B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection (30 page)

She smiled. “I can also take care of myself. And,” she said before he could interrupt, “I can get involved with anyone I want.”

He looked at his boots before looking at her again. “You’re right.”

“That’s what I thought. Did you bring the information I asked for?” she asked, pointing to the manila envelope in his hand and no longer wanting to discuss Jordan.

Truthfully she didn’t know how she felt about him—waking up to see him sleeping beside her hospital bed or being in his arms the other night on the dance floor.

“I brought it,” Hud said with a sigh. “But I don’t think you should be worrying about any of this right now. How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Liza said, reaching for the manila envelope and quickly opening it.

“There are Alex’s phone calls over the past month as well as where he went after arriving at Big Sky.”

Liza was busy leafing through it, more determined than ever to find out who’d killed him—and who’d tried to do the same to her the night before.

“Alex was in the middle of a contentious divorce?” she asked, looking up in surprise from the information he’d brought her. “He had a
wife?
” When she’d notified next of kin, she’d called his brother as per the card in his wallet.

“Her name is Crystal.”

“A classmate?”

Hud nodded. “But not from Big Sky. She lived down in Bozeman.”

“What was holding up the divorce?” Liza asked.

He shook his head and had to take a step back from the bed as Liza swung her legs over the side and stood up.
“What are you doing?”

“I’m getting up. I told you, I’m fine. Just a little knock on the head and a few cuts and bruises and a sprained wrist, but it’s my left wrist, so I’m fine. All I need is a vehicle.”

He shook his head. “I can’t allow—”

“You can’t stop me. Someone tried to
kill
me. This has become personal. Not only that, you need to stay close to home,” she said as she rummaged in the closet for her clothes. “No sign of Stacy yet?” He shook his head. “What about the baby?”

“The lab’s running a DNA test. We should be able to tell if the baby is Stacy’s by comparing Ella’s DNA to Dana’s. Liza, you’re really not up to—”

“Could you see about my clothes?” she asked, realizing they weren’t anywhere in the room. Her clothes had been wet and the nurses had probably taken them to dry them. “Stubborn, remember? One of the reasons I’m such a good law officer, your words not mine.” She smiled widely although it hurt her face.

He studied her for a moment. “Clothes, right. Then get you a vehicle,” he said, clearly giving up on trying to keep another woman in bed.

* * *

D
ANA
WATCHED
H
ILDE
TRYING
to change Ella’s diaper until she couldn’t take it anymore. “Give me that baby.”

Hilde laughed. “You make it look so easy,” she said, handing Ella to her.

Ella giggled and squirmed as Dana made short work of getting her into a diaper and a sleeper. Hud had come in so late, Hilde had stayed overnight and gotten someone to work for her this morning. He’d promised to be back soon.

“I’m just so glad Liza is all right,” she said as she handed Ella back to Hilde. Through the open bedroom door she could see Mary and Hank playing with a plastic toy ranch set. She could hear them discussing whether or not they should buy more cows.

“Me, too,” Hilde said. “Fortunately, Liza is strong.”

“Hud’s worried now that she and Jordan might be getting involved.”

Hilde arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“I have to admit when Jordan stopped by, he did seem different. But then again I said Stacy had changed, so what do I know? I can’t believe we haven’t heard anything from her. What if she never comes back?” Dana hadn’t let herself think about that at first, but as the hours passed… “Did she leave anything else besides Ella and the baby’s things?”

“I can check. She was staying in the room I slept in last night, right?”

“I would imagine Hud already checked it, but would you look? That should tell us if she was planning to leave the baby all along or if something happened and she can’t get back.”

Hilde jiggled Ella in her arms. “Watch her for a moment and I’ll go take a look.” She put the baby down next to Dana on the bed. Ella immediately got up on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth.

“She is going to be crawling in no time,” Dana said with a smile. Stacy was going to miss it. But then maybe Stacy had missed most of Ella’s firsts because this wasn’t her baby.

Hilde returned a few minutes later.

“You found something,” Dana said, excited and worried at the same time.

“You said she didn’t have much, right?” Hilde asked. “Well, she left a small duffle on the other side of the bed. Not much in it. A couple of T-shirts, underwear, socks. I searched through it.” She shook her head. “Then I noticed a jean jacket hanging on the back of the chair by the window. It’s not yours, is it?”

“That’s the one Stacy was wearing when she arrived.”

“I found this in the pocket.”

Dana let out a surprised groan as Hilde, using two fingers, pulled out a small caliber handgun.

* * *

A
LEX
W
INSLOW
’
S
WIFE
, C
RYSTAL
,
lived up on the hill overlooking Bozeman on what some called Snob Knob. In the old days it had been called Beer Can Hill because that was where the kids used to go to drink and make out.

The house was pretty much what Liza had expected. It was huge. A contentious divorce usually meant one of three things. That the couple was fighting over the kids, the pets or the money. Since Alex and Crystal apparently had no children or pets, Liza guessed it was the money.

She parked the rental SUV Hud’d had delivered to the hospital and walked up to the massive front door. As she rang the bell, she could hear music playing inside. She rang the bell a second time before the door was opened by a petite dark-haired woman with wide blue eyes and a quizzical smile.

“Yes?” she asked.

Liza had forgotten her bandages, the eye that was turning black or that all the blood hadn’t completely come out of her uniform shirt.

She’d felt there wasn’t time to go all the way back to Big Sky to change. Her fear was that if she didn’t solve this case soon, someone else was going to die.

“Crystal Winslow? I’m Deputy Marshal Liza Turner. I need to ask you a few questions in regard to your husband’s death.”

“
Estranged
husband,” Crystal Winslow said, but opened the door wider. “I doubt I can be of help, but you’re welcome to come in. Can I get you something?” She took in Liza’s face again.

“Just answers.”

Crystal led her into the formal living room. It had a great view of the city and valley beyond. In the distance, the Spanish Peaks gleamed from the last snowfall high in the mountains.

“How long have you and Alex been estranged?”

“I don’t see what that has to do—”

“Your
estranged
husband is dead. I believe whoever murdered him tried to do the same to me last night. I need to know why.”

“Well, it has nothing to do with me.” She sniffed, then said, “A month.”

“Why?”

For a moment Crystal looked confused. “Why did I kick him out and demand a divorce? You work out of Big Sky, right? I would suggest you ask Shelby.”

“Shelby Durran-Iverson?”

She nodded, and for the first time Liza saw true pain in the woman’s expression—and fury. “I knew he was cheating. A woman can tell. But
Shelby?
I remember her from high school. People used to say she was the type who would eat her young.”

“That could explain why she doesn’t have any children,” Liza said. She still felt a little lightheaded and knew this probably wasn’t the best time to be interviewing anyone.

“Did Alex admit he was seeing Shelby?”

Crystal gave her an are-you-serious? look. “He swore up and down that his talking to her wasn’t an affair, that he was trying to get her to tell the truth, something involving Tanner Cole.”

“You remember Tanner?”

“He hung himself our senior year. I didn’t really know him. He was a cowboy. I didn’t date cowboys. No offense.”

Liza wondered why that should offend her. Did she look that much like a cowgirl?

“I think your husband might have been telling you the truth. I believe he was looking into Tanner’s death.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I was hoping you could tell me since I suspect that’s what got him killed.”

“You don’t know for sure that he wasn’t having an affair with Shelby though, right?”

“No, I don’t. But Alex mentioned to other people that he felt something was wrong about Tanner’s suicide, as well. He didn’t say anything to you?”

“No.”

“Do you or your husband own any weapons?”

Crystal looked appalled. “You mean like a Saturday night special?”

“Or hunting rifles.”

“No, I wouldn’t have a gun in my house. My father was killed in a hunting accident. We have a state-of-the-art security system. We didn’t need
guns.
”

Liza nodded, knowing what that would get Crystal if someone broke into the house. She could be dead before the police arrived. “Alex didn’t have weapons, either?”

“No. I still can’t believe this was why Alex was spending time with Shelby.”

“Did she ever call here?”

Crystal mugged a face. “Shelby said it was just to talk to Alex about Big Sky’s reunion plans. They wanted their own. Ours wasn’t good enough for them.”

Liza could see that Crystal Winslow had been weighted down with that chip on her shoulder for some time.

“But I overheard one of his conversations,” she said smugly. “Shelby was demanding something back, apparently something she’d given him. He saw me and said he didn’t know what she was talking about. After he hung up, he said Shelby was looking for some photographs from their senior year. He said she was probably using them for something she was doing for the reunion.”

“You didn’t believe him?”

“I could hear Shelby screeching from where I was standing. She was livid about whatever it really was.”

“Did he send her some photos from high school?”

“I told you, that was just a story he came up with. He had some photographs from high school. I kept the ones of me and gave him the rest.”

“Where are those photos now?”

“I threw them out with Alex. I assume he took them to his apartment,” she said.

“Do you have a key?”

“He left one with me, but I’ve never used it.” She got up and walked out of the room, returning a moment later with a shiny new key and a piece of notepaper. “Here’s the address.”

Liza took it. “Was that the only Big Sky friend who contacted Alex?”

“Right after that was when Alex started driving up to Big Sky and I threw him out.”

“What made you suspect he was seeing Shelby?” Liza asked.

For a moment, Crystal looked confused. “I told you—”

“Right, that a woman knows. But how did you know it was
Shelby?
”

“After Tanner broke up with her in high school, she made a play for Alex. He was dating Tessa Ryerson before that. The two of them got into it at school one day. That’s when he and I started dating.”

“Did he tell you what his argument with Shelby was about?”

She shrugged. “Eventually everyone has a falling-out with Shelby—except for her BFFs.” She made a face, then listed off their names like a mantra. “Shelby, Tessa, Ashley, Whitney and Brittany.”

Liza noted that Brittany was on the list. “When did Alex and Shelby have the falling-out?”

Crystal frowned. “It was around the time that Tanner committed suicide. After that Alex hadn’t wanted anything to do with her. That is until recently.”

Liza could tell that Crystal was having second thoughts about accusing her husband of infidelity.

“You said your father was killed in a hunting accident. Did you hunt?”

“No. Alex did and so did his friends,” she said distractedly.

“What about Shelby?”

“She actually was a decent shot, I guess, although I suspected the only reason she and her friends hunted was to be where the boys were.” Her expression turned to one of horror. “You don’t think Shelby killed Alex, do you?”

Chapter Thirteen

Dana stared at the sleeping Ella as her husband updated her on Liza’s condition. She’d had a scare, but she was going to be fine. In fact, she’d already checked herself out of the hospital and was working.

“You didn’t try to stop her?” Dana demanded of her husband.

He gave her a look she knew too well.

“All right, what did you find out about Stacy?” she asked and braced herself for the worst.

“There is really nothing odd about her having Clay’s car,” she said when he finished filling her in. “Obviously they’ve been in contact.”

“It wouldn’t be odd if Clay had been cashing his checks for the last six months,” Hud said. “Why would he be driving an old beater car if he had money?”

“Maybe it was a spare car he let Stacy have,” she suggested.

Hud rolled his eyes. “It is the only car registered to your brother. Nice theory.” He instantly seemed to regret his words. “I’m sorry. I’m not telling you these things to upset you. On the contrary, I know you’ll worry more if I keep them from you.”

“Which proves you’re smarter than you look,” she said, annoyed that he was treating her as if she was breakable. “The babies are fine. I’m fine. You’d better not keep anything from me.”

He smiled. “As I said…”

“So you can’t find Clay or Stacy.”

“No. But I’ve put an APB out on Stacy’s car. It was the only thing I could do.”

“Something’s happened to her,” Dana said. “She wouldn’t leave Ella.” When Hud said nothing, she shot him an impatient look. “You saw how she was with that baby. She loves her.”

“Dana, we haven’t seen your sister in six years. She doesn’t write or call when she gets pregnant. She just shows up at the door with a baby, which she then leaves with us. Come on, even you have to admit, something is wrong with this.”

She didn’t want to admit it. Maybe more than anything, she didn’t want to acknowledge that Stacy could have done something unforgiveable this time. Something that might land her in prison.

“What do we do now?” she asked her husband.

“I’ve held off going global with Ella’s description, hoping Stacy would show back up. But Dana, I don’t think I have any choice.”

“You haven’t heard anything on the DNA test you did on Ella and me?”

“I should be hearing at any time. But if the two of you aren’t related, then I have to try to find out who this baby belongs to—no matter what happens to Stacy.”

* * *

L
IZA
DROVE
TO
THE
APARTMENT
address Crystal Winslow had given her. She used the key to get into the studio apartment. As the door swung open, she caught her breath and pulled her weapon.

The apartment had been torn apart. Every conceivable hiding place had been searched, pillows and sofa bed sliced open, their stuffing spread across the room, books tossed to the floor along with clothing from the closet.

Liza listened, then cautiously stepped in. A small box of photographs had been dumped onto the floor and gone through from the looks of them. She checked the tiny kitchen and bath to make sure whoever had done this was gone before she holstered her weapon and squatted down to gingerly pick up one of the photographs.

It was a snapshot of Jordan Cardwell with two other handsome boys. All three were wearing ski clothing and looking cocky. She recognized a young Alex Winslow and assumed the other boy must be Tanner.

A curtain flapped loudly at an open window, making her start. Carefully, she glanced through the other photographs, assuming whatever the intruder had been looking for wasn’t among these strewn on the floor.

It took her a moment though to realize what was missing from the pile of photos. There were none of Crystal. Nor any of Shelby or the rest of her group. That seemed odd that the women Alex had apparently been close to were missing from the old photographs. Nor were there any wedding pictures. Crystal had said she’d taken the ones of her. But who would have taken ones of Shelby and the rest of the young women he’d gone to school with in the canyon?

Rising, Liza called it in to the Bozeman Police Department, then waited until a uniformed officer arrived.

“I doubt you’ll find any fingerprints, but given that Alex Winslow is a murder victim and he hasn’t lived here long, I’m hoping whoever did this left us a clue,” she told the officer. “I’ve contacted the crime lab in Missoula. I just want to make sure no one else comes in here until they arrive.”

As she was leaving, Liza saw an SUV cruise slowly by. She recognized Crystal Winslow behind the wheel before the woman sped off.

* * *

J
ORDAN
HAD
JUST
REACHED
the bottom of the gondola for the ride up the mountain to the reunion picnic, when he spotted Liza.

She wasn’t moving with her usual speed, but there was a determined look in her eye that made him smile.

“What?” she said when she joined him.

“You. After what happened, you could have taken one day off.”

“I’m going to a picnic,” she said. “I’m not even wearing my uniform.”

She looked great out of uniform. The turquoise top she wore had slits at the shoulders, the silky fabric exposing tanned, muscled arms as it moved in the breeze. She wore khaki capris and sandals. Her long ebony-dark hair had been pulled up in back with a clip so the ends cascaded down her back. For as banged up as she was, she looked beautiful.

“I’m betting though that you’re carrying a gun,” he said, eyeing the leather shoulder bag hanging off one shoulder.

“You better hope I am.” She laughed, but stopped quickly as if she was still light-headed.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” he whispered, stepping closer.

“Dandy.”

Past her, he saw Whitney and Ashley. Neither looked in a celebratory mood. When they spotted the deputy marshal, they jumped apart as if talking to each other would make them look more guilty.

“This could be a fun picnic,” he said under his breath.

A few moments later Brittany arrived with her husband and small brood. Jordan was taken back again at how happy and content she looked.

I want that,
he thought as his gaze shifted to Liza.

As their gondola came around, they climbed in and made room for Whitney and Ashley, who’d come up behind them. Both women, though, motioned that they would take the next one.

“I’d love to know what they’re hiding,” Jordan said as he sat across from the deputy marshal. The gondola door closed then rocked as it began its ascent up the mountain. He had a view of the resort and the peaks from where he sat. And a view of Liza.

He could also see the gondola below them and the two women inside. They had their heads together. He wondered at the power Shelby still held over these women she’d lorded over in high school. Did anyone ever really get over high school?

“There’s something I need to ask you,” Liza said, drawing his attention back to her, which was no hardship. “How was it that you were the first person on the scene last night?”

He smiled, knowing that Hud was behind this. “I got worried about you and I wanted to see you. I drove up the canyon thinking I could talk you into having dinner with me. Another car had stopped before I got there. I was just the first to go into the river.” He hated that she was suspicious of him, but then again he couldn’t really blame her.

“Did you see the pickup that forced me off the road?”

He nodded. “But it was just an old pickup. I was looking for your patrol SUV so I really didn’t pay any attention.”

She nodded. “I’d already told you I wasn’t having dinner with you.”

He grinned. “I thought I could charm you into changing your mind.” He hurried on before she could speak. “I know you already told me no, but I thought we could at least pick up something and take it back to my cabin or your condo.”

“You just don’t give up, do you?”

“Kind of like someone else I know,” he said and smiled at her. “I didn’t have any ulterior motives. I’ve given this a lot of thought. Somehow, I think it all goes back to that party Tanner had at the cabin that night and the vandalism.”

“And the photographs?” she asked.

He nodded. “I wish I’d stayed around long enough that night to tell you who took them.”

They were almost to the top of the gondola ride. Off to his left, he saw where the caterers had set up the food for the picnic.

The gondola rocked as it came to a stop and the door opened. Jordan quickly held the doors open while the deputy marshal climbed out, then he followed, recalling what he could of that night, which wasn’t much.

* * *

L
IZA
HOPED
THE
PICNIC
WOULDN
’
T
be quite as bad as the dinner had been. Jordan got them a spot near Shelby and the gang on one of the portable picnic tables that had been brought up the mountain.

“
Whatever
happened to you?” Shelby exclaimed loud enough for everyone to hear when she saw Liza.

While everyone in the canyon would have heard about her accident, Liza smiled and said, “Tripped. Sometimes I am so clumsy.”

Shelby laughed. “You really should be more careful.” Then she went back to holding court at her table. The usual suspects were in attendance and Tessa had been allowed to join in.

Liza watched out of the corner of her eye. Shelby monopolized the conversation with overly cheerful banter. But it was as if a pall had fallen over her group that not even she could lift.

After they ate, some of the picnickers played games in the open area next to the ski lift. When Liza spotted Tessa heading for the portable toilets set up in the trees, she excused herself and followed.

Music drifted on the breeze. A cloudless blue sky hung over Lone Peak. It really was the perfect day for a picnic and she said as much to Tessa when she caught up with her.

“Deputy,” Tessa said.

“Why don’t you call me Liza.”

The woman smiled. “So I forget that I’m talking to the
law?
”

“I’m here as Jordan Cardwell’s date.”

Tessa chuckled at that, then sobered. “What happened to you?”

“Someone tried to stop me from looking into Alex’s and Tanner’s deaths.”

The woman let out a groan.

“I was hoping you would have contacted me to talk,” Liza said. “I can see you’re troubled.”

“Troubled?”
Tessa laughed as she glanced back toward the group gathered below them on the mountain.

Liza followed her gaze and saw Shelby watching them. “We should step around the other side.”

Tessa didn’t argue. As they moved out of Shelby’s sight, Tessa stopped abruptly and reached into her shoulder bag. “Here,” she said, thrusting an envelope at the deputy marshal. “Alex left it with me and told me not to show it to anyone. He said to just keep it and not look inside until I had to.”

Liza saw that it was sealed. “You didn’t look?”

Tessa shook her head quickly.

“What did he mean, ‘until you had to’?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know what’s in there and I don’t care. If anyone even found out I had it…”

“Why did he trust
you
with this?” Liza had to ask.

Tessa looked as if she wasn’t going to answer, then seemed to figure there was no reason to lie anymore. “I was in love with him. I have been since high school. Shelby always told me he wasn’t good enough for me.” She began to cry, but quickly wiped her eyes at the sound of someone moving through the dried grass on the other side of the portable toilets.

Liza hurriedly stuffed the envelope into her own shoulder bag.

An instant later Shelby came around the end of the stalls. “Are they all occupied?” she asked, taking in the two of them, then glancing toward the restrooms.

“I just used that one,” Liza improvised. She turned and started back down the hillside.

Behind her she heard Shelby ask Tessa, “What did she want?”

She didn’t hear Tessa’s answer, but she feared Shelby wouldn’t believe anything her friend said anyway. Tessa was running scared and anyone could see it—especially Shelby, who had her own reasons for being afraid.

Liza thought about the manila envelope Alex had left in Tessa’s safekeeping. What was inside it? The photographs that Shelby had been trying to get her hands on? Liza couldn’t wait to find out.

* * *

H
UD
HAD
PUT
A
RUSH
ON
E
LLA
’
S
relational DNA test. He’d done it for Dana’s sake. He saw that by the hour she was getting more attached to that baby. If he was right and Stacy had kidnapped it, then Dana’s heart was going to be broken.

He was as anxious as she was to get the results. Meanwhile he needed to search for Stacy as he continued to watch for possible kidnappings on the law enforcement networks.

So far, he’d come up with nothing.

He found himself worrying not only about Stacy’s disappearance, but also everything else that was going on. He’d done his best to stay out of Liza’s hair. She could handle the murder case without him, he kept telling himself. Still, he’d been glad when Hilde had called and said she could come stay with Dana if he needed her to.

His phone rang as he paced in the living room. He’d never been good at waiting. He saw on caller ID that it was Shelby Durran-Iverson.

“Marshal Savage,” he answered and listened while Shelby complained about Liza. It seemed she’d seen the deputy kissing Jordan. Hud swore silently. He had warned Liza about Jordan, but clearly she hadn’t listened.

“Deputies get to have private lives,” he told Shelby.

“Really? Even with the man who was with Alex when he was murdered? I would think Jordan Cardwell is a suspect. Or at least should be.”

It was taking all his self-control to keep from telling Shelby that she was more of a suspect than Jordan was.

“I’ll look into it,” he said.

“I should hope you’d do more than that. Isn’t fraternizing with a suspect a violation that could call for at least a suspension—if not dismissal?”