Stockyard Snatching (7 page)

Kate nodded as Tommy hurried out of the room.

Dallas didn’t say that none of this added up quite in the way he wanted it to. All her employees would know that she was already at the soup kitchen. If someone wanted her laptop and adoption files, all he had to do was break in while she was gone. But it was clear that her adoption was at the center of the kidnapping attempt. Could someone be trying to erase the paperwork trail? “Do you ever go back to your place after leaving for work?”

“Not unless I’ve forgotten something for Jackson,” she said.

“Do you normally take him to work with you?” Dallas asked.

“Yes. And then Mrs. Zilker picks him up, although sometimes she sticks around the office for a while,” Kate stated. “Oh, no. I forgot to let her know I don’t need her today.”

“Then someone could’ve been trying to make sure you didn’t go back home,” Dallas said.

“I hope that’s all it is and not the fact that someone wants to take Jackson away from me.” Kate clutched him closer, as if daring anyone to try.

“If Allen will agree to let a deputy search his house, then that’ll go a long way toward clearing him,” Dallas said.

“I hope he does so we can cross him off the suspect list,” she said, and she sounded as if she really didn’t want her friend to be involved, more than that she was convinced he wasn’t.

Tommy entered the room with a stark expression.

Dallas didn’t like the look on his friend’s face.

“What is it?” he asked.

“A vehicle registered to Wayne Morton was found abandoned off of Farm Road 23,” Tommy said, a look of apology in his eyes. “They found blood spatter but no sign of a body.”

“I’m guessing there’s no other indication of Morton anywhere?” Dallas asked. But he already knew the answer to that question and an ominous feeling settled over him. Between the blood spatter and the fact that Morton hadn’t checked in with his assistant this morning, Dallas feared the worst. “We need to talk to Stacy to find out what she knows about his itinerary.”

“No. I need to talk to his assistant,” Tommy said. “I can send a deputy to Morton’s office.”

“Might be best if I speak to her personally. She might open up to me more than a stranger,” Dallas suggested. He felt guilt settle heavy on his shoulders, knowing that if anything had happened to Morton it could be his fault. History would be repeating itself. He muttered a curse too low for anyone else to hear.

“Does this have anything to do with my case?” Kate asked. “Because if it does, I’d like to go with you.”

“No,” Dallas said. “You should stay here in the sheriff’s office just to be safe.”

He hadn’t anticipated the uncomfortable feeling he got in his gut at the thought of leaving her. She’d be in good hands with Tommy and yet he felt the need to stick around and watch over her. He told himself that it was all protective instinct and had nothing to do with the sizzle of attraction he felt when she was near.

“Hold on a sec. Did Lentz give you permission to search his place?” Dallas asked Tommy, figuring it would be good to rule out one suspect.

His friend said, “No.”

“Are you done questioning him?” Dallas pressed.

Tommy frowned. “He lawyered up.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“Deputy Lopez just briefed me on the computer search at the soup kitchen,” Tommy said to Dallas. “Turns out that Allen Lentz has an unusual amount of pictures of Ms. Williams on cloud storage that we accessed via his computer.”

Dallas didn’t like the sound of that.

“He takes all the office party photos.” Kate jumped to Lentz’s defense.

Abigail knocked on the door to Tommy’s office and all eyes focused on her. “There have been six other kidnappings in the past three weeks in Texas, all boys, all adopted and all at gunpoint.”

“He used a knife with me,” Kate stated, shivering at the thought that it could’ve been worse.

“The first infant was found three days later in a car seat on the steps of his day care center,” she said. “The second and third were found several days after their disappearances, under similar circumstances.”

“Three are still missing?” Tommy asked.

His secretary nodded. “The three most recent ones.”

“Was there a ransom demand in any of the cases?” Tommy asked.

“Not once,” she stated.

“Have Deputy Solomon check into the incidences to see if we can find a link to Safe Haven,” Tommy said.

Kate perked up. “That means Allen is innocent, right?”

The sheriff looked from Dallas to her apologetically. “Not necessarily. He could be mimicking other kidnappings to distract attention away from him. The MO was different with you and I can’t rule anyone out until I know why.”

“To be clear, someone is taking babies who are the same sex and around the same age with no ransom demand and then making sure they’re found a couple of days later?” Dallas asked Tommy.

“I’m inclined to draw the same conclusion,” Tommy said. “The kidnappers are looking for a specific child.”

Abigail moved to Kate, motioning toward Jackson. “Let me take him in the other room where he can sleep peacefully.”

Kate stilled.

“I’ll take good care of him. Don’t you worry,” Abigail assured her. “He’s in good hands with me.”

“Thank you.” She handed over her sleeping baby. “So the pictures you found on Allen’s computer aren’t office pictures, are they?” she said, sinking back into the chair.

“No, ma’am.” Tommy waved her and Dallas over to his desk and then pulled up a file on his computer, positioning the monitor for all three of them to see.

One by one, pictures of Kate filled the screen.

“These were taken in my house,” she said, shock evident in her voice.

“Actually, from outside your house, like through a window,” Dallas observed.

“He’s been watching me?” Her hand covered her mouth as she gasped. “Pictures of me sleeping?”

The questions were rhetorical, and the hurt and disbelief audible in them was like a punch to Dallas’s gut.

He reached out to comfort her, not expecting her to spin around into his arms and bury her face in his chest.

This close, he felt her body trembling. A curse tore from his lips as he pulled her nearer, ignoring how soft her skin was or how well she fitted in his arms. His attraction to her was going to be a problem if he didn’t keep it in check.

“Sheriff, can I see you in the hallway for a moment?” Deputy Lopez peeked inside the door.

Tommy agreed and then shot a warning look toward Dallas. He was telling him not to get too close to the victim, and Dallas couldn’t ignore the fact that it was sound advice.

He had moved past logic and gone straight to primal instinct the second her body pressed to his.

But he wasn’t stupid enough to confuse this for anything more than what it was for her—comfort from a stranger.

The sudden urge to lift her chin and capture her mouth with his wasn’t logical, either. But Dallas couldn’t regret it the instant her pink lips pressed against his.

Her arms came up to his chest, her palms flat against his pecs.

As if they both suddenly realized where they were and that someone could walk through that door at any second, they pulled back, hearts pounding in rhythm.

Chemistry sizzled between them, charging the air.

Tommy walked in and his tense expression signaled more bad news.

“Two things,” he stated. “First, Morton’s body has been found floating in the lake on the Hatches’ property. He’d been fatally shot, but the perp tied a bag of heavy rocks around his midsection.”

“Amateurs?” Dallas asked.

“It would appear so,” Tommy agreed. “And it looks like they did this on the spur of the moment, using whatever they could find.”

“What else?” Dallas was trying to digest this news. He was the one who’d gotten Morton involved in this case and now the PI was dead. Guilt sat heavy on his chest as he tried to take a breath.

“The other news—” he glanced from Dallas to Kate “—is that more pictures were found at Lentz’s place. A lot of them.”

“And that would confirm his fixation on Kate,” Dallas said, which was the logical assumption. But he had a gnawing feeling that the guy was innocent. Dallas wanted him to be guilty. That would tie this whole troubling case up with a bow. Lentz would be arrested. Kate and Jackson would be safe. Problem solved.

And yet Dallas worried this was more complicated.

Babies were going missing. Investigating Safe Haven had most likely cost Morton his life. Anger pierced Dallas, leaving a huge hole in his chest.

Kate took a step back, grabbing the desk to steady herself. “What kind of pictures?”

“Just like the ones you saw earlier,” Tommy said. “And there were ones with markings across Jackson’s face.”

Kate gasped again, looking stunned. “I can’t believe Allen would do something like that. I know I saw the photos with my own eyes, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

As much as Dallas didn’t like the guy, part of him agreed with Kate. This was too easy. “Does Allen have any enemies? Did he get into a fight with anyone lately?”

Someone could be setting up Lentz. But who? And why?

Her lips pressed together and Dallas forced himself not to stare. Thinking about that kiss was inappropriate as hell and yet there it was anyway.

“The baby keeps me busy. I don’t really socialize with anyone outside of work, so I couldn’t say for sure about his personal life.” She shot an apologetic look toward Tommy. “He didn’t talk about having any arguments and no one’s been around the soup kitchen.”

“Kate!”
The anguish in Allen’s voice shattered the silence in the hallway. “Let me talk to Kate. Those aren’t my pictures. I don’t know where they came from. I’m being set up.”

Dallas heard one of the deputies shuffling Lentz down the hall, most likely to a jail cell.

“I would never do something like this. I love Jackson,” the man shouted, and it visibly shook Kate.

She glanced around the room. “I honestly don’t know what to say. I have no idea who would do this to him, and even though those pictures completely creep me out, I still can’t believe he would do something like this.”

Dallas rubbed his chin. “It would have to be someone with access to his computer at work and at his home.”

Kate gripped the desk. “There’s one person I can think of who would have access to both, but there’s no way he would do anything like this.”

Dallas nodded, urging her to keep talking.

“My handyman, Randy Ruiz,” she finally said and then bit her bottom lip.

“I’ll check him out.” Tommy typed the name into the system. “We ran Lentz earlier and his background check came up clean, by the way.”

“And Ruiz?” Dallas asked.

“He has a record,” Tommy noted, staring at his computer screen.

“I know. I knew that when I hired him. But that was a long time ago, and good people deserve a second chance,” Kate said. “He’s never been so much as late to work, let alone missed a day. He has a wonderful family.”

And a rap sheet
, Dallas thought.

Tommy locked gazes with him. “Ruiz has a history of burglary.”

“So he would know how to get in and out of a house without anyone seeing him,” Dallas confirmed.

“He wouldn’t have had to. Allen gave him a copy of his keys so he could fix a leaky pipe in his downstairs bathroom,” Kate declared.

Dallas could only imagine how difficult it must be to have to think about the possibility that people she trusted would do something to hurt her. The employees at the ranch were more family than most of Dallas’s cousins.

“We need to bring in Ruiz for questioning,” Tommy said.

* * *

“
I
’M
SO
SORRY
this is happening, Randy,” Kate said to her employee as he was led into the sheriff’s office.

“Someone tried to hurt you and little Jackson?” Randy asked, concern lines bracketing his mouth.

“Yes. This morning,” she said.

“That’s why you weren’t at work today?”

She nodded.

“Mrs. Zilker was worried. Allen told her everything was fine and to take the day off,” Randy said.

Dallas couldn’t help but notice the prison tattoos on the handyman’s arms when he took off his jacket. The guy was a five-foot-nine wall of solid muscle. He had clean-cut dark hair and a trim mustache. His genuine worry made him seem far less threatening. And even though his job could have him snaking out a toilet at a moment’s notice, his jeans looked new and had been pressed. He definitely fit the bill of someone who cared about doing a good job.

Kate nodded. “I told the sheriff how much you love your job and what an exemplary employee you are,” she said to Randy. “I’m so sorry you have to come here and answer questions.”

“I’m not,” he said emphatically. “If this helps them find the guy who tried to kidnap Jackson, then I want to do everything I can to help.”

Kate thanked him.

Based on his serious expression, he meant every word. And that pretty much ruled him out as a suspect, because with his record, Dallas would’ve thought he’d be offended. His genuine lack of self-concern said he would jump through any hoop if it meant figuring out who was trying to hurt Kate.

But the interview wasn’t a total loss. They’d ruled someone out and it was possible that Randy had seen or heard something that could help them figure out if anyone else in the office was involved.

Tommy shot a sideways glance toward Dallas and he immediately knew that his friend thought the same thing.

“I heard about what happened to Allen,” Randy said, shaking his head, his slight Hispanic accent barely noticeable.

Interesting word choices, Dallas noted.

“I made mistakes in the past, but I’m a family man now,” he said to the sheriff. “Don’t waste your time looking at me.”

“All I need is for you to answer a few questions so we can figure out who did this,” Tommy replied, a hint of admiration in his eyes.

“Allen’s a good guy,” Randy said. “He would never do anything to hurt Miss Kate or her baby.”

Dallas believed that to be true, too. It was almost too easy to pin this on Lentz. And that made Dallas believe that the guy might have been set up.