B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection (15 page)

“Well?” Hud said after he joined him. The kitchen was neater than it had been yesterday. He wondered if his father had cleaned it because of Hud’s visit.

“Sit down,” Brick said, but Hud remained standing.

“Were you the one behind coercing Stacy to set me up?” Hud demanded.

Brick turned to look at him. “Why would I do that?”

“To keep me from marrying Dana.”

“Falling for Dana Cardwell was the only smart thing you ever did. Why wouldn’t I want you to marry her?”

“Then you did it to get to the judge. You just wanted me out of the way so you used me, not caring what it would do to my life.”

His father frowned and turned
back to the stove. The coffee began to perk, filling the small house with a rich, warm aroma that reminded Hud of all the mornings his father had gotten up to make coffee over the years, especially when Hud’s mother was sick.

“Why would Stacy make up something like that?” Hud asked.

“Why does Stacy do half the things she does?” Brick turned, still frowning. “She said she did it to keep herself out of jail?” He shook his head. “I never picked her up for anything. Maybe she did something she thought she would be arrested for and someone found out about it.”

“You mean, blackmail?” Hud asked. Clearly he hadn’t considered that.

Brick nodded. “Hadn’t thought of that, huh? Something else you probably haven’t considered is who else had the power to make a threat like that stick.” Brick smiled and nodded. “That’s right. Judge Raymond Randolph.”

Hud felt the air rush out of him. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would the judge get her to keep me out of the picture?” A thought struck him. “Unless the judge wanted to make sure you responded to the call.”

His father raised a brow. “You think he staged it so I’d show up and then what? He’d kill me?” Brick shook his head. “I wouldn’t put it past him. Especially since he was losing his mind. But that would mean it back-fired on him if that were the case and, no matter what you think, I didn’t kill the judge.”

“It seems more likely that
I was set up so someone could use it as a way to get to the judge,” Hud said.

“I agree. But you’re just barking up the wrong tree if you think it was me. No matter how strongly I felt about you not staying in law enforcement, I would never set you up to get rid of you. I’m sorry you believe I would.”

“I hope that’s true,” Hud said, and realized he meant it. He started for the door.

“Sure you don’t want some coffee? It’s almost ready.”

“No thanks.”

“Son.”

Hud stopped at the door and turned to look back at his father.

Brick stood silhouetted against the frozen lake through this front window. “Be careful. It sounds like you’ve got at least one killer out there. Someone who thought they’d gotten away with murder. It’s easier to kill after the first time, they say.” His father turned back to his coffee.

I
N BETWEEN CUSTOMERS
, Dana told Hilde about everything else that had happened, including Stacy’s confession—and disappearance.

“I can’t believe this,” Hilde said. “I mean, I do believe it. I never thought Hud would ever betray you. He just isn’t that kind of man.”

“Why didn’t I see that?” Dana said, still feeling guilty and ashamed she hadn’t given the man she loved a chance to even explain.

“Because you were
too close to it,” her friend said. “Any woman would have reacted the same way. If I would have found my man in bed with another woman, I would have shot first and asked questions later.”

Dana smiled, knowing that Hilde was just trying to make her feel better.

“Oh, darn,” Hilde said.

“What is it?”

“Mrs. Randolph. She left her fabric package.”

Dana laughed. “She came back to the shop again? Don’t tell me. She was still looking for the perfect blue thread to match those slacks of hers.”

“No,” Hilde said on a sigh. “This time she bought fabric for some aprons she was making for some charity event. She said you were going to help her with it?”

Dana groaned. Had she volunteered to make aprons? “Let me run it over to her. I need to find out what I’ve gotten myself into this time.”

“Are you sure? Didn’t Hud say that you weren’t to leave here alone?”

Dana shook her head at her friend. “I’m just going up the canyon as far as the Randolph house. I will be back in twenty minutes tops. And anyway, you have bookkeeping to do. It makes more sense for me to go since you’re the one with the head for figures.”

Hilde laughed. “You just don’t want to do this. Can’t fool me.” She handed her the package. “Good luck. Who knows what Kitty Randolph will talk you into before you get back.”

“She always tells me how close she and my mother were and how much I look like
my mother and how my mother would love that I’m working on fund-raisers with her now.”

“You’re just a girl who can’t say no,” Hilde joked.

“That’s probably why I agreed to have dinner at Hud’s cabin tonight.” She grinned at her friend on her way out.

The highway had been plowed and sanded in the worst areas so the drive to Kitty Randolph’s was no problem. It felt good to get out for a while.

Dana hadn’t been completely honest, though, with her friend. There was another reason she wanted to see Mrs. Randolph. She wanted to ask her about something she’d heard that morning from one of the customers.

Nancy Harper had come in to buy drapery fabric and had mentioned seeing Stacy last night.

“What time was this?” Dana had asked, trying not to sound too interested and get the gossip mill going.

“Must have been about nine,” Nancy said. “She drove past. I saw her brake in front of Kitty Randolph’s house.” Nancy smiled. “Is your sister helping with the clinic fund-raiser? I knew you were, but I was a little surprised Stacy had volunteered. She’s never shown much interest in that sort of thing, not after that one she helped with. And this fund-raiser is going to involve cooking and sewing.”

Dana had joined Nancy in a chuckle while cringing inside at everyone’s perception of her sister. “You’re right, that doesn’t sound much like my sister.”

“Well, you know Kitty. She can
be very persuasive.”

“You’re sure it was Stacy?” Dana had asked, convinced Nancy had to be mistaken. Stacy had helped with one fund-raiser years ago while she was between husbands. By the end of the event, Stacy wasn’t speaking to Kitty. The two had stayed clear of each other ever since from what Dana could tell.

“Oh, it was Stacy, all right,” Nancy said. “I didn’t see her get out of her car because my view was blocked by the trees. But I saw her behind the wheel and I recognized the way she drives. She really does drive too fast for road conditions.” Her smile said it was too bad Stacy wasn’t more like Dana.

As Dana drove past Nancy Harper’s house and parked in front of the Randolph house, the only other house on the dead-end road, she wondered again why Stacy would have come here last night. If indeed she did.

The double garage doors to Kitty’s house were closed and there were no visible windows so she could see if Kitty was home or not. Getting out, she walked up the freshly shoveled steps and rang the doorbell.

No answer. She rang the bell again and thought she heard a thud from inside the house. Her first thought was that the elderly woman had been hurrying to the door and fallen.

“Mrs. Randolph?” she called, and knocked on the door. She tried the knob. The door opened.

Dana had expected to see the poor woman lying on the floor writhing in pain. But she saw no one. “Hello?” she called.

Another thud. This one coming
from upstairs.

“Mrs. Randolph?” she called as she climbed the stairs. “Kitty?”

Still no answer.

At the top of the stairs she heard a sound coming from down the hall. A series of small thumps. One of the doors was partially open, the sound coming from inside.

She hurried down the hall, her mind racing as she shoved the door all the way open and stepped inside.

At once, she saw that the room was the master bedroom, large and plush, done in reds and golds.

At first she didn’t see Kitty Randolph on the floor in front of the closet.

Dana realized why the woman hadn’t heard her calling for her. Kitty Randolph was on her hands and knees, muttering to herself as she dug in the back of the huge closet. One shoe after another came flying out to land behind the woman.

Dana stumbled back, bumping into the door as one shoe almost hit her.

Kitty Randolph froze. Her frightened expression was chilling as she turned and saw Dana.

“I’m sorry if I frightened you,” Dana said, afraid she would give the elderly woman a heart attack. “I rang the bell, then tried the door when I heard a sound…” She noticed the bruise on Kitty’s cheek.

The older woman’s hand went to it. “I am so clumsy.” She looked from Dana to the floor covered with shoes.

Dana followed her gaze. The bedroom carpet was littered with every color and kind of
shoe imaginable from shoes the judge had worn sole-bare to out-of-date sandals and pumps covered with dust.

“I was just cleaning out the closet,” Kitty said awkwardly, trying to get to her feet. She had a shoe box clutched under one arm. “My husband was a pack rat. Saved everything. And I’m just as bad.”

Dana reached a hand out to help her, but the older woman waved it away.

As Kitty rose, Dana saw the woman pick up a high-heeled shoe from the floor, looking at it as if surprised to see it.

She tossed it back into the closet and turned her attention to Dana. “I see you brought my fabric.”

Dana had forgotten all about it. Embarrassed by frightening the woman, she thrust the bag at her.

Kitty took it, studying Dana as she put the shoe box she held onto the clean surface of the vanity. “How foolish of me to leave my package at your shop. You really shouldn’t have gone out of your way to bring it to me.”

“It was no trouble. I wanted to see you anyway to ask you if my sister stopped by to see you last night.”

The older woman frowned. “What would give you that idea?”

“Nancy Harper said she saw Stacy drive down the road toward your house.”

“That woman must have no time to do anything but look out the window,” Kitty Randolph said irritably. “If your sister drove down here, I didn’t see her.” She turned to place the fabric package next to the shoe box on
the vanity. She fiddled with the lid of the shoe box for a moment. “Why would Stacy come to see me?”

“I have no idea. I’d hoped you might.” A lot of people drove cars like her sister’s and it had been dark out. “Nancy Harper must have been mistaken,” Dana said, glancing again at the shoes on the floor. “Can I help you with these?”

“No, you have better things to do, I’m sure,” Kitty said as she stepped over the shoes and took Dana’s arm, turning her toward the door. “Thank you again for bringing my fabric. You really shouldn’t have.”

It wasn’t until Dana was driving away that she remembered the high heel Kitty Randolph had thrown back into the closet. She couldn’t imagine the woman wearing anything with a heel that high. Or that color, either.

But then, who knew what Kitty Randolph had been like when she was young.

At the turn back onto Highway 191, Dana dialed her friend. “Hilde?”

“Is everything all right?”

“Fine. Listen, I was just thinking. I’m so close to Bozeman I thought I’d drive down and see my dad. I called and he’s doing better. They said I could see him. Unless it’s so busy there that you need me?”

“Go see your dad,” Hilde said without hesitation. “I can handle things here. Anyway, it’s slowed down this afternoon. I was thinking that if it doesn’t pick up, I might close early.”

“Do,” Dana said. “We’ve made more than
our quota for the month in the past few days.”

“Tell your dad hello for me.”

Dana hung up. She did want to see her father, but she also hoped that Stacy had been by to see him.

But when she reached the hospital, her father was still groggy, just as he’d been that morning. She didn’t bring up anything that might upset him and only stayed for a few minutes as per the nurse’s instructions.

As Dana was leaving, she stopped at the nurses’ station to inquire about her father’s visitors.

“Your brother was here,” the nurse said. “That’s the only visitor he’s had today.”

“My brother?”

“The skinny one.”

Clay. That meant that neither Jordan nor Stacy had been here.

“But there have been a lot of calls checking on his condition,” the nurse added.

Dana thanked her and headed back toward the ranch. She wanted to get a change of clothing if she was going to be staying at Hud’s again tonight.

She knew she was being silly, wanting to slow things down. She loved Hud. He loved her. They’d spent too much time apart as it was. So why was she so afraid?

Because she didn’t believe they could just pick up where they’d left off. They’d both changed. Didn’t they need to get to know each other again—everything else that was going on aside?

And yet even as she thought it, she knew that the chemistry they shared
was still there as well as the love. She knew what was holding her back. This investigation. Until Ginger Adams’s killer was caught, Dana didn’t feel safe. And she had no idea why.

As she drove down the road to the ranch house, she saw the tracks in the snow. Hud would have driven in to feed Joe. But there was at least another set of tire tracks. Someone else had been to the house today.

Z
OEY
S
KINNER
was filling salt and pepper shakers during the slow time between lunch and dinner in the large West Yellowstone café.

Hud couldn’t say he remembered her. But she wasn’t the kind of woman who stood out. Quite the opposite, she tended to blend into her surroundings.

The café was empty this time of the day, with it being a little too early yet for dinner.

He took a chair at a table in a far corner and glanced out the window at the walls of snow.

The town had changed over the years since the advent of snowmobiles. Where once winters were off season and most of the businesses closed and lay dormant under deep snowbanks, now the town literally buzzed with activity.