Page 37 of Child In Jeopardy

He made another sound of agreement. “Maybe your father had another motive for wanting her dead. For instance, maybe Stephanie was planning on blackmailing him about something. Or she could have been planning some bad publicity campaign to smear him.”

Slater stopped, shook his head. “That doesn’t seem like a strong enough motive, either,” he amended. “Your father seems the sort to fight fire with fire. If Stephanie had threatened him in some way, he could have run his own smear campaign against her. He certainly would have had plenty of ammunition for that.”

“True,” Lana muttered. “And that brings us back to Buck. He had motive to kill Stephanie, and maybe my father isn’t his accomplice. Taylor could be. Now, she’s someone with motive to want Stephanie dead.”

Of course, if Taylor was the accomplice, then that meant Leonard could be innocent. Well, of this particular crime, anyway. That didn’t mean he hadn’t had some part in killing Slater’s father.

She took out her phone, lifting it for Slater to see. “Should I call him and arrange a meeting?” she asked.

Slater sighed. Then nodded.

Lana didn’t waste any time in case Slater changed his mind. She pressed her father’s number and was somewhat surprised when he answered on the first ring.

“Where’s your mother?” her father demanded.

“I’m not sure,” Lana lied. No way did she want to spill over the phone anything her mother had said. She wanted to see her father’s face, to try to gauge if he was lying or withholding something. “What happened?”

Her father cursed. “I have no idea, but she’s not here at the estate. I came home because one of the housekeepers called me and said your mother left with a packed bag about an hour ago.”

That would have been when her mother had driven to meet Ruston, and it didn’t surprise Lana that one of the “housekeepers” had alerted her father. Leonard no doubt had many employees to keep an eye on things.

“Mom called me,” Lana informed him, “and I want to talk to you about some of the things she said.”

“What did she say?” he demanded.

“I’ll tell you when I see you,” Lana insisted right back. “You said you were at the estate?”

“I am, but I want to know what your mother told you,” he snapped.

“Slater and I’ll be there in about thirty minutes,” Lana said, and she ended the call, but not before hearing her father snarl out Slater’s name.

Of course, Leonard tried to call her right back, but Lana declined the call as she went to the crib to kiss Cameron. The baby was asleep, and the moment she and Slater stepped out of the room, the nanny came out from the nursery across the hall and took the baby monitor that Lana handed her. They’d already talked to Joelle, Duncan and the nanny about this possible plan so everything was in place for them to leave immediately for the estate.

Including Sonya.

The deputy saw them coming down the stairs and stood to go with them outside to the cruiser. Slater, Sonya and Lana were already armed, all three wearing shoulder holsters. Lana had put a jacket over hers, but Sonya and Slater had kept theirs visible. She also knew the deputies were carrying backup weapons.

Slater had a quick word with Joelle and Luca, who’d be doing guard duty while they were gone. Which hopefully wouldn’t be long. In an ideal scenario, her father would confess to, well, everything, and Slater could have him arrested. The threat to Cameron could be over and done within an hour.

Lana doubted, though, this would be an ideal scenario.

Her father likely wouldn’t admit to anything, but in his shock over hearing what his wife had said, he might spill something they could use to build a case against him. And if he was innocent, then it would be time to take a harder look at Taylor. Or even Marsh for that matter, since it was possible that he’d been so jealous and outraged about Stephanie being pregnant that he’d snapped and had her killed.

As they’d done on previous trips both here in Saddle Ridge and in Austin, they kept watch, looking for any threats. Unlikethose other trips, Sonya was driving in the cruiser with them so she could provide immediate backup if they were attacked along the route. But there were no signs of anyone suspicious, just the usual late-afternoon rancher and farmer type of traffic that would normally be on the road that led to the interstate.

Lana couldn’t shut off her thoughts, and as each mile took them closer to the estate, she realized it’d been over five years since she’d been to her parents’ home. For a good reason. They’d both made it obvious they hadn’t approved of her lifestyle despite her military service giving her father some good press for a daughter “serving her country.” Maybe that had been the difference between Stephanie and her. They’d both rebelled, but her rebellion had been tolerable compared to her sister’s.

“You can still change your mind about this,” Slater said, reaching across the seat to give her hand a gentle squeeze.

She looked at him, and for some reason the skin-to-skin contact made her think of that scalding kiss they’d shared. A kiss that probably would have led to a bigwhere is this going?discussion if her mother hadn’t called. At the time, Lana hadn’t been happy about the interruption, but in hindsight, it was a good thing. The personal discussions would have to wait. As would more kisses.

And she hoped her body understood that.

At the moment, it only seemed to want to spur her to dole out another kiss.

“I won’t change my mind,” Lana answered. “We need to do this.”

Slater didn’t dispute that, but she figured he’d rather be doing this chat alone with her father. Or maybe with Sonya as backup and with Lana tucked away safely at his family’s ranch. It was tempting for her to want the same thing, but there was no way she would let Slater face down her father without her.