Shattered Justice (39 page)

Doris reached out to pat Aggie’s arm, then looked up at Dan. “I tried to help the boy, to let him know not everyone was like his father. But it was no use. Every time I’d start to break through the walls he had up, his father would lay into him.”

Aggie stroked Half Pint’s ears. “And Marlin would come to school worse than ever.”

Doris’s sigh was heavy. “I think, without really knowing it, he wanted everyone else to be as unhappy as he was. It was so sad.”

Yes, it was. And it helped Dan understand what drove Murphy. Violence begets violence. “So where’s his father now? I don’t recall ever seeing him. Or his mother, for that matter.”

“Oh, dear.” Doris cringed. “The mother, well, none of us ever knew her. When Mike moved to Sanctuary, it was just him and Marlin. And he wasn’t exactly talkative. Not about his wife, or much of anything else.”

“But he still lives around here?”

Aggie shook her head. “Oh, no, Deputy. He died.” She clutched her hands. “Shot himself with his favorite gun. Marlin was fifteen at the time. He was the one who found his father and called the police.”

This sobering news hit Dan square in the chest. Abandoned by his mother. Abused by his father. Scarred by the suicide, by seeing his father that way …

There was plenty of fodder to feed the rage inside Murphy.

Still, that didn’t excuse criminal acts. And Dan was certain the thefts in the area and the meth lab all led back to Marlin Murphy.

If only he had some kind of proof.

Unfortunately, as he’d learned on those police reports, Marlin covered his tracks well. The kid might be a thug, but he was a crafty thug. He ensured other kids took the fall for what he did.

Kids like Jayce.

“Well, enough of this sad talk.” Doris brushed at her lap, as
though ridding herself of troublesome crumbs, then aimed a seraphic smile up at Dan. “Now, Deputy, on to what really matters.”

“Oh, indeed!” Aggie hugged Half Pint. “Do tell us, Deputy, how goes it between you and Shelby Wilson? Are there wedding bells on the horizon?”

Dan’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Just an odd, choked kind of sound.

Eyebrows raised, a little smile teasing her lips, Doris leaned toward Aggie. “Aren’t men just the cutest thing when they blush?”

That was it. Dan jumped off the railing, muttered something about having work to do, and made a quick exit, the ladies’ soft laughter following him all the way across the street.

Jerking the car door open, he slid behind the wheel and took a quick look at himself in the rearview mirror.

Yup. He was as red as a tomato.

And there was nothing cute about it.

He put the car into gear, rolling down the window as he drove out of town, letting the cold air slap him in the face. As he was about to turn onto Highway 62, the radio squawked to life.

Screech! Skrawwwk!
“Come in, Chief.”

He grabbed the mic. “Go ahead.”

“Hey, you need to run up to Brumby’s place.”

Dan’s gut seized. “Brumby’s? What for?”

“We just got a call from some hunters. They were in the woods behind Brumby’s house, and they found something.”

Dan’s pulse skipped. “Another meth lab?”

“Uh, no.”

He waited, but all he heard was white noise. Finally he keyed the mic. “Care to share?”

“Huh?”

Dan drew in a heavy sigh. “Jasmine, what did they find?”

“Oh! That.”

It was all he could do to keep from smacking his head against the steering wheel.

“You’ll never believe it. I mean, I couldn’t believe it.”

Dan leaned his head back against the head rest. “Try me.”

“Well, Chief, it’s a body. They think they’ve found a body.”

James Brumby and the boys never left home.

When the large hole behind Brumby’s place was finally dug up, there wasn’t one body in it, but five bodies. One human. Four canine.

No wonder Dan hadn’t been able to track Brumby down.

He took statements from the hunters. Listened as the shaken man whose dog made the discovery related how one of his hounds caught a scent, ran like the wind, then just started digging at the ground like he was crazy.

“One thing about ol’ Bo. Once he gets a scent, he don’t give up. Well, by the time I reached him and got him pulled off, he’d dug up what was buried. I looked down—” the hunter shuddered—“an’ there it was. This arm. Jus’ comin’ up outta the dirt. I could tell the rest of the body was still buried, so that’s when we called you.”

The grave was excavated, the contents bagged and tagged and sent to the lab for analysis. When the report from the crime lab finally came in a few days later, Dan sat at his desk, staring at the information in front of him. James Brumby and his dogs were shot. All of them. Several times. But what was most astonishing was the approximate time of death.

According to the report, they’d been dead since early October.

When Shannon and Aaron were killed.

And that sent a shattering realization pulsing through Dan’s mind: If James Brumby died when the reports said he did, then it was likely he didn’t shoot Shannon and Aaron. But if it wasn’t him, then who? And
why
?

Dan went over and over the reports, both from the lab and from the investigation since the shootings.
Think, Justice. Think it through
.

The thefts in the area started up just a year before he came to town, and increased in frequency just a month before he arrived. Reports on the meth lab he found at Brumby’s place showed the lab was probably abandoned about a month before Dan found it.

So Brumby was killed around the same time as Shannon and Aaron. Shot, as they were shot. The lab was abandoned around the same time Shannon and Aaron were killed.

It all had to be connected.

He grabbed the phone. He’d have forensics do some ballistic comparisons on the bullets taken from Brumby, his dogs, and—he gripped the receiver—those taken from Aaron and Shannon. If they matched, that’d be the evidence he needed to link it all.

“Yeah, sure. I can check that out. I’ll get back to you soon.”

“Thanks, Gene. I appreciate it.”

Dan hung up the phone, then sat back in his chair. People coming and going behind Brumby’s would have gotten his boys all stirred up. Knowing Brumby, one or two incidences of the boys going off, and the old man would get suspicious. Figure something was going on besides kids blowing up outhouses. Maybe he started to snoop, and when he found the lab …

Dan rubbed his hand across his forehead. But why were Shannon and Aaron at Brumby’s? Had they gone out there with someone? Someone connected to the meth lab?

His hand stilled. Dropped to the desk. His gaze drifted to the photo he had framed and set on his desk. The picture from the camping trip.

The picture of Shannon, Aaron, and Jayce.

Jayce.

Dan stood. No. He wouldn’t believe it. Couldn’t. There was no way Jayce would have had anything to do with hurting
Shannon or Aaron. No way. He liked Aaron. And the kid
adored
Shannon. Hurting them would have taken a heart so hard that life meant noth—

Dan froze.

Of course.

Marlin Murphy.

If ever there was someone capable of killing without a second thought, it was that kid. And if Aaron and Shannon somehow found out about the meth lab …

For a fraction of a second, Dan considered tracking Murphy down, hauling him in, and interrogating him until he got some answers. But the tiny voice of reason prevailed. He had no proof.

How did that old saying go? “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time and annoys the pig.”

Talking with Marlin would be the same: a waste of Dan’s time. And it would probably set Marlin off, let him know Dan was onto him. Dan didn’t want to do that. Not yet.

He headed for the door. Okay, so he couldn’t talk to the crud himself. Fine. There was still someone he
could
talk to. Someone who knew Murphy better than he ought to. Someone who might have answers without knowing it.

And someone who, one way or another, would share those answers with Dan.

JAYCE SAT IN THE PASSENGER SEAT, STARING OUT THE
car window, not letting on just how nervous he was.

When Deputy Dan showed up at school to pick him up early, Jayce had asked what was going on. Dan’s response was silence. The same silence that hovered between them on the drive to the house.

As they pulled into the driveway, Jayce was out of the car and at the front door in a heartbeat. But Dan was right behind him, following him inside.

“Sit down, Jayce. We need to talk.”

Jayce did as Dan ordered. Because that’s what it was. An order.

“I want to know where to find Marlin Murphy’s meth lab.”

If he’d picked up a bat and taken a swing at Jayce’s head, Dan couldn’t have shocked him more. “What are you talking about?”

Dan stood in front of him, arms crossed. “Look. I know Marlin’s the one running the meth lab. That’s what the thefts have been about.” He arched a brow. “He had you stealing supplies for him.”

One look at Dan’s hard features told Jayce there was no use denying it. He sat back against the couch cushions. “So you going to arrest me?”

“No!”

The anger in that one word brought Jayce’s head snapping up. He knew where anger like that led. He’d faced it often enough with Marlin.

Oddly, though, Dan’s hand wasn’t forming a fist. It wasn’t coming at him. Instead, he seemed to be dragging in deep breaths. Trying to keep his cool. When he finally spoke, his tone was controlled again.

“Where is the lab?”

“What makes you think I know?”

“Jayce. Where is it?”

He wanted to tell him. Oh, how he wanted to tell him. But how could he? Marlin would know it was Jayce who gave him away. And he’d make Jayce pay.

No, he’d make Jayce’s grandmother pay. And Miss Wilson.

“Why are you protecting that creep? All he does is hurt people.”

Jayce turned away from Dan, staring at the wall.

“Look, if you’re afraid of how this will impact you, don’t be. This isn’t about you, son. It’s about Marlin. And Shannon and Aaron.”

Shock pierced Jayce’s chest. “What’s Marlin got to do with Shannon?”

“Where is the meth lab?”

Jayce ground his teeth. “
What’s Marlin got to do with Shannon
?”

Something flickered in Dan’s eyes. Something Jayce hadn’t
seen since Shannon’s and Aaron’s funeral. Pain. Fury. And a warning.

That something was coming. Something Jayce had heard about in one of those westerns he and Dan watched sometimes on TV.

A reckoning.

A reckoning was coming. For Marlin.

Two emotions followed on the heels of that thought. Gladness. That Marlin would finally get his. And a sudden, searing agony. Because there was only one reason Dan would look the way he did right now.

If he’d found the killer. The one who’d taken his children from him.

“Are you saying …?” Dread slipped icy fingers around his throat, tightening, cutting off the words. Jayce cleared his throat. “You think Marlin had something to do with Shannon and Aaron being killed?”

Dan didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. Jayce saw it in his eyes.

“You think he killed them.” The minute the words were out of Jayce’s mouth, he was on his feet. Screaming. “No! You’re wrong. Marlin’s crazy, but he wouldn’t …” He couldn’t finish. Because he knew Marlin would. He most certainly would.

And he’d enjoy every second of it.

Pain scored Jayce’s mind, and he turned and ran to his room, slamming the door, as if that could keep the truth from reaching him. But it couldn’t.

No more than it could hold back the realization that was tearing Jayce apart. If Marlin killed Shannon and Aaron, then it wasn’t just Marlin’s doing.

It was Jayce’s, too. Because he’d been helping Marlin. Protecting him. Doing what he was told. That’s what kept his grandmother safe.

And got the one person he’d ever really loved killed.

Dan stood in the living room, staring down the hallway at Jayce’s room. Another door slammed in his face.

He wanted to march down that hallway, jerk the door open, and demand an answer. But he didn’t move. Because he had the powerful sense that he wasn’t alone in the room. In fact, it was as if he could feel a huge, heavenly hand on his shoulder holding him still.

Telling him to wait.

Lord, I have to have answers
.

Trust Me
.

I do, but—

Trust Me
.

Dan let his breath out and stared at the floor. Then he nodded and went to the kitchen, pulling out the coffee.

It was going to be a long night.

The knock on Jayce’s door was soft, but he still jumped about a mile when he heard it.

It seemed so strange, Dan knocking on doors in his own house. But he told Jayce he’d never just barge in. “This is your room. You have a right to your privacy.”