Page 38 of Targeted in Silver Creek

Jesse was about to try to assure her that it would be okay, but his phone rang. Not Unknown Caller, thank God, because he was too tired to deal with a chat with Bull tonight.

“It’s Grayson.” Jesse let her know. “Should I put it on speaker?” he added, tipping his head to Evan. Of course, their son wouldn’t understand what was being said, but Jesse wanted to make sure Hanna was okay with it.

“Speaker,” Hanna verified with a nod.

“Please tell me you have good news,” Jesse told Grayson when he answered, adding that Hanna was listening.

“Some. We got IDs on the two attackers. The dead guy is Vince Lutz, and the one we have in custody is Jeremy Cowen. Both have records. Both belong to a militia in Oklahoma. Their group apparently did business with the one here.”

That explained why the men hadn’t looked familiar to Jesse. “Who hired them?”

“Don’t know. Not yet. Cowen says he doesn’t know, that he was doing Lutz a favor by going to Hanna’s.”

Jesse bit on the profanity that came with the jolt of anger. “A favor?” he snarled. “One that endangered a baby.”

Grayson made a sound to indicate he was in perfect agreement with Jesse’s anger. “Cowen claims he had no idea that a baby was in the house, that Lutz told him they were just going there to scare somebody who was ratting out members of the militia. He also said it was Lutz who fired the shots, but we’re having both men’s guns tested.”

That was standard procedure, though Jesse didn’t care which of them had pulled the trigger. He wanted Cowen to be charged with attempted murder, child endangerment, trespassing and any other charges Grayson could tack onto those.

“Cowen put a stop to the interview when I pressed him for details about how Lutz and he had gotten those orders,” Grayson explained. “He then asked for a lawyer.”

It surprised Jesse that the man hadn’t lawyered up right away since he’d been caught at the scene, and he’d been armed. With his record, he had to know he was going to land in jail.

“Theo requested Hanna’s phone records,” Grayson continued a moment later, “and they arrived about a half hour ago. I’ve been going through them while I’m waiting for Cowen’s lawyer to show. Hanna, do you have any recollection of Agent Shaw calling you the day you were shot?”

Jesse could tell from the way her breath stalled that the answer to that was no. “He didn’t mention it either.”

“Was it a long call?” Hanna asked.

“Twelve minutes, so long enough. I can contact him and ask what you two talked about,” Grayson offered.

“Let me do that after we get Evan down for the night,” Jesse said. “That way, Hanna will be able to hear what he has to say. I’ll let you know, too.”

“Thanks. Oh, and just a heads-up, Dad might be coming over there tonight. Melissa ordered Evan a bunch of books and toys, and he might drop them off. He said if it was late, he’d just leave the stuff on the porch.”

Well, it wasn’t late, not really, but Boone might go the porch route since he’d know that it was already past Evan’s bedtime. Still, the hands would alert Jesse that his father had arrived, so he’d go out and have a quick chat with him to try to assure him that he had things under control.

That might or might not be the truth.

Boone had to be feeling the motherlode of guilt right now because he would be blaming himself for what had happened to Hanna. And for what was still happening to her. It wasn’t his fault that Arnie had snapped but, like Jesse, he hadn’t been able to stop Hanna from getting hurt. That kind of guilt stayed with you.

As Jesse well knew.

Grayson and he ended the call while Hanna took Evan from the high chair and started the nightly routine of getting the baby ready for bed. First, there was a very messy bath with lots of laughter and splashing, and once he was dry and in his footed PJs, Hanna fed him a bottle while Jesse sat in the kitchen and read through Grayson’s initial report on the two gunmen.

Even though the background on both men was thorough, Jesse just couldn’t see how they’d crossed paths with any of their suspects. Then again, there probably wouldn’t be anything obvious that could give the cops that particular link, but there might be something in the financials to show an unusual transfer of funds. After all, hired guns weren’t cheap.

He looked up when Hanna came back in, and Jesse saw that she was still looking exhausted. Still looking amazing, too, as she usually did, but he pushed that aside and held up his phone.

“Are you ready for me to call Agent Shaw, or do you need to try to settle first?” he asked.

“Make the call.” On a heavy sigh, she sat next to him at the counter. “The problem is I won’t know if he’s lying about why he contacted me.”

“Maybe not, but just hearing what he has to say might trigger something. The way it did when you were talking to your mother.”

In hindsight, he wished he’d held back on that reminder because it seemed to add to her weariness. Still, she motioned for him to make the call, so that’s what Jesse did. The agent answered on the first ring.

“The sheriff is stonewalling me about talking to the man he has in custody,” Shaw immediately groused.

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