Page 54 of The Sheriff's Baby

But no way did she want to send him off with that kind of distraction running through his mind.

“Stay safe,” she added, using her cop’s voice, and Joelle purposely turned away from him and faced Luca. “I can help you type up the witness statements from the hospital.”

That would give her something to focus on. Or rather something to try to focus on. Joelle didn’t know how long this would take Duncan and the others, but she would be on pins and needles the entire time.

“I’ll reset the security system with my phone once we’re out,” Duncan relayed to her as Slater and he went to the door. Both Duncan and her brother gave her one last look before they headed out. One last stomach-twisting look.

Joelle stayed put, listening, and she heard the sound of the cruiser ignition. Heard, too, when Slater and Duncan drove away.

And the waiting began.

“Luca, I can do some reports as well,” Carmen said, drawing Joelle’s attention back to the other deputies. “So email me the notes of the ones you want me to do,” she added as she took out her laptop.

Carmen didn’t sit in the kitchen though but rather moved to the front window. No doubt so she could keep watch.

Since the keeping watch was a good idea, Joelle tipped her head to the hall. “Duncan’s bedroom has a good view of the backyard. I can work from there. And yes, I’ll stay back from the windows.”

Luca didn’t make a sound of agreement until she added that last part. “The office has a view of the east side of the property, and since that side doesn’t face any of Duncan’s neighbors, I can keep an eye on things from there. I’ll email you both some of the statement notes,” he added, heading to the office.

Joelle took her laptop and went into Duncan’s bedroom. Of course, it was a reminder that less than an hour ago they’d had shower sex.Amazing shower sex. But since that brought on images of Duncan, the worry came with it, and she said a flurry of quick prayers that Duncan, her brother, Woodrow and Ronnie would come out of this unscathed.

Her mother, too.

Part of her wanted to hope her mother was there at the ranch. Because if she was, then it meant she probably hadn’t voluntarily left her family. But if that was the case, then it was unbearable to think of the hell her mother had gone through all these months.

Since that kind of thinking wasn’t helping her already frayed nerves, Joelle got to work—away from the window, though, she did open the curtains enough for her to be able to see out. There was a small seating area in the corner of the bedroom, and Joelle turned the chair so it was facing the window. That would keep her in the shadows and hopefully out of the line of sight of any shooters.

While she booted up her computer, she glanced out in the backyard. Unlike her place, this area wasn’t thick with trees. Just the opposite. There was a small barn and some white wood pasture fence. A shooter wouldn’t be able to use the fence to hide or sneak up closer to the house.

But the barn was a different matter.

The door was closed, and if a determined shooter belly-crawled through the pasture, they could slip behind the barn and try to fire into the house. With that unsettling thought, Joelle wasn’t sure how much work she would get done, but she opened the file that Luca sent her, anyway.

There had apparently been thirty-one statements taken from patients, medical staff and anyone who happened to be in the parking lot at the time Arlo launched his attack and Kate went missing. Luca had sent Joelle six, nowhere near the one-third he should have given her. When she got through these, she would ask for more.

The statements were basically notes taken by the questioning officers, and they needed to be cleaned up and put in an official file that would then have to be verified and signed by those interviewers. Normally, cops did their own reports, but with so many aspects to the investigation, they all needed to chip in. Especially since she wasn’t the one out there looking for Kate.

Joelle made it through the first one when she heard a soft thumping sound coming from the large walk-in closet/dressing area that was on the other side of the bathroom. The closet door was closed, and there wasn’t a window in there that someone could use to break in.

She waited, her fingers poised on the keyboard while she continued to listen. Nothing.

And she was ready to dismiss it when she heard it again.

Joelle quietly set her laptop aside and got to her feet. She drew her weapon and inched to the closet door while also keeping watch of the window in the bedroom. It occurred to her that someone could be tossing something against the exterior wall to distract her so they could make sure no one was watching them if they sneaked up to the barn.

She stopped to send a text to Frankie Mendoza, one of Slater’s ranch hands who was out front watching the road.

Do you see anyone on the right side of the house toward the back?

Joelle’s heartbeat kicked up a few notches while she waited the couple of seconds it took him to answer.No one’s there, Frankie replied.

That settled her down some, but Joelle remembered Duncan whispering to her about taking every possible precaution so she decided to get some help, especially since she was only a couple of feet away from the closet door. Even though it should have set off the security alarms, maybe someone had managed to get into the house.

“Luca?” she called out, keeping her voice calm and level. “Could you come here a second?” If it turned out to be nothing, then she would owe him an apology for interrupting him.

But it was something.

Before Joelle even heard Luca’s footsteps, there were two loud thumps as if something heavy had fallen onto the floor of the closet. Her gaze whipped to the closet door as it flew open.

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