LITMIR.BIZ

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hadn’t moved to Houston, she would be crying on his shoulder, not his mom’s. But he didn’t have long to dwell on it as his grandmother burst through the door and made a beeline toward him. She wore a gingham top over a T-shirt, and when she pulled him close, she was soft and squishy and smelled of baking spices. She did all the cooking, and he’d never found a better meal than the hearty ones she served up.

      “Nana.” He hugged her back.

      A clap on his shoulder had him pulling back to look into the sharp blue eyes of his granddad’s lined face. “About time you got here. S’posin your daddy kept you sitting around all this time.”

      “Crime scenes take time to process.” Gavin was surprised he was defending his father.

      His granddad hooked his thumbs in his red suspenders. “In my day, we wouldn’t make a little bit of a thing like Lexie wait around. We’d drive her home and have a civil conversation over a cup of coffee.”

      “Coffee sounds like a good idea.” Gavin’s mother took Lexie’s arm. “We’ll settle you and Adam in the dining room by yourselves, and the two of you can take as long as you want.”

      “Dad will likely have additional questions for Lexie when he gets here,” Gavin said.

      “Then he’ll just have to wait.” His mother’s jaw firmed, meaning his dad would indeed be kept waiting, as Winnie McKade was the only person with the power to make that happen.

      “I’ll see to the horses,” Granddad said.

      “I appreciate that.”

      “Don’t worry so much, Grandson,” Nana murmured. “God is faithful and He will work all of this for Lexie’s good.”

      If only Gavin could be certain about that, but he hadn’t been certain about anything since Emily had been shot other than needing to leave town. He followed his family into the wide foyer holding a towering Christmas tree filled with handmade ornaments dating back as far as his granddad’s childhood.

      Lexie glanced back at Gavin and, if he didn’t know better, he’d think she was begging him to join her to help break the news to Adam. But Gavin did know better. She didn’t want his help. She’d made that perfectly clear. Besides, he’d given up the right to sit by her side in good times and bad, and no matter how much he hated seeing her pain, he wasn’t a comfort to her now.

      He closed the door behind them and headed across the house’s original wide-plank floors. Through a wide archway, he saw the other family members settle in front of a roaring fire, the woodsy campfire aroma he loved mingling with the scent of pine.

      Matt stepped out to meet Gavin in the foyer. Though an investigator, Matt still worked patrol when needed and was dressed in the department’s basic navy patrol uniform. He looked tired and concerned, but had a ready smile.

      He gave a light punch to Gavin’s arm. “You sure do know how to make an entrance in town, bro.”

      “I’m surprised to see you here. I’d have thought you’d be out investigating the murder.”

      “You know Dad. He has to make sure the department is fairly represented. So he’ll be in the thick of this one to make sure we don’t garner any bad press.” Matt frowned, disturbing his pretty-boy face that assured he always had his share of women to date. “And if you must know, I am involved. I’ve been tracking the suspect’s dirt bike.”

      “Any luck with that?” Gavin asked.

      “You know Dad wouldn’t want me to share investigative details outside the department.” A single eyebrow arched, looking so like their dad’s mannerism.

      Gavin had to work hard not to comment. “And I also know you’re going to tell me everything, so why hassle me in the process?”

      “I am, am I?”

      Truth be told, Gavin wasn’t as confident as he’d once been that Matt would spill the beans. His brother had grown up a lot in the last few years. He’d be making a run for sheriff when their dad retired, and Gavin honestly believed Matt, who’d just turned thirty-one, could handle the position.

      “Okay, fine,” his brother said without further prodding. “There’s no harm in telling you that ATF investigators arrived on scene and have taken over. They shooed Tessa away and I hear tell she’s hopping mad.”

      “She had to know it was coming.” Gavin imagined their youngest sibling, who was a sworn deputy along with being a top forensic crime scene investigator for the county, facing off with an ATF agent. She was a nurturer at heart, but let anyone threaten her work domain, and she turned into a tiger.

      “Knowing is one thing. Having a Fed toss you off the scene in your own county is another.”

      “Hey, now. It’s awfully soon in my homecoming to be bashing the Feds, isn’t it?”

      Matt frowned. “Dad said you wouldn’t tell him why you were in town.”

      “I’m here on an investigation that involves Dr. Grant.”

      “For real?”

      Gavin nodded. “I cleared it with my supervisor to fill you and Dad in, but you’ll have to wait until I get Lexie settled and make sure we’ve made a protection plan for her and Adam.”

      “Then in the spirit of cooperation, I can tell you that I located the dirt bike abandoned a few miles from the airfield.”

      He narrowed his eyes. “How can you be so sure it’s the right bike?”

      “The envelope with Lexie’s name on it was in a saddlebag. Empty, of course.”

      “She told me the shooter has been incarcerated before. So any prints Tessa lifts should return an ID in the database.”

      “Don’t hold your breath, bro. Lexie also told Dad that the suspect wore gloves. I doubt we’ll get prints.”

      “What about the bike’s registration?”

      “Bike’s not street legal, so no plates, but Kendall’s looking up the VIN number as we speak.” Their other sister, Kendall, had worked part-time as a deputy for nine years while she’d worked on her degree in information technology and was now a full-time deputy.

      “Okay, so say this is the bike ridden by our suspect,” Gavin said. “No way if he owns the bike that he would abandon it and let us run the title to discover his identity.”

      “So it’s likely stolen, but we haven’t had any dirt bikes reported stolen.” Matt frowned. “We’ll just have to wait on Kendall.”

      Gavin didn’t want to wait. He’d rather log in to the database and get an instant answer. But taking over someone’s work was the kind of thing that drove others crazy. He would hold off for a bit, but if they didn’t hear from his sister soon, he would take charge and deal with the consequences later. “People around here don’t always register new bikes. It could also be secondhand and not registered to begin with.”

      “Then if the VIN leads nowhere, we’ll need another way to find the owner.” Matt hooked his thumbs in the corner of his pants’ pockets.

      His brother might be taking the wait-and-see approach, but Gavin wasn’t about to take the laid-back approach. “We need to figure it out ASAP so we’re ready to act if needed.”

      “Whoa. When did you become such an all-fire control freak?” Matt shook his head. “City living, I suppose, but you’re back home now. You’ll need to learn to relax again or you’ll tick people off.”

      Gavin wouldn’t admit the incident with his dad had changed him. Better to let Matt blame it on the city and move on. “You’re running the envelope for DNA, too, right?”

      Matt crossed his arms. “We may not be a big, fancy department, but we do know how to investigate a crime.”

      “I didn’t mean it that way, and you

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