Page 44 of Child In Jeopardy

Yes, that would be a good place to start, especially since she figured they wouldn’t be getting any immediate answers from her father.

She turned to the sound of the approaching footsteps and saw Ruston making his way back toward them. He was still sporting the scowl that’d appeared on his face when he’d left to take a phone call.

“What’s wrong?” Slater immediately wanted to know.

“This,” Ruston said, holding up his phone so they could see the screen.

The image was clear enough, but Lana had to shake her head. “That’s my mother.”

“It is,” Ruston verified. “I gave your mother the codes to my security system in case she had to step out for some reason andtold her to keep the system on when she was there so that I’d get an alert if someone tried to break in.”

That was a good precaution, one that Lana herself had suggested. That would prevent Ruston from having to personally check on her mother while he was at work.

“Your mother apparently did step out,” Ruston went on, “and I just got a call from my security company because she didn’t get the code punched back in time to prevent it from being triggered.”

Lana shook her head. “Why would my mother leave your apartment?”

“That’s something I think you’ll want to ask her.” Ruston motioned toward the time stamp of his mother’s return, and she saw that it was about fifteen minutes ago. Then Ruston shifted to another photo of her mother. “I had the security company go back through the feed, and this is a photo of Pamela leaving.”

Once again, he tapped the time stamp.

And Lana immediately realized why he was scowling. Because her mother had left the apartment over an hour before the shooting at the estate. That wasn’t all. The security camera had caught Pamela’s purse at just the right angle for Lana to see something else.

The gun that her mother was carrying.

Chapter Fourteen

Slater knew this had already been a hellishly long day, but it apparently wasn’t over yet. After finishing with the San Antonio cops about the shooting, they’d returned to the ranch in Saddle Ridge, and even though Lana looked ready to drop after getting Cameron down for the night, she still had one more thing on her to-do list.

She had to call her mother.

Lana needed answers as to where the woman had been during the shooting. Answers that she’d then pass along to Duncan, Ruston, Thayer and any other cop involved in the investigation. Well, if there was anything new to pass along. For Duncan, that would be easy since he and Joelle were just down the hall in the main suite. Slater could update the others with short texts.

Sighing, Lana sat on the foot of the guest bed, the baby monitor right next to her, when she made the call to Pamela. It wasn’t the first attempt since they’d seen that photo of her mother leaving the apartment with a gun in her purse. Lana had tried to call her immediately afterward, but the woman hadn’t answered. Definitely not something Slater and Lana had wanted.

However, Pamela had texted back within the hour to check and make sure Lana was all right and to let her know that the San Antonio police had asked her to come in for an interview about the shooting. Pamela didn’t offer any details of that interview and had messaged that she would be able to speak to Lana later.

Well, it was later, and Slater sincerely hoped the woman responded. If not, he was going to have to call Ruston againand see what he could find out. Slater wasn’t surprised that the cops would want to speak to Pamela, since the shooting had happened on the estate where she lived.

And because of the recent rift she’d had with her husband.

Yeah, the cops would definitely want to question her about that, since it could play into motive. If she was the shooter, that is. Slater had no idea if Pamela was actually capable of that, but it was possible, especially if there had been an affair going on between Taylor and Leonard.

Since Lana put the call on speaker, Slater heard the three rings and silently cursed, figuring this was about to go to voicemail. It didn’t, though. Pamela finally answered.

“Lana, are you sure you’re all right?” Pamela immediately asked.

“Slater and I are fine. He’s here with me, and I have the call on speaker so he can listen.” Lana’s tone stayed cool. “I’m sure you’ve heard, though, that Taylor is dead.”

“Yes. It’s all such a mess. The detective who questioned me wouldn’t say what had happened so I called Marsh, and he filled me in.”

Marsh, not Leonard, and that meant there was still a rift between husband and wife.

“Did you see the person who shot at you?” Pamela added.

Lana paused, maybe to see how her mother would respond to the silence, but Pamela kept quiet as well. “No,” Lana finally said.

“I’m so sorry.” Pamela sounded genuine about that, and it made Slater wish he could see the woman’s face so he could try to detect a lie. “Do you think it was Taylor?”