by B. J Daniels
She checked to make sure Tess wasn’t watching as she snapped a photo of the woman in the rocker. The flash lit the room for an instant and made a snap sound. As she started to take another, she thought she heard a low growling sound coming from the rocker.
She hurriedly took another photo, though hesitantly, as the growling sound seemed to grow louder. Her eye on the viewfinder, she was still focused on the woman in the rocker when Marianne McGraw seemed to rock forward as if lurching from her chair.
A shriek escaped her before she could pull down the camera. She had closed her eyes and thrown herself back, slamming into the wall. Pain raced up one shoulder. She stifled a scream as she waited for the feel of the woman’s clawlike fingers on her throat.
But Marianne McGraw hadn’t moved. It had only been a trick of the light. And yet, Nikki noticed something different about the woman.
Marianne was smiling.
Chapter Two
WHEN A HAND touched her shoulder, Nikki jumped, unable to hold back the cry of fright.
“We have to go,” Tess said, tugging on her shoulder. “They’ll be coming around with meds soon.”
Nikki hadn’t heard the nurse’s aide enter the room. Her gaze had been on Marianne McGraw—until Tess touched her shoulder.
Now she let her gaze go back to the woman. The white-haired patient was hunched in her chair, rocking back and forth, back and forth. The only sound in the room was that of the creaking rocking chair and the pounding of Nikki’s pulse in her ears.
Marianne’s face was slack again, her mouth open, the smile gone. If it had ever been there.
Nikki tried to swallow the lump in her throat. She’d let her imagination get the best of her, thinking that the woman had risen up from that rocker for a moment.
But she hadn’t imagined the growling sound any more than she would forget that smile of amusement. Marianne McGraw was still inside that shriveled-up old white-haired woman.
And if she was right, she thought, looking down at the camera in her hand, there would be proof in the photos she’d taken.
Tess pulled on her arm. “You have to go. Now. And put that camera away!”
Nikki nodded and let Tess leave the room ahead of her. All her instincts told her to get out now. She’d read that psychopaths were surprisingly strong and with only Tess to pull the woman off her...
She studied the white-haired woman in the rocker, trying to decide if Marianne McGraw was the monster everyone believed her to be.
“Did you let Nate Corwin die for a crime he didn’t commit?” Nikki whispered. “Is your real accomplice still out there, spending the $250,000 without you? Or are you innocent in all this? As innocent as I believe my father was?”
For just an instant she thought she saw something flicker in Marianne McGraw’s green eyes. The chill that climbed up her backbone froze her to her core. “You know what happened that night, don’t you,” Nikki whispered at the woman. In frustration, she realized that if her father and this woman were behind the kidnaping, Marianne might be the only person alive who knew the truth.
“Come on!” Tess whispered from the hallway.
Nikki was still staring at the woman in the rocker. “I’m going to find out.” She turned to leave. Behind her, she heard the chilling low growling sound emanating from Marianne McGraw. It wasn’t until the door was closed and locked behind her that she let out the breath she’d been holding.
* * *
TESS MOTIONED FOR Nikki to follow her. The hallway was long and full of shadows this late at night. Their footfalls sounded too loud on the linoleum floor. The air was choked with the smell of disinfectants that didn’t quite cover the...other smells.
Someone cried out in a nearby room, making Nikki start. Behind them there were moans broken occasionally by bloodcurdling screams. She almost ran the last few feet to the back door.
Tess turned off the alarm, pushed open the door and, checking to make sure she had her keys, stepped out into the night air with her. They both breathed in the Montana night. Stars glittered in the midnight blue of the big sky overhead. In the distance, she could make out the dark outline of the Little Rockies.
“I told you she wouldn’t be any help to your story,” Tess said after a moment.
Nikki could tell that the nurse’s aide couldn’t wait until her last day at this job. She could see how a place like that would wear on you. Though she’d spent little time inside, she still was having trouble shaking it off.
“I still appreciate you letting me see her.” She knew the only reason she’d gotten in was because the nurse’s aide was getting married, had already given her two weeks’ notice and was planning to move to Missoula with her future husband. Nikki had read it in the local newspaper under Engagements. It was why she’d made a point of finding out when Tess worked her last late-night shifts.
Nearby an owl hooted. Tess hugged herself even though the night wasn’t that cold. Nikki longed for any sound other than the creak of a rocking chair. She feared she would hear it in her sleep.
“I heard you tell her that you were going to find out what happened that night,” Tess said. “Everyone around here already knows what happened.”
Did they? Nikki thought of Marianne McGraw. Her hair had turned white overnight and now she was almost a corpse. The only man who might know whether the rumors were true, Nikki’s own father, was dead.
“What does everyone believe happened?” she asked.
“She was having an affair with her horse trainer, so of course that’s who she got to help her get rid of the babies,” Tess said as she dug in her pocket for a cigarette. “I’m trying to quit. Before the wedding. But some nights...”
Nikki watched her light up and take a long drag. “Wait, why get rid of the babies? She still had three other sons.”
“I guess she figured they’d be fine with their father. But babies... Also they needed the money. Easier to kidnap a couple of babies than one of the younger boys who’d make a fuss.”
“Still, they didn’t have to kill them.”
“The horse trainer probably didn’t want to be saddled with two babies. Not very romantic running away together with the money—and two squalling babies.”
That was the story the prosecution had told that had gotten her father sent to prison. But was it true? “I thought he swore he didn’t do it.”
She scoffed. “That’s what they all say.”
Nate Corwin, according to what Nikki had been able to find, had said right up to the end when they were driving him to prison that he didn’t do it. Maybe, if the van hadn’t overturned and he wasn’t killed, then maybe he could have fought his conviction, found proof... Or maybe he’d lied right up until his last breath.
“But I thought it was never proven that he was even Marianne’s lover, let alone that he helped her kidnap her own children?” Nikki asked.
The nurse’s aide made a disbelieving sound. “Who else was there?”
“I’d heard the nanny might have been involved.”
“Patty? Well, I wouldn’t put it past her.”
This caught Nikki’s attention. “You know her?”
The nurse’s aide pursed her lips as if she shouldn’t be talking about this, but fortunately that didn’t stop her. Anyway, she’d already broken worse rules today by sneaking Nikki into the hospital.
“She accompanies her husband most of the time. You can tell Patty doesn’t like him visiting his ex-wife,” Tess said. Nikki got the impression that Patricia McGraw also didn’t like being called Patty.
“She won’t even step into Marianne’s room,” the nurse’s aide was saying between puffs. “Not that I blame her, but instead she stands in the hallway and watches them like a hawk. Imagine being jealous of that poor woman in that room.”
“I also heard that Traver
s McGraw himself might have been involved,” Nikki threw out.
Tess shook her head emphatically. “No way. Mr. McGraw is the nicest, kindest man. He would never hurt a fly, let alone his own children.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially even though they were alone at the back of the hospital and there was only open country behind them. “He hardly ever leaves the ranch except to come here to see his now ex-wife—that is until recently. I heard he’s not feeling well.”
Nikki had heard the same thing. Maybe that was why he’d agreed to let her interview him and his family for the book.
When Nikki had first approached him, she had expected him to turn her down in a letter. The fact that she’d made a name for herself after solving the murders in so many of her books had helped, she was sure.
“You seem to have a talent for finding out the truth,” Travers McGraw had said when he’d called her out of the blue. He’d been one of just three people she’d contacted about interviews and a book, but he’d been the one she wanted badly.
That was one reason she’d tried not to sound too eager when she’d talked to him. McGraw hadn’t done any interviews other than the local press—not since a reporter had broken into his house and scared his family half to death.
“I work at finding the truth,” she’d told him, surprised how nervous she was just to hear his voice.
“And you think you can find out the truth in our...case?”
“I want to.” More than he could possibly know. “But I should warn you up front, I need access to everyone involved. It would require me basically moving in for a while. Are you sure you’re agreeable to that?”
She’d held her breath. Long ago she’d found that making demands made her come off as more professional. It also shifted the power structure. She wasn’t begging to do their story. She was doing them a favor.
The long silence on the other end of the line had made her close her eyes, tightening her hand around the phone. She had wanted this so badly. Probably too badly. Maybe she should have—
“When are you thinking of coming here?” Travers McGraw asked.
Her heart had been beating so hard she could barely speak. “I’m finishing up a project now.”
“You do realize it’s been twenty-five years?”
Not quite. She’d still had two weeks before the actual date that the two babies had been stolen out of the nursery and never seen again. She wanted to be in the house on anniversary night.
“I can be there in a week.” She’d crossed her fingers even though she’d never been superstitious.
“I’ll take care of everything. Will you be flying to Billings? I can have one of my sons—”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll be driving.” Though she was anxious to meet his sons. But the only other way, besides driving to Whitehorse, was to take the train that came right through town.
“I hope you can work your magic for us,” McGraw said. “If there is anything I can do to help...”
“We’ll talk when I get there. It would be best if no one knew I was coming. I’m sure in a small town like Whitehorse, word will get out soon enough.”
“Yes, of course.”
She’d left a few days before she’d told him she would be arriving. She’d wanted to see Marianne McGraw and get a feel for Whitehorse before she went out to the ranch. Once word got out about her, she would lose her anonymity.
Tess put out her cigarette in the dirt.
“If Travers McGraw is so devoted to the mother of his children, then why did he marry the nanny not long after his divorce?” Nikki asked, hoping to get more out of Tess before she went back inside.
“It was nine years after the kidnapping. I heard Patty showed up with a baby in her arms and a sob story. He’s a nice man so I guess he was taken in by it.” Tess definitely didn’t like Patricia McGraw.
“A baby? Was it his?”
Again Tess shook her head stubbornly. “He adored his wife Marianne. He still does. Who knows whose baby Patty brought back with her.”
“So what are the chances that nanny Patty had something to do with the kidnapping?”
Tess raised an eyebrow as she looked anxiously toward the back door of the hospital. “She got the husband, didn’t she? Everyone says she married him for his money since there’s a pretty big difference in their ages and she wouldn’t have wanted Marianne’s babies to raise. She has her hands full with her own child. Talk about a spoiled brat.”
Nikki wondered what had brought the nanny back to the ranch after almost ten years. What if Patty Owens knew something about the kidnapping and Travers McGraw had married her to keep her quiet? But then why wait all those years?
“It certainly does make you wonder, huh,” Tess said as she reached for the hospital keys. But she hesitated before she opened the door. “Something horrible had to have happened that night to turn her hair white. Something so horrible she can’t speak.”
“Something other than having her babies kidnapped?” Nikki asked.
Tess shuddered. “I try not to think about it. But if she was in love with the horse trainer...” She leaned toward Nikki and said conspiratorially, “What if she killed the babies before she dropped them out the window?”
Nikki felt a chill race through her. That was something she’d never considered. From what she’d read about the case, it was believed that someone—Marianne, according to the prosecutor—had given the babies cough syrup containing codeine so they would be quiet. Maybe she’d given them too much.
Her head ached. She’d thought of little else but this case since she’d stumbled across the old newspaper clippings in her mother’s trunk and learned about her father, Nate Corwin—and the McGraw kidnapping.
At first she hadn’t understood why her mother would have kept the stories. That was until she recognized the man in the photograph. The photo of him had been taken on the day Nate Corwin was convicted.
“I always wondered why if you loved my father, you didn’t keep the Corwin name since you were legally married, right?” she’d asked her mother, and had seen horror cross her features.
“Why would you ask—” Her mother had never remarried but had gone back to her maiden name, St. James.
“You told me my father died.”
“He did die.”
“You just failed to mention he died on the way to prison for kidnapping and murder.”
“He didn’t do it. He swore he didn’t do it,” her mother had cried. She was convinced that her husband hadn’t been involved with Marianne McGraw nor had anything to do with the kidnapping, let alone the double murder of two innocent babies.
But someone had. And if not her father, then someone had let him be convicted and die for a crime he hadn’t committed.
Nikki was determined to get to the truth no matter what it took. She had just short of a week before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the kidnapping to get the real story. Travers desperately wanted her to do the book. It was the family she was worried about.
She’d been thinking about how to get close to at least one of the sons before she headed for Sundown Stallion Station and met the rest of the McGraws.
If there was one thing she believed it was that the people in that house had more information than they’d given the sheriff twenty-five years ago. They just might not realize the importance of what they’d seen or heard. Or they had their reasons for keeping it to themselves.
“So how did you get into writing crime books?” the nurse’s aide asked as if putting off going back down that long hallway by herself.
“It’s in my blood,” Nikki said. “My grandfather was a Pulitzer Prize–winning newspaper reporter. From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be just like him.”
“He must be proud of you,” Tess said almost wistfully.
Nikki nodded
distractedly. Proving herself to her grandfather was another reason she would do whatever it took to get the real kidnapping story—or die trying.
Chapter Three
CULL MCGRAW PUT down the windows on his pickup as he drove into Whitehorse. It was one of the big sky days where the deep blue ran from horizon to horizon without a cloud. In the distance, snow still capped the top of the Little Rockies, and everywhere he looked he saw spring as the land began to turn green.
Days like this, Cull felt like he could breathe. Part of it was getting out of the house. He just felt lucky that he’d intercepted the newspaper before Frieda, the family cook, had delivered it on the way to the kitchen.
He didn’t need a calendar to know what time of the year it was. He had seen the approaching anniversary of the kidnapping in the pained look in his father’s eyes. He could feel it take over the main house as if draping it in a black funeral shroud.
Every year, he just rode it out. The day would pass. Nothing would happen. No one would come forward with information about the missing twins. Another year would pass. Another year of watching his father get his hopes up only to be crushed under the weight of disappointment.
What always made it worse was the age-progression photographs in the newspaper of what Oakley and Jesse Rose would look like now and his father’s plea for any information on them.
Ahead, he could see the outskirts of the small Western town. Cull sighed. He should have known there would be a big write-up in the paper, since this would be the twenty-fifth anniversary. He glanced over at the newspaper lying on the seat next to him. He’d read just enough to set him off. When would his father realize that the twins were gone and would never be coming back? Knowing Travers McGraw the way he did, Cull knew his father would hold out hope until his last dying breath.
But this year, the publisher of the paper had talked his younger brother Ledger into an interview. As he drove down the main drag, he spotted Ledger’s pickup right where he knew it would be—in front of the Whitehorse Café.
