Page 44 of Final Inning

She was still crying when Julian came out almost two hours later, Hagan hugging him right there on the front porch before he left.

How could he have done this to her?

Julian had ruined everything.

It was all Hagan’s fault.

Chapter 33

There was a dark cloud on the beautiful male face of the man waiting for her. Miranda slowed up a bit, right there in the small hotel lobby just past nine the next morning. “What’s up?”

He had his phone in his hand.

And a lot of anger on his face.

Ward was standing just behind him, a deliberately bland expression on his own. He shook his head at Miranda and winced.

“Lorcan. Needs to speak with me, in person, today.”

Oh, boy. Knight was being summoned. By one of the ‘thems’. Part of the crowd Knight tended to avoid. “Which one? Give you three choices.”

“Sebastian is down in Texas, with the Brockmans,” Ian said. “Paige had her baby yesterday. In Texas. A girl. Amaria Caroline. Nine pounds, four ounces, and twenty-two inches long. At least that was the general announcement on the company message boards this morning. I didn’t think she was due until the end of the month, but the baby came early.”

“Mom and baby?”

“Both are doing just fine, I heard.”

“I need to find a damned hour to meet with Lorcan and Malachi regarding the Morgan case.” Oh, yes. She knew her grumpy ol’ Knight very, very well. His words were calm, but there was fury there. At the interruption, or at the who?

Probably more the who. They had had these kinds of interruptions before. But Brockmans, Lorcans…ouch. Of course Knight would resent them expecting him to give a command performance.

“Are they coming up here to meet you?” If he had to go to where she assumed those boys were, that would be at least a four- or five-hour trip. Right when they were getting closer to narrowing down their own direction. A five-hour delay to go over a case from several years ago—that had not been on her bingo card for today. They had too much to get done for that. They were going to be digging into Johnson’s past actions today, too. At least…Ward would be. Miranda was focusing on the connections between Kevin and Harper. “Can’t you just tell the buttheads to wait?”

“Apparently not. Direct orders from the director.”

And Knight respected Ed Dennis, just as much as she did. That would have him complying. Which she was going to have to just suck it up and deal. But damn it, Miranda wanted to go home. She had a beautiful little boy waiting, with a three-day weekend from Brynlock starting tomorrow. “So what’s our new game plan?”

“Ward is going to head up to OKC. He has contacts there with the state M.E. Dr. Brockman—Julia—sent over everything she found from both Harper and Kevin’s autopsies late last night before hopping a private jet to Finley Creek, apparently. Both families had requested independent autopsies—Ward is going to pick up the results of Harper’s personally. Then, he has a few of the players from Kevin’s team to track down. But first, he’s dropping me off to grab a second rental. I’ll deal with Lorcan and Brockman, and get back down here as soon as I can.” Knight was practically prowling. As well as growling. She did not envy Sebastian Lorcan right now. Or Malachi Brockman.

Just Mal’s bad luck to be the one who was pissing dear old Knight off right now. There were going to be fireworks. She’d bet good money on it.

“So we are splitting up. I guess that means I will be finding Deputy Lindhour and see if she has recovered from meeting—and drooling—over Ian here. We’re going to cross reference everything for the one millionth time. This is a town of four hundred people. Maybe we should just start with that. We’ll just go door to door and say ‘Hey, are you our killer?’ We are starting with the eighteen who fit the profile.”

Well. Hard not to let her frustration show, right? Lorcan and his pal Brockman were really messing with her plans. Add in fetching another rental—that was at least a six hour delay, plus whatever time had to spend with those clowns.

“And the fact that the killer might not even be from Buckbert?” Ian asked. Sometimes that boy took things so literally.

But…A general canvas would not have been out of the question. If they’d had the man power. “No. I’m ninety-nine percent certain this was a local boy.”

“I agree,” Knight said. “Someone stuck around the crime scene and knew they weren’t going to be harassed while they finished with Harper. That’s local. Knows the routines, in general.”

“Well, that gives me and Lindhour a place to start.” If that was what she had to do while Knight was off gallivanting to Texas, then that was what she was going to do. She looked at them both. So beautiful. No wonder Hagan had turned beet red when Ian had looked at her yesterday. Multiple times. “Be safe out there, boys. It can be a dark, dark world. Let’s get this done.”

“Watch yourself,” Knight said, looking at her with that particular intensely Knight look he had. The one that could melt a woman right where she stood. “I do not like leaving you without immediate backup like this. Not with Johnson so questionable.”

Knight had started to tunnel vision on Johnson last night. She suspected he was going to make that asshole a personal mission.

“Hey, I’m good. I have Lindhour.”