Page 5 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #6)

“No mention of that.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “He believes, or rather wants to believe, we were there to cover my parents’ tracks. So, that’s why he’s referred to you a couple of times as a lying, scheming bastard from Strike Force.”

“I’ve been called worse. Sure you have, too,” Reed replied and got a fast sound of agreement from Hallie. “So, how much of a threat is Jay? Could he have murdered two people and tried to kill you by blowing up a house?”

This time, she wasn’t so quick to answer. Hallie was obviously still giving that some thought when Shaw stepped into the doorway. “Sheriff, you have a visitor. Luther Crowe.”

The name didn’t register with Reed, but it obviously did with Hallie. “The investigative reporter who interviewed Tami,” she clarified to him.

Oh, that guy. The one who’d printed an article about Tami being innocent because she’d been manipulated and coerced by her husband. Reed figured that qualified Luther as dickhead number two so he mentally put his name right by Jay, the disgraced cop.

“What does Luther Crowe want?” Hallie asked Shaw.

“Claims he might have some info about the murders and the explosion,” he replied with a shrug and a whole lot of skepticism.

Reed was skeptical as well. This could be a fishing expedition to get a scoop on the story that had to be spreading like wildfire. A scoop that dickhead number two could maybe use to get Tami some extra attention from those support groups.

“All right, I’ll see him,” Hallie grumbled, and Shaw headed off to fetch the man.

Of course, Hallie would see him. At this point of the investigation, it was all about evidence gathering, and this guy might actually have something. She couldn’t dismiss him simply because he’d written an article about her mother.

Reed pulled up a quick photo and bio on the reporter.

Luther Crowe, aged 52. A freelancer who often wrote articles for amnesty groups.

Former military. A minor criminal record for trespassing.

Twice divorced with one grown son. Reed thought his picture looked more like an Einstein wannabe than someone who’d be out chasing down stories.

“You want me to stay or go while you talk to him?” Reed asked, using the remote to turn off the board.

“Stay,” she replied. “I probably shouldn’t confess this, but I’m a bit rattled at the moment, and I don’t want to miss anything he might say.”

“Understood. And FYI, I wouldn’t want to work with you if you weren’t rattled after what happened. Hell, it shook me up, too. Along with giving me some big assed bruises. My longhorn tat looks like someone punched his entire face.”

As he’d hoped, that offbeat admission seemed to make her relax a bit. And she almost smiled. Almost. “Yes, I got some big assed bruises, too.”

Reed liked the tug he got in his body from that almost smile. From this almost fun banter. They were reminders of the heat between Hallie and him. The reminder got a quick interruption though when Shaw came back in with the man who looked identical to his DMV photo.

“Sheriff McQueen,” the man immediately said, and he shifted his attention to Reed. “Deputy Winston.”

Reed wasn’t surprised that the reporter knew his name. After all, Reed had assisted in Tami’s and Kip’s arrests, so, much to his disgust, his name and face had landed in the news. Someone with a strong interest in Tami’s conviction would have instantly recognized him.

“Mr. Crowe,” Hallie said, not showing any of those rattled nerves right now. “I understand you have information pertinent to our investigation.” She motioned for him to take the chair directly across from her desk.

“Call me Luther,” he offered, “And, yes, I might have something that’ll help.” He took a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket. “Those are the names of the three people who’ve sent me threatening emails or outright death threats for the article that I did on your mother.”

With her mouth going just a smidge tight, Hallie looked at it and then passed the paper to Reed. He didn’t need to ask who these people were. He instantly recognized two of them as the relatives of Tami’s and Kip’s victims, and the third name was already on their investigative radar.

The first was Hilda Merritt, whose daughter had been murdered by Tami and Kip. Second was Corman Pierce. His mother had been victim number two. The third was none other than Jay Warrington, the former dickhead cop who had a serious beef with Hallie.

Reed took out his phone and started a thorough background search on all of them.

Hopefully, he’d get a red flag or two that would point to one of them as being responsible for this.

Though he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around why the first two would have wanted to follow in Kip’s and Tami’s footsteps and commit a double murder.

Being pissed at Luther’s article didn’t seem like nearly enough of a trigger for that.

“Do you have copies of the threats these people made?” Hallie asked him.

“Yes.” Luther handed her a business card with a website link. “I posted them on my blog,” he replied. An answer that clearly didn’t please Hallie.

It didn’t please Reed either. In his experience, threats only fueled more anger and hate. But he used his phone to take a look at the blog.

“You didn’t report the threats to the police?” Hallie pressed.

Luther shrugged. “Didn’t see the need. I just figured they were blowing smoke. Then, I heard about the two new murders, and I wondered…well, I wondered if one of them could have done it.”

“Do you believe one of them could have?” Hallie replied.

Another shrug. “Maybe. Well, not Hilda. She’s eighty-two and barely able to get around. She also doesn’t have the income to hire anyone.”

“Plus, there’s motive,” Reed interjected, voicing what had just been going through his head. “How would killing two people get back at Tami, Kip or you? Why not just go after you if they were pissed about the article you wrote?”

Of course, there’d been more than the two murders in this attack, but Reed wanted to see how Luther reacted.

And there was a reaction all right.

A blank one. They were talking about murder, and yet with Luther’s unruffled expression, they could have been discussing the weather.

“I’m not sure,” Luther said after a long pause. “Maybe someone killed to get people talking about the original murders. You know, like salt in the wounds to those who didn’t stop Kip sooner.”

Luther paused and gave them both a long, slow look. Yeah, there was salt in the wounds all right, and this guy knew it. If that was the case, then Jay was a top candidate since he hated Hallie so much.

“Or maybe someone snapped and wants to make sure their murdered loved one isn’t forgotten,” Luther continued. “A misery loves company sort of thing.”

Both theories were possible, but Reed had another one. “I’m betting your blog readership went up significantly after you did the article on Tami and posted the threats you got because of what you’d written.”

There. He saw it. A quick flash of anger in the man’s weathered gray eyes. A flash that faded as quickly as it’d come. “It did, and I’m thankful for it,” Luther stated. “The more who read my blog, the more who’ll see that Tami is an innocent woman.”

“I doubt that,” Hallie muttered.

Luther got another flash of that anger, and this one was a whole lot worse.

“You of all people should know that she is,” he snapped, shifting to Hallie.

“Your father’s a manipulative bastard. He’s pure evil.

I’ve got statements of the injuries he gave you when you were a kid.

Of the way he bullied you. He did those things to Tami, too, only much, much worse. ”

He stopped. Just stopped. He clamped his teeth over his bottom lip as if he’d realized he was beginning to sound like a fanatic. Reed could have told him the fanatic label was already there from the article he’d written about Tami.

“Sorry. I get emotional about this,” Luther muttered. “Your mother is a wonderful woman, and she doesn’t deserve what happened to her.”

“Tami is a convicted serial killer,” Hallie pointed out. Her voice was flat, but Reed saw that she was having a struggle to fight back the storm of emotions that were no doubt raging through her.

“A wrongfully convicted serial killer who’ll likely be released on appeal,” Luther argued.

Hallie leaned in and somehow managed to violate the man’s personal space even though the desk was still between them. “Tami’s appeal won’t be successful. I know she’s a killer, and I’m not going to stay quiet about that.”

“Same here,” Reed piped in, earning him a glare from Luther before the man shot to his feet.

“Then, we’ll agree to disagree,” Luther snarled. “You have my contact info.” In contrast to Hallie’s and Reed’s tones, his was clipped and angry. “If you have any other questions, call me.”

The man didn’t quite storm out, but it was close. He couldn’t get out of the office fast enough and practically ran toward the front door.

“He goes on our suspect list,” Hallie said, and Reed couldn’t agree fast enough. “So do the other names he gave us. Yes, even the woman that he thinks might be too old to do this.”

Reed agreed with that as well, and he voiced the theory he had about Luther. “If the appeal works, and your mother gets a new trial, and you and I are dead, then we can’t testify against her. That could tip the scales with a new jury, and she could end up walking.”

“Yes,” Hallie immediately agreed. She looked up at him. “Luther’s been sucked into Tami’s web. That’s her MO, remember? My father’s, too. To charm their way into lonely people’s hearts and lives, make them fall in love with them, and then my father and she could move in to rob and kill.”

“I remember,” he said.

He also remembered hearing about the physical abuse they’d subjected Hallie to when she’d been a kid.

That had come out during her testimony at the trials.

Nothing life-threatening. Slaps and bruises.

But Hallie had been forced to relive all of that when she had been questioned under oath.

Apparently, those slaps and bruises and her sterling record as a cop hadn’t been enough to convince some people that Hallie hadn’t known what her parents had been up to.

But Reed knew.

Hallie had had no part in that, and he hadn’t needed her testimony or her police record to be certain of that. He’d seen firsthand the way she’d reacted to learning of the murders Tami and Kip had committed. And it had brought her to her knees.

Literally.

No, she hadn’t known.

Hallie’s phone rang, the sound knifing through the silence that’d settled between them, and he saw the ME’s name on the screen. She took the call right away and put it on speaker.

“Sheriff,” Dr. Martinez said, “both of our victims had fingerprints in the system so we were able to get IDs from the remains. The male is indeed Walt Garner, and the female is Elenore Pierce.”

The last name instantly rang a bell with Reed, and he initiated a quick search. And got a quick answer.

Hell.

Elenore Pierce’s mother had been one of Tami’s and Kip’s victims. And she was the sister of one of the names already on their suspect list. A name on Luther’s list, too, since he’d threatened the reporter.

It was time to pay Corman Pierce a visit.

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