“Sit down. Over there,” Selena ordered.
Her gun barrel barely twitched to indicate direction, but it was enough. Slowly, deliberately, the middle-aged cowboy scuffed his worn boots across the floor and sat in a wooden chair. She’d recognized Ned Plumber from the Donovan trial files and intended to establish control from the get-go. The man was big and burly, yes, but she had the gun. That and her badge made her the boss.
A tilt of her head toward Finn was enough to direct him without taking her eyes off the ranch foreman when she added, “Stay behind me. And keep quiet.”
“This is harassment,” Plumber said.
Selena replied. “Not at all. I came to rescue you before you made another mistake.”
“What mistake?” His grimy, meaty hands clenched the arms of the wooden chair, and he looked ready to jump up.
Cautious, she took a step back and spoke aside to Scout. “Guard.”
The bristling, growling Malinois stationed himself between her and the angry man, giving Selena plenty of confidence to continue. At this point she figured she had two options. One, she could back out with the Donovan brothers and escort them off the ranch property. Or, two, she could use this situation the way Finn’s attorney had initially planned. The only drawback to choice number two was the lack of official witnesses.
Keeping her gun aimed at the perjury suspect, she pulled out her cell phone and set it to record before sliding it into her shirt pocket. Their conversation might not hold up in court, but it would do a lot to convince Sheriff Unger. “Do you know why we’re all here?” she began.
“Where’s your search warrant?” Plumber growled.
Selena feigned nonchalance. “Like I said, I came to rescue you from the young man over there. He seems to think you lied about his big brother.”
The leer the ranch foreman sent at Finn affirmed the conclusion. Selena pretended to ignore it.
“You see, here’s my problem,” she went on. “Finn’s lawyer has recorded depositions from people who heard you bragging about taking a bribe to say you saw him here when Zeb Yablonski was killed.”
“Yeah, I saw him.”
She drew a deep, steadying breath, pacing her statements for effect. Then she smiled slightly. “No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. I told the judge and everything.”
“Unfortunately,” Selena said, making her voice smooth and reflecting assurance, “you did it under oath, and we can prove you lied. You know you did. And as soon as Finn Donovan’s retrial takes place and the court hears the testimonies of all those folks you bragged to about all the money you made by not telling the truth, you’ll be charged with perjury. That’s a very serious offense, Ned. You will go to jail.”
To Selena’s delight, some of the ruddy color bled from the foreman’s face. Finally, he recovered enough to say, “No way.”
Her smile spread. “Oh yeah? Think for a second. If Finn’s lawyer has solid proof, who’s going to be on your side? Edward? You know him. Do you really think he’ll stick his neck out for you if he thinks he’ll incriminate himself? For all we know, he killed Zeb. How can you possibly trust a man like that?”
“He promised.”
“Humph. That’s what you’re counting on? His integrity? Give me a break. Edward isn’t half as trustworthy as this K-9.”
Noting how Ned was looking at Scout and apparently thinking, she waited. Behind her, she heard stirring. Finn shushed Sean.
The eyes of the accused liar darted from the braced K-9 to each of the people in the room, ending with Finn. “Do you really have proof like she says?”
“We do,” Finn answered.
The deep rumble in his voice sent a shiver up Selena’s spine. She shook it off. “Perjury is a serious crime, Mr. Plumber. I’d think long and hard about sticking to that story you told about the day Zeb died.”
“I—I did see him.” He pointed at Finn. “Him.”
“In the morning?”
“Yeah. He was up at the big house.”
“Zeb’s house?”
Ned nodded vigorously. “Yeah. That’s the truth.”
“What about later and then again in the evening when the fatal shot was fired?”
Plumber was shaking his head slowly, his eyes downcast. “Maybe not then.”
“Maybe?” Her brows arched, her voice rising too.
“Okay, okay. So I didn’t see him then. But the boss did. He told me so.”
“And that’s why you testified you had seen Finn, too?”
“Sure. That’s why.”
Selena had one more detail to cover and made an effort to finesse it. “Makes perfect sense,” she said with make-believe concern. “You just thought you were doing the right thing.”
Plumber looked relieved. His shoulders shrugged. “Uh-huh.”
“I get it. And we thank you for your good citizenship, Ned. I’m sure Edward was likewise impressed. That much effort was certainly worth a bonus, wasn’t it?”
“Right!” He cheered. “A bonus for my support. That’s what it was.”
Putting one hand behind her back, Selena shooed Finn and Sean toward the door as she herself retreated. “Good to hear,” she said as calmly as possible given the circumstances. “I’ll be sure to tell the sheriff about our little chat. We’ll go and leave you in peace now. Sorry for the disturbance.”
The exterior door opened with a squeak of hinges. Finn shoved his brother out, then followed. Selena recalled Scout, holstered her weapon and slipped through behind them.
The last thing she saw before she turned away was Ned Plumber still sitting where she’d left him, staring at the doorway as if wondering what had just happened. Good. The longer it took him to react, the more chance they’d have of escaping before the cow manure hit the fan, as the sheriff liked to say.
Finn had apparently allowed Sean to retrieve the bicycle because the teen was presently standing on the pedals and racing ahead of them. A few workers paused to look as they passed, but nobody spoke out or tried to stop them.
Staying with the group, Selena brought Scout to heel and shouted, “My car, everybody. We’ll get the other one later.”
Sean began, “I can—” and was quickly grabbed by his big brother.
“No, you can’t. If anybody drives, it will be Selena or me.” As Finn spoke, he was tossing the mountain bike into the rear compartment and slamming the hatchback.
“I’ve got this,” she told them. “Sean, in the back seat with Scout. Finn, in front with me.”
She slid behind the wheel. Revved the engine. Then hit the Transmit button on the steering wheel as she accelerated in a cloud of dust.
“Bearton County dispatch.”
Selena did her best to speak calmly in spite of the racing of her heart and tremor in her fingers. “I have the missing juvenile in custody,” she said. “Relay the coordinates of the stolen vehicle to my teammates and tell them I’ll meet them back at my house.”
“Affirmative,” the professional voice said. “All personnel are well and accounted for?”
“Yes. All accounted for,” Selena replied before officially ending the radio transmission.
Her gaze met Sean’s in the mirror. “You are very, very fortunate I’m an officer of the law and not your mama.”
His Donovan blue eyes misted. Selena was almost moved to tears herself by the thought of what could have happened to the teen during his foray onto the ranch property. If Edward or Ned had decided to eliminate Sean, the wilds of backcountry Idaho might never have given up his body. Of course, he hadn’t reasoned it out that far, she realized. If he had, he’d never have ventured onto the Double Y by himself.
“While you’re thinking about why you shouldn’t have tried to take matters into your own hands, you might want to thank Scout for tracking you down before it was too late.”
A nod of Finn’s head was his only comment, and Selena clearly had the youth’s full attention, so she kept talking. “We’re dealing with real criminals here, Sean, not just kids who turn over an occasional trash can or smash a mailbox. Even if you aren’t thinking of yourself, have some respect for your brother. The more trouble you cause, the worse Finn’s chances of acquittal will be.”
“Uh-uh.” It wasn’t loud or confident, but it proved his mind had not yet grasped her point.
“Look. I need to get through to you before you make a bigger mess than you already have. Talking to a witness off the record is about the worst thing you can do. It taints their testimony when they’re under oath later and can be seen as coercion, whether you mean it that way or not. The fastest way to get Finn thrown back into jail is to have somebody claim he’s running around threatening people—or sending you to do it.”
“He didn’t send me.”
“We know that. But what if you were that ranch foreman you just faced? He could say you broke into his room and brought your cop friend to aim a gun at him so your brother, who is already out on bail, could show up and accuse him of lying. If you didn’t know us, who would you believe?”
“You and Finn.”
Before she had a chance to rethink and rephrase her argument, Finn swiveled and looked over his shoulder. “Because Selena carries a badge, maybe. But, as you already guessed, she and I have a past together. We used to be a couple. Ordering her to guard me is the worst thing the sheriff could have done for either of us.”
Selena met his somber gaze when he shifted it to her. “It almost seems like he was trying to cause trouble, doesn’t it?” Finn said. “For both of us.”
She disagreed. “Sheriff Unger and I always got along fine. He wouldn’t try to sabotage your chances of a retrial.”
“What about your career, then? Does he hold a grudge that you left his department and went over to K-9s?”
“There was never any indication of that,” Selena said firmly. She did, however, suspect that the sheriff might be playing matchmaker and going about it in a terrible way. It didn’t make any sense for a judge to have put Finn in her custody, particularly since they had been—were—friends. Doing so was far worse than simple nepotism, which is why the hiring of family members or close friends was highly discouraged, even if they weren’t assigned to work directly together.
Another concern was what Unger would do with Finn once she was called back to headquarters or sent on another assignment. The MCK9 unit team still had potential victims to visit and counsel, perhaps even move into witness protection. Sadly, they’d been too late to prevent Randall’s death at the hands of the serial killer because he’d refused to listen. He’d dodged their attempts to convince him of the danger one too many times and had paid the price. There were, however, other former members of the Elk Valley Young Ranchers’ Club spread across the Rockies who might still be in danger, and it was her team’s job to warn them.
Finally, Selena addressed Finn. “I feel like I’m failing my team by spending so much time on your case.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she shushed him. “Wait. Let me finish. You didn’t ask for me to be involved, and I didn’t ask to be included in solving the mystery surrounding Zeb’s death, right?”
“Right.”
“That’s why I’m going to ask Sheriff Unger to relieve me of this duty.” Although she was mainly watching the road as she drove, she could tell how poorly her announcement was being received. Finn’s jaw was set, and he was staring out the windshield. In the back seat, Sean had covered his face with his hands and, judging by the shaking of his shoulders, was weeping.
All Finn said was “Don’t.”
“I’ll be leaving soon anyway. If there are no more sightings of Cowgirl in Sagebrush, my boss will send me somewhere else. It’s inevitable. Might as well get it over with.”
“Are you that desperate to get rid of me?” Finn asked.
“No! It’s not like that.”
“Then why? What can I do to make you change your mind?”
“Nothing. I’m trying my best to do things right. When they formed the K-9 task force, I was sworn in as a federal agent. That should be—must be—my primary focus. Running around Idaho bailing you and Sean out of trouble is not what I’m here for. It’s not what I swore an oath to support and defend. By giving so much of my time and efforts to your case, I’ve been neglecting my real job.”
“I thought your real job was defending the innocent and bringing the guilty to justice.”
Selena had to admit he had a point. “Okay. You’re right about that. The thing is...” Pride almost kept her from revealing the rest of her conclusion, but she bravely continued. “I care too much. I not only remember the closeness we used to share, I admire the man you’ve become despite all the bad things that have happened to you.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I’m getting too emotionally involved, Finn. You mean too much to me.”
“And that’s a bad thing. Yeah, I get it. I knew years ago that we weren’t suited for each other. I told you that then. It’s even worse now that I’m a convict and you’ve risen in the ranks of law enforcement.”
This conversation was not going the way she’d intended, and although she was loathe to express herself more clearly in front of Finn’s brother, the urge to do so was strong.
“We’ll talk more about this later after we get home,” Selena said. As soon as Finn glanced at her, she rolled her eyes toward the rear seat to explain without words.
Thankfully, she got a nod of agreement. What she would say, how much she would reveal, once they could speak in private was another conundrum. If she admitted how fond she was of Finn, she’d be contradicting his opinion that they weren’t compatible and perhaps upsetting him. If she kept all that burgeoning affection to herself, however, and they were forced apart by her job, she was the one who would suffer.
Being totally honest with herself, Selena had to admit she wanted to pull away from Finn as soon as possible because she was starting to fall back in love with him, with the honorable man he had become, and it scared her silly.
She had loved him once to the depths of her heart, and he had pushed her away. Listening to his current excuses was like watching a rerun of a sad movie. Truth to tell, she was falling for him hard. And he was still insistent they were totally wrong for each other.
No matter what she told him about her feelings, she would be the one who ended up hurt, she concluded. The only question at this point was, did she want to tell him she loved him and perhaps hurt him, too, or walk away and keep it a secret?
Selfishness insisted she tell him.
Love told her otherwise.