The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4) by Delores Fossen Page B

there until April had pointed out the possibility.
    Chase scowled again, something he’d been doing all night, and despite what he’d just said to her, he looked at her as if she’d screwed up yet once again.
    And in his eyes she had.
    But since Deanne had been right about those cameras at Chase’s place, the woman had probably been right about the mole in the marshals’ office, as well. It’d been too big of a risk for April to call him when Bailey was born. Of course, in hindsight that hadn’t kept Bailey safe. Maybe nothing would, and that broke April’s heart.
    “What about the man you killed, the one who murdered Deanne,” she said. She kept her voice at a whisper, too. “Anything more on him?”
    “Nothing. Especially nothing to connect us to Crossman or Deanne. I thought maybe Deanne knew him. Maybe they had somehow been involved.”
    He didn’t need to spell that out. Chase had been looking to see if Deanne had been hired to lure Chase and her to that creek. “Deanne was just as afraid of Crossman as I am,” April pointed out.
    “Maybe. But Deanne had been living her normal life. Well, normal for a CI anyway. If Crossman hadn’t gone after her in these past six months, then I figured he didn’t want to pay her back for the part she’d played in his arrest.”
    And Deanne had indeed played a part. But the difference was Deanne hadn’t agreed to testify against Crossman. Instead, the cops had made a deal with April and Quentin because they thought their lack of a police record would make them more credible. They’d turned informant, and in exchange they wouldn’t be prosecuted for the crimes that’d gone on in the bar that Quentin owned.
    In Crossman’s eyes, that no doubt made them traitors. Along with his CPA, who was also scheduled to testify at his upcoming trial.
    “I want to pay for Deanne’s funeral,” April offered. “It’s the least I can do for her.”
    Chase nodded. “I’ll let Jericho know, but it’ll be a while before the ME will release the body.”
    Yes, because it was a murder.
    “Still no sign of Quentin,” Chase continued a moment later, “but the blood found in his house is being tested to see if it’s really his.”
    April had been in worst-case-scenario mode for a while now, and she hadn’t figured the blood belonged to anyone but Quentin. However, maybe it belonged to one of Crossman’s thugs. She hoped it did. Maybe Quentin had managed to hurt one of them before he’d escaped.
    Chase looked over his notes. “I found out more about Renée. The local cops interviewed some of her neighbors, and according to several of them, she’s mentally ill. Has been for years.”
    April groaned softly. This was the woman who’d had Bailey for hours. Thank God Renée hadn’t done anything to harm her. “Did Renée’s neighbors believe she was actually pregnant?”
    “Yeah. With Quentin’s baby.” Chase paused. “I think we have to consider that Renée, not Crossman, was behind the kidnapping. It’s possible she hired someone to hack into WITSEC to find you because she was planning to pass off Bailey as her and Quentin’s child.”
    April’s stomach twisted and turned to the point where she had to take several deep breaths to steady herself. “If that’s true, then she hired those gunmen. She’s the one responsible for Deanne’s death.”
    Chase nodded. “And it could have been her plan to kill us once she found out where Quentin was.”
    What sickened April even more was that it could have worked. If Renée and Quentin had been actual lovers, that is. Since Quentin had many lovers, she figured Renée could be telling the truth about that.
    “If Renée hired those two gunmen, then she could have hired others,” April said, thinking out loud. “Or at least one other one who helped her escape.”
    He nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. Even though Jax said Renée seemed scared when the gunman took her. Of course, she could have been faking that or