Colton's Lethal Reunion (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

“I can’t be sure...”

“It’s okay,” Kerry told her, a tiny fissure of hope opening inside her. “Anything at all. You might not think it could help, but...”

“My vacuum is running and I might just be imagining it...but I don’t think I am.” She glanced at Kerry, hazel eyes wide. “I keep hearing a man’s voice, saying one word—Mom—and then the f word, right before the shot,” she said. “But how could I have heard talking over the vacuum?”

Trying not to show her excitement, to lead the witness or in any way affect the testimony, she said,

“If someone was yelling, you could have.”

The woman nodded, her brow clearing a bit. “I’m not sure, which is why I didn’t call you, and I didn’t even think of it that night... I just kept seeing poor Mr. Colton lying there, and all that blood...” She shuddered, and Kerry, with her hand around the woman’s back, gave Joanne’s shoulder a hug.

“This is good,” she said. “Really good.” And then: “You’re sure it was a man’s voice?”

“Yeah. It was definitely male. I knew Mr. Colton was in his office, but last I knew he was alone. I think I probably was struck by the fact that someone else was with him, but before I could even process it, I heard the shot and then...”

“I know,” Kerry said.

Shaking her head, Joanne covered her ears with both hands. “I just keep hearing that one word, over and over,” she said. “Mom. It makes no sense to me.”

Mom? Payne had married his second wife after Tessa had died from cancer. Ace could have been carrying resentment from that all his life, and then to have his father suddenly disown him? Definitely more motive. It could be that with Ace’s parentage in question, Tessa’s other two children would go after their father as well, for the same reason. So Grayson and Ainsley just made it to her suspect list. Except, wait, not Ainsley. The Colton Oil attorney was female. Joanne said the voice was male. But she was definitely going to look into Grayson.

“Did you recognize the voice?” Kerry asked, getting that excited feel she got when she was on to something. Joanne had worked at Colton Oil five years. She’d have heard Ace’s voice—a man who’d just found out his mother wasn’t his mother, and then lost his job because of it.

“No.” Joanne seemed certain about that. “I wish I did. It seems like it would all make more sense if I did. You know, li

ke I wasn’t just imagining things...”

“Trust yourself, Joanne,” Kerry said, the words just coming to her as she said them. “Don’t let this take away your inner strength. You were great that night. You heard something, and you ran immediately to help. Think about that. About how strong you were. And the rest, it’s coming to you because it’s important.”

Joanne looked up, gave her a tremulous smile. Nodded.

“You’ve got my number,” Kerry told her, standing. “You call me anytime, day or night, if you think of anything else,” she said.

And as she walked out to her Jeep, she felt good. Better than she had in a while. Sometimes you teach what you most need to learn. Like Joanne, she did what she had to do. She had an inner strength that guided her and she just had to trust it.

That inner voice had led her to law enforcement and there was no doubt in her mind that she was doing what she was meant to do.

She might be “the help,” but “the help” was what she wanted to be. She belonged in the trenches, living every moment to make the world a better place. A safer place.

* * *

Kerry pulled into the Colton Oil parking lot exactly at noon. She still hadn’t heard from Rafe, but wasn’t as hurt by that as she’d been before her visit with Joanne. Rafe was an incredibly busy man.

She was glad to have reconnected with him and to have the chance to put the past to rest. Glad to know that he’d turned out to be a decent guy. And was now going to focus on healing herself. Letting go. Living free of him.

They’d said she’d pick him up at noon and at exactly that, he came walking across the parking lot.

In jeans and cowboy boots this time, fancy, shiny-looking ones, not worn like the ones she had on. He climbed into the Jeep and for a second there it looked like he meant to lean over and kiss her. For a second there, she started to lean in to kiss him back.

She grabbed the bag on the console beside her instead. “I stopped at the convenience store and got a couple of ham and lettuce sandwiches,” she said, grabbing one out and opening the cellophane container. “They were just made this morning. Help yourself.”

“I just ate,” he told her. “We had a client in and catered lunch...”

Of course he’d eaten. And nothing plebeian like a lunch meat sandwich.

“I’ve got some bad news,” he told her as she was pulling out of the lot, and she braced herself.

So when he told her that he’d found the ob-gyn who’d delivered Ace, but that the man was incapable of giving them any information at all, she almost broke out in a smile. Almost. Because she was still in the adjustment stage of getting over him. Still, it was good to know that he wasn’t ditching her. Yet.