Montana Connection

by B. J Daniels

  Charity lifted a brow. “That house is his pride and joy. He’d never leave it.”

  “He’s living in one of my units,” Florie said. “Moved in late last night and let me tell you his aura looked bad.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Charity said. “For him to move out of the house—” She looked from her aunt to Roz. “Do you know what this means?”

  Roz shook her head. “Not a clue.”

  “Daisy knows he was in on the kidnapping. And he knows she knows. She’s got him over a barrel and is calling the shots now.”

  “Why doesn’t she tell Mitch?” Roz asked, noticing the clouds outside.

  “Probably for the same reason Mitch hasn’t arrested Wade,” Charity said, clearly excited about this news. “A distinct lack of evidence. The evidence seems to have died with Bud Farnsworth. We may never know what happened to Angela Dennison now.”

  “How horrible,” Roz said. As kids, they’d believed that Angela was buried in the woods behind the Dennison house. Once on Halloween, when they’d gone to the Dennison house to trick-or-treat, Charity swore she heard a baby crying and turned to see what she believed to be Angela’s ghost behind her.

  “Wade must have found out that the baby wasn’t his and got rid of it,” Charity whispered. “A man with an ego like his, he probably couldn’t live with the thought that he might be raising another man’s child.”

  “Worse, falling in love with that child,” Roz said.

  “You’re right,” Charity said. “That must be why he had Angela kidnapped so quickly after she was born. He couldn’t risk bonding with the baby only to find out it was another man’s—and a constant reminder of his wife’s infidelity.”

  “I think there are few men who could handle that kind of knowledge,” Roz said. “But what if he was wrong? What if he got rid of his own daughter?”

  Charity shook her head, obviously unable to imagine. “Unless that baby’s body turns up, we will never know who the father really was. Maybe Daisy doesn’t even know herself.”

  Florie hadn’t said anything for several minutes but Roz saw her shiver as she reached for her coffee cup and knocked it over. “Clumsy,” Florie muttered under her breath as coffee spilled across the table.

  “What’s wrong?” Roz asked, seeing Florie’s expression.

  Florie was shaking her head, staring at the spilled coffee as if it were spilled blood. “Liam. Have you heard from him since he went into the woods after the most recent Bigfoot sighting?”

  Roz and Charity exchanged a surprised look.

  “Auntie, I thought you knew,” Charity said. “Liam was found last night.”

  “Something happened to him! I knew it.” All the color drained from Florie’s face. She grabbed the edge of the table. “I saw his misery in the cards but I thought it was his marriage….” She looked up at Roz.

  “He’s in the hospital. Mitch thinks he fell from a cliff. He’s in a coma,” Roz told her.

  Tears welled in Florie’s wizened eyes.

  Charity put an arm around her aunt’s shoulder as Roz reached across the table to take one of the woman’s bejeweled hands.

  “I thought you had heard,” Charity said.

  “I was on the Internet working most of the night and morning,” Florie whispered. Roz knew that Florie had her own Web site and did psychic readings via e-mail.

  “Are you all right?” Roz asked, surprised the woman was so upset.

  “I have to go splash my face with cold water.” She rose unsteadily.

  “I’ll go with you,” Roz said.

  Florie waved her off. “I’ll be fine. I just need a moment alone.”

  “Should we let her go by herself?” Roz asked in concern as Florie traipsed off to the ladies’ room.

  “She’ll be fine. She hates being fussed over. She’s been in a tizzy ever since Liam remarried—and she wasn’t the bride,” Charity said. “Ah, unrequited love.”

  Roz blinked. “Your aunt is in love with my father?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Has been for years. I thought you knew. She says she saw it in the stars. She and your father. Every time Liam came up to check the house or make repairs, Florie just happened to stop by with some fresh-baked goods for him. Tofu or carob chips. No wonder he married someone else.”

  “Emily can’t boil water,” Roz said, still shocked by the news about Florie and Liam. Did Liam have any idea of her feelings? Men could be so dense sometimes.

  “Florie’s coming back,” Charity whispered. “Don’t mention Emily. You’ll just get her started. She thinks Emily is only after your father’s money and somehow tricked him into marrying her.”

  “That’s exactly what I think,” Roz said.

  “Florie’s never even seen the woman—except in her coffee grounds,” Charity confided.

  Florie returned, full of questions about Liam. Roz did her best to answer them.

  “Uh-oh,” Charity said under her breath as she looked out the café window.

  Roz followed her gaze. Emily was coming up the street, her blond head peering out from under a dark umbrella. Roz looked over at Florie as Emily swept past the window.

  “Don’t do it, Aunt Florie,” Charity said.

  “Do what?” the older woman asked innocently as she crossed herself even though she wasn’t Catholic.

  “Just don’t.” Charity shook her head at Roz. “Don’t believe anything she tells you.”

  “All I’m going to say is that someone should warn the woman,” Florie said. “Emily is about to come to a bad end.”

  “It’s just jealousy talking,” Charity said.

  “I’m not jealous,” Florie argued. “Liam deserves better, that’s for sure, but my feelings toward his…wife have nothing to do with what I see for her future. She isn’t long for this world.”

  “Only if she meets you in a dark alley,” Charity said, obviously trying to laugh off her aunt’s prediction.

  “She doesn’t believe I have the sight,” Florie said, unperturbed to Roz.

  “She did when we were kids,” Roz said.

  Charity groaned. “We were kids. It was fun. Now, it’s…different.”

  Emily came out of the drug store next door and stopped just feet from them at the curb. As she closed her umbrella and reached for the door handle of Drew’s sports car as he pulled up for her, Florie let out a gasp.

  “I’ve seen that woman somewhere before, a long time ago,” Florie said.

  Charity rolled her eyes so only Roz could see.

  “Except her hair used to be a different color,” Florie was saying. “It’s been years but I never forget an aura and that woman’s is dark as sin.”

  “Auntie, you’re either confusing her with someone else or—”

  “I know where I saw her,” Florie said, eyes wide. “It was here in Timber Falls only…only it was years ago.”

  Charity looked even more skeptical. “She’s from Portland and I’m positive I heard she’d never been to Timber Falls before Liam brought her here after the wedding.” She looked at Roz for confirmation.

  Roz nodded. “This is the first time you’ve seen her since she married Dad and moved here?”

  “She’s kept to herself since she hit town,” Charity said. “Few people have seen her except in passing.”

  Emily didn’t fit in here and must have realized it. “She was married to some hotshot lawyer in Portland and part of the social whirl, I guess,” Roz said. “He died about a year ago and left her well off.”

  Florie let out a “humph.” “If that were true, she wouldn’t have had to snag Liam six months later.”

  Charity did another eye roll, but Roz thought Florie had a good point. Was it possible Emily had exaggerated about her rich, famous lawyer husband? Or even outright lied? Liam wouldn’t have checked up on Emily. He took everyone at his or her word. But Roz had no problem with doing some checking. And she could see that Charity was thinking the same thing.

  “It’s how she’s dressed that’s t
hrowing me off,” Florie mumbled. “She was wearing something…different.” Her face lit up. “A uniform! A nurse’s uniform. That’s it! She worked for that young doctor who filled in for a while when Doc Purdy broke his leg. Morrow that was his name. James Morrow. A real looker he was, and married.”

  Charity was staring at her aunt. “I remember that woman. She was brunette and much chubbier.”

  Florie nodded enthusiastically. “You think that blond doesn’t come out of a bottle? Please. And she was heavier because I think she was pregnant with the young doctor’s baby.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t see this on some soap opera?” Charity teased. “Auntie, you have Emily Sawyer mixed up with some other woman.”

  Florie was shaking her head. “I can almost remember her name.”

  “Don’t look at me. Hope, Faith and I went into Eugene to that woman doctor down there,” Charity said of her and her sisters.

  “I remember Doc Purdy breaking his leg,” Roz said. “But Dr. Morrow…”

  “You should remember him,” Florie said. “Didn’t your mother see him professionally during the time right before—” She broke off realizing what she was about to say. Right before Anna Sawyer killed herself.

  “Dr. Morrow,” Roz said slowly.

  “Roz, you must have seen her,” Florie said, not letting it drop.

  She shook her head. “The doctor came to the house alone or Mom went to his office.” But why had her mother been going to the doctor? She remembered her dad trying to find out, but couldn’t remember what he’d found out other than her mother hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer or anything that would make her want to commit suicide.

  Dr. Morrow hadn’t stayed long after her mother’s death, the memory coming back now. She could recall little about him except that he was nice. And he had made at least one house call, the day her mother died. She couldn’t remember any scandal involving the man’s nurse but then she didn’t remember ever seeing her.

  Roz looked up to see that Charity and Florie were looking at her with sympathy in their eyes.

  Charity took a bite of her pie, then pushed the plate away. “Did I tell you about that guy we used to go to school with, Arnie—”

  “Lynette. That was her name,” Florie exclaimed. “I knew it would come to me. Lynette…”

  “You see where I get it,” Charity joked and tried again to change the subject. “I was raised on gossip. What other career path could I have taken but journalism?”

  “Why can’t I think of her last name?” Florie muttered to herself. “Charity, wasn’t she the woman who took care of you when you sprained your ankle wrestling with that boy that time at the hospital?”

  “It wasn’t just some boy. It was Mitch,” Charity said and grinned. “And Kate Clark was the emergency room nurse. Dr. Morrow was already gone by then and his nurse, as well.”

  “Kate’s taking care of Dad,” Roz said. “And a doctor named…Harris?”

  “Mark Harris,” Charity said nodding. “He took the job here about a month ago. It’s so hard to get doctors to stay in Timber Falls. Too isolated and the money’s not that great.”

  “Hargrove,” Florie said and snapped her fingers. “Her name was Lynette Hargrove.”

  Charity shook her head. “Auntie, it’s not the same woman, okay? Give it a rest.”

  Florie wasn’t paying attention. She had reached into her purse and now took out a small velvet bag. From the bag she withdrew a set of worn tarot cards.

  “Auntie, don’t do this, okay?”

  Florie didn’t pay her niece any mind.

  Betty came over to refill the coffee cups and Charity’s diet cola. She stood for a moment and watched Florie adeptly deal out three cards, then close her eyes tightly before placing a card facedown on top of each of them.

  One of the patrons called to Betty. It was obvious she hated to leave but had to.

  Roz watched, mesmerized as Florie slowly turned over the first card and then pressed her hand to her mouth, tears swimming in her eyes. “Liam is going to regain consciousness,” she whispered and smiled over at Roz.

  Charity said nothing as Florie turned over the next card and frowned. Her gaze came up to meet Roz. “But he will only be in more danger.” She turned over the third card and let out a gasp as her gaze flew up to Roz.

  “What is it?” Roz cried.

  Florie had gone deathly pale again. With shaking hands she hurriedly scooped up the cards. “It’s nothing.” She dropped the pack of cards back into the velvet bag and thrust them deep into her purse.

  “See why I hate it when she does this?” Charity said to Roz. “You scare people, Auntie.”

  But Roz could see that Florie had scared herself, as well. Tears welled in the older woman’s eyes and she was still visibly shaking.

  “Florie, you have to tell me what you saw,” Roz pleaded clutching at the woman’s arm. “I know Dad is in danger. I need to know what you saw. Please.”

  Florie’s voice broke as she whispered, “I saw an open dirt grave with…the bones still in it.”

  Roz felt all the air rush from her. “Bones?”

  “Old bones.” The woman shuddered and stumbled to her feet. “I have to go to the hospital and see Liam.” Without another word, she hurried off, her brightly colored caftan blowing in the breeze behind her, leaving Roz to stare after her in shock and growing fear.

  Charity gave Roz a ride back to the house since it was raining again, a light drizzle that made the once sunny day as dreary and dark as her mood. Roz avoided the main house, walking around to the guest house through the garden.

  The chill she suddenly felt had nothing to do with the light rain. Someone was watching her. She stopped to look toward the main house but, in the dull light, couldn’t see if anyone was looking out of the attic windows.

  She felt spooked and afraid and couldn’t wait to see Ford. She had never thought she’d admit it, but she was glad he was here. Glad they would be looking for the bones together.

  Florie’s revelations still had her reeling. Bones. And her conviction that Emily wasn’t really Emily Lane but some woman named Lynette Hargrove, a former nurse in Timber Falls. A nurse who’d worked for the doctor who’d been taking care of Roz’s mother.

  Florie had to be wrong. Liam would have mentioned if Emily had ever been a nurse. Especially in Timber Falls. Unless he hadn’t known. And what about the name change? Lynette Hargrove. It couldn’t be the same woman.

  Roz was disappointed to find Ford hadn’t returned. She checked her watch. He was late. Because he was a scientist, she’d somehow expected him to be more exacting than this. Maybe he’d been held up.

  A sliver of worry began to fester inside her at the thought that something might have happened to him. If he’d gone off asking questions about Liam…

  She stepped up onto the porch out of the rain and tried the door. He’d left it unlocked for her. That was considerate.

  As she stepped in, she heard something and realized she wasn’t alone. The rustle of papers came from the bedroom. She didn’t close the door, instead stepped into the guest house quietly to peer around the corner into the bedroom.

  He had his back to her and appeared to be going through something on a desk by the bed.

  “Drew?”

  He swung around, obviously surprised to see her. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  No, she’d gathered that by his surprise. She looked to the papers in his hands. “What are you doing?”

  “I had to see what Ford Lancaster was up to.” He put the papers back on the desk and moved toward her. “I’m worried about you. I can see that you’re starting to trust him.”

  Right now she trusted Ford more than she did Drew, she realized. She took a step back, glad she’d left the door open.

  Drew stopped advancing toward her, looking hurt. “I’m sorry if I scared you. Roz, I was upstairs earlier looking for you and I noticed the door open to your mom’s old sewing room and the broken record on the floor.�
�

  She held her breath.

  “You’re going to think I’m crazy but a few weeks ago I heard that record playing,” he said. “I went up and turned off the phonograph but it came right back on. Blew me away. I unplugged it but the next night I heard it again. Totally freaked me out.”

  She found herself nodding. “It did that last night.”

  He laughed. “I was afraid of that.” The smile died on his lips. “I am worried about you.”

  “I appreciate that,” she said, feeling a little more at ease with him. “Drew, phonographs don’t plug themselves back in.”

  “I know. I caught my mother in that room several nights later.”

  His admission surprised her.

  “I know she’s jealous of you,” he said. “She resents the fact that Liam insisted on returning to Timber Falls because of you.”

  “Because of me? But I live in Seattle.”

  Drew nodded. “Your dad has this idea that one day you will come back here with your own family and settle in Timber Falls in the house where you were raised.”

  Roz couldn’t believe her ears. Her father had never said anything to her about it.

  “He keeps talking about your kids racing through the old house, putting laughter back in it and how Anna would have wanted that desperately. You can imagine how that makes my mother feel.”

  “So you think she rigged the phonograph to…scare me away?”

  “I think it’s possible. If you don’t come back to Timber Falls, then your father will eventually move her somewhere so they can have a fresh start. She really hates it here.”

  Roz could see how hard the admission was for him. He was protective of his mother. But he was obviously worried about Roz and maybe what lengths his mother might go to.

  “Do you know who left me the chocolates by my bed last night?”

  Drew seemed surprised by the question. “I did. Didn’t you get my note? They were all right, weren’t they?”

  She nodded, even though she wasn’t sure about that. “You didn’t happen to hear me walking in my sleep last night, did you?”

  His eyes widened. “No. I hope you avoided the stairs.”

  “I didn’t walk far,” she said and looked toward the desk where she’d found Drew going through a stack of papers.