Chapter Eleven

“Tell me once again where you were Monday night.”

Jessica sighed and rolled her water bottle between her hands. “You think it’s going to change from the last eleven times I’ve told you, Ranger Jackson?”

She wished Nate Willis was here, asking her these questions. Something told her he would take her at her word. This man, who looked like a high school principal with his constant frown and steely-eyed glare, didn’t. They were sitting in the county sheriff’s office, and she had no idea how long she’d been there. Long enough for her to tell her story eleven times.

“One more time please, Miss Barker.”

“I worked at the bakery, I went home, I had sex with Hawk, we went to dinner with his family at the ranch, we left and had sex, and then we went to sleep.”

“And Tuesday?”

She wanted to slap the man. “Work, sex, home. The days sort of blend in together, you know, in a good way.”

“And Wednesday?”

Jessica stared at him. “Do you remember exactly what you did on Wednesday? I don’t really know. We played, we talked, I baked all week because we had a cake tasting on Friday to figure out what sort of cake Holt and Aurora want for the wedding.”

“What did they order?” he asked.

“I don’t exactly remember. I made nine cakes that week, in addition to cookies, cakes, sweet loaves, and donuts. If you want to know exactly what they ordered I’ll need to see my order pad.”

“When Mrs. Dobbs came in to see you Monday, what did the two of you talk about?”

“For the twelfth time, the bitch accused me of being a thief, which I’m not. She said she’d give me until Tuesday, that she’d be back and expected me to give her the ring.”

“Did you not wonder why she didn’t come back?” Jackson asked.

“I didn’t care,” she said.

“You were glad she didn’t come back because you wanted to keep the ring? You’d already killed her, hadn’t you? That’s why she didn’t come back.

Jessica laughed. “I’m done talking to you.”

At that exact moment, the door opened and a woman walked in.

“And you are?” Jackson asked.

“I’m Leslie Turner, Miss Barker’s attorney.” She offered her hand and Jackson stood up. Jessica stared at the woman, whom she’d never seen in her life. But she wasn’t going to argue with her. If she was an attorney, more’s the better. If she could get Jessica out of here, Jessica would do a jig.

“Have you charged my client?” Leslie asked.

“Not at the moment,” Jackson said. “But I can hold her for up to ninety-six hours, as you know.”

“You can,” Leslie said. She moved to the side of the table where Jessica sat, pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. “I’d like a moment with my client, alone.”

“I’ll be back in five minutes,” Jackson said.

“You’ll be back when I knock on the door,” Leslie said. She batted her eyes at the ranger, and Jessica looked down at the floor to hide her smile.

He stood and Leslie smiled up at him. “Please turn off the recorders, too.”

“Who hired you?” Jessica asked after he’d left.

“Hawk,” Leslie said. “I’m a family friend.”

“Thank God,” Jessica said. “Can they really keep me for ninety-six hours?”

“Yes, on a murder charge,” Leslie said. “But they won’t. You should know, though, they searched your house, Hawk’s house, and the bakery.”

“My bakery?” Jessica’s heart almost stopped. “I have to clean it up so I can open tomorrow.”

“They found nothing,” Leslie said. “If they had they would be charging you now instead of badgering you. How many times did they make you repeat things?”

“We were on twelve,” Jessica said. She was close to tears. They searched her bakery? She worked her ass off to get that place up and running, and if they broke anything there would be hell to pay.

“I didn’t kill the old biddy,” Jessica said. “I swear it.”

“I believe you,” Leslie said. “I’ve seen the autopsy. They put the time of death between nine p.m. Monday and three a.m. Tuesday. Do you know where you were then?”

“I was bent over the back of Hawk’s truck getting banged,” she said. “Then we went home to bed.”

“Together?” Leslie asked.

“Together.”

“To your house, not to the ranch?”

“We always go to my house,” Jessica said. “That way we can do what we want, in any room we want.”

“I can’t believe they searched the ranch, too,” she said.

Leslie opened her briefcase and brought out a piece of paper. “They’re looking for a specific gun.”

“That means the slug was left behind?” When Leslie lifted her eyebrows in question, Jessica said, “I like crime TV shows. Hawk always corrects me though, and says you can’t get it done in forty-five minutes. That’s why I watch true crime shows, too.”

Jessica looked at the door. “When can I go home?”

“They have no evidence against you, just the blustering of your ex who said his mother told him you’d threatened her.”

“That’s a lie,” Jessica said. She was too tired to be angry about it and scream. She just wanted to go home so she could sleep in Hawk’s arms. But then she thought about the bakery. “What time is it?” It had been around eight when the cops had shown up, or at least that’s what she thought. She needed to check out the bakery and see if she needed to right things that had been wronged in the search.

“What about all my supplies? My bins of flour, and sugar? Did they search through them, too?”

“Probably,” Leslie said.

She wanted to scream. What she needed was a phone so she could call Hawk and talk to him. “When you leave, will you call Hawk for me?”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Leslie said. “Unless they find something and charge you, you’re going home with me tonight. Now, is there anything you want to tell me?”

Jessica laughed softly. “I swear to you I didn’t steal the ring, and I didn’t kill anyone.” She was also pretty sure she’d told the attorney that already, but those words she didn’t mind repeating.

“Then stay here while I go talk to Ranger Jackson. You’ll sleep in your own bed tonight, I promise.”

Jessica stared at the door after it was opened, and shut. The click said it all. She was locked in. This was not how she expected this day to go. It was the worst Monday of all.

***

Hawk paced in the front room of the bakery, his anger rising with each step. It had been hours since the rangers had taken Jessica away. He’d asked Reed to call Leslie, since they had the hots for each other, and she’d driven down from Amarillo as fast as she could. But Jessica should be back by now. He wanted his baby in his arms, and he wanted her there now.

“What is taking so long?” he asked. His brothers were working to clean the mess left behind by the search team. Natalie and Lizbeth were there, too. Much to his surprise the retirees had shown up about half an hour after they’d started to clean and asked what was happening. They offered to help, and Hawk had agreed. The bakery was starting to shine now. They’d wiped down every surface with cleaner, washed every plate, and the girls had packaged up all the food that had been touched and were planning on baking all night long to replace things. Any ingredients that had been opened already, and pawed through, had been tossed.

“Make sure you keep track of what you’re throwing out,” Hawk had said. “We’ll see if it can be claimed on insurance.” He was pretty sure that would never happen, but he wanted Jessica to know what they’d done with her inventory.

“How long are they going to keep her?” Lizbeth asked.

“I have no clue,” Hawk responded. Willis had told him they had no real evidence that Jessica had been involved in Mrs. Dobbs’ murder, but they had to interrogate her. Willis also told him he’d been taken off the case because Milan Jackson found out Willis had dinner at the Coleman house on Friday evening, and was therefore close to the suspects.

“Do you think?”

Hawk glanced up. He hadn’t even realized Lizbeth had spoken to him. “What?”

“I said do you think we should close tomorrow if she doesn’t come back tonight?”

He had thought about that. “Can the two of you run the store?” He waved his finger between Lizbeth and Natalie. He knew they could, because they’d done it before.

“I can help, too,” Austin said.

“I’d be happy to have one of us here,” Hawk said. “I don’t trust Grant Dobbs. We need to watch out for him.”

“What does he look like?” Austin asked.

“Holt found a picture this afternoon,” Hawk said. Holt and Aurora were at the house, cleaning up after the search. He knew his brothers were not happy that the rangers had taken all the guns at the ranch for testing. They hadn’t gone to the cabins, which was a good thing. Hawk would have fought the search warrant going past the main house.

He hadn’t been at her house since the search. He thought getting the bakery back in order was the best thing to do. Something told him the house was a wreck, but he would worry about that later.

“Thanks for that, Austin,” he said. He really did have the best family in the world, and one more would be added when he and Jessica got married.

“We’re almost ready to start baking,” Lizbeth said. “Should you try to call her?”

“They would have taken her phone,” Hawk said. If they kept her at the jail he might go over there and punch Ranger Jackson in the nose.

“We’re staying,” the retirees called out as one. “If we have to storm the jail to break her out we want to take part.”

“I’ll make coffee,” Austin said.

“For the breakout?” Hawk asked and laughed for the first time since the rangers had shown up at the front door.

“Caffeine makes everything easier,” Steve said.

Hawk paced a little more, then stopped and grabbed at his pocket as his phone rang. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at him. He pulled it and sighed heavily.

“It’s her.” He clicked it on and held it to his ear. “Where are you?”

“You’re not my first phone call,” she said. “They didn’t arrest me so I didn’t get one. Leslie is bringing me to Bookman Springs. Where are you?”

“The bakery,” he said. He held up the thumb on his free hand and everyone cheered.

“Who all’s there?” she asked.

“Everyone except Holt and Aurora,” he said. “They’re at the ranch.”

“How much damage did they do?”

“Not that much,” Hawk said. It was the truth. They moved things around, and dumped out containers of flour, but it was just part of the regular search. “But it’s sparkly clean now, and Austin is making coffee. The ladies are making cookies and cakes.”

He heard the hitch in her voice when she said, “Thank them all for me. I’ll be there soon.”

“I love you,” he said.

She cleared her throat and said, “I love you, too.”

It was something she’d never said to him before, and he was grateful to hear the words. He hoped it wasn’t the shock of what had happened to her tonight that made her say it, though. He hoped she meant it.

***

There were so many cars around the bakery when Leslie pulled into the parking lot that Jessica wondered if they were open. She looked at the clock on the dash, which showed just after two a.m.

“I’ve kept you up late,” Jessica said. “I’m sorry.”

“You’ll be sorry when you see my bill,” Leslie said, and then she laughed.

“It’s worth it since you got me out. I think they would have kept me there for hours longer.”

“You’re right, they would have.” Leslie parked the car and put her hand on Jessica’s arm. “Before you get out, can you tell me the last time you made a phone call to Matilda Dobbs?”

Jessica shrugged. “I have no clue. I never did like the woman, so she wasn’t on my favorites list. In fact, I deleted their numbers when Grant and I split.”

“Theirs as in hers and Grant’s?”

“Yes.” Jessica wished it were lighter so she could see her lawyer’s expression.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Leslie opened her door and said, “I hope they have something to eat I’m starved.”

Once inside, Jessica was surprised to see three pizza boxes, a carton each of regular soda and diet soda, and plates of cookies, partially empty. There was also a room full of people, including the Coleman brothers, Natalie, Lizbeth, and the retirees. They all yelled out greetings, and Jessica started to cry.

Hawk came over and gathered her in his arms. “It’s okay, babe, it’s okay.”

“Thank you, everyone,” she said.

“Have some pizza,” Marty said. “We can warm it up for you.”

“Cold pizza is the best,” Jessica said. She looked over to where Leslie stood with Reed near the pizza. They went to a corner and sat down, and Jessica moved toward the food, Hawk’s hand on the small of her back.

“We’re not going to let them get away with railroading you,” Marty said. “I’ll testify that there’s no way you killed that woman.”

“Me, too!” Steve called out.

“Thanks, guys,” Jessica said as she put a slice of pizza on her plate. She should eat, but when she thought of what was happening, she thought she would vomit. Still, she should try. She picked up a can of diet soda and took a spot at an open table.

“You’re going home after you eat,” Lizbeth said.

“No arguments,” Natalie put in.

“None at all,” Austin said. “I’ll be here to keep watch on things, making sure no one comes in and causes problems.”

“I appreciate that.”

“We have something to help with that.” Marty stood and ran out the door. He was back moments later with a sheet of paper. “We’re going to plaster these all over town.” He handed the paper to Jessica. Once it was in her hands she examined it, then she laughed.

“He’ll sue you,” she said.

“Let him try,” Marty said.

“What is it?” Lizbeth asked.

“It’s a photo of Grant, and it says he is trying to railroad the authorities into pinning a murder charge on me. Then it says to call Hawk if you see him in town.”

Everyone laughed, and Jessica handed the paper to Hawk.

“You really should just say to be on the lookout for this guy,” Hawk said. “Don’t give him any ammunition to, as Jessica said, sue you.”

“Not changing it,” Marty said. “And we’re putting them up tomorrow—I mean today.”

“Damn straight,” Steve said.

“Thanks guys,” Jessica said. “I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”

“We started the gossip, and we’re ready to fight the problem,” Marty said. “You can count on us.”

Jessica smiled at them, and all of a sudden she felt ready to face the world with her friends behind her. But she was also tired. Her eyes drooped.

“Let’s go,” Hawk said. “We’re going to sleep at the ranch tonight, and then go to your house to face the music there tomorrow—today.”

She didn’t argue with him. After she’d said goodbye to everyone she climbed into Hawk’s truck. She laid her head on his lap and started to cry as he pulled out of the lot. As he drove he stroked her back, and Jessica knew there was nothing she couldn’t face without Hawk by her side.