Dark Horse & the Mystery Man of Whitehorse

by B. J Daniels

  He hadn’t been trying to scare her. There was something evil in that house. He’d felt it too many times. But unlike Nikki, he couldn’t leave here. His father needed him. So did his mother.

  He thought of Marianne. He needed to go visit her and tell her about his father’s heart attack. Not that she might hear him, let alone understand. But he felt he owed her that. She had the right to know. He often told her about things going on at the ranch.

  She would rock, holding those horrible dolls, and he would tell her about the horses they’d bought and sold. His mother had always loved horses, loved to ride. It was something she had shared with her husband. Unlike Patricia, who didn’t ride and complained that horses smelled. Kitten was just as bad. Which was fine with Cull. It meant that they never came down to the barns.

  Cull shoved away any thoughts of Patricia as he led the horses out of the barn. Soon he and Nikki would be lost in the wilds of the Missouri Breaks. Just the thought stirred an unexpected desire. Nikki St. James was more dangerous than she realized.

  Fortunately she wouldn’t be with them long.

  Chapter Thirteen

  NIKKI’S MIND WAS still racing with what had happened in the kitchen. The relationship between Frieda and Patricia perplexed her. Why wouldn’t Patricia want her talking to Frieda? What was she worried the cook would tell her? And yet she’d suggested Frieda take her to her quilt group?

  Just her showing up at a crime scene like this was often a catalyst that brought secrets to the surface. Nikki thought of the other books she’d researched and the times she’d uncovered so much that it had almost cost her her life. While that should have been a warning, she knew she had to get Frieda alone so she’d have a chance to talk to her without Patricia being around.

  But right now she had something more troublesome to occupy her thoughts. Getting on a horse and riding off into the wilds with Cull. He took the picnic lunch, stuffed it into a saddlebag on his horse, then grabbed a straw cowboy hat hanging on the wall and dropped it on her head.

  “You’ll be glad you have it, trust me,” he said as he cupped his hands to hoist her up into the saddle. She hadn’t been completely truthful about her experience with horses. Her mother had been deathly afraid of them and had passed that fear on to her. Which was strange, since Nikki’s father had trained horses.

  Sitting high in the saddle, she watched Cull swing gracefully up onto his horse. He gave it a nudge with his boot heels and started out of the corral. For a moment, she thought her horse wasn’t going to move. She gave it a nudge with the heels of her tennis shoes. Nothing. Cull looked back over his shoulder at her. Grinning, he let out a whistle and her horse began to follow him.

  Nikki clung to the saddlehorn, feeling as if she might fall off the horse at any moment.

  “You’ll get use to the rhythm,” Cull said, still grinning as her horse trotted up next to his. “Just relax.”

  “Easy for you to say. You’ve probably been riding since you were born.”

  “Not quite. I must have been close to a year old the first time.”

  They rode out of the corral, past the stand of trees behind the house and into the pasture. Ahead, the land opened into rolling prairie that stretched to the Little Rockies. She could see steep cliffs of rock shining in the sunshine and huge stands of pines.

  “You’re doing fine,” Cull said, his voice gentle. She looked over at him and tried to relax. She had a stray thought. Cull was the kind of man a woman could fall hard for. She watched him run one of his big, sun-browned hands over his horse’s neck, an affectionate caress. She imagined his hand touching her like that and had to look away.

  “It’s beautiful out here,” she said. The afternoon light had an intensity that made the landscape glow. She sat up in the saddle a little straighter, feeling a little more confident. The horse hadn’t taken off at a dead run, hadn’t bucked, hadn’t lain down and tried to roll over, hadn’t ditched her the first chance it got.

  All in all, she thought things were going pretty well—if she didn’t think about the fact that soon she would be entirely alone with the man next to her. The same one she’d heard say he would “take care” of her.

  * * *

  CULL FELT AT HOME in the saddle. He felt the strain of the last twenty-four hours drain from him as they rode toward the Missouri Breaks. What he loved most about this country was the wild openness and the lack of people. He’d read that the population was only .03 persons per square mile out here. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that there were more cattle than humans.

  He glanced over at Nikki. She seemed comfortable in the saddle. He’d chosen a gentle horse for her, one of his favorites. His gaze shifted to the country ahead of them. It dropped toward the Missouri River in rolling prairie, becoming wilder with each mile as they skirted the Little Rockies.

  They didn’t talk as they rode, the sun lounging overhead in a brilliant blue sky filled with cumulous clouds. A faint breeze bent the deep grasses and kept the day cool.

  “What an amazing day,” Nikki said when they stopped near an outcropping of rocks in a stand of pine trees. There was plenty of shade, so Cull thought they could have some lunch here.

  They hadn’t talked on the ride. He had gotten the impression that like him Nikki was enjoying the peace and quiet, something sorely missing on the ranch. But he was smart enough to know it was temporary. He hadn’t forgotten why she was here.

  He watched her push back the straw cowboy hat and squint at him. Even though he knew what was coming, he didn’t care. The warm afternoon sun glowed on her face. She really was stunning in a not-so-classical way.

  Sure she was attractive, but he liked to think he wasn’t the kind of man who could be taken in by looks alone. A part of him admired the hell out of her. The woman had fortitude—that was for sure. He thought of all the journalists who had tried to get stories over the years. Where they’d failed to get a foot in the door, Nikki St. James had the run of the house—and the ranch.

  They ate, both seemingly lost in their own thoughts. He was curious about her childhood, but didn’t want to break the peaceful quiet between them to ask.

  As he was putting away the last of the picnic, she finally brought up the kidnapping. He’d been waiting, knowing she couldn’t possibly not take advantage of the two of them being alone.

  “I need to ask you about that night and even the days leading up to it,” she said almost apologetically. “I’d rather do it out here than back at the house, if you don’t mind.”

  To his surprise, he realized he didn’t. His father had asked him to cooperate, so he would. He’d rather get it over with out here than back at the ranch anyway. He lay back against one of the smooth rocks and looked out toward the Breaks, dark with pine trees and deep gullies.

  “You were seven,” she continued. “I’m guessing the sheriff and FBI didn’t question you at any length.”

  He shook his head. “Because I didn’t know anything.”

  * * *

  NIKKI HAD HOPED after the horseback ride that Cull would be more forthcoming. She wasn’t going to let him put her off. She moved so she could look into his blue eyes, determined to find out what he was hiding.

  “You’ve had years to think about that night. I think you know more than you’ve ever told anyone. I think you’re protecting someone. Your mother?”

  Cull looked away for a moment. “My mother had nothing to do with this.”

  “You know why the sheriff and the FBI believe it was an inside job and that your mother might have been involved,” she said carefully. “A bottle of codeine cough syrup that had been prescribed to your mother was found in the twins’ room. That’s why they speculated that the twins had been drugged to keep them quiet during the kidnapping.”

  “It wasn’t my mother,” Cull said with more force than he’d obviously intend
ed as he turned back to her.

  Nikki heard something in his voice. Fear. “The cough syrup wasn’t just her prescription. Her fingerprints were the only ones on the bottle, but,” she said quickly before he could argue, “maybe the twins weren’t drugged with the cough syrup. Maybe it was left there to frame your mother.”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “Why are you giving her the benefit of doubt?”

  “Because I’ve often found that things aren’t what they seem. If I’m good at anything, it’s realizing that.”

  She saw him waver. “Still, there had to be someone inside the house who had access to the cough syrup and helped get the twins out of their cribs and to the window and the person on the ladder,” he said.

  “Patricia had access to the cough syrup. Maybe she’d given one of you older kids some. Do you remember having a cold or cough?”

  He shook his head. “Are you saying Patty—”

  “Not necessarily. That wing is isolated from the rest of the house and has an entrance and exit just down the stairs from the twins’ room—anyone could have been let in. Someone inside the house could have taken the cough syrup before the kidnapping to frame her.”

  “Exactly. Which brings us back to the same spot. Someone in the house was in on it. Someone let the kidnapper in. Someone got hold of my mother’s cough syrup.”

  “Which is why I need to know what you remember.”

  “I told you—”

  “I know you’re holding something back, Cull.”

  He sat up and for a moment she thought he might get up to leave. But instead, he settled again, then snapped, “You’re a mind reader now?”

  “No, I just know that often when people are afraid, it’s because they know something that they fear will hurt someone they love. You and your mother were close, weren’t you?” Cull still visited his mother. She knew that from her visit with Tess at the mental hospital. “Isn’t it time that you told someone what you saw that night?”

  He looked away. A muscle jumped along his strong jawline.

  “What is it that you’re so terrified I’m going to find out?” Nikki demanded.

  Cull didn’t move. “Why did you have to come here?”

  She heard such anguish in his voice that it broke her heart, but she said nothing, waiting.

  “I saw my mother.”

  Relief flooded her. “That night?”

  He nodded as he returned his gaze to her. He looked resigned and she wondered if a huge weight hadn’t come off his shoulders. She knew only too well what secrets could do to a person.

  “It was earlier that I saw her. She’d just come out of the twins’ room,” he said as if seeing it all again. “She looked right through me. It was as if she didn’t see me until I spoke.”

  “Is it possible she was sleepwalking?”

  He seemed surprised by the question. “She did walk in her sleep and had since she was a child, which according to the doctor implied a neurological problem that had gone undiagnosed. But to me, she seemed completely out of it. Now I wonder if she wasn’t in shock.”

  “You think she’d already been to the nursery and found the twins missing?”

  “I don’t know.” Cull shook his head before leaning back against the rocks where they were sitting. “I saw her walk down the hallway. I followed her, afraid she might hurt herself. I didn’t think to check on the twins.”

  She heard the naked guilt strain his voice. “You were a child. It wasn’t your place—”

  As if he’d said all this to himself already and not believed it, he said, “If my mother was in on the kidnapping, then maybe the twins were already gone. Or maybe that’s when she gave the twins the cough syrup. It wasn’t much later that the twins were found missing. If I had told someone, they might have caught the kidnapper before he could get away with them.”

  Nikki considered that for a few moments, her heart aching at the guilt she saw in his face. “You said you followed your mother that night?”

  “She must have heard me behind her, because she stopped and told me to go back to bed. That everything was going to be all right. She said she was going for a swim.” His blue eyes shone with unshed tears. “Do you see why I have kept that to myself all these years? It only makes her look more guilty since we know the kidnapper was in the pool house that night after the twins were taken.”

  She knew that the FBI agents were convinced that Marianne had met her co-kidnapper in the pool house that night and that the swim had just been a ruse.

  Nikki gave him a few moments before she asked, “What were you doing in the hallway that night?”

  He frowned as if he’d never asked himself that question. “I was looking for Ledger. When I woke I looked into this room and saw that he wasn’t in his bed. He had a habit of wandering around the ranch at night. I had gone looking for him.”

  “Did you go outside?”

  He shook his head. “That’s when I heard Patty screaming. She was standing outside the twins’ room screaming that they were gone. My first thought was that my mother had taken them somewhere, which was terrifying enough given the way she was acting. The way she had been acting since their births.”

  “It was speculated that she was suffering from postpartum depression.”

  He nodded. “She kept saying she was fine but something was definitely wrong. She seemed confused a lot of the time and complained of not feeling well, but when my father took her to the doctor, he couldn’t find anything wrong with her.”

  Nikki knew that he’d just described his father’s recent condition. They’d all just assumed it was over the anniversary of the kidnapping just as they’d assumed Marianne’s was postpartum depression.

  “Did you see anyone else in the hallway that night?” Nikki asked.

  “Everyone came out of their rooms after they heard Patty screaming and ran down to the nursery. I just remember Dad going past.”

  She stared at him. “But you didn’t go.” She saw it on his handsome face, the anguish, the fear, the regret.

  He shook his head. “Somehow, I knew the twins were gone and something horrible had happened. I was terrified that my mother had done something to them.”

  “What about your brothers Ledger and Boone? When did you see them?”

  Cull frowned again as if picturing it in his mind. “Boone came out of his room, but I don’t remember seeing Ledger until later.”

  From what Patty had told her, there was a good chance that Ledger had been out roaming the ranch that night. Three was old enough to remember in some instances. Nikki herself could remember things that had happened at that age. Maybe Ledger remembered something. But hadn’t been old enough to realize that what he’d seen at the time had been the kidnapper.

  * * *

  “ENJOY YOUR RIDE?” Patricia demanded when Cull came into the house, Nikki at his side. “Your father is being released from the hospital. Ledger and Boone have gone in to pick him up. I wanted to go, but you know how they can be.”

  The woman picked nervously at the suit jacket she was wearing. “I want everything to be perfect when he gets here.” Her gaze shifted to Nikki. “I think it would be better if she wasn’t here.”

  “Patricia—”

  “I don’t care what your father wants at this point. He could have died. All this is too upsetting for him. He needs his rest.”

  Cull shook his head. “I talked to the doctor this morning. Dad is doing well. In fact, his health has improved since he’s been in the hospital or the doctor wouldn’t be releasing him.”

  “I just don’t want him upset,” she said, holding her ground.

  “Well, sending Nikki away would upset him, since he was very specific about that.”

  The woman let out a sigh. “Fine, but if she kills him, don’t blame me.” With t
hat, she turned and stormed off toward the kitchen.

  Cull cursed under his breath. “That woman is going to be the death of all of us.”

  Nikki watched her go, thinking again of the symptoms that both Marianne and Travers shared—although twenty-five years apart. The common denominator was that both had been living in this house at the time.

  Well, she’d done what she could by going to the sheriff. Now it was in McCall Crawford’s hands.

  “I think I’m going to go rest for a while,” she said, looking at the time.

  Cull nodded as if he thought it was a good idea for her to be away when his father arrived back at the house.

  The horseback ride had been wonderful, but she felt sunburned and tired. While glad Travers was being released, she worried about what he was coming home to, given her suspicions.

  Surely, if she was right, no one would try to harm him now. Nikki had been afraid that Travers would change his mind about letting her stay here for the book. Fortunately he apparently hadn’t. She couldn’t help feeling bad for him. When she’d seen him collapse, it brought home just how serious this was. She didn’t want to inflict any more pain on this family than it had already been through.

  She’d seen Cull’s pain earlier when he’d told her what he’d seen that night. Like what Patricia had remembered and told her, it was another piece of the intricate puzzle. There were still so many pieces missing, though. Worse, she hated what the final picture would reveal. Maybe her grandfather was right and she was too emotionally involved in this one.

  She walked toward the pool house. The wind had come up. It whipped the branches of the cottonwood trees, lashing the new green leaves against the glass. Past the trees, she saw the horses running, their manes and tails blowing back as they cavorted in the deep green of the pasture. She thought about Cull and his brothers and their obvious love for the horses they raised. The reminder of Cull’s hand gently stroking the mare’s neck sent a shiver through her.