Justice at Cardwell Ranch (14 page)

She stood staring at the mess, trying to make sense of it. Why would someone do this? Her heart began to pound. This felt as if it was a warning.

Or had someone been looking for something and not finding it, just decided to tear the place up? Were they looking for the photographs Alex had been asking about?

Either way, she felt as if she’d gotten the message. Unfortunately, she’d never been good at heeding these kinds of warnings.

If anything, she was more determined than ever to solve this case and get Jordan Cardwell off her suspect list.

Chapter Ten

Saturday morning after cleaning up her condo, Liza drove up the canyon. It was one of those amazing Montana fall days. The sky was robin’s-egg blue and not a cloud was in sight. The deciduous trees along the river glowed in bright blinding golds and deep reds next to the dark green of the pines.

At the heart of it all was the Gallatin River, running clear and beautiful, as it wound through the canyon and rocks. Harris Lancaster lived in a large modern home that looked as if it had been picked up in some big city and accidentally dropped here by the river.

His wife answered the door and pointed Liza toward a building a ways from the house. She followed a graveled path to the door and knocked.

Harris was a big burly brisk man with a loud deep voice and piercing gray eyes. Liza tried to imagine him in the very feminine furnishings of the house she’d glimpsed before his wife had closed the door.

His office looked like him, large and messy. The space was taken up by everything from dirty outdoor clothing and piles of papers and building plans to equipment parts and an old couch that Liza suspected he probably slept on more often than not. Given the pristine look of the house and Malcolm’s wife, Liza doubted he was allowed to set foot inside it.

He cleared off an old wooden chair, motioned her into it and took a seat behind his cluttered desk. “So what’s this about?” The office smelled of cigar smoke.

“I want to talk to you about Tanner Cole,” Liza said.

“Who?”

“He worked for Malcolm Iverson twenty years ago when he was in high school.”

He laughed. “
Seriously?
I can’t remember who works for me right now, why would I remember who worked for Malcolm?”

“Tanner committed suicide twenty years ago after Malcolm Iverson’s construction equipment was vandalized. It was just days before Malcolm shot you and went to prison.”

He shook his head. “I try not to think about any of that.”

“Tanner was in the same class as your daughter Ashley. He lived in a cabin near the construction site. Malcolm held Tanner responsible, but ultimately, he believed you were behind the vandalism that forced him into bankruptcy.”

He scoffed at that. “Malcolm didn’t know anything about running a business. He spent too much time in the bar. But I had nothing to do with vandalizing his equipment. He was just looking for someone to blame. Anyway, I heard the vandalism was kid stuff. You know, sugar in the gas tanks, broken and missing motor parts. Pure mischief. That’s what happens when you get a bunch of drunk kids together.”

“Or it was made to look like kids did it,” she noted, but Harris Lancaster didn’t seem to be listening.

“I do remember something about that Tanner boy now that you mention it. Ashley was real upset. We all were,” he added. “Tanner’s family has a ranch on the way to West Yellowstone. Too bad, but I don’t see what any of that has to do with me.”

“You benefited by Malcolm going broke.”

He shrugged. “Maybe, at the time. But there was plenty of work to go around. His son and I are competitors, but we aren’t shooting each other and we’re both doing quite well.”

He had a point. Maybe his problems with Malcolm and vice versa had nothing to do with Tanner’s death. Maybe it had been guilt. Or maybe there were some photographs somewhere that told a different story.

* * *

J
ORDAN PULLED UP
OUT IN FRONT
of the house where he’d been raised. He sat for a moment just looking at the large two-story house. The other day when he’d come into town, he’d driven in from the other side of the ranch to make sure no one was at home before he’d come down to borrow a hat.

At least that had been his excuse. He’d wanted to wander around the house without anyone watching him. He knew his sister would think he was casing the joint, looking for valuables he could pawn or sell on eBay.

He and Dana had always butted heads, although he wished that wasn’t the case. He’d always respected her. She worked harder than anyone he knew and made the rest of them feel like slackers.

Even after the good luck he’d had after Jill had left, he still felt like he could never measure up to Dana. Now as he opened his car door and climbed out, he half expected Dana to meet him on the porch. Possibly with a shotgun in her hands. Then he remembered that Hud had said she was pregnant with twins and having a hard time.

At the door, he knocked. It felt strange to knock at a door he’d run in and out of for years.

To his surprise, Stacy opened the door. He’d thought she was just passing through. But then again that would explain the beater car with the California plates he now saw parked off to the side. He hadn’t even noticed it he’d been so busy looking at the house.

“Stacy,” he said, unable to hide his surprise.

“Jordan?” She put a lot into that one word.

“It’s all right. I didn’t come by to cause trouble. I just wanted to see my sister. Sisters,” he corrected. “And my niece and nephew.”

“Nieces,” she said and stepped back to let him come in.

“That’s right. Hud said you have a baby?”

“Don’t sound so surprised.” Stacy studied him for a moment. “I’ll see if Dana is up to having company.”

“I’m not company. I’m
family
.”

She lifted an eyebrow as if to say, “Since when?”

As if
she
should talk, he thought as she headed for the downstairs sunroom that had been their parent’s bedroom, then their mother’s and now apparently Dana’s.

“Where are the kids?” he called after Stacy.

She shot him a warning look. “Down for their naps.”

“Sorry,” he whispered. He stood in the doorway, afraid to step in and feeling badly that it had come to this.

Stacy returned a moment later. She didn’t look happy. “Dana isn’t supposed to be upset.”

“Thanks for the warning,” he said and stepped across the living room to the doorway Stacy had just come from.

He stopped the moment he saw Dana. She looked beautiful, propped up against an array of pillows. Their gazes locked and he stepped the rest of the way into the room, closing the door behind him.

“Hey, sis,” he said.

“Jordan.” She began to cry.

With a lump in his throat at her reaction, he closed the distance and bent down to hug her awkwardly. “Are you all right?” he asked pulling back to look at her. “You look…beautiful.”

“I thought you were going to say…big,” she said laughing and crying as she wiped at her eyes. “It’s the hormones,” she said pointing at her tears. “I cry over everything.”

“That explains it. For a minute there I thought you might have missed me,” he said as he pulled up the chair next to the bed.

She stopped drying her tears to meet his gaze. “You seem…different.”

He smiled. “Oh, I’m still that stubborn, temperamental brother you remember. But maybe some of the hard edges have gotten knocked off.”

Dana nodded. “Maybe that’s it. Hud told me why you were in town.”

“I didn’t think you wanted to see me or I would have come by sooner.”

“You’re my older brother.”

“Exactly,” he only half joked.

The bedroom door opened. Stacy stuck her head in. “I think I’ll run that errand I told you about yesterday. The kids are still down. Should I move Ella?”

“No, I’ll have Jordan bring her in before he leaves.”

Stacy looked to her brother as if she wasn’t sure that was a good idea.

“I haven’t dropped a baby all day,” he said.

“And Hud should be back any minute,” Dana said to reassure her sister.

Stacy mugged a face at him and closed the door. He listened to her leave. But it wasn’t until they both couldn’t hear her old beater car engine any longer before they spoke.

“I did a lot of soul searching after everything that happened,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“I went up to the cemetery and saw Mom the first day I got here. I borrowed a hat. Nothing else,” he added quickly.

“Jordan, this ranch is your home too.”

“I know, sis,” he said putting a hand on her arm. “Mom always thought I’d come back and want to help you ranch.”

Dana chuckled at that. “She said Stacy and Clay were gone, but you…well, she said there was ranching in your blood.”

“Yeah. So tell me what’s going on with you.”

She placed her hands over her huge stomach. “I’m on bed rest with these two for the last weeks. I’m going insane.”

He laughed. “I can imagine. And Stacy is…?”

“She’s been great. Mary and Hank adore her.”

“Mary and Hank. I can’t wait to meet them.”

“You should come back for dinner tonight,” Dana said.

He shook his head. “Not sure that’s a good idea given the way your husband feels about me, not to mention everything else going on right now.”

“I wish you would. At least once before you leave,” Dana said, tearing up again.

“You and your hormones.” He got up and hugged her again. Straightening to leave, he asked, “So where’s this baby I’m supposed to bring you before I leave?”

At the sound of the front door opening, Dana said, “Sounds like Hud’s home. You’ll have to come back to meet Ella.”

“I’ll try. You take care of yourself and your babies.” As he opened the door, he came face to face with his brother-in-law again. “I was just leaving and no, I didn’t upset her.”

Hud looked past him to Dana. “What is she crying about then?”

“It’s just the hormones,” Dana said.

Jordan shrugged. “Just the hormones.”

As he left, he found himself looking toward the barn, remembering his childhood here. Amazing how the place looked so different from the way he remembered it the last time he was here. Had he really tried to force his sister into selling it, lock, stock and barrel?

He felt a wave of shame as he walked to his rental SUV and climbed inside.

* * *

“
W
HERE’S
S
TACY?”
H
UD ASKED
as he stuck his head in the bedroom door later.

Dana saw that he had Ella on one shoulder. She realized she’d fallen asleep after Jordan had left and had awakened a few moments ago when she’d heard the baby cry.

“She said she wanted to go see Angus,” Dana said groggily as she pulled herself up a little in the bed. “She said she wouldn’t be gone long.” Glancing at the clock beside her bed, she was shocked to see what time it was. “She hasn’t come back?”

Hud shook his head. “I just changed Ella. I was going to heat some formula for her.” He sounded worried.

Past him, Dana could see that it was dark outside. She felt a flutter of apprehension. “Stacy should have been back by now. Here, I’ll take the baby. Call my father. Maybe they got to visiting and she just lost track of time.”

“The kids and I are making dinner.” Hud handed her Ella. “They ordered beanie wienies.”

“Sounds great.” She could smell the bacon and onions sizzling in the skillet. But her gaze was on the baby in her arms. Ella smiled up at her and she felt her heart do a somersault. Stacy was just running late. She probably didn’t remember how quickly it got dark this time of year in the canyon.

A few minutes later, Hud came into the bedroom. “I called your father. He hasn’t seen Stacy.”

She felt her heart drop, but hid her fear as the kids came running in excitedly chanting “beanie wienies.”

Hud set up Mary and Hank’s small table in the bedroom so they could all eat dinner with her. The beanie wienies were wonderful. They finished the meal off with some of the brownies Aunt Stacy had made.

“Is Auntie Stacy going to live with us?” Mary asked.

“No, she’s just visiting,” Dana told her daughter. There was still no sign of Stacy. No call. Dana found herself listening, praying for the sound of her old car coming up the road. But there was only silence. “I’m not sure how long your aunt can stay.”

Hank looked over at Ella who was drooling and laughing as she tried to roll over on the other side of the bed. “She can’t leave without her baby,” he said. “Can she?”

She shot Hud a look. Could Stacy leave without her baby?

“I’m going to call Hilde and see if she can come over while I go look for Stacy,” Hud said. “I called Liza but she’s in West Yellowstone. Apparently, she went up there to talk to my father about the case she’s working.”

Dana nodded, seeing her own worry reflected in his face.

“I’ll call you if I hear anything.” Big Sky was relatively small. Stacy couldn’t have gone far. Unless she’d changed her mind about seeing their father and gone into Bozeman for some reason. But she’d said she would be back before Ella woke up from her nap. What if something had happened to her sister?

Trying to rein in her fear, Dana told the kids to get a game for them all to play.

“Ella can’t play, Mommy,” Mary cried. “She’ll eat the game pieces.”

“No, Ella will just watch,” she told her daughter as she fought the dread that Stacy hadn’t changed at all.

In that case Dana hated to think what that might mean. That Stacy wouldn’t be back? Or worse, she’d left her baby. If it was her baby.

Chapter Eleven

Jordan felt at loose ends after leaving his sister’s. On impulse he drove as far as he could up the road to the construction site where he’d found Tanner that horrible morning twenty years before.

The road was now paved and led up to a massive home. He could tell from the looks of it that the owner wasn’t around and probably didn’t come up but for a few weeks in the winter and summer.

The house had been built on a cleared area high on the mountain where the construction equipment had been parked twenty years ago. The small log cabin where Tanner had lived was gone. So was the campfire ring. Nothing looked as it had except for the tree where he’d found Tanner hanging that spring day.