Justice for a Ranger. Rita Herron

heart wrenched. “I put him to bed…he was here.” A sob racked her, and heat scalded her face. The fire was slipping toward the hall. They had to get out.

      “Please, Mom, call the fire department. I’ll hunt for Justin!”

      Her mother threw her hands in the air. “No! He’s gone—he’s not here! Someone took him, I know it!”

      “Mother, call the fire department. We need help! And get Rosa!” Joey frantically searched the room and closet to see if Justin might have hidden inside. But no Justin.

      Outside, a siren wailed, indicating that someone had phoned the firemen. Probably Rosa. Thank heavens. Now, if she could just find her little brother…

      But she couldn’t search with her mother in hysterics, so she dragged her into the hallway. The kitchen was engulfed in flames. She couldn’t go that way. The front door was smoky, the flames licking at the wall casing and rippling a path of fire in front of it. Her heart racing, she glanced around the room for her baby brother, but didn’t see him. Maybe he was in the playroom upstairs.

      Suddenly Rosa raced into the hallway, a stricken look on her face. “Hurry! Out the window in my room!”

      “We can’t, we have to find Justin!” Joey screamed. “Take Mom outside. I’ll look for him!”

      She shoved her mother toward Rosa, and her mother crumbled in Rosa’s arms. Joey lurched toward the steps to search upstairs, but firemen crashed through the front, spraying water. Chaos erupted. One of the firemen grabbed Rosa and her mother, and another one ran toward her.

      “Come on, this house is going down!” he yelled. “You can’t go upstairs! No time to save your things!”

      “My baby brother…we can’t find him!” Joey cried.

      The fireman gently coaxed her toward the other man. “Get out of here now! We’ll find the boy!”

      JOEY JERKED AWAKE and sat up, sweating and shaking. Tears rained down her face, the familiar guilt and terror gripping her full force.

      The chaos. The firemen hacking away the window, breaking glass. Pushing her mother, Rosa, then her outside. Them collapsing on the lawn and watching in abject shock as the flames engulfed room after room and the house collapsed in front of them.

      The firemen eventually appearing through the haze of smoke and debris, looking dazed, frustrated, sorrowful.

      Their arms empty. They hadn’t found Justin.

      Then her father had driven up, frantic and acting like a madman as he discovered the horror.

      For the next forty-eight hours, she and her mother had moved on autopilot. Her mother had had to be sedated. Her father had stalked the police for a report.

      Joey had blamed herself. And in every waking or sleeping moment she’d heard her little brother’s cry.

      Then finally a small amount of relief. The reports proved that Justin had not been in the fire.

      He had disappeared instead.

      The theory was that he’d been kidnapped. The fire had been a ruse to distract them.

      And then a new kind of terror had seized them. Fear that a monster had Justin. A sexual predator. A child killer. They’d imagined the worst. And then the horrible wait. Hoping and praying for a phone call. A ransom note.

      But the note and call had never come.

      Which had made them all suspect that something had gone wrong with the kidnapping.

      And that Justin was dead after all.

      The nightmare had magnified tenfold after that. The police had turned on the family. Questioned them all. Donna. Her father. Even Joey and Rosa.

      And eventually they’d accused her father of planning the kidnapping/murder for the insurance money.

      Joey swiped tears from her eyes and headed to the shower. Although it had been sixteen years since that day, she still smelled the smoke and sweat on her skin. Still felt the flames singeing her skin, heard her mother’s cries of terror and the accusations she’d hurled. And the image of her father breaking down had been etched in her mind.

      Had his tears been real? Or had he planned the disappearance of her brother and his grief had been an act?

      Had her brother not disappeared, would her parents ever have reconciled? Not with Lou Anne in the picture…

      The very motive the police had attached to her mother years ago.

      Donna had cloaked herself in bitterness after the divorce. Mentally Joey recognized the fact that the problems between her parents had driven the family apart long before the kidnapping/murder. But Justin’s disappearance had ended any chance they’d had of reclaiming a normal, civilized relationship.

      She would never be free of the guilt.

      Her stomach twisted into a knot. She was here to help find the answers.

      But heaven help her, she was afraid of what the grand jury might find.

      IT HADN’T OCCURRED TO COLE when he’d entered the café that the owner of the Main Street Diner was Joey’s mother. But with her flaming red hair, he’d recognized her instantly from old news photos. Dressed in an immaculate pantsuit with pearls around her neck, she greeted the customers while an Hispanic woman she called Rosa bustled around filling coffee mugs and serving breakfast.

      Donna had given him the once-over when he’d first entered, as if she thought she should recognize him but didn’t. And she’d glanced at him with hooded eyes a dozen times since, trying to figure him out.

      He hadn’t offered up his identity. Right now his anonymity might play in his favor.

      “More coffee?” Rosa asked.

      He nodded and thanked her for topping up his cup. “Those biscuits were the best I’ve ever tasted.”

      “Gracias, señor.” She strode away with a smile of pride, although when she joined Donna, they disappeared into the back room speaking in hushed voices.

      He reread the notes on the kidnapping/murder investigation while he polished off his steak and eggs. Donna Hendricks’s drinking problem, coupled with her husband’s affairs, had led to a bitter divorce and custody battle. Both Joey, thirteen at the time, and Donna’s toddler son, Justin, were caught in the war, but Leland had won custody. Then one night, when Joey and Justin were at Donna’s, a horrible fire had broken out. Rosa Ramirez had been the caretaker/nanny and housekeeper for Donna when Justin had been kidnapped.

      Cole had been a teenager himself, but news of the fire and kidnapping/murder of the toddler had been all over TV.

      In the police reports, he skimmed Donna’s statement. Then Leland’s. Donna had been despondent over her son’s disappearance and the possibility of his death. She’d nearly had a breakdown and had been treated for depression. Leland had appeared to be distraught, had vowed to find his son and pay for his return, no matter the cost. Both had vehemently denied allegations that they were involved in a kidnapping/ murder scheme.

      Joey’s interview had been the tale of a traumatized teenager. A kid who’d tried to save her drunken mother and find her baby brother in the midst of a blazing fire. A kid who probably still had nightmares of that night.

      Then the speculations had started. Leland, the big oil baron, had been broke. He’d allegedly concocted a fake kidnapping/murder in order to collect on a life insurance policy. Donna had testified against her ex.

      Leland