Page 58 of The Sheriff's Baby

Because this was about revenge.

Of course, that didn’t rule out any of their suspects. Hamlin had been riled at Joelle’s father for alerting the authorities about the sale of his baby. Hamlin could have decided to aim that anger at Joelle. But Brad hated Sheriff McCullough, too, and he had a beef with everyone in the sheriff’s department over Shanda’s arrest.

That left Kate.

Joelle’s father had been investigating the sale of babies. Had his investigation led him to Kate, and had she silenced the sheriff before he could arrest her? If so, maybe Kate believed that Joelle would follow the same trail as her father and that trail would eventually lead her to Kate.

Of course, none of those theories addressed the baby. And maybe their child didn’t directly play into this. It was possible the person doing this didn’t want to kill a pregnant woman.

In the background of Slater’s phone call, Duncan could hear the wail of sirens approaching his place. He also heard something else, the dinging sound that Slater had an incoming call.

“It’s Woodrow,” Slater said. “Carmen, I’ll call you right back,” he added, and he switched to the incoming.

Duncan immediately thought of the heat source they’d seen on infrared in the barn. Possibly Joelle’s mother. Or another hostage. And that’s why Duncan had had Slater call Woodrow and Ronnie and tell them to stay at the McCullough ranch. Not by the barn, either, in case the person inside turned out to be a gunman. But rather Duncan had wanted them to pull the cruiser out of sight and keep watch of the barn. Hopefully, things hadn’t gone to hell in a handbasket there.

“Slater,” Woodrow said the moment he was on the line, and Duncan could hear the urgency in the deputy’s voice. “A dark blue car just approached the barn from the pasture side of the property.”

It took Duncan a second to realize that Woodrow was talking about the McCullough ranch and not Duncan’s place. “Is Joelle in the car?” Duncan couldn’t ask fast enough.

“I’m pretty sure she is,” Woodrow was equally quick to answer. “There’s a woman in the back seat that I believe is Joelle. There are two people with her, both wearing ski masks.”

Hell. They had taken her there and that made Duncan even more suspicious of that heat source. The killer could be inside the barn.

Duncan slammed on the brakes, and even though the road was narrow, he executed a U-turn to get them headed back to his place. He only hoped he was in time to stop whatever was about to happen.

“We’re on our way back there,” Slater explained to Woodrow. He glanced at Duncan. “You want Woodrow and Ronnie to move in or wait for us to get there?”

This might turn out to be a “damned if he did, damned if he didn’t” situation, and it could put Woodrow and Ronnie at extreme risk. Still, Duncan didn’t have a lot of options here.

“Woodrow, move in if they get Joelle out of the car,” Duncan instructed the deputy. “Do as quiet of an approach as you can manage. I want you to try to sneak up on them and see if you can get her away from them. We’ll be there as fast as we can.”

Slater ended the call so that Woodrow could get started on that, and then Slater phoned Carmen back to fill her in on what was happening. Or rather what they thought was happening. Duncan wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but if these SOBs hurt Joelle, he was going to rip them to pieces.

Duncan drove too fast and had to fight to keep the cruiser on the road when he took one of the many curves. He had to push. Had to get to Joelle. Because he could be wrong about the boss not wanting to kill a pregnant woman. This could be a sick attempt to use her to replay her father’s murder.

Duncan had to stop thinking like that.

“We’ll get to her in time,” Slater muttered under his breath when he finished his call with Carmen.

Duncan prayed he was right, and he kept up the speed, eating up the distance to the ranch. He was still a good two minutes out when Slater’s phone rang again.

“It’s Woodrow,” Slater said, taking the call on speaker.

“Ronnie and I are out of the cruiser and are approaching the barn on foot,” Woodrow said in a whisper. “They just took Joelle out of the car, and one of them has a stun gun pointed at her belly.”

That gave Duncan a nasty punch of fear and adrenaline. “Is she injured?” he managed to ask.

“I don’t think so.” Woodrow paused a heartbeat. “I don’t have a clean shot,” he added. “They’re holding her close.”

Duncan got another of those nasty punches. They were using Joelle to protect their sorry butts. “Are they taking her to the house?” Specifically, to the front door so they could recreate the murder.

Woodrow wasn’t so quick to answer this time. “No. They’re taking her to the well.”

Duncan went stiff with surprise. Then, dread. Pure, sick dread.

They were planning to toss her in.

“If we don’t get there in time,” Duncan said, his voice strangled now from the tight muscles in his throat, “move in to save her. Save her, Woodrow. Don’t let her die.”

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