Under Threat

by B. J Daniels

“So it’s away from other houses,” Hud said. “Any chance there’s a truck around with a large horse trailer?”

  “The kind that could be used to steal cattle?”

  “Exactly,” the marshal said.

  “There’s an old one parked out back. If they both leave, I might get a chance to have a look inside.”

  “I doubt they’re going to leave together,” Hud said. “Thanks for doing this but I can take it from here.”

  “No problem. What’s family for?”

  “I’ll expect a bill for your time,” the marshal said. “Or I’ll tell Dana on you.”

  Hayes laughed. “Don’t want her mad at me.”

  “No one does. Also,” Hud added, “let’s keep this just between the two of us for now.” He disconnected and called up Grady Birch’s rap sheet. Hayes was right. Grady was trouble. So why wasn’t he surprised that his new deputy was hanging out with a man like that?

  He’d known it the moment he laid eyes on the handsome lawman. Actually, he’d suspected there would be a problem when Dillon’s uncle called, asking for the favor. He’d wanted to turn the man down, but the uncle was a good cop who Hud had worked with on a case down in Jackson, Wyoming.

  Hud rubbed a hand over his face. Dillon was everything he’d suspected he was, and now he was dating Mary. He swore. What was he going to do about it? In the first place, he had no proof. Yet. So warning Mary about him would be a waste of breath even if she didn’t find something romantic about dating an outlaw. Some people still saw cattle rustling as part of an Old West tradition. Also, his daughter was too old to demand that she stop seeing Dillon.

  No, he was going to have to handle this very delicately, and delicate wasn’t in his repertoire. That didn’t leave him many options. Catching Dillon red-handed wouldn’t be easy because the deputy wasn’t stupid. Arresting him without enough evidence to put him away was also a bad move.

  Hud knew he had to bide his time. He told himself that maybe he’d get lucky, and Dillon or Grady would make a mistake. He just hoped it was soon, before Mary got any more involved with the man.

  * * *

  Chase finally got the call. His pickup engine was in and he could come by this afternoon to pick it up. He hadn’t talked to Rick in a few days and feeling at loose ends, pulled out his cell phone and made the call, dreading the news. Rick answered on the second ring.

  “Has there been any word on Fiona?” The silence on the other end of the line stretched out long enough that Chase knew what was coming.

  “They gave up the search. The general consensus is that her body washed downstream and will be found once the water goes down more.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure Patty is upset.”

  “She is,” Rick said. “She felt sorry for Fiona. That’s why she didn’t cut ties with her after high school. Patty’s over at Fiona’s condo now cleaning it out since she has no next of kin. She found out from a bank statement that Fiona had drained her bank account almost a week ago. Took all of it in cash. Who knows what she did with that much money. Hell, it could be in the river with her. Patty’s going to try to organize some kind of service for her.”

  “She doesn’t have any family?”

  “I guess I didn’t tell you. Her whole family died in a fire when Fiona was eleven. She would have perished with her parents and three older stepbrothers, but she’d stayed over at a friend’s house that night.”

  “Oh man. That could explain a lot,” he said more to himself. “I wish I’d known all of this. Maybe I could have handled things better.”

  “Trust me, it would take a psychiatrist years to sort that woman out. So stop blaming yourself. I’m the one who should have warned you. But it’s over now.”

  The fact that he felt relieved made him feel even more guilty as he promised to stay in touch and hung up.

  Chapter 5

  “Just fill out this application and leave it,” the barista said as she dropped the form on the table in front of the dark-haired woman with the pixie haircut and the kind of cute Southern accent and lisp because of the gap between her front teeth.

  She’d introduced herself as Lucy Carson, as if Christy was supposed to recognize the name.

  “You’re sure there’s no chance of an opening soon?” Lucy Carson asked now before glancing at her name tag and adding, “Christy.”

  Christy shook her head. “Like I said. I just got hired, so I really doubt there will be anything for the rest of the season unless someone quits and that’s unlikely. Jobs aren’t that easy to find in Big Sky. Your application will be on file with dozens of others, so if I were you, I’d keep looking.”

  She didn’t mean to sound cruel or dismissive, but she’d told the woman there weren’t any openings. Still, the woman had insisted on filling out an application. If she wanted to waste her time, then Christy wasn’t going to stop her. She just thought it was stupid.

  From behind the counter, she watched how neatly Lucy Carson filled in each blank space. Was it stubbornness or arrogance? The lady acted as if she thought the manager would let someone go to hire her. That sounded like arrogance to Christy.

  “What about a place to live nearby?” the woman asked, looking up from the application.

  Christy laughed. “You’ll have even worse luck finding an apartment. I’ve been waiting for months to get into the one across the street, and it’s just a small bedroom.”

  Lucy glanced in the direction she pointed. “There’s rentals over there?”

  “There was. I got the last one. I’m moving in tomorrow.” This Lucy was starting to get on her nerves. She found herself wishing that some customers would come in just so she had something to do. Usually she loved the slow afternoons when she could look at magazines and do absolutely nothing, even though she was supposed to be cleaning on her downtime.

  The woman studied her for a moment, then smiled and resumed filling out the application.

  “You should go down to Bozeman,” Christy told her. “More opportunities in a college town than here in the canyon.” Jobs weren’t easy to get in Big Sky especially during the busy times, summer, and winter. Not just that, this job didn’t even pay that well. Too many young people would work for nothing just to get to spend their free time up on the mountain biking and kayaking in the summer, skiing and snowboarding in the winter.

  The woman finished and brought her application over to the counter. Christy glanced at the name. “Is Lucy short for something?” she asked.

  “My mother was a huge fan of I Love Lucy reruns.”

  She looked at the application, almost feeling sorry for the young woman. According to this, she had a lot of experience as a barista but then so did a whole lot of other people. “I see you didn’t put down an address.” She looked up at the woman who gave her a bright smile.

  “Remember, I’m still looking for a place to stay, but once I start working I’m sure an apartment will open up.”

  Christy couldn’t help but chuckle under her breath at the woman’s naive optimism. “Most everyone who works in Big Sky ends up commuting at least forty miles a day. There just aren’t any cheap rentals for minimum wage workers even if you should luck out and get a job.”

  Lucy smiled. “I’m not worried. Things just tend to work out for me. I’m lucky that way.”

  Whatever, Christy thought. “I’ll give your application to Andrea but like I said, we don’t have any openings.”

  “Not yet anyway,” Lucy said. “So where do you go to have fun on a Saturday night?”

  “Charley’s if you like country. Otherwise—”

  “I’m betting you like country music,” Lucy said. “Your car with the George Strait bumper sticker gives you away.”

  “My car?” Christy frowned.

  “Isn’t that your SUV parked across the street?”

  She looked out the window and laughed
. “Not hardly. Mine is that little blue beat-up sedan with all the stuff in the back since I can’t move into my apartment until tomorrow. I’ve been waiting for weeks, staying with my mother down in Bozeman and driving back and forth when I can’t find someone to stay with here. Do you have any family you could stay with?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No family. Just me. Maybe I’ll check out Charley’s tonight.” She smiled her gap-toothed smile. “Hopefully I’ll get lucky and some handsome cowboy will take me home with him. Or maybe it’s not that kind of place.”

  “No, it is. There’ll be cowboys and ski bums.”

  “I might see you there then?” Lucy said. “Don’t worry. I won’t intrude if you’ve found your own cowboy. I’m guessing there’s one you’re planning to meet tonight.”

  Christy felt herself flush. “Not exactly. I’m just hoping he’ll be there.”

  Lucy laughed. “Hoping to get lucky, huh? Well, thanks again for your help.” She left smiling, making Christy shake her head as she tossed Lucy’s application on the desk in Andrea’s office. She’d ended up almost liking the woman. Now if she could just get through the rest of the day. She was excited about tonight at Charley’s. She did feel lucky. She had a job, an apartment to move into tomorrow and with even more luck, she would be going home with the man she had a crush on. Otherwise, she would be sleeping in her car on top of all her belongings.

  Tomorrow though, she’d be moving into the apartment across the street that Mary Savage owned. How handy was that since she could sleep late and still get to work on time with her job just across the street?

  * * *

  Lucy Carson was also looking at the small apartment house across the street from Lone Peak Perk as she walked to her car. She had her heart set on a job at the coffee shop and an apartment across the street in Mary Cardwell Savage’s building. Not that she always got what she set her heart on, she thought bitterly, but she would make this happen, whatever she had to do.

  As she climbed into her new car, she breathed in the scent of soft leather. She really did like the smell of a new car. Her other one was at the bottom of the Colorado River—or at least it had been until a few weeks ago when it was discovered.

  Her disappearing act had gone awry when she’d tried to get out of the car and couldn’t before it plummeted toward the river that night. By the time she reached the bank way downriver, she’d wished she’d come up with a better plan. She’d almost died and she wanted to live. More than wanted to live. She’d wanted to kill someone. Especially the person responsible for making her have to go to such extremes: Chase Steele. As she’d sat on that riverbank in the dark, she knew exactly what she had to do. Fortunately, when she’d tried to bail out of the car, she’d grabbed her purse. She’d almost forgotten the money. Her plan really would have gone badly if she’d lost all this money. With it, she could do anything she wanted.

  But as close a call as it had been, everything had worked out better than even she’d planned. The authorities thought she was dead, her body rotting downriver. Fiona Barkley was dead. She was free of her. Now she could become anyone she chose.

  Since then she’d had to make a few changes, including her name. But she’d never liked the name Fiona anyway. She much preferred Lucy Carson. Getting an ID in that name had been easier than she imagined. It had been harder to give up her long blond hair. But the pixie cut, the dark brown contacts and the brunette hair color transformed her into a woman not even she recognized. She thought she looked good—just not so good that Chase would recognize her.

  Her resulting car wreck had pretty much taken care of her change in appearance as well. She had unsnapped her seat belt to make her leap from the car before it hit the water. Had she not been drunk and partway out of the car, she wouldn’t have smashed her face, broken her nose and knocked out her front teeth.

  As it turned out, that too proved to be a stroke of luck. She’d lost weight because it had hurt to eat. When she looked in the mirror now, she felt she was too skinny, but she knew once she was happy again, she’d put some pounds back on. She still had curves. She always had.

  It was her face that had changed the most. Her nose had healed but it had a slight lean to it. She liked the imperfection. Just as she liked the gap between her two new front teeth. It had taken going to a dentist in Mexico to get a rush job. She liked the gap. It had even changed the way she talked giving her a little lisp. She’d been able to pick up her former Southern accent without any trouble since it was the way she’d talked before college. It was enough of a change in her appearance and voice that she knew she could get away with it—as long as she never got too close to Chase.

  In the meantime, she couldn’t wait to meet Mary Cardwell Savage.

  * * *

  Mary stood across the street from Lone Peak Perk thinking about her date last night with Dillon. She’d seen the slim, dark-haired woman come out of the coffee shop and get into a gray SUV, but her mind had been elsewhere. As the SUV pulled away, she turned from the window, angry with herself.

  She was still holding out hope that Chase would contact her. The very thought made her want to shake herself. It had been weeks. If he was going to answer, he would have a long time ago. So why did she keep thinking she’d hear from him? Hadn’t his fiancée told him that she’d called? Maybe he thought that was sufficient. Not the man she’d known, she thought.

  And that was what kept nagging at her. She’d known Chase since he was fifteen. He’d come to work for the Jensen Ranch next door. Mary’s mom had pretty much adopted him after finding out the reason he’d been sent to live in the canyon was because his mother couldn’t take care of him. Muriel was going through cancer treatment. He’d been honorable even at a young age. He wasn’t the kind of man not to call and tell her about a fiancée.

  So his not calling or writing felt...wrong. And it left her with nagging questions.

  That was only part of the problem and she knew it. She’d hoped that Dillon Ramsey would take her mind off Chase. They’d been dating regularly, and most of the time she enjoyed herself. They’d kissed a few times but that was all. He hadn’t even made a pass at her. She couldn’t imagine what it was about Dillon that had worried her father. At one point, she’d wondered if her father the marshal had warned him to behave with her.

  The thought made her cringe. He wouldn’t do that, would he?

  She’d asked Dillon last night how he liked working for her dad.

  “I like it. He’s an okay dude,” he’d answered.

  She’d laughed. No one called her father a dude.

  Now, she had to admit that Dillon was a disappointment. Which made her question what it was she was looking for in a man. A sense of adventure along with a sense of humor. Dillon didn’t seem to have either.

  Was that why she felt so restless? She looked around her apartment, which she’d furnished with things she loved from the turquoise couch to the weathered log end tables and bright flowered rug. But the spectacular view was the best part. The famous Lone Peak, often snowcapped, was framed in her living room window. The mountain looked especially beautiful in the moonlight.

  Which made her think of Chase and how much she would have liked to stand on her back deck in the moonlight and kiss him—instead of Dillon. She groaned, remembering her hesitation again last night to invite Dillon up to her apartment. He’d been hinting that he really wanted to see it. She could tell last night that he’d been hurt and a little angry that she hadn’t invited him up.

  Standing here in the life she’d built, all she could think about was what Chase’s opinion would be of it. Would he be proud of her accomplishments? Would he regret ever leaving her?

  She shook him from her head and hurried back downstairs. She still had work to do, and all she was doing right now was giving herself a headache.

  * * *

  By the next morning, news of the hit and run death of Christy Shores had
spread through most of Big Sky and the canyon.

  As Marshal Hud Savage walked into Charley’s, the last place Christy Shores had been seen alive, he saw the bartender from last night wasn’t alone.

  “Mike French, bartender, right?” Hud asked the younger of the two men standing nervously behind the bar. Twentysomething, Mike looked like a lot of the young people in Big Sky from his athletic build to the T-shirt and shorts over long underwear and sandals.

  If Hud had to guess, he’d say Mike had at least one degree in something practical like engineering, but had gotten hooked on a lifestyle of snowboarding in the winter and mountain biking or kayaking in the summer. Which explained the bartending job.

  He considered the handsome young man’s deep tan from spending more hours outside than bartending. It made him wonder why a man like that had never appealed to his only daughter.

  He suspected Mary was too much of a cowgirl to fall for a ski bum. Instead, she was now dating his deputy, Dillon Ramsey. That thought made his stomach roil, considering what he suspected about the man.

  The bartender stepped forward to shake his hand. “Bill said you had some questions about Christy?”

  Hud nodded and looked to the bar owner, Bill Benson, before he turned back to Mike. “I understand she was one of the last people to leave the bar last night?”

  Mike nodded as Hud pulled out his notebook and pen. “I was just about to lock up when she came out of the women’s bathroom. She looked like she’d been crying. I hadn’t realized she was in there since I had already locked the front door.” He shot a guilty look at his boss. “I usually check to make sure everyone was gone, but last night...”

  “What was different about last night?” Hud asked.

  Mike shifted on his feet. “A fight had broken out earlier between a couple of guys.” He shot another look at Bill and added, “Christy had gotten into the middle of it. Not sure what it was about. After I broke it up, I didn’t see her. I thought she’d left.”