She opened the bag and held it out. “There are a lot of red ones.”
The old joke earned her a heart-stopping smile. Luke claimed he only liked red jelly beans and, when they were dating, ate all the cherry-flavored ones out of her packages.
“Thanks.” He plucked out a few. “Sheriff Franklin sent a message and asked for more time to find Franny’s file. The storage room is a cavern, so I’m not surprised. Want to run by and talk to Kyle now?”
“That would be great.”
Kyle was her brother’s best friend and had been with Wade on the night of Franny’s murder.
She popped a few more jelly beans in her mouth. “Could we stop by June’s house first? I want to grab the saddles from the tack room. The lock on the door isn’t great and I don’t want them stolen.”
Luke had collected Cinnamon on Sunday morning while Megan was still asleep and brought the horse to his ranch, but he hadn’t known to collect the saddles too.
“Sure.” He zipped up his jacket as they exited the hospital. “That’s a good idea.”
In the car, she checked her emails on her phone, but thankfully, there was nothing pressing.
“How long will you be able to stay in town?” Luke asked. “It can’t be easy to juggle your cases from here.”
“It’s not, but Grace has taken over for me. One benefit of a partner is that we share the caseload and help each other out when personal matters get in the way. My goal is to stay as long as necessary to get June well and this case solved.”
Both things could take a long time, but thinking too far ahead was draining. Megan would deal with it one day at a time.
“I’m curious, how do you decide which clients to represent?” He took the exit off the freeway toward June’s house. “A lot of criminals claim to be innocent.”
“True. Grace and I research each case before agreeing to represent it. We never want to help anyone guilty of murder. At the same time, the system isn’t perfect and sometimes innocent people end up behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit.” She paused. “June does the same with her cases. She handles insurance fraud and stuff like that to pay the bills, but there were criminal cases she was passionate about.”
He tapped his thumb against the steering wheel. “I wish June had talked to me about her investigation.”
“My aunt is stubborn, independent, and protective. She wouldn’t have done anything to put your career in jeopardy. Without proof of Wade’s innocence, reopening Franny’s case would’ve set off a hornet’s nest of issues for you.”
Luke blew out a breath. “That’s…irritating.”
“Isn’t it?” She tossed him a look. “Pot meet kettle.”
He rolled his eyes and his mouth twitched. “Yeah, yeah. I got it.”
Her aunt’s house came into view and Megan inhaled sharply. The destruction was extensive, and the closer Luke drove, the worse it got. The chimney stuck out, a lone sentinel, protecting broken wood and blackened bricks. The plants in the front yard had been trampled. The roof, damaged by the fire and the water from the fire hoses, caved inward. Everything her aunt had worked for was gone. June would be devastated.
Luke parked in the driveway, and his hand closed over hers. Strong and warm, his touch was gentle and grounding.
“It sucks, Megs, no doubt. But she can rebuild.”
She closed her eyes, shoring up her emotions. There would be time to grieve later. Right now, getting her brother out of prison and her aunt well required all her emotional energy.
Megan squeezed his hand. “I know. And it’s only stuff. The most important thing is that no one was hurt.”
She glanced at Luke and their eyes caught and held. It became hard to pull air into her lungs. Her emotions were all tangled together. Years of friendship and love didn’t disappear, no matter how much she’d tried to make them. If he’d died saving June…or her…
“Come on.” Luke jerked his hand away from hers. “Let’s get the saddles.”
She swallowed hard and fumbled with the door handle. The slap of cold air was a welcome relief, cooling her heated cheeks. They walked across the yard in silence.
The air inside the barn was scented with hay, leather, and horse. Megan took a deep breath. Whenever she was troubled, this was the place she went. Her hand traced over the worn wood of a stall door on the way to the tack room.
She pulled out her spare set of keys and shoved the right one in the lock, but the door to the tack room swung open on its own. Her heart skipped a beat.
She hurried to flip on the light, relieved to see the saddles untouched. Hers was on the far right, the leather polished and clean. Oh, June. It’d been three years since Megan had used the saddle, yet her aunt kept it prepared and ready.
“Megs, don’t touch anything.”
Luke’s order sent chills down her spine. She turned and gasped. Written on the wall in blood-red letters was a warning.
Keep digging around and you’ll die.
The perpetrator was hoping to scare Megan off, or deter the investigation, but every threat backfired. It fueled Luke’s determination to get to the truth.
“The paint’s dry. There’s no way to know how long it’s been here, Luke.” Brent hitched up his duty belt and stepped back to survey the horrible message. Static came out of the portable radio on his shoulder before cutting off. “We don’t even know if it was meant for Megan. It could’ve been a warning for June.”
“Except she never reported it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. I know for a fact, June received threats a couple of years ago on another case
