B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

  Hud was silent for a moment, thinking this might be the first time he’d ever believed anything that had come out of Jordan Cardwell’s mouth. “Did you steal a ring and give it to Ginger Adams?”

  “What? Look, Ginger and I didn’t last a month. As soon as she found out I didn’t have any money…”

  Hud pulled the list of registered .38-caliber gun owners out of his pocket as he drove. It was starting to get dark in the canyon. He had to turn on the overhead light in the SUV, taking his attention off the road in short glances as he scanned the list again.

  He found the name he’d feared would be on the sheet. He hadn’t even thought to look for it before. Probably because it never dawned on him to look for Judge Raymond Randolph’s name. What were the chances he would have been killed with his own gun? The same gun that had killed Ginger Adams?

  Hud threw down the sheet, snapped off the light and said, “Let me talk to the deputy.” He told Norm to keep Jordan locked up and to get over to Kitty Randolph’s and make sure she didn’t go anywhere.

  Then Hud tried Dana’s number again, driving as fast as possible. He had to get to Dana. Every instinct told him she was in trouble.

  DANA FELT A SENSE of disquiet settle over her as she stared at Kitty Randolph. “The judge’s father drilled the homestead well?”

  The phone rang.

  “The judge knew every well his father had drilled,” Kitty said proudly. “He took me to most of them when we were dating. Most women wouldn’t think that very romantic nowadays. But the judge never wanted to forget where he came from. Common well drillers. But that was one reason he was so cheap. The judge was the only one in his family to go to college, you know.”

  The phone rang again. Mind racing, Dana barely heard it as she watched Kitty move around the room, picking up knickknacks, touching old photographs, admiring antiques that had belonged to Dana’s mother’s family. The older woman still had the shoe box tucked under her arm.

  “Your mother, now there was a woman,” Kitty said as she circled the room. “I admired her so much. Your father put her through so much and yet she never complained. She proved she could make it without him just fine. I wish I had been more like her.”

  Another ring. “I need to get that,” Dana said, but for some reason didn’t want to leave Kitty alone.

  “Have I told you how much you look like your mother?”

  “Yes, you’ve mentioned it,” Dana said, thinking again about what Kitty had said about the judge’s family drilling the old homestead well.

  “It’s funny, for a moment earlier today when I saw you standing behind me at my house, I thought you were your mother,” Kitty said, then gave her head a light shake. “Sometimes I am so foolish. Your mother was such a strong woman. I admired the way she took care of her problems.”

  Dana felt a chill crawl up her spine as she recalled a comment Jordan had made about how their mother had been capable of killing Ginger Adams and dumping her down the old well.

  “Is there something you wanted to tell me about my mother?” Dana asked, frightened of the answer and suddenly afraid of what was in that shoe box under the older woman’s arm.

  “Oh, Dana, don’t be coy with me,” Kitty said, her smile shifting ever so slightly. “I know you saw the shoe.”

  The shoe? The phone rang again. She realized it might be Hud. He’d be worried if she didn’t answer it.

  “I don’t know what shoe you’re talking about.” Dana had seen a lot of shoes on the floor of Kitty’s bedroom and the older woman digging in the closet as if looking for more. She wondered if the older woman wasn’t getting senile as she glanced at the shoe box still curled in the crook of the woman’s arm.

  “The red high heel, dear, you know the one,” Kitty said. “Oh, didn’t your boyfriend tell you? Only one was found in the well. The other one was in the judge’s closet. I’d forgotten all about it until my dear friend Rupert Milligan happened to mention that one red high heel had been found in the well. Rupert has a little crush on me.” She actually blushed.

  Dana felt her heart stop cold at the realization of what Kitty was saying.

  The phone, she really needed to answer the phone. She started to move toward the kitchen.

  “Let it ring, dear,” Kitty said, and opened the shoe box.

  Dana stared in shock as Kitty brought out a .38 and pointed it at her. Dana glanced toward the front door where her shotgun was leaning against the wall as the phone continued to ring.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you, dear,” Kitty said, leveling the gun at Dana’s heart. “Let’s take a walk.”

  The phone stopped ringing. “A walk?” Dana said into the deathly silence that followed. What if Hud had been calling to say he was running late? “Mrs. Randolph—”

  “Kitty. Call me, Kitty, dear.” The hand holding the gun was steady, the glint in the twinkling blue eyes steely. “Get your coat. It’s cold out.”

  “I don’t understand,” Dana said as she carefully took her coat from the hook, afraid she understood only too well. The shotgun was within reach but it wasn’t loaded. Even if it had been, she suspected she would never be able to fire it before Kitty Randolph pulled the trigger.

  “I’ll explain it to you on our walk,” Kitty said agreeably as she jabbed the gun into Dana’s back. “We really need to get moving, though. It gets darks so early in the canyon, especially this time of year. We wouldn’t want to step in a hole, now would we?” She laughed as Dana opened the door and they descended the porch steps.

  Dana suspected she knew where they were headed long before Kitty motioned her up the road toward the old homestead—and the well.

  “Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the judge taught me how to use a gun,” Kitty said. “I’m sure he regretted it since I was a much better shot than he was.”

  As they walked up the road, Dana saw that a vehicle had been up the hill recently. The same person who’d ransacked the house? Her mind raced. Was it possible Jordan was up here planning to pull another stunt to scare her into selling the ranch?

  She couldn’t believe it had been Jordan—didn’t want to believe it. But right now, she would love to see any member of her family.

  “Ginger was a tramp, you know,” Kitty said as they walked up the road. The older woman was surprisingly spry for her age. “Your mother wasn’t the least bit phased by her. She knew your father would never have left her for a woman like Ginger Adams. For all your father’s flaws, he had better taste than that.”

  Dana wouldn’t have bet on that, she thought as she looked up at the homestead chimney. Had she seen movement up there? Twilight had turned the sky gray.

  From the highway she could hear the hum of tires. Hud was on his way. He’d said he would meet her at the ranch house before she got off work. Except she’d come home early. Still he should be here soon. Unless he really had been calling to say he was running late.

  “The judge, the old fool, thought he was in love with Ginger,” Kitty was saying. “He thought I would give him a divorce so he could marry her. He forgot that the money was all mine. But even then, he would have left me for her and lived on nothing, he was that besotted with her. After thirty years of marriage. Can you imagine? She was just a child.”

  Dana heard the pain in the older woman’s voice and looked up, surprised they had reached the old homestead in record time. No wonder, with Kitty nudging her along with the gun.

  “He begged me to let him go, the stupid old fool. But I had insurance, something I knew he’d done that could get him disbarred, disgraced and leave him penniless so he wouldn’t be able to support his precious Ginger and their baby.” Kitty sounded as if she was crying. “We couldn’t have a child, you know. But this tramp…I remember the night he brought me that red high-heeled shoe. He was sobbing like a baby. ‘Look what you made me do,’ he kept saying. ‘Oh, God, look what you’ve made me do.’ As if he didn’t have a choice.”

  Dana stumbled and turned to look at Kitty, shocked by the revelation
. The judge had killed Ginger Adams on his wife’s orders?

  “Oh, don’t look so shocked,” Kitty Randolph said. “Imagine what I would have done that night if I’d known he’d given her my ring? It was the only decent piece of jewelry he’d ever bought me. It never meant that much to me because I’d had to force him to buy it for our anniversary. But even if I never wore it, it was mine and he gave it to that woman. And then to hear it turned up in your well—with her.”

  Dana was too stunned to speak for a moment.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Kitty said, and jabbed Dana with the gun, prodding her toward the well opening. Kitty’s voice changed, sounding almost childlike. “You don’t want to get too close to the edge of the well, dear. You might fall in. It’s only natural that you would be curious. Or perhaps you’re distraught over the news about your mother. Sorry, dear, but after you’re gone it’s going to come out that your mother killed Ginger. Mary wouldn’t mind, after all she’s dead.”

  Dana balked. “You wouldn’t blame my mother.”

  “I’ve given it a lot of thought,” Kitty said matter-of-factly. “Your mother was afraid, living out here alone, and I lent her the judge’s .38. I’d completely forgotten the gun was in the closet until the marshal called to say that Ginger had been killed with the same gun the judge was.”

  “No one will believe my mother killed Ginger Adams—and your husband.”

  “You are so right, dear. Your sister, the common thief, took the gun while it was in your mother’s possession and killed the judge. I’ll work out the details later. But when it comes out about your sister stealing fund-raiser money and me having it all on video…”

  “You’re the one who forced Stacy to make it look like she and Hud had slept together.”

  “Oh, dear, you are so smart,” Kitty said as she backed Dana toward the well. “I was quite the mastermind if I say so myself. First I hired the Kirk brothers to mow my lawn and then I planted the judge’s cuff links and pocket watch in their car. I said I’d be at my sister’s that night. With cell phones, no one can tell where you are. Aren’t they amazing devices?”

  As Kitty backed her into the darkness, Dana could feel the well coming up behind her.

  “The judge was at his stupid Toastmasters. I called and told him I thought I’d left the stove on, then I waited until he was on his way home before I called those awful Kirk brothers and told them I’d left them a bonus and to stop by the house and pick it up. The door was open. It was all too easy. You should have seen the judge’s face when I shot him twice in the chest.”

  Dana grimaced. If she’d had any doubt that Kitty would shoot her, she didn’t now.

  “The Kirk brothers arrived right after that,” she continued. “They reacted just as I knew they would when they heard the sirens. Hud’s father had been trying to get the goods on them for years. I knew he’d chase them to the ends of the earth. And he literally did. All I had to do was make it look as if the Kirks had broken into my house and then go to my sister’s and wait for the terrible news.”

  Dana stopped moving. She could feel the well directly behind her. One more step and she would fall into it. “Why set up Hud with my sister?”

  “Stacy had to do whatever I told her and I knew how badly Hud’s father wanted to put those awful Kirk brothers away. He was more apt to believe they had robbed my house and killed my husband than your boyfriend.” Kitty smiled, pleased with herself. “Anyway, by doing that I freed you up for my nephew.”

  “Your nephew?”

  Something moved by the chimney and Dana watched as a large dark figure came out of the shadows behind Kitty. Jordan. Let it be Jordan.

  “Step back, dear,” Kitty said. “Let’s not make this any more painful than we have to.”

  As the figure grew closer, Dana saw the man’s face. Not Jordan. “Lanny, be careful, she has a gun!”

  Kitty began to laugh, but didn’t turn as if she thought Dana was kidding. Then Dana watched in horror as Lanny made no attempt to disarm Kitty.

  He leaned down to plant a kiss on the older woman’s cheek. “Why would I hurt my dear auntie? Really, Dana, I can attest to how irrational you’ve been the last few days.”

  “Kitty is your aunt?”

  “By marriage twice removed, but Dana you know that half the people in the canyon are related in some way, you shouldn’t be surprised,” Lanny said.

  “Say your goodbyes, Lanny,” Kitty said.

  “You aren’t going to let her do this,” Dana said. “You and I were friends.”

  Lanny laughed. “Friends? But you are right about one thing, I’m not going to let her do it. I’m going to take care of you, Dana, because quite frankly I’d rather see you dead than with Hudson Savage.”

  He reached for her and in the twilight she saw the hard glint of anger in his eyes—the same look she’d seen at the restaurant the night of her birthday.

  She dodged his grasp and felt one of the stones around the well bump against her ankle as she was forced back. She looked over her shoulder, estimating whether or not she could jump the opening. Maybe if she had a run at it, but the hole was too wide, the snow too slick around it.

  She put out her hands, bracing her feet, ready to take Lanny down into the well with her if he grabbed for her again.

  “You can make this easy on yourself, Dana. Or fight right up until the end.” Lanny smiled. “Makes no difference to me.”

  “But it does to me,” Hud said from out of the darkness.

  Both Lanny and his aunt turned in surprise. Dana saw her chance. She dove at Lanny, slamming her palms into his chest with all of her strength. He stumbled backward, colliding with his aunt Kitty, but managed to grasp Dana’s sleeve and pull her down, as well.

  The air exploded with a gunshot and Dana couldn’t be sure who’d fired it as she fell to the ground next to Lanny.

  She scrambled away from him but he grabbed her ankle and crawled, dragging her, toward the well opening. She noticed that his side bloomed dark red and she realized he’d been shot. But his grip on her ankle was strong.

  She tried to latch on to anything she could reach but there was nothing to hang on to and the snow was slick and she slid across it with little effort on Lanny’s part.

  More gunshots and Dana saw now that Kitty was firing wildly into the darkness. Dana couldn’t see Hud, wasn’t even sure now that she’d heard his voice. Lanny had a death grip on her leg.

  The black gaping hole of the well was so close now that she felt the cold coming up from the bottom.

  This time the gunshots were louder, echoing across the hillside. Dana saw Kitty stumble, heard her cry. Out of the corner of her eye, Dana watched Kitty start to fall.

  Dana kicked out at Lanny with her free leg. His grip on her ankle loosening as his aunt tripped over him, but managed to remain standing.

  He let go of Dana’s ankle and for an instant they were all frozen in time. Kitty was looking down at her blue slacks. One leg appeared black in the darkening light. Dana scooted out of Lanny’s grasp and was getting to her feet when she heard Hud order, “Put down the gun, Mrs. Randolph.”

  Kitty looked up, her spine straightening, her chin going up. “I had a bad feeling when you came back to town, Hudson Savage.” She smiled and Dana watched the rest play out in slow, sick motion.

  Kitty dropped the gun, but Lanny grabbed it up and started to turn it on Dana. She saw the crazed look in his eyes as he gripped the gun and frantically felt for the trigger.

  Hud’s weapon made a huge booming sound in the deafening silence. The shot caught Lanny in the chest but he was still trying to pull the trigger as another shot exploded and he fell back, his head lolling to one side on the edge of the well.

  Dana wrenched the gun from his hands and crawled back away from him and the well.

  Kitty was still standing there, head up. The one leg of her slacks looked black with blood. She didn’t seem to notice Lanny lying on the ground next to her.

  Dana turned as
Hud came out of the shadows, his weapon still pointed at Kitty. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the movement and heard Hud yell, “No!”

  Dana turned in time to see Kitty Randolph smile as she stepped back and dropped into the well.

  A few seconds later Dana heard the sickening thud as Kitty hit the bottom. But by then, Hud was pulling Dana into his arms and telling her he loved her, over and over again. In the distance she could hear the wail of sirens.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Hud parked by the Hebgen Lake house and got out, noting that his father’s vehicle was in the garage and there were no fresh tracks.

  But when he knocked at the door, he got no answer. He tried the knob, not surprised when the door opened in. “Dad?” he called. The word sounded funny and he tried to remember the last time he’d said it.

  As he moved through the house, it became more apparent that Brick wasn’t there. Hud felt his pulse start as he reminded himself how old his father had seemed the other day, then recalled with shame and embarrassment what he’d said to Brick.

  But Hud knew the panicky feeling in the pit of his stomach had more to do with what he hadn’t yet said to his father.

  “Dad?” he called again.

  No answer. He glanced into the bedrooms. Both empty, beds made. Hud had never expected his father to keep such a neat house. Hud’s mother had hated housework.

  The kitchen was also empty, still smelling faintly of bacon and coffee. But as he looked out the window across the frozen white expanse of the lake, he spotted a lone figure squatting on the ice.

  Hud opened the back door and followed the well-worn footprints across patches of glistening wind-crusted ice and drifted snow, his boot soles making a crunching sound as he walked toward his father.

  Dressed in a heavy coat and hat, Brick Savage sat on a log stump, a short ice-fishing pole in his gloved hands. The fishing line disappeared down into the perfect hole cut in the ice at his feet.

  His father looked up and smiled. “Heard the news. You solved both murders. Figured you would.”