Page 18 of Lone Star Secrets

“I’ll be careful, too, when I talk to SAPD about you,” he said. “I recall Kenton and you arguing on one of your visits to the foster home. If pressed, I might be able to come up with some details. But I’ll be careful how I word it.”

This time, it wasn’t just a mere glimmer of the darkness. It was there, right there. Dwight opened his mouth as if he might return verbal fire, but then, he changed his mind.

“I’ll be in touch,” Dwight said. That, too, sounded like a threat, and then the man walked out.

All three of them blew out long breaths.

“Dwight is at the top of my suspect list,” Angel muttered. “Let’s sign those statements and get the hell out of here so I can start digging into his background. I want to find out exactly where he was and what he was doing around the time Kenton disappeared.”

Mia couldn’t agree fast enough, and they all went to the bullpen, where Deputy Rivera did indeed have their statements ready. They read through them, signed them and started out.

Only for Mia to come to a stop.

“I can’t go home,” she remembered. It was being processed by the county CSIs.

“You’ll come with me,” Angel insisted. He turned to Presley and seemed to offer an unspoken invitation.

Presley shook his head. “I’m going to head back to San Antonio and have some chats with some of our old cop friends. I also want to see if the lab has anything for me.”

He was talking about the pocketknife. Yes, she very much wanted to know about that as well.

“I also want to make a quick stop by the sheriff’s office and alert him to the possibility that Dwight might be involved in this all the way up to eyeballs,” Presley added. “Who knows, I might be able to convince him to have Dwight tested for gunshot residue or injuries he might have gotten when he was shot and fell out of a tree.”

“Do that,” Angel said. “We might get lucky.”

But he didn’t sound very hopeful about that. She’d heard GSR was harder to detect when a rifle was used. Added to that, Dwight could have showered after the attack. Or maybe he hadn’t even been there if he hired someone to do his dirty work for him.

“I’ll be careful,” Presley muttered to them. “You two do the same. And, uh, don’t bother trying to keep your hands off each other.” He winked at her again.

Presley had maybe meant that as a joke, but even with everything going on, Mia thought he was right. Angel and she didn’t have a history of resisting each other. Not when they were in the same vicinity anyway.

And soon, she’d be under his roof.

Since they’re parked right out front, they didn’t have to be out in the open long. They quickly got in Angel’s van, and he drove away. While keeping watch around them. She did as well because, after all, the person who’d attacked them was still at large.

“Danno, run a deeper background check on Dwight Barker,” Angel instructed the app. “Go back at least thirty-six years to the time his son was born. Then, dig into the son and get any details on his mother. According to the preliminary report, she’s deceased, but I want details of when and how she died.”

That was a good angle since they knew nothing about the woman. Unlike Dwight, she hadn’t visited Kenton at the foster home, but that didn’t mean she’d been totally out of the picture. She could have played a part in what happened to her son.

“Background check in progress,” Danno let him know.

Angel drove out of town and took the turn toward Bandera Bluffs. He didn’t have the GSP map on, but she guessed it wouldn’t take them long to get there. And with each mile, they would get further and further out into the country.

“What Presley said…” Angel started, but then he stopped.

“About not keeping our hands off each other,” she filled in for him.

Angel nodded, and a muscle flickered in his jaw. “I’ve, uh, never stopped wanting you, but I won’t give in to this…” He stopped again, muttered some profanity.

He glanced at her. Just a glance. But, mercy, even that could pack a wallop. The man certainly had her hormonal number.

“It’d a bad idea,” she finished. “Yes, I understand that.”

“Good,” he said and nodded as if that would guarantee that nothing sexual would happen between them.

It wouldn’t.

She knew it. So did he.

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