Badge and a Saddle (Heroes in the Saddle Book 2) (3 page)

“And that was
unusual?” He gave her a level look. “The meeting, not the break-in.”

Mina couldn’t tell
if he was trying to be funny, or was just intent on clarifying his question.
Either way, he was kind of funny. “My department head sounded strange, so I asked
if it was about the telescope. He stammered for a few seconds, muted the phone,
then came back and said it was about scheduling.”

“And that was
unusual?”

“Yes, very. I knew
they
were there.” That cold dread that had made her heart stutter back
then washed through her again. “I knew I had to run.”

He handed her the
camera. “So you sank your phone, took cash from an ATM, and grabbed a taxi to
the bus station. You took a bus to Fort Worth, and jumped on a shuttle headed
for the Bing River Ranch, signed up for a turkey hunt, then disappeared that
night.” He drank half his coffee in one shot.

“You knew all
that?” Impressed and frightened at the same time, she felt justified in her paranoid
belief that hiding on the remote ranch was not enough to keep her safe. What he
didn’t know was the part where she’d taken rusty scissors and chopped off her
long, thick red hair, cutting it into little pieces and flushing it down the
toilet. 

And where she’d
snuck into the ranch’s kitchen and taken bread and cheese and a few bottles of
water to keep her alive until she figured out where she was going next.

“That’s where we
lost you.” Rex pulled back onto the highway.

Mina stayed quiet
for a while, and closed her eyes. What if she hadn’t run? She rubbed her hand
on her belly, nerves making the contents of her stomach feel like a heavy
weight. They would have found her. As it was, they’d seen Rex’s report and were
now looking for her in the Fort Worth area, and that was too close.

“Do you need me to
pull over?”

She shook her head
without opening her eyes. “I’m fine, for now.”

He checked his
watch. “If you need a break, we’ve got a couple hours if you want to sleep a
while.”

She snuggled down
into the soft seat, and looked at his strong profile. His concern warmed her,
but she couldn’t get too complacent. “I’ll finish my story, then if you have
questions…”

His gaze shot to
hers. “If?” He snorted. “Yeah, I’ve got a few questions for you, Doctor. Like,
what did you do with the footage on the camera, and how did you get from the ranch
to my house, and how the hell did you know where I lived?”

“Oh, right. The
camera.” That was the most important part of this, and she’d skimmed right over
it. Not enough sleep and too much fear didn’t make for much brain activity. She
adjusted her seatbelt and turned toward Rex, wanting to see his reaction to her
next statement.

“I saved the video
from the memory card onto the camera.”

He nodded. “And
the memory card?”

He wasn’t going to
like this. “I went to a shipping store and had them send it by courier…to the
governor.”

“To the…” His
brows drew down. “Why the governor?”

“I didn’t know who
else would take it seriously. Who would actually do something about it and not
destroy it to protect someone in their department.”

He whistled, low
and slow. “I want to call my partner and have him check on that.”

“No.” She sat up.
“No one can be trusted.”

He tipped his
head. “Except me? How do you know I’m not taking you out into the hills to…”

She smiled. He
couldn’t even say it. “Kill me? Or were you going to say, hunt turkeys?”

A short groan came
from him and he sucked down more coffee.

“I did some
research online at a library in Fort Worth, using…a friend’s login. Someone who
has higher clearance level than I do. ”

“You’re a
government employee. That’s how you found me.” He sounded angry.

“Desperation and
self-preservation. I won’t apologize.”

He drove, silent
and frowning, for a couple miles. “Okay, it’s all starting to fit together. You
left the ranch and got to the city by…?”

“Hitchhiking. Wearing
a blonde wig.”

“Dangerous.” His
hand tightened on the wheel. “Do you know how many hitchhikers disappear
every—”

“No, but again,
desperation.” He wanted to lecture her? “I could have stolen a car from the
ranch, but that would have led to more police involvement. As it was, I ran
more miles than I’ve ever run in marathons.”

“Okay.” He held
his hands up in surrender. “As long as you
never
do it again.”

She drew an X over
her heart with her finger. “Promise.”

“Yeah, right.” He
let out a humorless laugh. “So, now I have questions.”

Mina picked up her
cup of tea, holding it in both hands, drawing warmth into her bloodstream and
strength into her spirit. “Shoot.”

He tapped the grip
of his gun. “Don’t tempt me.”

****

Rex asked his
questions, and Mina answered, sounding honest, but something just wasn’t adding
up. He couldn’t get a fix on what, though, so he started asking the same
questions in different ways, hoping to get a glimpse of something shifting. She
stayed true to her original statement.

He plugged in his
phone to charge it, and talked into it, recording a few things that sat heavy on
his mind. He was dead tired, and didn’t trust that he’d remember everything
once he got to Wild Oak.

The sound of her
breathing reached him, slow and steady, and he glanced over to see her asleep.
Crazy woman. She’d risked her life to get away, then decided to trust him.
Feeling the incredible weight of that responsibility, he grudgingly
acknowledged she’d probably done the only thing she could have, in her
desperate state. There was no way he’d let her get hurt on his watch.

He went over the
things she’d said happened five nights ago. There’d been no reports of a murder
or even a shooting in the area of the school. No unidentified bodies had shown
up, either. Whoever had done this had taken the evidence with them.

An hour later,
when he finally pulled onto the gravel driveway to the ranch, he stopped and
waited to see if any vehicles passed by. The rising sun tinted the eastern sky
orange. He missed this place. He hadn’t counted on how much. But his job kept
him in the city, for now. Once he had enough experience in this position, he’d try
for a job closer to the ranch. It wouldn’t be as a big-city detective, but that
would be just fine with him.

After all the
things he’d seen go down, and after hearing what Mina said she had witnessed, a
quieter, less-intense job was looking better and better.

After five minutes
with no activity on the road, he drove along the quarter-mile stretch toward
the ranch building. Fences bordered both sides, and here and there, the cattle
grazed on the fresh spring grass. The urge to jump on a horse and ride out
across the acres of land nearly sidelined him.

At the end of the
driveway, the old two-story white house stood strong, but looked like it needed
paint. He’d have to see to that this summer.

Lower in the
valley, the creek cut a winding path, and the buildings and barns looked
deserted. They hadn’t had a foreman here in over a decade. One of the neighbors
sent a ranch hand over to handle the daily chores, charging them a ridiculously
reduced fee as a way of honoring Bennet’s contribution to the community during
his years as sheriff.

Rex and Bennet
hired more help only when they needed it, but the herd grew smaller every year from
the lack of attention. His detective’s salary covered the costs but gave him
very little more to live on, much less make improvements on the ranch.

Rex slowed and
stopped in front of the house, and slid out of the truck, leaving Mina
sleeping. Pretty, like a naughty angel with that messy red hair all sticking up
and uneven. Naughty angel? He shook his head. “Get that shit out of your
thoughts.”

He stepped up onto
the porch, avoiding the long ramp that had been built to accommodate a medical
walker. The inside door stood open, so he knocked on the screen door.

“Come on in,”
Bennet Cader’s voice called. “You own the place, so you don’t need to knock.”

The voice made Rex
smile. He stepped inside and spotted Bennet pushing his walker toward him, the
brown slippers Rex had given him for his birthday sliding along the linoleum
floor. Only in his early sixties, the man had succumbed to a degenerative
disease that kept him unsteady and weak.

“Good to see you,
boy.” Bennet’s voice shook a bit, but his smile lit his craggy face. Tall and
rail-thin, the man’s flannel shirt and jeans hung on him. He’d lost weight.

“Bennet.” Rex took
the man in a hug and patted his back. “How are you doing?”

Pulling back and
giving Rex a grin, the older man nodded, fast and excited. “Better, now that
you’re here. What’s the occasion? Ain’t my birthday again, is it?”

“I brought
someone. Sleeping in the truck, now.” He gestured toward the front door. “But
it’s work this time.”

Bennet glanced out
the door. “Work?” He wheeled himself past the kitchen table. “Sit, and I’ll
make coffee while you tell me the story.”

Rex wouldn’t dare
offer to do it for him. The man had his pride. He took a seat and a deep
breath. “She’s a missing person.”

Bennet turned, raising
an eyebrow. “Why are
you
handling this, and not the sheriff’s
department?” The man had been the county sheriff for twenty years before his
health forced him to retire. He was the reason Rex had joined the police force
and become a detective. That, and the prospect of incarcerating criminals like
the one who’d shattered Rex’s world when he was a kid.

“Rex?” Bennet
hadn’t moved.

“She’s from
Austin, disappeared there, and somehow this landed on us.” Rex had thought it
strange when the request had first crossed his desk. His partner had, too, but
then a few days later, Sontag had gone at the case with a gusto the veteran
hadn’t shown for very many cases. “I haven’t reported that I’ve found her yet.”

Now Bennet’s other
brow shot up. “Not standard procedure. You got a reason for this?”

“She doesn’t trust
the police. She claims they shot a man by the university, with not just one
police department involved, but possibly two or more.”

“Yeah?” Bennet
turned back and worked on the coffee.

Rex could almost
hear the gears turning in his mentor’s head, and would give him time to
process. He walked into the living room, which used to be the dining room.
They’d moved all the furniture in this room and turned the old living room into
Bennet’s bedroom when he couldn’t make the stairs any more.

The television Rex
had given him the Christmas before had all the right cords and cables to hook
up her camera. “She has it on video, the shooting. Well, most of it.” If she’d
just kept the telescope steady, he wouldn’t be having these doubts surfacing.

“Let’s take a
look.” Bennet stood behind him. The guy could sneak up on anyone, walker or no
walker. He was a consummate law professional.

“If she’s not
awake in an hour, I’ll go get her.” He looked out toward his truck. How had she
just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time? In his experience, coincidences
usually turned out to be nothing at all coincidental.

“Is she pretty?”
Bennet wheeled back to the table and sat in his usual chair.

“She’s gorgeous.”
Rex got out the cups, sugar, and cream and set everything on the table. “You
think I should contact the captain, right?”

“Son, I don’t see
this turning out well if you don’t.” Bennet didn’t have to list all the
reasons. Rex knew them. He’d be under fire for about a dozen infractions. “But
pour me some of that coffee and tell me the whole story, first.”

“You’re gonna love
this.” Rex served coffee and told the whole story, including her vomiting and his
suspicion Doctor Mina was hiding something.

Bennet nodded. “In
my experience, everyone’s hiding something.”

“True.” He’d heard
that from the man for years, but in Rex’s case, that didn’t apply. He was an
open book, believed in telling the truth, and insisted on it from everyone
around him. He stood. “Except for you and me, of course.”

Bennet let out a
hoarse laugh. “Yeah. The two exceptions.”

Rex walked through
the living room and out the side door to give himself privacy from both his
mentor and his missing person. The sun had reached the treetops in the
distance, and birds chirped. The scent of spring growth brought him back to his
days on the land.

How had he gone so
long without coming back here? In the distance, a vulture soared across the
sky, circling slowly downward, then breaking off and flapping to gain altitude.
He felt that way, some days. Like he was getting close to finding what he was
looking for, but just couldn’t seem to grasp it.

Tugging his phone
from his pocket, he pushed aside the self-analysis and pressed the button to
call his captain.

“Tarrow, where the
hell are you?” Sounds of papers being crinkled and things falling to the floor
came through the phone.

“I’m gonna need
you to get someplace alone, sir. I don’t want anyone to overhear this.”

Silence. “You’re
giving me orders?”

“No, sir.” Rex
swallowed to clear his voice. The guy somehow always made him nervous.
“Confidential information, possibly dealing with police wrongdoing.”

“Ah, shit. Just
what I need today.” It sounded like the captain was walking. “Okay. I’m in my
office, and my door’s closed. Let me have it.”

Rex told the
story, everything he knew, including where he and Mina had ended up.

“You took a
missing person to a ranch outside a dot-on-the-map town.” The captain spoke the
words slowly and distinctly.

Rex knew that
tone, and knew his explanation had better be good. “Sir, she was afraid for her
life. I…” He had to swallow again. “I had a choice to make, and I think…” He
wished like hell he could take that last word back. “I made the decision based
on the intel I had.”

“Tarrow, you’re a
rookie detective.” His superior shouted the words. “Why the fuck didn’t you
call me at three this morning?”

Good question.
“Sir, under the circumstances, I wanted to get the victim to a safe harbor
first.” He’d stand by that, and send up prayers that it wouldn’t cost him his
badge.

Captain let out a
long breath. “And you didn’t trust the safe houses. Yeah, okay. I can see your
point, and I’d probably have done the same thing in your situation.”

About three
thousand pounds of stress lifted off Rex’s chest.

“But, detective,
you will never, and I repeat, never, move a victim or suspect again without my
approval. You got that?”

“Yes, sir.” He
tried to sound sufficiently humbled, but Rex knew he’d do the exact same thing
again, if the bizarre circumstances ever repeated themselves.

“Okay. Here’s what
we’re going to do.” The captain outlined a plan where they’d mark the missing
person APB closed, show that the doctor was already en route to Austin in a
Sheriff’s Department vehicle to divert attention from their department, and
he’d contact the governor’s office and Internal Affairs to coordinate the
screening of the video on the memory card. Rex would take three “personal days”
and hide out with the lost-and-found doctor.

Rex was surprised
he wasn’t being called back to the city. “You want me to stay here? Or move
around?”

“Stay put,
detective. I’ll be the only one who knows where you are. I’ll tell your partner
that you had a family emergency.”

Rex trusted his
captain, but with Mina’s life? And his? He’d have to, but he’d take out a
little extra insurance. “Yes, sir.”

“And Tarrow…” The
other man cleared his throat. “Good work finding her. Or…letting
her
find
you
.”

Rex almost
laughed. “Thank you, sir.” He ended the call and pulled up the contact for his
friend Treven Arnett. The volunteer firefighter owned the next ranch over.

“Rex, hey buddy!”
Treven was one of the happiest men he knew, but then, the lucky skunk had it
all.

“Trev, man, I’m
gonna need your help.” After apprising him of the circumstances, they arranged
for him to stop by that afternoon. “I’m gonna call Clint, too.” Clint Black
owned a small ranch in the area, and worked as a paramedic for their local fire
department.