Claimed by the Lawman (Lawmen of Wyoming Book 4) Read online

  “Because she was high?”

  She shook her head. “Because she’s intentionally staying vague. I have a feeling she was involved in something, something much bigger than her, and that’s why she died.”

  “Users can be paranoid from the drugs.”

  “Are you saying she wrote hallucinations in her diary?” She sighed.

  “Why didn’t she make a complaint? There are no reports of these incidences in her file.”

  “That’s a good question. I don’t have an answer for that. However, it could have something to do with the fact that she suspected that Sheriff Mansfield was involved.”

  “How do you get that?”

  “Because it’s written in her diary.”

  He rubbed his forehead as if he was having a hard time processing her words. “Do you think it’s possible that it could have been her drug dealer? She was afraid of getting into trouble if she reported him?”

  “I’ve thought about all different scenarios, trust me. Would you at least read the diary and come up with your own thoughts?”

  “Hand it over and I’ll take a look at it when I have the time.”

  “Well…” She uncrossed her legs. “I don’t have it with me.”

  He blew out a long breath through the corner of his mouth. “You came here to demand that I read the diary, but you didn’t bring it?”

  “I didn’t know how things would go,” she admitted.

  He stood, rounded the desk and took a seat on the corner. “I know it’s hard accepting—”

  “What about the note?” She scooted to the very edge of the chair. “I told Mansfield that it wasn’t her handwriting. I brought in some comparisons, but he shrugged them off.”

  “What note?” His brows scrunched.

  “She left a note. It should be in the case file.” Seeing his confusion, she sighed. “Are you telling me the note is lost?”

  “It’s not lost. I just don’t know where it is.”

  “Doesn’t this prove suspicion?”

  Several seconds passed. “I tell you what, I’ll find the note and take a look.”

  “And the diary?”

  One corner of his mouth lifted. “No one can accuse you of not being determined. Yeah, I’ll read the diary also. Is it at your house?” She nodded. “I’ll stop by sometime today and pick it up.”

  “Thank you, Kace. I knew I could rely on you.”

  “It’s too early to be thanking me. I said I’ll look, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be convinced to reopen the case. We’re already low on manpower here. Now do you think I could get back to work?”

  She bobbed her head up and down and jumped up, smoothing her clammy palms down her shorts. “Do you think you could—” he nailed her with a narrowed gaze. She decided she’d better not push her luck. “Okay. Stop by any time. You know where I’m staying, right?”

  “Yes,” he said grumpily.

  “Alright then.” She backed up to the door. “Thank you again.”

  “Bye, Tyler.”

  Chapter 3

  AFTER TYLER LEFT his office, Kace realized he’d just caved in to her will. Even after all these years she could still convince him to see her way of things. She had a magical touch that he couldn’t resist.

  Getting up from his desk, he stomped across the room, pulled open the door and stepped over to the desk of his deputy, Jake Payne. Kace took a seat on the corner of his desk and received a curious look. “What can I do for you, Sheriff?”

  “I’m looking into the Susannah Posey case. You were here when Mansfield investigated the suicide, but it seems we might be missing a few pieces of evidence.”

  Payne, a thirty-something athletic man with a sharp jaw shrugged a lean shoulder. “What’s missing?” In school he’d been a star football player pegged to go pro until a knee injury took him out of the game. He was a decent man and investigator, although a little wet behind the ears if Kace said so.

  “Did you know that she’d written a suicide note?”

  Payne clasped his hands on his desk. “Thinking back, yeah…I remember a note. It was your basic goodbye letter. The Posey family certainly made a big stink out of it. Something about it not being the girl’s handwriting and all. From what I recall Sheriff Mansfield ate an entire bottle of antacids that day.”

  Mildred sniffed loudly. “He certainly didn’t seem himself right after that.”

  At her response, Kace stood and stepped over to her desk. “You saw the note too?”

  She pushed her large glasses up further on her nose. “No, I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but I remember when Tyler, Rogue, and Johnny came in demanding to see it for themselves. They argued that they had a right to see all the evidence. I don’t know what happened after that except for Mansfield’s tension. When that man got riled up, it couldn’t be missed. His face would turn beat red and he’d go into the bathroom and spend an hour.”

  Deputy Payne chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “Do either of you have any idea where the letter disappeared to?” Kace asked.

  “No, sir,” Payne said.

  Kace stomped into his office, grabbed his hat and shoved it down on his head. “I’ll be out for a few hours,” he said to the others as he made his way to the door.

  “Still haven’t replaced your broken phone, Sheriff?” Mildred called after him.

  “I keep forgetting about it.” He smiled and stepped out into the bright sunlight of the Wyoming morning and headed down the sidewalk toward the corner diner. He never did get that coffee Mildred promised. The woman had been as sharp as a needle, but as of lately she’d been forgetting a lot more. Yesterday she didn’t tell him that an agent had called from the FBI, and the day before she forgot to set the alarm system in the office. However, she never forgot to give him the messages from Tyler. Imagine that.

  “Howdy, Sheriff. Your usual?” the waitress asked from behind the counter of the diner known to serve the best coffee and pancakes this side of the state.

  “Yes. Thank you, Beth.” Kace steered his gaze around the room and his eyes wavered on none other than ex-Sheriff Kyle Mansfield whose ears had to be burning from that morning’s conversation over at the office. The icing on the cake, he waved Kace over.

  “Mornin’, Mansfield.” Kace greeted him.

  “How are things over at the station, Cade?” Mansfield eased his stocky body back as he pushed the empty chair out with his foot and Kace took a seat.

  It seemed too good to be true that he’d run into the other man when he had a few questions that needed answered. “Things are good. How’s retirement treating you?” Kace swiped off his hat and laid it on the corner of the table.

  Mansfield snorted. “Never thought I’d get here, but here I am.” He scratched his jaw. “I can’t count how many times I’ve had someone tell me I’d love fishing, hunting, golfing…pfft. There’s nothing that can match hunting a criminal. The hunt is in my blood. I miss the reward of slamming the cell door on another bastard.”

  Kace winced at the other man’s choice of words. “I planned on stopping by your place later.”

  “Yeah? Need some advice?” The man’s grey eyes lit up. “Ask away.”

  “I have a couple of questions about an old case.” When Beth brought his coffee, he thanked her, popped off the lid to the take-out cup and poured in a good amount of cream.

  “This wouldn’t have anything to do with the Posey girl, would it?” Mansfield grinned.

  Kace wasn’t surprised that the man had a head’s up. News traveled fast in Bohannan. At least this would cut out some much-needed explanation. “She wants the case reopened.” He stirred his cup and took a sip.

  “She and I went round and round when I was Sheriff.” He swiped a hand down his tight jaw. Mildred was right. When the man got irritated it showed. “Everyone’s a detective. Everyone thinks they know better than the man in uniform.” He sighed. “You’re not falling for it, are you son? Don’t you have enough on that overloaded plate to keep yo
u occupied?”

  Scooting his chair closer to the table, Kace noticed he’d gotten some curious looks from other diners. He prepared himself for negative feedback from Mansfield. To a certain point, his anger was understood. No lawman liked when they were accused of not being thorough enough. A gentle choice of wording was needed in this situation. “I promised I’d look into a few new details, that’s all.”

  Mansfield’s silver brows scrunched. “New details? The case was a suicide. Point blank. Send her to one of those groups here in town.”

  Kace took a long drink of his coffee hoping to get his irritation with the man under check. “She found Susy’s diary.”

  “Pfft. A diary. What does it say?”

  “No clue. Not yet. Tyler told me Susy left a note too, but it wasn’t in the file. Have any clue where it might have gone?”

  Mansfield smoothed his moustache and chuckled. “Hell, I don’t remember a note.”

  “Both Deputy Payne and Mildred remember one.”

  “Mildred should have retired years ago.”

  “So no idea where the note is?”

  Something flashed in Mansfield’s grey eyes. “What are you asking, son?”

  “What happened to the note?”

  “Are you accusing me of something?”

  Kace eased back into the small chair, hearing the wood creak in resistance, much like the feeling going on inside of his gut. Whispers could be heard from surrounding patrons. “Now why would I go and do a thing like that?”

  “Damned if I know. I was Sheriff for twenty years and nothing was ever lost. Maybe it was lost on your watch.”

  “So then, you do remember the note, right?” Although he and Mansfield had remained civil after the election, he always thought the other man never got over the loss. Hell, Kace got it. When a person dedicated themselves to a career, it was never easy being pushed out.

  Grumpily, Mansfield emptied his cup and placed it back down with a loud crack. “Yeah, I do remember a note after searching my brain. Maybe you should ask your old friend, Tyler Posey,” he placed a lot of emphasis on her name. “if she knows what happened to it or not. She certainly did focus on it enough. Some damned hair-brained idea that the girl didn’t write it. Makes no sense if you ask me.”

  Kace counted to ten and back, remaining level headed, although Mansfield’s words did stick in his crawl. “Now how in the world would she know what happened with the note? Especially when she says her sister didn’t write it. She wouldn’t want it to come up missing when it’s a crucial piece of evidence. After all, wouldn’t she know if it was her sister’s handwriting? We could easily compare the note to the writing in the diary.”

  “Don’t ask me. Maybe the boyfriend wrote it? Maybe Tyler herself did? She always had her panties in a bunch, pretending like that druggie sister of hers didn’t have a needle stuck in her arm twenty-four seven. You know how it is, son. You’ve worked enough cases to know what a person is capable of when they’re on drugs. I arrested that Posey girl at least a dozen times before she died. Never in her right mind either.”

  Gritting his teeth, Kace reminded himself that wrapping his hands around Mansfield’s neck wouldn’t solve a thing. He’d been elected Sheriff because of his skill in catching bad guys and remaining calm. The last thing he wanted to do was bully someone to get information. However, he didn’t have to like how Mansfield disrespected Tyler or her sister. The Poseys were good people and just because some of them made mistakes didn’t mean anyone had the right to degrade them. Kace and his siblings had been hellions growing up but now they all wore a badge in one way or another. “No one is arguing that Susy had a bad habit, but what addict do you know would undress and hang herself off a balcony when it’d be easier just to use her drug of choice?” Up until now Kace hadn’t been one hundred percent sure about not reopening the case, that is until he wanted to swipe the smug grin off Mansfield’s pudgy face and feed it to him. That wouldn’t be enough to investigate the case further, but Kace could see how it didn’t add up that Susy took her own life. He’d have to read the diary and the note…that was, if it ever turned up.

  “You think you can figure out what she was thinking?” With a wave of his hand, Mansfield smirked.

  “Tell me what the note said then.”

  Mansfield scanned his gaze around the room. “Just some bullshit that she’d let everyone down. Her sister. Brother. Father. Something about missing her mom. Wasn’t much but a couple of lines of feeling sorry for herself.”

  “Apparently the letter was something for it to disappear, but stuff like that happens, I guess. I’ll just have to see what turns up in the diary.”

  “You do whatever you feel you need to, son. You’re the one wearing the badge now, but keep in mind, townsfolk around these parts don’t like their tax dollars being wasted.” He stood and pushed his chair in. “You enjoy the rest of your day, Sheriff.” He tipped his hat and greeted several patrons on his way out the door.

  Kace grabbed his to-go cup and headed outside himself, stopping long enough to watch Mansfield head down the sidewalk.

  Making his way across the street to where his truck was parked, Kace climbed into the driver’s seat. From there he watched Mansfield standing on the corner, his jaw tight and his gaze narrowed into beady slits. Kace took a guess that the conversation at the diner discontented the man. Interesting…

  Starting the engine, he turned the truck toward Tyler’s house. More than ever, Kace needed to see the diary.

  ~~**~~

  “Hold him down and make him listen,” Isla Cooper said from the other end of the phone.

  Tyler choked on the bit of blueberry bagel she’d just sat down to eat after taking a shower to wash off the sleepless night in the jail. The thought of holding Kace down made her body warm inside and she was grateful that her friend since high school couldn’t see her cheeks blush. She took a sip of coffee to wash down the bread before saying, “That could be a difficult task considering he’s tall and very large—all muscles. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you what?”

  “That Kace had grown into quite a good looking male specimen.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. What if I would have? Would you have come running home faster?” Isla’s giggle vibrated the line.

  “No, of course not.” The squeak to her voice didn’t lend truth to her claim. She did enjoy looking at him, not to mention she felt like she’d combust when he was near. “I’m just saying he’s still got something going on. And the uniform. Wow. Why is it that it adds to his sex appeal?” So sexy and so darn virile that she needed a fan.

  “Can you believe he’s Bohannan’s Sheriff now? I mean, what are the chances that he is here and so are you? I’d say this isn’t pure coincidence. This is definitely fate. He knew you’d return one day and he wanted to be close when you did.”

  “Let’s not go there. That’s ridiculous.” Tyler picked off a piece of bagel and popped it into her mouth, carefully chewing this time.

  “Why? You think he’s still the hottest man alive and we all know you two were quite the item back in the day. He made you all dewy-eyed and fancy-free. You can’t tell me that you don’t wonder if he’s just as built underneath—”

  “No, I don’t. Okay…sure I do, but who wouldn’t? True, we did have something great, but it ended. We were young and silly.”

  “You left, sweetie. That kind of does put a wrap up on things.”

  “And so did he. Remember? He joined the military. Was I supposed to wait?” She rolled her finger around the rim of her cup, realizing how rough her words sounded. “Not once did he tell me he wanted me to stay, Isla, or that he saw us as a couple in the future. When I told him I was going to New York, he acted like he was relieved, then he distanced himself. What man who is interested in a future with a woman refuses to speak to her?”

  “From what I do remember, you’d fallen hard for him and didn’t tell him how you felt either. You both were immature. Maybe if you’d said som
ething…”

  Her friend’s words made Tyler wince. “Right, but if it had been meant to be, it would have been. Kace and I are history. That boat sailed a long time ago.”

  “Hmm. Well, I’ll remind you of these words.”

  “You won’t have to. I’m only interested in getting his help and it has nothing to do with the bedroom or what his moves are like under the sheets.”

  “If you say so.”

  “You’re making out like I’m a horny hopeless case.”

  “I’m making out that Kace Cade is hotter than ever and any single woman would be crazy to not want to find out if his reputation stacks up to the real man.” Isla laughed.

  “Reputation?” Tyler thrummed her fingers on the table.

  “Honey, he’s not been a saint since he moved to Bohannan. Single women around these parts have tried their best to sink their claws into that hunk of man. Certainly, some have sank their claws deep, but he’s extracted them. He seems to like the bachelor life.”

  “There is something I want to ask you. Didn’t you say the other day that he’s seeing someone…?” She took the rest of her bagel and stepped through the backdoor to toss out the crumbs into the yard for the birds.

  “I don’t think they call themselves an item, but they sure do spend a lot time together. After Sadie Mae divorced Dayton Grover, she took up with Kace. Do you remember Sadie Mae?”

  “Barely, except that she was prom queen. Anyway, about Kace—”

  “Yeah, about him. Does he still get your juices flowing?”

  “Funny. I was just curious what he was into these days.”

  “Tall, blonde, big-busted Sadie Mae. But I don’t think you’ll have a problem taking her out of the equation,” Isla said.

  “Whoa. How about we don’t presume that I want to take anyone out of the equation or anywhere. I just got back to town and I need to establish myself here. I have enough on my plate. I am glad that I’m closer to you. I’ve missed you.” The two had met in kindergarten when a boy had pulled Isla’s braid and Tyler had defended her. They had become friends immediately, and although years had gone by when they hadn’t seen each other, they still remained close. How could they not? They had so much in common. Both loved karaoke, cheap wine, grilled cheese, and the theater. Oh, and chocolate. They were also connected by grief. Isla’s mother had died five years ago after a short battle with cancer, and when Susy died Tyler had spent a better portion of the summer Skyping with Isla.