He left her side and walked over to Luke.
"What do you have there?" he said eyeing the shredder
curiously.
Luke pointed to the check still hanging from
the teeth of the shredder in his arms. "Looks like she shredded a
check signed by James Barton. Guess that was the most incriminating
evidence against him," Luke said then laughed, "Pretty stupid of
her to do that though, considering these are only copies that can
be replaced. But then she doesn't appear to be too bright to begin
with by hooking up with that prick anyway."
He pushed the machine into the cop's arms.
"Guess you'll be needing this for evidence."
"Yeah, thanks," the cop said shaking his
head. He put it down on the table and read Diana her rights, while
she sobbed and wailed hysterically, then he led her out of the
room. He came back a couple of minutes later and got the paperwork
and the shredder.
He shook Luke's hand, "Looks like this one
is going to be open and shut as soon as we locate Barton. I think
Miss Tomley will tell us anything we want to know once we get her
down to the station and in a cell for a few minutes."
Luke didn't think she'd last that long. He
just hoped she could help the police find James Barton. He had an
itchy feeling in his gut and he didn't like it. He knew that
feeling well from his years in law enforcement. It mean something
ugly was about to come down the pike.
"I sure hope so," Luke told him before he
left.
Cassie, who had sat back down at the table,
looked over at the banker, who was busy flirting with the real
estate lady, then asked, "James banks at your bank too, can you
freeze his account before he can spend all that money he
stole?"
"Not without a court order on personal
accounts," he said then smiled at the woman in the red suit beside
him.
"How can I get one?"
"Hire an attorney, he'll be able to tell
you."
"But I don't have any damned money--he stole
it all!" Cassie yelled and stood up to lean over the table. "If
that bastard gets away with all my money, I'm going to sue your ass
for taking those checks Diana signed. You have my signature card on
file, and it's as obvious as your toupee that they were not signed
by me."
The banker flushed red and patted the top of
his head, before clearing his throat. Luke wanted to howl. Cassie
really could take care of herself, he was proud of how she was
handling herself. "Now, do you think you could make an exception
and freeze the damned account? Let him try and get the court order
to have it unfrozen. He won't have a leg to stand on."
The man paled then and tugged at his tie.
"Well, I can talk to the bank president, I suppose. He might agree
to do it considering the circumstances."
"Then stop flirting and get your ass to it!
Call him now--do what you have to. Time's a wasting!"
The man shot up from his chair and shoved
his papers back into his briefcase, gave her an agitated look, then
said goodbye to the real estate commission woman and left.
Two down, one to go, Luke thought. Cassie
must've been in the same mindset, because she rounded on the real
estate commission woman who had just stood to gather her things to
leave. "No, you don't...you're not leaving yet," she told her
fiercely. "As you can see, I had nothing to do with the missing
escrow funds, so there's no reason for you to suspend my
license."
"You'll have to talk to the appeals board,
file an appeal of the decision and wait for their monthly meeting
for an answer," the woman told her as if reciting from a rule
book.
"Ah, hell no...I'm not waiting that long,"
Cassie told her then pinned her with a stare. "Tell me...do you
have a boss?"
The woman swallowed then nodded as she slung
her purse over her shoulder.
"I want his or her name. I think I need to
file a complaint against you for unprofessional conduct."
The woman snorted and stiffened her spine.
"What have I done that's unprofessional?'
"Well, first you flirted with my fiancé,
then you moved on to the cop who was here, and when neither of them
was interested, you moved on to the mealy-mouth banker. I'd say
that's pretty unprofessional when you're supposed to be conducting
an independent investigation into such a serious matter as
fraud."
She harrumphed then patted her hair. "That's
absurd. I didn't do that."
"I'd beg to differ, and I feel very sure I
can get statements from all three that you did," Cassie told her
firmly. "I'm asking you to reconsider your decision,
nicely.
" She let her eyes purposely travel to the woman's
left hand where there was a very large wedding ring. The woman
didn't miss her unspoken point.
After engaging Cassie in a stare down for a
good while, she finally sighed and said, "I'll wait two weeks
before I file the suspension of your license, since the accounts
are frozen...
unless
one of your affected clients files a
complaint against you with the licensing board."
"They won't. The escrow account had less
than two thousand dollars in it, and I plan on putting that much
back in there to settle it."
"Good, that will help. But if you have
pending deals, and the account is frozen, you won't be able to
close on those homes. They might still file a complaint against
you."
"I'm going over my pending deals when you
leave and calling the clients to explain the delay," Cassie told
her shortly, hesitated a moment, then asked, "I know he's not the
principal broker here, but he's an associate and a partner. You've
seen the evidence of what he's done, are you going to suspend
James' license?"
"Yes, definitely, right away."
"Good," Cassie told her and then walked past
her and out of the room with her head held high.
Luke followed behind the real estate lady
who kept walking to the front door, while he hooked a left into the
office Cassie had gone to. He wanted to fucking applaud...Cassie
had been spectacular. She was already sitting behind her desk,
flipping through her organizer, when he walked into her office.
"Well done, sugar. You were
amazing...instead of selling real estate you should have been a
Philadelphia lawyer," he told her and laughed loudly, before he sat
in a chair in front of her desk.
She huffed out a relieved breath. "Yeah, it
worked out pretty well for now. At least I bought some time...you
were the amazing one, sugar. Spill on how you figured out Diana was
involved?"
"I guess my years of law enforcement didn't
go to waste," he said and chuckled. "She was nervous as a
long-tailed cat when I handed her those papers to copy...and
stupid. She said some things that raised red flags. Then when she
brought you the copies and you saw the missing check...it just
clicked."
"Well it's a good thing you're so damned
smart, because I was blind about her...and James." Cassie dropped
her chin to her chest and fiddled with her organizer.
"It's not your fault, darlin'. Those two
deserve each other and they just took you for a ride."
"I've got a lot to do here, but I really
want to go check on my house. Make sure he hasn't done something
there too. I had the locks changed, but that doesn't mean he
couldn't get in if he really wanted to."
"You're right...want me to go check?"
"I need to go with you to see for myself,
besides I don't want to be stranded here, my car is in Bowie."
"So that little silver number is your
car?"
"Yeah. I just bought it a few months
ago."
"Why the hell did you drive that old pickup
truck back to Bowie then? he huffed out a frustrated sigh. "That
damned thing is on its last legs. You're just lucky it waited to
break down until you got to Bowie," he told her with worry.
She grinned at him then said, "Lots of
memories tied up with old Bessie. Good and bad..." Cassie knew her
words would give him a flashback of the night they'd made love in
the bed of that truck. "And I thought it was appropriate since
she'd carried me out of Bowie to drive her back."
Luke grumbled under his breath something
about women and their notions, and then he pinned her with his
eyes. "Okay, so you want to make your calls now or go check on your
house?"
"I have four important calls to make, and I
can do that on the road." She grabbed the organizer and her purse
then stood. "There's really no reason for me to be here, I'm not
doing any new business for now, so I can just do the rest from home
tomorrow."
Luke stood and pulled her into his arms then
kissed her on the forehead. "Lead on darlin'. Just tell me what I
can do to help."
God, she loved this man. She'd asked him to
let her handle things, and so far he had. He'd been supportive, and
loving and helped her without trying to take over. "Luke thank you
so much for helping me...you've been fantastic."
"You don't need to thank me, sugar...I'm
doing it because I want to help you tie up your ends, so I can
kidnap you back to Bowie and marry you before you change your
mind."
"There you go again with that kidnapping
thing," she chuckled and swatted his chest.
"I won't be changing my mind, Luke." Cassie
pressed up as far as she could on her toes, which wasn't far
because of the cast, and gently kissed his lips. "I love you."
Luke growled and hugged her to him tightly.
"Let's go before I change
my
mind and put that desk behind
you to good use."
Thirty minutes later, they pulled up in the
driveway of her modest two-bedroom bungalow in a quiet suburban
neighborhood. Like most homes in Arizona, hers had a rock and
cactus garden in front, instead of flowers. The sandy rocky soil
didn't suit them...or grass...she hated not having grass. That was
one thing she didn't like about Arizona, how dry and colorless it
was in places. Her backyard was pretty nice, with a few palm trees
for shade, and a couple of hardy shrubs, but it was mostly rock and
dirt too.
Cassie slid out of the truck and walked
toward the porch with Luke right behind her. When they reached the
front door, she unzipped her purse and dug around for the key the
locksmith had mailed to her at the ranch. She'd just pulled it out,
when Luke pushed her to the side and studied the door. He put a
finger to his lips indicating she should be quiet then mouthed for
her to call 911, before he pushed the door open without even
turning the knob.
An involuntary gasp was pulled from Cassie.
He shot her a look and pointed firmly at her to stay there. She
nodded and stepped back off the porch and pulled out her cell. She
swallowed hard against the knot in her throat from worry that
someone was in her house and Luke might get hurt. As far as she
knew, he was unarmed.
Her fingers trembled over the keypad of her
phone, but she managed to dial the numbers and whisper to the
operator what the problem was. The woman wouldn't let her off the
phone, and she desperately wanted to go and find Luke to make sure
he wasn't hurt. She decided she'd go through the back and see what
was going on. Cassie moved around the side of the house between the
high board privacy fence and stucco wall, then carefully took small
quiet steps to the back gate.
Right as she reached for the latch to open
the gate, she heard loud male voices arguing and then a gunshot.
Cassie screamed and the operator asked her what was going on. She
told the woman to send help fast, because someone might be shot
then disconnected the phone and dropped it into her purse.
Hobbling as fast as she could back toward
the front door, Cassie tripped on a rock right at the edge of the
house and went down on her knees hard. She looked up and saw James
run from the house with a gun in his hand, and her heart fell to
her stomach. Luke was right behind him running out of the house and
she saw him holding his side, his hand covered in blood.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cassie screamed at the top of her lungs and
pushed back up to her feet, chasing after them. Although she
thought he was injured, Luke didn't seem to be affected as he ran
after James chasing him down the street. She'd just reached the
sidewalk and looked down the block to see Luke tackle him then
twist his arm up behind his back and hold the other over his head.
She didn't know she could jog with a cast on her leg, but Cassie
managed it somehow and reached them to see Luke slam James hand
against the pavement several times until he dropped the gun and it
skittered away.
She saw a few of her neighbors had seen the
ruckus and were either on their porches or on the sidewalk gawking.
She yelled, "Call 911 someone's been shot," and then went over to
kick the gun out of James' reach. It slid along the pavement and
came to a stop by the tire on a black sedan, evidently where James
had been running.
Luke was breathing heavily and she saw blood
dripping down the thigh of his blue jeans. She ran over to him, but
he looked up at her with desolate eyes and said, "Stay back, baby,"
He was holding onto James tightly, while he wiggled underneath him.
Luke put his knee in James' back. "Be still or I'm going to slam
your head against this fucking pavement," he ground out and then
flinched.