Page 38 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

“She didn’t respond to a text I sent her earlier,” Luca pointed out.

Duncan scrubbed his hand over his face and seemed to consider that a moment. “Try to contact her again. If she still doesn’t answer, I’ll have the Austin cops go to her place and see if she’s there. For now, call Manny and see if knows where she is. Find out, too, if he knows Shannon, and it’s okay to tell him there’s a body matching Shannon’s description.”

Luca nodded, and he took out his phone, moving a few yards away into the adjacent formal dining room and motioning for Bree to join him. She did, and Luca put the call on Speaker when he tried to call Tara. Bree got a very uneasy feeling when it wentstraight to voicemail. Maybe Tara was just dodging them, but it was also possible she was dead.

“This is Deputy Vanetti,” Luca said, leaving a message. “I need to speak to you right away.” He paused a heartbeat. “It’s about your sister.”

That might prompt Tara to return the call. If she was in any position to do it, that is.

Luca pulled up Manny’s number next and also put it on Speaker. “Didn’t I make it clear that you’ll have to go through my lawyer if you want to talk to me?” Manny greeted in a snarl.

“I’m looking for Tara,” Luca said, clearly ignoring Manny’s rant.

“I have no idea where she is. She’s not at work, that’s for sure.” He paused. “Why are you looking for her? Did you find some kind of proof that she’s the one who killed Brighton?”

“No,” Luca answered. “I wanted to talk to her about her sister.”

“Shannon?” Manny questioned.

“That’s right. You know her?”

“Yeah, I’ve met Shannon a couple of times,” Manny confirmed. “She’s the spitting image of Tara, but they’re nothing alike personality-wise. Or rather they were nothing alike. Tara used to be reliable. Shannon’s a train wreck. She takes that whole bad girl attitude way too far.”

“What do you mean Tara used to be reliable?” Luca asked. Bree knew he wasn’t dropping the subject of Shannon, but that past tense could be a red flag if Manny knew Tara was dead. “Has something changed?”

“Damn right, things have changed. Tara’s spooked out of her mind and believes this whole thing of someone wanting her dead. I’m the one who was nearly run off the road. I’m the one who was attacked, not her, but you’d think she was the onlyone at risk here. Hell, there’s no indication other than her wild imagination that someone is after her.”

Bree mentally repeated all of that, and there was something about it that didn’t ring true. But she didn’t know what part. If Manny was the mastermind behind what was happening, then he could be setting up Tara to take the fall. That didn’t feel right either though.

“Truth is, I’ve told Tara that she should look for another job,” Manny went on. “Now watch, she’ll probably pull some ‘hell has no fury like a woman scorned’ deal and accuse me of all sorts of things.”

“Like what?” Luca pressed, and Bree realized this was turning into the interview that they hadn’t been able to finish with Manny when he’d been at the sheriff’s office.

“Who the hell knows,” Manny grumbled. “She’ll probably accuse me of murder or something. She might even claim I’m the one after her.” He paused. “Wait, is Tara working with Shannon to try to smear my name or something?”

“Not that I know of,” Luca assured him. “Would Tara or Shannon do that?”

“Hell, yeah. Shannon would, anyway, and it wouldn’t take much of a push for Tara to get Shannon to come after me for her version of payback.”

“You think Shannon could be violent?” Luca went on.

Now, Manny wasn’t so quick to answer. “Did Shannon do something? Does she want Tara to bail her out of jail again?”

“No,” Luca said, but didn’t add more to that. “Does Shannon have any identifying marks that Tara doesn’t and vice versa? Like a birthmark or tat?”

Again, Manny hesitated. “Why are you asking that? Did something happen to Shannon or Tara?”

Luca dodged those questions. “We’re looking into that. Tats or birthmarks?” Luca repeated.

Manny huffed. “Tara has a shamrock tat on her right ankle. As far as I know, Shannon’s not into that sort of thing.”

Bree hurried back to Duncan to let him know to have the cops on scene check for an ankle tat on the dead body. It didn’t take Duncan long to make the call or for the cops to respond.

“No tat of any kind on her ankle,” Duncan relayed.

So, this was Shannon. Bree didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. The proximity of the body to the cabin and the eyewitness accounts of the woman driving the silver truck likely meant Shannon had been involved in not only her mother’s kidnapping but perhaps everything else that’d happened.

But that didn’t exclude Tara’s involvement.

---