WANTED by Delores Fossen

call. “Connected to Jonah Webb?”
    “His son. And another suspect.” Well, in some people’s eyes. Billy’s dad had been an abusive jerk when he’d been the headmaster at the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility. Webb had beaten Billy enough times that if he’d retaliated against his father, Wyatt wouldn’t have exactly called it murder.
    More like doing the world a favor.
    Still, they were back to that justice-and-the-law conflict, and in the eyes of the law, Billy was a suspect. One who happened to be calling Wyatt.
    “Marshal McCabe,” he answered. Best to keep this professional. And quick. He still had some convincing to do in the marriage department.
    “I tried Dallas first, but he was out of cell phone range, so I decided to call you. I’m out at the Rocky Creek facility going through some of my mother’s things.”
    Because his mother lived in the cottage on the facility grounds. Well, she had before she’d gone into a coma after being shot.
    Wyatt froze.
    “Did your mother come out of the coma?” he asked. That was the only reason he could think of that Billy would be calling him.
    “No, but she’s improving. She’s even opened her eyes a couple of times and said something to me.”
    “What’d she say?” Wyatt demanded.
    “Just gibberish. Something about a tape, but I don’t remember her mentioning anything about a tape before she went into a coma.”
    “Could she have recorded something? Like maybe a conversation?”
    “Maybe. But if she did, the tape’s not at her cottage. I looked right after she mentioned it but didn’t find anything. I finally gave up the search and figured I could ask her once she wakes up for good. The doctors don’t think it’ll be long before that happens.”
    Wyatt didn’t know whether to be happy about that or not. Sarah could clear him and everyone in his family.
    Or she could name one of them as her accomplice.
    Even worse, it was possible she had a taped conversation to prove it. Of course, the woman might be talking out of her head. After all, her injuries had put her in a coma. Injuries she’d gotten while trying to cover up the fact she’d murdered her husband.
    “I didn’t call about my mother,” Billy went on. “I thought you should get out here and see what’s going on. There’s a new team of CSIs out here, and one of them found something.”
    Though he wasn’t sure he wanted Lyla to hear this, she apparently did. She got up and came closer. Very close. And that was when Wyatt hit the speaker button.
    “They found old blood spatter on the wall in one of the rooms. Not my dad’s office. But in Stella’s quarters.”
    Hell, that was not what he wanted to hear. Stella was like a mother to him. But yeah, she had motive. Because she’d lived and worked at the children’s facility when a lot of the abuse was going on. Along with Sarah’s help, Stella could have indeed killed Jonah Webb.
    “Describe the spatter,” Lyla said, and she didn’t sound scared anymore. She sounded like the CSI that she was.
    “Who is that?” Billy demanded.
    “A close friend,” Wyatt lied. “We can trust her.”
    He hoped.
    Billy hesitated, and for a moment Wyatt didn’t think he’d add more. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Someone had painted over the spatter, but they saw it with some kind of special light.”
    “A UV light,” Lyla provided.
    “You should get out here,” Billy insisted. “Because I’m thinking they’ll try to use this to arrest Stella.” And with that, Billy hung up.
    Wyatt stared at the phone and tried to work through what Billy had just told him. There wasn’t much to work through, though. He needed to know exactly what’d been found in that building.
    He grabbed his keys from his pocket and then looked at Lyla. It was risky, leaving her, but he didn’t want to pull his brothers away from what they were doing.
    “You can stay with Dallas and the others at his house,” he let her know. It wouldn’t be comfortable. Sort of