Читать книгу: «Scene Of The Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?»

CARLA CASSIDY is a New York Times bestselling author who has written more than one hundred books for Harlequin. Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Sheriff Olivia Bradford—She’s come to Lost Lagoon to ferret out corruption and is stunned to find herself boss to a man she’d had a one-night stand with five years before.

Deputy Daniel Carson—He’s never forgotten that night he’d spent with Olivia. But now that she’s reopened the Shelly Sinclair murder case, she’s been threatened, and he’s determined to keep her safe from the danger closing in.

Eric Baptiste—He’d fallen in love with Shelly and made plans to leave town with her. Had she decided to stay in Lost Lagoon and he killed her?

Neil Sampson—Did the handsome, charismatic city councilman have a secret that he was willing to kill to keep?

Mac Sinclair—Shelly’s older brother had hated Bo McBride. Had his hatred for his sister’s boyfriend boiled over into an accidental death of Shelly?

Bo McBride—Shelly’s boyfriend at the time of her murder. Had he killed her in a fit of passion because she’d decided to leave him and Lost Lagoon behind?

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Daniel Carson sat at the small desk in the Lost Lagoon sheriff station. The blinds at the windows were pulled shut, giving the office complete privacy. Outside the small glass-enclosed room, the sound of the other men in the squad room created a low buzz of constant conversation.

They would all be discussing the arrival of the new sheriff, one appointed by the state attorney to take over and root out any corruption in the department until new elections could be held in the small town.

It had been almost a month since the former sheriff, Trey Walker, and Mayor Jim Burns had been arrested for drug trafficking and attempted murder. They had been moving their product from the swamp lagoon through underground tunnels to Trey’s house where it was trucked out of the state. The scandal had rocked the tiny Mississippi swamp town.

As deputy sheriff, Daniel had stepped into the position of interim acting sheriff, a job he’d never wanted and couldn’t wait to end.

She should be arriving at any moment. Sheriff Olivia Bradford, sent here from Natchez. Daniel knew nothing about her, but he expected a pit bull, a woman who not only had the ability to fire anyone at will, but who also had the power of the bigwigs of the state behind her.

It was no wonder the men were anxious to meet their new boss—anxious and more than a little bit apprehensive. Heads would roll if she found anything or anyone she didn’t deem appropriate for the department. Everyone was concerned about their jobs.

Daniel checked his watch. Ten minutes after ten. He’d been told she would arrive around ten. He was probably the only one in the building who couldn’t wait for her to arrive.

He leaned forward in the chair, unfastened the sheriff badge from his shirt and placed it on the top of the desk. He whirled it like a top. The spinning motion mirrored the dizzying chaos the drug scandal and the near murder of Savannah Sinclair and Daniel’s best friend, Deputy Josh Griffin, had unleashed inside his head for the past month.

The newly discovered tunnels that ran beneath the entire town were still being mapped and explored by a team of volunteers under the supervision of Frank Kean, a former mayor who had stepped back into the official position when Jim Burns had been arrested. Eventually a special election would vote in a new mayor and sheriff, but not until Sheriff Olivia Bradford conducted a full investigation.

Daniel stared down at the sheriff badge. He’d be glad to give up his position of authority and return to the squad room as just another deputy. He much preferred being in the field rather than stuck behind a desk.

He became aware of the absence of conversation through the closed office door. The men in the squad room had apparently fallen silent and that could only mean one thing. Sheriff Olivia Bradford had arrived.

A firm knock fell on the office door and then it opened and she stepped in. His mind refused to work properly as he got his first look at the woman.

Lily. His head exploded with memories of a woman he’d met five years ago at a crime conference in New Orleans, a woman he’d wound up in bed with for a single night of explosive sex.

Her dark chocolate eyes widened as she gazed at him. She froze, as still as a sleeping gator on a log. It was obvious she recognized him, too.

She cleared her throat, turned and closed the door behind her and when she faced him again, her pretty features were schooled in a business-like coolness. “Sheriff Daniel Carson?” she asked.

“Former sheriff now that you’ve arrived,” he replied and got up from the desk. Okay, so they were going to pretend that they didn’t know each other. They were going to act as if that night five years ago hadn’t happened.

“I’m Sheriff Olivia Bradford,” she replied, a statement that was unnecessary.

“And you’re here to take over for me.” He pointed to the badge on the desk. He walked around the desk and she made her way behind it and sank down.

She hadn’t changed much in the time since he’d last seen her. Her dark brown eyes were still pools of mystery and her long black hair was caught in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck.

That night it had been loose and silky in his fingers and her eyes had glowed with desire. The khaki uniform she wore couldn’t hide the thrust of her breasts, her slender waist or her long shapely legs.

Tangled sheets, soft skin against his and low, husky moans, the memories tumbled over themselves in his brain and he desperately tried to shove them away.

She sat down and motioned him into one of the two straight-backed chairs in front of the desk. As he sat, she grabbed the badge from the top of the desk and pinned it onto her breast pocket.

When she looked at him once again her eyes were flat and cool. She appeared the consummate professional. “I’ve been filled in about the issues with the former sheriff and mayor. I’m sure you have heard that my job here is to clean up any further corruption that might linger in the department. I also would like to go through any crime records for the past five years or so, since Trey Walker was sheriff.”

“I’ll see to it that you get whatever you need,” he replied. It was as if he was having a little bit of an out-of-body experience as he tried to process the woman he’d known intimately and briefly before and the woman who now sat across from him.

“I hope my taking over doesn’t stir up any resentment with you.”

He laughed drily. “Trust me, I couldn’t wait to get rid of this position. I never had any desire to be sheriff. It was just something that got thrust on me due to unforeseen circumstances.”

“Good, although my job here isn’t to make friends with anyone.” She spoke the words with a slight upthrust of her chin. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but my basic job is an internal investigation into both the way crimes were handled under Sheriff Walker and to look at the current employees and see if there are more bad players in the department.”

“I’m sure you’ll find that most of us are all working on the same page,” he replied. Throughout the years, had she ever thought about that night with him? He’d certainly been haunted off and on with memories and wondering whatever happened to the passionate woman he’d met in a bar.

He noticed the gold wedding band on her finger. So, she was married. A faint disappointment winged through him, surprising him. He had no interest in marriage, and certainly that single night they had shared hadn’t grown into any kind of a relationship with her.

She was his boss now, and both the wedding ring on her finger and the coolness in her eyes let him know the brief encounter he’d shared with her wouldn’t absolve him from intense scrutiny in her investigation. Not that he would ever mess around with a married woman and not that he expected to be treated any differently from any of the other men.

They’d had a one-night hookup years ago and hadn’t seen each other again. Hell, he hadn’t even known her real full name. He’d only known her as Lily.

“I’d like to have a meeting with all the deputies at two this afternoon. Could you arrange that for me?” she asked, breaking into his wayward thoughts.

“Yes, I’ll see to it that all of the men are here at that time. We have a nineteen-man work force. In the meantime, do you want me to start gathering the crime files? I’m assuming the employment records are in there.” He gestured to a nearby file cabinet.

“Yes, please get me the files. I don’t want to waste any time.” She stood and walked to the file cabinet and Daniel took that as a dismissal.

He left the office and closed the door behind him. Half a dozen pairs of eyes were staring at him. He ignored them all and walked over to the desk where he had sat a month ago as a deputy.

As he eased down in his chair, several of the other deputies surrounded him. “What’s she like?” Deputy Josh Griffin asked.

“She looked like a mean witch when she walked in,” Ray McClure exclaimed. “A great-looking mean witch,” he added with a smirk.

Daniel held up a hand to silence any further questioning from any of them. “If you thought she was going to be a soft touch because she’s a woman, get that thought right out of your head. I suggest you all be on your toes and conduct yourselves as professionals. My gut feeling is that she’s going to be tough as nails and none of us are secure in our jobs.”

It was a sober group of men who returned to their desks. Daniel stared down at his blotter, still trying to process that Olivia Bradford was the young woman he’d known for a night as hot, sexy Lily.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He had calls to make to the men who weren’t in to let them know a full staff meeting had been called for two that afternoon.

After that he would be busy pulling files from the small room dedicated to files and evidence in the back of the building.

While he was completing these tasks, he had to figure out a way to forget that he’d ever known, even briefly, a sexy, passionate woman named Lily.

* * *

OLIVIA GRABBED THE employment files for the men on the force and then sank back down at the desk. She’d nearly lost it when she’d walked into the office and seen that man again.

Daniel. She’d never expected to run into him after all these years. Shock still washed over her as she thought of the handsome dark-haired, green-eyed man.

That night in New Orleans she’d been a twenty-five-year-old deputy who had lost her partner and good friend in a shoot-out the week before. She hadn’t wanted to attend the conference but her boss had insisted that it would be good for her to get away from Natchez and her grief.

She’d kept to herself during the four-day event, venturing out to a bar near the hotel only on the final night in town. She hadn’t been looking for company. She’d wanted only to drown her grief in margaritas and then return to the hotel to pack and prepare to leave early the next morning.

She hadn’t expected Daniel to sit next to her, and she certainly hadn’t anticipated finding succor for her grief in his arms. It had been a foolish, impulsive night, and hopefully he had no idea how the unexpected sight of him had shaken her to her very core.

She shoved away thoughts of Daniel and instead spent the next hour focused on the employment records for the eighteen men and one woman who comprised the law enforcement in Lost Lagoon, Mississippi.

Most of the deputies had been born and raised in Lost Lagoon, although there were a few who had been hired in from other towns. There were no disciplinary notes, nothing to indicate that Trey Walker had endured any issues with any of them.

But Trey Walker had proven himself to be a crook and a lowlife, and she didn’t trust his record keeping. At noon she pulled out a chicken salad sandwich that her mother had made for her before she’d left their rental home that morning.

Although Olivia had arrived in town two days earlier, she’d spent those days turning a renovated shanty on the swamp side of town into a livable space for the duration of her stay.

The place had come partially furnished, but Olivia had pulled a trailer behind her car, which had carried the extra furnishing and personal items to make their stay here as comfortable as possible.

She’d just finished her sandwich when a knock sounded on the door. She called for the person to come in and Daniel entered carrying a box. He set it on her desk.

“That’s the files on all the crimes that have occurred for the last five years,” he said.

She eyed the box dubiously. “That’s it?”

He cast her a smile that instantly shot a spark of heat in her. She’d forgotten about that sexy smile of his. “We’re a small town. Except for the last couple of months, there’s been very little crime in Lost Lagoon.”

She looked back at the box, unwilling to hold eye contact with him while that smile still lingered on his features. “That would be a daily box for Natchez.”

“You aren’t in Natchez anymore. I got hold of all the officers and they will be here at two for a meeting.”

She finally glanced back up at him. “Thank you, I appreciate the cooperation.”

He nodded and then left the office. She stared at the box and then set it down next to the desk. She’d take it home with her to look at thoroughly that evening. In the meantime, she had to gather her thoughts for the meeting that was to take place in a little more than an hour.

The responsibility that had been placed on her shoulders was heavy, and she was aware that many eyes would be on her work here. She wasn’t afraid of hard work and she didn’t worry about the scrutiny.

She had worked long and hard to climb the ranks in the Natchez Sheriff Department. She’d taken on cases nobody else wanted, worked harder and longer than anyone one else and had garnered not only a stellar reputation, but also dozens of honors and awards.

She wasn’t about to let this temporary stint in Lost Lagoon ruin her reputation. She would do her job here and do it well.

It was exactly two o’clock when she stood in the front of a conference room where nineteen deputies sat in chairs before her. She wasn’t nervous—rather, she was determined that all of the men would not only respect her, but also fear her just a little bit.

There was only one female deputy and she sat in the front row. According to the employment records she was forty-three-year-old Emma Carpenter and had worked as a deputy for the past ten years.

“Good afternoon,” Olivia began briskly. “As all of you probably know by now, I’m Sheriff Olivia Bradford and I’m here to ferret out any further corruption that might be in this department. Consider yourself on notice that I’ll be looking not only at your work performance here but potentially investigating your personal lives, as well.”

Her words were met with a grumble of discontent. She ignored it. As she had told Daniel earlier, she wasn’t here to make friends.

“Over the next couple of days, I’ll be meeting with each of you individually,” she continued.

“Looking for snitches,” a voice in the back muttered.

She identified the man who had spoken as a small, wiry officer with ferret-like features. She stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment, until he broke eye contact with her and looked down at the floor.

“I’m not looking for snitches. I’ll be getting input from each of you on how to make this department run more efficiently and I’ll also be looking for anyone who isn’t working in the best interest of law enforcement.” She was aware of the warning in her voice and she also knew her tough words wouldn’t make her the most popular person in the room.

Her gaze fell on Daniel in the second row. As deputy sheriff he would have worked closely with Trey Walker. Was he the upright, moral man she’d like him to be, or did he hide secrets that would put them at odds?

Time would tell. She’d already identified ferret-face as a potential troublemaker, and she had a feeling by reading Emma Carpenter’s body language that the woman was potentially a suck-up, probably assuming since they were both women they’d share some kind of special relationship.

When Olivia put on her badge, she was neither male nor female, she was simply an officer of the law. She didn’t like suck-ups and she definitely didn’t like troublemakers.

She finished the meeting by instructing everyone to go about their business as usual and then returned to her office and closed the door.

For the next couple of hours, Olivia continued to study the background checks and any other pertinent information that was in the files about the men and the one woman who would be working for her.

It was her task to find out if any of those lawmen had also been involved in the drug-trafficking scheme. It was hard to believe that Trey Walker and Jim Burns had acted all alone, but it was possible nobody in the sheriff’s department had known anything about it. She hoped that was the case. There was nothing she hated worse than a dirty deputy.

Even as she tried to stay focused on the paperwork in front of her, visions of Daniel intruded again and again, breaking her concentration.

She was still stunned that fate had brought them together again. Thankfully, he hadn’t mentioned the night in New Orleans when they’d sat in the bar and talked about jazz music and Mardi Gras. She’d seen him before at the conference, so she knew he was a lawman somewhere, but neither of them had talked about where they worked or where they were from.

They’d had drink after drink and hadn’t mentioned crime or their work. Their conversation had been superficial and flirtatious, just what she’d needed to escape the grip of nearly overwhelming grief.

What happened after they’d left the bar and gone to his hotel room had been crazy and wild and wonderful, but she’d left town early the next morning never dreaming that she’d ever see him again.

It was just after five when she decided to call it a day. She wanted to spend most of the evening going through the box of files that should hold not only information about the recent arrests of Trey Walker and Jim Burns, but also any crime investigations that had occurred under Walker’s watch.

She grabbed her purse and the box and headed out of the office. She had only taken a couple of steps into the squad room when Daniel jumped up from his desk and took the box from her. “I’ll carry it to your car,” he said.

“Thanks,” she replied. Tension filled her. Did he intend to mention that night once they stepped out of the station and were all alone? She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t even want it mentioned. It had been an anomaly and had nothing to do with who she was or had been.

He led her to the back door of the building that would open up on the parking lot. “Have you gotten settled in okay here in town?” he asked as they stepped outside and into the late August heat.

“I’ve rented one of the renovated places along the swamp, and, yes, I’m settled in just fine.” She walked briskly toward her car.

“Have you had a chance to look around town?”

“Not really, although I did meet with Mayor Frank Kean yesterday and he assured me his full cooperation while I’m here. I’m hoping to do some sightseeing in the next day or two.” They reached her car and she opened the passenger door to allow him to set the box inside.

“The Lost Lagoon Café is a great place to eat, but I’d stay away from the diner. George’s Diner is actually just a hamburger joint, but if you want really good food then I’d recommend Jimmy’s Place. It’s a bar and grill that serves great food.”

“Thanks for the information, but I will probably eat at home most of the time.”

He placed the box in the passenger seat and she closed the door and hurried around to the driver door. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said and before he could say anything else she slid into the seat and closed the door.

As she pulled away, she glanced in her rearview mirror. He stood in the same place, a tall, ridiculously handsome man watching her leave.

She’d been instantly attracted to him when they’d met in the bar and she was surprised to realize that after all this time she was still attracted to him.

She squeezed the steering wheel more tightly. No matter how attracted she was to Daniel and he to her, nothing would come of it. There was too much to lose.

Her tension eased the moment she pulled into the short driveway in front of the small bungalow-type house. It was painted a bright yellow, not only setting it off from the green of the swamp land behind it, but also making for a bit of cheer among the row of ramshackle and deserted shanties that lined the street. Only a few of the shanties had been renovated and appeared like gems among the others.

She got out of the car and went around and grabbed the box from the passenger seat. She hadn’t even made it to the door when it opened and her mother smiled at her.

Rose Christie had been a godsend over the last couple of years. Olivia had always been close to her mother, but their relationship had deepened when Olivia’s father had died of an unexpected heart attack seven years ago.

Rose opened the door wider to allow Olivia to walk into the tiny living room that held the futon where Olivia slept, an upholstered rocking chair and a small television.

The kitchen area was little more than a row of the necessary appliances with room for a small round table and chairs.

Olivia had just set the box of files on the top of the table and taken off her gun belt, which went on the top of one of the kitchen cabinets, when a squeal came from one of the two bedrooms. Olivia crouched down and braced herself as a dark-haired, green-eyed four-year-old came barreling toward her.

“Mommy, you’re home!” She threw herself into Olivia’s awaiting arms.

Olivia pulled her daughter close enough that she could nuzzle her sweet little neck. “Ah, nothing smells better than my Lily flower.”

Lily giggled and hugged Olivia tight. “Silly Mommy, Nanny’s sugar cookies smell better than a flower.”

“Not better than my Lily flower,” Olivia said as the two broke apart. “Come sit and tell me what you did today.”

Olivia and Lily sat side by side on the futon while Rose bustled in the kitchen to prepare dinner. “I played dolls and then Nanny and I watched a movie.”

As Olivia watched and listened to her beautiful daughter relay the events of her day, her heart swelled with love.

Unexpected and unplanned, Lily had added a richness, a joy in Olivia’s life that she’d never expected to have. She was bright and more than a little precocious, and now Olivia couldn’t imagine her life without Lily.

By eight thirty dinner had been eaten, Lily’s bath was complete and she was in bed in one of the two bedrooms. Olivia’s mother had retired to the other bedroom, leaving Olivia alone with a box of files and conflicting thoughts she’d never believed she’d have to entertain.

She’d never thought the day would come when she’d meet the man who had fathered Lily. She’d never considered what she might do if she did run into him again.

Daniel.

She was his boss and he was the father of her child. Should she tell him about Lily or should she keep the secret to herself? What was the right thing to do for everyone involved?

She didn’t know the answer.

Hoping the right answer would eventually present itself to her, she opened the box of files and pulled out the first one.