Page 51 of Her Baby, Her Badge

“Yes to the first, and I’ll try to do the second.”

That was the best she could give him right now, and Dutton didn’t push her. Probably because he knew she was frantic to find Aileen. Just as he had been when Ike had been taken.

They went to the garage, where Grace had left the cruiser, but before Dutton opened the garage door, he used his phone to access the cameras around the perimeter of the house.

“It’s clear,” he told her. “The two men you’ll see are ranch hands.”

Grace did indeed see the men the moment she backed the cruiser out of the garage. In fact, they weren’t the only ones standing guard. She saw more scattered throughout the grounds all the way to the gate.

Dutton used his remote to open it, and Grace drove through, but she made herself wait until the gate was closed again before she sped away. She hadn’t wanted the killer to be able to sneak in the moment they were out of sight.

There were no other vehicles on the private road, but like the cemetery, there were so many places for someone to hide and ambush them. Which could be the point of all of this. Her mother could be the lure just as Ike had been, and Grace hoped that meant Aileen hadn’t been harmed, that she was being held as a bargaining tool or bait for Dutton and her.

Of course, Aileen would be furious about being used like that, and Grace knew her mother would do everything humanly possible to prevent Dutton and her from being attacked.

But humanly possible wasn’t always enough.

Grace threaded the cruiser through the deep curves of the narrow road, wishing there’d been a full moon to give better illumination to the sides, where there were trees and trails. However, she did see different kind of lights ahead. The whirling blue lights of the cruisers. The two sets of responding deputies had obviously already made it to the fence.

Her chest tightened, and Grace realized she was holding her breath, waiting for the worst. A call to tell her that there was yet another body tied to the fence post. But none came, and thatgave her hope. Hope that she had to clasp on to because she couldn’t deal with the worst right now.

When they approached the fence, Grace pulled her cruiser behind the two others and tried to pick through the darkness to determine what was happening. All four deputies were out of their vehicles and had flashlights they were panning over the posts and the nearby trees.

Rory shook his head and started toward her. “Nothing,” he said.

That gave her a jolt of sickening dread. She hadn’t wanted to find her mother here, tied to a post and bleeding out. But if Aileen wasn’t here, then where the heck was she? If this was a sick game meant to draw out Dutton and her, why hadn’t the killer led them straight to him or her.

She lowered her window as Rory approached. “You got a look inside my mother’s house,” she said. “How much of a struggle had there been?”

The tightening of a jaw muscle let her know it’d been bad. But she hoped he wouldn’t sugarcoat it. “Lots of things toppled over. Some broken glass.” He paused. “It looks like someone shot into the wall. But no blood,” he disclosed.

Both of them were well aware that sometimes blood wasn’t in abundance if a cop-killer bullet was used. The Teflon coating on a bullet like that created all sorts of internal injuries, though.

“The killer’s yet to shoot anyone,” Dutton reminded her.

That didn’t mean there hadn’t been a gunfight this time. And if her mother had won that particular fight, she wouldn’t be missing right now.

“Rory,” Bennie called out. “You need to see this.”

Grace’s attention raced to Bennie, who was in a cluster of trees about fifteen yards from the fence. He had his flashlight aimed at something on the ground.

“What is it?” Grace asked as Rory hurried toward his fellow deputy.

Bennie shook his head, and it took Grace a moment to realize he wasn’t doing that because he didn’t know what he was looking at, but because it wasn’t something he wanted to say. Finally, though, he spoke, and the words slammed into Grace like gunshots.

“We have a dead body.”

* * *

Dutton cursed, and he automatically reached for Grace, who was in turn reaching to open the door of the cruiser. He figured she was in shock.

Which was no doubt what the killer had planned.

This way, Grace could be attacked when she bolted from the cruiser, something Dutton couldn’t let happen. He took hold of her arm and turned her to look at him. She struggled to get away, to run to her mother, and Dutton had to do something to stop her.

“Just wait a second,” he insisted.

She did. With her breath gusting and panic in her eyes, she looked at him just as Bennie called out to them again.

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