Page 34 of Her Baby, Her Badge

“Yes,” the girl said, and her voice was filled with fear. “Uncle Ike brought me home to get my backpack before he dropped me off at school. He was waiting in his truck. But when I came back out, he wasn’t there.”

Even though there could be a reasonable explanation for this, Dutton’s stomach stayed in a hard knot. “Maybe he went inside, too. Did you look for him?”

“Yes, I looked,” Jamie insisted, her words coming out quickly. “And he didn’t come in. The alarm is set to chime when a door opens, and I would have heard it. I didn’t.” A sob tore from her throat. “Dutton, his truck door is open, and there’s blood on the seat.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Grace tried not to do a mental worst-case scenario as she and Dutton drove to the McClennan ranch. Hard not to think the worst, though, when there was a killer on the loose.

A killer she thought she might have in an interview room.

But if this was an attack, then Brian couldn’t have possibly done it, since she’d been grilling him with questions at the time of Jamie’s call. Still, it was possible the man had an accomplice or had hired someone to do this.

Whatever this was.

Jamie had said there was blood, but Grace was hoping that maybe Ike had somehow injured himself and had left his vehicle to get help. Though that didn’t explain why he wouldn’t have stayed put and called for help. Or simply gone inside, where Jamie would have seen and heard him.

“Keep looking,” Dutton told his head ranch hand that he’d called as Grace and he had been hurrying out of the police station.

Hurrying with caution… After all, this could be some kind of ploy by the killer to lure them out, so that’s why they were in the bullet-resistant cruiser with Rory and Livvy in another cruiser directly behind them.

“Nearly all the ranch hands are searching for Ike,” Dutton said to her the moment he finished the call. “The house staff andtwo other hands are inside the house with Jamie, in case…well, just in case.”

Apparently, he didn’t want to spell out the worst, either, and Grace was glad Dutton had been so quick to organize a search for his father and an immediate fix to protect Jamie. It sickened her to think the girl could be in danger.

Because if the killer had taken Ike, or if a hired gun had done that, then he or she could still be at the ranch, ready to attack. Grace didn’t want Jamie caught in the middle of a gunfight.

During her frantic call with Dutton, Jamie had mentioned that there’d been a big truck by the bunkhouse, and while she hadn’t known exactly why it was there, Dutton had been able to provide that info. It’d been a scheduled delivery of some new equipment for the stables. Dutton had vetted the driver, the helper he’d brought with him and the company itself. However, that didn’t mean someone hadn’t snuck into the truck and then onto the ranch.

“You’re sure Jamie didn’t see anyone lurking around when she went inside for the backpack?” Grace asked Dutton.

As expected, he shook his head, and Grace knew he had indeed asked the girl that specific question. Jamie hadn’t seen anyone or anything unusual. Dutton hadn’t pressed her, probably because he’d wanted to get off the line and contact the ranch hands. But it was something Grace would need to question her about.

“I’ll call her back now that we’re on the way,” Dutton muttered.

“Hold off on that,” Grace said. “It’s a long shot, a bad one, but I don’t want anyone to use the sound of her phone ringing to pinpoint her location in the house. You told her to keep away from the windows and to lock herself in her bedroom with her nanny, the cook and one of the housekeepers. And shereactivated the security system. That’s the best we can do for right now.”

Also, Jamie would no doubt call them if she did hear anyone, or if someone tried to break into the house. For that to happen, the intruder would apparently have to get past several ranch hands. With a house that size, it was possible for someone to do that, but then the alarm would go off to let those inside know what was going on.

“Maybe Eden will see something on the security camera feed,” Dutton muttered.

Yes, maybe. Dutton had given Eden the access codes to the feed, so she could study it while they were at the ranch. Even though she figured the cameras were top-notch, that didn’t mean someone hadn’t managed to evade them. They hoped, though, there hadn’t been any evasion and that the person had been captured in the footage.

“I won’t suggest you staying in the cruiser while the hands finish checking for a gunman,” Dutton said. “But just know, that’s what I wish you could do. Hell, I wish I could wrap you in bulletproof bubble wrap instead of just that Kevlar vest.”

Yes, she was wearing a vest. All of them were, except Dutton, who’d turned down the offer since his ranch hands wouldn’t have that particular safety measure. And while Grace appreciated his concern about her, he was right. She had to do her job, and right now, the job was finding his father and maybe catching a killer in the process. Even if this was a hired gun, if they managed to catch the person, then that might lead them straight to the killer.

Even though it took less than ten minutes to get to the ranch, it felt like an eternity before Grace took the final turn to get there. Of course, she had to pass the fence line along the way, the very part where two bodies had been left. She automaticallychecked, just to make sure there wasn’t another one. But no one was there. Even the CSIs had apparently already left.

They passed the pastures, where horses were grazing by a shady pond. It seemed like much too serene of a scene, considering what might be happening at the ranch. She imagined the frantic search that had to be going on. And she was right. The moment she drove through the wrought-iron gates, she saw several ranch hands hurrying between two of the massive barns on the grounds. There were two smaller barns and another outbuilding.

Plenty of places for a killer to be lying in wait.

She stopped the cruiser right at the porch steps and turned to Dutton. “I need to go in and talk to Jamie and the housekeeper,” she explained. “They might have seen something.”

He nodded and used his phone to pause the security system so it wouldn’t go off when she entered.

Part of her wanted to tell him that she wished she had bulletproof bubble wrap for him, too, but she knew he would have to look for his father. She looked at him, their gazes locking.

---