Her Cowboy Avenger (16 page)

“Do you think there could be a connection between those women who went missing back then and the disappearance of Elena’s mother?”

“There could be. If there was a killer at work at the time, it’s too much of a coincidence not to be considered. But then again, it was never proven that those missing women were connected or that there was a killer operating. We have to keep that in mind.”

“True,” he agreed. “I don’t suppose there’s anything more you can find out?”

“I’m already on it. I’ve scheduled a meeting with the agent who headed the investigation. He’s retired but still in the area.”

He wasn’t surprised. Pam was nothing if not thorough. “Thanks, Pam. Let me know if you find anything else out?”

“Will do.” As always, she ended the call without another word, their business having been concluded.

Matt took his time lowering the phone from his ear, trying to absorb this new information. If what he suspected was true, then everything Elena believed about her mother was wrong. It could change so much about how she viewed her family, her life.

“Who was that?”

He jerked his head up to find he’d reached the house without realizing it. Elena stood on the porch, arms folded over her chest. Damn. He could have used some time to process this, to think about what he would say, or if he would say anything before he knew more.

Hoping she couldn’t read much in his expression, he climbed the steps to join her. “Pam Lowry. She’s my boss’s sister-in-law and an FBI agent who works in Dallas.”

She blinked in surprise. “You know an FBI agent? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Guess it just didn’t come up. I asked her to do some research for me on the town, the people...”

“And me?” she asked. There was no discernable trace of anger in her voice, only curiosity.

He nodded his confirmation. “I needed to know as much as I could about all of this as quickly as possible.”

“What did she have to tell you?”

“Not much I didn’t already know, unfortunately.” He hesitated, not sure how to handle this, not sure whether he should tell her, not sure what it meant. “There was one thing, though….”

“What is it?” she prodded when he didn’t continue.

“I asked her to look up your mother.”

She simply blinked at him, her expression utterly blank. “My mother?” she repeated flatly. “Why?”

“Travis brought her up back in town on my first day here, how she took off, so when I had somebody on the phone with the resources to track her down, I asked.”

“Oh,” Elena said, unable to come up with a single alternate response. She supposed she’d once wondered where her mother had gone and what she was doing, but Teresa Reyes had been gone so long now Elena seldom thought of her at all anymore. “All right then. What did your friend have to say?”

“She didn’t find her,” he said gently.

Elena felt no disappointment, only the same numbness that seemed to have blanketed her from the first moment he’d brought up the subject. “I guess she did a good job covering her tracks then. She really must not want to be found.”

“That’s just it,” Matt said carefully. “She didn’t just do a good job. Pam couldn’t find anything at all, something that shouldn’t be possible if your mother’s still out there. Which means she most likely—”

“Is dead,” Elena finished when he didn’t. She saw the open concern in his eyes. She understood it, was even touched by it a little, even if it was unnecessary. How could she begin to mourn someone who’d been dead to her for years?

“There’s more,” Matt said. “Earlier I asked Pam if she could find any background information on the town, anything interesting I should know. She said there wasn’t much, but Western Bluff was mentioned in connection with a number of Latino women in their late twenties to early thirties who were reported missing in the area twenty-five years ago. That’s about when your mother supposedly left, isn’t it?” he said when she didn’t respond.

“Yes,” she admitted weakly, not sure where he was going with this.

No, it was obvious where he was going with this. She just didn’t like it. “What are you suggesting? That my mother didn’t leave? That she was...taken?”

“I don’t know. The cases were being investigated as possibly being the work of a serial killer, but no evidence was ever found of that.”

“So there’s a chance it might not be true.”

“A chance, yes.”

But not a likely one, she acknowledged. The FBI wouldn’t have been looking into it if it hadn’t seemed suspicious. And it would have been. This wasn’t the city, there weren’t all that many people in the area to begin with. For several women with at least a similar ethnic background and age to go missing in the same general area, it would seem more likely than not there was a connection.

But her mother? Was it possible she hadn’t left? Had something happened...?

Elena couldn’t even begin to process the significance of that. She had far too much on her mind at the moment that mattered so much more.

She did her best to push the thought aside for another time, sometime when she could try to come to terms with it. Sometime far in the future. “That’s not important right now,” she said. “Bobby’s murder is the only thing that is.”

Matt looked at her for a long moment, as though he wasn’t sure about that. She steeled herself, silently willing him to let it go. She really couldn’t deal with this right now. She was barely handling everything else on her plate—the ranch, Bobby’s death,
him.
She couldn’t cope with one more thing, especially one whose implications threatened to be this unsettling.

He finally nodded. “All right. Let’s focus on the murder.”

Elena exhaled, only then realizing she’d been holding her breath. “Good. Any ideas what we should do now?”

He appeared to consider the question. “About his cousin. How was Jack Landry’s relationship with Bobby?”

“Decent, I suppose. They weren’t close. I can’t remember Jack coming out here even once since I’d been married to Bobby, but that might have had more to do with me. Jack is one of those who figured I married Bobby for his money. They got along well enough. Why you do ask?”

He quickly explained what Pam had told him about the inheritance law. She was frowning when he finished. “You think Jack might have killed Bobby to inherit the ranch?”

“It’s a motive, a pretty good one. We have to consider it, especially since we don’t have a lot of other leads.”

“True, but the ranch isn’t really worth inheriting. It’s in so much debt it’s not much of a prize. It’s definitely not worth killing somebody over.”

“From what you said and what I heard in town, I got the feeling Bobby’s debts weren’t exactly common knowledge. It could be Landry doesn’t even know about them.”

“True.”

“And is it possible he knows about the offer Marshall made on the place? In that case, even if he knows about the debts, he would also know he could make money from selling it.”

“It’s possible. I doubt Bobby would have mentioned it, but I don’t know who Glen’s told.”

“I want to try to talk to Landry, see if I can get anything out of him.”

“Do you really think he’ll talk to you?”

“I’ll just have to do my best not to give him a choice. Do you want to come?”

The idea of confronting Jack the way she was feeling right now seemed like far more than she could handle at the moment. “I don’t think so. Jack isn’t going to talk to me. If you really think you’ll get anything out of him, you’re better off going on your own.”

The look he gave her said he recognized it for the excuse it was. “If you’re sure...”

Elena nodded. “I have enough I need to get done around here. The horses need to be fed. I need to check the stock. You know how it goes.”

“Do you want me to stay...”

“No. Go. See what you can find out.”

“I’ll be back in a little while then.”

“Okay.”

He hesitated, as if there was something else he wanted to say, as if there was something he
should
say. Finally, with one final nod, he headed to his truck.

Elena watched him go. After he stepped into the vehicle, she finally released a breath she’d been holding. It didn’t help. Her chest still felt tight. So very tight.

She lurched into motion, moving toward the barn.She’d meant what she’d said. She had so many things to do. And more than anything else in this world at the moment, she needed to do them.

* * *

M
AYBE HE SHOULDN’T HAVE TOLD
her, Matt thought as he drove away from the ranch. At least until he’d thought about what it meant and all the ramifications. He’d told himself he didn’t want to hurt her, but it was obvious she’d been thrown off by the revelation at the very least. But he hadn’t felt right keeping it from her.

Maybe he shouldn’t have left her, but he’d had the distinct sense she wanted to be alone.

By the time he’d made it to Western Bluff, he still didn’t have an answer. He finally had to set the question aside to focus on what he was going to say to Jack Landry.

Landry’s law office was located on Main Street, not far from the police station. Matt remembered spotting it on his way into town. Giving the police station a wide berth, he parked at the other end of the block and made his way back to Landry’s office.

Stepping inside, he found himself looking at Landry himself, recognizing him from the street the day before. The man stood at a desk in what was a small reception area, speaking to the woman seated behind it. Both of them looked up at his entrance, Landry’s eyes narrowing, lips compressing into a thin, angry line. Matt supposed that meant the man knew who he was, too.

Still, he figured it would be best to go with an introduction, to try to get things off to an easy start. They were probably going to get heated soon enough.

“My name is Matt Alvarez. I’m working for Elena Weston.”

“Oh, is that what people are calling it these days?” Landry snorted. “You can cut the crap, Alvarez. I know who you are.”

“I’d like a word with you.”

“Not interested.”

“Well, I’m going to be talking. I can do it right here in front of your assistant, but I’m not sure you’re going to want her to hear what I have to say, or we can do this in private.”

Landry eyed him, and Matt could tell the man was gauging his seriousness, and how much he cared about whatever Matt might reveal. From the desk, the woman’s head swung back and forth as she slowly looked between them.

“All right,” Landry said. “I’ll bite. Let’s hear what you’ve got to say.” He turned and walked through a door behind him.

Figuring that was as much of a cue to follow as he was going to get, Matt did. The second room was clearly Landry’s private office. Once Matt was through the door, the lawyer closed it behind him and moved to the desk. “If you’ve come to declare her innocence to me, you’re wasting your time—and mine.”

“No, I’m here to talk about inheritances.”

Stopping behind the desk, Landry glared at him. “I’m not discussing my cousin’s will with you. It’s privileged, not to mention none of your damn business.”

“No, I want to talk about the law. See, I recently learned a little something about inheritance law here in Texas. It turns out that if a murder victim’s primary heir is convicted of his murder, then another heir can petition to inherit his estate instead. Besides Elena, you’re Bobby’s only other living relative, aren’t you?”

The man’s jaw visibly tightened. “What are you suggesting?”

“Only that it gives you a motive for murder—and to see Elena put in jail for it.”

The man’s eyes flared in outrage. “This conversation is over.”

Matt held his ground. “You were pushing pretty hard for that to happen the other day when I overheard you talking to the mayor, trying to get him to pressure the sheriff into making an arrest.”

“Because she murdered my cousin. Everybody in this town knows it.”

“Everybody in this town is wrong. She didn’t do it.”

“And we’re all just supposed to take your word for it?”

“No, you can take the evidence’s word. There is none.”

“Yet.”

“It’s been two weeks and the police haven’t exactly been sitting on their heels. Don’t you think if there was anything to find, they would have come up with something by now?”

Landry held up a hand. “I told you you’re wasting your time if you’re going to argue her innocence with me. Just like you’re wasting your time with the rest of that garbage you mentioned. This also is none of your business, but if it’ll get you out of here, I’ll go ahead and say it. What you didn’t mention about that law is that the other heir has to petition to inherit, it doesn’t happen automatically. I have no intention of doing that. So even when Elena is convicted—and she will be—I won’t inherit, because I don’t want to.”

“Really?” Matt scoffed. “You expect me to believe you wouldn’t take the ranch?”

“I don’t care what you believe. And no, I wouldn’t take the place if you paid me to.”

Landry was so vehement Matt actually believed him, the realization as surprising as the man’s statement. “Why not?”

“I don’t want anything from the Westons. There’s too many bad vibes surrounding them. And I can’t stand the ranch,” Landry said frankly.

“Why?”

“I just can’t. Even when I was a kid I hated going out there to visit my aunt and my cousins. There’s just something about it. As long as I’ve been alive, nobody’s been happy out there. First my aunt, Bobby’s mother, was thrown from her horse and killed. She was young when she died. So were Big Jim, Junior and now Bobby. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m just being superstitious, but the place didn’t feel right to me even before my aunt died. And nothing about it has changed my mind since.”

Seeing the intensity burning in the man’s eyes, Matt felt a shiver roll along his skin. He didn’t doubt Landry meant every word, his unease with the place communicated so loud and clear Matt could feel it himself.

He suddenly remembered the feeling he himself had had last night. He’d thought it was simply the feeling of danger, the knowledge that someone could be—and likely was—lurking in the darkness. Was it possible it was something more?