Cold Case at Cobra Creek (7 page)

“All right.” He squeezed her hand, sending a tingle of warmth through her.

She followed him to the spot where the car had crashed and burned. He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and began scanning the ground near the site, looking for anything the police might have missed.

Sage followed behind him, the images of the fire taunting her. She’d imagined them finding Benji’s burned body so many times that she felt sick inside.

But they hadn’t found him, and that fact gave her the will to keep going.

The next two hours, she and Dugan walked the scene, searching shrubs and bushes, behind rocks, the woods by the creek and along the river and creek bank.

Finally, Dugan turned to her. “He’s not here, Sage. If he was, we would have found something by now.”

Relief surged through her. “What now?”

“Maybe the news story will trigger someone to call in.”

She nodded, and they walked back to their vehicles. “I have a couple of leads to check out,” Dugan said. “I found some information on the fake IDs and discovered that at least one of Lewis’s aliases was married. I’m driving to Laredo to see if I can talk to the woman.”

Sage’s stomach lurched. So Ron had not only lied to her but proposed to her when he’d already had a wife.

* * *

D
UGAN WAS RELIEVED
when he didn’t discover a grave. Knowing there had been a search team after the crash had suggested the area was clean, but Gandt had led the team and Dugan didn’t trust him.

The sheriff had obviously taken the accident at face value and hadn’t had forensics study the car, or he might have found a bullet hole and realized the accident wasn’t an accident at all. Unless Lewis was shot after he left the burning vehicle...

“Let me go with you to see the woman,” Sage said.

Dugan frowned. “If she’s covering for her husband, she might not want to talk to us.”

“You think she knew what he was doing? That he had other women?”

Dugan shrugged. “Who knows? If he’s run the same scam in other cities, she might be his accomplice. Or...she could have been a victim like you were.”

“Just a dumb target he used.”

“You aren’t dumb, Sage,” Dugan said. “Judging from the number of aliases this man had, he was a professional, meaning he’s fooled a lot of people.”

“He also could have made a lot of enemies.”

“That, too.” More than one person definitely had motive to want him dead.

Sage’s keys jangled in her hand. “Follow me back to the inn and then let me ride with you. If she was a victim, then she might talk to me more easily than you.”

Dugan couldn’t argue with that. “All right.”

Ten minutes later, she parked and joined him in his SUV, and he drove toward Laredo. “How did you find out about her?” Sage asked.

“My buddy with the rangers plugged the aliases into the police databases. Lewis had a rap sheet for fraud, money laundering and embezzlement.”

“He did time?”

“No. In each instance, a woman bailed him out. Then he disappeared under a new name.”

“It sounds like a pattern.”

“Yes, it does,” Dugan agreed.

Sage leaned her head against her hand. “I still can’t believe I was so gullible.”

“Let it go, Sage,” Dugan said gently.

“How can I? If I hadn’t allowed Ron—or whatever his name was—into our lives, Benji wouldn’t be gone.” Her breath rattled out. “What kind of mother am I?”

Dugan’s chest tightened, and he automatically reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You were—are—a wonderful mother. You loved your son and raised him on your own. And my guess is that you never once considered doing anything without thinking of him first.”

Sage sighed. “But it wasn’t enough. I let Ron get close to us, and he took Benji from me....”

Dugan reminded himself not to let emotions affect him, but he couldn’t listen to her berate herself. “I promise you we’ll find him, Sage.”

Of course, he couldn’t promise that Benji would be alive.

Tears glittered in Sage’s eyes, but she averted her gaze and turned to stare out the window.

Dugan hated to see her suffering. Still, he gripped the steering wheel and focused on the road, anything to keep himself from pulling over and dragging her up against him to comfort her.

* * *

S
AGE LATCHED ON
to
Dugan’s strong, confident voice and his promise. He seemed to be the kind of man who kept his word.

But she’d been wrong about men before. Her track record proved that. First Benji’s father and then Ron.

No, she was obviously a terrible judge of character.

But this was different. Dugan was known for being honest and fair and good at what he did. Taking on her case was nothing personal, just a job to him.

She studied the signs and business fronts as they neared Laredo. Dugan veered onto a side street before they entered town and wound through a small modest neighborhood. He checked the GPS and turned right at a corner, then followed the road until it came to a dead end.

A small, wood house with green shutters faced the street. Weeds choked the yard, and a rusted sedan sat in the drive.

“This woman’s name is Maude Handleman,” Dugan said as they walked up to the front door. He knocked, and she studied the neighboring houses while they waited. If Ron had made money conning people, what had he done with it? He certainly hadn’t spent it on this property.

Dugan knocked again, and footsteps pounded, then the sound of a latch turning. The door opened, revealing a short woman with muddy brown hair pulled back by a scarf.

“Mrs. Handleman?” Dugan said.

Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized them through the screen. “If you’re selling something, I don’t want it.”

“We aren’t selling anything,” Dugan said. “Please let us come in and we’ll explain.”

“Explain what?”

Sage offered her a smile. “Please, Maude. It’s important. It’s about your husband.”

The woman’s face paled, but she opened the door and let them in. “What has he done now?”

Sage followed Maude inside, with Dugan close behind her. The woman led them into a small den. Sage glanced around in search of family pictures, her pulse hammering when she spotted a photograph of Maude and the man she called Ron Lewis, sitting on the side table.

“All right,” Maude said impatiently. “What’s this about?”

Dugan glanced at her, and Sage began, “Your husband, what was his name?”

“Seth,” Maude said. “Except I haven’t seen him since I bailed his butt out of jail nearly four years ago.”

“Mrs. Handleman, did you know that Seth has other names that he goes by?”

Surprise flickered in the woman’s eyes. “Other names?”

“Yes.” Dugan explained about finding the various drivers’ licenses. “He has been arrested under at least three assumed names. That’s how we found you.”

She studied them for a minute. “Who are you—the police come to take him back to jail?”

Sage inhaled a deep breath. “Actually, no. Seth came to Cobra Creek where I live, but he told me and everyone in the town that his name was Ron Lewis.”

Maude twisted a piece of hair around one finger.

“He posed as a real estate developer who had big plans for Cobra Creek,” Sage continued.

“He did do some real estate work,” Maude said.

“He was arrested for fraud and embezzlement,” Dugan cut in. “And I believe he was trying to swindle landowners around Cobra Creek.”

Maude crossed her arms, her look belligerent. “Look, you can accuse him all you want, but if you want me to pay back whatever he took from folks, I don’t have any money.” She gestured around the room. “Just look at this. He left me high and dry.”

“We don’t want your money,” Dugan said.

“Then, what do you want?”

Sage sighed softly. “Maude, the day Ron Lewis left Cobra Creek, he took my three-year-old little boy with him.”

“He kidnapped your son?” Shock flashed red on Maude’s face. “He might have been a cheat, but I find that hard to believe.”

Sage nodded. “It’s true. He took him from my house. My son’s name is Benji.” She pulled a photo from her purse and handed it to the woman. “That was taken two years ago. I haven’t seen him since.”

Maude’s alarmed gaze met hers. “I don’t understand. Seth...he cheated people out of money, but he wasn’t no kidnapper.”

Sage’s stomach knotted. “I don’t know why he took Benji,” she said. “But I know that he lied to me. He asked me to marry him, and he warmed up to Benji from the start. Did the two of you have children?”

She shook her head. “I had a miscarriage right after we got married. After that, I was scared to try again.”

“Did he talk about children a lot? Did he want a family?”

Maude’s lip curled into a scowl. “No.”

“What about his own family?” Dugan asked. “Did he tell you anything about them? Did you ever meet his mother or father?”

“No, he said his parents were dead and he didn’t have any brothers or sisters.”

“When was the last time you saw or talked to him?”

“I told you, right after I bailed him out of jail about four years ago.”

“Did he come home with you that night?” Dugan asked.

“Yeah. He spent the night, then said he was going to make things right, that he had to talk to someone about a job and that he’d be back when he got things worked out.”

Sage lowered her voice. “Did you have any idea that he’d been arrested before?”

Maude shook her head no.

“How about that he used different names?”

“I told you I didn’t know what he was up to.”

“He didn’t call you and tell you about being in Cobra Creek?” Sage asked.

“No. I... When I didn’t hear from him, I was afraid something bad happened to him. That the law caught up with him and he was back in jail.”

“So you didn’t look for him?” Sage asked.

“I called his cell phone, but it was dead.”

“You haven’t heard the news, then?” Sage asked.

She crossed her arms, irritation tightening her face. “No, what the hell is going on?”

Sage glanced at Dugan, and he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to have to tell you, Mrs. Handleman, but Ron Lewis...aka Seth Handleman...was murdered.”

Maude gasped and twisted the afghan between her fingers. “What? Who killed him?”

“That’s the reason we’re here,” Dugan said. “I’m investigating his murder.”

Sage studied Maude’s reaction. She seemed sincerely shocked. And she’d given no indication that she’d killed him or that she wanted him dead.

“Please, Maude, if you can think of a place Seth would have gone or someone he would have contacted, tell me. I’m afraid that whoever killed him took my little boy, and that Benji’s in danger.”

* * *

M
AUDE’S FACE PALED
. “I...just can’t see my Seth kidnapping your boy. If he did, someone must’ve forced him to.”

Dugan had considered that. “But Ms. Freeport didn’t receive a ransom note.”

Maude threw her hands up. “I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry, Ms. Freeport. But I don’t know anything.”

“Do you recognize the names Mike Martin or Joel Bremmer?” Dugan asked.

“No, should I?”

“They’re two of Lewis’s other aliases.”

Maude dropped her face into her hands. “You think someone he conned killed him?”

“That’s possible,” Dugan said. “Or it could have been one of the other women in his life.”

Maude made a strangled sound. “I shoulda known he wasn’t faithful when he left me. Why do I always fall for the losers?”

Sage patted her back with compassion. “I know just how you feel, Maude.”

He laid a business card on the table beside her. “Call us if you think of anything.”

Sage sighed as they walked outside to the SUV and got inside. “What do we do now?”

“There were two other women on the list I want to question.”

“Other wives?”

“One was a wife, one a girlfriend.” He fastened his seat belt. “Maybe one of them can shed some light on Lewis. If he lied to Maude about having a family, one of them might know.”

“You think if he had family, they might have Benji?”

“I don’t know, but there might be some answers in his past that will tell us who killed him.”

Chapter Seven

Sage laid her head against the back of the seat and dozed while Dugan drove to the address he had for Mike Martin. According to Jaxon, his girlfriend was named Carol Sue Tinsley. She volunteered at a local women’s shelter.

The small town was south of Laredo and took him an hour to reach. Just as he neared the outskirts, Sage cried out, “No, please don’t take him....”

Dugan gritted his teeth and realized she was in the throes of a nightmare. How many nights had she actually slept in the past two years without suffering from bad dreams?

“Please...” She choked on a sob.

Dugan gently reached over and pulled her hand into his. “Sage, shh, you’re dreaming.”

She jerked her eyes open with a start.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “A nightmare?”

She blinked as if to focus and straightened as if to shake off the dream, although the remnants of fear and sorrow glittered in her green irises.

He turned into an apartment complex that had seen better days, checking the numbers on the buildings until he reached 10G, Martin’s last known address.

A few cars and pickups filled the parking spaces, although there were more empty spaces than those occupied, indicating that the building wasn’t filled to capacity. The patios looked unkempt, and overlooked parched land, and the roof of the building needed repairs.

He parked and turned to Sage. “Do you want to wait here?”

“No, let’s go.”

Together they walked up to the building, then climbed the stairs to the second-floor unit. The cinder-block walls needed painting, and someone had painted graffiti on the doorway to the stairs.

“Ron liked money. He always wore designer suits and drove a nice car.” Sage wrapped her arms around her waist. “I can’t imagine him living in a place like this.”

Dugan silently agreed. Although Mrs. Handleman’s home hadn’t been in great shape and her house wasn’t filled with expensive furnishings, it was upscale compared to these apartments.