by B. J Daniels
“Is that what you’re afraid of? Or is there a reason you don’t want the truth to come out? Maybe some secret of your own?”
Something flickered in those deep blue eyes, but he quickly hid it. “I had just turned seven years old.”
“Plenty old enough to remember that night. Maybe remember more than you’ve ever told anyone.”
She thought she saw him flinch as if she’d hit too close to the truth. “I’ve found that often family members know more than they want to tell. They’re covering for someone or they’re worried what will happen if they tell.”
Cull shook his head. “I’m just worried about my family and what you’re about to do to it.”
“You could help me.”
He shook his head. “Have you not heard a word I’ve said?”
“Your father needs to know what happened that night. Can’t you see that?”
Cull let out a low curse. “He already knows what happened.”
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t believe your mother had anything to do with the kidnapping. Nor do I believe Nate Corwin did.”
He looked surprised. “Then who?”
She cocked a brow at him. “That’s what I’m going to find out. With your help.”
“Sorry, but there isn’t anything to find. You’re wasting your time. Worse, you’re giving my father false hope.”
“What if hope is the only thing keeping him alive?”
“I almost feel sorry for you,” Cull said. “You start digging in the past and all you’re going to do is stir up more trouble than even you can handle.”
“That almost sounds like a threat.”
He shrugged. “Just remember. I tried to warn you.” He turned toward the door. Over his shoulder he said, “Dinner’s ready.”
“I’m going to find out the truth with or without your help,” she called to his retreating backside.
He stopped in the doorway to look back at her. “Let me know when you have it solved because I’ve spent years trying to figure out what happened that night and I was actually in the house. I heard Patty’s screams. I still hear them.”
* * *
NIKKI STARED AT HIM. The man threw her off balance. She would have to be very careful around him, she thought just an instant before the sound of high heels could be heard making a noisy, angry tattoo in the hallway as they approached.
They both looked toward the doorway as Patty McGraw appeared. Nikki heard Cull curse under his breath.
“What are the two of you doing in here?” Patricia demanded. She looked from her stepson to Nikki and back. “You brought her in here, Cull? What is wrong with you and the rest of this family?”
“She found her way on her own,” he said, his hooded gaze taking in Nikki again. “I dropped her suitcase in my room where Kitten put her.”
“You have no business in here,” Patricia chided her as if Nikki were a child in a china cabinet. “If Travers caught you in here...”
“He gave me permission to—”
“He shouldn’t have done that.” Patricia motioned frantically for Nikki to leave. “This room, this entire wing, is off-limits. I’ve had your things moved downstairs to the pool house.”
“The pool house?” Cull said with an arch of one eyebrow.
Nikki shot him a puzzled look as she tried to understand why he seemed amused by this.
Cull shook his head in disapproval at his stepmother. “The pool house will allow her to have the run of the entire ranch while the rest of us are asleep in our beds.”
“Well, what did you expect me to do with her?” Patricia demanded. “Your father wouldn’t hear of putting her up in a motel in town or better yet sending her back where she came from.”
Nikki wanted to remind them that she was still in the room. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“Oh, please,” Patricia said, spinning on her heels. “Everyone knows what you’re really about. You aren’t the first one who’s come here wanting to satisfy your morbid curiosity.”
“I hope to help.”
The woman’s laugh could have shattered crystal. “Help?” She seemed to be choking on laughter. “You’ve thrown the entire house into turmoil. You call this helping?”
Nikki could feel Cull’s keen gaze on her. She rubbed at the painful spot on her temple, still surprised she’d hit as hard as she had. She really was lucky she hadn’t been hurt worse or killed.
“Cull will show you to the pool house after dinner.” With that, Patricia made a rude sound and stormed away.
Her leaving the room, though, didn’t cool the heated anger in it. Nikki could feel it coming off Cull in waves.
“This must give you great pleasure, this front-row seat into our family drama,” Cull said through clenched teeth.
“The kidnapping has been a lot of stress on your family for twenty-five years,” she pointed out.
He smiled at that. “You think?” His intense blue gaze seemed to drill into her skull as he locked eyes with her. “You know all about us, though, don’t you? I suspect you knew who I was when you stepped in front of my pickup. That you’ve known everything about this family for some time.”
She lifted her chin a little higher. There was no reason to deny it. He’d seen through her stunt. She could have mentally kicked herself. Hadn’t she known that Cull was the wrong person to cross?
“You know so much about us and yet we know so little about you,” he was saying. “It makes me wonder why you chose our...tragedy for a book.” When she didn’t respond, he continued. “Well, seems you’re going to be our guest for a while. Until you get what you need.” His deep, soft voice reverberated through her. While Ledger had seemed impossibly young and innocent, Cull was anything but. This was a man not to be fooled with.
“But I have to wonder what a woman like you needs,” he finished, his voice so low and so seductive that it felt like a deep, dark well drawing her in. “I have to wonder just how far you will go.”
Nikki swallowed and asked, “Has anyone been staying in the pool house? I don’t want to put them out of their lodgings.”
Cull’s smile filled her with dread. “The pool house has been empty since the night of the kidnapping. It’s where an item from one of the twins’ beds was found. Apparently, the kidnapper and accomplice met there before at least one of them disappeared with the twins.”
A chill rattled through her. Nikki hugged herself. That information hadn’t been in any of the research she’d done on the case. It was the kind of thing that the FBI held back. What item had been found in the place where she would be staying? That meant that at least one of the kidnappers had been in that building that night. Her father? Marianne? Or someone in this house right now?
“You should be quite comfortable there since the place has its own set of ghosts,” Cull assured her. “It’s far enough away from the house that you won’t be able to hear my father and stepmother arguing and yet no one will hear you should you run into trouble and need help. I’ll try not to be too far away though. For your own sake. Wouldn’t want you to have another...accident. How is your head by the way?”
She ignored the sarcasm laced with accusation. “The aspirin helped, thank you.” Picking Cull had definitely been a mistake. Why had she thought he would be more helpful to her if he thought he’d almost killed her? From the look in his eye, he was wishing he hadn’t braked.
“So you and your brothers live...”
“I would imagine you saw our cabins from the twins’ window.”
She had seen what looked like cabins set back in the trees some distance from the house. “You really are afraid of the ghosts,” she only half joked.
His handsome face grew serious. “You think I’m joking? We’ll see how you feel in a few days.”
Chapter Eight
AS NIKKI AND Cull descended the stairs, Ledger came out of his father’s office.
“I don’t believe you’ve met our houseguest,” Cull said to his brother. “This is Ms. Nikki St. James, the famous true crime writer.”
Ledger had clearly already heard about her, Nikki thought. He shook her hand warily.
“Patty has decided our guest would be more comfortable in the pool house,” Cull said.
Ledger looked surprised, but added, “Whatever makes Patty happy.”
“I need to make a quick call. Why don’t you show Nikki to the dining room,” Cull said.
“I’m glad we finally get to meet,” she told the young man.
“You realize we’re all shocked that our father would hire you.”
“He didn’t hire me. He’s just giving me access to the ranch and the family so I can write about the kidnapping and hopefully uncover what really happened that night. I hope you’ll help me.”
Ledger let out a nervous laugh. “Me? I can’t imagine how I could help. I was three.”
“You might be surprised what you remember,” she said, making him appear even more nervous. She quickly changed the subject. “I’m afraid I’ve upset your stepmother.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as they walked toward the back of the house. “She’s often upset over something.”
“She caught me in the nursery.”
He slowed so he studied her. “Oh. No one is allowed in that wing except the housekeeper, and even Tilly hates to go in there. The nursery is exactly as it was twenty-five years ago. My father insisted it be left that way. At first so that no evidence was lost. He was convinced that the FBI and local law enforcement would find the twins. Later it was left because he couldn’t bear to change it.”
“How awful for your family.”
“Yes,” he agreed as they reached the dining room. “Not to mention the glare of the media over the years. You can’t believe the extremes some reporters will go to in an attempt to get a story.”
She felt her face heat at his words.
“That’s why I’m surprised my father opened the doors to you. Here we are,” he said.
Stepping through the dining room doorway ahead of Ledger, she saw that Patricia and Travers were having a muted discussion in the far corner. At the center of the room was a huge cherrywood table and chairs that seemed to dwarf the large room. Kitten was already seated, and so were two men she didn’t recognize.
Nikki felt a draft move across the back of her neck and shivered as it quilled the tiny hairs. She turned, expecting... Not sure what she expected to see. One of the ghosts?
* * *
THAT NIGHT AT DINNER, the sheriff told her husband about the woman who Cull McGraw had nearly run down. “I think it was staged. Too much of a coincidence that she steps in front of a McGraw pickup when she’s on her way to the house anyway. But unfortunately, no one in the café saw anything.”
“You have a very suspicious mind,” Luke said, looking up from his meal. “What do you think she’s after?”
“Supposedly, she’s there to write a book about the McGraw kidnapping for the twenty-fifth anniversary.”
“That sounds reasonable. I’m sure you checked her out.”
McCall nodded. “She was born Nikki Ann Corwin.”
“Corwin—why does that name ring a bell?”
“Because her father was Nate Corwin, the man who was convicted of the kidnapping,” she said. “I can’t help but wonder if Travers McGraw knows that.”
“No wonder you’re suspicious.” He reached over onto Tracey’s high chair to drop more finely chopped beef roast. She’d named her daughter after her father, Trace Winchester.
Tracey beat the high-chair tray with her spoon for a moment before laughing, then, ignoring the spoon, began eating the beef with the fingers of her free hand.
McCall smiled at her daughter. She never got tired of watching her, fascinated by the simple things the child did. She’d been so afraid of motherhood and hadn’t admitted it until she was nine months pregnant.
Luke had talked her into taking a three-month leave while she decided if she wanted to be a stay-at-home mother or keep her job as sheriff.
“It’s whatever you want,” he’d told her. “I know you can do both. It’s up to you.”
McCall was glad she’d taken the time off. She loved being with her baby, but she also loved her job. She’d been afraid he was wrong and she really couldn’t have both.
“I think I might drive out to the Sundown Stallion Station in the morning,” she said as she straightened her daughter’s bib and was rewarded with a huge toothy smile.
Being a game warden with the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, Luke was trained and served as an officer of the law. She didn’t have to tell him why this year in particular, the McGraw kidnapping was on her mind.
“I have the day off tomorrow,” he said. “Pepper’s invited us out for lunch. Ruby’s going, too.”
McCall lifted a brow in surprise. “My mother and grandmother at lunch together? We need to get Tracey a bulletproof vest.”
He chuckled as he rose to pull their daughter out of her high chair. “Probably a good idea.”
The sheriff had to smile. That her mother and grandmother could be in the same room together and not kill each other was nothing short of amazing. For years Pepper Winchester hadn’t acknowledged that McCall was even her granddaughter because of her dislike for Ruby.
Ruby had married Pepper’s favorite son. Pepper had believed that Ruby had trapped Trace by getting pregnant and had wanted nothing to do with her—or the baby she had been carrying. Until a few years ago, McCall hadn’t known anything about that side of her family, since her father had disappeared before she was born.
She’d never even laid eyes on her grandmother who’d become a recluse after Trace’s disappearance. Nor had she known why Pepper Winchester wanted nothing to do with her. Her mother, Ruby, certainly hadn’t been a wealth of information.
Then McCall, who’d been working as a deputy back then, had stumbled onto an old shallow grave. In the grave was proof of her father’s identity. Everyone had thought that he’d left town, run out on her and her mother. Finding his remains had brought more than his murder to light.
It had opened up a world to her that had always been a mystery. McCall would never forget the first time she’d seen the Winchester Ranch—let alone met her grandmother Pepper. It had changed all of their lives.
“Give my regards to Pepper tomorrow,” she said now. “I’m sure she understands why I can’t make lunch.”
“Your grandmother loves that you’re sheriff. You know she would have been disappointed if you had quit.”
McCall did know that. She just hoped her grandmother didn’t have an ulterior motive for inviting them to lunch. It wouldn’t be the first time Pepper had something going on that she didn’t want the law involved in.
As her husband began to get their daughter ready for bed, McCall felt a shiver. Just the thought of the kidnapping sent a spike of cold terror through her. She couldn’t imagine losing her daughter. It was no wonder Marianne McGraw had lost her mind and was now locked away in the mental hospital.
McCall had been a child herself at the time of the kidnapping, but she’d heard stories about it and read both the newspaper accounts as well as the police file on it.
The FBI had been called in almost at once and taken over the case, but from what she’d read about the investigation, there had been several suspects, including the babies’ own mother, Marianne. But it had always seemed that the dalliance between the stable manager, Nate Corwin, and Marianne McGraw had been conjecture without any solid evidence.
The person who’d testified about the affair had been the nanny, Patricia Owens�
��now Travers McGraw’s second wife.
It was speculated that Nate and Marianne had come up with the kidnapping of the twins for the ransom money. Nate Corwin was a mere horse trainer. Marianne had no money of her own. What they’d planned to do with the twins after they collected the ransom was unknown since neither had confessed. Marianne had gone into shock. Nate had denied his involvement right up until his death.
McCall knew what it was like to fall so deeply in love that you could lose all perspective. But she shuddered at the thought that a mother would jeopardize the lives of her babies for money and a man. Any man.
* * *
TRAVERS SAW NIKKI as she entered the dining room, and said something quietly to his wife before greeting her. “I don’t believe you’ve met our attorney. Jim Waters, this is the woman I told you about,” Travers said.
The attorney was fiftysomething with thinning brown hair and small brown eyes. He turned awkwardly, a deep frown burrowing between his brows, and held out his hand. His handshake was limp and slightly damp, and his eyes didn’t meet hers.
“And this is Blake Ryan, our former ranch manager and a close friend.”
Blake was about the same age as the other man, but unlike Waters, he was distinguished and cover-model handsome. His dark hair had grayed at the temples, bringing out the steel of his gray eyes. His handshake was strong and he met her gaze with both suspicion and wariness.
“Why don’t you sit over here by me,” Travers said to her after making the introductions. He didn’t need to tell her that both men had some concerns about her being here.
She’d just sat down when she heard the sound of boot soles on the wood floor. She sensed rather than saw Cull enter the dining room because she kept her gaze averted. She didn’t glance over at him as he took a chair next to his father, directly across from her.
Suddenly the room felt too small. She took a shallow breath and dared to look at him. His gaze was on her, those blue eyes drilling her to her chair.
Ledger had taken a seat down the table next to Kitten, who looked far too happy, all things considered, since she hadn’t gotten to go into town yet.
