Page 53 of The Sheriff's Baby

Still was.

“That’s Mom’s voice,” she muttered to Slater. That was a repeat as well.

Her brother made a soft sound of agreement, and he looked up as if yanking himself out of a trance. “Yeah. But you know this is some kind of a trap.”

“She knows,” Duncan was quick to say.

Joelle did, indeed, and that’s what had prevented her from bolting out of Duncan’s house, jumping into the cruiser and driving straight to her family’s ranch. Because this could all be a ploy to draw her out into the open like that. But there was a flipside to this.

Her mother could be in grave danger.

Could be.

And that was the sticking point here. Slater obviously knew something about thatcould bebecause he played the recording once more. Duncan and she had done the same thing when they’d waited for Slater to arrive.

“The call was almost certainly made from a burner,” Slater pointed out, and Joelle made a sound of agreement. That was being checked as they spoke. Techs were also repeatedly trying to call the number with the hopes that someone would answer. So far, nothing.

“Mom never answered any of your questions,” her brother added a moment later.

Joelle nodded. “And there’s the static. A lot of it,” she emphasized. “It seems to be coming from maybe a TV station or radio that’s offline. It’s too steady for the intermittent kind of static you’d get from a bad phone connection.”

Slater nodded as well, and he shifted his attention to Duncan. “So, the fact that we’re not charging over to the ranch right now tells me you don’t believe my mother is actually in danger.”

“I wish I knew for sure,” Duncan said, drawing in a long breath. “It is Sandra’s voice,” he verified. “But it could have been spliced together from old recordings. Maybe interviews taken from the internet.”

Her mother had certainly done some of those since she’d often campaigned for bond issues to better fund the schools and libraries. Joelle couldn’t recall a specific speech or such that could have been used to piece together what she’d heard, but it was possible. There was a hugebut, though, in all of this.

“If the killer actually has her...” Joelle started, but then she couldn’t force out the rest of it. Not aloud, anyway. But inside her head, the possibility was flashing bright and nonstop.

Her mother could be murdered.

She could be being held right now. Could be hurt. And she could need their help. In fact, it was possible her father’s killer had taken her mother five months ago and had been holding her all this time, planning to use her to punish Joelle for whatever the killer believed she needed to be punished for. Maybe Brad for what’d happened to Shanda. Maybe Kate because her father had been on her trail for the illegal baby sales. Or Hamlin who wanted revenge for his arrest as a juvenile.

Duncan was well aware of that, too, and that’s why he’d spent the past fifteen minutes assembling a team. Or rather two of them. And even though Duncan hadn’t spelled it out yet, Joelle was pretty sure she knew what he was planning.

“You’ll stay here,” Duncan said, his gaze spearing hers. “I would take you to the sheriff’s office, but this SOB could be hoping for that. To attack us along the road and try to take you.”

Joelle had already considered that as well. It was the very definition of a rock and a hard place. If she went anywhere, she was a target. Ditto for if she stayed put. Duncan couldn’t stop that, but he could maybe stop her mother from being killed if she was being held at the ranch.

“Luca and Carmen will stay here with you,” Duncan went on. “And the two armed ranch hands will continue to guard the grounds. They’ll block the driveway to prevent anyone from using a vehicle to get to the house. Stay inside and keep the security system on.”

She recalled him saying all the windows and doors were rigged so if someone did attempt to break in, they’d at least get a warning. Then, whoever tried to get inside would be facing three cops.

“Slater and I will go to the ranch,” Duncan continued a moment later.

But Joelle immediately interrupted him. “And you’ll have extra backup with you,” she insisted. “As we learned with Molly, there are plenty of places for someone to lie in wait.”

Duncan didn’t argue. “Ronnie and Woodrow are already on the way to the ranch. They’ll hang back and use binoculars and infrared to try and spot any threats. Try and spot your mother, too, if she’s actually there.” He checked the time. “The plan is to make this as quick as possible.”

His gaze lingered on Joelle’s for a couple of moments, and she nodded. Not because she liked the idea but because there wasn’t another option. The ranch had to be checked, and Duncan was the sheriff.

He went to her, and while he didn’t kiss her, not with other cops watching, Duncan took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s only a trap if we aren’t ready for it, and we are,” he whispered to her. “We’ll take every possible precaution, and I want you to do the same.”

She nodded again. “Come back to me in one piece,” she muttered.

Duncan looked as if he wanted to groan at that. Because it seemed to be the start of some grand confession about her feelings for him. About how important he was to her.

Which he was.

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