Читать книгу Colton Baby Rescue - Marie Ferrarella, Marie Ferrarella - Страница 13

Chapter 6

Bo hadn’t done right by Darby.

That was the thought that was preying on Carson’s mind as he drove away from the diner.

They might have been brothers, but he was aware of all of Bo’s shortcomings. His older brother had always been the typical playboy: self-centered and careless with anyone else’s feelings. He was making good money with his German shepherd–breeding service and could have seen to it that Darby had got a better settlement in the divorce—at least enough so that she wasn’t forced to take on so many part-time, menial jobs in order to keep a roof over her head.

But Bo’s lawyer had been a good deal sharper than the lawyer Darby had been able to afford to represent her, so Bo had wound up keeping almost everything. He got the house, the business and most of the bank accounts, while Darby had clearly got the very short end of the stick.

In his opinion, the ultimate humiliation was when Bo had tossed her that crumb by letting her earn extra money cleaning out the kennels at his breeding operation.

If his brother hadn’t written Demi C on the pavement with his blood, Carson might have looked a little more closely at Darby as a possible suspect in Bo’s murder. He certainly couldn’t have blamed her for being bitter about the treatment she’d received at Bo’s hands both before and after the divorce.

But Darby hadn’t seemed bitter to him, just closed off. And decidedly weary.

She probably wasn’t getting enough sleep, given the various conflicting schedules of the jobs she held down, Carson thought.

“What do you think, Justice?” Carson asked the dog riding in the passenger seat beside him. “You think Darby might have got fed up and decided to teach Bo a lesson for treating her so shabbily?”

Justice barked in response to hearing his name and Carson laughed.

“That’s what I thought. You like her, don’t you, boy? Back to Demi, then,” Carson agreed.

About to drive back to the station, Carson abruptly changed his mind as well as his direction.

He was heading back to the Double C Ranch.

Something had been bothering him about Serena Colton’s testimony. Why was she so convinced that Demi hadn’t killed his brother despite what could be considered a deathbed testimony? Why was she so certain that her cousin wasn’t capable of killing someone even though everyone knew the bounty hunter had a bad temper.

He’d once seen Demi take down a man at The Pour House who was twice her size and obviously stronger than she was. Thin and wiry, the woman was nonetheless a virtual powerhouse. Ever since that day, he’d regarded Demi as being rather lethal.

Given that and her unpredictable temper, he’d never thought it was a good idea for his brother to have taken up with her. Demi Colton wasn’t the type of woman to put up with being treated the way Bo obviously treated women he was no longer interested in seeing exclusively.

Carson couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something that Serena had held back last night when he’d questioned her.

He had no idea if that “something” was significant or inconsequential, but he knew it was going to keep eating away at him until he found out exactly what it was that Serena wasn’t telling him. He might as well get this out of the way before he followed up on some of Bo’s business dealings and talked to the women he’d romanced and discarded.

* * *

When he arrived at the Double C mansion, Carson debated leaving Justice in his car when he went in. After all, it was January and if he left the windows partially opened, the dog would be all right. However, he regarded Justice as his partner and under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have left his partner just sitting in the car, twiddling his thumbs while he went in to reinterview someone connected to a case.

“You’re on your best behavior, boy,” he instructed, taking the leash as Justice jumped down out of the passenger seat.

Alma, the housekeeper who opened the front door when he rang the bell, looked far from happy to see him. The older woman cast a wary eye in Justice’s direction.

“I’m sorry, Detective. Mr. and Mrs. Colton are not in,” she informed him formally.

“That’s all right,” Carson replied politely. “I’m not here to see them. I’m here to talk to Ms. Colton.”

The housekeeper raised her chin as she asked defensively, “Which Ms. Colton?”

The woman knew damn well which one, he thought. She just wanted to make things difficult for him. She was being protective of the people she worked for.

“The older one. Serena,” he specified.

The housekeeper frowned. “I’m afraid that she’s not here, either.”

Just as the woman was about to forcibly close the door on him, Serena’s voice was heard calling to her from upstairs. “Alma, I’m going to need you to watch Lora for me for a few hours while I’m working with the horses.”

Carson’s eyes met the housekeeper’s. “Looks like she came back. Lucky me,” he commented.

“Yes,” the older woman responded icily. “Quite lucky. I will go upstairs and tell Miss Serena that you want to see her.”

“That’s all right,” Carson said, moving past the housekeeper and entering the foyer. “Don’t trouble yourself. I can go tell her myself. I know my way.”

And with that, he and Justice headed toward the winding staircase.

Carson took the stairs two at a time with Justice keeping pace right behind him.

* * *

About to go back into her suite as she waited for the housekeeper to come upstairs, Serena was more than a little surprised to see the detective make his way up to the landing in the housekeeper’s place.

Now what? Serena thought impatiently.

“Did you forget something, Detective?” she asked, doing her best to sound polite and not as irritated as she felt.

“No,” he answered, reaching the landing, “but you did.” He signaled for Justice to sit and the K-9 did.

Her brow furrowed a little as she tried to make sense of what he’d just said. “Excuse me?”

“When we talked last night, I got the feeling that there was something you were holding back, something you weren’t saying,” he told her. “The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that I was right. I figured I needed to get back to you to find out just what that was.” He looked at her expectantly.

Alma had just managed to make her way upstairs. The woman was struggling not to pant. “I’m sorry, Miss Serena. He refused to leave.”

“Apparently he’s very stubborn,” Serena said, looking coldly at the invading detective. She drew herself up, moving away from the bedroom doorway. “Alma, if you don’t mind looking after Lora, I’ll see if I can’t put the detective’s mind at rest once and for all, so he can be on his way and we can all go on with our lives.”

He waited until the housekeeper picked up the baby from her crib and left with Lora before saying anything to Serena.

“Have I done something to offend you, Ms. Colton?” he asked, referring to her rather abrupt tone.

He had gall, she’d give him that. “You want that alphabetically, chronologically or in order of magnitude?” she asked the detective.

“Tell you what, I’ll let you pick,” Carson said magnanimously.

He didn’t think she was going to say anything, did he, she thought. Well, he was in for a surprise.

Serena launched into him. “You come storm trooping into my house at an ungodly hour—”

“You were up,” Carson reminded her.

“That’s beside the point,” Serena retorted. “I was feeding Lora. But that still didn’t give you the right to burst in here—”

“The chief knocked,” Carson corrected her. He could see she was getting really frustrated. The fire in her eyes was really rather compelling to watch. “And he is your brother as well as the police chief.”