Page 51 of Stormswept Colorado (Hart County #3)

FORTY-THREE

Teller

“We’re over here!” Piper was standing near the back of her house with my officers. Ollie ran toward me the moment he saw me, and I scooped him up as we collided. He put his arms around my neck, tight enough to choke me. Dropped his face to hide it like a little kid.

“You’re okay, bud,” I said softly. “I’m here now.”

I felt an ache of longing for Ayla too. I hated that I’d left her with those harsh words on my lips instead of I-love-yous. As soon as I had a spare moment, I would send her a text.

But I had to do my job right now. Not just as a brother and uncle, but as Chief Landry.

While carrying Ollie, I went over to Piper. She hugged us both. “Hang out with Officer Nichols a few minutes?” I asked Ollie, nodding at Susan. “You remember her. I’m just going to chat with your mom.”

Reluctantly, Ollie let go of me. But Susan asked about his favorite superheroes, and that helped. She’d had three boys of her own who were grown.

That left me and Piper to chat quietly. “What happened?” My arm went around her shoulder. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, and she wore a sweatshirt over her flannel pajamas .

“I woke a little after seven. Went to Ollie’s room to get him up and ready for school.

Like normal. When I got to the living room, I saw the back door was open.

” She pressed a hand to her mouth, eyes filling with tears.

“Muddy shoe prints on the floor. Somebody had been inside. He picked the lock. We didn’t hear a thing. ”

“What about your security system?”

She shook her head. “I don’t always turn it on. I’m sorry. Ollie’s set off so many false alarms going outside if he wakes up before me, and…”

“Hey, I know. It’s okay. Any windows broken? Things missing?”

“No. But the intruder could’ve… Teller, he could’ve done anything .”

Acid rioted in my stomach. “Let’s check your cameras.” Even if the alarm hadn’t been armed, she had cameras on the exterior perimeter. I’d made sure of that when I helped her set up the system.

A check of the footage revealed a man of average height and build, wearing a bulky black jacket, a black balaclava over his face, and wraparound sunglasses.

Gloves too. The guy had been careful. There was nothing identifiable about him.

Not yet, anyway. The crime scene techs would get images of the shoe prints.

The vandal hadn’t spent much time here. Hadn’t risked making a lot of noise. It was like he’d simply wanted to cause terror. Prove what he could’ve done. And leave his spray-painted signature.

Like a taunt. Not just at Piper. But at the police.

While Officer Bradley, one of my reliable veterans on the force, interviewed neighbors, Susan and I took Piper and Ollie to the station.

Sheriff Douglas had sent over one of his trusted deputies, Keira Marsh, to help out.

She worked for the sheriff’s office in Hartley, but Deputy Marsh was a Silver Ridge resident herself.

After I gave her an update, Deputy Marsh volunteered to play board games with Ollie in our break room.

A huge relief. We couldn’t have him running around the station.

After Piper was done with her interviews, she joined in the game.

I made sure they had food and warm drinks and then returned to my own office.

When I had a few minutes, I sent Ayla a quick text.

I love you. Piper and Ollie are okay. I’m at the station working. Let me know if you need anything?

She didn’t read the message or write back immediately. I didn’t know if she was frustrated with me over the way I’d spoken to her earlier. Or maybe she’d gone back to sleep.

But I had an app for my home security system on my phone. Did it constitute spying on her if I looked at it?

I decided I didn’t care. A quick check of the app showed the security system was activated. Good . Ayla was fine.

After chatting more with Piper and some group texts, we all decided that Piper and Ollie would stay in Emma and Ashford’s guest room tonight.

I’d offered my own spare room, but Piper and Emma agreed that the kids would have fun together.

And Piper wanted to stay close to the coffee shop.

Keep things as normal as possible until repairs were finished at her place.

There. At least that was taken care of.

I checked my message thread with Ayla again. She still hadn’t read my text. Shit, she really was mad at me, wasn’t she?

Susan knocked on my office door, which was partway open already. “Chief? Can we talk a minute?”

“Of course.” I put my phone away.

Susan came in and shut the door. “I tried calling Seth Duncan again. Still no answer, which is odd. Usually when he’s sick, he at least picks up the phone or responds to texts.”

“Maybe it’s just one of those days,” I said, thinking of how Ayla hadn’t written me back either. “Spring pollen season messing with people?” I joked.

“Yeah, I know I was harping on that before. But this might be more. Finn Mackie didn’t come in for his dispatch shift, and the dispatchers had to scramble to cover for him. And Finn lives next door to Seth.”

“Right.” I’d known that. They’d both been newcomers to Silver Ridge in the last year. Finn had moved here for his first job out of college, while Seth came to join my department as a second career. He’d been an accountant before deciding to pursue law enforcement.

They’d been an odd pairing as friends. But neither of them had any family in town.

“So, you think they’re both sick?” I asked.

She nodded. “Finn isn’t answering his phone either. It’s got all my instincts screaming. Something ain’t right, Chief. I’m sure of it.”

We didn’t need this today. A serious illness going around?

“We can head over there and do a welfare check,” I suggested.

“Exactly what I was thinking.”

Finn and Seth didn’t live too far. A ten-minute drive. They each had a small bungalow in a row of them. I’d driven, and I pulled my department vehicle up to the curb out front. Susan and I got out.

She rang Seth’s bell. Opened his metal screen door and knocked on the wood. “Seth? It’s Susan. You in there?”

Nothing.

She glanced at me, worry creasing her forehead.

We went around to the back and did the same. Knocking and calling out. Same lack of response. The windows around the house were closed, so we couldn’t see inside.

“Try the back door,” I suggested. “Maybe it’s unlocked.” Which would be odd for a police officer, but this was still a small town. And Seth had been behaving strangely.

Susan pushed the door handle. It opened.

Officer Duncan’s body lay prone on the tile, arm reaching like he’d been going for the door.

“Oh, dear lord,” Susan muttered. “Oh, Seth. ”

I glanced inside. That was enough to confirm that no medical attention would fix this. Not much smell, no insect activity. Probably happened within the last several hours.

I shut the door. It was important now that we not destroy any evidence.

“Looks like a GSW. Get started on securing the scene. I’ll call it in.

We’re going to need to contact the district attorney and the CIRT.

” The regional Critical Incident Response Team, since this involved the death of an officer.

Looked like he’d been shot in the head. We’d need the coroner and the state CSI team as well.

Her wide eyes pinned me. “But Chief, what about Finn?”

Hell. We had to check on him too. My pulse roared in my eardrums as I imagined what else we might find.

My personal phone rang. It was River. I didn’t have time right now to find out what he wanted.

Then a text came in about a minute later. I yanked my phone out again.

River

Need to speak with you. URGENT. News related to Roy Carpenter

Dammit, why was everything happening now?

“Chief?” Susan asked.

“Yeah, coming.” I just didn’t have time for River at the moment. A Silver Ridge dispatcher could be injured in his home. If Finn was still alive, we had to get him help.

We went next door. Knocked on Finn’s front door, went around to the back. Same routine. “Finn? This is Chief Landry. Answer us if you’re inside.” But when we heard nothing, I wasn’t going to mess around any longer.

“It’s locked,” Susan said, trying the knob.

“Stand back.”

Susan and I both drew our weapons. I lifted my boot and kicked at the lock. It burst open. The door slammed against the doorstop, rattling .

No sign of anyone inside.

“Finn?” I shouted.

Susan and I made quick work of clearing the home. Nobody was here. Finn was gone.

I had about ten thousand calls to make. But River had said his news was urgent, and coming from a man like him—a former CIA operative—that meant something very serious.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Make it quick,” I said. “I’ve got a major situation on my hands. Officer dead, likely murdered.”

“I did some more digging into Sergeant Roy Carpenter and his family. He had a son. Jarod Carpenter. Jarod was still a minor at the time of his father’s death. Had a few minor run-ins with the law. Then a few years afterward, his online presence vanished.”

“River, please . Get to the point.”

“Then I checked Jarod’s mother’s maiden name. It was Mackie. I just found a record of a name change, processed by a court in Colorado. Jarod Finnegan Carpenter’s name is now Finn Mackie, and according to DMV records, he lives in Silver Ridge.”

What. The. Fuck .

I was standing in Finn’s kitchen. Susan ran into the room. “Chief, you need to see this.”

“Landry?” River said through my phone, but I’d dropped it from my ear and held it at my side.

I couldn’t breathe.

I followed Susan down the hall to Finn’s bedroom, where I’d been a few minutes before to check for signs of him. The place was neat as a pin. Bed made, nothing out of place.

But then Susan opened Finn’s closet door, and I got a better look at the photos decorating the inner surface of the wood.

So many photos.

Still images from Ayla Maxwell music videos. Paparazzi shots of Ayla from LA and other locales. Even from Silver Ridge. There were news articles about her. Tabloid pieces.

A photo of a teenaged Ayla, smiling at the camera. That had to be the image she’d told me about. The one of her outside her father’s house on the Army base.

But below them, I spotted photos of the sites that had been vandalized all around Hart County. The spray-painted red flowers. The broken windows.

“This is not normal,” Susan said. “But I don’t get it. What’s it all about?”

The truth slammed into me.

“Finn is the vandal. And he knew Ayla when she was younger. He has some connection to Ayla’s stalker.”

“ What ?”

But I didn’t see how it all fit together. It didn’t make sense. “Secure the scene here and at Seth’s place. We have to assume Finn could be a suspect in Seth’s murder.”

Susan gasped. “How on earth do you figure that? This looks bad, but?—”

I strode toward the back door, lifting my phone again. “River? You there?”

“Yeah. I heard snippets. Enough. What do you need?”

I needed Ayla safe. I needed her in my arms right fucking now or I just might lose my mind.

“I’m heading to my house. Could you get to Silver Ridge? Bring anyone from Last Refuge that you can. Maybe you could call Sheriff Douglas for me too.” I knew he and River were very close. “I’d do it myself, but?—”

“Consider it done.”

“We’re about to have a manhunt on our hands. But Ayla—I left her at my place, I have to—and she hasn’t been answering my messages?—”

The words died in my chest along with my breath.

“Get to her,” River said. “I’ll be on the road as soon as possible.”

The next few minutes were a blur. I sped toward my home, eyes more on my phone than on the road. Ayla still wasn’t answering my calls .

I checked the app for my home security system. It was disabled now. The front door was open.

When I checked the live camera footage on the app, I nearly swerved off the road.

God, please , I prayed. Please don’t do this to me. No, no, no .

My tires squealed as I tore up my driveway and hit the brakes. I threw my door open and flew toward the house.

Paul Ruxton lay in a pool of blood on my front porch. That was shocking enough, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Jumping over him, I went through the open door and inside.

“Ayla!” I screamed. But she wasn’t here.

The camera. I had to see what had happened.

With shaking fingers, I pulled up all the recordings from my doorbell camera from the last few hours.

I saw Paul Ruxton appear on the porch. Running his mouth and knocking, but Ayla didn’t come outside.

Good, sweetheart , I thought, and kept watching. Listened to a little of what Paul said. That he’d never sent the flower arrangements. There was another stalker…

I skipped the footage forward. The camera showed one of my department’s vehicles pulling up to the house. Finn Mackie got out, dressed in a uniform. Seth Duncan’s uniform? Because Finn sure as hell wasn’t a sworn officer himself. Then Ayla came outside, clearly believing it was safe.

With increasing horror, I watched as Finn shot Paul.

And then…

“No,” I whispered. And fell to my knees.

I was in the middle of a nightmare, one far worse than anything I’d ever encountered. Worse than the day that IED had nearly killed me. Worse than all the pain that had followed.

He’d taken her.