Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene

by B. J Daniels

  “It’s my pleasure. You’ll get to meet Jordan and his wife, Liza. Clay, your other cousin, as I told you, lives in California. He’ll be flying up for Christmas. But we’ll get to all of that.” She smiled. “I’m just happy you’re here now. We can talk about Christmas later.”

  “I can only stay for a few days. With the holidays coming, I don’t want to be in the way.”

  “In the way?” Dana exclaimed. “You’re family. You’ll make this Christmas even more special.”

  DJ couldn’t help being touched.

  “Get settled in and rest. We have something special planned for tonight. The Corral has the best burgers you’ve ever tasted, and the band playing tonight? It’s my uncle and father’s band—more relatives of yours I thought you’d enjoy meeting in a more casual atmosphere.”

  Dana was so thoughtful that DJ couldn’t say no.

  “I’ll drop by some clothing and Western boots that should fit you before we go.”

  DJ started to tell her that this was all too much, but Dana cut her off. “You have to experience Montana and canyon life. I promise that you’ll have a good time.”

  There was nothing more DJ could say, since she didn’t want to disappoint her cousin. Dana had been so welcoming, much more than she should have been for a relative she’d never met before.

  She watched Dana walk back down to the main house. Something in the distance flashed, the winter sun glinting off metal. She could see a repairman hanging from a power pole in the distance.

  Emotional exhaustion pulled at her. The past few days had been such a roller-coaster ride. She closed the door and locked it. For the first time, she felt...safe.

  The cabin was so warm and welcoming, she thought as she walked into the bedroom. The bed beckoned to her. Smiling, DJ pulled back the homemade quilt, kicked off her shoes and crawled up under the covers. She was asleep almost at once.

  * * *

  MARIETTA KNEW SHE wouldn’t be able to sleep. She kept thinking about this granddaughter. She realized she knew nothing about her other than what Roger had told her. A father in prison. The young woman writing stories for travel magazines.

  “Not married?” she’d asked.

  “No. Lives alone. Stays to herself.”

  She tried to imagine the girl. Did she look like Carlotta or that horrible father of hers? What if she looked like Bianca?

  Reaching over, she rang the bell for Ester. It was late, but she knew she’d never get to sleep without some warm milk.

  “Is something wrong?” Ester asked moments later from her doorway.

  “I can’t sleep.”

  “I’m not surprised.”

  She stared at her housekeeper. “I beg your pardon?”

  Ester shook her head. “I’ll heat some milk. Would you like anything else?”

  Marietta gritted her teeth as she shook her head. It wasn’t her imagination. Ester was acting oddly.

  When she returned with a glass of warm milk and a biscuit with butter and honey, Marietta asked, “Roger hasn’t called, has he?”

  “I’m sure you would have heard the phone if he had, but no.”

  “You don’t like him.” She realized she’d given voice to something she’d known for a long time. Not that she normally cared if her housekeeper liked her attorney or not. But tonight, it struck her as odd. Almost as odd as the way Ester was behaving.

  “No, I don’t like him. Nor do I trust him. You shouldn’t, either.” Ester started to leave.

  “Why would you say that?” she demanded of the housekeeper’s retreating back.

  Ester stopped and turned slowly. “Because he’s been stealing from you for years.” With that, she left the room.

  Marietta stared after her, dumbstruck. Was Ester losing her mind? It was the only thing that made sense. The woman had never talked to her like this. She would never have dared. And to say something so...outrageous.

  She took a sip of the milk, followed by a bite of the biscuit, until both were gone. Neither was going to help her sleep tonight.

  Chapter Seven

  The Corral turned out to be an old-fashioned bar and restaurant that looked as if it had been there for years. DJ liked the idea of a place having a rich history—just like the ranch Dana had grown up on. She couldn’t imagine having that kind of roots. Nor could she imagine knowing the same people for years like Dana did—which quickly became obvious as they climbed out of the large SUV.

  The parking lot was full of pickups and a few SUVs. Several trucks drove up at the same time they did. The occupants called to Dana and were so friendly that DJ felt a stab of envy.

  “Do you know everyone in the canyon?” she asked.

  Her cousin laughed. “Hardly. I did once upon a time. But that was before Big Sky Resort.”

  The moment they walked through The Corral door, the bartender said hello to Dana, who quickly set them both up with light beers. “You’re in Montana now,” she said, clinking her beer bottle against DJ’s. The band broke into an old country song, the lead guitarist nodding to them as he began to sing.

  “You already met my father, Angus Cardwell, on lead guitar,” Dana said as she led her to the only empty table, one with a reserved sign on it that read Cardwell Ranch. “And my uncle Harlan is on bass tonight. They switch off. They’ve been playing music together for years. They’ve had other names, but they call themselves the Canyon Cowboys now, I think.” She laughed. “They’re hard to keep track of.”

  They’d barely sat down and had a drink of their beers when Dana’s brother Jordan came in with his wife, Liza, a local deputy still in her uniform. Jordan was dark and good-looking and clearly in love with his wife, who was pregnant.

  “We came by to say hello, but can’t stay long,” Jordan said. “I’m sure we’ll get to see you again while you’re here, though.”

  “Is your husband coming?” DJ asked after Jordan and Liza had left.

  “Hud’s working tonight. But you’ll get to meet him.” Dana ordered loaded burgers as the band kicked into another song. “Oh, there’s Hilde.” Her cousin rose to greet her very pregnant friend. They spoke for a moment before Dana drew her over to the table.

  Hilde looked reluctant to meet her. But DJ couldn’t blame her after everything she’d heard about the pretend Dee Anna Justice.

  “I’m so sorry about my former roommate,” DJ said. “I had no idea until Dana told me.”

  Hilde shook her head. “It’s just nice that we finally get to meet you. How do you like the ranch?”

  “I love it, especially that four-poster log bed I took a nap in earlier.”

  Hilde laughed as she sat. Her husband came in then, still wearing his marshal’s office uniform, and went to the bar to get them drinks.

  A shadow fell across the table. When DJ looked up, she was surprised to see the cowboy from the airport standing over her.

  “Care to dance?” he asked over the music.

  DJ was so startled to see him here that for a moment she couldn’t speak.

  “Go ahead,” Dana said, giving her a friendly push. “Beau Tanner is a great dancer.”

  Beau Tanner. DJ didn’t believe this was a coincidence. “Did you have something to do with this?” she whispered to her cousin.

  “Me?” Dana tried to look shocked before she whispered, “Apparently he saw you at the airport and wanted to meet you.”

  So that was it. DJ pushed back her chair and stood. Maybe his interest in her was innocent. Or not. She was about to find out either way.

  He took her hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor and into his arms for a slow dance. He was strong and sure, moving with ease, and definitely in control.

  “Dana told me you would be here tonight,” he said. “I was hoping you would dance with me.”

 
“Why is that?” she asked, locking her gaze on his.

  His pale blue eyes were the color of worn denim, his lashes dark. Looking into those eyes, she felt a small jolt. Why did she get the feeling that she’d looked into those eyes before?

  “I saw you at the airport. When I heard that you were Dana’s cousin, I was curious.” He shrugged.

  “Really? You just happened to hear that.”

  “News travels fast in the canyon.”

  “What were you doing at the airport? I know you weren’t on my flight. I also know you weren’t picking anyone up.”

  He laughed. “Are you always this suspicious?”

  “Always.”

  She lost herself in those eyes.

  “You want to know why I was at the airport? Okay.” He looked away for a moment before his gaze locked with hers. “Because of you.”

  “So much for your story that you just happened to see me at the airport and were curious.”

  “I don’t like lying. That’s just one reason we need to talk,” he said as he pulled her close and whispered into her ear. “Today at the airport wasn’t the first time I’d seen you. We’ve met before.”

  She drew back to look into his face. “If this is some kind of pickup line...” Even as she said it, she remembered thinking at the airport that he looked familiar. But she was always thinking people looked like someone from her past. That was normal when you had a past like hers.

  “It was years ago, so I’m not surprised that you don’t remember,” he said as the song ended. He clasped her hand, not letting her get away as another song began.

  “Years ago?” she asked as he pulled her close.

  “You were five,” he said next to her ear. “I was ten. It was only a few miles from here in this canyon.”

  She drew back to look at him. “That isn’t possible. I’ve never been here before.” But hadn’t she felt as if she had? “Why would I believe you?”

  He looked her in the eye. “Because a part of you knows I’m telling the truth. It’s the reason you and I need to talk.” Without warning, he drew her off the dance floor, toward the front door.

  She could have dug her heels in, pulled away, stopped this, but something in his tone made her follow him out the door and into the winter night. He directed her over to the side of the building where snow had been plowed up into a small mountain. “Okay, what is this about?” she demanded, breaking loose from his hold to cross her arms over her chest. “It’s freezing out here, so make it fast.”

  He seemed to be deciding what to tell her. She noticed that he was watching the darkness as if he expected something out there to concern him. “All those years ago, your father did me a favor,” he said.

  She laughed, chilled by the night and this man and what he was saying. “Now I know you’re lying. My father didn’t do favors for anyone, especially for ten-year-olds.”

  “Not without a cost,” he agreed.

  She felt her heart bump in her chest and hugged herself tighter to ward off the cold—and what else this man might tell her.

  “Your father and mine were...business partners.”

  “So this is about my father.” She started to turn away.

  “No, it’s about you, DJ, and what your father has asked me to do.”

  She stared at him. She’d come here wanting answers. Did this man have them? If he was telling the truth, she’d been to Montana with her father years ago. It would explain why some things and some people seemed familiar—including him.

  She could see the pale green frozen river across the highway, the mountains a deep purple backdrop behind it. Everything was covered with snow and ice, including the highway in front of the bar.

  “If our fathers were business partners, then I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you, but my father got out of the...business after the night we met. I’m assuming yours didn’t, given that he is now in prison.”

  She flinched. “How do you know that?”

  “I told you. He did me a favor—for a price. He contacted me. It’s a long story, but the night we met, your father and I made a deal of sorts. He helped me with the understanding that if he ever needed my help...”

  “You said he did a favor for you? My father made a deal with a ten-year-old?”

  “I promised to do whatever he wanted if he let my father go.”

  DJ felt a hard knot form in her chest. “I don’t understand.” But she feared she did.

  “My father had double-crossed yours. Your father was holding a gun to his head.”

  “And you threw yourself on the sword, so to speak, by promising my father what, exactly?” What could her father have extracted from a boy of ten?

  “He asked me to make sure that nothing happens to you.”

  She laughed, but it fell short. “That’s ridiculous. Why would he think you could keep me safe?”

  “I’m a private investigator. I have an office forty miles away in Bozeman. I’m good at what I do.”

  “And humble.” She rubbed her arms through the flannel shirt her cousin had given her to wear. But it wasn’t her body that was chilled as much as her soul. Her father, the manipulator. He’d gotten her here. Now he was forcing this cowboy to protect her? She shook her head and started to step away again. “I can take care of my—”

  A vehicle came roaring into the parking lot. As the headlights swept over them, Beau grabbed her and took her down in the snowbank next to them, landing squarely on top of her.

  * * *

  JIMMY RYAN RUBBED his cold hands together. He’d already spent several hours of his life sitting outside a bar, hoping to get a shot at DJ Justice. Finding out where DJ would be tonight had been child’s play. Over coffee with Stacy he’d listened distractedly as she’d told him what she’d been up to since high school.

  “So you’re living at the ranch?” he’d asked. “How’s that working out with family?”

  “Fine. Another cousin has turned up. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork,” she’d said with a laugh. “First my five male cousins from Texas. They opened Texas Boys Barbecue here in Big Sky. Have you been there yet?”

  “Not yet. But you said another cousin has turned up?”

  “Dee Anna Justice. DJ. I haven’t gotten to spend much time around her and won’t tonight. I’m babysitting the kids so Dana can take her out.”

  “Oh, yeah? Your sister taking her to someplace fancy?”

  “The Corral. My father and uncle are playing there. You remember that they have a band, right?”

  The Corral. “Sure, I remember. So what does this cousin look like?”

  She’d described DJ. Sounded like he couldn’t miss her, so to speak.

  He’d glanced at his watch. “I’m going to have to cut this short. Maybe we can see each other again.” If things went right tonight, that wouldn’t be happening. But he hadn’t minded giving Stacy false hope. And who knew, he’d thought, maybe they could hook up before he left. She was still pretty foxy, and he could tell she still wanted him.

  Now, sitting across the highway in his rented SUV, his rifle lying across his lap, he just hoped he got another chance at DJ. Earlier she’d come out of the bar. But she’d been with some man.

  He’d still been tempted to take the shot, but the man had stayed in front of her. When a car had come racing into the parking lot, the cowboy had thrown them both in a snowbank. What was that about?

  * * *

  “WHAT IN THE—” DJ’s words were cut off by the sound of laughter as several people tumbled from the vehicle.

  “Shh,” Beau said, pulling back to look at her. She saw a change in his expression. Still, the kiss took her by more than surprise. She pushed against his hard chest, but his arms were like steel bands around her.
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br />   Worse, she felt herself melting into him, into the kiss, into the warmth of his mouth and the taste of beer on his lips. She was vaguely aware of music and laughter and the sound of people as they entered the establishment before he let her go.

  She was shaken by the kiss and everything he’d told her as he rose and pulled her to her feet. “What was that?” she demanded as she began to brush cold snow off her backside.

  “A kiss. Apparently it’s been a while for you, as well,” he said with a cockiness that was downright aggravating. He began to help her with the snow, his big hand brushing over the Western shirt, vest and jeans she wore.

  “I can do it myself,” she snapped and took a step away from him. She wanted to tell him that she’d only kissed him back because he’d taken her by surprise. But he didn’t give her a chance to lie.

  “Don’t look so shocked. It was just a kiss, right?” His blue eyes gleamed in the light from the neon sign over their heads. “It wasn’t like you felt anything. Like either of us felt anything.”

  The man was exasperating. She hadn’t come looking for any of this. “I was asking why you thought you could get away with kissing me like that. Or was that part of the bargain you made with my father?” she asked, hoping he caught the sarcasm.

  “I wasn’t sure who was driving up just then. I was merely doing my job. Protecting you, since the one thing your father didn’t make clear is whom I’m protecting you from. As for the kiss, it just seemed like a good idea. It won’t happen again.”

  “You’re right about that, because I don’t need your so-called protection.” With that, she pushed past him and started for the bar as Dana opened the door and called, “DJ, your burger’s ready.”

  * * *

  JIMMY RYAN WASN’T the only one watching some distance from The Corral. Andrei had learned to be patient, studying his mark, waiting for a sign that the situation was perfect.

  He would get only one chance to pull the trigger. Rushing it would put the mark on alert and make his job next to impossible. That’s if he didn’t get caught trying to get away after blowing it.