His phone beeped with an alert from his security system, indicating activity near the house. Reed pulled up the camera and saw Austin getting out of his truck. His hand tightened on the phone. Austin had been in charge of coordinating the search of Joshua’s property. Had the cadaver dogs found anything?
Reed disarmed the house alarm and met Austin at the door. “Shhh, Emma fell asleep on the couch.”
Austin removed his cowboy hat and hung it on a hook next to the door. In his other hand was a takeout bag from a fast-food restaurant. The scent of fries tickled Reed’s nose. He gave his cousin a questioning look.
Austin shook his head. “They didn’t find anything,” he whispered.
Reed let out a breath. The two men went into the kitchen. Austin opened the fridge and pulled out a soda. Sadie wandered in and beelined for the back door.
“You need to go out, girl?” Reed asked. He opened the screen door for her, and she dashed out. Reed’s phone beeped with an alert. He ignored it. The cameras were picking up Sadie’s jaunt through the yard.
“What’s the latest, Austin?”
“There isn’t much that’s new. The cadaver team isn’t finished. They’ve done about half the property. The rest will be done tomorrow.” Austin unwrapped a burger and bit into it. “We did find several more handguns in the house. They were in the basement. Cooper has sent them to the lab to be tested.”
Which meant Joshua could’ve shot Mike, they just didn’t have the proof yet. “How soon before we get the results?”
He shrugged. “Tomorrow sometime. He’s put a rush on it.”
“Did Cooper tell you about his theory? That Judge Norton might be involved?”
“Yes. He also informed me about what Margaret told you.”
“I’ve done some additional digging. Hold on.” Reed retrieved a file folder from his home office. “All of them—Vernon, Mike and Charlie—appeared in Judge Norton’s courtroom.”
“So have most of the criminals in the county.” Austin dunked several fries into some ketchup.
“Yes, but these men never were sentenced harshly. They’ve committed crime after crime, but only received a slap on the wrist each time.”
It didn’t sit right with him. It was almost as if the men were being protected. Not all of the cases appeared before Judge Norton, but it would’ve have been difficult for him to put in a word with the other judges.
“Listen, Reed, we need to pursue every avenue, but I think you and Cooper are barking up the wrong tree with this one. Judge Norton doesn’t have so much as a speeding ticket. I can’t see him kidnapping Bonnie or killing her.”
“You know as well as I do, sometimes evil resides in a place you would least expect.”
Austin wiped his hands on a napkin and flipped through some of the records on the table. “Look at this. Deputy Hendricks arrested both Mike and Charlie at different points. Will was the prosecutor on several of these cases. If you’re looking for connections, they’re all over the place. We aren’t that big of a department or a county. You’ll need a lot more than this to accuse a sitting judge.”
“We aren’t looking to accuse him of anything,” Reed corrected. “And no one knows we’re looking into Judge Norton except for a small group of people. For obvious reasons.”
Emma came into the kitchen, squinting at the light. “What’s going on?”
“We’re just discussing the case.”
The fog in her expression lifted when her gaze fell on Austin. She stiffened. “Did—”
“No,” he said quickly. “The cadaver dogs didn’t find Bonnie.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” She rubbed her face. “Is Sadie in here with you guys? I woke up on the couch and she wasn’t in the living room.”
“I let her out,” Reed said. He got up and opened the back door, but the dog wasn’t in the yard. His phone beeped with a new notification. An unfamiliar truck was making its way up his driveway. “Someone’s coming.”
Austin stood and joined him at the front door. Sadie raced up the steps and Emma let her inside. The floodlights clicked on. Wayne Johnson dropped out of the cab. The ranch hand was wearing a dusty set of overalls and a bandanna around his neck. His shotgun was attached to a rack on his truck.
“Sorry to disturb you so late, Sheriff.”
“That’s all right. What’s going on?”
Wayne settled his hands on his hips. “Well, now, after our discussion down by the lake the other day, I got to thinking you needed to talk to Owen. I remembered Jeb mentioned he had an aunt in Livingston. I gots to thinkin’ maybe Owen was hiding out there.”
The screen door creaked as Emma joined them on the porch. “I thought Mabel was dead.”
“No, ma’am. She’s over ninety, but she’s still alive and well. Anyway, I ventured out there and talked with her.”
Reed drew up to his full height. “Wayne, you shouldn’t have done that.”
He lifted a hand. Dirt was embedded in the skin of his fingers, staining them darker than his palm. “Don’t be warmin’ up for a lecture, Sheriff. I did what I thought was best. Owen is as jittery as an untrained coonhound. The last thing he needed was people showing up with guns blazing.”
Reed wanted to tell the ranch hand they wouldn’t have gone in guns blazing, but it would’ve fallen on deaf ears. Some of the citizens of Heyworth were used to taking matters into their own hands. Wayne was one of them. “Did you find Owen?”
“I did. He’s in the truck.”
Reed’s hand immediately went to his weapon, although he left it in the holster. Wayne waved at the vehicle.
The rear door on the extended cab opened. Owen appeared. His hands were held up in a classic sign of surrender.
“It took a bit of talkin’ but I convinced him you were good folks who would hear him out,” Wayne said. “Don’t make a liar out of me. And, Sheriff, trust me. You want to hear what he has to say.”
Reed nodded. He went down the porch steps.
