Page 33 of Protecting the Newborn

Ruston, Duncan and Gracelyn volleyed glances at each other. It was Duncan who answered. “If we think of anything else, we’ll let you know. You’ll need to check in with Detective Ryland,” he reminded Devin. And he gave Devin the detective’s contact information.

“Right. I’ll do that.” Devin started for the door but then stopped and tipped his head to the test kit Duncan was still holding. “Do me a favor and keep the results of that to yourself,” he insisted. “I really don’t want to know one way or another if the kid is mine.”

He walked out, and for several moments Duncan, Ruston and she sat in silence. No doubt mentally going over everything Devin had just told them. That was what Gracelyn was doing, anyway.

Duncan went to the door and shut it. “You believe him?”

“No,” Gracelyn was quick to say. “My gut says he’s lying about something. I just don’t know what,” she admitted.

Duncan made a sound of agreement. “If any part of what he said was true, it doesn’t look good for your sister.”

“It doesn’t,” she admitted. “And that’s not exactly a surprise. Allie has a history of drug use, and she can be very impulsive. I still don’t believe she’s a killer, though, and Devin didn’t give us any concrete proof that she is.”

Duncan tapped the notepad with Zimmer’s name on it. But then he shook his head. “That could be one of Devin’s lies. There’s no known evidence to indicate Zimmer is a dealer. No known evidence to indicate he’s even connected to Allie. I’ve been digging through Zimmer’s background, and nothing about Allie or drugs has come up.”

That brought on another round of silence while they obviously thought that through. “So, why would Devin have lied about that?” Gracelyn muttered, and she already had her own theory forming in her head.

“Because Devin might have thought it would make us look at Zimmer and Allie and not him,” Ruston threw out. “That way, we might not concentrate on Devin’s admission that he knew not only Marty but Zimmer as well.”

“And we might not concentrate on the fact that Devin is a known hacker,” Duncan spelled out. “A hacker who could have maybe accessed any and all information that was used to murder three people and attack Ruston and you. Added to that, he was interviewed about the baby farm.”

All of that was true, but it brought Gracelyn to one very important question. “Why would Devin have killed or hired someone to kill?”

Duncan shrugged. “That’s what we need to find out. Maybe this is about money. He worked hard to make it seem as if he wasn’t interested in Abigail, but she could be a money source for him. Kidnap her and sell her on the black market. That plan failed, so now he could be in the cover-up mode by implicating Allie.” He paused. “But that doesn’t explain the two murders of the hacker and retired cop.”

Gracelyn could think of an explanation. A bad one. “Devin could be Green Eagle. That would make everything fit.”

“Yes,” Ruston muttered, and he took out his phone. “I’m calling Noah. I’m hoping he can get Devin in right away and grill him about Marty. And about any possible connection to the baby farm. Noah might be able to get something out of Devin that we missed.”

Ruston called Noah, but the detective didn’t answer. As Ruston was leaving a voicemail, his phone dinged with an incoming call.

“It’s Slater,” he relayed.

Every muscle in Gracelyn’s body tightened, and she prayed nothing had gone wrong at the ranch.

Ruston quickly finished the voicemail and took the call from his brother on speaker. “Did something happen?” Ruston immediately asked.

“No, everything is secure here,” Slater replied just as quickly. “I just got a call, though, from one of the hands. No sign of the sniper, but he found spent shell casings beneath one of those big oak trees near the road. I’ll call the CSIs to come out and collect them.”

Gracelyn forced herself to unclench some of the tightness in her chest. She knew the exact area of trees that Slater was talking about, and the location probably hadn’t been a coincidence. The sniper had likely chosen it so he could make a quick getaway.

“I’ll have the CSIs check the ranch trails nearby,” Slater went on. “It’s possible the gunman parked on one of those and left some tracks.”

True, but a former cop like Zimmer would have known that. Then again, Zimmer had left his prints in the truck, so maybe he wasn’t careful. There was a third possibility, though, that Zimmer had been set up.

Maybe by Devin.

That could have been why Devin had been so quick to volunteer Zimmer’s name to them.

Gracelyn heard a soft sound come from the small bag she’d brought to the station with her, and it took a couple of seconds for her mind to register what it was.

“It’s the alert I set up for messages coming from the private Facebook page,” she said, already hurrying to retrieve her phone.

And there it was.

What she’d been waiting for.

It’s me, Allie. I don’t have the phone you gave me. I must have left it somewhere. Give me your number so I can call you.

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