Page 49 of Child In Jeopardy

Slater’s attention went back to Pamela when she made another of those raw sobbing sounds. “And this means Buck and Leonard could have murdered Slater’s father,” she ground out. “They could have done it to silence him. Maybe Sheriff McCullough was getting too close to uncovering the truth.”

Hearing that said aloud felt like another punch to Slater’s gut, though his mind had already gone in that direction. And it was a direction he had to take.

“I’ll start arranging for a CSI team to go out to Rodeo Park and check for any signs of Alicia’s grave,” he said, somehow managing to keep his voice level. Inside, though, was a whole different story. He was battling an emotional hurricane that was ripping right through him.

“You’ll let me know if they find anything,” Pamela muttered, and then she quickly added, “I have to go.” And she broke down crying.

“Mom?” Lana tried, but the woman had already ended the call.

Lana turned to him, and even though he wanted to get started with that call to Duncan and the CSIs, Slater took a moment to try to settle some of the panic and dread he saw on Lana’s face.

He pulled her into his arms and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “One step at a time,” he murmured. “It could take hours or even days for Duncan to get a warrant to search thegrounds. It’s in his jurisdiction,” Slater added. “So we won’t have to deal with the San Antonio cops.”

At least they wouldn’t unless there was a body buried there. Then it would mean Leonard’s arrest. Or at least the man being brought in for questioning. After that, a body would have to be sent to the medical examiner and maybe even a forensic scientist for evaluation. This was going to be a long, grueling ordeal, and at the tail end of it would be yet another new level of investigation into his father’s murder.

After a couple of moments, Lana finally eased back and looked up at him. “Slater, I’m so sorry.”

It took him a moment to realize why she was apologizing. Hell. No way did he want her to take a drop of blame for anything her father might have done. So he kissed her again. This time on the mouth. He hoped it settled some of her nerves because that’s what it did for him, and then he stepped away from her to go up the hall to talk to Duncan. It would no doubt be a long conversation, followed by getting all the cogs moving for the warrant and the CSIs. In other words, it was going to be a very long night.

“I’ll have Duncan come in here so we can talk,” Slater suggested. Of course, Joelle would likely want to be involved with that, too.

He left Lana while he went down the hall and lightly tapped on the door of the main bedroom. Slater immediately heard the footsteps, and a moment later both his sister and Duncan answered the door.

“What happened?” his sister wanted to know. Like Duncan, she wasn’t dressed for bed, but Slater spotted two laptops and a baby monitor in the small seating area of the room.

“We need to talk,” Slater said, motioning for them to follow him. “There have been some developments.”

That was all he got a chance to say before Lana rushed out into the hall. She, too, had the baby monitor in one hand and her phone in the other.

“There’s a problem,” Lana blurted. “My mom just called and said she was going to Rodeo Park.”

Hell. Not this.

“I tried to talk her out of it,” Lana quickly added. “But she won’t listen. Slater, she’s already on her way there to look for Alicia’s grave.”

LANACURSEDUNDERher breath when she tried again to call her mother, and like the other four times, her mother didn’t answer. The calls went straight to voicemail. Lana had left three other messages for her mother not to go anywhere near the Rodeo Park, but she didn’t even bother to leave a fourth.

Her mother was no doubt on her way to what could be a burial site.

If Pamela did find something, then the evidence could be destroyed. But that wasn’t even her biggest concern at the moment. It was Leonard. What would he do if he found out where his wife was going? As much as Lana hated to consider it, she had to.

Her father might try to murder her mother.

It didn’t matter that Lana wasn’t close to either of them. Heck, she didn’t even like them. But she didn’t want another person to die.

Obviously, Duncan and Slater felt the same way because they were hurriedly assembling a plan. A plan that was being amended as they spoke. At the first suggestion, Duncan and Slater said they’d be going alone, but Lana had nixed that. If anyone could convince her mother to back off, it’d be her. It hadtaken Lana some time to convince Slater of that, but he’d finally relented.

“Luca, Sonya and Joelle will stay here with the babies,” Slater spelled out while he, Duncan and Lana strapped on their weapons.

Lana was thankful for the extra security since she didn’t want Buck’s accomplice to take advantage of their absence to try to kidnap Cameron.

“And, Duncan, you and I will take precautions in case this turns out to be something different from what it seems,” Slater added to her.

She was quick to agree. Because she, too, had already considered several disturbing possibilities. Maybe her mother was the accomplice and this was to draw them out. Or the accomplice could be using her mother to set all of this up. The emails could be fake, designed to draw them all out to a secluded location where they could be attacked.

And that led right back to her father.

Or Marsh.