Beef Stolen-Off (25 page)

She shivered thinking about it, remembering how uncomfortable she’d felt around him even before she knew he was a thief—and possibly a killer!

A million questions ran through her mind. What if being top dog in the theft ring hadn’t been the motive, and Rusty had really been killed because he couldn’t keep it in his pants? What if the waiter that night secretly had a thing for Brenda Sue? He did work at the Taylors’ ranch and may have been tired of watching Brenda Sue throw herself at Rusty.

Or maybe he just hated Rusty because he seemed to have it all. She figured they’d never know since the waiter was now on a slab at the county morgue.

Jordan was still thinking about that after she’d parked Sandy’s car and made sure Sandy was safely inside her apartment. She hurried to Danny’s pickup and climbed in.
They were almost to the city limits when Danny finally broke the silence.

“What are you frowning about?”

“Was I frowning?” When he nodded, she shrugged. “I was thinking about the waiter. What if he had no connection to the cattle rustling?”

Danny pulled the car behind the Empire Apartments and slid into one of the empty spots. After he opened the door and got out, she followed suit, waiting beside the car for his reply.

“What other motive could he possibly have?” he finally asked after giving it a lot of thought.

Again she shrugged. “I don’t know. Jealousy? Hatred, maybe?”

“Whoa! What’s going on under that mop of red hair, Jordan? How did you come up with that?”

“Brenda Sue still loved Rusty. I saw it the minute she touched his arm that night. What if she and the waiter had a thing, too?”

“Guess that could be a reason, but my money’s still on him being just a hired gun—or in this case, a hired poisoner.”

Jordan smirked. “That’s not even a word, but you’re probably right. It seems a logical choice that Marcus Taylor was the one writing the check.”

They’d just started across the parking lot to the apartment building when a slight movement to her left caught Jordan’s eye, and she shrieked, grabbing Danny’s arm.

“Sheesh! You’re going to give me a heart attack.” He pointed to a calico cat making its way from the garbage cans to the alley behind the building. “Although I have to admit that is one ferocious-looking kitty.”

“Shut up.” She gave him a shove, wishing she wasn’t so jittery. “Guess my nerves are shot.”

“You should be reveling in all the good you did today. First, you solved the mysterious pounding thing at the lake house, and because of you, Sandy will be able to keep the house out of foreclosure. Plus, you handed me the biggest lead yet in my investigation.” He playfully punched her shoulder. “I should have this wrapped up by the end of the week and be on my way back to Amarillo by next weekend.”

“I
will
miss you, you know.”

He laughed. “Yes, you will, but don’t bust out the champagne just yet. I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot more of me in the next couple of months.”

She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow as his meaning sunk in. “Danny McAllister, are you saying you might be falling for Sandy?”

“Oh, hell no. Don’t go getting crazy on me, Jordan. I like Sandy, and I wouldn’t mind exploring the possibilities, but that’s all.” He unlocked the door and allowed her to walk into the apartment ahead him.

“I think she’d like that,” Jordan said, turning to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. She didn’t recognize this man who opened doors for her and talked about a woman without saying he’d like to serve her breakfast in bed. But she liked the new persona. “I can barely hold my eyes open. I’ll see you in a few hours.” She made her way to the bedroom.

As tired as she was, she couldn’t stop replaying the events of the past twelve hours. They were missing something. She had no idea what, but since everyone seemed to be dying, there was a good possibility they would never find out what it might be.

Before she fell asleep, she thought she heard her cell
phone ring, but when she got up to check it, there was no missed-call message. She figured her nerves must still be on overdrive.

Just when she’d thought she’d worked past the jitters, a scary feeling settled over her as another thought crossed her mind. She’d seen Cooper running away from the two murders at the beef-distributing plant earlier, and he was still out there.

Was he looking for her? Did he even know she was there when the shots were fired?

For the second time that night, Jordan was thankful for her brother, who was asleep on the couch with a Glock under his pillow.

Danny had already left the apartment by the time Jordan woke up. With only four hours of sleep, she decided to put a late afternoon nap on the day’s agenda. Since she’d planned on spending her Saturday on Lake Texoma with Sandy and sleeping over one more night, she now had nothing scheduled for the day.

Polishing off a quick Strawberry Milkshake Pop-Tart, she picked up the phone and dialed Bella, proud that she’d gotten part of her daily requirement of both milk and fruit.

Bella picked up on the fourth ring, and without bothering to say hello, began to speak. “Have you heard the news?”

“Danny told me.” Jordan stopped before mentioning she’d actually been there when it happened. Bella would find out sooner or later and have a million questions. Right now she wasn’t in the mood to relive the terror of the night before.

“The police left a few hours ago. They think Diego
might have been involved with the cattle theft. And they said Cooper was definitely involved. Do you believe that?”

Jordan hedged. “I only know what Danny told me. I guess we’ll learn more soon enough, but that’s not the reason I’m calling.”

“Is something the matter?”

“I’m worried about Maria. Do you know what’s going to happen to her now?”

Jordan heard Bella sigh. “The poor woman is beside herself, as you can imagine. I went over there as soon as I heard and helped the night nurse pack her things.”

“Pack her things? Where’s she going?”

“Since the only family she has left is an elderly aunt in Mexico, social services took over. With no one to care for her, they moved her to a nursing home in Connor early this morning. She’ll be there for a few days until they can arrange around-the-clock care for her at home or a place at an assisted living facility that allows wheelchair patients. I’m heading over there as soon as I make sure Lucas is okay.”

“What’s the matter with Lucas?”

“Nothing to worry about. The last few days he’s been really fatigued, and his blood pressure’s up. He says he can feel his heart pounding in his chest and his ears. The doctor upped his beta blockers, but if he isn’t feeling any better by tomorrow, I’m going to drag him into Connor to see the cardiologist so they can make sure his blood thinners don’t need to be adjusted.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” Jordan hoped the impatience in her voice didn’t travel across telephone wires. It wasn’t that she was heartless. It was just that right now she was more concerned about Diego’s widow. “So where did they take Maria? I’d like to go see
her, too. She must be hurting and feeling so alone right now.”

“I didn’t realize you knew her that well. Hold on while I get that information.” After a moment Bella returned. “She’s at the Connor Center for Continuing Care off Texas Parkway. When are you planning to visit?”

“Probably tomorrow,” Jordan answered quickly before remembering her mandatory luncheon with Bella and Lucas.

After a brief silence, Bella replied, “It might not be a bad idea to cancel your visit tomorrow with Lucas feeling so weak. He’ll be disappointed he won’t get to see you, though.”

“Maybe I’ll drive out that way to say hello after I run over to Connor.” Jordan crossed her fingers, hoping God wasn’t keeping track of her lies. She had no intention of swinging by to see Lucas if she didn’t have to.

“He’d like that,” Bella said. “He thinks a lot of you.”

Jordan was absolutely positive she detected a hint of frostiness in Bella’s voice despite the cheery delivery. Maybe the woman was finally tired of the old man’s antics with other women.

Good for her.

Jordan glanced up just as Danny sauntered into the apartment, looking like he hadn’t seen a bed in days. The cowlick he fought every morning had definitely won out over his hair products today.

Without a word, she muted the TV and walked to the kitchen to fix him a cup of coffee.

Slumping down on the couch beside him, she handed him the cup, careful not to spill it. “What’d you find out at
the Taylors’? Did Marcus admit to hiring the waiter? What was his name again?”

“Jake Richards, and no, neither Marcus nor Brenda Sue knew the guy very well, or so they said. Seems all the hiring at the ranch is done by David Whitley, the husband of the woman who has the greenhouse out back. Whitley oversees the ranch for the Taylors. He hired Richards, your fake waiter, about a year and a half ago.”

She snapped to attention. “How convenient that his wife just happens to grow and sell the exact powder that was used in the killing. Does David Whitley have a motive for wanting Rusty dead like it seems the whole rest of the world did?”

“None we could find. We talked to his wife alone to feel her out—see if maybe there was something going on with her and Morales since he seemed to be irresistible to every woman who laid eyes on him.”

Jordan harrumphed, thinking there was a real possibility her name might have been added to Rusty’s list of conquests if she’d been able to get to know him better. The man had definitely been eye candy and could probably charm the pants off a nun.

“Anyway,” Danny continued, “the only thing we got from Karen Whitley is that she had a complaint from one of her regular customers last month. Seems an order of aconite was shorted by one container. Karen said she had no idea how that could have happened since she packs the powder herself and personally carries it to the post office to ship to the pharmaceutical companies.”

“Who else had access to the poison before it shipped?”

“That’s the interesting part. Karen is really the only one who deals with the stuff, except for the workers who help her process it. I had Rutherford send a couple of black-
and-whites out there to interview them, but most can’t even speak English and wouldn’t have been at the hotel where Rusty was killed.”

“That’s true, but they could have stolen it for someone more than willing to pay a pretty penny for it,” Jordan interrupted.

“A definite possibility. Hopefully, they can rule that out when they get them in a room alone. Here’s another tidbit to add to the puzzle. When I asked Karen if she ever strayed from her normal routine with the aconite, I was not surprised by her answer. At first she said no, and then she remembered being interrupted about a month ago right in the middle of packaging the powder. Seems she heard her dog barking frantically and thought maybe a pack of coyotes had him cornered. So she grabbed a shovel and ran out to see what all the commotion was about.”

“So either Brenda Sue or Marcus could have sneaked into the greenhouse and lifted just enough poison to do the job.”

“Or maybe it was Jake Richards,” Danny said. “Karen said she found her dog stuck in the shed. Somehow the door had jammed, and the poor guy was howling bloody murder. At the time, she didn’t think it was strange and had assumed the stupid mutt had trapped himself. You know how Labs are. They’re wonderful dogs, but they sometimes eat their own poop.”

“By itself, the dog getting stuck in the shed would just be a funny incident, but when you factor in the possible missing poison from her shipment, it’s too much of a coincidence to overlook. Did Karen see anyone hanging around the greenhouse when she returned?”

“My thoughts exactly, and no, she didn’t see anyone. When I questioned her about whether Richards had access
to her greenhouse, she confessed she didn’t keep it locked during the day. Anyone could have lured the dog into the shed and then trapped him there while they waited for Karen to rush out and rescue him.”

“When did this happen again?”

Danny flipped open his notebook. “The middle of last month.”

“That means if the killer stole her drugs that day, he had about three weeks to figure out how to slip it to Rusty.” Jordan shook her head, grateful she wasn’t the one investigating the murder. It was turning out to be a lot more complicated than she’d imagined.

“Assuming she hadn’t just screwed up the order and shorted the customer—maybe all this had nothing to do with Jake Richards serving drinks at the Cattlemen’s Ball. We’re still not even sure that’s how Rusty was poisoned. It might all be a big coincidence that Richards was even at the hotel on the night Rusty died.”

She tsked. “There’s that coincidence again. I don’t believe in them.”

“Neither do I. That’s why I had the department send over Richards’s phone records so I could go over them with a fine-tooth comb.”

Jordan stiffened. “And?”

“And there were several calls made to Rusty’s home phone over the past two months. One as recent as the night before he died.”

“But why would Richards be talking to Rusty?”

“That, my dear, is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Unfortunately, both Morales and Richards are no longer with us, so we can only assume they were cohorts in the cattle-rustling business.”

“Bummer.” She yawned. “What do you say we go back to bed and sleep until tomorrow?”

Danny checked his watch. “Let’s run out first for fast food, then crash. The only thing I’ve had less of than sleep in the past twenty-four hours is food, and I’m starving.” He grinned. “I’ll even treat.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” Then before he changed his mind, she clicked off the TV and jumped up. “I’ll get my purse.”

“Oh, by the way, do you remember Officer Rutherford, the Ranchero cop who was out at Sandy’s last night?” When she nodded, he continued. “He called me when I was on the way back from the Taylors’. Cooper Harrison is on the lam.”