Colton's Texas Stakeout. C.J. Miller

She was spying on him. “Tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll save you a lot of time and trouble.” He already knew, but he wanted her to say it plain.

      “We’re looking for your sister, Regina Willard.”

      Annoyance plucked at him. “Regina is my half sister, and she isn’t here. The police and the FBI have scoured every inch of my farm. I haven’t seen her in six years. I’ve tried contacting her directly and through friends, and I can’t reach her.”

      Annabel frowned. “She might turn up.”

      “Unlikely. Regina and I aren’t close.”

      Annabel took a sip of the coffee. “Thanks for the drink.”

      She sounded as if she was ending the conversation, and he wasn’t ready to let this go. He didn’t want her outside his farm spying on him, and it bothered him immensely that she was working against him. “I already told your kin if Regina shows up, I will encourage her to speak with you all.”

      “I know what you told my brothers.”

      Her brothers had likely told her that he was the brother of a murderer. They were wrong on that count, and it bothered Jesse that her opinion might be shaded by theirs.

      Why did the FBI and police want to pin this mess on him and Regina? He had nothing to do with Regina, and he didn’t believe she had anything to do with the murders. “I’ve been cooperative and helpful. I’ve been a good sport about this. But it’s costing me business, and if folks see you sitting outside my farm, that makes me look bad, like I’ve done something wrong.”

      He saw compassion flicker across her face. Would she give up on the stakeout and report the truth to her superiors and her brothers? Regina was not on the farm.

      “I’m sorry, Mr. Willard. I’m doing my job.”

      “How can I make you understand? The last time I spoke to my sister, she was a bitter, angry woman. She thinks the world is out to get her, and she’s more likely to be hiding in her apartment somewhere binging on wine and television than doing the things you have implied she’s done.”

      Things that made him sick to think about. Killing innocent women based on their names? Only a crazy person would see logic in that, and while Regina was sad, and he suspected clinically depressed, she wasn’t homicidal.

      “Do you know where this apartment may be?”

      He had been speaking generally. He didn’t know where Regina was. How many times and how many different ways could he say it? “I want to clear the air more than almost anyone in Granite Gulch. Regina’s had a hard life, and she doesn’t need this extra stress.”

      “Hard life how?”

      Guilt and protectiveness rose up inside him, creating a volatile cocktail that felt like anger. “Our father was not a nice man.”

      “Lots of people have parents who are terrible. It doesn’t excuse committing a crime.”

      She spoke as if it was a done deal, and she was sure Regina was guilty. Regina didn’t cope with things well. She hid and buried her head in the sand. If she had heard the police wanted to speak with her, that would only make her withdraw further inward.

      He wouldn’t betray Regina by revealing family secrets, by telling Annabel the types of abuse his mother had rescued them from. Jesse carried a lot of guilt that his mother had left Regina behind. She had said she didn’t have a choice, but at the time, Jesse had wanted his big sister to flee with them more than anything.

      “Regina found happiness with someone as an adult, and he left her. She didn’t handle it well.” When Regina had been in a relationship, one that had seemed stable, it was the first time Jesse recalled seeing Regina smile and laugh. He had been worried when the engagement ended. Regina had her wedding gown and had seemed happy to be getting married. She would have had a chance to have a family and do the things she had been denied. A loving, attentive mother and a gentle, yet firm father who ate dinner together and took family vacations to the lake. Granted, Regina hadn’t said she wanted those things, but Jesse had imagined her new life being happy.

      “What do you mean she didn’t handle it well?” Annabel asked.

      He didn’t intend to give Annabel reasons to believe Regina was unstable. “She grieved for the loss of her fiancé. She was obsessed with winning him back. I told her no man was worth the nonsense she was carrying on about, and she should let go. Anything was better than being emotionally attached to someone who didn’t want her in his life. I suggested online dating, therapy, joining a soccer team. But Regina wasn’t ready to move on.” She had been consumed by her anger, and she didn’t want his advice. Not that he was an expert in love. “My dating history isn’t pristine. I was the wrong person to advise her.”

      “You have a history of having problems with women you’ve dated?”

      She was misinterpreting what he was saying. Her question didn’t sound related to Regina. It sounded personal. He could be misreading her, but he felt something simmering unsaid between them. “Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not married. Obviously, I don’t have the key to making a relationship work either.”

      Annabel frowned, and her eyes narrowed slightly. She looked beautiful when she was thinking. She had a lot going on between the ears.

      “Do you remember anything about your sister that would make you think she could harm someone? Maybe her bitterness turned violent? Maybe her emotions boiled over, and she acted out?”

      She was weaving a twisted tale, leaping from one conclusion to another, making it sound as if Regina was crazy and violent and capable of murder. He didn’t take kindly to someone talking garbage about his kin, and something in him snapped. “Are you asking me to help you pin those murders on Regina? I won’t do that. I have answered these questions again and again for your brothers. I am done being questioned like a criminal. I have done nothing wrong, and I don’t appreciate the implication that I would break the law and hide someone or that I’m withholding critical information. I know there’s some psycho out there killing women. Do you think I’m indifferent to that?” His mother had been a victim of violence, and violence against women was something he would not stand for. He worried about Grace, with her long brown hair, being a target.

      Annabel seemed uncertain what to say. “I’m sure you’re not indifferent to it. But we’re putting all our resources into finding the Alphabet Killer, and we have strong reasons to believe Regina knows something about the murders.”

      Jesse tried to put a lid on his anger. “Can you take it or do you just dish it out? You ask me questions about my sister, like I’m supposed to have any rational reasons for why someone would run around Blackthorn County killing women. You’re the cop. Tell me about your father. Does what you know about him follow with Matthew Colton, serial killer? From what I understand, he’s the mastermind behind the Alphabet Killer murders.”

      She inhaled sharply. “Matthew Colton has been in contact with Regina Willard. She’s obsessed with him, but he is not directing her to kill anyone.”

      If she believed that, she had blinders on when it came to Matthew Colton. Jesse had read about the case online. The media was having a great time connecting the two cases, drawing on similarities between the murders. “Matthew Colton is making you dance like puppets. Why don’t you turn your screws on him? Make him tell you who is doing this.”

      Annabel’s expression was icy. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but you don’t know the details of this case.”

      He had crossed a line bringing up Matthew Colton, but the Coltons felt free to dig around in his life and in his business. Maybe they should get a taste of how it felt. “I get my information from the same screwed-up place everyone in this town goes for news. Rumors and gossip on Main Street.”

      “This isn’t about my father. I am here to do my job.” Her voice was low, but the ire in her eyes burned hot. She handed him the coffee mug. “I have