LITMIR.BIZ

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The only good thing that had come out of her marriage was Katie.

      This case would be hard for her. She’d only been sheriff for a couple of weeks and had dealt with minor crimes so far. The honeymoon was over.

      She scanned the area—open with few fences except one along the back where a dirt road ran behind the houses on the street. The kidnapper could have parked on that road by the southern border of the Fowlers’ ranch and easily climbed the rear fence. But then, if that were case, why was the front door open?

      As she walked toward the rear of the property, using the most direct path, her gaze swept the ground around her. About ten feet away, she spotted a binky on the grass. She took out her phone and snapped a picture. After putting on a pair of gloves, she leaned over, picked up the blue pacifier and put it into an evidence bag. From the looks of it, it hadn’t been outside long. Possibly dropped by Brady, which meant the kidnappers had left by the back door and headed for the road behind the house. She’d need to know from Michelle how the kidnappers got into the house, since both entrances were wide open.

      Most likely the perpetrators entered through the front door, because it had been wide open when Michelle and Dallas arrived. Maybe they fled out the nearest exit. And ran around to the front to leave? She hoped a neighbor had seen something—the kidnappers or the getaway car with a license plate number.

      It was even possible they’d come into the place through the back screen door and gone out the front because their car was on the street. But wouldn’t Michelle have seen them approaching from the rear? Only the top half of the porch was screened. Rachel shook her head and looked back at the house.

      Her stomach tightened into a hard ball, and she held up the evidence bag with the binky in it. Or they’d come in the front and gone out the back, their car parked on the dirt road behind the property. She had to check everything out. Timing was important in cases like kidnapping.

      She climbed the fence rails and paused above the ground and road, staring at several sets of different tire tracks. She knew they were freshly made because the day before it had rained hard. She would have casts made of all of them. Maybe one would give them a lead. She inspected the barren earth that had only a few weeds sticking up. Two pairs of boot prints crisscrossed the tire tracks. Michelle had said “they.” Were there two intruders or more, having something to do with one of the back ways into the Fowlers’ ranch?

      She would have this area blocked off and processed, but she would also need to pay Houston Fowler a visit to find out which of his employees had used this road in the past twenty-four hours. Even if no one had, maybe one of them saw something.

      As she hopped down and started back toward the house, her cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and punched the on button. “Is everything all right, Dad?”

      “I’ve got a call there’s been a kidnapping.”

      “An eight-month-old baby.”

      “Whose?”

      “Lenora and Paul Howard’s. How’s Katie?”

      “She’s fine. Your mother is feeding her. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to my granddaughter.”

      Her dad knew her well. Rachel reached the porch. “I need to go.”

      “I don’t want to butt in, but I’ll help in any way you need.”

      “Thanks, Dad. Right now, just keep Katie safe.” Rachel disconnected the call and opened the screen door to the porch, then entered.

      Deputy Jones finished taking photos of the area. “Texas Ranger Sanders went with his daughter to the regional hospital.”

      Thinking of the nasty bleeding gash on the side of Michelle’s head, Rachel asked, “Was she still responsive when she left?”

      “Yes. He called his sister and brother-in-law. They should be here soon. Also, the word’s getting out and already a couple of reporters have arrived.”

      “But not on the property?”

      “No. Standing in the street along with some of the neighbors.”

      “I’ll go around front and meet the parents. Send a deputy out to make castings of the tire tracks along the dirt road behind here as well as the two sets of boot prints.”

      Instead of going through the house, Rachel headed around the side of the building and came upon a large, muscular man wearing a hoodie standing behind a group of tall bushes, peeking in a window. When he spied her, he whirled around, plunged through the thick vegetation and raced across the Howards’ neighbor’s back lawn.

      Rachel took out after him. Her heart pounded as quickly as her feet against the ground. The suspicious man disappeared around the corner of a home two away from the Howards’. As she chased him, she pressed her mic and said, “I’m in pursuit of a guy at the Howards’. I’m two houses away heading west. I need backup.”

      Who was this guy? Why was he there? What was he looking for?

      Rachel chased the man around the side of the neighbor’s place, colliding into the solid wall of his body, his head down, hood masking his face. She stumbled back, fighting to stay on her feet. As she regained her footing, she raised her head just as a fist plowed into her jaw, then her eye. The world swirled, and she collapsed.

       TWO

      Rachel slammed against the ground, pain radiating through her face where she’d been hit. The air rushed from her lungs. Dragging in shallow breaths, she hurriedly tried to stand, but her ears rang and dizziness swirled her vision, one eye watering where her assailant had struck her. Punching the button on her mic, she said, “I need help,” a few seconds before Deputy Jones rounded the corner of the house and rushed to her.

      “Are you okay?” The deputy made a quick scan of the area then squatted next to her.

      Rachel gently felt the left side of her jaw and winced. “The suspect I was chasing had a strong right hook.”

      “Which way did he go?” Jones stood.

      “He’s long gone by now.” Again, she attempted to stand, this time using Deputy Jones’s offered hand, and managed to remain upright although it felt like a bell was continuously clanging in her head. She filled him in on why she was chasing the guy who had assaulted her. “I need to check the area under that window. I found boot prints on the dirt road behind the Howards’ house. This guy had boots on.” Had she encountered one of the kidnappers? He’d taken her by surprise. She hadn’t expected anyone looking in a window at the crime scene not long after the crime had happened and with the police on-site. When she increased her pace, her world spun. She stumbled, would have gone down if her deputy hadn’t grabbed her.

      “Ma’am, I’m taking you to the hospital. You need to be checked out. I’ll let Deputy Carson know about the intruder and where he was. He’ll look into it.”

      She started to protest. She had an investigation to oversee. A crime to solve—quickly. But her stomach roiled, and she leaned against Deputy Jones, closing her eyes. “Okay.” She hadn’t wanted to show any weakness in the first month of being the sheriff. She’d overheard a couple of her deputies recently saying that the only reason she’d won the election was because her father had been sheriff. She was determined to prove she was a better person for the job than the guy who’d run against her, Marvin Compton.

      * * *

      Hours later, Dallas paced the Cimarron Trail Regional Hospital room while his daughter finally went to sleep—although Michelle wouldn’t be getting much rest overnight here. He wanted to be out there hunting down the people who had done this to Michelle. Clenching his fists, he tried to work the rage and tension from himself. He needed to be focused and was determined to find out who took his nephew and left his daughter to possibly bleed out.

      The door opened slowly. It was too soon for the nurse to

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