B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

  “What did you really come up here to ask me?” Brick demanded.

  “I guess what I want is your gut reaction.”

  “My gut reaction isn’t worth squat. Do I think he killed himself?” The former marshal shrugged. “Strangulation takes a while. Gives a man a lot of time to reconsider and change his mind, but with all his body weight on the rope, it’s impossible to get your fingers under the rope and relieve the pressure.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Are you telling me he—”

  “Changed his mind and clawed at the rope?” He nodded.

  “Why wasn’t that in the coroner’s report?”

  “It’s not uncommon. But also not something a family member ever wants to know about. I would imagine Rupert wanted to spare them any more pain.”

  Liza shook her head. “But couldn’t it also mean that Tanner Cole never meant to hang himself? That someone else put that rope around his neck?”

  “And he didn’t fight until that person kicked the log out?” Brick asked. “Remember, there were no defensive wounds or marks on his body.”

  “Maybe he thought it was a joke.”

  The elderly former marshal studied her for a moment. “What would make you let someone put a noose around your neck, joking or otherwise?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it?

  “You think he killed himself,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Prove me wrong.”

  * * *

  HUD SPENT A GOOD TWO HOURS canvassing the area for his sister-in-law before he put out the APB on her vehicle. He checked with the main towing services first though, telling himself her car could have broken down. All kinds of things could have happened to detain her—and maybe even keep her from calling.

  But after those two hours he knew in his gut that wasn’t the case. Stacy had split.

  At the office he did something he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to do. He began checking again for kidnappings of children matching Ella’s description and realized he needed to narrow his search. Since Stacy was driving a car with California plates…

  He realized he should have run her plates first. Feeling only a little guilty for having taken down her license number when he’d first become suspicious of her, he brought up his first surprise.

  The car had been registered in La Jolla, California—but not to Stacy by any of her former married names or her maiden name of Cardwell.

  The car was registered to Clay Cardwell—her brother.

  He picked up the phone and called the family lawyer who was handling the dispersing of ranch profits to Dana’s siblings.

  “Rick, I hate to bother you, but I need to get a phone number and address for Dana’s brother Clay. I understand he’s living in La Jolla, California.”

  Rick cleared his voice. “Actually I was going to contact Dana, but hesitated when I heard she’s on bed rest at the ranch pregnant with the twins.”

  News traveled fast, Hud thought. “What’s up?” he asked, afraid he wasn’t going to like it.

  “Clay. He hasn’t been cashing his checks. It’s been going on for about six months. I just assumed he might be holding them for some reason. But the last one came back saying there was no one by that name and no forwarding address.”

  Hud swore under his breath. Six months. The same age as Ella. Although he couldn’t imagine what the two things could have in common or why Clay hadn’t cashed his checks or how it was that his older sister was driving a car registered to him.

  “I think we need to find him,” Hud said. “I’d just as soon Dana didn’t know anything about this. Believe me, she has her hands full right now. One more thing though. Stacy. Did she give you a new address to send her checks?”

  “No. She’s moved around so much, I wait until I hear from her and usually send them general delivery.”

  “Well, could you do me a favor? If you hear from her, call me.”

  “I thought she was here in the canyon.”

  “She was, but right now she’s missing and she left a small…package at the house.”

  * * *

  IT WAS DARK BY THE TIME LIZA drove past the Fir Ridge cemetery, climbed up over the Continental Divide and entered Gallatin Canyon.

  This time of year there was little traffic along the two-lane road as it snaked through pines and over mountains along the edge of the river.

  She kept thinking about what Brick Savage had told her. More to the point, the feeling she’d had when she’d left him. He’d challenged her to prove Tanner Cole had been murdered. No doubt because he knew it would be near impossible.

  And yet if she was right and Alex’s murder had something to do with Tanner’s death, then the killer had shown his hand.

  Pulling out her phone, she tried Hud’s cell. In a lot of spots in the canyon there was no mobile phone service. To her surprise it began to ring.

  “Marshal Savage,” he snapped.

  “Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?” she asked through the hands-free speaker, wondering if he was in the middle of something with the kids.

  “Liza. Good. I’m glad you called. Did you get my message?”

  She hadn’t. Fear gripped her. Surely there hadn’t been another murder. Her thoughts instantly raced to Jordan and she felt her heart fall at the thought that he might—

  “It’s Stacy,” he said. “She left the house earlier. No one has seen her since. She hasn’t called. I’ve looked all over Big Sky. She left the baby at the house.”

  “What?” It took her moment to pull back from the thought of another murder. To pull back from the fear and dread that had had her thinking something had happened to Jordan. “Stacy wouldn’t leave her baby, would she?”

  “Knowing Stacy, I have a bad feeling the baby isn’t even hers.”

  Liza was too shocked to speak for a moment. “You think she…stole it?”

  “Something is wrong. I’ve suspected it from the get-go. Dana was hoping I was just being suspicious because it’s my nature, but I’d been worried that something like this would happen. I didn’t want Dana getting attached to that baby, but you know Dana, and Ella is adorable, if that is even her name.”

  “Oh, boss, I’m so sorry.”

  “So you spoke to my father?” Hud asked.

  “He was the investigating officer at Tanner Cole’s suicide.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “That it was Tanner’s rope.”

  Hud let out a humorless laugh. “That sounds like Brick. Have you met him before?”

  “Never had the honor. He must have been a treat as a father.”

  “You could say that.” He sighed. “Look, Hilde’s at the house. I’m going to make another circle through the area to look for Stacy before I go home.”

  “I’m about twenty minutes out. Do you want me to stop by?”

  “If you don’t mind. I know you’re busy with this murder case…”

  “No problem. I’ll see you soon.” She snapped the phone shut, shocked by what he’d told her. She was so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed the lights of another vehicle coming up behind her.

  She glanced in the mirror. One of the headlights was out on the approaching car. That struck her about the same time as she realized the driver was coming up too fast.

  She’d been going the speed limit. By now the driver of the vehicle behind her would have been able to see the light bar on the top of her SUV. Only a fool would come racing up on a Marshal’s Department patrol car—let alone pass it.

  And yet as she watched, the driver of what appeared to be an old pickup swerved around her and roared up beside her.

  Liza hit her lights and siren, thinking the driver must be drunk. She glanced over, saw only a dark figure behind the wheel wearing a black ski mask. Her he
art jumped, but she didn’t have time to react before the driver swerved into her. She heard the crunch of metal, felt the patrol SUV veer toward the ditch and the pines and beyond that, the river.

  She slammed on the brakes, but was traveling too fast to avoid the truck crashing into her again. The force made the vehicle rock wildly as she fought to keep control. The tires screamed on the pavement as the SUV began to fishtail.

  Liza felt the right side of the vehicle dip into the soft shoulder of the highway, pulling the SUV off the road. She couldn’t hold it and felt her tires leave the pavement. A stand of trees blurred past and then there was nothing but darkness as she plunged over the edge of the road toward the dark green of the river.

  Chapter Twelve

  Hud was headed home when he heard the 911 call for an ambulance come over his radio. His heart began to race as he heard that the vehicle in the river was a Montana marshal’s patrol SUV.

  He threw on his siren and lights and took off up the canyon toward West Yellowstone. As he raced toward the accident, he called home, glad when Hilde answered the phone.

  “Tell Dana I’m running a little late,” he said to Hilde. “Don’t act like anything is wrong.” He heard Dana already asking what was going on. Hilde related the running a little late part.

  “We’re just fine,” Hilde said.

  “It sounds like there’s been an accident up the canyon,” he told her. “It’s Liza. I don’t know anything except that her car is in the river. I don’t know how long I’m going to be.”

  “Don’t worry about us.”

  “Is it my sister?” Dana demanded in the background.

  “I heard that. Tell her I haven’t found Stacy. I’ll call when I have news. I just don’t want Dana upset.”

  “Got it. I’ll tell her.”

  He disconnected and increased his speed. Liza was like family. How the hell did she end up in the river? She was a great driver.

  As he came around a bend in the windy road, he saw her patrol SUV among the boulders in the Gallatin River. Some bypassers had stopped. Several of the men had flashlights and one of them had waded out to the patrol vehicle.

  Hud parked, leaving his lights on to warn any oncoming traffic, then grabbing his own flashlight, jumped out and ran toward the river. As he dropped over the edge of the road to it, he recognized the man who was standing on the boulder beside Liza’s wrecked vehicle.

  “Jordan?” he called.

  “Liza’s conscious,” he called back. “An ambulance is on the way. I’m staying with her until it gets here.”

  Hud would have liked to have gone to her as well, but he heard the sound of the ambulance siren and climbed back up the road to help with traffic control.

  All the time, though, he found himself wondering how Jordan just happened to be on the scene.

  * * *

  “WHAT’S HAPPENED?” DANA demanded the moment Hilde hung up. “Don’t,” she said before Hilde could open her mouth. “You’re a terrible liar and we both know it. Tell me.”

  “He hasn’t found your sister.”

  She nodded. “But something else has happened.”

  “There’s been an accident up the canyon. He needed to run up there.”

  Dana waited. “There’s more.”

  “You’re the one who should have gone into law enforcement, the interrogation part,” Hilde said as she came and sat down on the edge of the bed. On the other side of Dana, baby Ella slept, looking like an angel. Hilde glanced at the baby, then took Dana’s hand as if she knew it was only a matter of time before her friend got the truth out of her. “Hud didn’t know anything about the accident except that Liza is somehow involved.”

  “Oh, no.” Her heart dropped.

  “Now don’t get upset and have these babies because Hud will never forgive me,” Hilde said quickly.

  Dana shook her head. “I’m okay. But I want to know the minute you hear something. Are you sure you can stay?”

  “Of course.”

  “You didn’t have a date?”

  Hilde laughed. “If only there were more Hudson Savages around. All of the men I meet, well…they’re so not the kind of men I want to spend time with, even for the time it takes to have dinner.”

  “I am lucky.” Dana looked over at Ella. “What if Hud is right and Ella isn’t Stacy’s baby?”

  “Where would she have gotten Ella? You can’t just get a baby off eBay.”

  “She could have kidnapped Ella. You know Stacy.”

  “I’m sure Hud checked for any kidnapped babies six months old with dimples, blond hair and green eyes,” Hilde argued.

  “Yes, green eyes. You might have noticed that all the Justices have dark brown eyes and dark hair, including Stacy.”

  “Maybe the father has green eyes and Stacy carries a green-eyed gene. You don’t know that Ella isn’t Stacy’s.”

  “No,” Dana admitted, but like Hud, she’d had a bad feeling since the moment Stacy had arrived. “I think Stacy only came here because she’s in trouble and it has something to do with that poor little baby.”

  “You think that’s why she left Ella with you?”

  Dana fingered the quilt edge where someone had stitched the name Katie. “I wish I knew.”

  * * *

  JORDAN WOKE WITH A CRICK in his neck. He stared down at the green hospital scrubs he was wearing for a moment, confused where he was. It came back to him with a start. Last night his clothes had been soaking wet from his swim in the river. He’d been shivering uncontrollably, but had refused to leave the hospital until he knew Liza was going to be all right.

  That’s how he’d ended up in scrubs, he recalled now as he sat up in the chair beside Liza’s bed and smiled at the woman propped up staring at him now.

  “What are you still doing here?” she asked, smiling.

  “I was sleeping.” He stood up, stretched, then looked to see what she was having for breakfast. “You haven’t eaten much,” he said as he took a piece of toast from the nearly untouched tray.

  “I’m not very hungry.”

  He was famished and realized he hadn’t eaten since yesterday at noon. “How are your ribs?” he asked as he devoured the piece of toast.

  “They’re just bruised and only hurt when I breathe.”

  “Yep, but you’re breathing. Be thankful for that.”

  Liza nodded and he saw that her left wrist was also wrapped. Apparently, it was just badly sprained, not broken. His big worry, though, had been that she’d suffered internal injuries.

  Apparently not, though, since all she had was a bandage on her right temple, a bruised cheek and a scrape on her left cheek. She’d been lucky.

  “So what did the doctor say?” he asked.

  “That I’m going to live.”

  “Good.”

  She looked almost shy. “Thank you for last night.”

  He shrugged. “It’s wasn’t anything. I just swam a raging river in October in Montana and clung onto a slippery boulder to be with you.” He grinned. “I’m just glad you’re all right.” He’d been forced to leave the room last night while Hud had talked to her, but he’d overheard enough to more than concern him.

  “You said last night that someone forced you off the road?” he asked now. “Do you remember anything about the vehicle?”

  She narrowed her gaze at him and sighed. “Even if I knew who did it, I wouldn’t tell you. I don’t want to see you get killed.”

  He grinned. “Nice that you care—”

  “I told you, I don’t have time to find your killer, too.”

  “Why would anyone want to kill me? On second thought, scratch that. Other than my brother-in-law, why would anyone want me dead?”

  “Hud doesn’t want you dead.”

 
“He just doesn’t want me near my sister.”

  “Can you blame him?”

  “No,” he said with a sigh. “That’s what makes it worse. I would be the same way if someone had treated my wife the way I’ve treated my sister.” He looked away.

  “Do you mean that?”

  He grinned. “Do you question everything I tell you?”

  “Yes.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I’ve been more honest with you than I have with anyone in a very long time. Hud doesn’t want me near you, either.” He met her gaze and saw something warm flash in her eyes.

  “I talked to the investigating officer in Tanner’s death yesterday before the accident,” she said, clearly changing the subject. “He cleared you as a suspect, at least in Tanner’s death.”

  “Did Brick Savage tell you what I did the day I found Tanner?”

  “I would assume you were upset since it was your best friend.”

  “I broke down and bawled like a baby until Hud’s old man kicked me in the behind and told me to act like a man. He said I was making myself look guilty as hell.” He chuckled. “I took a swing at him and he decked me. Knocked me on my butt, but I got control of myself after that and he didn’t arrest me for assaulting an officer of the law so I guess I respect him for that.”

  Liza shook her head. “Men. You are such a strange breed. I think it would have been stranger if you hadn’t reacted the way you had.”

  He shrugged. “Tanner left a hole in my life. I’ve never had a closer friend since. Sometimes I swear I can hear his voice, especially when I do something stupid.”

  She smiled. “So he’s still with you a lot.”

  “Yeah. You do know that when I say I hear him, I don’t really hear him, right?”

  “I get it.”

  “I didn’t want you to think I hear voices. It’s bad enough you still see me as a suspect.”

  She nodded slowly. “I mean what I said about wanting you to be safe. You need to keep a low profile.”

  “How can I do that when I have a reunion picnic to go to this afternoon?”

  “You aren’t seriously planning to go?”