Page 48 of Her Baby, Her Badge

Cassie nodded and glanced at Dutton, who was scrolling through something on his phone. She opened her mouth as if she might say something else. Maybe about the town-council meeting that would be held tomorrow morning. But then, Cassie just muttered a terse goodbye and walked out.

Dutton reached over and eased the door shut. “Her grandmother’s birthday is indeed in two weeks, but she has a lot of family buried there. In other words, Cassie could have used a variety of birth dates and anniversaries of deaths as an excuse to be at the cemetery.”

Grace made a sound of agreement. “She could have had Bailey in the trunk of her car. Or maybe some of the equipment used to set up the firetrap.” She stopped, considered that and wanted to curse. “There’s no chance of me getting a search warrant for her car. It’d be seen as harassment for her part in pushing the recall. And, yes, I could just ask Cassie to allow a search, but the only way she’d agree to that is if she’s got nothing to hide.”

Dutton made his own sound of agreement just as his phone rang. “It’s the PI,” he told her as he put the call on speaker.

“Just got an interesting tip from a cop friend at SAPD,” Jake immediately said. “Apparently, Elaine’s parents realized a lot of money is missing from her savings account. About twenty grand.”

“That’d be enough to hire someone to do some work,” Dutton commented. “Did Brian have access to the account?”

“You bet he did,” Jake confirmed. “My cop friend says they’ve got security footage of Brian making the withdrawal three weeks ago. They’ll be sending the report over to the sheriff there once it’s ready.”

Good. It was yet more circumstantial evidence, but it was a legit reason to bring Brian back in to question him about it. Tomorrow morning, though, because Grace didn’t think she had the bandwidth to conduct another interview with Brian until she’d gotten some rest. Of course, in the morning she might also have to deal with the fallout from any decision the town council made about the recall.

“There’s more,” the PI went on. “The camera footage doesn’t stop there. The bank is near other businesses with cameras, and SAPD was able to follow the footage of Brian leaving the building. Once outside in the parking lot, Brian met with this man and handed him at least some of the money he’d just withdrawn. I’m texting you the picture of the guy he paid.”

Within seconds, Dutton’s phone dinged, and he cursed when he saw the image. Grace hurried over to him to see it for herself. The image was grainy, as most were from security cameras, but it was clear enough.

The man receiving the money looked like Wilson.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Despite trying not to think about it, one thought kept racing through Dutton’s head. Grace was in his bed.

Or rather, she was in a bed in his house on the ranch.

He’d argued to get her here, and while Dutton still believed that was the right call, it wasn’t easy. Because he wanted to be in that bed with her. Hell, he wanted to try to burn off some of this heat between them with sex. That wasn’t going to happen, though, not tonight, anyway. Even if his body kept suggesting it.

Since Grace had left the guest room door open and Dutton had set up a makeshift office on the floor outside the room, he could hear her if she moved around. So far, she hadn’t. She’d fallen asleep seemingly seconds after she’d muttered good night and gotten into bed. Dutton was thankful she was finally getting some much-needed rest, but he just couldn’t seem to turn off his mind so he could do the same.

Not that he’d planned on a whole lot of sleep, anyway.

No.

He wasn’t just listening for Grace moving around, but was concerned about anything that could be a sign of trouble. The gate was shut, the security system was on and ranch hands were patrolling both the grounds and the perimeters of Dutton’s place and the main house, where Jamie and Ike were. He had his laptop and was getting a continuous feed from the cameras by the fence.

Added to that, Ike had the two bodyguards inside with them, which was even more protection if the killer decided to go after Ike again. But Dutton thought the threat was over for his father. Not for Grace and him, though. He didn’t believe the killer would stop until he or she got their primary targets—Grace and him.

Dutton intended to make sure that didn’t happen.

He tried to get his mind off death and danger. Off Grace in his bed, too. And once again, he attempted to read the reports that Grace had shared with him. The SAPD one on Brian’s withdrawal was thorough. The man had indeed taken money from his fiancée’s savings, but there was nothing illegal about that, since Elaine had added his name to the account. Had Elaine been alive, she might have said she hadn’t given Brian permission to take the cash. However, she was dead, so they only had Brian’s side of the story.

Or rather, they would when Brian told it.

So far, the man was dodging another interview with his lawyer filing what seemed to Dutton to be delay tactics. Since Brian was a solid suspect, that strategy wouldn’t last for long, though. Eventually, Grace would get him back into the police station to answer some hard questions. Like what had he used the money for. And who the man was that was with him in the parking lot.

The man who’d been the spitting image of Wilson.

Wilson’s response to that was in another report. He’d insisted the person in the photo wasn’t him. There’d been lots of cursing to go along with the denial and the accusation that Grace had a vendetta against him. Ironic, since someone had a deadly vendetta against her. Maybe Wilson. Maybe Brian or Cassie.

Of course, that led Dutton to another possibility, that the killer’s crusade to kill them was because of him. And that led right back to Cassie. It was hard for him to imagine a womanhe’d once had a relationship with now wanted him dead, but Cassie had seemingly been devastated when he’d ended things with her. But he’d done that after coming to the realization that he’d never love her.

Couldn’t.

Because a part of him would always be in love with Grace. He’d felt that way about her since high school, and even though he’d thought the feelings would fade, they hadn’t. They’d gotten stronger and hotter. Until they’d landed in bed five months ago. Now they were going to be parents.

Dutton wished though they could be a whole lot more.

---