The Texas Ranger's Family (Lone Star Lawmen 3)

With his mind racing ahead, he suddenly realized his cell was ringing. He reached for it and recognized the Arizona number. “Is this Colette?”

“Yes! I saw the image you sent me and didn’t want to keep you waiting. She’s the woman I met! The coloring is different, obviously, and she’s lost a little weight since that photo, but I saw her up close and those are her exact features.”

“That’s all I needed to hear. Your information is going to help me solve this case.”

“I hope that’s true. You asked where I ran into them. It was in the short-term east parking with access to the Jeppesen Terminal on level four, kind of in the middle.”

“That will help us locate the right security cameras. Thank you for calling me back.”

“Of course. I can tell Natalie is in the best of hands. Good luck, Ranger Saunders.”

After he’d hung up he emailed headquarters and asked that a team pull the tapes. He’d take a look at the footage after his return from Kansas.

With that sent, he checked the front door camera, pleased to see that no one had come to the door but the man from the towing service.

Content that all was well for the moment, he locked up the house and got ready for bed. It was a long shot to fly to Leavenworth tomorrow, but he intended to build this case with as much evidence as possible. He’d been supplied with a rap sheet on Barni Esger, and while he might not have any reason to cooperate, Kit had to try.

Before his arrest, the Dane who’d immigrated to Colorado with his father when he was a teen, had been a professional photographer celebrated for his scenes of the Colorado mountains. For years he’d used his studio in Fort Collins, Colorado, to cover up his real work of producing fake credentials for dozens of hardened criminals throughout the country.

Despite what Kit’s instincts told him, he had no proof that Esger had been involved. But any information he could get out of the man would be valuable. For Harold to obtain an accounting job with LifeSpan in the first place, he’d have had to reinvent his whole life. He’d fooled so many people for so many years. The Morales duo, too. Had Esger set them up with fake documents, as well?

One of them had killed Harold. Kit was sure of it. Had they discovered he’d double-crossed them? Had they turned on him because that had been their plan in the first place? Who knew the ins and outs of their ménage à trois? He’d like to lock them both up for good.

Kit was looking forward to the day when Natalie was safe and could put all this behind her.

When he climbed into his sleeping bag, he imagined being curled up with her. She always smelled delicious. What a loving heart she had, crying over Rod’s grandmother. He admired her immensely for the way she was handling the horror of having been married to a criminal.

Another woman might have fallen apart, but not Natalie. Her strength of character was awesome to witness as she carried on with her life for the sake of her daughter.

Amy was a little angel. He’d never felt an attachment to a child before. How ironic that it would be Harold Park’s daughter who pulled at Kit’s heart strings with such force. Maybe it was because of Park’s criminal background that Kit wanted the very best for that golden-haired little girl and her beautiful mother.

When Kit’s father had been killed, he’d thought he’d experienced the very worst thing that could happen to a person. Though his father’s killer had been killed, too, Kit hadn’t been able to get over the pain. It took years of maturing to teach him that sometimes horrible things happened to the most innocent people. Other people suffered heartache, too. Ridding the world of the people who’d terrorized Natalie with frightening phone calls and break-ins had now become his first priority.

* * *

ON FRIDAY AT noon Kit walked into the interrogation room at the Leavenworth prison carrying an envelope. A prison guard stood by the door.

Esger was sitting behind a table with his ankles shackled. The balding man was sixty but looked older. His dark blue eyes studied Kit’s star-shaped badge.

“You’re excellent at what you do, Esger, I have to admit. Your forgeries fooled the very best for years. The inmates at Atwater sing your praises.”

“Of course, but a Texas Ranger didn’t come here to compliment me.”

Kit took his time. “You’re aging in here, Barni. I’m prepared to slice two years off your twelve-year sentence if you’ll help me out on a particular case.”

The prisoner stared at Kit for a long time. “What do you want to know?”

“Eight years ago Jimmy Salter and Harold Park made contact with you. I’ve got it on record that they came armed with a small fortune for you to transform their lives. ” Unfortunately those testimonials came from the inmates who knew Salter and were nothing more than hearsay. “Now I’m here to find out if you made documents for their friends Juanita and Alonzo Morales, the husband and wife team working with them.”

“They were brother and sister,” Esger muttered before looking away. Kit was elated by that vital slip of information.

“That’s it, Barni. That’s all I want to know.”

The forger cocked his head to the side. “So all I have to do is tell you that information and my sentence will be reduced by two years?”

“That’s the deal. Your confession will be signed and notarized by the warden.”

“How do you know I won’t lie to you?”