CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH

by B. J Daniels

“Just a precaution. Sleepwalking and night terrors at your age are fairly uncommon and could be the result of a neurological disorder.”

  She’d laughed after she left his office. “He thinks I’m crazy.” She’d been amused at the time. Back then she hadn’t been sleepwalking or having the nightmare all that often.

  Unfortunately that was no longer the case. Not that she worried about it all that much. So what if she got worse? It wasn’t as though she was going anywhere, and everyone here already thought she was half-crazy.

  So, Spark. How would you say you’re dealing with prison life?

  In her mind’s eye, she smiled at her pretend interviewer. “I exercise, watch my diet and, oh, yes, I have Hate. It keeps me going. Hate and The Promise of Retribution, they’re my cell mates.”

  Tell inquiring minds. Who’s at the top of your hate list and why?

  “It’s embarrassing actually.” Camilla thought about the first time she’d laid eyes on Marshal Hud Savage. The cowboy had come riding up on his horse. “Do you believe in love at first sight?” she asked her fictional interviewer. “Then I have a story for you.”

  * * *

  “YOUR FATHER SAYS he didn’t get a good look at the intruders,” Marshal Hud Savage told Tag later that night at the hospital.

  “How is that possible? They beat him up. He had to have seen them.”

  “What makes you think it was more than one man?” Hud asked.

  “The tracks in the snow. There were three different boot prints. I’m assuming one pair was Harlan’s.”

  Hud nodded. He seemed distracted.

  Tag felt that same sick feeling he’d had earlier today when he witnessed his father with the marshal. “Harlan didn’t mention anything when the two of you talked just after noon today?”

  Hud frowned. “Why would Harlan—”

  “You didn’t see my father earlier today? I thought he said he was stopping by your place to talk to you.”

  The marshal’s eyes narrowed before he slowly shook his head. “Harlan told you that? Maybe he changed his mind.”

  Hud had just lied to his face. “I must have misunderstood him.” Tag felt sick to his stomach. What the hell was going on? “I hope you’re planning to find who did this to him and why.”

  “I know my job,” Hud snapped. “Look,” he said, softening his tone. The marshal appeared tired, exhausted actually, as if he hadn’t had much rest for quite a while. “When your father is conscious, maybe he’ll remember more about his attackers.”

  It angered him that Hud was trying to placate him. “If he comes to.” Harlan had fallen into a coma shortly after the EMTs had arrived to take him to the hospital. What if he didn’t make it?

  “Harlan’s going to be all right,” Hud said. “He’s a tough old bird.”

  Tag hoped Hud was right about that. His cell phone rang. He checked it, surprised to see that the call was from Lily McCabe.

  “Excuse me,” he said, and stepped away to answer it. “Hey.”

  “I think it’s in code.” Lily sounded excited.

  “Code?”

  “The letters on that thumb drive, I think they’re two lists of names.”

  “Names?” A call came over the hospital intercom for Dr. Allen to come to the nurses’ station on the fourth floor, stat.

  “I’m sorry. Did I catch you in the middle of something?”

  “I’m at the hospital. Someone ransacked my father’s cabin and beat him up.”

  “Is he all right?” She sounded as shocked as he felt right now.

  “The doctor thinks he’s going to recover. He’s unconscious. The marshal is here now.” He looked down the hall and saw that Hud was also on his cell phone. Tag wondered who was on the other end of the line. Uncle Angus?

  “Did he tell you that Mia Duncan’s condo was also ransacked?”

  It took Tag a moment to realize she was referring to the marshal—not Harlan or Angus. “No, he didn’t mention that.” Another reason not to trust Hud—as if he needed more.

  “That’s odd. First Mia’s condo is ransacked and she’s murdered, then your father’s cabin and he gets beaten up. This is Montana. Things like that just don’t happen.”

  Apparently they did. “That is odd,” he said. First Mia’s, now his father’s place? Had Harlan come home and surprised his intruders? Or had they torn up the place after they tried to kill him?

  “I’m sure there’s no connection.”

  “Yeah.” He didn’t want to see a connection to his father and the murdered woman, but the coincidences just kept stacking up. “So you say those letters are actually names?” He knew he sounded skeptical.

  “I have only started decoding them, but yes, they appear to be names. I can’t really explain it over the phone. But I thought you’d want to know right away.”

  He glanced down the hall. Hud was still on his cell phone, his back turned to Tag. What if Mia had put that computer thumb drive in his pocket last night?

  “I want to see what you’ve found.” More than she could know.

  “You’re welcome to come up to my place when you’re ready to leave the hospital.”

  “Give me your address. I’ll come over as soon as I can, if that’s all right.”

  She rattled off an address on Sky-High Road up on the mountain. “It’s at the end of the road.”

  As he disconnected, he saw the doctor coming down the hall. “Harlan is conscious,” he said to the marshal, then looked in Tag’s direction. “He’d like to see his son.”

  Hud started to say something, but the doctor cut him off. “He said he’ll talk to you after he talks to his son.”

  Tag walked down the hall and pushed open the door into his father’s hospital room. Harlan looked as if he’d been hit by a bus, but he was sitting up a little and his gaze was intent as he watched Tag enter.

  “You gave me a scare,” Tag said as he stopped at the end of his father’s bed.

  “Sorry about that.” Harlan’s voice was hoarse. He was clearly in pain, but he was doing his best to hide it. “The marshal will catch the little hoodlums. How times have changed. They’re targeting old people now for our prescription drugs.” He chuckled even though it clearly hurt him to do so.

  “Whoever beat you up, they weren’t after your arthritis medicine,” Tag said evenly. He couldn’t believe how angry he was at his father for continuing to lie to him. “What were they really looking for, Dad?”

  His father’s expression hardened. “Stay out of this, son. That’s why I wanted to see you. I want—”

  “That woman who was at your cabin was Mia Duncan, wasn’t it?”

  Harlan sighed. “I told you. I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  Tag shook his head and tried to still his growing anger. “You just keep lying to me. What business is Uncle Angus away on?”

  “Why are you asking me that?”

  “Because the two of you are inseparable. You can finish each other’s sentences. You have to know where he’s gone and why.”

  “I guess what I should have asked is why is it any of your business?” Harlan said, an edge to his voice.

  Tag pulled off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair as he tried to control his temper. “I know something’s going on with the two of you, and it has to do with that woman who was murdered. Angus owns a snowmobile and he knows those old logging roads behind the ranch. You own snowmobiles yourself. I would imagine the two of you have been all over that country behind the ranch. Is it drugs? Is that the business you’re in that gets your cabin torn up and you beat up and in the hospital?”

  His father let out a sigh. “Do you realize what you’re saying?”

  “You lied to me. At the bar, I saw you watching the door. You were expecting Mia. You were shocked when I told yo
u she was dead. That’s why you didn’t ask who was killed. Because you knew.”

  “This conversation is over.” He reached for the buzzer to call the nurse.

  Tag stepped to the side of the bed and caught his father’s arm to stop him. “Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me I’ve got it all wrong.” He hated the pleading he heard in his voice.

  His father met his gaze. “You have it all wrong.”

  “Then you don’t mind if I keep digging into her death.”

  “Leave the investigating to the people who are trained for it. Please, son. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  His father had already hurt him by not being in his life. But did he really believe Harlan Cardwell was...what? A drug dealer? Worse, a killer?

  He met his father’s steely gaze. “Then tell the truth.”

  “Stay out of this, Tag. It isn’t what you think.”

  “I hope you’re right—given what I’m thinking.”

  Harlan closed his eyes. “Tag, I need you to go back to Texas.” When he opened them again, Tag saw a deep sadness there. “This isn’t a good time for a visit. Please. Go home. Don’t wait until after Christmas. If you don’t—”

  The door opened and the doctor came into the room. Harlan looked away.

  “If I don’t leave... What are you trying to tell me?” Tag demanded of his father. “That if I continue digging in your life I’ll end up like that woman you don’t know?”

  “I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “Did I interrupt something?”

  “No. My son was just leaving,” Harlan said. “Please don’t tell your mother about this. I’ll call you in a few days in Texas.”

  “Don’t bother. I’ll see you before then,” Tag said, and left.

  * * *

  “YOU HAVE TO tell him the truth,” Hud said after the doctor had left.

  Harlan looked up at him from the hospital bed. “You know I can’t do that.” He motioned to the pitcher of water on the bedside table, and the marshal poured him a glass.

  “He’s your son,” Hud persisted. “He isn’t going to stop. That damned stubbornness seems to run in your family.”

  Harlan took a drink of water and handed back the empty glass. “I need you to persuade him to go back to Texas.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that happening. He seems to know that you stopped by the ranch earlier today.”

  “How would he know that?” Harlan shifted in the bed and grimaced in pain.

  Hud shook his head. “He knows and he’s suspicious as hell of both of us.”

  “Have you heard anything from Angus?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  “I tried to warn Mia....” Harlan looked away.

  “She knew what she was getting into.”

  “I warned her what could happen if she got too close to the truth.” Harlan turned back to him. “You didn’t find anything?”

  “Nothing. If she had it, then whoever killed her took it. Tag said she was drunk when he saw her at the bar.”

  “She had to be pretending to be drunk, maybe so she could leave early and not be stopped. Or maybe they got to her somehow.” Harlan gently touched his bruised and swelling jaw. “We still don’t know who was waiting for her outside the bar?”

  “All Tag could tell us was that it appeared to be a dark-colored pickup and the driver was wearing a cowboy hat. I could take him in to look at mug shots.”

  Harlan quickly shook his head, then groaned in regret for doing it. “I need my son kept out of this. Do whatever you have to to make that happen.”

  “I can’t very well arrest him without a reason to charge him.”

  Harlan closed his eyes. “You’ll think of something. He seems hell-bent on finding out the truth. You know what’s at stake. Stop him.”

  * * *

  IT BEGAN TO snow as Tag left the hospital. He felt shaken as he slid behind the wheel of his rented SUV. What were his father and the marshal involved in? A cover-up regarding Mia Duncan’s murder? Lily had said that Mia’s condo had been ransacked. Clearly, whoever was behind this was looking for something.

  He feared he knew what. Worse, that Lily had it.

  As he watched large snowflakes drift down through the lights of the parking lot, Tag suddenly realized how late it was. But he couldn’t stand the thought that Lily was in danger if that thumb drive was what the killers were looking for.

  He started the SUV, still debating what to do because of the late hour and the snowstorm. Was it possible that Lily was right and Mia had put the thumb drive in his pocket? Why would she do that? Why give it to a complete stranger? Unless she knew she had to get rid of it quick?

  With a start, he was reminded again of what she’d said.

  “You look like him.”

  Had she known he was Harlan’s son?

  Tag shook his head. She’d been drunk or high on drugs. She hadn’t known what she was saying. He thought of his father. He couldn’t believe Harlan and Angus were drug dealers. And yet he didn’t really know them. He especially didn’t know his father, and the way things were going, he doubted he ever would.

  His heart began to beat a little faster as he threw the SUV into Drive. Lily had the computer flash drive. If there was even a chance she was in danger... He drove by his father’s cabin and got a pistol from Harlan’s gun cabinet. He told himself he was just being paranoid.

  As he headed toward Big Sky, he drove as fast as he could. He couldn’t help being worried about Lily up in the mountains all by herself. He tried to assure himself that she was safe. No one knew she had the thumb drive.

  His mind kept going back to last night in the bar and Mia, though. He remembered the way she’d clutched his jacket. She could have put the thumb drive in his pocket. Now she was dead. His father was in the hospital. And the killers were looking for something. It was too much of a coincidence that he’d found the thumb drive in his pocket. And now Lily thought she’d discovered the information on the computer USB was two lists of names in some kind of code?

  Ahead, the road to the summit was a series of switchbacks that climbed from the river bottom to nearly the top of twelve-thousand-foot Lone Mountain. The snow fell harder the higher he drove. He had to slow down because of the limited visibility.

  His mind was still whirling as he passed Big Sky Resort and left behind any signs of life. Up here, there was nothing but snowy darkness. He still couldn’t get his mind around what was happening. His father was involved in whatever was going on, and so was the marshal, and he was betting his uncle Angus was, as well.

  Harlan had said it was a bad time for a visit. No kidding. He was determined that Tag return to Texas. Hell, Harlan had almost threatened him, insinuating that if he stayed, it could be dangerous. Would be dangerous.

  Heart racing, he reached into his pocket for his cell phone to call Lily. He had to make sure she was all right and to let her know he was almost to her house.

  But as he started to place the call, he glanced in his rearview mirror, feeling a little paranoid. You’re not paranoid if someone is really after you, he thought as he noticed a set of headlights behind him.

  He watched them growing closer. The driver behind him was going too fast for the conditions and gaining on him too quickly. Tag looked around for a place to pull over, but there was only a solid snowplowed wall on one side of the road and a drop-off on the other.

  Giving the SUV more gas, he sped up as he came out of a curve. Ahead was another curve. He could feel the glare of the headlights on his back, glancing off the rearview mirror and his side mirrors. The vehicle was almost directly behind him.

  Tag told himself that the driver must be drunk or not paying attention or blinded by the falling snow. Unless the person behind the wheel was hoping to make him crash.

  He tried to shake o
ff even the thought. He wasn’t that far from the road up to Lily’s house. Suddenly the headlights behind him went out.

  Glancing in his mirror again, he was shocked to find the vehicle gone. Had the driver run off the road? Or had he turned off? There had been a turnoff back there....

  Ahead, Tag saw the sign. As he turned, he looked back down the main road. No sign of the other vehicle. Breathing a sigh of relief, he drove on up the narrow, snowy road. Wind whipped snow all around the SUV. He had his windshield wipers on high and they still couldn’t keep up with the snow.

  The road narrowed and rose. He knew he had to be getting close. He thought he caught the golden glow of lights in a house just up the mountain. His fear for Lily amplified at the thought of her alone in such an isolated place.

  A dark-colored vehicle came out of the snowstorm on a road to his right. He swerved to miss it and felt the wheels drop over the side of the mountain, the SUV rolling onto its side. His head slammed into the side window. He felt blood run into his eye as the SUV rolled once more before crashing into a tree.

  Chapter Seven

  The snowstorm blew in with a fury. Inside the house, Lily could hear the flakes hitting the window. It sounded like the glass was being sandblasted.

  She shivered and checked her watch as she went to put more logs on the fire. Tag said he would come as soon as he could. She told herself he’d probably been held up by the storm. She just hoped he would be able to get up the road.

  Her house sat by itself on the side of the mountain, far from any others. The road often blew in with snow before the plows made their rounds. Since she didn’t usually go to work at her brother’s bar until the afternoon, it hadn’t ever been a problem.

  But tonight, she was anxious to show Tag what she’d come up with so far and she worried since there had already been some good-size drifts across the road when she’d looked out earlier.

  She’d worked trying to decode the random letters until her head ached. What if she was wrong? What if this was nothing? But she was convinced that there were two lists of names. She’d gotten at least a start on the code, making her more assured that she was on the right track.