Page 51 of Protecting the Newborn

“I’m resigning from SAPD today,” Tony stated. He’d somehow managed to keep the emotion out of his flat tone, but the emotion was there in his eyes. A mix of anger and frustration. And guilt.

“You said you were here to make a confession,” Ruston pressed. No flat tone for him. There was a “get on with this” edge to his voice.

Tony nodded. “Internal Affairs is examining my financials, and it won’t take them long to discover that I accepted money from Marty. Payment in exchange for redirecting investigations so they didn’t lead to him.”

Ruston uttered a single raw word of profanity. “You sold out Gracelyn and me at the baby farm?”

“No,” Tony was quick to say. “Hell, no. Nothing like that.” He groaned and shook his head. “I was broke and behind in my child support. My ex was going to report me, and I would have maybe ended up losing my job, so I borrowed money from Marty. I know it was stupid,” he quickly added, “but I was desperate.”

“Desperate enough to sell out your badge,” Ruston snapped, taking the words right out of Gracelyn’s mouth.

Tony sighed. “Yes, but I didn’t see it as selling out. I thought, stupidly thought,” he amended, “that I could get my ex off my back and find another way to pay Marty what I owed him.” He paused. “But Marty didn’t want payback in the form of money. He wanted a cop in his pocket. He got one, but I never compromised the safety of any officers. Like I said, I only redirected investigations away from Marty.”

The anger and disgust rolled through her, and Gracelyn had to tamp some of that down before she could speak. “Did you tell Internal Affairs this?”

“No, but I will. I wanted to tell Ruston and you first, and then I’ll talk to Charla. Then I’ll turn myself in.”

“Charla doesn’t know what you’ve done?” Gracelyn asked.

“No, and she’ll be crushed,” Tony concluded.

Maybe. But if Charla was the killer, then she might be pleased about this development, because in a way, it took some of the focus off the person behind the attacks and murders.

Tony pulled in a long breath. “I didn’t directly do anything to put the two of you in danger, but by protecting Marty, the danger happened anyway.”

Yes, it had. And Internal Affairs would no doubt question him about that once he told them what he’d done.

If he told them, that was.

It occurred to her that Tony might be planning to go on the run. But if so, why come here first? Was this actually some kind of ploy to distract them? That thought flashed in her head just as Duncan’s phone rang.

“It’s Hank,” Duncan muttered, keeping his gaze on Tony while he took the call. Gracelyn couldn’t hear what the hand said, but whatever it was prompted Duncan to mutter his own word of profanity, and he shook his head. “No, search them and bring them up. I’ll call for every available deputy to respond.” And Duncan proceeded to contact Dispatch.

Gracelyn’s stomach dropped. “Are we about to be attacked?” she asked Duncan the second he finished the call.

“I don’t think so. Hank said that Devin just arrived,” Duncan explained. “And he has Allie with him. Devin wants me to arrest her.”

“Allie,” Gracelyn murmured, and she looked at Ruston to get his take on this.

He was apparently on the same wavelength, because she could see the uneasiness in his eyes. Then again, that feeling had already been there for both of them with Tony’s arrival. Now it was skyrocketing.

It could be a coincidence that two of their suspects, Tony and Devin, were there at the same time, but Gracelyn didn’t like coincidences. Maybe Tony and Devin were working together. This could be the start of another attack.

Part of her was relieved her sister was alive. But there was no relief whatsoever in the fact that Devin was the one bringing her in. Well, supposedly he was, anyway. Gracelyn didn’t trust Devin any more than she did Tony or her sister.

Or Charla.

Since Charla was the only one of their suspects who hadn’t shown up, that made Gracelyn wonder where she was. Was she standing back, watching this all play out after she’d set it in motion?

Perhaps.

Or Devin could be the one playing games here. But if he was the one responsible for the murders and attacks, then why hadn’t he just killed Allie? That didn’t help settle Gracelyn’s worries about Devin, since this could be a sort of reverse psychology. A way to try to make himself look innocent by keeping one loose end alive.

“I don’t want Allie in the house,” Ruston insisted. “She might try to go after Abigail.”

Gracelyn was in complete agreement, and apparently so was Duncan since he didn’t protest that. “Hank, let me speak to Devin,” Duncan told the ranch hand. “I’m putting the call on speaker.”

The downside to that was Tony was standing right there and would be able to hear everything, but that was better than the alternative of bringing Devin and Allie to the house. Or sending Tony on his way. If Tony had hooked up with Devin to do another attack, Gracelyn thought it would be best if they weren’t together. Then again, it was possible Devin was counting on Tony to be his inside man in whatever might be about to happen. That was why Gracelyn kept her attention pinned to Tony.

---