Page 50 of Child In Jeopardy

No way was Lana going to cross him off the list of suspects. After all, Marsh had been around when Alicia was murdered, too, and he could have murdered her alone or teamed up with Buck.

“Stay safe,” Joelle muttered when they started for the door and the cruiser that was waiting for them outside. She kissed her husband and gave her brother and Lana hugs. “Stay safe,” she repeated.

“We will,” Duncan promised, and they stepped out of the house and into the night.

There was a chill in the air, and the drop in temps had caused a wispy gray fog to hover just over the yard and driveway. Lana hadn’t needed anything else to rev up the tension inside her, but the spookiness only added to it.

“Try your mother again,” Duncan instructed once they were on the road with Duncan behind the wheel and her and Slater in the back.

Lana did, but like the other times, it went straight to voicemail. This time, though, Lana did leave another message.

“Don’t look for the grave, Mother. Sheriff Holder, Slater and I are on the way. Stay put.”

Whether her mother would obey was anyone’s guess, but Lana was hoping this spooky atmosphere and the night would at least give Pamela cause to stop and rethink what she was doing.

“Have you been to Rodeo Park before?” Slater asked her.

Lana shook her head. “I’ve only driven past it.”

But she knew it wasn’t far. Only about five miles away. Still, it would be a very long drive since they had to stay vigilant for any attacks along the way.

“My dad used to take me and my siblings there,” Slater muttered, keeping watch out the window. “It used to be a fairly open field, but last time I saw it a couple of years ago, the nearby woods had practically taken it over. Unless your mother’s dressed for a hike, she probably won’t have gotten far.”

Good. Better yet, maybe Pamela had already changed her mind and already turned back toward the apartment.

Duncan threaded the cruiser around the deep curves of the country road, and when they reached the turnoff, the road narrowed even more. Obviously, there wasn’t a beaten track because what was left of the asphalt was pocked with potholes and even some weeds sticking up through massive cracks.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for a building to come into sight. Well, what was left of the building, anyway. Lana could see glimpses of what had once been a rodeo arena, but portions of the massive roof had collapsed. Slater had been right, too, about the woods reclaiming the place. The wild shrubs now littered what was once a parking lot, and the massive tree limbswere like a canopy that was doing an effective job of shutting out the sliver of moonlight.

Lana sighed when she saw something else. Her mother’s car. It was parked in one of the few spots on the concrete where the weeds and shrubs hadn’t spread. The headlights were on, and the driver’s-side door was open.

But there was no sign of her mother.

“Keep watch,” Slater reminded her when Lana automatically hurried to get out and find her mom.

He was right. This could still be some kind of trap, but if her father and Marsh had come here, they’d parked out of sight. Unfortunately, that would be plenty doable because of the trees. It was possible her father had even sent a henchman to silence her mother, and if so, it could already be too...

Lana cut off that thought. She couldn’t think of another murder right now. She had to focus on getting her mother safely out of there so she didn’t contaminate a scene that needed to be examined.

Duncan stepped from the cruiser and put his hand over his gun. “Mrs. Walsh?” he called out.

Her mother didn’t answer, and the grounds were almost totally silence. There wasn’t even any buzzing of mosquitoes. Worse, the fog seemed to be getting even thicker and was swirling around their legs.

Duncan called out to her mother again, and when there was no response this second time, Lana got out of the cruiser as well. She stayed behind the cover of the door, knowing it wouldn’t do much good if someone tried to shoot her in the head. Still, she looked around and saw no one ready to gun them down.

“Mom?” Lana tried.

And there was an instant reaction. Sort of a muffled sound of relief, and several seconds later, her mother came out frombehind one of the trees. Lana felt both relief and anger that her mother had come here.

Pamela wasn’t near the crumbling arena building but rather on what Lana thought was the west side of the property where the horse cemetery would be. Her mother was holding a flashlight that she had pointed toward the ground.

“I didn’t know who drove up,” her mother said, not coming closer. She stayed put, her body partially hidden behind the massive oak. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t your father or Marsh.”

Lana could understand that, but it didn’t ease her anger. “You shouldn’t be here,” she warned her.

“I have to find out the truth,” Pamela insisted.

“No, you don’t,” Duncan said, sounding very much like the lawman in charge. “We’ll have a warrant soon, and then a CSI team.”