Cowboy Above The Law

If that had truly happened, then Court felt bad that he hadn’t been able to do more. But that was a big if. Most folks had liked Bobby Joe and gotten along with him just fine.

Court wasn’t one of those folks.

Bobby Joe and he had always seemed to be bristling at each other. Maybe because Rayna and Court had dated through most of high school. Bobby Joe could have been jealous, and Court figured his own bristling stemmed from the fact that Rayna had crushed his heart when she’d broken up with him.

But that was water under a very old bridge.

“Are you ever going to at least consider that Bobby Joe could be alive?” Rayna asked.

He didn’t have to figure out what his answer would be because Clyde Selby, the lab guy, finally came back on the line. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Clyde said. “I wanted to see what we had on the second woman before I spoke to you. Anyway, the first woman, the blonde, is Hallie Ramon. She is, was, a college student. She was in the system because of a drug arrest when she was eighteen. But she didn’t have any gunshot residue on her hands, so I don’t think she’s the one who shot your dad.”

Court felt the slam of disappointment. Whoever had done this was still out there.

He immediately pulled up everything he had on her. There wasn’t much. No record other than the drug possession. The woman was twenty-four and didn’t even have a traffic ticket. But then something caught his eye.

“She was a drama student.” Court hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but it certainly caught Rayna’s attention.

She moved to the edge of her seat. Court hated to disappoint her, but there likely wouldn’t be anything else from the lab. Any new info now would come from working the case, and that meant talking to Hallie’s friends to find out how she was connected to what had happened in McCall Canyon.

“You mentioned the second woman,” Court prompted Clyde.

“Yes. Janet Bolin. Egan sent me her prints, and there’s no match for her. Don’t know who she is because unlike the first woman, she’s not in the system. No driver’s license, nothing.”

Court groaned. That meant she’d lied when she’d applied for the waitress job. Had probably even used a fake ID. That was going to make it a whole lot harder. Because until they knew who she was, they wouldn’t be able to figure out how she was connected to this.

“Is she here?” someone yelled. “I want to see her now!”

Court instantly recognized the voice and knew this would be trouble. It was Mitch Hawley, Bobby Joe’s brother. And the she that he was yelling about was almost certainly Rayna.

She got right up out of the chair and whirled to face Mitch. And not just face him. She went straight out into the squad room. If she was the least bit afraid of him, she didn’t show it.

But she should have.

Unlike Bobby Joe, Mitch was not well liked, and he had a nasty temper. Court had had to arrest him on several occasions for fighting. That was why Court hurried to get between them. He didn’t mind arresting Mitch again, but he didn’t want the man hitting Rayna. Mitch was a big guy, around six-two, and he was heavily muscled. A build that suited him because he worked with rodeo bulls, but his fists could do a lot of damage.

“Why isn’t she locked up?” Mitch snarled.

“Because I haven’t done anything wrong,” Rayna answered.

“Right. You killed my brother, and now you shot his dad.” His gaze flew to Court. “Please tell me you’re not covering for her.”

“No need. There’s no GSR on her, and at the time of the shooting, someone was attacking her. What do you know about that?”

That put some fire in Mitch’s already fiery brown eyes. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“Not at the moment. Right now, I’m asking a question. Depending on how you answer it, I’ll make an accusation or not.”

Rayna shook her head, maybe asking Court not to fight her battles, but he wasn’t. With everything else going on, he hadn’t had time to work on who’d attacked Rayna, but because of their history, Mitch was an automatic suspect.

“No. I didn’t go after her. Didn’t have anything to do with this hell-storm that hit town today.” Mitch snapped toward Rayna as if ready to return some verbal fire, but he stopped, smiled. “Looks like somebody worked you over good.”

“Was it you who did it?” Court pressed, getting Mitch’s attention back on him.

The man had to get his teeth unclenched before he could speak. “No. I wouldn’t waste my time on a killer. But I can’t believe you’d just let her walk. She had motive to shoot your father.”

“Yeah, and so do you,” Court reminded him. “In fact, I seem to remember you pressing my dad and the rest of us to put Rayna behind bars. We did, and she was acquitted. End of story.”

“No, hell, no. It’s not the end.” He flung his index finger in her direction. “If she’s capable of killing my brother, she’s capable of anything.”

“Apparently not,” Rayna spoke up. “I’m not capable of convincing anyone that not guilty means I didn’t do it.” She spared Court a glance to let him know he fell into that category, too.

“Because you bought off the jury or something. I begged Warren to try to reopen the case against you—”

“There’s no case to reopen,” Court interrupted. He was getting a glimpse of what Rayna had been dealing with for the past three years. “She can’t be tried again because that’s double jeopardy.”

“Then find something else. Conspiracy or tampering with evidence.” Mitch paused only long enough to curse. “Next week is the third anniversary of my brother’s murder, and no one has paid for that.”

And no one might pay. Court kept that to himself though. Simply put, Rayna had been their one and only suspect.

“Why’d you go to my father with all of this?” Court asked.

Mitch huffed, clearly annoyed with that question. “I went to him because I don’t get anywhere with Egan and you, that’s why. I figured I could get him to sway you into doing something. Warren told me to let it go. To get a life. Can you believe that?”

Yeah, he could. Warren could be steel-hard and cold. Even though his father hated that Rayna had been acquitted, he hated even more that Mitch was blaming the McCalls for that.

Mitch rubbed his head. “I can’t let it go. I keep dreaming about Bobby Joe. Nightmares. It’s as if he’s trying to tell me from the grave to get justice for him.” He looked up, blinked, the expression of a man who felt he’d maybe said too much. Or maybe Mitch just hadn’t wanted them to hear the raw emotion that was still in his voice.

“There is no new evidence to charge Rayna with anything,” Court said. “Not Bobby Joe’s murder and not my father’s shooting.”

“Then you’re not looking hard enough,” Mitch snarled. His face hardened. “And she’s responsible for that. She’s got you convinced that she’s the same girl you loved back in high school. Well, she’s not.”

Mitch moved his hand toward Rayna as if he might take hold of her, but Court snagged his wrist.

“It’s time for you to go,” he warned him.

Mitch threw off Court’s grip with far more force than necessary. “You should have known she’d pull something like shooting your dad. The signs were there. Even Janet said so.”

Court pulled back his shoulders. “Janet?”

“Yeah, the new waitress at the diner across the street. I was in there earlier this week...” Mitch stopped. He must have realized Rayna’s and Court’s expressions had changed.

“What did Janet say about me?” Rayna demanded.

Some of that fire started to cool a bit, and Mitch got quiet for several long moments. “She knew a lot about you. About what’d happened with Bobby Joe. She asked me questions about it.”

Court jumped right on that. “What kind of questions?”

Mitch volleyed some glances at both of them and shook his head. “Things like how often Rayna came into town and such.”