Lone Star Christmas Witness

“I know what they’re going through. I will miss my sister every day of my life. For many years—” Her throat clogged, and she swallowed several times before she was able to speak. “For many years she was a mother to me.” Sierra slid into the front seat.

Robert started to shut the door, stopped and leaned forward. “Are you okay with us picking up a Christmas tree?”

Maybe decorating for Christmas would take her mind off Kat and the clinic. It might help Ben, too. “On one condition. Let’s swing by my house and get some of the decorations we have up on our tree.” She remembered the directive from Taylor that morning, the instruction to avoid her house. But she could be in and out in ten minutes with the decorations. “Having some of his ornaments on the tree will help Ben focus on the good times we had over the holidays and make him feel at home.”

“A merging of families. I like that. We can stop at your place, so long as no reporters are out front. Where do you live?”

Sierra gave Robert the directions to the house and sat back, shoving the previous meeting with the lawyer into the back of her mind. There wasn’t anything she could do about the lawsuit but let the attorney take care of it.

On the way to her house, Robert stopped at a nursery. “This is a good place to get a tree. I’ve gotten one here several times.”

Sierra joined Robert, and for the next half an hour, she managed to concentrate on helping him pick the “perfect” tree. “We have a fake tree. Wouldn’t that be easier?”

Robert chuckled. “That’s not the fun of it. Studying each tree and deciding is. Which one would you like?” He pointed at one that was seven feet and slender while the other was maybe six feet but bushier.

“The smaller tree. It’ll fit your home better.”

“Then that’ll be it.”

Within ten minutes, the tree was paid for and loaded on top of the Jeep. Sierra settled in the front passenger seat. “Thanks for the diversion. I have to confess all I’d been thinking about was yesterday. Losing my sister. The killings don’t make sense.”

“That’s what my son will find out. Then maybe some of your questions will be answered.”

“I hope.” When Robert turned onto her street, she said, “Let’s park in the next-door neighbor’s driveway. They work during the day and wouldn’t mind. This way, in case someone from the media drives by, they won’t know we’re here.”

“Good idea. We don’t want to attract their attention.” Robert parked next door. “An in-and-out strike. Let’s go.”

They hopped out, and as they crossed the yard, Sierra took out the key. When she reached the porch, she hurried and unlocked the door, so they would be inside in under a minute. She felt as though she’d gone on a secret mission.

As she entered the home she’d shared with Kat, turbulent emotions bombarded her from all sides. Happy thoughts immediately were replaced with the scene at the clinic. She paused in the foyer, trying to push the grief away. Not now. She had to be strong for Ben. Get the Christmas ornaments and leave.

“Are you okay, Sierra?”

“It’s hard to believe that Kat’s gone.”

Robert clasped her shoulder. “I know. That’s how I felt when my wife died. It’s been ten years, and I still feel that way at times.”

“When I was overwhelmed with life, Kat used to tell me to take it one minute at a time. She was practical and lived in the moment. The past was behind her and the future was always an unknown. All she would deal with was the now, and I came to appreciate that way. But at this moment I don’t want to be in the present.”

“Let’s get what we came for and leave. Time does help.”

“If this is how I feel, I can imagine how grief-stricken Ben is.” Sierra crossed the foyer to the living room.

But she didn’t enter. Too stunned to move, she came to a halt at the sight before her.

After going through the papers in the manila folder with Dallas, Taylor stood up and stretched, needing to move around after sitting for so long.

“I need to leave soon,” Dallas said as he rose.

“Let me go upstairs and see if Ben is up yet. I’d like him to meet you, since you’ll be in and out of here during the investigation.” This was Taylor’s fourth trip up the stairs in the past hour. After Dallas left, he thought he might come up to the boy’s bedroom and sit in a chair while going through some of the papers until Ben woke up. He didn’t want him to be scared, especially since it was the first time he’d slept overnight at this house.

He peered into the room. Oscar, stretched out beside Ben, lifted his head, but the young child didn’t move. Taylor covered the distance to the bed to make sure the boy was still asleep. He also checked to see how hot Ben’s forehead was since that was the reason he’d been with his mother at the clinic yesterday. He was warm but not alarmingly. The sight of Ben’s long dark eyelashes brushing the tops of his cheeks, a peaceful look on his face, touched a place in Taylor’s heart that he’d kept locked after TJ died.

He pivoted and headed out into the hall, tamping down his past sorrow. Downstairs, he entered the living room and told Dallas, “He’s asleep. He still feels like he has a low-grade fever. Yesterday was emotionally exhausting for all of us but especially Ben.”

“I’ll meet him the next time.” Dallas rose, walked to the front door and turned to shake Taylor’s hand. “I’m going back to the clinic. I don’t want one piece of evidence overlooked.” He started to leave when his cell phone rang.

While his fellow Texas Ranger answered the call, Taylor moved the carton of files into the dining room, then returned to the entry hall. The look on Dallas’s face made him pause. “What’s happened?”

Dallas blew out a long breath. “Colin Brewer’s car was found in a mall’s parking lot.”

“Good. Maybe he’s inside, and we’ll find him because he has some explaining to do.”

Dallas shook his head. “No. He was found in the trunk, shot with the same type of gun as the victims at the clinic. Ballistics will tell us if it’s the same weapon soon.”

Taylor’s heartbeat raced. Is the killer taking care of everyone associated with the clinic? Is Sierra next?

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