“Did she say anything about leaving town?”
“Leaving?” The surprise was evident in her friend’s voice. “She’d just arrived. She couldn’t wait to see you.”
“She left before I arrived. She left a note saying all was fine, that she just needed to get away for a few days.”
“That’s odd,” Terri said. “She seemed so eager to see…” Her voice trailed off.
“Did she seem distracted at all? Nervous?”
“No. I think I would have noticed.”
So whatever had frightened her away happened between three and probably midnight.
“Where are you?” Terri asked.
“Not far.”
“I want to see you.”
Sam wanted to see her, too. She wanted to hear everything that her mother had said, but not in Western Wonders.
“Is Helen there?”
“Yes.”
“Take Jupiter to our favorite place. I’ll meet you there in an hour. Make sure you’re not followed.”
A pause. Then, “If someone does, I have some big brothers who will take a gun to them.”
The comment reminded Sam about her own brother. Her newly discovered brother. It should be a time of rejoicing. Not of terror. Not filled with this terrible uncertainty. Was she putting Terri in jeopardy, too?
She started to say she’d changed her mind, but Terri had hung up.
She didn’t call back, though. Now all she had to do was leave town without anyone seeing her. Not McLean. Not whoever was watching.
She always thought better outdoors. And she trusted Terri. Terri was the only person who hadn’t lied to her— either by commission or omission—or tried to use her. Sam knew she could no longer see the forest for the trees. Maybe Terri could.
She looked at her car. McLean had seen it. Someone else might have seen it, too, and planted some electronic gizmo while she and McLean…
She went to the garage where she had much of her mechanical work done. They always gave her a loaner. She left the car around the side and went inside. “There’s a noise in the car. It’s a rental, and I have to drive it back to Denver. Can you take a look at it?”
“For you, anything,” said Harry, the owner, with a grin. “Want the eyesore?”
“Yep,” she said. “I have a few errands.”
He pulled some keys off a nail and handed them to her.
The loaner didn’t look like much, but it was in superb running condition. She’d discovered that long ago.
Praying she wasn’t outsmarting herself, she drove the car through the busy summer traffic of Steamboat. It was getting more and more popular, and the traffic seemed thicker than usual. Suddenly aware she hadn’t eaten in the past twelve hours, she stopped at a fast food restaurant and ate a hamburger and fries.
It was time to head out toward Terri’s ranch.
Before reaching it, she took a side road, then a dirt road into a heavily forested area. No one was behind her. She was sure of it.
Not the bad guys. Or the good guys.
She was alone.
Berating himself for trusting Samantha, Nate returned to Western Wonders after an unfruitful trip to her mother’s home, only to find the gallery empty except for an elderly woman who apparently was in charge. She was talking to a customer.
He was convinced Sam would show up at the gallery sooner or later. He also suspected the pretty woman he’d questioned knew more than she’d said.
He glanced around, searching for Samantha even as he noted the paintings and sculptures situated around the spacious showroom. His gaze roamed over the walls and then the sculptures artfully displayed. He readily recognized a Remington, but not the others. Nate didn’t know much about art but he knew these were good. There was an illumination—a play of light and shadows—that lifted most of them out of the ordinary.
He’d been in too much of a hurry earlier to notice.
The customer left and he went over to the older woman who gazed at him with open curiosity.
“I’m looking for Miss Carroll,” he said.
“Oh, yes, I saw you earlier. You haven’t found her yet?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. But I think she was just talking to her friend.”
“The young lady who was just here?”
The woman nodded. “Terri Faulkner. She and Sam are good friends.”
“Sam?”
“Oh, we all call her Sam.” The woman paused.
Sam. It didn’t seem to fit her. She was too feminine. And yet maybe it did. The independence. The confidence.
Confident enough to elude him and strike out on her own.
She’d outwitted him. She’d been too compliant, and that had not gone along with everything else he’d observed about her. So he should have known better, but he thought there had been a moment or two when he was gaining her trust. Obviously, he’d never been more wrong.
She was in trouble. She’d tried to look unconcerned when she’d come down the stairs, but she’d been tense, the way people were when they’d received bad news. He’d thought he could coax it from her.
Some fool he. She obviously didn’t trust anyone now, and he couldn’t blame her. “Where does Miss Faulkner live?” he asked.
She gave him directions and he went back to his car.
He could go to the local police, but then he would be jerked back to Boston on the next plane. He would be opening a can of worms that he knew Samantha wasn’t ready to deal with.
He headed for the Faulkner ranch.
It was better than sitting on Samantha’s front stoop.
Sam felt some of the tension drain from her as she neared the meeting place. The fresh air, the mountains, the blue sky were exactly what she needed to clear her mind.
She had parked the borrowed car about half a mile from a wide spot in a stream that meandered down from the hills. It was a place where she and Terri had picnicked and was the only safe site that had immediately come to mind.
She had to talk to someone whose only loyalty was to her. She had to let Terri know what was happening in the event she disappeared or was killed.
She gave a half laugh at how easily she thought in terms of disappearing or being killed.
It shouldn’t be real. It shouldn’t be real. But it was.
Sam considered taking the revolver with her, but she’d been in such a hurry she hadn’t purchased a holster. Terri wouldn’t have brought saddlebags, and Sam really didn’t want a pistol tucked in her slacks when she was riding. Besides, this country should be safe enough. They would be on Faulkner land.
She locked it in the glove compartment, then locked the car.
Terri appeared on her horse Pal Joey. She was leading Jupiter, Sam’s usual mount when they rode together, Sam mounted the horse and settled into the saddle.
Terri studied her for a moment. “You look terrible.”
“Thanks.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Keep your distance, my friend. I don’t want you hurt.”
“You think I might be?”
“I’m not sure whether Mother disappeared of her own free will.”
Terri didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Have you called the police?”
“I’m not sure she wants me to.”
“Oh, Sam.”
“My brother was shot in Boston,” Sam blurted out.
Terri’s usually smiling face became grave.
“The bullet was meant for me. Nick was shielding me.”
Sam could hear her friend’s gasp. She nudged Jupiter into a walk. Terri followed. They headed toward the pasture area.
“And the FBI agent?” Terri asked.
“He wants to talk to my mother.”
“Does he know she’s disappeared?”
Sam nodded. “I asked him not to call the police… or to pursue it right now.”
“Why would he do that? Not contact the police, I mean.”
“He wants something from me.”
“He seemed like a nice guy.”
“He’s been after the Merrittas for years. Nick says he would do anything to destroy the family. He might try to use my mother.”
Terri halted her mount. “Do you really believe that? For God’s sake, Sam, he’s FBI.” Then her gaze sharpened. “You like him,” she said.
Sam knew a rosy flush was spreading over her face.
“I can’t accept his help,” she said. “He was at my house. I received a call from a man saying he knew the agent was there. He told me to get rid of him or my mother would be hurt. Don’t you see? I might be killing my mother…”
“What does he think about your mother’s disappearance?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell. He’s hard to read. I never quite know what he’s thinking.”
“But you want to trust him.”
“It’s his agenda I worry about. In any case, if I help him or let him help me, I’m betraying my brother. They hate each other. And my brother saved my life. Twice.” She hesitated. “But so did the agent.”
Terri blinked. “What do your instincts tell you about this man?”
Terri had always had a way of getting to the core of things. Sam’s instincts said to trust him completely, to put hers and her mother’s safety into his hands. But they also said to trust Nick. The two were incompatible.
“He said his name was McLean,” Terri said. “What’s his first name?”
“Nathan, and he’ll be asking you more questions.”
“I’m forewarned,” Terri said. “What should I tell him?”
Terri’s loyalty was that deep, that complete. Sam suddenly realized she had put Terri in an untenable position.
She was enmeshed in a web that had no escape. By going to Boston, she might well have put her mother into danger, and now she was putting Terri in legal and physical jeopardy.
The chill that was becoming all too familiar was intensifying despite the warmth of the afternoon. “Don’t lie,” she finally said.
Terri looked miserable.
A blast broke the silence. Sam’s horse lurched and neighed, then broke into a panicked gallop. A seasoned rider, Sam clenched her legs around the horse’s sides and leaned forward, fighting the urge to saw on the reins. It took what seemed an eternity to gain control of the horse’s direction.
“The woods,” Terri yelled, but Sam had already turned Jupiter in that direction. They would have some protection there. Jupiter crashed through the trees, mindless of the branches whipping both his rider and himself. The ground was rough, full of rotting logs and rabbit holes. She heard Terri right behind her.
Please don’t let anything happen to Terri or to the horses.
Jupiter slowed as the underbrush became thicker, but Sam had to duck to keep low branches from knocking her from the saddle.
They reached the stream. Jupiter shied and neighed plaintively. Sam slipped off and looked at him. Terri was there beside her, and both of them saw blood on Sam’s horse. “A bullet graze,” Sam said. “I don’t think it’s serious, but we have to get back to the ranch.”
Terri looked bewildered. As bewildered as Sam had felt the first time a bullet came close to her.
“Dammit,” Sam said. “I didn’t mean to put you, or the horses, in danger.”
“It’s you I’m worried about,” Terri said.
“No. Everyone I’m close to seems to be in danger. I didn’t think—”
“You think they came all the way out here?” Terri demanded. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why they would pursue and attack me anywhere. I thought—”
“They?”
“I don’t know who ‘they’ are,” Sam said. “The Merrittas? I don’t know who else it could be. But why? I told them I didn’t want anything. I thought when I left…”
“Did your father leave you anything? Could it be money?”
“I don’t think so. The will is to be read later this week. I thought if I came home, let them all know I didn’t want anything, that it would all be over.”
“What about your brother?”
“He doesn’t want anything to do with them, either.”
“You believe that.”
“Yes.” She tried to sound sure of herself. She was sure of herself. “Anyway, the less you know, the better off you are.”
“Don’t start that nonsense,” Terri said. “If you and I— and the animals—are in danger, I need to know why.”
“It could be a hunting accident,” Sam said even as she wondered why she’d make such a stupid remark. Self- denial? Overload? She didn’t know. She did know she hadn’t fooled Terri. The fact was that once more, someone had tried to kill her.
And instead they’d struck a helpless animal.
She took his reins. “Let’s get him back,” she said. “Later—”
“We can’t go back the way we came,” Terri said. “Look, I have a cell phone with me. I’m going to call Dan. He’ll get my brothers out here.”
“What if—”
“No one could have followed you after that ride,” Terri said.
“I’m beginning to wonder whether there’s any safe place.”
Terri stared at her. “How many times have they attacked you?”
“Three. This makes four.”
“Either you’re very lucky, or they’re not trying very hard,” Terri said. She paused, then asked, “How much did you tell your mother the last time you talked to her?”
Sam jerked around. She’d always admired Terri’s analytical mind. “Very little.”
“Maybe they thought you would tell her, scare her into reappearing. Wasn’t she in hiding until she heard your father died? Maybe someone wanted to use you to make her do something.”
Why had she not thought of that? Had her fear been planted, cultivated, harvested?
Terri was working with the phone. “Blast,” she said. “I’m not getting anything.”
Another blast echoed through the aspens. The horses shied away.
Sam felt the shock of being hit, then pain.
Terri was wrong. This time they hadn’t wanted to miss.
twenty-three
“There’s a contract out on Samantha Carroll and her mother,” Gray said urgently.
Nate had called after checking his cell phone and finding seven numbers there, four from Barker and three from his partner. Soon, he thought, to be his ex-partner. Especially after today.
“How much?”
“A quarter of a million dollars. Word on the street is it’s to take them alive. However, once the buyer gets what he wants…”
“Information,” Nate said.
“Looks like it. You were right. Merritta’s wife must have taken something important when she left, and someone wants it back. I suspect that everything until now has been to frighten her into giving it up.”
“Only murder could be that important,” Nate said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense after thirty years.”
“And it wasn’t Merritta. My contacts say word didn’t get out until after Merritta died.”
“Then someone else in the family? Someone who might be worried about what could surface after Merritta’s death?”
“That leaves Victor. Or Anna. George. Rich. Even Rosa. A dozen more assorted relatives and associates.”
“Or an outsider,” Nate mused out loud. “Will you hunt down agents and BPD officers who worked the family? Maybe they would know who was close enough to the family to be involved in their activities thirty years ago.”
“I’ll do it on my own time,” Gray said. “You should know that Barker is apoplectic. He’s threatening to fire you.”
“I’m on vacation,” Nate said innocently.
“He knows about the attack on Samantha Carroll in Boston. You’d better get back here.”
“I can’t do that, particularly now. I don’t trust Barker to take care of her.”
“Then take her and get the h
ell out of there. You know how to hide. Of course, it’ll mean the end of your career.”
“The career was the means to the end,” Nate said. “That’s all. I’ll talk to you later.” He turned off the phone.
He had to fold her. He had to tell her someone had been offered a fortune to take her.
Hoping against hope that he could reach her before a paid killer did, Nate knocked on the door of the sprawling ranch house that belonged to the family of Samantha’s friend.
His gut twisted with apprehension.
A large, stocky man answered the door. He was dressed in jeans, a plaid shirt and very worn boots. His expression wasn’t exactly welcoming.
“Yeah?”
Nate knew instinctively it wouldn’t be wise to flash his badge. He suspected that this man would not be impressed.
“I’m looking for Samantha Carroll.”
“Any particular reason?”
“She’s a friend. That’s why she told me about you.”
The man studied him for a moment, then thrust out his hand. “I’m Dan Faulkner. You from Boston?”
“Yes,” he said, thoroughly nonplussed by the welcome as well as the immediate assessment of his background.
“Terri told us Sam had gone there. Didn’t know she’d brought someone back with her.”
Nate tried not to look surprised. Sam again. This man talked about her with a familiarity that instantly sparked a flame of jealousy in him. “Have you seen her?”
“Sam? No. But Terri said she was going out to meet her. Took Sam’s horse with her.”
“I’m not sure it’s safe,” Nate said.
“She’s a good rider.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Dan Faulkner stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Did you know she was attacked several times in Boston?” He wanted to add that her mother was also missing, but he thought Sam might not forgive him for that. She’d made it clear she didn’t want anyone to know. Not yet.
“Hell you say.” Faulkner paused, then seemed to relax. “Well, she’s back home now.” Affection was in his voice, but nothing more.
“The people who attacked her have a long reach.”
“Who did you say you were?”
It was time. “Nathan McLean. FBI.” He took out his credentials.
Twisted Shadows Page 23
