DeWayne had done everything in his power to pressure her into selling. Plain and simple, he was a bully.
“Over the past couple of months, I’ve had livestock go missing,” she went on. “Some vandalism. I’m sure it’s his doing. Or else he hired someone to do it. He doesn’t seem the sort to get his hands dirty.”
“And what have the local cops done about it?” Cord asked. He used the note function on his phone to type in DeWayne’s name.
“Nothing because there’s never any proof. DeWayne always covers his tracks.”
Cord stared at her. “You think he’s capable of murder or attempted murder?”
Now, she had to pause. “Maybe.” Then she shook her head. “But I heard my attacker speak, and it wasn’t DeWayne’s voice.”
“He could have disguised it,” Cord suggested. “Or else hired someone to do the job. You said he didn’t like to get his hands dirty.”
That was true, but there was still something that didn’t make sense. “Why would DeWayne come after me here in Appaloosa Pass?”
“Because you’re more vulnerable here,” Cord answered without hesitating. “You have six hands at your place in Comal County, but here it’s only Rocky and you. Plus, you’re distracted, worried about Willie Lee. That made you an easier target.”
The word—target—made her want to throw up. “I was distracted at my house, too, after I heard about Willie Lee,” she pointed out. “I was there for several days before I made arrangements to come here.”
Cord didn’t miss a beat. “And it would be far easier to get onto the place here sight unseen than it would be to get on your ranch in Comal County. I’ve seen pictures of your ranch. There, the house is in the center of acres of pasture. No trees, no place for a would-be killer to hide while sneaking onto the grounds.”
Karina couldn’t argue with any of that, and she could go even one step further with it. “I think it might have been DeWayne who planted Willie Lee’s DNA at that crime scene.”
Cord stared at her, not exactly rolling his eyes but almost.
“Willie Lee stood up to DeWayne, and DeWayne hates him. They’ve had plenty of verbal run-ins. And one not so verbal,” she added in a mumble.
She hated to explain this because it might make Cord believe Willie Lee was a violent man. He wasn’t. Not normally anyway.
“I’m listening,” Cord said when she hesitated.
Best just to tell him because Cord would find out anyway now that he was going to have DeWayne investigated. “Willie Lee punched DeWayne after DeWayne insulted me. Please don’t make me repeat the names DeWayne called me. Anyway, it was only about a week later when Willie Lee’s DNA was found at the crime scene.”
“Now exactly how would DeWayne have managed to do that?” There was so much skepticism in Cord’s voice.
But maybe she could do something to remove a bit of that doubt. At least she could try. “The DNA found at the crime scene was in some chewing gum. Willie Lee quit smoking a few years ago, and he’s been a gum chewer ever since. It wouldn’t have been hard for DeWayne to get a piece that Willie Lee had spit out on the ground.”
Cord’s eyebrow rose more than a fraction. “And then what? DeWayne happened to find a crime scene so he could plant the gum?”
It did sound far-fetched when Cord put it that way. Still, it was possible. “Maybe DeWayne held on to the gum for a while until he could plant it. And then perhaps DeWayne just happened to find that scene. I mean, it wasn’t that far from my ranch and his land.”
“Ten miles,” Cord quickly declared, which meant he’d memorized all the details. With reason. It was the first time DNA had been recovered from the crime scene of the Moonlight Strangler.
Cord leaned in closer again. Too close. Probably a lawman’s ploy to violate her personal space and make her uneasy so she’d spill any secrets she was hiding. Sadly, it would have worked if she’d had secrets.
She didn’t.
But it also worked in a different way, too. For a man who hated her, her body certainly didn’t let her forget that she was a woman. And that he was a man.
“I’ve been looking into Willie Lee’s life,” Cord went on. “He was in the area at the time of that murder because his signature is on a feed purchase in town.”
She knew all about Cord’s efforts to seal the deal and pin these murders, all of them, on Willie Lee. And Cord had indeed managed to place Willie Lee in the areas of several of the murders. That still didn’t convince her.
Karina leaned in closer to him, too. “You’re asking me to believe that a man I’ve known for fifteen years, half of my life, murdered women and then calmly went on as if nothing had happened. A man I trust—”
“A man you don’t really know,” Cord interrupted. “According to your own statement, he just showed up one day, and your father hired him. Willie Lee had no references. No past. He just materialized out of thin air fifteen years ago.”
Karina knew there was an explanation for that. One that Willie Lee could give her if he ever came out of that coma.
Especially since Cord’s DNA had proved that he was Willie Lee’s son.
“Do you have any childhood memories whatsoever of Willie Lee?” she suddenly asked.
“None. Neither does Addie.” He moved away from her. Fast. “I’ll have Jericho get DeWayne in for questioning,” Cord said, and he sent another text. Apparently ending their conversation about his father.
Karina wanted to press him on the subject. Actually, what she wanted Cord to do was remember that Willie Lee was the same loving, caring man that he’d been to her over the years. He wasn’t just her hired hand. He’d become a father figure to her after her own dad had died of lung cancer when Karina was just seventeen. Her mother had never been the same after that. Had never really been part of Karina’s life, or even her own life. Her mom had finally ended it all with sleeping pills.
And Willie Lee had been there to help Karina get through that, too.
“Anyone else other than DeWayne who might want to hurt you?” Cord persisted. “An ex-boyfriend, maybe?” he repeated. “Or a current boyfriend?”
She seriously doubted he was fishing to find out if she was romantically involved with anyone. “No current boyfriend. No recent ex, either. The ranch keeps me busy,” Karina added because she felt she had to add something so Cord wouldn’t think she was a loser.
Though he probably thought that anyway. A loser and very gullible to believe in Willie Lee’s innocence.
“How about any disgruntled employees?” Cord asked a moment later. “Or just someone you got a bad vibe about?”
She opened her mouth to say no, but that wasn’t true. “There might be someone else. Might. A couple of days after Willie Lee was captured, a man showed up at the ranch. Harley Kramer. He said he was an old friend of Willie Lee’s, of my mother’s, too. But I’d never heard either of them mention him.”
“What’d he want?” Cord asked.
“He said he wanted to look through Willie Lee’s things, that Willie Lee had some old photos he wanted. I told him that wouldn’t be possible, not without Willie Lee’s permission. He left, and I thought that was the end of it.” She paused. “I definitely got bad vibes from him, and it wasn’t just because of his scars.”
“Scars?”
She motioned to her face. “He’d been burned and had obviously had a skin graft. And I know that sounds shallow to be creeped out by a guy with a scarred face, but it wasn’t just that. It was the way he looked at me. Then, I caught him sneaking into the cabin where Willie Lee