Taming Deputy Harlow Read online

  A buried treasure? In her house? Nothing this exciting ever happened to her. She was just a small-town girl who’d gone to college and came back to get a job at the sheriff’s office.

  “Jeffrey Neville lived here before you,” one of the carpenters said.

  She’d discovered that when she’d bought the house. Jeffrey had died and had no family. The home had been escheated to the state and finally sold. He was the last of his line. Thinking about all the losing lottery tickets she’d bought, never in a million lightning strikes guessing she’d stumble upon someone’s primitive retirement fund, she took the lunchbox from the one who’d dug it up.

  “How did it get here?” she asked aloud, not expecting any of them to know. Life had certainly stirred up some surprises lately.

  “Maybe somebody used the house to deposit their savings,” another one of the carpenters said.

  “Jeffrey must not have known about this,” she said.

  He lived in this house for more than forty years. Why would he not have used the money for something if he’d known about it? He had no family to pass it on to. He had lived modestly up until the day he died. The way the money had been hidden suggested it hadn’t been meant to be found, and then something had happened to the person who’d put it here. Had it been stolen or otherwise obtained in some other nefarious fashion? Had Jeffrey known the person? A wife, perhaps? Strange, after living in this town her whole life, she didn’t really know much about one of its residents. She’d never thought to ask, either.

  “What are you going to do with it?” one of the carpenters asked.

  She looked down at the man who’d discovered it, realizing that they were hoping she’d be generous.

  “I don’t know, but a small thank-you for finding it is in order.” She tipped the carpenters handsomely and received a thank-you from each. She’d like to find out where the money came from, but first she’d put it somewhere safe.

  She looked at each of the carpenters’ excited faces. Nothing productive would get done after this today.

  “Why don’t you all take the rest of the day off?” In a couple of hours, it would be five, anyway. And she needed to be alone.

  They thanked her again and began to gather their tools.

  Reese returned to the kitchen, putting the tin lunchbox on the table, her gaze landing on the news article. Even finding the money didn’t overshadow the significance of what she contemplated regarding Kadin. Maybe his fame intrigued her. Maybe his love of law did more, lending a kind of a connection to him. Even though she’d never met him and he’d never seen her or known of her existence, she’d gone into the same type of work. How amazing was that? She’d like to know more about her biological father.

  How would he react to learning he had a daughter?

  * * *

  The next morning, bags packed and in the car, Reese stopped at the bank on her way to the Durango airport a county over. She’d fly to Rock Springs, Wyoming, later today. She’d made reservations after the carpenters had gone and she’d thought for a while about the consequences of her making contact with Kadin Tandy. Good and bad. First and foremost, he deserved to know he had a living daughter. Even though she was incredibly nervous and had serious reservations about how it would change her life, she felt morally obligated to tell him. She’d deal with the fallout as it hit her.

  “Hello, Candace.” Reese put the lunchbox down on the counter in front of the redheaded teller. “I’d like to open a safe-deposit box.”

  “Reese. Congratulations on your windfall!” Candace’s green eyes danced with enthusiasm. Not much over five feet tall, her elbows rested easily on the counter.

  Reese laughed a little. “Thanks. I won’t even ask how you found out.”

  “The whole town is talking about it.” The teller gave her a form to fill out and then eyed the tin lunchbox as though it was a relic. “One of your carpenters told me. He made a deposit of his own yesterday. That was awfully nice of you to give them money.”

  “It’s what I would have wanted.” Reese handed the form to Candace. “And I’ll never get used to the rapid lines of communications in this town.”

  “That tin is pretty old. Too interesting not to talk, I suppose.” Candace handed her a key to a safe-deposit box and tucked some of her bobbed red hair behind her feather-jeweled ear. “You found it hidden in the floor?”

  Reese took the key. “Yes. Quite the mystery, huh?”

  “I’d say. Did Jeffrey’s wife hide it?”

  Reese went still. “His wife?” Why did she think his wife could have hidden money? And where was she now?

  “She was murdered some forty years ago. That would explain why Jeffrey never knew about the money. I wonder why she hid it? Everyone is wondering that in town. We haven’t had this much excitement in years.” She laughed lightly.

  Murdered...

  Reese was still trying to catch up to the significance of that as Candace rambled on.

  “Been so long, not many remember her. She was strangled to death and dumped on the side of Highway 149 on the way to Durango.”

  Reese reeled with the revelation. Then she looked down at the tin lunchbox. This money could mean more than a forgotten fund. Reese lifted the lunchbox from the counter and lowered it to her side.

  “Not even Sheriff Robison told me.” She supposed he hadn’t thought to, and she had no reason to dig through old evidence.

  Candace leaned over the counter on her elbows. “Crime was never solved. I forgot all about it till you bought that old Neville place and my dad mentioned it the other day.”

  “Why isn’t anyone still trying to solve the case?” Reese asked.

  “Almost every sheriff in office has tried. A few deputies, too,” Candace said.

  “Well, maybe it’s time for someone new to try.” So much time had gone by since the woman’s death that everyone had stopped talking about it and that led to no one caring enough anymore. Well, Reese bet if the woman could talk, she’d still care.

  “What happened?” she asked. “How was she murdered? She was strangled, but what was she doing the last anyone knew?”

  “Ella worked at the library,” Candace said. “Just moved here the year before. Met Jeffrey and six months later they got married. She worked the night she was killed. The last person to leave the library was the last to see her alive. She was questioned and cleared. Ella closed the library and vanished. No one saw anything. Someone must have pushed her body out of a vehicle because it fell down a steep slope. To this day, no one knows what happened to her or why she was killed. The sheriff at the time questioned Jeffrey, but he had an alibi. He had a company dinner that night. His wife was supposed to meet him there but she never showed up.”

  Candace sure knew a lot about the case. Everyone in town likely did. “Where was her car found?”

  “She walked to work every day.” Candace took lipstick out of her purse and put on a fresh coat.

  Ella had been taken somewhere between the time she locked the library and home. “That’s terrible.”

  “Yeah. Wish her killer would be caught, even if it has been so long.”

  Reese wanted to be the one to grant that wish. “Thanks, Candace.” She went to the safe-deposit boxes and found hers, Ella Neville’s murder heavy on her mind.

  Wish her killer would be caught, even if it has been so long...

  Kadin Tandy solved cold cases. What if she went to him with Ella’s case? She didn’t have to tell him he had another daughter. Not right away. She could get to know him first. Somehow that made her impending trip easier to bear. Call it procrastination. Call it breaking the news gently. She just felt better with that approach.

  Locking the tin in the safe-deposit box, she left the bank with a livelier spring in her step than when she’d entered. She’d stop at the sheriff’s office and
pick up the Neville case file. She would also ask Margaret, their office manager, to send Ella’s clothes in for more modern testing. Then she’d head for the airport.

  * * *

  Kadin had moved his office to a bigger building. Jamie read about his first office, an unassuming downtown building with barely one office and a place to hold meetings—he and his wife had lived on the floor above. The new building was a restored mercantile building, the old sandstone exterior walls covered with white glazed brick. Three rows of six casement windows ran the length of the front. He could see a chandelier hanging in the middle of the upper two rows, revealing the open architecture of what must be a nice home with lots of light. A stone railing on each upper corner indicated the location of rooftop balconies. The building sat on high ground, with open space in the back.

  The covered front walk on the first level shaded tinted windows and a double-door entrance with an inconspicuous and prettily written Dark Alley Investigations on the right door. Jamie stepped inside, ready for his first day of work.

  An artsy lobby housed a young and beautiful, dark-haired woman behind a white marble-topped counter that matched the floor. A few plants warmed up a seating area and several paintings hung on high walls.

  “Jamie Knox,” he said to the woman.

  She smiled, baring a mouth of pearly white teeth. “Go on back, Mr. Knox. Mr. Tandy is waiting for you. He’s in the far right corner office.”

  The inner door buzzed, unlocking for him. He stepped from the lobby into the office-lined interior. Four conference rooms took up both sides of the front. A square area in the middle was filled with cubicles. People walked the halls and stood at printers or worked away at their desks.

  Jamie went down the middle aisle, the smell of new carpet and leather accompanying him on the way. Everyone dressed business-casual, some of the men in ties with no jackets.

  The far wall had a row of windows like the front, and as he turned to the right, he enjoyed a view of White Mountain and Pilot Butte. Before moving here he’d read that wild horses still ran in those hills. Nothing he’d see in a city, and the notion intrigued him.

  Kadin emerged from his spacious office and greeted him. “Let me show you to your office.”

  Jamie followed him to the opposite side of the building and into the opposite corner office with the same view as the boss. He went to the window. “This gives me an adequate idea of your expectations.”

  Kadin smiled wryly. “You’re taking on an important role in this organization. The safety and protection of my detectives and the victims’ families are of utmost importance. The more notoriety I get, the more of a threat we are, and the more high risk the case, the more danger we attract.”

  “Risk is my résumé.” This new role would present plenty of challenges, but Jamie would thrive. This was exactly what he was looking for—a way to get his life back on track, for the good.

  “Mr. Tandy.”

  Jamie turned with Kadin to see the beautiful receptionist at the door.

  “Sorry to interrupt. There’s a Ms. Reese Harlow here to see you. She says she’s a sheriff’s deputy from Ute County, Colorado, and she’s got a forty-year-old cold case she’d like to discuss with you.”

  “Put Roesch on it. I can’t seem to give that guy enough work.”

  Kadin had a lot of top-notch detectives working for him, Jamie thought, but the one named Roesch must be one of the best if he completed his cases so fast the work didn’t keep up.

  “She insisted on speaking only to you, sir.”

  Many must request him personally, but he couldn’t possibly solve every case that came to DAI.

  “She said it was personal.”

  Speaking to Kadin or the forty-year-old case? Her insistence on speaking only to Kadin must be the personal part. But why?

  Kadin stared at the receptionist for a moment. “Bring her back.”

  Evidently he wondered the same.

  Chapter 2

  Holding the Neville case file binder, Reese followed the receptionist through the cubicles to an office on the far side. At the door, the slender woman let her pass. She caught the name sign and grew confused until she spotted two men standing in the middle of a seating area, waiting for her. She hadn’t expected two detectives. Both big men, the one with sexy blue eyes and short black hair captured her attention first.

  What was Captain America with dark hair doing in Rock Springs, Wyoming? He stood with his hands at his sides, tall and unflinching, rippling muscles beneath a tight Henley shirt tucked into black jeans. This must be his office. Apparently he ignored company dress code. He seemed out of place in such elegant surroundings. Something more rugged would suit him better, like a battleship or a city riot. She gobbled up the sight of him, so hardened and forbiddingly handsome.

  Why did he magnetize her so completely? He wasn’t even wearing a cowboy hat. She’d have thought a man more country than him would be the one to catch her eye as undeniably as this man had.

  The receptionist closed the door, jolting Reese out of her sudden affliction of man hunger. She looked to the man next to him and recognized him instantly. Kadin. Her father.

  Her heart beat so heavily a lump formed in her throat.

  You’re here to explain the case...

  She cleared her throat and swallowed. “Um, hello.” She stepped forward, tripped on her shoe heel and had to take a few extra quick steps to catch her balance, nearly dropping the binder. She’d worn her only suit jacket and skirt today, gray with a white blouse underneath.

  The man beside Kadin reached out for her at the same time he moved toward her. But she caught her balance before he touched her.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  His deep, raspy voice transfixed her. She melted into his blue eyes. “Y-yes.” Feeling as though her breathy, stuttering answer revealed too much, Reese fought a flush and turned to Kadin with an outstretched hand. “I’m Reese Harlow.”

  “The deputy sheriff from...?” Kadin shook her hand.

  She found herself transfixed again, this time for different reasons. Now she studied her biological father. The hugeness of the secret she carried pushed her awkwardness away. She looked for similarities. He must be where she got her five-nine height from. Other than that, she didn’t see much resemblance.

  “Never Summer, Colorado, which is in Ute County,” she finally said, trying to gather the rest of her wits.

  Kadin smiled politely. “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “Not many have. It’s a small mountain town in southwestern Colorado.”

  “Ah. I have detectives from that area.” He turned to the other man. “This is Jamie Knox, my new security officer. Today is his first day on board.”

  Reese reluctantly moved her gaze to him. Immediate smoldering attraction swept over her. “Mr. Knox.” She sounded all breathy again.

  His mouth rose with a hint of licentiousness and his incredibly blue eyes reacted in kind. “Please—Jamie. What brings you to DAI? You said it was something personal?”

  She’d said that to get Kadin’s attention. She hadn’t lied. She had a whopper of a personal reason for being here. “A murder. Isn’t that what brings everyone here?” She laughed at her attempt to be funny, wondering if she sounded as nervous as she thought.

  While Kadin eyed her with some suspicion, Jamie’s smile expanded ever so slightly. “Why don’t we have a seat?”

  Having to pass him to sit down, she fed on the sight of his muscled chest and felt tingly as she sat on the sofa.

  Eyeing Jamie, Kadin sat on a chair across from her. Jamie boldly lowered his big, sexy body next to her, eyes still glinting.

  “What about this murder that brought you all the way here, Ms. Harlow?” Kadin asked.

  “You can call me Reese,” she said. “I learned
of your agency and, given the length of time that’s passed in my case, I thought you’d be able to help me more than anyone else.” She placed the binder containing copies of everything on the Neville case on the coffee table. “That’s why I’ve taken a personal interest.”

  Kadin slid the binder toward him and began flipping through pages.

  She didn’t have to read along with him. She knew what it said. The coroner’s report stated the inspector arrived at the scene and noted the time. The weather was indicated as sixty-one degrees, along with the humidity and position, location and condition of the body. Lifeless. Female in her twenties. Injuries on the body indicated the victim had died prior to her tumble down the embankment. Fully clothed in a big-collared, long-sleeved, sapphire-blue, knee-length shirtwaist dress with big white buttons up the front. Dirt collected from the fibers had come from the slope. Ligature marks on the neck indicated strangulation as the cause of death. Rigor mortis had been established throughout the body. Estimated time of death was twelve to fourteen hours prior to the coroner’s examination.

  Notes on the crime scene indicated tire tracks on the side of the road—both from a driver with a flat tire and another vehicle. The tires may have been from a 1973 Volkswagen Passat. Photos were taken of the body and the surrounding area, including the slope up to the road.

  The first sheriff’s follow-up report said he hadn’t done any extra testing on the evidence. The second sheriff in office looked into the case and questioned more residents, particularly hotel and motel staff. One witness had reported seeing a blue Passat but couldn’t identify the driver, including whether it was a man or woman. The second sheriff had looked into the case again in the early 1990s and that had been the last time anyone had paid any attention to Ella Neville’s murder.

  While Kadin read, she stole a look at Jamie, catching his eyes doing a roam up her legs and slowly lifting to her chest and then finally her face. He grinned ever so slightly and made her feel a fresh burst of delighted tingles.