about those men,” Jameson demanded. “In fact, tell me everything you know about Kelly.”
Boyer volleyed several glances at Kelly and him. For a moment Jameson thought he was going to have to remind this agent that the Rangers and the sheriff had jurisdiction here and that meant Boyer had to cooperate. Even if it was obvious that was the last thing he wanted to do.
“You really don’t remember anything?” Boyer pressed when his attention finally settled on Kelly.
“I remember a few things.” It sounded as if Kelly was carefully choosing her words. And lying. But maybe she didn’t want this guy to know that she had no memory of her association with him. Perhaps it was her way of forcing Boyer to tell the truth.
“I met you and your sister about two years ago,” Boyer finally started. “By then, I’d been on a deep cover assignment for well over a year, and I was posing as a money launderer so I could gather info on a cartel operating in the state. I didn’t tell many people who I really was, but I told you, and I gained your trust.”
“What?” Kelly snapped. She looked over the man from head to toe, and there wasn’t a drop of trust in her eyes or expression.
Boyer nodded. “Mandy and you were working for my ex, Hadley.” His mouth tightened when he said her name. “She was accusing me of stealing our newborn daughter, but you soon realized she was just doing that to get back at me because I’d broken things off with her. After that, you agreed to help me.”
Jameson went through that info, but it only created more questions. “Hadley knew you were an agent?”
“No. And that should tell you something about her. She got involved with me while thinking I was a criminal.”
Jameson lifted his shoulder. “It tells me something about you, too. It tells me you were lying to a woman pregnant with your child.”
Boyer’s mouth tightened even more, and his eyes were narrowed when he turned to Jameson. “The pregnancy was an accident. On my part anyway. I think Hadley planned it to trap me into marriage. When I didn’t go for that and broke off the relationship, she retaliated by accusing me of kidnapping the child just days after she was born.”
As much as Jameson hated to admit it, that could all be true. He didn’t know Hadley, and in his line of work, he ran into plenty of people who didn’t mind bedding down with criminals.
“So what happened to your daughter?” Jameson asked.
“I don’t know.” Boyer scrubbed his hand over his face. “I suspect Hadley had Amy hidden away from me and the cops, and when she was killed in the car accident, the location of that hidden place died with her. Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t given up finding my daughter, but at the moment I’ve run out of leads.”
Kelly made a sound, sort of a muffled moan. Maybe because she realized this could turn out to be a similar situation for her sister. With a similar ending of them never finding her. But Jameson wanted to prevent that from happening, and maybe Boyer could help with that. He was about to ask Boyer to spill all about the two dead guys, but Kelly spoke to Boyer before he could do that.
“You said you got me to trust you. How exactly did you manage that?” Kelly asked. “Because I’m certainly not feeling any trust for you now.”
Boyer made a sound of agreement. “Ditto. I don’t trust you, either. But your misplaced mistrust is probably because you betrayed me. That’s how you got into this mess you’re in right now.”
Jameson moved to Kelly’s side so he could face Boyer. “Explain that,” Jameson insisted.
“After I told Mandy and you I was an agent, you both said you’d back off so that my cover wouldn’t be blown. A blown cover could have gotten me killed by the men I was doing business with. You also agreed to help me with my assignment.” Boyer paused, gathered his breath. “I needed you to get a file from Jameson.”
Jameson had anticipated what Boyer might say, but he certainly hadn’t anticipated that. He looked at Kelly to see if she was remembering any of this, but she only shook her head.
“What file?” Jameson snapped. “And why the hell not just come to me for it?”
“I didn’t go to you because I didn’t want you to know I was an agent. I didn’t want it leaked, and at the time there were rumors that there was a mole in the Rangers.”
“There wasn’t a mole,” Jameson argued once he got his jaw unclenched. If so, he would have darn sure heard about it.
“I couldn’t risk it. I’d already told Mandy and Kelly, but I only did that so I could get any information you had on your parents’ murders.”
Of course, he’d known the file that Kelly had stolen was about the murders, but he didn’t care for a deep cover agent having an interest in the case. He made another circling motion for Boyer to continue.
But Boyer only said two words. “August Canton.”
Now Jameson had to take a moment because the memories came. Of his parents’ murders. Of the pain and grief over losing them.
“August was originally a murder suspect,” Jameson said. “Several people were. But my father was also investigating a situation where a local widow, Hattie Osmond, had been milked out of lots of money. August was a suspect in that crime, too, but Hattie refused to name him. She passed away last year so there’s no way to press her for the truth.”
Boyer nodded. “I interviewed her. So did Kelly.”
“Kelly?” Jameson repeated. She seemed just as surprised about that as he was.
“Yeah. She talked to Hattie about two years ago. And she questioned Marilyn Deavers, the woman who’d given August an alibi for the night of your parents’ murders.”
Jameson looked at Kelly, but she only shook her head. “I don’t know why I did that. Or if I learned anything.”
“Marilyn is dead now, too,” Boyer went on. “She died in a car accident.”
So if Marilyn had altered her story about August being with her, then there’d be no way to confirm it. Unless they found that file.
“I believe August did scam money from Hattie,” Boyer continued a moment later. “Maybe others, as well. But that’s not why I was investigating him. I believe August is involved in a money laundering scheme. I’d hoped there’d be something in your files that would help, something that hadn’t been in any of the police and FBI reports. But there wasn’t.”
Kelly whispered a single word of profanity under her breath. “So I stole that file for nothing?”
“I obviously didn’t know that at the time.” Boyer didn’t sound the least bit apologetic, either. “When I realized the file was useless, I pressed you to get more info from Jameson. You said you would, but then you disappeared.”
“Why did I do that?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I didn’t hear from you for two years, and then this morning, I got a frantic phone call from you. You said you were in Houston and that someone was trying to kill you.”
“Someone
