by B. J Daniels
She dragged her gaze away from the long stretch of empty highway to look over at Culhane. Now that they were both safe for the moment, she felt her anger return. “Were you ever going to tell me about your wife?” she demanded.
“Really? You’re determined to get into this now?”
She glared over at him, letting her anger force her fears to the back burner for the moment. “We worked together for three years. For another year I shared your bed. At any one point, it seems you might have mentioned that you were married.”
“I didn’t know I was married, that is, yes, I... I knew I’d been married, but I thought it had been annulled. I would have eventually told you about Jana.”
“Better to wait until she was murdered to mention it,” she said. “Especially when it turns out that you’re the number-one suspect.”
He sighed. “I told you. I don’t believe she was murdered.” The speedometer was hovering at over a hundred, but so far she hadn’t seen the van ahead. “I never told anyone about Jana or the marriage, okay? The marriage was a quick trip to a justice of the peace in another state. It didn’t even last a month, and it was a long time ago. Seven years.”
Alexis frowned, thinking of his friends she’d met, friends he’d known since he was a boy. “Are you saying none of your friends were at the wedding?”
“There was no wedding, and no. It was just the two of us. The judge provided the witnesses.”
“Not even a friend of Jana’s attended?”
He shook his head as he shot a glance in his rearview mirror before focusing on his driving again. The highway was straight and empty. She checked her side mirror, wondering who he thought might be chasing them. The highway behind them was empty as well.
Culhane had cared enough about this woman to marry her. Alexis knew how he felt about marriage and babies, so she had to wonder what about this woman he called Jana had even gotten him to the justice of the peace. “How did you two meet?” she asked, hating the jealousy raising its ugly head.
He groaned. “It was at a party in Big Sky. I just happened to be living with some really obnoxious roommates who talked me into going. I’d just aced a hard test at the academy and was ready to let off some steam. The moment I walked into the party, Jana handed me a drink and one thing led to another.” He glanced over at her but quickly went back to his driving. “A month later I got the news about the pregnancy following Jana’s and my one night together.”
“No one knew about this marriage? I would have thought you’d at least tell your family or a few friends you were married and having a child,” she said.
“It wasn’t much of a marriage. In truth, I’d forgotten about it.”
“Forgotten about Jana and the baby?”
He shook his head. “There was no baby, and Jana wasn’t the love of my life or anywhere close. She wasn’t even an old girlfriend that I might stop to wonder what happened to her. Once I found out that she’d lied about being pregnant and losing the baby and had taken off with whatever wasn’t nailed down in our apartment, I got the marriage annulled as if it never happened. Or at least I thought I had. I was...embarrassed and mad at myself for being so naive.”
She stared at him for a moment, seeing how this had shaped the man she now knew. Not that she hadn’t known he was gun-shy when it came to relationships. Look how long it had taken him to even ask her out.
So how was it that he was wanted for Jana’s murder? The question was on the tip of her tongue when she looked at the highway ahead.
“There it is!” she cried as they topped a hill and she spotted the back of the gray van in the distance.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SHERIFF WILLY GARWOOD had always been a man who’d taken chances. The deck had been stacked against him from the day he was born. In order to quench his thirst for the finer things in life, he’d had to play a little fast and loose, sometimes risking everything to get where he was.
Hell, he’d been gambling on himself his whole life. Fortunately, he’d won more than he’d lost, and now he’d gambled his way into a pretty sweet deal as sheriff. He would have said that he was on his way to having everything he’d dreamed of.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday his house of cards had threatened to come tumbling down.
He’d made a name for himself playing football as a quarterback at Montana State University. A tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking kid with guts, he’d played as if his life depended on it. It had. Indomitable. At least that’s what the sports writer had called him in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. He was someone who got the job done.
Now at forty-seven, he still had his looks—and his good luck. His winning seasons on the gridiron had opened doors for him—just as his job now opened even more, he thought as he glanced around his office. Who would have known that being sheriff would turn out to be a gold mine, financially, politically and socially? He was invited to the best parties at the biggest houses by the wealthiest people.
And yet yesterday, it appeared all of that could come to a screeching halt.
It had been like any other day until he’d gotten the call. “Sheriff Garwood,” he’d answered like he usually did.
“Is it all right to talk on this line?”
A knot had formed in his chest the moment he’d heard the man’s voice. “I’ll call you right back.” When the other man answered his call back, the sheriff said, “What’s wrong?”
“We have a problem. Something else was taken during our recent burglary. Something my wife had left out by accident.” He described the necklace. Emeralds and diamonds. A gaudy piece of adornment worth over a half-million dollars.
Willy had sworn under his breath. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I certainly hope so. I don’t have to tell you what will happen if the necklace shows up in a pawnshop or worse.”
No, he didn’t, the sheriff had thought as he’d hung up. The burglaries up at Big Sky had been one of the top news stories for weeks. He’d known he had to catch the thieves and wrap it all up.
One of the thieves had gotten sloppy and provided him with the perfect way out by leaving behind DNA at one of the houses—and had then been picked up for a separate crime, shoplifting. Garwood had personally interrogated the thief, gotten a confession and the names of two accomplices. He’d played it perfectly.
The reporter at the newspaper had given him credit for solving the crimes, and now the wealthy gated communities at Big Sky were safe once more. Case solved. All he had to do was have his deputies pick up the two accomplices, since he’d made a deal with the one thief who’d turned on them, Jana Redfield Travis.
The problem was that Jana had failed to mention that she’d picked up an emerald and diamond necklace she shouldn’t have. He desperately needed that necklace back.
He’d quickly called Deputy Dick Furu. “I need you to go over to Jana’s apartment.” He’d explained the situation. “Get the necklace. I’ll deal with her later.” He’d described the piece of jewelry. “If she doesn’t hand it over or tell you who has it, convince her otherwise. Tear the place apart if you have to, but find that necklace. Take Cline with you.”
Two hours later, his deputies had returned with the bad news.
“What do you mean Jana’s gone?”
“When we got there, the place was a mess, there was blood everywhere and she was gone,” Deputy Terrance Cline had told him. “It appeared that there’d been a struggle.”
He’d looked at Furu who he trusted more than Terrance any day of the week. Terry did what he was told without asking questions, but he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
“What the hell?” he’d demanded of Furu.
“A neighbor came over and told us that there’d been a man by earlier and a loud argument had ensued,” Furu said. “From the description the neighbor gave us, Culhane Travis now knows that his wife
is back in town. The neighbor heard breaking glass and screams.”
Willy hadn’t been able to believe his luck—and it had just dropped into his lap. He could use this apparent altercation to his advantage in a way that he hadn’t thought possible. He put a BOLO out on Culhane, saying he was armed and dangerous—both true—and that he was wanted for questioning in the murder of his wife, Jana Redfield Travis.
“And if she’s not really dead?” Furu had asked.
Willy had shrugged. “For all we know, she is. Or could be by the time Culhane is caught. You’re sure the necklace isn’t there?” Furu had nodded. “Okay, we’ll get a crime-scene team over there. But just in case Jana staged the whole thing—” he wouldn’t have put it past her, now that he knew about the necklace “—find her.”
Furu had given him a look he recognized. The deputy would stretch the law to its limits, but murder was one line he wouldn’t step over.
“When you find her, don’t bring her in. Just call me,” Willy had told him. “I’ll deal with her.”
As the two had left his office, he had realized he would have to be careful. Furu was smart and ambitious. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Dick had his eye on the sheriff job. Maybe not this year, but soon.
Willy warned himself not to give Furu too much ammunition to use against him. But he assured himself that a lot could happen before the deputy made a run at him and his position. They were in a dangerous profession. Men in uniforms were killed all the time, often for no apparent reason.
He’d turned his thoughts to Culhane. The deputy had been a thorn in his side from the moment Willy had taken over the sheriff department. It only made it worse that Culhane was good at his job and smart. Plus the former sheriff’s deputy had friends in the department. One in particular. Deputy Alexis Brand. Her father had been a sheriff.
Like Culhane, she knew her job and was good at it. He’d had to go out on a limb to get rid of the two of them after a few attempts at sabotage had failed. Now that damned Culhane was suing him and the department for wrongful discharge. At least Alexis had been smart enough to take the severance package he’d offered her without a fight. Last he’d heard, she’d started her own business and was now a bounty hunter.
Culhane hadn’t been so easy. Unfortunately, Willy had no idea how much the former deputy actually knew about the way he’d been running the department. But Culhane knew enough to cause him harm, and that was all that mattered. Which was why the man had to be stopped before this ever went before a judge.
The waiting was killing him, though. Since the necklace hadn’t been found, it was even more critical that they find Jana Redfield Travis, and quickly. If Culhane should find her first...
Well, Willy couldn’t let that happen. He needed that necklace, and now he needed Jana dead. He usually got what he wanted one way or another. He’d gotten this far by playing the odds. Once he had Jana, she would quickly learn what happened to those who turned against him. But he’d never had this much to lose before, and it made him nervous.
He loved his lifestyle, his second home at Big Sky, his rich and powerful friends and all the parties where he actually felt like he belonged. He wouldn’t let someone like Culhane Travis take it all away. The former deputy should have been smart enough not to go up against him. Now whatever happened was the man’s own fault.
Willy tried to relax. The odds were that everything was going to work out. Once they found Jana—alive or dead—and Culhane was cornered for her murder and brought in, dead preferably, it would be business as usual.
He did love being sheriff of one of the fastest-growing counties in the state—with Big Sky being the sparkling jewel in his kingdom.
* * *
BOBBY WIPED ONE clammy hand on his jeans as he drove. He’d been watching Gene out of the corner of his eye. The man was bleeding like a stuck pig. Clearly he was in pain. He kept reaching into his pocket and taking more of the pills. The man was unpredictable enough without the drugs.
“Try to stay on the damned road!” Gene bellowed as Bobby turned back to his driving and swerved hard to avoid the ditch. He heard the woman’s body roll over to thunk against the side of the van in the back. Or had it been Gus? Was the woman still unconscious back there or already dead?
The smell coming from the back reminded him that Gus was probably gone. Gene hadn’t checked on his brother when he’d thrown the woman in. Because he knew Gus was already dead? Or because he’d forgotten about him?
Bobby felt sick to his stomach and wiped his hands on his jeans again. Why had he listened to Eric? Because Eric had made it sound like the bank job was as easy as walking into a McDonald’s and walking out with a burger. Also, Bobby had to admit, he’d needed to get out of town fast, and that had played a definite part in it.
When he’d gone by Jana’s and witnessed the scene left there... He’d known even before he’d talked to his contact at the jail. Jana had ratted out both him and Leo. Hadn’t he known Jana would throw them under the bus?
When she’d called him from jail, she’d sounded scared out of her wits. “They ran my DNA and my fingerprints,” she’d said, trying to keep her voice down. She didn’t need to spell it out for him. He knew what that meant.
“What did they pick you up for that they ran your DNA and fingerprints?” he’d asked, even though he’d suspected. Still, he groaned when she said it had been for shoplifting. “What the hell were you thinking? Shoplifting?”
“You know I can’t help it. It’s a...disease, like alcoholism.”
She’d taken a chance for a tube of lipstick or some cheap piece of jewelry that had caught her eye? How could she do that, knowing what was at stake?
She’d begun to cry. “Can you please just see if you can get me out on bail? You know who to call.” He did know.
“Sure. Just don’t do anything stupid.” But he’d realized that she’d already hung up. He’d called their bail bondsman they kept on speed dial. Thirty minutes later the man had called back to say that when he’d gotten to the jail, Jana had already been released.
Bobby had known then that she’d done something even more stupid than shoplifting. She’d made a deal. Now former deputy Culhane Travis was wanted for her murder.
So he hadn’t been surprised when he’d heard about Jana’s subsequent disappearance and alleged death. Maybe she’d staged it. Or maybe she really was dead. But the one thing Bobby knew was that Culhane Travis hadn’t killed her. Just as he knew that it was no coincidence that the former sheriff’s deputy had showed up at the café in Buckhorn.
Culhane was looking for Jana. A man who committed her murder wouldn’t be looking for her. But had he thought Leo could help? The cook was as much in the dark as Bobby had been. But now Leo was dead. Bobby didn’t think he was far behind even if Gene didn’t kill him.
As for Jana... If alive, she would have trouble staying that way because more than the law was looking for her.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He didn’t need to check to see who was calling. His mother had been trying to reach him. Bobby figured the law had come by the house. Maybe with a search warrant. He swore under his breath at the thought of what they would have found—and how his mother was going to take it. She had a weak heart. This time his criminal activity might kill her.
He should have stayed home instead of listening to Eric about the perfect bank to rob. He could have gotten the stuff out of his mother’s basement crawl space and faced up to what he’d been doing for money.
But he hadn’t been able to face her. Just as he hadn’t been able to answer her calls. He was lucky that she didn’t know how to text. He felt a wave of guilt at how many times she’d called and he hadn’t answered. But by now, it would be no surprise to his mother to realize that her precious baby boy was a coward. A coward in so much trouble that this time, he didn’t think there was any way out.
“We have to g
et off this highway,” Gene slurred as he glanced in his side mirror. He sounded stoned out of his mind. Bobby had been waiting for him to pass out. He’d been thinking of ways he could get away. The problem was that he had nowhere to run. Cops everywhere were already looking for him, and after what had happened back at the café...
“Turn at the next road you see,” Gene was saying. “That cowboy who probably killed Eric? He’ll come after us. I should have taken care of him right away. I could tell he wanted to be some kind of hero.” He looked in his side mirror again and grimaced in pain. “Can’t you get this van to go any faster?”
Bobby thought about telling Gene who the cowboy was but feared it would only make him more paranoid and unstable. Gene was hovering so close to the edge of sanity he didn’t want to push him over for fear of what he might do.
He saw a dirt road ahead and began to slow to make the turn when he heard Gene let loose a string of curses as he watched his mirror. “I was right. They’re coming for us. Step on it!”
Bobby glanced in his rearview. There was a vehicle back there, but it didn’t look like the one he’d seen Culhane driving the day he’d come by Jana’s. He told himself not to let Gene’s paranoia get to him as he made the turn and heard another thunk in the back of the van. Only this time, it was followed by a moan. The woman wasn’t dead. Yet.
* * *
RELIEVED, CULHANE HAD been afraid Bobby had turned off the highway much earlier and that they wouldn’t find them. Gene, if still alive, would know that someone at the café would have called 9-1-1 and that now the law was on its way. Cops would be all over them unless they found a way to get off this main highway.
He wasn’t surprised to see the van’s brake lights come on. It turned right onto a secondary road and quickly disappeared in a cloud of dust. After the first snowfall had melted and the weather had turned fairly decent again, everything had dried out. But it would be a short reprieve. Winter was coming with the promise of a whole lot of snow—according to the Farmers’ Almanac.
