Steel Resolve

by B. J Daniels

  “You can’t believe that she had anything to do with that.”

  “Lucy just walks into the job at the coffee shop after the last new hire gets run down on the road? Then she moves into the same apartment Christy Shores was going to rent before she was murdered? A coincidence?”

  “Big Sky is a small place, so not that much of a coincidence since I live across the street from the coffee shop and had an apartment for rent.”

  “And didn’t you tell me that Dillon was going to ask Lucy out?”

  She rolled her eyes. “And that was reason enough to kill him? She said he hadn’t and she wouldn’t have gone out with him if he had.”

  Chase shrugged. “It’s...creepy.”

  “What’s creepy is that she reminds you of an old girlfriend.”

  “Fiona wasn’t my girlfriend. But Lucy definitely reminds me of her. Fiona went after what she wanted at all costs and the consequences be damned.”

  “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

  “I just want you to be careful, that’s all. Don’t put so much trust in her. Promise?”

  “I promise. I don’t want to argue with you right before you leave me.”

  Lucy could hear the two of them smooching again.

  “I’ll be back Friday night. I’d love to take you to dinner.”

  “I’d love that.”

  Lucy pressed herself against the wall as the door opened and light raced up the stairs toward her. She stayed where she was and tried to catch her breath. Chase suspected she was Fiona. So far he hadn’t convinced Mary. Nor had the marshal gotten her prints off the cup and found out she was Fiona Barkley. The deputy had done his job. She almost felt bad about killing him.

  But it was only a matter of time before Mary started getting suspicious.

  After hearing her go into her office, Lucy inched her way back to her apartment. She wanted to scream, to destroy the apartment, anything to rid herself of the fury boiling up inside her. She’d tried to be patient, but the more she was around Mary, the more she hated seeing her with Chase.

  She clenched her fists. Mary had said she wasn’t sure about the two of them. Liar. But Lucy knew Chase was to blame. He’d somehow tricked his way into Mary’s bed. Chase was the one chasing the cowgirl.

  She’d come here planning to kill them both. It wasn’t Mary’s fault that Chase went around breaking women’s hearts. But even as she thought it, she knew that Mary had disappointed her by falling for Chase all over again.

  Not that it mattered, she thought as she calmly walked into the kitchen, opened the top drawer and took out the knife she’d planned to use on the deputy. She stared at it, telling herself it was time to end this and move on. And there was only one way to finish it.

  * * *

  “IT’S MY DAY OFF,” Lucy announced as she came out of her apartment as Mary was headed downstairs a few days later.

  Mary couldn’t help but look confused as she took in Lucy’s Western attire and tried to make sense of the words. She knew that she’d been avoiding her tenant since their conversation about Dillon and Chase and felt guilty for it.

  “Oh no, I’m sorry,” Lucy said quickly. “You forgot. That’s all right.” She started to turn back toward her apartment.

  “Horseback riding.” Mary racked her brain, trying to remember if they’d made a definite date to go.

  “You said on my day off. I thought I’d mentioned that I would be off today. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we can go some other time.”

  “No,” Mary said quickly. “I did forget, but it will only take me a moment to change.” She was thinking about what work she’d promised to do today, but she could get it done this afternoon or even work late if she had to. She didn’t want to disappoint Lucy. The woman had looked so excited when she’d first mentioned it.

  The more Chase had said Lucy reminded him of the woman he’d known in Arizona, the more Mary had defended her. If she never heard the name Fiona again, she’d be ecstatic.

  And yet she found herself pulling away from Lucy, questioning the small things, like how close they’d become so quickly. Also she’d always tried to keep tenants as just that and not friends. More than anything, it was Chase’s concern that had her trying to put distance between her and Lucy. Mary didn’t want the woman always reminding him of Fiona.

  So the last thing she wanted to do today was go horseback riding with the woman. But it had been her idea, and she had invited her. If anything, she prided herself on keeping her word. After this though, she would put more distance between them.

  “I’ll run across the street and get us some coffee,” Lucy said, all smiles. “I’m so excited. It’s been so long since I’ve been on a horse.”

  Mary hurried back upstairs to change. She missed Chase. He called every night and they talked for hours. He never mentioned his father, and she didn’t bring it up. But she’d felt a change in him since discovering that Jim Harris was his biological father. He seemed stronger, more confident, more sure of what he wanted. He said he didn’t want to be like the man. She wasn’t sure exactly what he’d meant. Jim Harris was an unhappy man who’d made bad decisions before finding himself between a rock and hard place. She wondered if Chase could ever forgive him. Or if he already had.

  When she came back downstairs, dressed for horseback riding, she found Lucy sitting at her desk. Two coffees sat on the edge away from the paperwork. Mary stopped in the doorway and watched for a moment as Lucy glanced through the papers on her desk before taking the card with the daisies that Chase had sent her, reading it and putting it back. As she did, she caught one of the daisies in her fingers.

  Mary watched her crush it in her hand before dropping it into the trash can. She felt a fissure of irritation that the woman had been so nosy as to read the card let alone destroy one of the daisies. It was clear that Lucy resented Chase. Was she jealous? Did she not want Mary to have any other relationships in her life?

  She cleared her voice, and Lucy got up from her desk quickly.

  “Sorry, I was just resting for a moment.” Lucy flashed her a gap-toothed smile. “I’m on my feet all day. It will be nice to sit on the back of a horse for a while.”

  * * *

  HUD HAD THREE unsolved murders within weeks of each other and no clues. He got up to get himself some coffee when he remembered the cup Chase had brought in to be fingerprinted.

  With a curse, he recalled that he’d given the cup to Dillon. Back in his office, he called down to the lab. “Last week a cup was brought down to be fingerprinted. I haven’t seen the results yet.”

  The lab tech asked him to hold for a moment. “I have the order right here. I did the test myself, but I don’t see my report on file. You didn’t get a copy?”

  “No, who did you give it to?”

  “Dillon Ramsey, the deputy who brought it down. He asked that I give it to him personally. I did.”

  Hud swore. “You don’t happen to remember—”

  “The prints were on file,” the tech said. Just as Chase had thought they would be. “Give me a minute. It was an unusual name. Fiona. Fiona Barkley.”

  Hud wrote it down and quickly went online. Fiona Barkley had been fingerprinted several times when questioned by police, starting with a house fire when she was eleven. Her entire family died in the fire.

  The marshal shook his head as he saw that she’d been questioned and fingerprinted in a half dozen other incidents involving males that she’d dated.

  Where had Chase gotten this cup? He put in a call to the cowboy’s number. It went straight to voice mail. He didn’t leave a message. Mary had said that Chase would be home Friday night. Hud would ask him then.

  * * *

  AS CHASE TOOK a break, he noticed that Rick had left several messages for him to call. Tired from a long day, he almost didn’t call him back. He wasn’t sure he could stay aw
ake long enough to talk to both Mary and Rick, and he much preferred to talk to Mary before he fell asleep. But the last message Rick had left said it was important.

  Chase figured that Fiona’s body had been found, and Rick wanted him to know. So why hadn’t he just left that message? The phone rang three times before Rick answered. Chase could hear a party going on in the background and almost hung up.

  “Chase, I’m so glad you called back. Hold on.” He waited and a few moments later, Rick came back on, the background noise much lower. “Hey, I hate to call you with bad news.”

  “They found her body?”

  “Ah, no. Just the opposite. Some dentist down on the border recognized Fiona’s photograph from a story in the newspaper about her disappearance. He contacted authorities. Chase, it looks like Fiona is alive. Not just that. She had the dentist change her appearance. Apparently, the Mexican dentist thought it was strange since she’d obviously been in some kind of accident. But he gave her a gap between her two front teeth.”

  Chase felt his heart stop dead. Lucy. The woman living on the floor below Mary. Lucy. The barista who Mary had befriended. He tried to take a breathe, his mind racing. Hadn’t he known? He’d sensed it gut deep, as if the woman radiated evil. Why hadn’t he listened to his intuition?

  “I have to go.” He disconnected and quickly dialed Mary’s cell phone number. It went straight to voice mail. “When you get this, call me at once. It’s urgent. Don’t go near Lucy. I’ll explain when I see you. I’m on my way to Big Sky now.” He hung up and called the ranch. Mary’s mother answered.

  “Dana, it’s Chase. Have you seen Mary?”

  “No. Chase, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m on my way there. If you see or hear from Mary, keep her there. Don’t let her near Lucy, the barista at Lone Peak Perk, okay? Tell Hud. She’s not who she is pretending to be. She’s come to Montana to hurt me. I’m terrified that she will hurt Mary.” He hung up and ran out to his pickup. He could be home within the hour. But would that be soon enough?

  Or was it already too late?

  Chapter Eighteen

  “You haven’t touched your coffee,” Lucy said, glancing over at her as Mary drove her pickup to the ranch. Lucy had wanted to see the place and asked if they could take the back roads—unless Mary was in a hurry.

  She’d taken a sip of the coffee. It had tasted bitter. Or maybe the bitter taste in her mouth had nothing to do with the coffee and more to do with what she’d seen earlier in her office—Lucy going through her things.

  Now she took another sip. It wasn’t just bitter. It had a distinct chalky taste—one that she remembered only too well. Even as she thought it, though, she was arguing that she was only imagining it. Otherwise, it would mean that there’d been something in the coffee that Lucy had brought her that day that had made her deathly ill—and again today.

  “My stomach is a little upset,” she said, putting the coffee cup back into the pickup’s beverage holder.

  Lucy looked away, her feelings obviously hurt. “Maybe we should do this some other day. I feel like you’re not really into it.”

  “No, I asked you and this is the first day you’ve had off,” Mary said, hating that she’d apparently forgotten. Worse, hating that she’d let Chase’s suspicions about Lucy get to her. Not that the woman hadn’t raised more suspicions by her actions earlier.

  Lucy turned away as if watching the scenery out the window. Mary pretended to take a sip of her coffee, telling herself that after today, she would distance herself from the woman and the coffee shop—at least for a while. It wasn’t good to get too involved with a tenant, maybe especially this one.

  Even the little bit of the coffee on the tip of her tongue had that chalky taste and made her want to gag. She looked over at Lucy as she settled her cup back into the pickup’s beverage holder. She’d taken the long way to the ranch for Lucy but now she regretted it, just wanting to get this trip over with.

  As she slowed for a gate blocking the road, she asked, “Lucy, would you mind getting the gate?”

  Without a word, the woman climbed out as soon as Mary stopped the vehicle. Easing open her door, Mary poured half of the coffee onto the ground and quietly closed her door again. Lucy pushed the gate back and stepped aside as Mary drove through and then waited for her to close it.

  Would she notice the spot on the ground where the coffee had been dumped? She hoped not. She also hoped that she was wrong about the chalky taste and what might have caused it. She didn’t want to be wrong about Lucy, she thought as she watched the young woman close the gate and climb back in the truck.

  Mary saw her glance at the half-empty coffee cup. Did she believe that Mary had drunk it?

  Looking away again, Lucy asked, “How much farther to where you keep the horses?”

  “Just over the next hill.” Mary had called ahead and asked one of the wranglers to saddle up her horse and a gentle one for Lucy. As they topped the hill, she could see two horses waiting for them tied up next to the barn. She tried to breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe Lucy had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Or maybe she had drugged Mary’s coffee and was angry that she hadn’t drunk it.

  “Is everything all right?” Lucy asked. “You seem upset with me.”

  Mary shot her a look. “I’m sorry. I just feel bad that I forgot about our horseback ride today. That’s all.”

  “Not just your upset stomach?” the woman asked pointedly.

  “That too, but I’m feeling better. There is no place I like better than the back of a horse.”

  Lucy said no more as Mary parked behind the bar and they got out. She helped the woman into the saddle. After she swung up onto her mount, they headed off on a trail that would take them to the top of the mountain. Mary was already planning on cutting the horseback ride short as she led the way up the trail.

  “I’m out of sorts this morning too,” Lucy said behind her. “I haven’t slept well worrying about you.”

  Mary turned in her saddle to look back at her. “Worrying about me?”

  “I probably shouldn’t say anything, but there is something about Chase that bothers me.”

  She wanted to laugh out loud. Or at least say, There’s something about you that bothers him. Instead, she said, “There is nothing to worry about.”

  “You just seem to be falling back into his arms so quickly. I heard him up in your apartment. He didn’t leave until the next morning.”

  Mary felt a sliver of anger ripple through her. Chase was right about one thing. Lucy had become too involved in her life. “Lucy, that is none of your business.”

  “I’m sorry, I thought we were friends. You told me that night in my apartment all about him and the deputy.”

  “Yes.” That, she saw now had been a mistake. “Then you know I never stopped loving him.”

  “But he stopped loving you.”

  She brought her horse up short as the trail widened, and Lucy rode up beside her. “Lucy—”

  “You’re the one who told me about this Fiona woman he had the affair with,” she said, cutting Mary off.

  “It was one night.”

  Lucy shrugged. “Or so he says. You said this woman called you. Said they were engaged. Why would she do that if they’d only had one date?”

  Had Mary told her about that? She couldn’t remember.

  Lucy must have seen the steam coming out of her ears. “Don’t get angry. I’m only saying this because you need someone who doesn’t have a dog in the fight to tell you the truth.”

  She had to bite her tongue not to say that they didn’t have that kind of friendship. “I appreciate your concern. But I know what I’m doing.”

  “It’s just that he hurt you. I don’t want to see him do it again.”

  “We probably shouldn’t talk about this,” Mary said, and spurred her horse forward. The soon
er they got to the top of the mountain and finished this ride, the better. Chase was right. Somehow Lucy had wormed her way deep into Mary’s life. Too deep for the short time they had known each other.

  Lucy was jealous of her being with Chase, she realized. Had he sensed that? Is that why he didn’t like Lucy? Why she reminded him of Fiona?

  They rode in silence as the trail narrowed again, and Lucy was forced to fall in behind her. When they finally reached the top of the mountain, Mary felt as if she could breathe again. She blamed herself. Lucy had been kind to her. Lucy had managed to somehow always be there when needed. Mary had let her get too close, and now it was going to be awkward having her for a tenant directly below her apartment.

  She just had to make it clear that her love life was none of Lucy’s business. When they rode back to town, she’d talk to her.

  * * *

  HUD LISTENED TO his wife’s frantic call. He thought of the cup that Chase had brought him wanting the fingerprints checked. “Lucy? You’re sure that’s what he said?”

  “She’s a barista at a coffee shop across the street from Mary’s building and one of her tenants.” He thought of the plain white cup.

  “Chase sounded terrified. He’s on his way here. I tried to call Mary before I called you. Her phone went straight to voice mail. I’m scared.”

  “Okay, don’t worry,” Hud said. “I’ll find this Lucy woman and see what’s going on. If you see Mary, call me. Keep her there until I get to the bottom of this.”

  He disconnected, fear making his heart pound, and headed for his patrol SUV. The town of Big Sky had spread out some since the early days when few would have called it a real town. Still, it didn’t take him but a few minutes to get to the coffee shop. As he walked in, he looked about for a barista with the name tag Lucy. There was an Amy and a Faith, but no Lucy.

  “Excuse me,” he said to the one called Amy. “Is Lucy working today?”