On the Line (10 page)

He’d first heard about Richard’s partying ways their junior year in high school,
but hadn’t seen a need to bring it up. After high school, Nathan had never had the
chance to see Janelle when the two of them were home for the summers, but stories
about Richard’s alcohol-filled weekends still reached him. The one time he had accidentally
seen Janelle in town before her senior year in college, she’d seemed a bit distracted.
And he’d been so happy to see her he hadn’t wanted to ruin the moment by talking
about Richard.

He started to regret that decision after Zach was born. And every moment since.

Nathan picked the tennis ball up out of the corner of the hall and bounced it on
the floor as he walked down the narrow hallway, back to the living room.

He was hard-pressed to remember whether or not Janelle had actually ever said she’d
leave Richard. She’d been unhappy, that was obvious. And there had been small signs
of abuse. Nothing blatant like black eyes or large bruises on the arms or legs, but
he could see the fear in her eyes as she was constantly looking at the clock or peeking
out the window when he first started visiting her during the day. That had eventually
subsided and they’d settled into a nice little routine, but still he noticed the
anxiety creep into her eyes every night when he left.

Nathan had asked her more than once to come home with him. She’d always smiled sadly
at him and responded with, “Not tonight.”

He hated those words.

Nathan sat back down on the couch and began tossing the ball against the wall again.
“How could she let that man raise my child?” he asked out loud as anger bubbled in
his stomach. The thought that Richard may have hit Janelle when she was pregnant
with his daughter made his blood boil. And the idea that Richard may have laid a
hand on Zoe made him want to kill the man all over again.

His cell phone rang, and he leaned over the arm of the couch to look at it. He let
out a long sigh of relief.

She was calling.

Nathan propped himself against the wall of the interrogation room as he waited for
the investigators to join him. Captain Little had called him earlier that morning
and asked him to come in for questioning. Nathan was more than happy to comply—the
sooner they got this investigation over with, the sooner he could see Janelle and
the kids.

The door opened and two officers in shirtsleeves walked in. Nathan did a double take.
These were not the Internal Affairs officers he’d been expecting.
These were crime
scene investigators. Nathan began to wonder why he’d been called in.

“Sergeant Harris, please have a seat,” said the younger of the two detectives, motioning
to the seat closest to Nathan.

Nathan eyed the fresh-faced man as he walked to the chair he’d been directed to.
“Detective Hayes, I’m surprised to see you here,” Nathan said calmly as he sat. “The
last time I checked, you didn’t work for IA.”

“This isn’t about the Internal Affairs investigation into your misconduct, Sergeant,”
the other man snapped gruffly. Nathan looked at the grizzled veteran and frowned.

“Then why am I here?” Nathan asked.

The older detective, Sergeant Bonner, dropped a thin binder on the table as he took
a seat across from Nathan. “You’re here to answer questions about Richard Wagoner
and the events on the night he died.”

Nathan’s brows came together. “I don’t understand. I handed all of my paperwork over
to you guys a week ago.”

“Yes, we know you did,” Detective Hayes said.

“Then haven’t you looked through it?”

“Yes,” Detective Hayes answered and started to add more but Nathan interrupted.

“And haven’t you questioned the witnesses yourself ?” Nathan asked, knowing full
well they had. Patrick had called him almost immediately after they’d left Kelsey’s
hospital room. Kelsey hadn’t been very happy with their line of questioning, and
Nathan had a feeling he was about to find out why.

“Yes, Sergeant, we have.” Sergeant Bonner glared at him through mud-colored eyes,
his wrinkled, stubbled upper lip arched in disgust. “This isn’t about their accounts
of the events, it’s about yours.”

“I haven’t given any,” Nathan replied as he folded his arms across his chest and
tilted back in his seat.

“You’re about to,” Bonner growled.

Nathan eyed the older man as he weighed his options. He could easily answer any question,
knowing that he had nothing to hide. Given what he’d learned from Patrick, though,
he might be safer to go the second route. “I’d like a lawyer present.”

Bonner smirked. “Have something to hide?”

“No,” Nathan stated. “But I can bet you’d like to think I do.” Nathan watched as
Bonner’s smug smile slowly turned to a grimace. “And I’d like to have my ass covered,
just in case you try to turn my words against me.”

“Sergeant Harris, he would never do that,” Detective Hayes said from the end of the
table.

Nathan turned his head to look at him. “You obviously haven’t worked with your partner
that long.”

Hayes’s chin dropped and he looked speculatively at his partner. Nathan noticed that
Bonner’s face was a pale shade of red, a sign to Nathan that he’d been right in his
assumptions. The two men stared each other down until a knock on the door preceded
the entrance of a familiar and welcome face.

“I hope you haven’t said anything,” Mason Harris said to his brother as he took the
seat next to him.

Nathan shook his head. He’d never had need of any legal services, but at this moment,
he couldn’t be more thankful to have a lawyer for a brother. Even if Mason’s expertise
was corporate law rather than criminal law.

“What are you doing here?” Bonner grumbled, pointing a stubby finger at Mason as
he rose to his feet.

“I’m here to make sure my brother’s rights aren’t violated and that his words are
accurately recorded.” Mason calmly laid his briefcase on the table and opened it.
Nathan tried not to laugh at the disorganized contents, probably the only sign of
disorder in his brother’s life. Mason turned to him. “Lucky for you, your captain
decided to call me and let me know about this little session.”

Nathan’s brows rose to his hairline.

“You can’t be here,” Bonner stated. “It’s a conflict of interest.”

“Technically, it’s not. This is just a questioning, not a trial. And even if it were
a trial, I’m not about to be called as a witness, therefore I have no other interest
than seeing that his responses aren’t twisted against him,” Mason said with a shrug
as he pulled a tape recorder out of his briefcase. “However, Mr. Morgan is also here,
waiting for his daughter to join him for her session with the two of you. If you’d
rather, we can switch clients and he can sit in on Nathan’s questioning. But then
I will be sitting in on Mrs. Wagoner’s.” Mason looked up and met Bonner’s glare.
“The choice is yours.”

“You’re bringing her in too?” Nathan snapped. He looked at Hayes, who
refused to
meet his eyes, then turned to Bonner. “Hasn’t she been through enough?”

“Of her own doing.” Bonner looked at Nathan and shrugged.

Nathan shot to his feet, laid his palms on the table, and put his weight on them,
wanting to wrap his hands around the man’s thick neck. Mason pulled on his brother’s
arm and hissed in his ear for him to sit down and cooperate. Nathan slowly complied
and took his seat again.

“Can we get this over with please?” Mason said as he took a yellow ledger and pen
from his briefcase before he slid it away then pushed the button on his recorder.

Sergeant Bonner grumbled under his breath as he sat and pulled the thin binder closer
to him. He opened it and picked up a pen. “Were you and Mrs. Wagoner having a sexual
relationship at the time of her husband’s death?” Bonner asked, tapping his pen to
the paper as he looked up at Nathan.

Nathan blinked slowly, unsure he’d heard the question correctly. “What does that
have to do with anything?”

Mason groaned beside him. “Just answer the question,” he whispered at his brother.
“You know as well as I do that he has a reason for asking it.”

Nathan ground his teeth as he folded his arms across the table. “Not that it’s any
of your business,” Nathan began, and the corner of Bonner’s lip lifted slightly,
“but no. We haven’t had a relationship in over three years, if you must know.”

Bonner frowned. That was obviously not the answer he’d been hoping for. He looked
down at his papers. “If that’s true, then why had you been spending so much time
at Miss Morgan’s home, where her sister lives? Mr. Wagoner had pictures of your car
in her driveway as recently as two days before the incident,” the sergeant slid a
set of photos across the table, “and of a squad car, with you sitting in the driver’s
seat, as recently as a week before.” Bonner slid a second set of pictures toward
Nathan.

Nathan let them sit where they were and narrowed an eye on Bonner’s head. “I’ve been
friends with Mrs. Wagoner since elementary school. Is it a crime to visit my friends?”
Mason cleared his throat and Nathan rolled his eyes. He didn’t see how this line
of questioning had anything to do with Richard’s death and what happened in that
cabin that night. “Mr. Wagoner attacked Miss Morgan in December.”

“I’m aware of that,” Bonner nodded and looked at Nathan. “And I’m aware that she
filed a restraining order that prevented him from being on her property.”

“Your point is?” Nathan sat back in his chair. “You know as well as I do that a little
piece of paper telling the man to stay away wouldn’t have done them a bit of good.
Clearly, it was useless when he went against it and kidnapped his son.”

“That’s true,” Detective Hayes piped in, reminding Nathan of his presence. Nathan
looked at him, and the young man sat taller in his seat. “So why were you constantly
patrolling around her house?”

“Peace of mind,” Nathan replied. “Miss Morgan’s boyfriend was present when Mr. Wagoner
attacked her and was concerned for her safety. When he had to return home, he asked
Miss Morgan to hire a bodyguard to protect them all, and she refused.”

“Why would she refuse if she knew they could be in danger?” Hayes asked.

So that was how they were going to play it? Hayes’s fresh-faced, straightforward
good cop to Bonner’s gruff, insolent bad cop. “She values her privacy,” Nathan answered,
focusing on Hayes. “Which is why she asked me to help keep an eye on her home and
family.”

“Where were you when Zach Wagoner was kidnapped?” Bonner asked.

Nathan focused on the unpleasant man again. “I was at home. Alone. Sleeping.” Nathan
folded his arms across his chest.

“Can anyone verify that?” the younger detective asked.

Nathan raised his eyebrow as he stared at the man. Hayes’s face turned slightly pink,
from his neck to his blond hairline.

“Well?” Bonner asked.

“Really?” Nathan glared at the older cop.

“Nathan,” Mason’s warning tone reached his ears.

“My dog was home with me. Should I have brought him in for questioning?”

An exasperated groan emanated from his right, where his brother sat, and a soft clearing
of the throat from the end of the table on his left.

Bonner’s shoulders lifted and fell slowly as he looked at the binder in
front of
him. “How did you find out about the kidnapping and the location of the suspect and
child?”

“Mrs. Wagoner called me.”

“Immediately after finding out Zach was missing?” Bonner asked as he looked up at
Nathan.

Nathan’s head moved from side to side. “No, it wasn’t until after Mr. Lyons arrived
at her home looking for Miss Morgan.”

“Where was Miss Morgan?” Bonner’s brow furrowed and he crossed his arms in front
of him.

“On her way to the cabin. Mr. Wagoner had threatened Mrs. Wagoner with their son’s
life if she called anyone but her sister to meet him at the cabin.” Nathan shivered
at the thought of how distressed Janelle had been over the threat to her son and
her sister.

Bonner shook his head disapprovingly. For once, Nathan agreed with him.

“Were you the first to arrive on the scene?” Bonner asked.

“The first officer, yes, but Mr. Lyons, Mr. Reynolds, and Mrs. Wagoner beat me to
the cabin. When I arrived, Mrs. Wagoner was pale and holding her son, Mr. Reynolds
was hovering over them, watching the cabin, and Mr. Lyons was nowhere to be seen.”
Nathan recalled the events monotonously, separating himself from the turmoil he’d
felt that night. “I heard fighting from inside the cabin, there were two gunshots,
spaced out, and things were shattering inside. Then there was one final shot, and
everything went silent. Until the scream.”

“Who screamed?” Detective Hayes asked, wide-eyed as he leaned forward, listening.

“Miss Morgan, inside the house,” Nathan answered. “That’s when the uniforms arrived
and, as I led them into the house, the ambulances pulled up. We found Mr. Wagoner’s
body on the floor in the living room and Mr. Lyons and Miss Morgan in the bedroom.
She’d been shot and was losing blood and consciousness.”