Stroke of Luck

by B. J Daniels

  Will started to get to his feet.

  “He left more than an hour ago,” Allison said. “I saw him leave, but you’re welcome to try to catch him. He planned to ski down to the bunkhouse and take Slim’s truck with the plow on it. He said he’d seen that the keys were in it.”

  Will swore and sat back down. He turned his attention to Allison. “You didn’t go with him.” Poppy could tell what he wanted to demand was why she hadn’t come to him before Kirk had left.

  She let out a laugh that sounded close to a sob. “I’m not crazy. If he’s that desperate to leave here...”

  “Maybe he’s just scared,” Channing said. “It doesn’t mean he’s the killer.” She glanced around the table, smiling. “Any one of you could have killed Big Jack.”

  “Channing,” Lamar warned.

  Will was thinking about the pickup Kirk had taken. Slim always parked on the other side of the bunkhouse closest to the road out. It had a small plow on the front, but nothing that could bust a road through this storm or Will would have taken it himself into Whitefish for the sheriff.

  He looked around the table and saw relief on most of the faces that Kirk had left. They were convinced the killer was gone. All of them except maybe Channing. With her, he didn’t know if she just enjoyed stirring up trouble or what. Apparently most of them were willing to believe that Kirk had killed Big Jack.

  “Eat,” Will ordered and the platters began to make their way around the table.

  “He’ll die,” Lexi said, staring down at her plate. Will was surprised by what he heard in her voice. He noticed that a smile was playing at her lips. “He is going to get what he deserves.”

  “Shut up,” Allison snapped. “You don’t know he’s responsible for Big Jack.”

  “At least we aren’t with him,” Dean said.

  “Like you would be brave enough to try to leave,” Channing said and laughed.

  “Please just eat,” Will prompted and looked down the table at Poppy. She saw the worry on his face. The pain, the disappointment and the concern that this was far from over. She was just glad that he hadn’t decided to go after Kirk. Let the sheriff deal with it. On the radio, she’d heard that the worst of the storm would be tonight. By tomorrow afternoon, it would be moving out. If they could just hold it together until then...

  * * *

  LAMAR ATE, BUT he didn’t taste a bite. He kept thinking about his father and worrying about his brother. At breakfast, Mick had kept his head down, moving his food around his plate, but eating little.

  He couldn’t believe that idiot Kirk. The damned fool was going to either go off the road or freeze to death if he didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning after he got stuck and had to run the pickup’s engine to stay warm.

  Kirk had been another one of his father’s hires. As he looked around the table, he realized that Ruby had been his father’s hire, as well. Which was also proof that his father didn’t have a head for business.

  He met Allison’s gaze across the table. She looked even more frightened than she had last night. If someone had dropped a utensil, they all would have jumped a foot. He feared that someone would spill the salt again. He could tell that the older woman, Dorothea, wanted nothing to do with any of them. She’d made every excuse possible not to sit with them this morning.

  But none of that was what concerned him. He kept playing back last night in the barn. Had his brother seen Ruby go into the barn? Or Allison? And, if Allison, what would happen when Mick learned that Allison had been there to meet Lamar?

  Because it would come out as soon as the sheriff reached the ranch.

  It would put him at the scene of the crime.

  Right now, he just wanted breakfast over. There was something he had to do.

  The moment the meal was finished, he excused himself and, grabbing his coat, headed toward his cabin. But he didn’t stop at it. He kept going. At one point, he looked back through the driving snow, but could see no one.

  Will was right. If he got too far from the row of cabins, he couldn’t see a thing but freezing white flakes whirling around him. It would be easy to get lost just feet away from the cabins. He thought of Kirk again and shook his head. The damned fool could already be dead.

  At his father’s cabin, he realized he might not be able to get in. Would his father have locked the door when he’d left to go to the barn last night? Would Will have come down and locked it in case there was evidence inside?

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that his father had been meeting someone—just as Lamar had met Allison last night. What if it had been Ruby Mick had seen? Which made him wonder if the person Lexi had seen was even his father. With the temperature up here in the mountains what it was at night, whoever had been out last night would have been wearing their On the Fly matching coats and hats. No one could be sure who’d they seen coming and going in the dark.

  So many questions and no answers. He hoped he’d find an answer inside his father’s cabin as he grabbed the door handle. To his surprise, it turned in his hand. He quickly stepped in out of the cold and snow. For a moment, he stood just inside looking around. The cabin was a mess. He couldn’t tell if this was the way his father had left it or if someone had searched it. That thought sent a chill through him. What would someone have been looking for? Maybe the same thing he was: answers.

  He stepped deeper into the room, more convinced that the room had been ransacked. His father had never been neat, but it was clear that Big Jack’s belongings had been dumped out and gone through. Had the person found what he or she had been looking for?

  After checking the entire cabin, he stopped in the bathroom doorway to look at the larger room. If his father had something he didn’t want found, where would he hide it?

  His gaze circled the room, coming to a stop on the large chest of drawers in the corner. He moved to it. The top drawer was ajar. Someone had already gone through it. He pulled out the drawer, then the next, piling each on the bed until he got to the bottom one.

  He jerked it out a few inches before it stuck. He could see that the drawer was empty. His father wasn’t one to unpack his suitcase and put his belongings away even if he had planned to stay longer than four days.

  Whoever had searched the room had probably tried the drawer, just as he had, seen that there was nothing inside and, when it stuck, had shut it again.

  Lamar worked the drawer out. He could feel that there was something under the drawer that was keeping it from opening. He thought he heard paper tear as he yanked it the last of the way out and flipped it over.

  Someone had taped a thick manila envelope to the bottom of the drawer. There was a small tear in the envelope.

  He laid the drawer on the bed and ripped the tape off and started to open the envelope when he heard a sound at the door. Moving quickly, he tucked the envelope under his coat and stepped back into the bathroom.

  In the mirror over the sink, he could see the front door. It opened slowly. He pressed himself against the bathroom wall as he watched a bundled-up figure in an On the Fly jacket and hat step in, along with a gust of wind and snow.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  WILL WENT OUT to see Slim in the barn, to tell him about his pickup and make sure he got some breakfast.

  “I’m so sorry,” Slim said. “I didn’t realize what had happened until I rushed out of the barn and saw him driving away in my pickup. I would have come and told you, but I didn’t want to leave the body.”

  “It’s all right. I should have thought of it. I’ve checked to make sure that none of the keys are in the other rigs. I don’t want another fool taking off in this.” He glanced toward the body. He’d wanted to cover Big Jack but didn’t want to contaminate the murder scene.

  “Go up to the kitchen,” he told Slim. “Poppy put some breakfast aside for you. I’m going to lock up the barn. I can’t ask you to stay down here and
watch the body. Huck hasn’t come back. There’s a good chance he won’t be able to for a day or more. We’ll all keep an eye out in case someone tries to get in, okay? But I think the damage is done. Can’t imagine anyone would want to get back in here, anyway.”

  Slim quickly agreed. “I stayed warm enough cleaning out the stalls, but I can feel the temperature dropping. It actually looks worse out there,” he said, glancing toward the door.

  “It is. I’m wishing now that I hadn’t sent Huck,” Will said. “I’m worried about him.”

  “You have enough to worry about. You know Huck. He’ll be fine. He loves this. Brings out the adventurer in him.”

  Will smiled, knowing it was true. But this storm was bad. Would Huck have enough sense to turn back if it looked like he couldn’t go any farther?

  Slim headed up to the lodge, while Will locked up. He could barely make out the roofline of the lodge through the falling snow. He thought about his guests, his wranglers, Dorothea and Poppy. His brothers were twenty miles away at the cattle ranch down in the valley so they wouldn’t be able to help. Will was on his own up here on the mountain. He had to get them all through this.

  Yesterday, looking for Lexi and again this morning when he’d heard screaming, he’d strapped on his sidearm. He just hoped he wasn’t going to have to use it as he locked up the barn and headed for the lodge.

  He hadn’t gone but a few steps when he saw Poppy come out the door of the lodge and head in the direction of the cabins. He swore. Didn’t she know one of these guests was a killer?

  * * *

  LAMAR RELAXED AS the figure framed in the doorway lifted his head. Mick.

  He started to step out of his hiding place, but stopped himself as he watched his brother close the cabin door. What was he doing here?

  For a few moments, Mick didn’t move. He was taking in the mess, including the bureau drawers piled on the bed.

  His brother let out a curse and began to cry in huge, heart-wrenching sobs. Lamar wanted to go to him, but had waited too long. The sobs ended as quickly as they had begun. Mick wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his coat, then seemed to attack the mess on the bed, throwing the clothes, then the bureau drawers, against the wall.

  The antique bureau drawers splintered as they hit and fell. Mick kept throwing them and the clothes until there was nothing on the bed but the bedding. His brother was breathing hard as he looked around the room.

  For a moment Lamar feared he could come in the bathroom. He had no explanation for why he’d stayed hidden. He was relieved as Mick caught his breath, considered the disaster he’d made and turned to leave. But right before he reached the door, he put his fist through the mirror on the wall.

  The glass shattered but stayed in the frame. His brother stared at his jumbled reflection for a long while. “Burn in hell, you bastard,” he said before he threw open the door and stumbled out into the storm.

  Lamar stayed where he was, his heart breaking for his brother, but shaken by what he’d witnessed. Grief for the father Mick had lost? Or something much darker and more sinister?

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  POPPY WAS COVERED with snow by the time she reached Lexi’s cabin. She knocked on the door and, getting no answer, knocked harder before calling the woman’s name and trying again.

  When the door opened, it was only a crack. Lexi peered out. “I was taking a nap.” She didn’t look like she had been asleep, but she did look scared.

  “Can I come in? Please.”

  Lexi hesitated but finally stepped back to let her in.

  Poppy wasn’t surprised to find the young woman’s cabin neat and clean. The bed was made. Not even an indentation in the comforter. Lexi hadn’t been sleeping. The small light over the desk was on and the chair pulled out.

  Lexi went to it now and closed a notebook she’d obviously been writing in. It piqued Poppy’s interest to know what the woman had been writing down. A diary of the events that had befallen her here? Something to do with work? A letter? It could be anything.

  But whatever it was, Lexi didn’t want her to see it.

  “I’m fine,” the young woman said, standing back and crossing her arms as she waited for Poppy to leave. “You shouldn’t have bothered to walk all the way down here in the storm.”

  She looked around the room, her gaze settling on Lexi. “We need to talk about yesterday.”

  “There is nothing to talk about. I fell, you found me.”

  Poppy thought about sitting on the edge of the bed, but given the way this room looked, she knew that it might make the superneat Lexi even more nervous. The only other option was the chair in front of the desk. As she reached for it, Lexi grabbed up the notebook and held it to her chest.

  “I was busy,” she said defensively.

  “I can see that,” Poppy said, pulling the chair away from the desk and sitting down in it. “Tell me what’s going on, Lexi. You’re in some kind of trouble. Why else would you have been running yesterday? Who were you running from?”

  The young woman looked around as if trying to find a way to escape. She clutched the notebook even harder to her chest and looked as if she might cry.

  “I want to help you,” Poppy said.

  “Help me? Help me by leaving me alone.”

  “Please, I know you’re scared.”

  “Big Jack was murdered,” Lexi cried. “I found him with his head caved in. I looked into his dead eyes.” Her face was filled with horror. She slumped onto the foot of the bed, hugging the notebook to her.

  “Why did you follow him?”

  Her gaze was on the cabin wall, but it shifted slowly to Poppy. “I already told Will.”

  “That you just saw him go by and followed him in the middle of the night because you thought he was sleepwalking? Lexi, the sheriff isn’t going to believe that. Please talk to me. Maybe I can help.”

  “You can’t.” She got to her feet again. “You should leave. Leave.” Her voice was shrill. She sounded like she might start screaming at any moment.

  Poppy rose. As she did she saw that there was something written on the back of the notebook Lexi had crushed to her chest. It was a name and what appeared to be an amount of money, followed by what appeared to be dates. The name was Kirk. The amount was just under twelve thousand dollars.

  “If you change your mind—”

  “I won’t,” Lexi said.

  Poppy turned toward the door. She saw the trail of salt at the edge, but feared whatever trouble the young woman was in, salt wasn’t going to save her.

  * * *

  WILL WAS WAITING for Poppy when she returned. He felt a wave of relief to see her. He couldn’t help but worry about anyone who left the safety of the lodge, but especially Poppy. He was responsible for getting her involved in this.

  But even as he thought it, he couldn’t be sorry. Having her here these past few days... It had to have been fate. If Buckshot hadn’t broken his leg, if Garrett hadn’t told him about Poppy’s catering business, if he hadn’t gotten up the courage to call... Well, she wouldn’t be trapped here on the ranch with a killer, he thought with a shake of his head.

  If this was fate, then it had a dark sense of humor.

  Poppy entered the building, shook off the snow from her coat and hung it up by the door. When she saw him, she gave him a smile that went straight to his heart.

  “Can we talk?” he asked and led her to his office behind the kitchen. After offering her a chair, he closed the door and took a chair opposite her. “I saw you leave to go down to the cabins. Poppy—”

  “I’m sorry if I worried you. I went down to Lexi’s cabin to question her about yesterday.”

  “I wish you hadn’t done that. You know how dangerous this is.”

  She nodded. “I had to talk to her. She lied about what happened off the trail to the waterfalls.”

  “I know.�
�� He raked a hand through his hair. “The running tracks on the hillside before she fell. She was running from something.”

  “More like someone. Maybe they even pushed her. When I called for her yesterday she didn’t answer until I told her it was me.”

  “Did she tell you anything today?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t get anywhere with her. She was scared even before Big Jack was killed. Now, she’s terrified. When I interrupted her at her cabin, she was busy writing in a notebook. She grabbed it up when I came in and held it the entire time I was there. I don’t know what’s inside it, but written on the outside was the name Kirk followed by what looked like a monetary amount of almost twelve thousand dollars and what appeared to be a list of dates.”

  Will frowned. “You have any idea what that might mean?”

  “No, but it seems clear that something is going on with these employees. The owner is dead and none of them seem to trust each other.”

  He couldn’t agree more. “I don’t like any of this. We already have one person dead. This storm couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

  “Unless the killer was planning on the storm,” she said.

  He met her gaze. “Big Jack was the one who set up the retreat. Lamar said it had come out of the blue. It was definitely last-minute.”

  She seemed to consider that. “Maybe he knew about the storm and had planned to use it to his advantage but someone was onto him.”

  Will shook his head. “There is no doubt that more was going on with this bunch before they even got here. We never open this early, but Big Jack was so insistent...” He looked at her. She sometimes took his breath away. Her hair sparkled with melting snowflakes and those eyes... He wanted to drown himself in them.

  “But even if Big Jack had known about the storm ahead of time, he couldn’t have known it would be this bad, though, or that it would hit early. No one did,” she said.