frustration. This case just kept getting more complicated, and they had to find the culprit soon so they could end the danger for the children.
“Adam’s still here,” Grayson added. “I need to talk to him again.”
When Grayson walked out, Nate stayed and continued with the diary, but he quickly realized the page was the last thing Sandra had written. He checked the date at the top.
The night before she died.
Well, the timing was suspect. But then Nate noticed something else. The ragged edge, barely visible, indicating a subsequent page had been ripped out.
Nate looked up at Dent. “Know anything about this missing page?”
Dent seemed surprised by the question and had a look for himself. “No. I didn’t see that until now. Maybe Adam tore it out?”
“You’d like them to think that, wouldn’t you?” Adam snarled from the hall.
With Grayson right behind him, Adam marched into the room and looked at the diary. When he reached for it, Nate blocked his hand.
“It’s evidence now,” Nate informed him. “I’ll have it couriered to the SAPD crime lab for immediate analysis.” He pointed to the blank page beneath the one that had been torn out. “I think we might have impressions so we can figure out what your mother wrote.”
Both Dent and Adam went deadly silent. For a few seconds, anyway.
“We don’t even know if that is my mother’s diary,” Adam concluded.
“True,” Nate acknowledged. “But we have her handwriting on file. It shouldn’t take long for the lab to do a comparison.”
The muscles in Adam’s jaw turned to iron, and he snapped toward Dent. “You’re setting me up.” He whirled back to Nate. “Yes, my mother and I argued, but we worked out everything before someone murdered her.”
“I didn’t kill her,” Dent calmly replied. He seemed to be enjoying Adam’s fit of temper.
“Well, someone did. Either you or my father.” Adam poked him in the chest with his index finger. “And if it was you, then I’m going to prove it.”
That washed away Dent’s calm facade, and Nate was concerned the two men might come to blows. He was too tired to break up a fight. “Are you done with Adam?” he asked Grayson.
His brother nodded.
“Both of you can leave,” Nate told Dent and Adam.
“But what about the diary?” Adam demanded.
“We’ll let you know what the lab says.”
“And then they can arrest you,” Dent concluded. He smiled and walked out.
Adam cursed him, but he didn’t rush after his stepfather. “Don’t let him get away with murder,” Adam demanded.
Nate huffed and motioned for him to leave. For a moment, he thought Adam might argue, but the man finally stormed out.
Grayson put on a pair of gloves and picked up the diary. “I’ll have Tina fax the pages to the crime lab so they can do a quick comparison of the handwriting to make sure it’s Sandra Dent’s. Then, I’ll have a courier pick it up.”
Nate thanked him, and once Grayson was out of the room, he turned his attention to Darcy. She looked several steps beyond exhaustion. And worried. Because he thought they could both use it, he brushed a kiss on her mouth.
Yeah, he needed it, all right, and wasn’t surprised that the kiss worked its magic and soothed him.
Man, he was toast.
“Why don’t you go check on the kids?” he suggested. “I need to make some calls.”
She didn’t question that. Darcy only nodded, turned but then turned back. She kissed him. Like his, it was brief, barely a touch, but she pulled back with her forehead bunched up and a frown on that otherwise tempting mouth.
“We’ll deal with this later,” he promised, figuring she knew exactly what he meant. The only question was how they would deal with it.
Except that wasn’t in question, either.
They’d deal with it in bed. With some good old- fashioned sex. And yeah, it would mess things up with his family. It might even become the final straw of stress that would break his proverbial back. But Nate was certain that sex would happen no matter how it messed up things.
She ran her hand down the length of his arm. “Just yell if you want me,” Darcy whispered.
Despite the fatigue, he smiled. So did she—after she blushed.
Nate watched her walk away. He felt the loss, or something. And wondered when the heck Darcy had become such an important part of his life. Cursing himself and cursing her, he pushed that question aside and got to work. He called Sergeant Garrett O’Malley at SAPD headquarters, the cop working on the Dent case. And now the kidnapping, as well.
“Garrett,” Nate greeted. “What do you have on Marlene Lambert’s financials?”
“There’s nothing much in her checking account, but something else popped up,” he explained, and in the background was the sound of the sergeant typing on a computer keyboard. “Two months ago she sold some land she’d inherited from her grandparents. The buyer gave her a check for nearly fifty thousand, which she cashed, but that fifty grand hasn’t shown up in her financial accounts.”
Nate felt the knot twist in his stomach. This was a woman he’d known for a long time. A woman he’d trusted with the safety and care of his baby girl.
“Of course, Ms. Lambert might have a good explanation,” Garrett went on, “but I’m not seeing it right now.”
So, Nate knew what had to be done. Grayson would have to bring her back in for questioning and grill her until she told them everything. Fifty thousand probably wasn’t enough to have pulled off the entire kidnapping plot, but it would have been enough to get it started.
“What about the financials on Edwin and Adam Frasier?” Nate asked. “I wanted someone to take a harder look at those.”
“I did,” Garrett assured him. “And if either of them spent an unexplained chunk of money from any of their accounts, I can’t find it.”
Those financials had been a long shot since neither man would have been stupid enough to have the money trail lead straight back to them. Especially when Adam or Edwin could have just stolen that money from the safe. But Nate had still hoped he could pin this on one of them. On anyone. He just needed this to end.
“I did see something that might be important,” Garrett said a moment later. “Adam is the sole heir to his father’s estate, and while Edwin doesn’t have a lot of cash, he does own a house that he got from the divorce settlement. It’s worth close to two million. If something happened to Edwin—jail, death, whatever—Adam would be executor of his father’s estate.”
Interesting. Nate was betting Edwin would do something about that now that his son had implicated him in the kidnapping. It was also interesting that if either Dent or Edwin went down for Sandra’s murder, then Adam would benefit.
Yeah. That was motive, all right.
Of course, Dent had just as big a motive. And Nate couldn’t discount Edwin’s jealousy of his ex-wife’s new boy toy. Or Marlene’s possible misguided love.
In other words, he was still at square one. All four of his suspects had motives, and worse, they could have had the means and opportunity, as well.
Nate thanked the sergeant, hung up and was about to check on Darcy and the children, but Grayson was right outside the door. Waiting. And judging from his brother’s expression, something bad had happened.
“The children?” Nate automatically asked.
“Are fine,” Grayson assured him. He stretched his hand across his forehead and ground his thumb and finger into his temples. “But I’m thinking we need to get them to a safe house.”
That nearly knocked the breath out of Nate. “What happened?”