Cold Case at Cobra Creek Read online

  A Native American tracker makes it his mission to bring a missing child home, just in time for Christmas…

  After two years, Sage Freeport had all but given up hope of seeing her little boy again…until she met Dugan Graystone. They shared a disdain for local law enforcement, the same folks who’d hindered Sage’s efforts to find her son. As an expert tracker, the broad-shouldered Native American was sure he could find the child—even if he had to leave Texas to do it. Spending time with Sage, watching as she broke down every time a lead didn’t pan out, Dugan worked harder than he ever had before. Now, with Christmas just days away, Dugan knew Sage trusted him to give her the greatest gift of all: bringing Benji home.…

  Dugan yanked the wheel to the left to avoid crashing into the other vehicle, then swung the SUV to the side of the road and threw it in Park.

  He jumped out and ran toward the burning vehicle.

  The driver had shot at them. Tried to kill them.

  Why? Because she was asking questions about her son?

  She jerked herself from her immobilized state and climbed out. Dugan circled the car, peering into the window as if looking for a way to get the driver out. But the gas tank blew, another explosion sounded and flames engulfed the vehicle.

  Sweat beaded on her forehead, the heat scalding her. She backed away, hugging the side of the SUV as she watched Dugan. He must have realized it was impossible to save the driver because he strode back toward her, his expression grim.

  “Someone doesn’t like us asking questions, Sage. But that means we might be on the right track to finding some answers.”

  COLD CASE AT

  COBRA CREEK

  Rita Herron

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Award-winning author Rita Herron wrote her first book when she was twelve, but didn’t think real people grew up to be writers. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job. A former kindergarten teacher and workshop leader, she traded storytelling to kids for writing romance, and now she writes romantic comedies and romantic suspense. She lives in Georgia with her own romance hero and three kids. She loves to hear from readers, so please write her at

  P.O. Box 921225, Norcross, GA 30092-1225, or visit her website, www.ritaherron.com.

  Books by Rita Herron

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  861—MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES+

  892—VOWS OF VENGEANCE+

  918—RETURN TO FALCON RIDGE

  939—LOOK-ALIKE+

  957—FORCE OF THE FALCON

  977—JUSTICE FOR A RANGER

  1006—ANYTHING FOR HIS SON

  1029—UP IN FLAMES+

  1043—UNDER HIS SKIN+

  1063—IN THE FLESH+

  1081—BENEATH THE BADGE

  1097—SILENT NIGHT SANCTUARY§§

  1115—PLATINUM COWBOY

  1132—COLLECTING EVIDENCE

  1159—PEEK-A-BOO PROTECTOR

  1174—HIS SECRET CHRISTMAS BABY§§

  1192—RAWHIDE RANGER

  1218—UNBREAKABLE BOND§§

  1251—BRANDISHING A CROWN

  1284—THE MISSING TWIN¤

  1290—HER STOLEN SON¤

  1323—CERTIFIED COWBOY**

  1329—COWBOY IN THE EXTREME**

  1336—COWBOY TO THE MAX**

  1390—COWBOY COP**

  1396—NATIVE COWBOY**

  1401—ULTIMATE COWBOY**

  1407—COVER ME

  “Bayou Jeopardy”

  1463—COLD CASE ATCAMDEN CROSSING

  1468—COLD CASE AT CARLTON’S CANYON

  1531—COLD CASE AT COBRA CREEK

  +Nighthawk Island

  §§Guardian Angel Investigations

  ¤Guardian Angel Investigations:

  Lost and Found

  **Bucking Bronc Lodge

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Sage Freeport—Her son, Benji, has been missing for two years—is he dead or alive?

  Dugan Graystone—This expert tracker will do anything to find Benji and bring him home for Christmas.

  Sheriff Gandt—He thinks he owns the town—how far will he go to keep it that way?

  Ron Lewis—Sage’s fiancé ran off with Benji and ended up dead. Did the man’s killer take Sage’s son?

  Donnell Ernest—Ron conned him out of his land—did he murder Ron Lewis?

  Wilbur Rankins—He killed himself out of shame over letting Lewis rob him of his land—but was his death really a suicide?

  Lloyd Riley—Did he kill Lewis to regain control of his ranch?

  Janelle Dougasville—Lewis’s foster sister. Does she know what he did with Benji?

  Eloise Bremmer, Maude Handleman and Carol Tinsley—Lewis’s former girlfriends and/or wives. Did one of them kill him when they discovered he’d lied to them?

  Sandra Peyton—Lewis’s first love. Does she know where Benji is?

  To all the Harlequin Intrigue fans—thanks for reading me

  all these years!

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Excerpt

  Prologue

  Sage Freeport vowed never to trust a man again.

  Not after the way Trace Lanier had treated her. Promises of love and happily ever after—until she’d gotten pregnant.

  Then those promises had evaporated, like rain on a strip of scorching-hot pavement.

  Her three-year-old Benji had never met his father. She’d worried about him not having a man in his life and done her best to be two parents in one. Still, she couldn’t throw a softball worth a darn, and baiting her own hook to go fishing at the pond literally made her feel faint.

  Then Ron Lewis had come along a few months ago and swept her off her feet with his kindness and intelligence—and treated Benji like his own son.

  Her gaze strayed to the tabletop tree she and Benji had decorated just yesterday. Together they’d made ornaments to hang on the tree, and when he was asleep last night, she’d wrapped his gift. He was going to be ecstatic on Christmas morning to find the softball and glove he’d asked for.

  She pulled a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls from the oven to let them cool before her guests at the B and B she owned surfaced for breakfast, then went upstairs to check on her son.

  Benji was normally up by now, underfoot in the kitchen when she was cooking—chatting and asking questions and sneaking bacon as soon as she took it off the pan.

  But when she opened Benji’s door, he wasn’t in bed. A few toys were scattered around the floor, a sign he’d gotten up to play after she’d tucked him in the night before.

  Figuring he was playing some imaginary game, she darted into his bathroom.

  But he wasn’t there, either.

  She checked under his bed and frowned. “Benji? Where are you, honey?”

  No answer.

  Her heartbeat stuttered for a moment, but she told herself not to panic. The inn was a big house. The B and B held eight rooms, although most of them were empty at the time. With the holidays approaching, most people were staying
home, going to visit family or flying to some exotic location for a winter vacation, not visiting small-town Texas.

  She peeked inside Benji’s closet but didn’t see him. Yet the dresser drawer stood open, and his clothes looked as if he’d pawed through them.

  Probably to dress himself. He was three and starting to vie for independence that way. She just had to teach him how to match colors now.

  Then she noticed his backpack was missing.

  Her heart suddenly racing, she turned and looked at his room again. The big bear he normally slept with wasn’t in his bed. Not on the floor or in the room at all. Neither was the whistle he liked or his favorite red hat.

  But his blanket was there. He’d never go anywhere without that blue blanket.

  Fear seized her, but she fought it off.

  Surely Benji was just pretending he was on a camping trip. He and Ron had been talking about hiking the other night. Ron had even asked Benji which one of his special friends/toys he would carry with him if he was going on a long trip.

  The bear, whistle and red cap were on his list.

  Her hands shaking as other scenarios taunted her, she raced down the hall to the empty rooms and searched inside. No Benji.

  Hating to disturb the two guests she did have but panicked now, she knocked on the door to the Ellises’, an elderly couple on an anniversary trip. The gray-haired man opened the door dressed in a robe. “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Ellis, but have you seen my son, Benji?”

  “No, ma’am. Me and Henrietta been sleeping.”

  “Would you mind checking your room in case he snuck in? He’s only three and mischievous at times.”

  He scratched his head, sending his wiry hair askew. “Sure.” He left the door open, and Sage watched as he checked under the bed, the closet and adjoining bathroom. “Sorry, Ms. Freeport, he’s not in here.”

  Sage’s stomach knotted. If—no, when—she found Benji, she would explain that hiding from her was not okay.

  She climbed the steps to the third-floor attic room. A woman named Elvira had chosen it, saying she needed solace and to be alone. The poor woman had lost a child, and Sage had given her privacy to mourn.

  But Elvira didn’t answer. Sage let herself in and found a note from the lady saying she’d decided to leave early and didn’t want to disturb Sage.

  Benji liked this room because the window offered a view of the creek behind the house.

  But the room was empty.

  Nerves on edge, she ran downstairs, once again checking each room and shouting Benji’s name. She rushed outside, wind beating at her as she searched the yard, the garden out back, the swing set, the fort and the tree house.

  Benji was nowhere to be found.

  Terrified, she ran back inside to call the sheriff. But the phone was ringing as she entered the kitchen. Maybe a neighbor had found Benji.

  She grabbed the phone, determined to get rid of the caller so she could phone the sheriff. But his voice echoed back.

  “Ms. Freeport, it’s Sheriff Gandt.”

  Her stomach pitched. “Yes, I was just about to call you. My little boy, Benji... He’s gone.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Sheriff Gandt muttered.

  Icy fear seized Sage.

  “I think you’d better come down to River Road Crossing at Cobra Creek.”

  “Why?” She had to swallow to make her voice work. “Is Benji there?”

  “Just meet me there.”

  He hung up, and Sage’s knees buckled. She grabbed the kitchen counter to keep from hitting the floor.

  No...Benji was fine. He had to be...

  She grabbed her keys and ran outside. The minivan took three tries to crank, but she threw it in gear and tore down the road toward the river crossing.

  As soon as she rounded the bend, she spotted flames shooting into the air. Smoke curled upward, clogging the sky in a thick, gray blanket.

  Tires squealed as she swung the van to the shoulder of the road, jumped out and ran toward the burning car.

  Sheriff Gandt stood by while firemen worked to extinguish the blaze. But even with the flames and smoke, she could tell that the car was a black Jeep.

  Ron drove a black Jeep.

  “Do you recognize this vehicle?” the sheriff asked.

  A cold sweat broke out on Sage’s body. “It’s Ron’s. My fiancé.”

  Sheriff Gandt’s expression looked harsh in the morning light. Then she saw what he was holding in his hands.

  Benji’s teddy bear and red hat.

  No... Dear God. Had Benji been in the car with Ron when it crashed and caught on fire?

  Chapter One

  Two years later

  Dugan Graystone did not trust Sheriff Billy Gandt worth a damn.

  Gandt thought he owned the town and the people in it and made no bones about the fact that men like Dugan, men who weren’t white, weren’t fit for office and should stay out of his way.

  Gandt had even tried to stop Dugan from taking on this search-and-rescue mission, saying he could use his own men. But the families of the two lost hikers had heard about Dugan’s reputation as an expert tracker and insisted he spearhead the efforts to find the young men.

  Dugan rode his stallion across the wilderness, scrutinizing every bush and tree, along with the soil, for footprints and other signs that someone had come this way. A team of searchers had spread across the miles of forests looking for the missing men, but Dugan had a sixth sense, and it had led him over to Cobra Creek, miles from where Gandt had set up base camp for the volunteer workers involved in the search.

  Dammit, he hated Gandt. He’d run against him for sheriff and lost—mainly because Gandt bought votes. But one day he’d put the bastard in his place and prove that beneath that good-old-boy act, Gandt was nothing but a lying, cheating coward.

  Born on the reservation near Cobra Creek, Dugan had Native American blood running through his veins. Dugan fought for what was right.

  And nothing about Gandt was right.

  Money, power and women were Gandt’s for the taking. And crime—if it benefited Billy—could be overlooked for a price.

  Though Dugan owned his own spread, on the side, he worked as a P.I. His friend, Texas Ranger Jaxon Ward, was looking into Gandt’s financials, determined to catch the man at his own game.

  The recent flooding of the creek had uprooted bushes and trees, and washed up debris from the river that connected to the creek. Dugan noted an area that looked trampled, as if a path had been cut through the woods.

  He guided his horse to a tree and dismounted, then knelt to examine the still-damp earth. A footprint in the mud?

  Was it recent?

  He noticed another, then some brush flattened, leading toward the creek. Dugan’s instincts kicked in, and he shone his flashlight on the ground and followed the indentations.

  Several feet away, he saw another area of ground that looked disturbed. Mud and sticks and...something else.

  Bones.

  Maybe an animal’s?

  He hurried over to examine them, his pulse pounding. No...that was a human femur. And a finger.

  Human bones.

  And judging from the decomp, they had been there too long to belong to one of the two teenagers who’d gone missing.

  The radio at his belt buzzed and crackled, and he hit the button to connect.

  “We found the boys,” Jaxon said. “A little dehydrated, but they’re fine.”

  Dugan removed his Stetson and wiped sweat from his forehead. “Good. But I need the coroner over here at Cobra Creek.”

  “What?”

  “I found bones,” Dugan said. “Looks like they’ve been here a couple of years.”

  A foreboding washed over Dugan. Two years ago, a man named Ron Lewis had supposedly died in a car crash near here. Sage Freeport’s son had been with him at the time.

  The man’s body and her son’s had never been found.

  Could these bones belong to Ron Lewis, the man
who’d taken her son?

  * * *

  SAGE SET A PLACE at the breakfast bar for Benji, then slid a pancake onto the plate and doused it with powdered sugar, just the way her son liked it. His chocolate milk came next.

  The tabletop Christmas tree she kept year-round still held the tiny ornaments Benji had made and hung on it. And the present she’d had for him the year he’d gone missing still sat wrapped, waiting for his small hands to tear it open.

  It was a glove and ball, something Benji had asked Santa for that year.

  Would the glove still fit when she finally found him and he came home?

  Two of her guests, a couple named Dannon, who’d come to Cobra Creek to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, gave her pitying looks, but she ignored them.

  She knew people thought she was crazy. Mrs. Krandall, the owner of the diner in town, had even warned her that perpetuating the fantasy that her son was still alive by keeping a place set for him was dangerous for her and downright creepy.

  She also suggested that it would hurt Sage’s business.

  A business Sage needed to pay the bills—and to keep her sanity.

  But she couldn’t accept that her son was dead.

  Not without answers as to why Ron had taken Benji from the house and where they’d been headed.

  Not without definite proof that he wasn’t alive out there somewhere, needing her.

  Of course, Benji’s hat and bear had been found at the scene, but his bones had never been recovered.

  Sheriff Gandt theorized that Lewis and Benji probably had been injured and tried to escape the fire by going into the creek. But storms created a strong current that night, and their bodies must have washed downstream, then into the river where they’d never be found.

  She should never have trusted Ron with her son. It was her fault he was gone....

  She refused to believe that he wouldn’t be back. She had to cling to hope.

  Without it, the guilt would eat her alive.

  * * *

  DUGAN GRITTED HIS TEETH as Sheriff Gandt studied the bones.

  “Could have been a stranger wandering through,” Gandt said. “Miles of wilderness out here. I’ll check the databases for wanted men. Criminals have been known to hide out here off the grid.”

 
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