Page 18 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #6)

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Reed stood at the window in Hallie’s kitchen and watched the rain continue to come down in buckets. It was just past six in the morning, but it looked more like midnight, and judging from the forecast, the rain wouldn’t be letting up anytime soon.

Normally, he wasn’t a fan of stormy weather, but he was still carrying that slack, sated feeling that came with great sex. And the sex with Hallie had indeed been just that.

Great. Amazing.

And a whole bunch of other things that had temporarily made him forget about murders and investigations.

About dangers and threats. But as he stood there, of course, all of that returned.

It had to. He couldn’t let great, amazing sex cloud his mind enough to forget that a killer was gunning for Hallie.

He turned when he heard the footsteps and saw Hallie making her way toward him. Not naked as she had been earlier when he’d left her sleeping in her bed. She was wearing pants and a top, complete with her badge and shoulder holster. Obviously, she was ready for work.

She stopped when she was still a few feet away from him, stared at him a couple of moments and then smiled.

He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath, waiting to see what her reaction would be.

Reed had thought she might have regrets.

But nope. There was none of that. She went to him and kissed him.

“You look far too good for someone who’s only had a couple of hours of sleep,” she murmured with her mouth against his.

“I could say the same about you.” Except she didn’t just look good. Hallie hit the incredible mark.

She eased back enough to meet his gaze, and while he saw the heat in her eyes, he saw something else. “What’s wrong?” he couldn’t ask fast enough.

“Nothing about us,” she was equally quick to say. “I’m not sorry about us landing in bed, but…”

Hell. He hated that but , and while he did more breath holding, he waited for her to explain.

“But,” she repeated, “I can’t think about the personal stuff right now. I can’t promise you anything.”

Another round of relief came. “I don’t expect promises. Or you dealing with the personal stuff. That can all wait. What’s wrong?” he repeated.

Her forehead bunched up. “The prison sent me a report on my father’s murder.

And, no, I’m still not mourning anything about his death, only the horrific pain he caused so many people.

” She paused. “He was killed by a fellow inmate, Barry Hopkins, who isn’t on death row, but he shouldn’t have been in the exercise area the same time Kip was. There was some kind of security lapse.”

That got his attention, and it’d clearly gotten Hallie’s as well. “Security lapses are rare in a prison like that.”

“I agree, and so far, this Barry Hopkins is saying he killed Kip because a beef between them. Since they had little contact with each other, the prison officials did some digging. Two weeks ago, Barry had a visitor. Corman. The conversation wasn’t recorded, but Corman listed the purpose of the visit as personal. ”

“Personal,” he repeated. “What’s Corman’s connection to Hopkins?”

Hallie shook her head. “Unknown at this point. It’s possible they worked together since Corman’s a gaming software engineer, and Hopkins was a tech in that particular field.

” She paused. “There are some more possible pieces to this puzzle. Hopkins had just gotten a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer, and he’s the father of two teenage girls who’ll be heading to college soon. ”

Reed didn’t like the way the puzzle pieces were coming together. Corman had money so he might have paid Hopkins to kill Kip. The motive for that was obvious. Kip had murdered Corman’s mother, and Corman wanted revenge.

But why now?

Why wait a decade to end Kip’s life?

Maybe because Corman hadn’t had the opportunity for that before now. But Reed didn’t like the timing.

“When are you bringing in Corman to question him about all of this?” Reed asked.

Hallie checked the time. “He’ll be at the station with his lawyer in about four hours. In the meantime, I’m going in to read through any updates…and try to find a killer.”

Reed heard the emotion in her voice. Saw it on her face, too, but she quickly tamped it down. “Are you going to Strike Force headquarters today?”

“Not a chance. Along with clearing out my desk, I’ll work the investigation as a civilian consultant.” Reed thought she might argue with him about that, but the emotion he saw this time on her face was relief.

“Good. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

With that, she put on the raincoat she took from a peg in the mudroom, and they headed to the garage. This time, she got behind the wheel, backing out of the garage and into the curtain of rain.

At least the storm would make it harder for someone to take shots at them. But not impossible. And that’s why Reed kept watch on the short drive to the station.

It didn’t surprise him to see the vehicles already in the parking lot. Along with two cruisers, he spotted Jesse’s truck, Shaw’s SUV, and a black van with the Strike Force logo. Apparently, Hallie wasn’t the only one who’d had the notion of getting an early start.

Hallie and he rushed out of the rain and inside to find the four nightshift deputies with Shaw and Jesse. There was a tall, sandy haired man next to Jesse that Reed immediately recognized. Griff Abrams.

Griff was hunched over one of the desks, his fingers tapping away on the keyboard of a laptop. Whatever he was doing was obviously of great interest to the others because they had their gazes fixed to the screen.

All but Griff looked back at Hallie and Reed as they approached, and Reed could see concern in their eyes as well. Concern for Hallie. What he thankfully didn’t see were any signs that they had doubts about her being able to do this job.

“Griff is enhancing some of the pictures retrieved from Tami’s storage unit,” Jesse let them know.

With his attention still pinned to the screen, Griff made a sound of agreement. “My guess is the pictures were taken with a disposable camera like one of these.” He motioned to the screen where there were two such cameras lying on a table.

“So, there might be other photos of this party?” Hallie asked.

Griff finally looked back at them, muttering a greeting and nodding in response to Hallie’s question.

“Using facial rec, I’ve identified three more of the guests.

One died in a car accident last year. Another is in assisted living because of a stroke and is unable to communicate.

I’ve contacted the families of both to see if they have any photographs from fifteen years ago.

Most people had moved to digital by then so it’s possible any hard copies were stashed away somewhere. ”

“It’s the third guest Griff IDed that you’ll want to see,” Jesse remarked.

Griff nodded again and pulled up a photo. “This was in the background of one of the shots. I think you’ll recognize him.”

“Hell,” Reed said on a groan.

Yeah, he recognized him all right. It was Jay.

“Fifteen years ago,” Hallie muttered, the shock in her voice.

“That’s about when Jay made detective. So, what was he doing at a party with two serial killers, a future murder victim and one of our other suspects?

” But Hallie waved that off just as soon as she’d said it.

“Jay wouldn’t have necessarily known Kip and Tami were killers since they weren’t arrested for another five years.

And Jay might not have known Corman or Elenore either. ”

“True,” Griff admitted. “And that’s why I want more pictures, to see if there was any interaction between them. The fact they were all there together could be a coincidence. Or it could mean something big. Like maybe Corman, Elenore, and Jay were all somehow involved with Tami and Kip.”

“Involved?” Hallie repeated, and judging from the slight widening of her eyes, something had obviously occurred to her.

“There was a lot of money drained from the accounts of the victims before they were murdered. Millions. This sounds, well, extreme, but they could have been paying accomplices. Or hush money.”

“Extreme, yes,” Griff said, “but it’s the reason I’m doing deep dives on the financials of Jay, Corman, and Elenore.

Luther, too. He’s not in any of the pictures I’ve seen, but from everything I’ve dug up about him, he’s very chummy with your mother.

I’d like to know how far back that chumminess goes. ”

“So would I,” Hallie assured him.

“One more thing,” Griff continued. “It’s also possible the party was at the house that Jay then owned.”

“What?” Reed blurted, and Hallie echoed the same.

“Possible,” Griff emphasized. “I’m running some scans on that now, but there are definitely similarities between Jay’s place and the yard and the back of the house in the photos.”

Hallie’s mouth tightened, and she took out her phone. “I’m calling Jay to get him in for a chat.”

She didn’t put the call on speaker, but because Reed was right next to her, he could hear the ringing on the other end of the line. He also heard when the ringing stopped, and the call went to voicemail.

“This is Sheriff McQueen,” she snapped out. “Contact me immediately. I have some questions for you.”

She ended the call just as Jesse’s phone rang. Since he was the lead deputy on duty, Reed figured this could be about the investigation.

“It’s 911 dispatch,” Jesse relayed to them before he answered it.

Reed wasn’t able to hear anything the dispatcher was saying, but whatever it was, it caused Jesse to squeeze his eyes shut a moment.

“Try to trace the call,” Jesse instructed, and he hung up to face them. “Dispatch just got an anonymous call. There’s been another murder.”

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