Page 5 of Her Baby, Her Badge

Even though there’d been no threatening note left on that victim, Dutton had had to consider that the location of the body hadn’t been random. That the death of San Antonio Detective Andrea Selby was somehow linked to his family, and the ranch.

Or to him specifically.

After all, Towering Oaks might be considered the McClennan family ranch, but Dutton was the owner and had been since he’d turned twenty-one.

Despite the tensions it had created with his dad, his mother had transferred ownership to Dutton as a birthday gift. It had been a nasty little twist in their family littered with nasty twists, and Ike hadn’t been able to stop it because Dutton’s mom had never given any portion of the ranch to Ike when he’d moved there after they’d married.

The Towering Oaks had belonged to Dutton’s mom’s parents, and when they’d passed, they had made her the sole owner of the place, an ownership that his mom hadn’t tried to change to include her husband. That, and many other things in their marriage, had created a rift that still existed when his mother had died six months ago.

Dutton hadn’t found any connections to the first murder victim, and he’d looked. Hard. So had Grace and all of her deputies, including Rory. After all, his father had made plenty of enemies over the years. Dutton had, too. Ditto for Grace and her own family of cops. But so far, there wasn’t anything to link Detective Selby to Grace or them.

Now this new murder had to be factored into what they already knew. And judging from the note, the two dead cops were indeed connected in some way. In exactly what way, Dutton didn’t know, but he’d instructed the PI, Jake Winters, whom he kept on retainer to dig deep into Elaine Sneed’s life, and look for any association she might have had with the first murdered woman.

The PI had gotten right on the assignment and for the past two hours had been sending Dutton info he was gathering. So far, Dutton didn’t see anything in those updates that gave him the answers he needed.

Rory stepped out of the doorway moments after Dutton heard the approaching footsteps. He felt his body automatically rev up. Cursed his reaction and saw the same mental cursing on Grace’s face when she came into her office. Even though their gazes only held for a couple of seconds, the usual intensity was there.

And the blasted heat.

Of course, there was something else in the mix now. That razor-sharp concern for each other and their child.

“The parents aren’t suspects,” Grace said right off the bat. “Airtight alibis and no motive. Learning about Elaine’s death crushed them,” she added in a murmur.

Dutton hadn’t thought for one minute that the parents had murdered their daughter, but it was good to have them ruled out. Especially since their suspect pool included anyone who had a beef with Grace, him or the two dead cops.

“Did County Sheriff Finney come back with you?” Rory asked.

“No,” she answered.

A muscle flickered in Grace’s jaw, and Dutton suspected Wilson Finney had continued to act like the jerk that he could be when it came to Grace. Everyone knew the jerk behavior was because Grace had beaten him in the election for the town sheriff, and because of it, Grace and Wilson usually gave each other a wide berth. Just as she and Dutton did. But again, that couldn’t happen in this investigation.

“You and I need to talk,” she said to Dutton.

It wasn’t his imagination that she sounded all cop. She clearly wanted to draw some lines here. Those lines, for the time being, were that she wasn’t viewing him as her baby’s father, but as the target of a killer. Her goal would no doubt be to do what she could to ensure his safety and then get him out of her office.

Dutton was going to have something to say about that, though.

Grace peeled off her rain gear, hanging it on the wall pegs. Despite the gear, the storm had gotten to her, and her dark blond hair was wet and pressed to her head and neck. She wasn’t pale, not exactly, but Dutton could see the unsteadiness on her face and in her cool green eyes.

Eyes that she pinned to the board.

She studied it. The note that’d been added. Elaine’s photo, too. Not one from the crime scene. This was a picture taken from the county sheriff’s webpage, where the fresh-faced deputy was in uniform and trying to look stern. She hadn’t quite accomplished that, in Dutton’s opinion.

There was another photo pinned to the other side of the board. This one was of the first murdered cop, San Antonio Detective Andrea Selby. Beneath the pictures, the names of about two dozen suspects had been written in.

And all crossed off except for two.

Dutton was familiar with both of them. They were men whom Detective Selby had arrested, and they had recently been released from prison. Even though they were still on the board, it was because they didn’t have alibis and not because there was any evidence to link them to her death.

Now Grace and the deputies would need to add suspect names beneath Elaine’s photo. Dutton had already started the process. Not on a board, but mentally, with the info his PI was gathering for him.

“I’ll see if I can get an update from the CSIs,” Rory said, no doubt heading back to his desk in the bullpen.

Dutton figured his brother would indeed check for updates, but Rory was also likely giving him some time alone with Grace. Time she wouldn’t want, but Dutton needed it.

“So why leave us a note?” Dutton asked. “Did the killer warn or threaten the SAPD detective before she was murdered?”

When Sherlock bounded out of the chair and went to rub against her legs, Grace shook her head and bent down to scratch the cat’s head. “Nothing has come up about that, and considering how visible the killer made this note, I think if there had been some kind of premurder threat, then we would have found it.”

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