Cowgirl Up! (24 page)

That struck a nerve.

“Home? This place isn’t my home. It was Marietta’s home not mine! I hate this place!”

He stopped and weaved back and forth for a minute. Sam thought he might pass out but he took a deep breath and steadied himself. He looked at her and started laughing. It was a crazy laugh and grated on her nerves.

“I fooled everyone. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time," he told her. “Do you know how long I waited to kill my bitchy wife? Years!”

He spat the words out so intensely he almost fell over. Sam stepped back and felt an equipment rack behind her. She slowly reached her hand across a shelf and tried to find something she could use to defend herself. She felt a hoof pick and put her fingers around it and lowered it behind her back.

“What are you talking about? You killed Marietta?” Sam’s heart was beating hard and she tried to calm herself down with some yoga breathing. Then she thought. How many yogis could remember their breathing if a gun was pointed at them? Probably none. She forgot about the yoga and concentrated on Lance.

He looked at Sam.

“Yes, I killed her. I stole the knife from one of those farm workers and waited for her that morning. I cut the fence because I knew she would stop and fix it. I hid behind some rocks and when she dismounted I came up behind her and slit her throat. I threw the knife in the field when I was done with it. “

He laughed again. He was creeping Sam out. Okay, he was the one she really wanted to bitch slap, but he had the gun.

“I planted her watch in that worker’s tool pouch,” he continued. “It was easy because they have their names taped on them. Poor Pablo will get the blame and I’ll be free forever.”

Sam was in shock and couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Why did you kill her?” She asked him softly.

Lance stopped and Sam could see him shake his head in the dim light.

“I hated her.” He said quietly. “You wouldn’t understand, but I couldn’t take it any more.”

Sam didn’t say anything as she watched Lance pull a flask out of his shirt pocket and take a swig. “You probably heard all the stories about when I sold my cattle and went into the horse business years ago. I know a lot of people thought I’d lost my mind. Maybe I did.”

“Why did you do that?” Sam asked.

Lance’s voice softened. “I did it because of Abby.”

“Abby?” Sam asked surprised. “What did she have to do with it?”

Lance looked at Sam, but she could tell he wasn’t seeing her. He was seeing something from his past.

“I was in love with Abby. She was such a beautiful young thing when Samuel married her and brought her to live at the ranch. I couldn’t figure out how such an old coot like Samuel could get someone like her. He didn’t deserve her. She was vibrant and happy and brought new life to this ranch. When she had the twins, she was even happier. There was always laughter coming from their house. But after the boys were born, Samuel never gave her much attention or affection. He was gruff and took her for granted. He was too old to appreciate what he had.”

Lance stopped for a minute and gazed past Sam.

“So what happened?” Sam was curious now and wanted to hear the whole story.

“Well, I tried to stay away from her, but there was this electricity between us. She felt it too. I kept my distance but every once in a while we would bump into each other around the place and it was difficult not to touch her.

Lance sighed. “Marietta couldn’t stand having Abby around. She was extremely jealous of her and after the twins were born she became even more hateful. We could never have kids of our own so I know Marietta was bitter about the boys. I know she must have sensed there was some chemistry between Abby and me. I was faithful to Marietta, but she got to be impossible to live with.

Lance stopped and took another swig of whiskey from his flask.

“Then, when the boys were about six, Samuel allowed them to go on their first cattle drive. We’d only gotten a mile or so from the ranch that morning when I noticed my horse was going lame. I told the rest of them to go on and I’d catch up after I switched horses. I walked my horse back to the ranch and was on my way to the barn when I saw Abby hanging some clothes up on the line in their back yard. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing just enough to hug her dress close to her body. I watched her until she finished and went in the house. I knew Marietta was in town that morning and I couldn’t help myself. I followed Abby into her house. She was surprised when she turned around and saw me, but then our emotions took over and the next thing I knew we were making love on the kitchen floor. That’s where Marietta found us.”

Sam had been holding her breath and let it out slowly. “What did she do when she found you?”

Lance came back to reality and took another drink.

“She raised holy hell, what else? She’d come back from town and saw my horse tied up at the hitching post. When she didn’t see me around anywhere she put two and two together and came up with the right answer. She barged through the Calhoun’s backdoor with fire in her eyes. There was an ugly scene and she threatened Abby. She told her she was going to tell Samuel everything when he got back. Abby was hysterical.” Lance closed his eyes and shook his head as if to shake the bad memories from his mind.

“I followed Marietta back to our house and tried to reason with her. I even got down on my knees and begged. I knew if she divorced me she would get half of everything, including the Lazy W. I couldn’t let that happen. This ranch is my life. Long story short, we came to an agreement. Marietta wouldn’t divorce me and would keep her mouth shut and not say anything to Samuel if I sold all my cattle and made the Lazy W a horse ranch. It was what she’d been wanting for a long time. She had one more condition. I had to let Samuel go. I didn’t want to lose my ranch, so I agreed.”

Lance looked at Sam with a wicked smile. His lunacy had returned.

. “I think I started hating Marietta when I found out Samuel committed suicide. I blamed myself and Marietta made sure to twist that knife of guilt every chance she got. She was a jealous bitch and watched me like a hawk after that. She had me by the balls and she knew it. She exercised her power over me whenever she could, especially if she had an audience. It was horrible. I knew what everyone was saying about me. Poor henpecked Lance! He doesn’t make a move without Marietta telling him what to do or which way to go.”

Sam winced because she remembered her dad saying almost those exact same words a few days ago.

She saw Lance smile to himself.

“I wanted to kill her and I knew I could pin it on one of those farm workers. But I didn’t know how to get rid of these buildings and horses without causing suspicion to fall on me. Then that developer approached me about selling off part of my land. I knew the environmentalists would protest and try to stop me. Hell, I wasn’t going to sell off half my land. I’d never sell this land! But they didn’t know that. I knew they would cause trouble and threaten us and they did. That’s what I wanted. I needed them to stir up shit so suspicion would fall on them when I killed Marietta. I even met with the commissioner and one of the leaders of the ‘Mother Earth Society’ at Rosa’s one night just to agitate them. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was Marcus. I knew he hated my guts and that helped my plan.”

The whole thing was finally registering in Sam’s brain. It was Marcus she saw with John O’Connor at Rosa’s back in March. He’d looked familiar and now she knew why. Even with his long hair and beard she’d seen the resemblance between him and Mitch.

“Are you the one who injected your horses with Salmonella?” Sam asked.

Lance chuckled menacingly.

“No. Marcus did. I saw him the day he did it. He came out early that morning dressed like Mitch. He fooled everyone but me. I didn’t know what he was up to but I knew he was here to cause trouble so I didn’t stop him. Later that afternoon, Mitch told me about the syringe you found in the pasture with the mare. When I learned you suspected the horses had Salmonella, I put two and two together and figured Marcus had injected them with the virus. I saw him out here again the next day, probably to inject more horses, but he must have heard you found the syringe he dropped and decided not to not take any chances and left.”

“So it was Marcus I overheard on the cell phone outside this room that day. I couldn’t place the voice.”

Lance waved the gun around the room.

“Yes. He was in cahoots with the commissioner to try and stop our sale from going through. He was planting those threatening notes in our mailbox. Mitch finally figured it all out and tried to protect him by removing the letters, but Marietta caught him.”

“Did Marcus cut the cinch strap on Marietta’s saddle?” Sam asked softly.

“No, Suzanne did that.”

Lance laughed when he saw Sam’s surprised look. He lifted his flask to his lips and took a long drink, keeping the pistol aimed at her. He wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve and swayed unsteadily on his feet.

“She’s jealous of you, didn’t you know that?” Sam could see the leer on his face through the dim light. “I watched her sneak out and cut the strap after Mitch saddled the horses that morning. She really helped me out. She made it look like those ‘environmental whackos’ were after Marietta.”

Lance reached in his pocket and pulled something out. He put his hand in front of Sam and shined his light so she could see. It was the silver bracelet with the bear hanging from the clasp that Marietta bought at the auction.

“See this? This is all I want left of this place after I burn it down. It’s the only souvenir I’m going to keep.”

Sam took a deep breath. “You’re going to burn this place down?”

Lance laughed and pointed the gun at her again.

“I already am. I’m burning this whole goddamn place down right now! Marcus was in the hay barn trying to start a fire when I shot him. I’m helping him finish the job. It was so easy to lure him out here. All I had to do was phone John O’Connor and tell him I was going to sign a contract with the developers tomorrow. I knew he’d send Marcus out and he did. Then I heard Mitch come in and I had to shoot him too.

“How could you shoot Abby’s sons?” Sam asked in horror.

Lance looked at her with an evil grin.

“Haven’t you ever heard the expression ‘the end justifies the means’, sweetheart?”

He looked down and spat on the floor.

“I hate this place. The house and barn remind me of Marietta. I want to get rid of everything, including the horses. With the insurance money, I’ll be able to go back to cattle ranching. I’ll get enough money to start over again without that bitch telling me what to do.”

Sam was stunned speechless. She watched Lance carefully. She could smell the smoke now and heard the whinnies of several horses in the distance. Fear and panic griped her heart.

“The Sheriff is going to suspect arson. When they investigate they’ll find out the twins were shot. You’ll never get away with this.”

Lance cackled and pointed the gun at Sam. She almost wet her pants.

“The Sheriff will figure they came out to burn the barn down and got caught in their own web. He’ll think they were overcome with smoke before they could escape. I drugged Frank and Matthew and turned the gas oven on in the bunkhouse and the ranch house. I’m leaving and will be in town when the fire hits those houses and all hell breaks loose. They’ll be lucky to find anything left in the inferno, including you.”

Sam was standing in front of a totally deranged man who had a loaded gun pointed at her head. She was worn out and her piss poor mood returned with a vengeance. She’d had a shitty day and if she was going to die it wasn’t going to be in a pair of dirty jeans drenched in mud with horse shit in her hair. She had some dignity.

“Wait a minute,” Sam demanded and held her hand up. “Are you telling me you’re going to burn down this whole place and kill four, no five innocent people because of your hatred for Marietta?”

Lance grinned like a maniac and walked slowly toward Sam. The gun was pointed at her chest.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Sam knew is was now or never so she lunged at Lance with the hoof pick and raked the sharp point across his face. He jumped back in surprise and cried out in pain. She ran out of the room and headed toward the back door.

Sam sprinted out of the barn and could hear Lance running behind her. She couldn’t tell how far away he was, but she was hauling ass for her truck. She reached her Chevy and opened the door just as Lance grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground. She landed on her butt in the middle of a mud puddle for the second time that day. She could smell fresh horse poop all around her.

Lance stood over Sam for a second and suddenly she saw a dark object fly out of the truck and knock him down. It was Dundee. He had Lance by the neck and was growling and biting furiously at his throat.

Lance rolled around on the ground a minute and then stood up and grabbed Dundee around the chest. He pulled him away from his throat and tossed him across the yard like a rag doll. Sam saw Dundee fly through the air and hit the ground with a thud. He let out a loud yelp and then whined softly. Lance pointed his gun at Dundee and fired. Sam heard him give another yelp and then he was silent.