Bucking Bronc Lodge 04 - Cowboy Cop Read Online Free PDF Page A

the porch rail and punched Mason’s number. A second later, the detective picked up. “Any news?” Miles asked, not bothering to detail the subject line. Blackpaw knew there was only one thing on his mind.
    “Nothing good,” Blackpaw muttered. “We put a tail on Dugan, but the rookie lost him last night. Haven’t caught up with him since.”
    Miles cursed. “Can’t we track his cell phone?”
    “Working on getting a warrant, but so far zilch.”
    “How about a GPS on his car?”
    “Dugan is smart,” Blackpaw said. “He had it dismantled.”
    Son of a bitch.
    “Can’t we crack his alibi?”
    “Working that angle, too. Woman who stuck up for him is nowhere to be found.”
    “You mean you lost her, too.”
    Blackpaw mumbled an obscenity this time. “I mean she’s disappeared.”
    A cold sweat broke out on Miles’s brow. Maybe she’d run off with him?
    Or more likely...Dugan had killed her to cover his tracks.

Chapter Three
    Miles paced the length of the porch, one eye catching sight of Brody’s pickup truck lumbering down the drive. “Dammit, I need to be out there looking for Dugan myself. He’s probably already killed his alibi and looking for some other innocent woman to carve up.”
    “You’re preaching to the choir here,” Blackpaw said. “But you know what the lieutenant said. You’re too close to this one, McGregor.”
    “Of course I’m close to it, but that’s what makes me motivated. Last time I talked to Hammond, he didn’t seem convinced that Dugan was guilty.”
    A long pause followed, steeped in tension. “That’s another problem,” Blackpaw admitted. “With the Kelly woman’s murder, we both know there’s more to the case than we originally thought.”
    “Don’t tell me you think Dugan was set up,” Miles growled.
    “No,” Blackpaw said. “I think he’s as guilty as homemade sin. But—”
    The sun slid behind a winter cloud, making the sky turn a hazy gray. “There is no but. He killed those women and he killed Marie.”
    “But what about June Kelly?”
    “We’re still looking into it.” Miles had no answer for that. Yet.
    “You know, I did find evidence that Marie was seeing someone. Two men over the last five years.”
    Miles chewed the inside of his cheek. He’d be a piss-poor cop if he ignored evidence and didn’t consider every possibility. “Go on.”
    “The first was a pediatrician named Lamar Cohen but he’s clean. The other man was more recent. Neighbors saw them together.”
    Miles swallowed hard. So this man had been with Timmy? Had Marie planned to marry him? Let him be a father to Timmy?
    “What else do you know about him?”
    “His name was Paul Belsa. Apparently he was some kind of wealthy businessman. I don’t know what kind of business yet, but he was slick. Drove an expensive car.”
    Gave her all the things Miles couldn’t.
    “So let’s find him and see what he says.”
    “I’ve tried to locate him, but the only number I have for him is a cell with a message that he’s out of the country on business.”
    Dammit.
    “It’s worse,” Blackpaw said.
    How could it get worse? “What are you talking about?”
    “Hammond...some of the guys at the sheriff’s department, they’ve even mentioned the possibility that you could be implicated, Miles.”
    He slammed his fist against his thigh. “Because I was jealous of Marie and this man?” He exploded into a tirade. “Hell, I didn’t even know they were dating.”
    “I believe you, Miles. But you have to see where they’re coming from. You have had it in for Dugan for months. He gets free. You’re a head case. You find out your wife has a lover, so you kill her in a rage, and maybe kill this other man, then make it look like it was Dugan so we’ll put him back in jail.”
    He closed his eyes on a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose where a headache threatened. Jesus, God. Hammond couldn’t believe that nonsense.
    Dragging in a calming breath, Miles forced himself to lower