after your mother’s death, you decided...what?” Because Jericho was having a little trouble filling in the blanks. “That you didn’t want to live by your father’s dirty rules?”
Her gaze slowly came to his. “I think my father murdered my mother.” No tears this time. There was a totally different emotion in her eyes and voice.
Anger.
And lots of it.
“You said she died from cancer,” Jericho pointed out.
“I think he helped her death along with an overdose of pain meds.” Laurel folded her arms over her chest. Started pacing again. “My mother wanted me to break off my engagement to Theo. She wanted me to leave and tell you the truth about Maddox.”
Jericho didn’t cheer out loud, but he was on her mother’s side on this. “She was right.”
“She was. And I think my father eavesdropped on our conversations and arranged for her to get an overdose of painkillers. Yes, she was sick. Very sick. But the chemo was working, and she wasn’t so much out of it that she would have taken too big of a dose by accident. I think my father might have put them in her food or something.”
That gave him a new surge of anger, too. Herschel preying on a sick woman because she wasn’t toeing the line. “Was there an autopsy?”
“No. And my father had her cremated the same day she died.”
Jericho wanted to curse. Hell. Now they were looking at murder. Two counts of it, since he was certain Herschel had also been responsible for his father’s death.
“I was grieving,” Laurel added, “and by the time I figured out what might have happened, it was already too late. Any evidence proving his guilt was cremated with my mother.”
Which Jericho was betting wasn’t an accident.
There was a soft knock on the door, and a moment later Jax opened it. “DeWitt’s lawyer is here.”
Good. Maybe the lawyer would convince his scummy client to talk.
Jax walked closer to them, and his gaze slid from Jericho to Laurel. Then to Maddox.
“He’s your son.” There wasn’t a shred of doubt in Jax’s voice. “How long have you known?”
“A couple of hours.” That alone said plenty, but his brother deserved a whole lot more, especially since Jax knew the emotional wringer he’d been through over the years with Laurel and her father. “Herschel’s trying to get custody.”
Jax didn’t look surprised, just as disgusted as Jericho was. “By trying to eliminate Laurel and you?”
“It looks that way. Herschel has dirt on Laurel to have her arrested.” Jericho handed Jax the notepad with the time line and names. “I need that faxed to Levi so he can try to help with the threat of Laurel’s arrest. But Herschel also has fake dirt to have her committed to the loony bin. Laurel wants me to marry her so she can transfer custody of Maddox to me.”
His brother didn’t say anything for several moments. “So, you’ll marry her?”
That question just hung in the air, and before Jericho could even attempt an answer, he heard voices in the squad room. Loud ones.
“Wait here with Laurel,” he told Jax, and Jericho drew his gun.
Bracing himself for another attack, Jericho hurried out of the break room and down the short hall to the squad room. But there was no attack. Their loud-talking visitors—a tall, bulky-shouldered man and a gray-haired woman—didn’t appear to be armed. However, one of the deputies, Dexter, was frisking them, and neither seemed especially happy about that. The unhappiness went up a significant notch when the man’s gaze landed on Jericho.
“Sheriff Crockett,” he said like venom.
Jericho didn’t recognize the guy, but venom like that was almost certainly personal.
“Theo James.” Jericho put some venom in his voice, too.
“We want to see Laurel now,” the woman demanded. And there was no doubt that it was a demand.
“And you are?” Jericho made sure he sounded like the sheriff when he asked that question.
“Dorothy James. Theo’s mother.”
Of course.
He didn’t see much of a resemblance. Maybe because of the woman’s slight build. She looked on the frail side, and her skin was as thin and white as paper. Unlike her son, who towered over her and had a tan despite it being the dead of winter.
Jericho knew that Theo James was a lawyer, like Laurel, but he could have passed for a bouncer. A well-dressed one, though. Jericho figured that suit had come with a big price tag. Ditto for the haircut. And it looked as if he’d had a manicure. As a general rule, he didn’t trust men who had manicures.
Of course, he hadn’t needed a manicure to feel that way about Theo James.
And Jericho was certain that jealousy wasn’t playing into this.
Almost certain, anyway.
“Why do you want to see Laurel?” Jericho pressed.
Dorothy wasn’t the sort of woman to hide her emotions. She huffed, glared and generally looked ready to run right over him to get to Laurel. “We heard about the attack, and I want to make sure she’s okay. She’s my son’s fiancée.”
“Ex-fiancée,” Jericho corrected.
Oh, that did not please either Theo or his mom.
“The breakup is all just a misunderstanding,” Theo answered. “And a temporary one. Once I speak with Laurel, we can sort it all out—”
“I doubt that. What do you know about the attack?”
“I don’t like your tone,” Dorothy snapped. “Are you implying we had something to do with it?”
Jericho stared at her. “Did you?”
“No!”
Man, the woman could yell, and all in the same breath, she belted out a denial and a threat to slap him with a defamation-of-character lawsuit. However, Theo wasn’t denying much. That’s because he had his attention nailed to the hall. More specifically, to the doorway of the break room where Laurel was standing.
“Laurel,” Theo said on a rise of breath, and he started toward her.
He didn’t get far because Jericho latched onto his arm. Yeah, the guy was big. Strong, too. But Jericho shoved him back.
“Stay put,” Jericho warned him.
“Theo just wants to go to his fiancée.” Dorothy again. The woman turned her attention to Laurel. “Are you going to come out here and stop this asinine interrogation of the man you love?”
“No.
