“Don’t you mean youhaven’tplayed nice?” Ellen said, leaning forward. “I know you hired Brock Jones to rob four families, including Greg Baldwin. He wasn’t supposed to be home. You hired a thief to steal contracts that had a clause in them you couldn’t abide—how it got in there in the first place, I don’t know. A mistake from your sexy little legal secretary, perhaps?”
His face reddened and Ellen continued.
“I have a copy of what Brock stole. You know why? Because I saved his brother’s life last night, and he thanked me by telling the truth.”
“You…” Mitchell cleared his throat. “You can’t believe a thief. A person who would say anything to get out of prison.”
“Rick is interviewing him right now,” Ellen said.
Mitchell leaned back, shook his head. “Oh, Ellen, you are foolish. You think I would leave anything to chance?”
Her heart skipped a beat. They weren’t wrong, and she hadn’tthought they’d underestimated Mitchell, but maybe… maybe they had. She wasn’t used to thinking like an unscrupulous rancher.
But they were here, and she had to finish. Travis had a theory, and if he was right, then they had only one chance to take Mitchell Robinson down—at least one chance without relying on the D.A.—a personal friend of Mitchell’s—to actually do something about his crimes.
“Like sabotaging my ranch?”
He stared at her and shook his head. “Ellen, you’re paranoid. I think you need to stop right now before you say something you can’t take back.”
Had she seen him glance at Clive? Or was that wishful thinking?
“So many little things, Mitchell. I didn’t think much about it for a long time, because farms always need repairs. But there were too many little things. I started to suspect something was up when the cattle gate was unlatched.” Not completely true, but she wanted Mitchell to believe she’d been thinking about this for longer than the weekend. “Jake is too responsible to make a mistake like that. And then the brand-new refrigerator in the barn broke, we lost a whole week’s worth of raw milk, couldn’t fulfill our obligation to our supplier. So, I put a couple of cameras on the barn.”
She lied so smoothly it surprised her. But Travis was right, this was the only way she was going to get even part of the truth.
“And surprise, when someone I know came into the barn in the middle of the night… and then I find holes cut into the wall above the gutter.”
“You’re bluffing,” Mitchell said smugly.
“There were holes in the wall?” Clive questioned. “What happened?”
Travis said, “Someone we all know cut narrow openings level with the gutter and clogged the drainpipes, so when the storm hit, it flooded the loft.”
Mitchell glanced at Clive. “They’re bluffing.”
Clive didn’t know, Ellen realized. His face was a mask of confusion. He might have known about Brock Jones being hired to steal the contracts, but he didn’t know about the sabotage.
Ellen snapped, “I’m not bluffing, and when I turn over the tapes to Rick he’s going to question Tom Garza and I don’t think Garza is going to go to prison for you.”
“I fired Tom,” Mitchell said suddenly. “He’ll say anything to get back at me.” Then he said calmly, “Ellen, I would never do anything to hurt you or your family. You know that. This deal”—he touched the folder—“is a godsend for you. You need the land to grow, and I’m practically giving it to you. Sign it, and all your troubles will go away.”
He smiled like a snake oil salesman and Ellen felt ill. Mitchell was right—if he fired Tom, whatever Tom said may not hold up. If they even got as far as a jury trial, the jurors may not believe him. This was rapidly getting out of control.
Travis said, his voice low and menacing, “Did you have Garza sabotage the roof, too?” He rose from his chair. “Did you kill my brother?”
“Get out,” Mitchell said, rising from his desk. “I’ll call security and have you dragged out.”
“Mitchell,” Clive said, “what did you do?”
“I’ve done nothing! If Tom Garza did anything, he did it without my knowledge or authorization.”
“You didn’t fire Tom,” Clive said. “He quit. He told me he quit this morning.”
“Shut up, Clive!”
Mitchell walked to the door, swung it open. “Get out of here. Leave, both of you. You think you’ve won? I’ll own your ranch by winter. Burn what’s left and pour concrete over it. Put in a fucking runway for my plane!”
Clive stepped forward. “That’s enough.”
