Just His Luck

by B. J Daniels

  “You saw Ariel leave.”

  “Tore out like a bat out of hell and didn’t bother to look back.”

  Lizzy nodded and got to her feet. “You’ll be at the reunion at the guest ranch?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Now how about giving me some information on the investigation?”

  She walked toward the door, then stopped to turn back. “How was it that you ended up at Progressive?”

  The question seemed to catch him flat-footed. “I didn’t fit in at the regular high school. The jocks took offense that I breathed the same air they did. I got tired of having my head stuffed in toilets. It’s an old story.”

  She wondered if that was all there was to it.

  “There was one other thing,” he said as if he’d been saving it. “At the time, it didn’t seem important. My mother complained that one of her knives was missing from the kitchen. Now I’m thinking the killer might have taken it to cut the ski rope in my garage and maybe use it to get Ariel to drive to the pond?”

  She studied him. He’d been holding on to this information from the moment he heard about Ariel’s body being found. Or maybe longer.

  “But you didn’t see anyone in or around her car but Ariel.”

  “I’m telling you everything I know.” He held up his hands. “I’m doing my best to help you. How about reciprocating and telling me something I can print about the murder investigation?”

  “It’s continuing,” she said over her shoulder as she left. “I’ll have one of my deputies pick up the yellow water ski rope from your garage.”

  Walking toward her patrol SUV, she saw something fluttering on her windshield. The piece of paper had been stuck under the wiper blade on the driver’s side.

  Touching as little of it as possible, she pulled the torn piece of paper out and read:

  Don’t act like you’re above all this. You were no better than Ariel. I’d watch your back if I was you or you’ll end up in that same pond.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  HIS EMOTIONS ALL over the place, Shade returned to the ranch. Right now he welcomed any distraction from the thought of the DNA appointment that afternoon. He had no idea what he would do if it turned out that Maisie wasn’t his. Or if Maisie was his, he thought. What would he do? What had Hannah come here looking for? Marriage?

  He shook his head. He wouldn’t marry a woman he didn’t love even for his own adorable daughter. Though, just the thought of Maisie made him realize that there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for her—if she was his daughter.

  All he knew for sure was that he’d never be the same. If Maisie was his, he didn’t know what kind of relationship they could have or what kind of connection Hannah would be comfortable with. But surely she wouldn’t have come here to tell him this news unless she wanted him to have a relationship with his daughter, right?

  What if Hannah didn’t know who Maisie’s father was and had come here trying to solve the riddle? That thought rattled him. Maybe she’d had other lovers around the same time he’d been with her.

  Desperately needing a distraction, he headed straight to his area of the house, glad that he hadn’t encountered any of his family or Dorothea on the way. As he entered the living area, he saw the disk next to the computer, right where he’d left it. He picked it up and pushed it into the drive. Was he ready for this on top of everything else? Bracing himself, he hit Play. His computer screen flickered and went dark. Nothing happened for a few moments.

  He was asking himself why Ariel would have left him a blank disk when the screen flickered again and he heard grunting before he saw what appeared to be a man’s bare back filling the screen. His heart slammed against his ribs. It was dark in the room, but he didn’t need to see to know where this had been recorded or what was happening.

  It was Ariel’s bedroom. The camera must have been set up in her closet. He didn’t recognize the man nor could he see the woman in the dim light. But he could see the edge of the bed and what appeared to be the lower half of a woman’s dress discarded there. He’d seen that fabric before. It was Lizzy’s favorite dress. His heart thundered in his chest. He listened to the man’s labored grunts as he finished and reached down to pull up his pants.

  Shade saw the tattoo on his forearm an instant before the screen went black.

  Shade watched until there was nothing more. He ejected the disk, sick to his stomach. He’d recognized the tattoo. He knew that man.

  * * *

  LIZZY COULDN’T HELP being a little spooked after finding the typed note and recalling what had happened not quite twenty-four hours ago up on the mountain. Her head and neck still ached from being rammed by the old-model sedan. She didn’t need another threat.

  Lizzy looked around the parking area but didn’t see anyone lurking nearby. She felt a shudder as she climbed into her patrol SUV, even though she knew this kind of thing often went with the job. She had deputies trying to track down the car that had T-boned her, but so far nothing.

  After arresting Stephanie Curtis Tanner, Lizzy expected the deputies would find something that implicated the blonde. It seemed too much of a coincidence that Stephanie had broken into the lodge and taken photographs and not been the person who’d wrecked Lizzy’s SUV later that evening.

  But at the same time, the threat to kill her the same way Ariel had died didn’t seem to go with whoever had T-boned her on the road from the guest ranch. Whoever had crashed into her had been serious. No warning at all.

  She had read the description of how Ariel had probably died from the coroner. She couldn’t imagine what the young woman had gone through her last minutes in that sinking car. She wondered if the killer had enjoyed watching her die.

  Back at her office, she had the note checked for fingerprints and wasn’t surprised when there weren’t any. Unlike Stephanie with the photos, this person had known not to leave any evidence behind.

  Why leave the threat on her windshield? They had to know she wasn’t going to stop her investigation. All she could think was that someone was worried about what she would discover.

  “Ace,” she said as the deputy walked past her office. She hadn’t wanted him involved in this case. But they were short staffed and she didn’t want to put this off. Plus it was something she thought he could handle. “I need you to check on something for me.”

  He stepped in, clearly reluctant, clearly belligerent. She wanted to tell him to knock it off, but decided the best way to handle this was to pretend nothing was wrong. She was the sheriff. Period.

  “What do you need, Lizzy?”

  Okay. “First off, I’m Sheriff Conners. Second, I need you to check all the surveillance cameras around the local newspaper office. See if my car is on any of them in the last couple hours. Specifically, I’m looking for the person who left a note on my windshield.”

  Ace smirked. “Got a nasty note about you being sheriff?”

  “No, I received a death threat from a possible killer.”

  He blinked. “Ariel Matheson’s killer?”

  “Please get right on this. Thank you.” She looked at the papers on her desk until he left. She’d known he was going to be a problem since he ran against her for the election—and it was clear he didn’t like working for a woman. He might as well adjust to it because the world was changing and quickly. Women were coming into their own across the country. Maybe Ace hadn’t heard.

  She had more important things to worry about than the deputy though. She saw she had a message from Catherine Warner with Ariel’s doctor’s name and a note saying Catherine had told the doctor to provide whatever information Lizzy needed.

  Lizzy picked up the phone and made the call. To her surprise she was put right through to Dr. Henry Dodd, the same doctor who’d delivered Lizzy.

  “I’m pretty sure I know why you’re calling,” Dr. Dodd said after a few moments of chitchat.

&
nbsp; “Was Ariel pregnant?”

  “Six weeks along.”

  So definitely not Shade’s. “She didn’t mention the father, did she?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “One more question. Did she seem happy about the pregnancy?”

  “Not at all. She was quite upset and quickly got on her phone to someone.”

  “I’m guessing you overheard the conversation.”

  Silence, then a sigh. “It’s been ten years so I don’t remember exactly. But she said something like, ‘This is all your fault. Watch it, or I might just keep this baby. You know what that would mean...’ I’m sorry I don’t know anything else. I only saw her that one time about the pregnancy.”

  Lizzy thanked him and disconnected. Ariel had been pregnant with someone’s child. A man who’d wanted to remain a secret. What if she’d threatened to keep it, something she clearly knew the father of the baby didn’t want? Another motive for murder. But who was the baby’s father? Who feared the truth would come out?

  Her first thought was Christopher. She called the cell phone number he’d given her. “Did you know Ariel was pregnant when she died?”

  “What?”

  “Was it your baby?” she asked.

  Silence, then a low laugh followed by a curse. “No, it wasn’t mine.”

  “What would you have done if it had been?” Lizzy asked.

  No hesitation this time. “I would have married her.”

  She disconnected and sat for a moment, thinking. There had always been too many secrets, her own included. Ariel traded in secrets, cashing in as needed. Step out of line and she just might slip and tell someone what she knew.

  Lizzy feared this was only the beginning of the secrets that would be revealed before she was finished with this murder case. She sighed. Ariel was gone but definitely not forgotten. The young woman had been malicious to so many people. No wonder Lizzy felt a little overwhelmed when she even thought about who might have wanted the woman dead.

  She leaned back in her office chair. She had a pretty good idea what had happened that night. The killer had been in the back of Ariel’s SUV waiting for her. It was so dark that night that she wouldn’t have noticed even if she hadn’t been drunk and blind with anger. She hadn’t been in any shape to notice anything. Lizzy knew for a fact that Ariel never locked her car. She’d always joked that someone would have to be a fool to steal the car of the state attorney general’s daughter.

  Lizzy had seen Ariel storming away from the party toward the pines where her car was parked, with Shade chasing after her. They’d argued and Shade said that he’d left. Ariel must have then realized that Brad’s car was blocking her in and gone to get him to move it. Brad had said that he didn’t see anyone else when he’d moved his car.

  He’d said that once he did, she’d taken off like a bat out of hell, as he’d put it. The killer had to already be in the back of her car without her noticing. That night the wind was whipping the tops of the pines, a thunderstorm looming. The night had been dark and Ariel had been in a state. And she’d parked in the trees where it had been even darker. Ariel would have left and headed toward home, which meant she would have driven in the direction of the Sterling Ranch—and the pond.

  All the killer had to do was wait until the perfect moment. Before Ariel reached the turnoff to the subdivision where she lived back in the hills, the killer would have popped up, threatened her with the knife from Brad’s kitchen and instructed her to keep going the half mile up the road to the pond.

  The killer had the rope and must have already planned to tie Ariel’s wrists to the steering wheel.

  Lizzy thought of Stephanie locked up in jail. If Stephanie was the killer, Ariel would have thought she was joking. At first. How would Stephanie have been able to tie Ariel’s wrists to the steering wheel without putting down the knife? She could have used a drug on her. A roofie or something like it.

  But if true, then Stephanie had planned the murder and brought the drug with her to the party. Lizzy’s head ached. She had too many questions and few answers.

  The police would have taken Stephanie home—and not back to the party after her DUI arrest. Mark Matheson wouldn’t have been driving after the close call with the DUI either. Stephanie could have still come back to the party. Her parents were always out of town so they wouldn’t have known about the arrest.

  At the party, she could have climbed into the back of Ariel’s car. But then how did she get to the cemetery later that night? From the pond, it would have been a short walk. If she kept to the trees, she wouldn’t have been seen. So she could have pulled it off.

  Lizzy called Ashley. “How did Stephanie get to the cemetery to meet you and Jennifer that night?”

  It took the woman a moment. “I’m trying to remember. I think she said she had someone drop her off after she got the text.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  SHADE WATCHED THE recording again, this time with the sound off. He had to be sure of what he’d seen. When it ended, he popped out the disk and picked up his phone. Lizzy’s phone went straight to voice mail.

  “Ariel left me something. Her mother gave it to me. We need to talk.” He disconnected and, putting the disk and T-shirt back into their box, headed out the door. He couldn’t sit around waiting for her call. He had time to do a few things before his three o’clock appointment and he knew he’d go crazy if he didn’t keep busy.

  Also the reunion would begin tomorrow at the guest ranch. He had to be ready no matter what was going on in his personal life. Dorothea had hired two young women to take care of getting the cabins ready. The kitchen had been stocked. Buckshot’s leg had healed after he’d broken it last spring and he had been more than ready to come back to work for the weekend.

  Basically, everything was ready. Shade needed to pick up the portable screen for the digital slideshow and double-check with Ashley about the awards she wanted given out, and talk to Christopher about the beverage order. He’d said he could get the liquor at cost from a friend’s bar.

  Shade pulled up to Ashley’s, hid the box under his jean jacket on the passenger seat and hopped out of his truck. He knocked at the front door of her place and then tried the knob. Last time he’d talked to her, she’d said to swing by today. He hoped she hadn’t forgotten. When the door swung open and he stepped in, he assumed she’d left it unlocked for him. Perhaps the portable screen and awards were just inside.

  He froze at the sound of laughter. A female’s laughter followed by a male’s. Ashley had made a point of telling him that her husband had international flights all week and wouldn’t be at the reunion. Maybe his piloting schedule had gotten changed.

  Then he heard a voice he recognized. Not her husband’s. And from the sound of it, the speaker was headed his way. Shade swore under his breath. He really didn’t need this today.

  * * *

  LIZZY COULD FEEL time slipping away. Worse, she was no closer to proving that Stephanie had killed Ariel. What she had so far felt too thin. She needed someone to put Stephanie back at the party when Ariel left. Christopher had seen a shadow in the back of Ariel’s SUV. Lizzy needed more than that.

  Kayla Harrison lived with her invalid mother down by the river outside of Columbia Falls. Fifteen minutes later, Lizzy pulled up in her drive. The house was surrounded by thick vegetation that gave it an eerie, haunted look. It was clear that the place had been neglected since Kayla’s father died.

  Her parents had been in their late forties when they adopted Kayla. Her father had died when Kayla was eleven and now Lizzy had heard that her mother wasn’t doing well.

  Climbing out, she walked down a rock path to the front door, feeling like Gretel without her Hansel. That made her think of Shade. She felt a stirring at the thought of seeing him this weekend. All weekend. But knowing she’d be on a mountainside with a possible killer in the mix did take some of the
romance out of it.

  Her knock was answered almost immediately. Kayla must have heard her drive up. She’d also probably been expecting her.

  “Lizzy,” the dark-haired woman said on a ragged breath. “I just put my mother down for her nap. Come in.” She stepped aside to let her enter.

  The house was cool and dark but neater than Lizzy had expected with Kayla being a full-time caregiver for her mother.

  “Would you like something to drink? I have tea.”

  She shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

  Kayla offered her a chair in the kitchen. “It’s more comfortable in here than the living room. I don’t want to wake Mom.”

  “How is she doing?”

  “She has good days and bad. This is one of the bad.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Kayla picked at a loose thread in the tablecloth. “Do you know who killed Ariel?”

  “No, but I’m trying to find out. You were at the party graduation night,” Lizzy said. She remembered seeing her planted on the couch watching everyone like a fly on the wall. In so many ways, Kayla had been like that at school, as well. She was small, quiet and nondescript, a shy girl who barely spoke their senior year. Kayla moved through her classes like a dark ghost, but she was always watching, missing little.

  “Did you see Ariel leave that night?” Lizzy asked.

  Kayla shook her head. “I was in the house.”

  “But you must have heard the commotion outside.”

  “Ariel yelling at Brad.” The woman nodded.

  “Who was in the house during that time?”

  Kayla seemed to think about that for a moment before shaking her head. “No one. I think everyone had gone outside. Brad had set up the beer keg in the garage along with the stereo.”

  “Who did you see outside?”

  Kayla shrugged. “Jennifer and Ashley. I think Josh and Christopher were already in the garage by then.”