Met Her Match Read online

  Tears came, but Frank kept fighting.

  Behind them, Jamie had arrived and was filling a syringe, but Nate shook his head. Frank needed this release.

  Slowly, Frank began to weaken, his energy gone. His face was buried in Nate’s shoulder and tears had soaked the cloth. When Frank was near to collapsing, Nate nodded to Jamie.

  “I’m going to give you something to relax you,” Jamie said and gave Frank the shot. It took both of them to hold the older man when he started to fall. An ambulance pulled up, and the EMTs put Frank onto a stretcher.

  He held up his hand for them to stop, and Nate stood by his side. “Sorry for it all.” Frank’s voice was slurred. “But you found her.” With trembling hands, Frank removed his sheriff’s badge from his chest and held it out to Nate.

  “I can’t take that.”

  “You think those guys in their fancy jackets are going to let you hang around without any authority?”

  “Rowan will—” Nate glanced over his shoulder at his cousin. Already, Rowan had changed into the agent he was. No, he wouldn’t let a civilian hang around. Nate took the badge and, groggily, Frank smiled in satisfaction.

  At last, Frank let his body give in to the sedative and his eyes closed. “Now maybe the town bastards will leave our Terri alone.”

  Nate nodded at the “our.”

  “I’ll make sure they do. Rowan and I will make you proud.”

  Nodding, Frank gave a weak smile. “Poor Leslie. We all loved her so much. Who would do this to her?” They loaded Frank into the ambulance.

  “Yes. Who would do this to her?” Nate whispered as he walked back to Rowan and the other agents and the car. Who would murder the mother of a small child and—

  Nate cut off his thought because standing to one side of the growing crowd was little Della Kissel—and from the way her eyes were glittering, she was spreading her venom. He didn’t have to hear her to guess what she was saying. Probably something on the lines of “Leslie had an argument with her lover. She deserved what she got.”

  Nate could feel the badge on his chest as though it were a brand. At the moment it felt like it was glowing—and it weighed about a thousand pounds. While wearing the badge, he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, which was threaten the dreadful little woman so strongly that she shut up. Scare her to silence.

  Ah, he thought, if he was sheriff maybe he could lock her up.

  And be like Sheriff Chazen?

  He took a breath. Diplomat, he told himself. I am a diplomat and Della Kissel is an enemy warlord. He went forward.

  Chapter 20

  It was early evening before Nate could get away to go to Terri’s house. During the long day he’d frequently glanced toward the house to see if she was watching. But he never saw her or Thorndyke. Busy as he was, he wondered what the two of them were doing there. Alone.

  Nate had introduced himself to Frank’s three deputies, all of them young and eager to follow his lead. Nate wanted to tell them he knew nothing about investigating a murder, but he looked into their eyes and didn’t say that. It was clear they didn’t either.

  By six, everything had been cleared away from the old dock. Rowan had called his father and asked for help in getting an immediate forensics report. “I’m calling in every favor I can,” he told his dad. “But I need help.”

  Kit said he’d do all he could.

  Nate drove to Terri’s house, then sat in the car for a few minutes while he gave himself courage. The medical examiner had arrived and from his quick examination of the skeleton, he’d been able to tell of the horror Leslie Rayburn had gone through in her attempt to get out. As far as they could tell, she’d been handcuffed, her ankles tied together, probably gagged, then thrown into the trunk. Maybe she’d been held in there and her car parked on the dock while someone cut the pier’s big posts.

  Whatever happened, it had been long enough that Leslie’d had time to fight so hard that she’d broken both wrists and an ankle. All done while she had a deep gash on her head.

  “With a dent like that in her skull, she must have been bleeding a lot,” the ME said.

  Now in the car, Nate removed the badge from his shirt. Sheriff Chazen hadn’t even looked for Leslie. Hadn’t believed all the people who said she hadn’t run away.

  Nate put the badge in his pocket, got out of the car and went to the house. The door was unlocked. Billy Thorndyke was sitting in the living room, reading. The house was quieter than Nate had ever heard it. Even the outdoor sounds were silenced. No boat motors, no one yelling. Not even the birds were singing.

  Nate didn’t have to be told that Terri was asleep. Jamie had sent a text saying that he’d spent over an hour talking to Terri and had given her some strong sedatives.

  Billy put his book down and got up. “I made some spaghetti. Want some?”

  Nate was too tired, too beaten up by the hideous day to do anything but nod, then he went down the hall to Terri’s room. She was asleep on top of the covers, still wearing her shorts, T-shirt and even her sandals. She was curled up, her knees nearly to her chin. She looked like a tall baby.

  As he watched, she gave a little hiccup and he knew she’d been crying. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through at finding out her mother had been murdered.

  Nate removed her sandals, then her shorts, pulled the covers back and put her under them. She seemed to give a sigh of relief. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips, smoothed her hair back and left the room.

  Billy had put a huge bowl of spaghetti on the dining table and a plate of several pieces of warm garlic bread dripping butter. A tall glass of beer was by the plate.

  “I guess I’ll leave,” Billy said as he backed up.

  “Sit,” Nate said as he began to eat. “How was she today?”

  Billy sat at the table. “Quiet. Hardly said a word—except about you. ‘Nate will fix it.’ That’s what she kept saying.”

  Nate looked at Billy. He was young, tall and he had quite a bit of muscle on him. Some of it was genetics, but Nate knew the amount of time he had to have spent in a gym. Deltoids like his didn’t come from mowing the lawn. Nate well knew the energy that heavy workouts used. He pushed the plate of bread toward him.

  “Thanks,” Billy said, took a piece, then got up to get both of them another beer. “I hear you’re the new sheriff.”

  “It’s temporary.”

  “Frank wants to retire so maybe—” He stopped at the look Nate gave him. “Right. You want to hear about Terri. I guess you know that Dr. Jamie came by and they talked for a long time. He seems to know a lot about trauma.”

  Billy paused, waiting for Nate to say something, but he didn’t. “Terri seemed to be less restless after he left. Can you tell me what you’ve found out?”

  “I want to know what you did to Terri just before your whole family ran out of town in the middle of the night. As far as I can piece together, you did something really bad, then made her swear to tell no one.”

  Billy’s fair complexion showed the blood that rose in his face. “Good deductions. I think maybe you should keep that badge.”

  Nate’s look didn’t soften. He pushed his empty plate away, got up, picked up the beer bottle and motioned for them to go to the living room. He took the couch and Billy sat on the chair across from him. Nate waited in silence for the younger man to begin.

  “You know Kris Lennon who owns the Garden Day florist?” Billy said.

  “I’ve met her.”

  “When she was still Crystal Wilkins and in high school, I... I got her pregnant.” He looked at Nate but he said nothing. “I wish I could say that Terri and I had a fight and were broken up and that I was angry. Or that I...” Billy took a breath. “But there was nothing like that. I was happy and in love and seventeen years old. I was driving home from football practice, it was raining and Crystal was walking in the road. She was