Page 48 of Lone Star Showdown

Jericho sighed, shook his head. “Marco’s doing. He thought it’d be a fun joke. I never know when or what’s going to pop out.”

Rachel silently thanked Marco for the programming. It had given her a couple of seconds of reprieve.

The screen attached to the wall sprang to life, and the reports loaded. Rachel had been worried that she might not be able to focus, but that wasn’t the case. Not when she saw Jason’s photo slide into view.

It was a grainy image, and according to the timestamp, it had been taken about an hour ago.

“He’s alive,” Rachel said, and that eased some of the tension in her stomach.

“Yeah. Spike, where was this photo taken?” Jericho asked. There was concern in his voice now as he pinned his attention to the image.

“At an ATM machine in south San Antonio.” Spike added the exact address down to the zip code. “He withdrew three hundred dollars, the maximum allowed for a daily withdrawal by this particular bank.”

“Wonder what happened to the other ten grand he took out last week?” Jericho muttered.

She was hoping Jason hadn’t used it to hire someone to help him commit murder. But then, she saw someone behind Jason in the photo.

“Spike, zoom in on the figure in the left background,” Jericho instructed.

The AI program did just that, and more of that sickening dread crept over her. Because the man in the background wasn’t someone she knew personally but Rachel had seen another photo of him.

“Travis Barnwell,” Jericho and she said in unison.

The drug dealer.

Rachel tried to wrap her mind around what that meant. Jason didn’t look distressed, as if he were being forced to withdraw the money. And three hundred dollars wasn’t enough to pay for a hired gun. Still, there had to be a reason Travis was there.

Had Jason owed the man money for a drug deal?

Or was Travis helping him, and the money was needed for food and lodging?

Rachel wanted to hang onto that. She still didn’t want to think of Jason as the bad guy in all of this. But she had to at least consider it.

“Spike, is there a report that goes with the photo?” Jericho asked.

“Yes. Putting it on screen now.”

The report was from Ruby herself, and it was very brief. “Last sighting of Jason Cantrell. Cameras are being accessed to see where he went from here.”

“Good,” Rachel said. “Maybe those cameras will pinpoint his location so he can be brought in.” For both questioning and maybe protection if he was on the killer’s hit list.

Jericho made a sound of agreement. “Spike, scroll to the next report.”

Manson’s and Paulie’s photos loaded on the screen, and the accompanying report was from none other than Nash, Jericho’s brother.

“The security cameras picked up Manson as she went into a bar around nine pm,” Nash had written. “After that, she went home with a couple of friends. One male, one female. Facial recognition was a bust on the female, but the male is Daxton McMichaels.”

Rachel repeated the name several times, but she was certain this was the first she was hearing it.

“Daxton is twenty-four, “Nash had added. “Juvie record for drugs. No arrests as an adult. However, both his brother, Craven, and he have ties to Travis Barnwell as well as belonging to a paramilitary group for soldier wannabees.”

Rachel took a moment to process that. So, both of Marla’s kids had been with men involved in the drug business. But judging from the timing the cameras had recorded Manson, she couldn’t have been part of the attack on Jericho and the others. Then again, Rachel hadn’t figured Arnez would be working with them.

Unless.

“It’s hard to unravel what Arnez was responsible for and what the killer has been doing,” she said, testing the theory aloud. “It’s possible the killer was just sitting back and watching to see if Arnez would manage to kill both of us.”

Jericho’s quick sound of agreement meant he’d considered that as well. “Spike, is there a recent report on Paulie Cantrell?”

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