Cold Case in Cherokee Crossing (13 page)

“So she left social work?” Jaxon asked.

Erma’s sister nodded. “Said she was going to leave a note in the files for the person who filled her position, a note telling them not to put any more children in the Mulligan house.”

Avery froze. Had Erma left a note in the file? If so, why hadn’t Delia mentioned it?

And what if Erma had discovered that she and Hank had been placed with the Mulligans against her advice?

She looked at the frail, unstable woman in front of her. She was confused now. But she was whispering to the baby doll that everything would be all right.

Just as the woman had whispered to Avery the night of the murder.

Dear God, had Erma come to check on her and Hank? Had Erma sneaked in and whispered to her that everything would be all right?

She’d been burned out on the job. She was upset with the police for not believing her, for not stopping Mulligan.

What if she’d been angry enough to kill Mulligan so he couldn’t abuse any more children?

* * *

J
AXON
LISTENED
TO
Avery’s theory as they drove back to her house.

“I need to talk to Delia again,” Jaxon said. “Find out why she said she didn’t see the note Erma left in the files requesting that the Mulligans not be used as a foster family again.”

Avery grabbed one of the boxes holding her brother’s mail and carried it to the house. He snagged the other two boxes and followed her.

But his phone buzzed as she started to open the door. He checked the number.

Director Landers. Probably going to fire his butt.

“Let me take this,” he said, then stepped to the edge of the porch.

Avery went inside and closed the door, and he saw a light flip on. He punched the director’s number, bracing himself.

A second later, Avery’s scream pierced the air.

Jaxon’s heart clenched as he shoved his phone in his pocket, reached for his gun and rushed to the door.

Chapter Seventeen

Avery swung her elbow backward and jabbed her attacker in the stomach. He tightened his grip.

“Be still,” the man growled. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Old fears crawled inside her, memories of Mulligan’s attacks, and she screamed and stomped on his foot as hard as she could, using self-defense moves she’d learned in a class at the gym. He bellowed again, then shoved her toward the chair in the living room.

She fell into it, hands reaching out to catch her from bouncing off and hitting the floor.

“Damn, Avery, I’m here to help!”

Avery froze, the man’s rough voice resurrecting some distant memory from the past. Gasping for a breath, she pushed up from the chair with her hands and turned to face him.

Dark shadows hovered around his silhouette, but she could tell he was big. Over six feet. Broad shouldered.

And he was clutching his belly and breathing hard.

“Freeze—police!” Jaxon shouted as he crept up behind her attacker.

Avery’s lungs strained for air as she cried out.

The man spun around and kicked Jaxon’s gun from his hand, sending it sailing across the floor.

Avery struggled to see the intruder’s face, but suddenly Jaxon lunged onto the man’s back.

Avery clenched the chair edge as Jaxon knocked him to the floor. Jaxon jumped him and tried to jerk his arms behind him, but the man shoved him, then rolled over and slammed his fist into Jaxon’s jaw.

Jaxon grunted and punched him in the stomach, and they traded blows, rolling across her floor as they fought.

“Get off me!” the man shouted.

“You son of a bitch, you’re not going to hurt Avery,” Jaxon growled.

“I’m not trying to,” the man yelled.

Avery’s heart pounded, but she turned on the lamp by the chair. A soft light washed over the room, and she stared in shock at the man lying on the floor with Jaxon straddling him.

“Jaxon, stop,” she whispered.

He swung his gaze up toward her, his eyes feral. “What?”

Avery stood on shaky legs, walked over and looked down at the man. It had been over twenty years since she’d seen him.

His face was weathered, wrinkled, and age spots dotted his bald head.

But she would never forget his face or those twisted eyes.

“Avery?” Jaxon said.

“Tell him to let me go,” the man growled.

Jaxon jerked the man by the collar.

“It’s okay, Jaxon,” Avery said. “You can release him. He’s Roth Tierney, my father.”

* * *

J
AXON
SHOT
THE
man below him a sinister look. He could feel Avery trembling beside him. “You’re Avery’s father?”

The bald man grunted a yes.

Jaxon cursed. “Then why the hell did you break in and attack her?”

“I just wanted to talk to her.” He gestured at Jaxon’s hands, which were still planted firmly on the man’s chest where he was sitting on him to hold him down. “Now let me up.”

Jaxon glanced at Avery and saw the bewilderment and hurt on her face, firing his anger even more. “Just don’t touch her again,” he warned.

The beefy man’s eyebrows shot up, but Jaxon ignored them. As far as he knew, Avery’s old man hadn’t been part of her life in years. And he was the reason she and her brother had ended up in foster care in the first place.

But he yanked the man by his collar, then climbed off him and moved to stand beside Avery. He planted his feet firmly in place, arms folded, daring the man to approach her.

No one was ever going to hurt Avery again.

Avery’s raspy breathing punctuated the silence as her father stood. Time had been rough on him. His hands were scarred, a prison tattoo wound across his wrist, his teeth were crooked and yellowed, his hair was gone and he had a paunch.

“What are you doing here, Dad?” Avery asked in a frosty tone.

He brushed off his jeans with his hands. “We need to talk.”

Jaxon cleared his throat and pointed to the sofa. While Tierney walked over and took a seat, he retrieved his gun and stowed it in his holster. Avery claimed the club chair in front of the fireplace, but Jaxon remained standing.

His instincts were on full alert.

“I thought you were still in prison,” Avery said.

Tierney shook his head. “I’ve been out awhile.”

“How long?” Jaxon asked.

Tierney knotted his scarred hands on his thighs. “Since right before Hank went to jail.”

Shock flashed on Avery’s face. “What?”

Tierney studied her for a long moment, then glanced at Jaxon, the air thick with tension. “I’ve been out,” he said. “Well, in and out a few times over the past twenty years.”

Avery’s look flattened. “What do you want? If it’s money, I don’t have any.”

“I don’t want money,” he said. “I came to help you.”

Jaxon scrutinized him. “How do you plan to do that?”

Tierney hissed between his teeth. “Look, Avery, I know you and Hank got sent to foster care ’cause of me, ’cause I killed that man. I screwed up.”

“You tore our family life apart,” Avery said bitterly.

“I know,” Tierney said. “And when I got out on parole, I came looking for you and Hank. I found out you were at the Mulligans and I went there and watched you get on the school bus, watched you and Hank outside.”

Jaxon wondered where this was going.

“You watched us?” Avery asked, her voice laced with unease.

“Yeah.” Tierney dropped his head forward and studied his blunt nails. “I saw what he was doing to you,” he mumbled. “I knew it was my fault. I...wanted to stop him.”

Disbelief registered on Avery’s face.

“What did you do?” Jaxon asked.

Tierney raised his head and looked at Avery, then at Jaxon. A vein throbbed in his forehead. “I broke in the damn house and stabbed the creep.”

Jaxon narrowed his eyes. “You killed Mulligan?”

Tierney nodded, then held out his hands, wrists pressed together in surrender. “You can arrest me now, Sergeant Ward.”

* * *

A
VERY
’
S
HEAD
WAS
reeling from seeing her father again. And here he was, after being absent from her life for twenty years, turning himself in for Wade Mulligan’s murder?

She didn’t know what to believe....

Jaxon wrangled a pair of handcuffs from his jacket pocket and snapped them around her father’s wrists. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, if he believed her father, but he looked more than happy to handcuff him.

Mixed emotions pummeled Avery. She wanted to free Hank more than anything. Her father’s arrest might make that possible. She certainly didn’t have any emotional attachment to the man. “If you killed Wade Mulligan, why didn’t you come forward sooner? Why did you let Hank go to prison for life?”

Tierney’s nostrils flared. “Because the stupid boy confessed, and stabbed Mulligan a bunch of times. I...thought maybe he inherited my bad genes, and that he needed to do a little juvy time to straighten him up.” A hefty amount of regret darkened his face. “I never thought he’d be convicted.”

“But he was convicted and is going to be put to death this week,” Avery cried, heart sick that her father would stand by and let Hank suffer. “For heaven’s sake, Hank confessed because he thought I killed Wade Mulligan. He was only protecting me.”

Shock registered on her father’s eyes. Then a string of curse words exploded.

“How could you do that to us?” Avery whispered in a raw voice. “I lost everything that day, and so did Hank.”

He grunted. “I figured he’d do a little time and then they’d let him out. I never expected him to get the death sentence.”

“But when they gave it to him, why didn’t you come forward then? Why wait until a few days before the execution?”

“I know it was wrong, but I’m here now.” Emotions glittered in her father’s eyes, maybe true remorse; then he tightened his jaw and faced Jaxon. “You can take me in now, Sergeant Ward. I’ll confess to everything, and then you can get my son free.”

* * *

J
AXON
WASN
’
T
CONVINCED
Tierney was guilty. His appearance at this late date seemed too...coincidental. Any lawyer would argue that he’d only come forward to save his son from dying.

Then again, if Jaxon could use his confession to get a stay, it would give him more time to investigate and unearth the truth.

Anguish filled Avery’s eyes. Damn. He wanted to sweep her in his arms and comfort her. But Tierney shoved up from the chair, his expression hard as he gestured toward the door.

“Let’s go, Sergeant. Sooner we get this over with, sooner you can get my boy out of prison.”

Jaxon’s dark gaze met the man’s, searching for the truth.

He needed to learn more about Tierney’s prison behavior. What other crimes he might have committed since he said he’d been released.

And why had he been released?

Hell, if he were lying and taking the blame for his son, it was probably the first noble thing he’d ever done in his life.

And Jaxon didn’t intend to stop him. Avery and Hank deserved help, and it was about time their loser old man stepped up.

“Mr. Tierney, you are under arrest for the murder of Wade Mulligan. You have the right to remain silent...” He read Tierney his Miranda rights as he escorted him outside to his SUV.

Avery followed him, her arms wrapped around herself, her breathing choppy.

“Stay here and lock the doors,” he said. “I’ll call you.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m going with you.”

Jaxon ground his teeth, but the determined look on Avery’s face warned him not to argue. Hell, how could he blame her?

She hadn’t seen her father in two decades, and now he’d confessed to the murder that had sent her brother to death row. If it were his family, he’d insist on being present to see what happened.

“Wait on me, Jaxon. Let me lock up and grab my coat.”

He gave her a clipped nod. “I’ll be right here.”

Her eyes softened as if she realized he meant that on more than one level.

And he did. Hell, he wanted to erase the pain in those damn gorgeous eyes of hers, and make her smile.

But tonight was bound to be rough. And they had their work cut out for them to convince a judge to postpone the execution.

Worry knitted her brow as if she realized the same thing, then she ran back toward the house.

Jaxon shoved Tierney into the backseat, then leaned across him to buckle his seat belt. “You’d better not be messing with Avery,” he said in a lethal voice. “You’ve hurt her enough already.”

Tierney lifted his head, his bald head pulsing red with anger. For a brief second, his gaze connected with Jaxon’s, though, and Tierney’s eyes flashed with understanding.

“I’m not here to hurt her,” he said in an equally low, lethal tone. “For the first time in my life, I’m trying to do the right thing.”

Whether he meant he was telling the truth about the murder or just trying to save his children, Jaxon didn’t know.

He didn’t care.

He climbed into the front, waited until Avery joined him, then started the engine and drove toward the jail.

Traffic was minimal as he passed through Cherokee Crossing. Most of the residents had settled in for the night, although the cantina was hopping with live music and the diner was still full with the late night supper crowd.

Avery twisted her hands in her lap, obviously grappling with emotions. Her father sat ramrod straight, staring out the window with a resigned look on his face. He’d been down this road before.

Prison was nothing new. Hell, sometimes lifers were released and didn’t know what to do with themselves.

The system didn’t prepare them for life on the outside. And society wasn’t exactly jumping to employ ex-cons. Without a family member or friend providing support and a place to live, they wound up frustrated and failing.

Some even resorted to petty crimes to violate parole so they could go back to jail and have three square meals a day and a place to sleep.

Avery tugged her shawl around her as they got out, and he opened Tierney’s door and escorted him inside. Deputy Kimball looked up from the front desk with a frown.

“Deputy, this is Roth Tierney, Hank Tierney’s father. He just confessed to the murder of Wade Mulligan.”

Jaxon’s phone buzzed, and he checked the caller ID. Dammit—Director Landers.

“Book him and put him in an interrogation room. I need to answer this call. Then we’ll take his statement.”

Deputy Kimball grabbed Tierney’s arm and led him through a set of swinging doors. Avery sank into the chair across from the deputy’s desk, her face ashen.

Jaxon stepped outside for a moment and punched the director’s number.

“What the hell is going on?” Director Landers bellowed. “Snyderman called and said you’re trying to prove Hank Tierney is innocent.”

Jaxon swallowed hard. “I reviewed all the evidence, and I had questions. But there is a problem, Director.”

The director’s hiss punctuated the air. “What?”

“Hank Tierney’s father showed up and confessed that he killed Wade Mulligan.”

The director spewed a dozen curse words. “You’d better put a lid on this right now, Ward. If Tierney’s conviction is questioned, it could cast doubt on every case Snyderman and I worked for the past twenty years.”

He didn’t need another reminder.

But could he drop the case without knowing the truth?

Jaxon glanced through the window and saw Avery tracing that scar around her wrist, and he knew the answer.

He’d risk his job, his life, everything to save her from any more pain. And he would find the truth no matter what happened to him afterward.