Justice Divided (Cowboy Justice Association Book 10) Read online

  Or perhaps to give Ava and Logan dirty looks. That seemed to be the favorite pastime of many townsfolk. To their credit, they weren’t bothering to hide their disdain. At least they were honest. Logan respected that.

  Drake craned his neck to see Mary who was standing at the front of the church by the coffin, looking sad and devastated. She’d sobbed through the entire eulogy and then some.

  “Should I arrest her? With the life insurance policy and all she had motive.”

  Logan shook his head. “No, not yet. We’re still in the early stages of the investigation and we don’t want to tip our hand. Besides, she’s not a flight risk. We know where she is and what she’s doing pretty much every minute of the day thanks to Corville’s gossip mill. She’s not going anywhere.”

  And hopefully that life insurance policy was simply a terrible coincidence. He didn’t want to see his sister in law arrested.

  “What if Jared can’t find the girlfriend?”

  “He’ll find her,” Logan replied with confidence. “Wherever she’s hiding, he’ll find her. It just takes time.”

  Drake had sent a deputy to the girlfriend’s residence this morning but it was empty. A neighbor had said that the woman had been seen loading a suitcase into the trunk of her car and driving away.

  She was on the run. The question was why. Guilty conscience or just scared?

  Drake eyed the stream of people as they exited the church. “Do you think someone local did it?”

  “I know you’re hoping that it’s some random stranger but that’s a rarity. People generally aren’t killed by strangers. I wish I had better news for you. It’s probably a Corville resident. You’re going to be as popular as I am when this is all over. If you’re smart, you’ll blame it all on me. After all, you have to live and work in this town.”

  “They’re just being stubborn.” Drake shook his head sadly. “There is no way they didn’t want you to catch a killer. They were screaming about the vigilante killer and how he needed to be stopped but the minute it was someone who employed a third of the town, they weren’t so upset any more. Acting like a bunch of children, if you ask me.”

  Logan felt the same way but he didn’t often express his frustration. The situation was out of his control. He just didn’t like that Ava was guilty by association. She didn’t deserve their shit. All she’d been doing was learning how to investigate so she could be a better writer. He’d been the one that had arrested Wade and put him in prison.

  Speaking of his lovely wife…she was trapped next to her sister, mother, and father. Bruce Hayworth was waving his arms animatedly and probably speaking loudly – although Logan couldn’t hear him. It was simply that Bruce always spoke a little too loudly. He seemed to think that everything he said was important.

  “Time to rescue Ava,” Logan said. “Just give me a minute and I’ll be right back.”

  Drake’s eyes were wide and he backed toward the door. “Good luck, man. I’ll be waiting outside.”

  Logan would need all of that luck and more. He wasn’t exactly popular with his father-in-law and he’d already had a lecture from the older man about how Logan’s profession was going to get him killed at a young age. Logan hadn’t bothered to remind Bruce that Lyle had a boring desk job and had managed to get himself dead without a badge. Besides, people rarely pointed a gun at Logan anymore. With his new position at the consulting firm, it would be considerably less. He’d be home more, too. At least that was the plan.

  Striding down the aisle between the pews, he didn’t give any of the stragglers a glance, his gaze trained on his beautiful wife. Her face was red and tearstained and she kept dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. The service had been a lovely tribute to a good and kind man. Hell, even Logan had been choked up at one point. No one deserved to go out the way Lyle had.

  “Ava, are you ready to go? We need to check on the kids.”

  Drake’s wife had helpfully offered to watch Colt and Brianna today along with her own children. Both Logan and Ava agreed that they were too young to really understand what was going on and they hadn’t spent much time with Mary and Lyle. Plus, they both hated to have their children witness the stares and whispers from the people around them.

  “You’re coming to the house, aren’t you?” Carol asked anxiously, her arm around her weeping daughter. “Everyone will be there.”

  That was why Logan didn’t want to go but he couldn’t think of a good excuse. It was expected and it was polite, so he would be there whether the lovely citizens of Corville wanted him to be or not.

  “Of course we will, Mom,” Ava said, giving her mother a hug and then a kiss on the cheek. “We just need to check on the kids first, and then we’ll be there.”

  “Just bring them.” Bruce’s voice boomed and bounced around the now empty church. “They should be with family today.”

  “Dad, they’re six.”

  “No better time to learn about the circle of life.”

  Logan was of the opinion that they could learn about the circle of life with a hamster or a guinea pig and save the humans for a later date.

  Placing an arm around Ava, he urged her toward the door. “Well, we’ll see you at the house. Send a text if you need us to stop anywhere or pick up something.”

  They hurried up the aisle and out of the church where Drake was leaning against the SUV and talking on the phone. Logan pointed to his car and waved to his friend as he helped Ava into the passenger seat. He slid behind the wheel and started the vehicle.

  “I talked Drake out of arresting Mary.”

  Ava’s head jerked around, her mouth hanging open. “Is that an option? I mean…we’ve barely started here.”

  “That’s what I told him.” Logan pulled out into traffic. “He was fine with it. We really need to talk to that girlfriend. We need to know what she knows.”

  “Hopefully Jared can find her.”

  Logan grinned at the thought of his friend and partner not being able to track down their person of interest. “He’ll find her. He always does. How did I do back there?”

  He’d tried to be sensitive and supportive of Mary even though they didn’t get along. She might not be nice to him but she was still a widow burying her husband today. He wasn’t unsympathetic.

  Unless she had shot Lyle, of course. But he really honestly didn’t think she was the one. It didn’t fit her personality. Everything he knew about her didn’t point to killer.

  “You did fine,” Ava assured him. “Even Daddy was impressed.”

  Snorting, Logan didn’t believe that for a second. “Bullshit, baby. He hates my guts more than ever. I’m a continual reminder that the big bad womanizing sheriff defiled his baby girl. He’ll never forgive me for that one.”

  “He liked Lyle.”

  “It’s not the same and you know it. Lyle was a pillar of the community.”

  Ava rolled her eyes. “You were the sheriff. It doesn’t get more pillar-like than that.”

  “My job meant getting my hands dirty,” Logan replied in a mocking tone. “Lyle got to push paper from one side of his desk to the other. Very different. But at least your mom likes me.”

  The corners of Ava’s lips turned down. “They’re definitely getting a divorce.”

  Reaching for her hand, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Hey, one family problem at a time, okay? They might work this all out.”

  Though he doubted it. Bruce had become increasingly difficult these last few years. Angrier and quick to temper. Poor Carol was at the end of her rope, frankly. How she’d put up with it for so many years Logan had no idea.

  “Somehow I don’t think they will.” Ava’s voice was soft and a little trembly. “If I ask you a question will you answer me honestly?”

  He already knew what she was going to ask.

  “Always.”

  “Do you think she did it?”

  “No,” he answered with no hesitation. “I don’t. But we have to keep an open mind and look at all the angles. We have
to eliminate Mary as a suspect, and the first step to doing that is to talk to the girlfriend.”

  “But Jared has to find her first.”

  As if on cue, Logan’s phone chirped in his pocket. “I bet that’s him. He might have found her already.”

  They were due for some good news.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Logan had dropped Ava off at her sister’s house and then he and Drake headed straight for Springwood. Natalie Denning had a close friend who lived there and according to Jared she had just in the last hour posted a photo of the two of them together on social media. If she was trying to keep a low profile she wasn’t doing a great job of it.

  “Ava’s mad,” Drake stated as they pulled onto the street where Natalie was hopefully staying. It was a quiet residential neighborhood with almost identical beige townhouses all lined up like soldiers.

  “She is but she understands that she can’t always go along. She’s not a cop and she can’t visit a person of interest and ask questions. Now if we bring Ms. Denning into the station and ask her questions there, Ava can watch on the monitor.”

  He was definitely going to get the third degree when he returned home, though. Ava was going to want every little detail, right down to Natalie’s expressions and body language.

  “I don’t like pissing off my wife,” Drake laughed. “She won’t bake any of my favorites when she’s mad.”

  Drake’s wife owned the bakery in town and somehow he hadn’t managed to put on thirty pounds since marrying her.

  “I don’t like it either, but luckily Ava doesn’t like to cook.”

  She had other far more effective ways of torturing Logan.

  Logan stopped the vehicle a few doors down from their destination. Picking up his notes, he checked the make and model of Natalie Denning’s car against the one parked in front of the house. “Blue Chevy Malibu. That’s probably her.”

  “How do you want to do this?” Drake asked. “Go in as friends? Be all sympathetic? Or big, bad cops? Scare her a little? We could be one of each.”

  “Let’s go the friendly and sincere route. I think we’ll get further with that. We don’t know if she even knows anything so let’s tread lightly here. I want her to voluntarily cooperate if possible. If she gets nasty or tries to run? Then all bets are off. Take her back to the station and question her. Make it official and serious.”

  Logan parked the car and climbed out of the SUV, taking a peek into Natalie’s vehicle as they walked up to the door. Nothing looked unusual or out of place. In fact, it was neat as a pin. Not so much as a half empty water bottle or gum wrapper. Nothing that said I’m a killer on the run from the law.

  Drake knocked on the door and Logan stood back a ways, wanting to study how Natalie reacted to her uninvited visitors. The door swung open and a pretty blonde stood there, her gaze running back and forth from Drake to Logan.

  “Can I help you?”

  The woman’s voice came out squeaky and nervous, her fingers gripping the doorframe tightly enough to turn her knuckles white.

  Drake tipped his hat and smiled. “Ma’am, I’m Sheriff Drake James from Corville and this is my consultant Logan Wright. We were hoping to speak to Natalie Denning today. We have a few questions for her.”

  Shifting on her feet, the blonde looked over her shoulder before answering. “Natalie isn’t here. I don’t know where she is.”

  Logan didn’t like it when people lied. He’d been lied to his whole life, so it was a sore spot with him. Especially as this same woman had posted a photo on Instagram not an hour ago. The background in the picture looked a hell of a lot like the living room couch that Logan was currently staring at.

  As patiently as possible, Logan pulled his phone from his pocket and held it up for the woman’s inspection.

  “Is this you, Miss Ludlum? You are Dani Ludlum, correct? And you posted this photo about 90 minutes ago?”

  Red crawled up Dani Ludlum’s cheeks. “I did. I mean…I did post that but it was a picture taken about a week ago.”

  Plausible. But not probable.

  Logan pointed to the car in front of the house. “And did Miss Denning leave her automobile with you as well?”

  Dani Ludlum nodded vigorously. “Yes, that’s exactly what she did. She’s…out of town…on vacation. I don’t know when she’ll be back.”

  “Kind of an open-ended vacation,” Drake replied, pulling out his small notebook from his breast pocket. “Would you mind if we left her a note? You can give it to her when she gets back.”

  “She really needed to get away.” Dani cast another glance over her shoulder. “I guess I could give her a message.”

  “You know, ma’am,” Logan said, his gaze trained at where Dani kept looking, waiting for some movement. Natalie Denning was inside listening to this entire conversation. “I think you need the vacation more. You seem awfully nervous and tense.”

  Dani’s read face turned pale and she gripped the doorway even more tightly. “I’m not used to talking to the police.”

  Logan gave her his best charming smile. Once upon a time, it had worked on a myriad of females. Now he kept it only to get his wife out of bad moods.

  And moments like this when he needed to get someone to talk.

  “We’re harmless,” he assured the woman. “We just need to talk to your friend. Where did she go on vacation? The tropics? I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii.”

  Drake finished writing the note and ripped off the paper from the pad. “Here you go. My phone number is on there. She can call me anytime, day or night.”

  “Thank you,” Dani said, looking at the paper and then folding it in half. “I’ll give it to her when she gets back.”

  Logan wasn’t done. She hadn’t answered the question. “You didn’t say where she went.”

  Dani opened her mouth but the words didn’t come. It took a few tries but she eventually seemed to find the answer. “Florida. She’s visiting Disney–”

  “Forget it, Dani.” A female voice came from behind the blonde. “They know I’m here. I can tell.”

  Of course I knew. You ladies aren’t Butch and Sundance. You parked your car in front of the house and posted to social media.

  The voice had a form and a woman stepped out from behind the hallway wall. Tall and slender, Natalie had chocolate brown hair that hung down her back and just touched the waistband of her faded blue jeans. She was younger than Logan had envisioned, although he wasn’t an expert in women’s ages. She looked to be about twenty-five or so but it might simply be her casual dress and bare feet.

  “Miss Denning?” Logan took a step forward trying to meet her gaze. He wanted her to know that he was someone she could trust. “We just want to speak with you.”

  There was a moment that he thought she might turn and run – she looked like she wanted to – but then she finally nodded, motioning them inside. This was progress. Now he just had to get her to talk.

  * * * *

  The young woman shook visibly and Logan tried to calm her down. He wasn’t here to accuse her of anything. He simply wanted some answers.

  Now…if she said something incriminating…that was a different story. She might have a motive to kill Lyle but she wasn’t alone.

  “Natalie, why don’t we sit down and you can tell us about your relationship with Lyle Bryson,” Logan suggested. “I meant it when I said that we’re just here to talk to you.”

  Swallowing hard, Natalie sat down on the couch with her friend Dani right next to her, holding her hand. Logan took up residence on the loveseat with Drake perched on the ottoman at the far corner of the coffee table.

  Natalie took a shaky breath. “I’m not sure what you want to know.”

  Logan wasn’t sure either. He had many questions but some might not be important based on the answers to others.

  “Why don’t we just start at the beginning? How did you meet Lyle?”

  Her lips turned up at the corners as she began her story. “I know this is going
to sound cheesy but we met in line at a fast food place. We were both there for lunch and it was really busy. We chatted and then we ended up sharing a table because there weren’t many places to sit. He was such a gentleman and he really listened.”

  Hating himself, Logan still had to ask it. “Did you know he was married when you met him?”

  Shaking her head, a few tears streaked down her pale cheeks. “I swear I didn’t. He wasn’t wearing a ring and I know that because I checked. We’re always saying that the good ones are married so I looked.”

  “But you eventually found out?”

  “Yes, I guess it was our third or fourth date. He said that he was married but they were separated. He said they hadn’t been happy for a long time and that they had grown apart. He said they were getting a divorce.”

  The only thing missing was Lyle telling her that his wife didn’t understand him.

  “Mary says that they reconciled and that Lyle ended things with you.”

  That seemed to surprise Natalie. Her brows flew up and her mouth fell open.

  “That’s a lie. Lyle never ended things with me. He was going forward with the divorce. I saw the papers in his briefcase.”

  If there were papers, then there was an attorney. Logan needed to find out who that was.

  “Do you know the name of his divorce lawyer by any chance? I’d like to speak with him as well.”

  Brows pinched together, Natalie at first shook her head but then nodded. “Marshall. The last name was Marshall. I don’t remember the first name, though.”

  That would be Brent Marshall. He was a local attorney who handled mostly civil cases. Logan knew exactly where to find him.

  “That’s great, Natalie. I know who you’re talking about. Now let’s talk a little more about you and Lyle. It seems like you and he didn’t communicate as much the last few months. Much less than before.”

  “That’s true. Lyle was crazy busy doing some business deals and he didn’t have a lot of free time.”

  I want to know all about those business deals.