Roeder.
One of the guards leaned over him and checked his pulse. “Roeder’s dead,” he said over the mike. “Stabbed in the chest.”
The warden cursed, then turned back to Banning. “You have five seconds to tell me the truth.”
Banning paled and swiped at his forehead, then took a step back, panic on his face as if he was about to run.
A buzzing sounded, then another guard stepped in, folded his arms and blocked the doorway. “I mean it, Banning,” Case snapped.
“Fess up or I’ll arrest you for accessory to murder,” Miles said. “I don’t imagine you made friends with every prisoner in here. How do you think you’ll like spending time in the cell with some of the ones you didn’t buddy up to?”
Blackpaw grunted. “Especially now they know ratting you out got Roeder killed.”
Banning cursed. “All right, all right. But I didn’t have nothing to do with Dugan murdering those women.”
“What about June Kelly, the woman whose death enabled Dugan’s release?”
“I don’t know anything about that either,” Banning said in a shaky voice.
“But you covered up for Dugan’s visitor, Pruitt Ables.” Miles gripped the man by the collar.
Banning shuddered. “Dugan paid me a lot of money to erase the name. He didn’t explain why and I didn’t ask.”
“But you knew something wasn’t right,” Miles barked. “So who in the hell is he to Dugan?”
Banning’s chest rose up and down as he struggled to breathe. “Ables is Dugan’s half brother.”
Miles gritted his teeth. A half brother that none of them had even known existed.
A man who shared the same genes.
A man who might have killed Kelly to set his brother free. A man who might be helping him track down Timmy.
* * *
PANIC TUGGED AT JORDAN as she felt Haddock’s pulse one last time. Maybe she’d misread it, but no...there was no pulse. He was definitely dead.
Fear knotted her stomach and she scanned the area, half expecting the shooter to fire again. But a heartbeat passed and danger echoed in the air with only the sound of the whistling wind swirling around her.
She had to get back to the boys.
Adrenaline surged through her, and she pivoted, keeping her eyes peeled for an attack. Haddock had been protecting her and Timmy.
Had the shooter murdered him to get to Timmy?
Her hands shook as she pawed through some scrub brush and hurried back to the camp. She kept her gun clenched tightly in her hand but she needed her phone. She had to call Miles.
A sound behind her made her jump, but she spun around and realized it was an opossum. Another twig snapped from a limb above and fell to the ground.
She stepped on it and picked up her pace, racing back to the camp. Her breath stalled in her chest as she drew near it, and she raked her gaze across the sleeping bags beside the fire. At first glance, all the boys seemed to be safe.
And she didn’t spot Dugan or a shooter.
Relief warred with fear, and she forced a calming breath, then strode toward them. The two counselors had sacked out. Wayling and Malcolm were side by side while Rory lay on his side facing Timmy as if they’d been talking before they’d fallen asleep.
Gravel and dirt crunched beneath her boots as she approached. She leaned over Timmy, relief spilling through her when she realized he was sound asleep.
And safe.
But Haddock was still dead, and she had to contact Miles.
She tiptoed past Timmy, then made her way to her duffel bag and dug inside. A second later, she retrieved her phone and punched Miles’s number. The need to make sure Timmy and the others were safe clawed at her as she listened to the phone ring over and over.
Timmy began to stir and she knelt beside him and rubbed his back, hoping to ward off one of the nightmares that haunted him.
Finally after the fifth ring, the voice mail clicked on. She was just about to leave a message, then phone Brody, when suddenly a limb cracked behind her. The scent of the firewood mingled with something else—a man’s cologne.
She spun around and saw a shadow hovering above her, then suddenly a hard hand reached out and grabbed the phone away from her. A firm arm slid around her neck and he jerked her head backward.
“Hello, Jordan. Give me the gun, or Timmy’s dead.”
* * *
THE EXCITEMENT OF FINALLY having a clue zinged through Miles. If he could find Ables, he might be able to prove he’d been working with Dugan. Or at least that he had killed June Kelly and that Dugan had been guilty of the other murders and belonged on death row.
“Thank you, Warden.” Miles shook the man’s hand. “This could be the missing link to this case.”
“I hope you find the SOB,” Case said. “I’ve seen a lot of men go through this place. Most guilty, although a few I thought might have been wrongly incarcerated. Dugan wasn’t one of them.”