Page 36 of Lone Star Wanted
Crying.
Or trying to make it look like she had.
Becker nodded toward the chairs. “Have a seat.”
Kincade didn’t move. Neither did Cassidy.
Marlene did. She sank into one of the chairs with the weight of someone carrying something heavy.
Kincade stayed quiet, arms folded as he studied Marlene. The red eyes. The slumped posture. She looked broken.
But he still wasn’t sure he bought it.
Becker closed the door behind him with a solidthunk, then crossed to the front of the desk and planted his hands on it.
“Marlene’s told me everything,” the sheriff said, voice flat. “About her mother being taken. About forcing Travis to that safe house with a gun. About the text messages. All of it.”
Marlene didn’t lift her eyes. She just stared at her lap, hands clenched together.
Becker let out a slow, frustrated breath. “She should’ve come to me sooner.”
Kincade said nothing, but his jaw tightened.Or maybe you already knew,he thought.Maybe you knew every detail and just wanted to hear her say it out loud.
He watched Becker carefully. The man was hard to read, and every expression he made felt like it had too much polish. Kincade didn’t trust that kind of control, not in a man who’d killed the shooter just hours earlier.
“Is Marlene under arrest?” Cassidy came out and asked.
Becker turned to her, brow furrowed. “No. Not at this time.”
“She obstructed justice,” Cassidy reminded him. “Kidnapped my brother at gunpoint. That’s unlawful restraint at the very least.”
Becker exhaled like the weight of the department had settled on his shoulders. “I’m considering the charges. She’s already on administrative leave. There’ll be a review.” He paused a heartbeat. “And there will be discipline.”
Across the room, Marlene’s head snapped up. “Travis was a fugitive.”
Kincade didn’t move. “Not when you put a gun on him.”
That shut her up. Her jaw worked for a second like she wanted to argue, but the words didn’t come. Her gaze shot away from his.
Becker straightened and turned toward them. “I need to ask you both something, and I need you to be straight with me.”
Cassidy crossed her arms but didn’t speak. Kincade just waited.
Becker looked from one to the other. “Do either of you know where Travis is right now?”
“No,” Cassidy said immediately. “We don’t.”
Becker’s eyes narrowed slightly. “And what about this backup file? The one he supposedly found that ties everything back to Alisha’s murder? You know where that is?”
Kincade shook his head once. “No. And we’d like to find it just as much as you would.”
That part, at least, was true.
But Becker didn’t nod. He just stared a second too long as if he was trying to decide if they were lying.
Kincade held his stare, cool and unreadable. He wasn’t giving Becker a damn thing more.
“Why’d you shoot the gunman?” Kincade asked, and he fixed Becker with a level stare.
