Guarded (28 page)

Shelley clicked end. She hugged the phone against her pounding chest. Almost numbly, she watched Dev’s car pull into the parking lot. Jacob’s words echoed in her ears.

I think he’s dead.

“T
IME TO GET
the sheriff involved,” Dev said with regret the moment Shelley had filled him in on the call from Jacob. He turned to his cousins, who’d followed him into the café, saying in an undertone, “Stay with her.”

He bent to kiss Shelley on the forehead, but she lifted her face to his and his lips found hers. It was soft and reassuring, and something warm flashed in her eyes. Then they misted again and she looked away saying, “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Seth followed him outside the café but gave Dev a bit of privacy. Still, Dev was grateful for the moral support. “I’ll keep you out of it.”

Seth gave a shrug but said, “Hurry up. Ryan mentioned they’d found something useful.”

Dev nodded and dialed.

The sheriff answered the phone on the second ring. “Sheriff Webber.”

“Sheriff, this is Detective Jones from Tidewater.”

“I’m in the middle of an emergency here. Can I call you back?”

“Are you at the clinic?” Dev didn’t miss the pregnant pause before the sheriff said, “How’d you know about that?”

God, this was going to suck when the captain heard Dev had withheld his knowledge of Shelley. “Because Dr. Morgan called me.”

“She
called
you?” The sheriff’s tone went sharp and cold. “How in the hell did she do that?”

“Sir, we’re old friends.”
And if that wasn’t an understatement.

“And you didn’t think this was important enough to mention at any point in the past few hours?” The man’s voice edged closer to ice.

“I’m sorry, sir. You said yourself, she wasn’t a suspect. I didn’t think my relationship with her mattered.” Dev’s phone beeped. He glanced at the screen. It was Ian. “Sir, I do apologize, but this is urgent. Dr. Morgan received a call from her intern. He said there’d been a break-in and their boss had been murdered.”

“Son, if you’re planning to screw with my investigation—”

“I’m not, sir.” Dev paused, then appealed to the man’s compassionate side. “Sheriff, Dr. Morgan is very important to me. I’d still like to join my partner and aid in the investigation. Now more than ever. And, sir, you said yourself she couldn’t have committed the murders. I’m just making sure she’s not going to end up another victim.”

Another long pause and the sheriff blew out a hard breath. “I’m with Dr. Kessler in the ambulance right now. He was seriously injured. He went into cardiac arrest but was revived. When my deputies arrived on the scene, he was the only one here. We have a BOLO out for Jacob Durand. Where are you now?”

“We’ve stopped to get gas in Carson.”

“Fine. I’ll send one of my deputies to meet with you and your partner.”

“Thank you, Sheriff.”

“Remember something, no matter how much I like Dr. Morgan, if she’s involved, you cannot protect her. And I will be having a conversation with your captain about this. Keep in mind, son, you and your partner are coming to Elkridge to help. It’s still
my
investigation.”

Dev grimaced at the not-unexpected reprimand. “Yes, sir.”

“I have to get off the line. I’ll have one of my deputies contact you.” The phone disconnected.

*   *   *

A
DAM BARELY MADE
it back to the zoo. For his plan to be successful, he needed the final executions to take place here. No exceptions. Seemed only fitting, considering why he’d started his righteous path in the first place.

Something was wrong. The zoo was unusually silent. No owls hooted. The leaves didn’t rustle. Like the earth itself was waiting with bated breath, but for what?

A small snick of a twig snapping cut through the quiet.

Adam jerked his head to the right. Even in the dark, he could find his way around this place. He’d been doing it for years. Carefully, he moved through the woods, just to the right of the footpath leading to the tiger’s cage.

Another snick. This time, followed by the sound of a chain-link gate squeaking open.

Not again
.

He hopped onto the trail and raced to the tigress. He had maybe twenty feet of ground to cover before he could get into the safety of the trees. Adam would not fail again. He would see justice served.

*   *   *

T
HROUG
H
MISTY
EYES
,
Shelley watched Dev kick at a rock in the parking lot while he spoke on his cell. When the car broke down, she’d been distracted. Now reality sank in.

“Oh, God! Poor Dr. Kessler. Jacob said he was dead. Someone had attacked them. Why is this happening?”

“I don’t know, hon.” Jules came around and scooted into the booth beside Shelley, wrapping her arms around her. Jules smelled like Momma.

Funny, Shelley hadn’t thought of Momma’s scent in years. And maybe Jules didn’t so much smell like their mother as feel like her. Momma had held her just like this, the summer the baby birds fell out of the tree in the backyard during the thunderstorm. Shelley had wanted to run out in the middle of the lightning and hail, but Momma had stopped her and just held her until her tears were spent.

But Shelley wasn’t four anymore. Momma was gone. She couldn’t do this to herself. She mustn’t let herself need Jules, not even for temporary comfort.

Shelley pulled away from her sister’s embrace and swiped angrily at her tears. “Why would someone kill Dr. Kessler? Is it the same person who murdered Tomás? And why bother to try to frame me, only to go and kill my boss?”

“I don’t know, honey.” Jules stroked a hand down Shelley’s hair. “I don’t know. We’ll find out.”

“Your boss isn’t dead,” Ryan said in his deep, rumbling voice. He’d returned from fixing Seth’s car and squatted in front of them. Unlike Ian who made small talk an art form, Ryan hardly spoke. Despite his being a giant, there was a quiet grace about him. Soothing. Even squatting as he was now, he was so tall that he was eye level with Shelley.

“But Jacob said . . .” Angry tears burned behind her eyes. She’d already explained three times about the phone call from Jacob, she couldn’t do it again.

Ryan gave his head a slow shake. “No, someone
tried
. Dev spoke with the sheriff. Dr. Kessler is in the hospital.”

“Oh, thank God!” Relief made the tears she’d been fighting leak down her face. “What about Jacob? Is he all right?”

“The deputies found only the elderly doctor.”

Shelley scrubbed her cheeks and forced herself to calm down. “What now?”

“We wait for Dev and Seth to come back inside.”

Shelley opened her mouth to argue when Ian came to the table with six glasses of tea.
Are we having dinner here too?
Shelley’s question must have shown on her face because Ian flashed his trademark grin and said, “We’re taking up a booth, a table, and space in the parking lot. Least we can do is buy something. I ordered monster fries too.”

He set the drinks down in front of her, while Ryan pulled a small square table flush against the one in the booth. Ian and Ryan flipped chairs backward and sat, leaving one bench in the booth empty. Jules, seeming to recognize that Shelley was better, moved back to the opposite bench just before Dev and Seth joined them.

To Shelly’s surprise, she found she was still very thirsty.

“Ryan and I discovered some interesting facts in town today,” Ian said, spreading out photocopies of newspaper articles on the gray-laminate table.

“Talk fast, we’ve got a deputy headed this way,” Dev said, his face grim.

“This was in the Historical Museum,” Ryan said, pointing to a photocopy of an old newspaper article from the
Elkridge Edition,
dated May 10, 1989. In the center picture labeled D
ESCENDANTS OF
O
UR
F
OUNDING
F
ATHERS:
E
LKRIDGE,
VA., three young men, smiling for the camera, stood with arms wrapped around one another’s shoulders. The one in the middle was familiar.

“That’s Eddy Jameson, the zoo owner. He’s wearing a deputy’s uniform. Was it Halloween or something?” Shelley scanned the page, but no one else appeared to be in costume. What she did see startled her. She pointed to a man at Eddy’s left. “Hey, I think that’s a young John Wallace.”

“And that’s Colbert Rush.” Seth pointed to another man several spaces over.

“McGivern’s dead partner,” Dev supplied.

“Wait, there’s more. This article was continued on the back page.” Ian slid over another sheet of the photocopied news article. “They were at their high school’s five-year reunion. Listen to this: ‘Best friends John Wallace, Colbert Rush, and Eddy Jameson are together celebrating the engagement of Jameson to the daughter of Elkridge veterinarian Dr. Herbert Kessler. Miss Rebecca Kessler and Mr. Edward Jameson are to be married on August 5, 1989.’”

“They were friends.” Ian pointed farther down the page. “The three of them are mentioned several more times over the years, but never together again.”

Recognition hit her like a bolt of lightning. “Oh, Frack! Colbert Rush. That’s the guy with the bite on his hand. Now I know why that wound seemed familiar.”

Ian and Ryan asked in unison, “Why?”

“It’s a tiger bite.” Shelley stared at the old image of Colbert Rush and tried to remember exactly what the bite had looked like. She couldn’t quite see it. “Dev, do you have the photo with you?”

“Files are in my car.” Dev started to rise, but Ryan was faster, saying, “Toss me your keys—keep going.” The key fob arced through the air. Ryan caught it easily and raced outside.

“Why didn’t you mention it sooner?” Dev asked, his hand covering hers gently.

“I only glanced at it briefly when the news came on about a body being found in my trunk. I did tell you that he was local though.”

“Fine,” Dev said at the same time Seth asked, “What else do we know?”

Shelley glanced at the news article. “Something’s not right.” She reread the passage. “Eddy’s wife wasn’t named Rebecca. Her name was Leticia. She died in a car accident last year. The whole town still talks about her. She’s the reason the zoo exists in the first place. Eddy built it for her.”

“Maybe he divorced Rebecca?” Jules asked. The blue smudges of exhaustion under her eyes were more pronounced.

“I don’t see how.” Shelley started to ask Jules if she was okay, but then Seth put an arm around her. Jules rested her head against his shoulder. “Uh, Cristos, Eddy’s son, told me that his parents fell in love at first sight and married just three months later. That was in 1989. How could Eddy have married Rebecca and Leticia the same year?”

“You know how,” Jules said, eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, but Eddy’s not like Daddy. Besides, something else is wrong. Dr. Kessler is my boss. He’s said time and again his only children were his dogs. So who was Rebecca? And what happened to her?”

“Here’s another article on Eddy marrying a Leticia Sandoval,” Ian said, pointing at another page. “Whoa, looks like Leticia’s family was the ruling class back in the day. How’d the owner of a broken-down zoo land her?”

“It wasn’t broken down then. Eddy’s family was well to do in their own right. From what I’ve heard, Eddy was devoted to Leticia. To this day, he hasn’t been able to go near the road where she was killed.”

Ian pulled out his cell phone and began to tap on it.

Ryan returned, dropped the files and key in front of Dev, reclaimed his seat, and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Searching for information on Rebecca Kessler.” Ian frowned.

“Can you look up obituaries?” Shelley suggested. When Ian cocked a brow at her in question, she added, “Dr. Kessler has never talked about having a daughter. And he’s the type that won’t talk about one of the dogs after it died. Could be the same thing for a daughter, couldn’t it?”

Ian gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Impressive. You ever consider getting into security? You could make a helluva detective.”

“Don’t try to recruit my girlfriend, Ian,” Dev said, putting an arm around Shelley’s shoulders. “Shells has an important job. One that usually doesn’t put her life in danger.” He frowned, then turned his stormy gray gaze on her. “It doesn’t, does it?”

“Um . . . no,” Shelley replied, still stunned that Dev had claimed her. They’d had sex one night. Okay, she’d come several times that one night, but she’d slept in her own bed. It was crazy to assume they were anything other than friends.

But how many friends do you sleep with?
There was that. Before she could argue with herself further, Dev kissed her.

His lips found hers and she melted. Not melted exactly. More like they went nuclear. Dear God, the man could kiss. It was so incredible she almost forgot they were in a restaurant full of people.

Ian snickered. “I’d say get a room, but we don’t have that much time.”

Shells broke the kiss and reached a slightly shaky hand toward Dev’s file.

“Can I see the photo of the bite mark?”

“Romantic,” Ian said at the same time Dev said, “Yes.”

It only took a minute to find the picture she’d seen earlier. She pointed to it. “That’s a tiger bite.”

“You’re sure?” he asked, hope lighting his eyes.

“Definitely. Specifically, it’s Miah’s bite.” She pointed to the space in between two of the bite marks. “Miah is missing one of her incisors on the top. No one can tell me how she came to be like that. She’s been missing that tooth since before I came to Elkridge.”