Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene

by B. J Daniels

  “I wanted an update on the...situation,” Marietta said. She felt calm and in control, more than she had in the few months since Carlotta had confessed.

  “It’s a little early to—”

  “I assumed you would be handling this yourself and yet here you sit.”

  He picked up one of the muffins. She noticed that his hand shook as he popped it into his mouth. Clearly he was stalling for time.

  “Have you even found her?” she demanded.

  “Yes, of course. She’s at a place called the Cardwell Ranch near Big Sky, Montana. She’s staying with a cousin on her father’s side of the family. I’ve had her apartment bugged for several months—ever since you asked me to find her.”

  “But you haven’t gotten around to offering her money?”

  “What is this really about?” Roger asked patiently, as if she was a child he had to humor.

  “Have you offered Dee Anna Justice the money or not?”

  He studied her for a moment before dragging his gaze away. “Maybe we should discuss this when you are more yourself.”

  “Actually, I am, and for the first time in a long time. I am going to want to see all the financials on the trust funds.” He paled, confirming what she’d feared. Her nosy housekeeper knew more than she did about what was right in front of her eyes. “But on this other matter...”

  Roger rose. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I told you I would handle it.”

  “How much are you planning to offer her?” She saw something in his eyes that made her heart drop. How much money had he stolen from her? Was this why he was dragging his feet? Because there wasn’t enough money left to bribe Dee Anna Justice?

  “What did you do?” she demanded.

  He began to pace the room. “You’re not thinking clearly, so I had to take things into my own hands. Trying to buy off this woman is the wrong approach. She would eventually bleed you dry. You know what kind of woman she is given that her father is Walter Justice. I told you I’m taking care of it and I have. I’ve hired someone to make sure she is no longer a problem.”

  For a moment Marietta couldn’t catch her breath. “You did what?”

  He dropped down into a chair next to her and took one of her hands. “It is the only way. I’ve kept you out of it. I—”

  She jerked her hand free. “You stupid fool.” Her mind raced. “Is it done already?”

  “No, but I should be hearing from him—”

  “Stop him!” She shoved to her feet. She was breathing hard, her heart thumping crazily in her chest. She tried to calm down. If she had a heart attack now... “You stop him or I will call the police.”

  Roger looked too shocked to speak. “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “Try me. Call him now!”

  “My job is to protect you.”

  She shook her head. “Protect me? Give me your phone. I will stop the man myself.” She held out her hand.

  “You can’t do that, Marietta.” He sounded scared. “You don’t know what this man is capable of doing if he feels you’re jerking him around.”

  “You think he is more dangerous than me?” She let out a chuckle, feeling stronger than she had in years. “Roger, get your affairs in order. You’re done, and if I find out what I suspect, that you’ve been stealing from me, prepare for spending the rest of your life in prison. You’re fired, and if you try to run, I’ll send this man after you.”

  All the color had drained from his face. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “I do, for the first time in a long time. I’ve depended on you to make decisions for me because you made me question myself. But I’m clearheaded now, Roger.” He started to argue, but she cut him off. “Make the call.”

  She watched, shaking inside. But whoever he was phoning didn’t answer. She listened to him leave a message calling off the hit.

  “This is a mistake,” Roger said as he pocketed his phone. “I’ve been with you for years. I’ve—”

  “Get out.” She pointed toward the door. “Don’t make me call the police to have you thrown out. And you’d better pray that the man you hired gets the message.”

  As he left, Marietta heard a floorboard creak. Ester. The nosy damned woman. She thought about firing her as well, but she was too upset to deal with another traitor in her midst right now.

  * * *

  THE WOMAN WHO answered the door later that morning at the Jameson house was tiny, with a halo of white-blond hair that framed a gentle face. Bright blue eyes peered out at them from behind wire-rimmed glasses. “Yes?” she asked, looking from DJ to Beau and finally to Dana. She brightened when she recognized her.

  “Sorry to drop by without calling,” Dana said.

  “No, I’m delighted.” She stepped back to let them enter.

  “This is my cousin DJ.”

  “Dee Anna Justice,” DJ added, watching the woman for a reaction to the last name. She didn’t have to wait long.

  Zinnia froze for a moment before her gaze shot to DJ, her blue eyes widening. “Wally’s daughter?”

  DJ nodded. She’d never heard anyone call her father Wally.

  “And you know Beau Tanner,” Dana said.

  “Yes,” Zinnia said. An awkward silence fell between them, but she quickly filled it. “I was just going to put on a pot of coffee. Come into the kitchen, where we can visit while I make it.” Her eyes hadn’t left DJ’s face.

  They followed her into the kitchen. DJ had been so nervous all morning, afraid that this might be another dead end. But now, from Zinnia’s reaction to her, she had little doubt this woman had been the one her father’s parents had hoped he would marry.

  “Dana is helping me piece together my past—and my father’s,” DJ said, unable to wait a moment longer. “You were a part of the past, if I’m not wrong.”

  Zinnia had her back to them. She stopped pouring coffee grounds into a white paper filter for a moment. “Yes.” She finished putting the coffee on and turned. “Please sit.”

  DJ pulled out a chair at the table. Her cousin did the same across from her. Beau stood by the window.

  Zinnia came around the kitchen island to pull up a chair at the head of the table. When she looked at DJ, her expression softened. “I loved your father. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  “And he loved you.”

  The woman nodded, a faraway look in those blue eyes. “We’d been in love since grade school.” She chuckled. “I know that sounds silly, but it’s true. We were inseparable. We even attended Montana State University in Bozeman together. Everyone just assumed we would get married after college.”

  “Especially my father’s parents,” DJ said.

  “Yes. I had a very good relationship with them. I was like another daughter to them, they said.” She smiled in memory.

  “What happened?” DJ asked, even though she suspected she already knew.

  Zinnia straightened in her chair as if bracing herself. “Wally got a job as a wrangler taking people into Yellowstone Park. His parents were upset with him because they needed him on the ranch, but Wally was restless. He’d already confessed to me that he didn’t want to take over the ranch when his parents retired. He wanted to travel. He wanted...” She hesitated. “That’s just it. He didn’t know what he wanted. He just...wanted.” Her gaze locked on DJ’s. “Then he met your mother. She and some friends were touring the park.” Zinnia shrugged, but her voice cracked when she added, “Apparently it was love at first sight.”

  The coffeemaker let out a sigh, and the woman got up.

  DJ rose, too. “May I help?”

  Zinnia seemed surprised. “Why, thank you. There are cups in that cabinet.”

  She took out four cups and watched as Zinnia filled each. DJ carried two over, giving one to Dana an
d the other to Beau as he finally took a seat at the table. She’d expected to see him on her front porch when she got up this morning, but to her surprise, he’d come driving up, all showered and shaved and ready to go wherever she was going.

  He’d been so somber, she wondered if he wasn’t having second thoughts about getting involved with her father—and her. She couldn’t blame him. It seemed ridiculous for him to tag along, since she seemed to be in no danger. Maybe her father had overreacted.

  She’d said as much to Beau, but he’d insisted that he had nothing else planned that day except spend it with her.

  Because of some promise he’d made a con man when he was ten? What kind of man would honor that?

  Beau Tanner, she thought, turning her attention back to Zinnia.

  “My grandparents must have been horribly disappointed,” DJ said after taking the cup of coffee the woman handed her and sitting back down.

  Zinnia sat, cradling her cup in her two small hands. “They were as brokenhearted as I was,” she said with a nod and then took a sip of her coffee, her eyes misty.

  DJ wanted to tell her that she’d dodged a bullet by not ending up with her father. But even as she thought it, she wondered what kind of man her father might have been if he’d married Zinnia and gotten over his wanderlust.

  “I had no idea that my mother had a brother,” Dana said into the awkward silence. “Then I found some old letters. That’s how we found you.”

  Zinnia nodded. “Wally’s parents did everything they could to get him not to marry that girl, to come back to the ranch, to help them, since they were getting up in age. Mostly they wanted him to marry me.” She smiled sadly. “But in the end...” Her voice broke. “Sadly, I heard the marriage didn’t last long.” Her gaze was on DJ again.

  “My mother died in childbirth.”

  The older woman seemed startled to hear that.

  DJ stared at her. “That is what happened, right?”

  “I only know what Wally’s parents told me.”

  “It would help if you could tell us what you do know,” Dana said.

  Zinnia hesitated for a moment and then spoke quietly. “As you might have guessed, I stayed friends with Wally’s parents. They were such sweet people. They were devastated when Wally didn’t come back.” She took a sip of her coffee as if gathering her thoughts. “Wally called at one point, asking for money. I guess he thought they would give him what he felt was his share of the ranch.” She scoffed at that. “He always made things worse.”

  Seeming to realize that she was talking about DJ’s father, Zinnia quickly added, “Forgive me for talking about him like that.”

  “There isn’t anything you can say that I haven’t said myself. I know my father. He didn’t get better after he left Montana.”

  “Well,” the older woman continued. “When he called for money, he told them that Carlotta—” the name seemed to cause her pain even after all these years “—had left him to go spend time with an aunt in Italy.”

  DJ reached into her shoulder bag and took out the photo. As she passed it over to Zinnia, she asked, “Do you recognize any of these people?”

  Zinnia studied the photo for only a moment before she put it down. “The young woman holding the baby is Carlotta Pisani Justice. Or at least, that had been her name. I saw her only once, but that’s definitely her. You can see why Wally fell for her.”

  Picking up the photograph, DJ stared at the young woman holding the baby. This was her mother. “My father swears that the baby she’s holding isn’t me.”

  Zinnia looked at her with sympathy. “We heard that her wealthy family had gotten the marriage annulled somehow and threatened that if she didn’t go to Italy, they would cut off her money. It seems she met someone her family liked better in Italy, quickly remarried and had a child with him.”

  “So this child would be my half brother or sister,” DJ said more to herself. When she looked up, she saw Zinnia’s expression.

  The older woman was frowning. “But if her family had the marriage annulled... Why would they have done that after your mother and father had a child together?”

  DJ felt an odd buzzing in her ears. She thought about what Beau had told her. Her father feared that her mother’s family had “found” her.

  “Is it possible they didn’t know about me?” DJ asked, finding herself close to tears. Her gaze went to Beau’s. She saw sympathy in his gaze but not surprise. All those years on the run. Had they been running to keep the truth from her mother’s family?

  The doll and the photo meant someone knew about her. Not only that, they also wanted her to know about them.

  * * *

  BEAU DROVE DJ and Dana back to the ranch after their visit with Zinnia. Both were quiet on the short drive. The sun had come out, making the snowy landscape sparkle like diamonds. As he drove, he chewed on what they’d learned from Zinnia. He felt for DJ. Apparently her mother had walked away not only from her father but also from her.

  But what part had her father played? He could only guess.

  He hated that the news he had to give her would only make her feel worse. But he had no choice. He couldn’t keep something like this from her. She had to know.

  As he pulled into the Cardwell Ranch and parked, Dana’s children all came running out. They were begging to go see Santa at the mall in Bozeman.

  Stacy was with them. “I didn’t put it in their heads,” she said quickly.

  Dana laughed. “Looks like I’m going to the mall,” she said as she started toward the kids. “DJ, you’re welcome to come along. You, too, Beau.”

  Beau shook his head. “Thanks, but DJ and I have some things we need to iron out.”

  Dana shot her cousin a mischievous look.

  “Tell Santa hello for me,” DJ said.

  Beau said to Dana, “Mind if we take a couple of horses for a ride?”

  Dana grinned. “Please. I’ll call down to the stables. DJ, you can wear what you wore last night. You’ll find a warmer coat just inside the door of the house.”

  “You do ride, don’t you?” he asked her.

  “I’ve been on a horse, if that’s what you mean. But whatever you have to tell me, you don’t have to take me for a ride to do it.”

  A man came out of the house just then, wearing a marshal’s uniform. Dana introduced them. DJ could tell that something was worrying him and feared it might have to do with her.

  “Have you had any trouble with the electricity?” he asked Dana.

  “No, why?”

  “Burt came by with the mail and told me he’d seen a lineman on one of our poles. By the time I got here, he was gone. Just thought I’d ask. Burt’s pretty protective, but still, it did seem odd. Maybe I’ll give the power company a call.”

  As Hud drove away, followed by Stacy and Dana and the kids, DJ turned to Beau. “Seriously, we can’t talk here?”

  He smiled and shook his head. “Let’s get saddled up. We can talk about who’s taking whom for a ride once we’re on horseback and high in the mountains.”

  “I’m not going to like whatever it is you need to tell me, am I?”

  He shook his head. “No, you’re not, but you need to hear it.”

  * * *

  WHEN HE’D SEEN Dee Anna and her cowboy saddling up horses, Andrei had known this was the day. Several things had happened that he’d taken as signs. He would have good luck today.

  He’d made arrangements the night before to procure a snowmobile. He’d been stealing since he was a boy and still got a thrill out of it. He’d always liked the danger—and the reward. His father had taught him how to get away with it. He smiled to himself at the memory. He missed his father and hoped that he would make him proud today.

  Andrei felt good. He was going to get his chance to finish this. He didn’t
plan to kill the cowboy, too, but he would if he had to. He could tell that the two felt safe here on the ranch. As they rode toward the mountains behind the ranch house, he smiled to himself.

  Today would definitely be the day. Last night after stealing the snowmobile, he’d traversed the logging roads behind the ranch. He would be waiting for them on the mountain. He had an idea where they would be riding to. He’d seen horse tracks at a spot where there was a view of the tiny resort town of Big Sky.

  He would be waiting for them. One shot. That’s all he needed. He would be ahead of schedule. Still, he wanted to get this over with. He knew that feeling wasn’t conducive to the type of work that he did. But he couldn’t help the way he felt. He was anxious. Once he finished this, he couldn’t wait for the future he’d planned since his first job when he was fourteen.

  His cell phone rang. He ignored it. He could almost taste success on the wind as he climbed on the snowmobile and headed up one of the logging roads toward the top of the mountain behind Cardwell Ranch.

  * * *

  FROM THE WINDOW Marietta watched her granddaughter come up the circular drive and park the little red sports car that had been her present for her thirtieth birthday.

  “She can buy her own car,” Ester had said with disapproval. “She has a job. It would be good for her and mean more to her.”

  Marietta had scoffed at that. “I have no one else to spoil.” Which was true—at least, she’d believed that Bianca was her only granddaughter at the time. “She is my blood.” Blood meant everything in her family. It was where lines were drawn. It was what made Bianca so precious. She was her daughter’s child with a nice Italian man whose life, like her daughter’s, had been cut short.

  At least, that’s what she’d told herself, the thing about blood being thicker than water and all that. But that was before she’d found out her daughter had conceived a child with...with that man.

  Bianca got out of her car and glanced up as if she knew her grandmother would be watching. Her raven hair glistened in the sunlight as her gaze found Marietta at her window. Usually this was where her granddaughter smiled and waved and then hurried inside.