Cold Case in Cherokee Crossing

She shuddered, thinking about Hank being a target. How had he survived in here? He must have felt so alone, especially when his own sister hadn’t bothered to come and visit him.

How could he not hate her?

“This is Lisa Ellis.”

The woman’s soft voice dragged Avery back to the present. She sounded young, enthusiastic. “This is Avery Tierney, Hank Tierney’s sister. Hank told me that you came to see him and are interested in his case.”

“Yes,” Ms. Ellis said. “I’ve looked into it, but unfortunately I haven’t found any evidence to overturn the conviction. And your brother wasn’t very cooperative. In fact, he told me to let it go.”

Avery traced a finger along the edge of the windowsill as she watched the guard hauling the injured inmate toward a side door. Blood gushed from his throat, reminding her of the blood on Hank’s hands and Wade Mulligan’s body.

“Miss Tierney?”

“Yes.” She banished the images. “I just talked to Hank. We have to help him. He’s innocent.”

A heartbeat of silence. “Do you have proof?”

Avery’s heart pounded. “No, but I spoke with a Texas Ranger named Jaxon Ward and he’s going to look into it.” At least she prayed he would.

“I read the files. You were the prime witness against your brother.”

“I know, but that was a mistake,” Avery said. “A horrible mistake. I was traumatized at the time and blocked out the details of that night.”

“Now you’ve suddenly remembered something after all these years?” Her tone sounded skeptical. “Considering the timing, it seems a little too coincidental.”

Frustration gnawed at Avery. The lawyer was right. Everyone would think she was lying to save her brother.

“I didn’t exactly remember anything new,” Avery said, although she desperately wished she did. “But I just spoke with Hank, and we had a long talk about that night. It turns out that he confessed to the murder because he thought I killed Wade.”

Another tense silence. “Did you?”

Avery’s breath caught. That was a fair question. Others would no doubt ask it.

And if she had killed Wade... Well, it was time she faced up to it.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I don’t think so. But Hank said when he came into my bedroom, Wade was already lying on the floor with a knife wound in his chest. He saw me crouched on the bed, crying, and he thought I killed Wade in self-defense, so when the police came, he confessed to cover for me.”

“That’s some story,” Ms. Ellis said. “Unfortunately without proof, it’ll be impossible to convince a judge to stop the execution and reopen the case.”

Despair threatened to overwhelm Avery. She understood the lawyer’s point, but she had to do something.

“Can’t you argue that someone else came in, killed Wade Mulligan and left?”

“With you in the room?”

Avery closed her eyes, panic flaring. If only she could remember everything that had happened that night...

“The social worker and doctor who examined me afterward can testify that I was traumatized, but that it was possible.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Tierney, I want to help. But I need more.”

Determination rallied inside her. Then she’d get more.

Footsteps pounded the floor, and she looked up and saw the handsome-as-sin Texas Ranger appear in the doorway. His square jaw was solid, strong, set. Grim.

His eyes were dark with emotions she couldn’t define.

He didn’t believe Hank. He wasn’t going to help her.

She could see it in his eyes.

Hank’s scarred face haunted her. She’d let him down years ago when she told the police she’d seen him stab Wade. And then again when she stayed away from the prison. When she let holidays and birthdays pass without sending cards or writing or paying him a visit.

If Ranger Ward wouldn’t investigate, she’d do some digging around on her own.

Chapter Four (#ulink_ae41dea6-2a71-53de-a3f5-edc32d9ee33a)

Jaxon’s insides were knotted with tension. He believed Hank Tierney.

But he would be in hot water with his boss if he challenged his opinion and the verdict that had landed Tierney on death row.

Landers also knew Jaxon’s past and would question his objectivity regarding the situation. Hell, the man had practically dragged Jaxon from the gutter himself.

Jaxon owed him.

But...Avery had sounded upset, and the way she described that night sounded so heart wrenching that she couldn’t have made up what had happened or been acting.

Could she?

Unless...she’d been so traumatized that the details of the evening were distorted to the point that she believed the story she’d told.

Or...there always the possibility that she and her brother had concocted this story at the last minute to create enough reasonable doubt that the governor would have to grant a stay and retry the case. And if they both stuck to their story, it was possible they could garner enough sympathy to convince a jury that Hank was innocent. That they were both victims.

Which he believed they were.

Avery dropped the phone into its cradle. “You aren’t going to help me, are you?”

Jaxon’s lungs tightened. Damn if she didn’t have the sweetest voice.

He scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck. What the hell was wrong with him? When had he become such a sap?

“I will investigate,” Jaxon said, knowing he was jeopardizing his career, but that he had to know the truth. “I’d like to talk to the foster mother you lived with at the time.”

Avery’s eyes widened in surprise. “I have no idea where she is. At the trial, she said Hank and I ruined her life.”

They had ruined her life? “What happened to you after the trial?”

“They placed me in a group home. I never heard from her again.”