B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

  “What? You don’t think I can get another date?” he joked.

  “What do I have to do to make you realize how dangerous this is?”

  His expression sobered. “All I have to do is look at your face and think about where I found you last night.”

  “You could be next,” she said quietly. “What time is the picnic?”

  “The doctor isn’t going to let you—”

  “What time?” she demanded.

  “One.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  He grinned. “Good, I won’t have to find another date.” He wanted to argue that she needed to stay in bed. He couldn’t stand the thought that she was now a target. Last night when he’d seen her car in the river— Just the thought made it hard for him to breathe even now.

  He barely remembered throwing on the rental car’s brakes, diving out and half falling down the bank to the river. All he could think about was getting to her. The moment he’d hit the icy water of the Gallatin, he’d almost been swept away. He’d had to swim to get to her, then climb onto a large slick boulder to reach the driver’s-side door.

  At first he’d thought she was dead. There was blood from the cut on her temple.

  Impulsively, he reached for her hand now. It felt warm and soft and wonderfully alive. He squeezed her hand gently, then let it go.

  “Unless you need a ride, I guess I’ll see you at one on the mountain then,” he said and turned to leave.

  “Liza isn’t going anywhere, especially with you,” Hud snapped as he stepped into the hospital room. “I’ll speak to you in the hall,” he said to Jordan.

  Liza shot him a questioning look. Jordan shrugged. He had no idea why his brother-in-law was angry with him but he was about to find out.

  “Later,” he said to Liza and stepped out in the hall to join Hud.

  The marshal had blood in his eye by the time Jordan stepped out into the hall. “What were you doing at the accident last night? Were you following Liza?”

  He held up his hands. “One question at a time. I had tried to call her. I knew she’d gone up to West Yellowstone to talk to your father. I got tired of waiting for her to return and drove up the canyon. I was worried about her.”

  “Worried about her?” Hud sighed. “And you just happened to find her?”

  “The other driver who stopped can verify it.”

  “Did you pass another vehicle coming from the direction of the accident?”

  “Several. A white van. A semi. An old red pickup.”

  “The red pickup. Did you happen to notice the driver?”

  He shook his head. “I just glanced at the vehicles. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention since I was looking for Liza’s patrol SUV. You think the truck ran her off the road.”

  Hud didn’t look happy to hear that Jordan knew about that. He ignored the statement and asked, “Where is Liza going to meet you later?”

  “At the reunion picnic up on the mountain.”

  “Well, she’s not going anywhere.” Hud started to turn away, but swung back around and put a finger in Jordan’s face. “I want you to stay away from her. I’m not sure what your game is—”

  “There’s no game. No angle. Liza is investigating Alex Winslow’s murder. I’ve been helping her because I know the players and I think it is somehow tied in with Tanner’s death.”

  “That better be all there is to it,” Hud said and started to turn away again.

  “What if that isn’t all it is?” Jordan demanded, then could have kicked himself.

  Hud turned slowly back to him. “Like I said, stay away from Liza.” With that, he turned and pushed into his deputy’s room.

  “Tell me you weren’t out in the hall threatening the man who saved me last night,” Jordan heard Liza say, but didn’t catch Hud’s reply, which was just as well.

  He collected his clothes at the nurse’s station, changed and headed for the canyon and Big Sky. Now more than ever he wanted to get to the bottom of this. Someone had tried to kill Liza. He didn’t doubt they would try again.

  But what were they so afraid she was going to find out? He suddenly recalled something he’d overheard Hud say to his deputy marshal last night at the hospital. Something about her condo being ransacked. Someone thought she had something. The alleged photographs?

  * * *

  LIZA COCKED HER HEAD at her boss as he came around the end of her bed. “Well?” she asked.

  He gave her a sheepish look. “You don’t know Jordan like I do. He’s…he’s…”

  “He’s changed.”

  Hud shook his head. “I really doubt that he’s changed any more than his sister Stacy.”

  “Talk about painting them all with the same brush,” she said.

  “Look, I don’t want you getting involved with him.”

  Liza grinned. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. You weren’t telling me who I can get involved with, were you, boss?”

  “Damn it, Liza. You know how I feel about you.”

  She nodded. “I’m the most stubborn deputy you’ve ever had. I often take things in my own hands without any thought to my safety. I’m impulsive, emotional and driven and I’m too smart for my own good. Does that about cover it?”

  “You’re the best law officer I’ve ever worked with,” Hud said seriously. “And a friend. And like a real sister to my wife. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  She smiled. “I can also take care of myself. And,” she said before he could interrupt, “I can get involved with anyone I want.”

  He looked at his boots before looking at her again. “You’re right.”

  “That’s what I thought. Did you bring the information I asked for?” she asked, pointing to the manila envelope in his hand and no longer wanting to discuss Jordan.

  Truthfully she didn’t know how she felt about him—waking up to see him sleeping beside her hospital bed or being in his arms the other night on the dance floor.

  “I brought it,” Hud said with a sigh. “But I don’t think you should be worrying about any of this right now. How are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” Liza said, reaching for the manila envelope and quickly opening it.

  “There are Alex’s phone calls over the past month as well as where he went after arriving at Big Sky.”

  Liza was busy leafing through it, more determined than ever to find out who’d killed him—and who’d tried to do the same to her the night before.

  “Alex was in the middle of a contentious divorce?” she asked, looking up in surprise from the information he’d brought her. “He had a wife?” When she’d notified next of kin, she’d called his brother as per the card in his wallet.

  “Her name is Crystal.”

  “A classmate?”

  Hud nodded. “But not from Big Sky. She lived down in Bozeman.”

  “What was holding up the divorce?” Liza asked.

  He shook his head and had to take a step back from the bed as Liza swung her legs over the side and stood up. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m getting up. I told you, I’m fine. Just a little knock on the head and a few cuts and bruises and a sprained wrist, but it’s my left wrist, so I’m fine. All I need is a vehicle.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t allow—”

  “You can’t stop me. Someone tried to kill me. This has become personal. Not only that, you need to stay close to home,” she said as she rummaged in the closet for her clothes. “No sign of Stacy yet?” He shook his head. “What about the baby?”

  “The lab’s running a DNA test. We should be able to tell if the baby is Stacy’s by comparing Ella’s DNA to Dana’s. Liza, you’re really not up to—”

  “Could you see about my clothes?” she asked, realizing they weren’t
anywhere in the room. Her clothes had been wet and the nurses had probably taken them to dry them. “Stubborn, remember? One of the reasons I’m such a good law officer, your words not mine.” She smiled widely although it hurt her face.

  He studied her for a moment. “Clothes, right. Then get you a vehicle,” he said, clearly giving up on trying to keep another woman in bed.

  * * *

  DANA WATCHED HILDE TRYING to change Ella’s diaper until she couldn’t take it anymore. “Give me that baby.”

  Hilde laughed. “You make it look so easy,” she said, handing Ella to her.

  Ella giggled and squirmed as Dana made short work of getting her into a diaper and a sleeper. Hud had come in so late, Hilde had stayed overnight and gotten someone to work for her this morning. He’d promised to be back soon.

  “I’m just so glad Liza is all right,” she said as she handed Ella back to Hilde. Through the open bedroom door she could see Mary and Hank playing with a plastic toy ranch set. She could hear them discussing whether or not they should buy more cows.

  “Me, too,” Hilde said. “Fortunately, Liza is strong.”

  “Hud’s worried now that she and Jordan might be getting involved.”

  Hilde arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “I have to admit when Jordan stopped by, he did seem different. But then again I said Stacy had changed, so what do I know? I can’t believe we haven’t heard anything from her. What if she never comes back?” Dana hadn’t let herself think about that at first, but as the hours passed… “Did she leave anything else besides Ella and the baby’s things?”

  “I can check. She was staying in the room I slept in last night, right?”

  “I would imagine Hud already checked it, but would you look? That should tell us if she was planning to leave the baby all along or if something happened and she can’t get back.”

  Hilde jiggled Ella in her arms. “Watch her for a moment and I’ll go take a look.” She put the baby down next to Dana on the bed. Ella immediately got up on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth.

  “She is going to be crawling in no time,” Dana said with a smile. Stacy was going to miss it. But then maybe Stacy had missed most of Ella’s firsts because this wasn’t her baby.

  Hilde returned a few minutes later.

  “You found something,” Dana said, excited and worried at the same time.

  “You said she didn’t have much, right?” Hilde asked. “Well, she left a small duffle on the other side of the bed. Not much in it. A couple of T-shirts, underwear, socks. I searched through it.” She shook her head. “Then I noticed a jean jacket hanging on the back of the chair by the window. It’s not yours, is it?”

  “That’s the one Stacy was wearing when she arrived.”

  “I found this in the pocket.”

  Dana let out a surprised groan as Hilde, using two fingers, pulled out a small caliber handgun.

  * * *

  ALEX WINSLOW’S WIFE, CRYSTAL, lived up on the hill overlooking Bozeman on what some called Snob Knob. In the old days it had been called Beer Can Hill because that was where the kids used to go to drink and make out.

  The house was pretty much what Liza had expected. It was huge. A contentious divorce usually meant one of three things. That the couple was fighting over the kids, the pets or the money. Since Alex and Crystal apparently had no children or pets, Liza guessed it was the money.

  She parked the rental SUV Hud’d had delivered to the hospital and walked up to the massive front door. As she rang the bell, she could hear music playing inside. She rang the bell a second time before the door was opened by a petite dark-haired woman with wide blue eyes and a quizzical smile.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  Liza had forgotten her bandages, the eye that was turning black or that all the blood hadn’t completely come out of her uniform shirt.

  She’d felt there wasn’t time to go all the way back to Big Sky to change. Her fear was that if she didn’t solve this case soon, someone else was going to die.

  “Crystal Winslow? I’m Deputy Marshal Liza Turner. I need to ask you a few questions in regard to your husband’s death.”

  “Estranged husband,” Crystal Winslow said, but opened the door wider. “I doubt I can be of help, but you’re welcome to come in. Can I get you something?” She took in Liza’s face again.

  “Just answers.”

  Crystal led her into the formal living room. It had a great view of the city and valley beyond. In the distance, the Spanish Peaks gleamed from the last snowfall high in the mountains.

  “How long have you and Alex been estranged?”

  “I don’t see what that has to do—”

  “Your estranged husband is dead. I believe whoever murdered him tried to do the same to me last night. I need to know why.”

  “Well, it has nothing to do with me.” She sniffed, then said, “A month.”

  “Why?”

  For a moment Crystal looked confused. “Why did I kick him out and demand a divorce? You work out of Big Sky, right? I would suggest you ask Shelby.”

  “Shelby Durran-Iverson?”

  She nodded, and for the first time Liza saw true pain in the woman’s expression—and fury. “I knew he was cheating. A woman can tell. But Shelby? I remember her from high school. People used to say she was the type who would eat her young.”

  “That could explain why she doesn’t have any children,” Liza said. She still felt a little lightheaded and knew this probably wasn’t the best time to be interviewing anyone.

  “Did Alex admit he was seeing Shelby?”

  Crystal gave her an are-you-serious? look. “He swore up and down that his talking to her wasn’t an affair, that he was trying to get her to tell the truth, something involving Tanner Cole.”

  “You remember Tanner?”

  “He hung himself our senior year. I didn’t really know him. He was a cowboy. I didn’t date cowboys. No offense.”

  Liza wondered why that should offend her. Did she look that much like a cowgirl?

  “I think your husband might have been telling you the truth. I believe he was looking into Tanner’s death.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I was hoping you could tell me since I suspect that’s what got him killed.”

  “You don’t know for sure that he wasn’t having an affair with Shelby though, right?”

  “No, I don’t. But Alex mentioned to other people that he felt something was wrong about Tanner’s suicide, as well. He didn’t say anything to you?”

  “No.”

  “Do you or your husband own any weapons?”

  Crystal looked appalled. “You mean like a Saturday night special?”

  “Or hunting rifles.”

  “No, I wouldn’t have a gun in my house. My father was killed in a hunting accident. We have a state-of-the-art security system. We didn’t need guns.”

  Liza nodded, knowing what that would get Crystal if someone broke into the house. She could be dead before the police arrived. “Alex didn’t have weapons, either?”

  “No. I still can’t believe this was why Alex was spending time with Shelby.”

  “Did she ever call here?”

  Crystal mugged a face. “Shelby said it was just to talk to Alex about Big Sky’s reunion plans. They wanted their own. Ours wasn’t good enough for them.”

  Liza could see that Crystal Winslow had been weighted down with that chip on her shoulder for some time.

  “But I overheard one of his conversations,” she said smugly. “Shelby was demanding something back, apparently something she’d given him. He saw me and said he didn’t know what she was talking about. After he hung up, he said Shelby was looking for some photographs from their senior year. He said she was probably
using them for something she was doing for the reunion.”

  “You didn’t believe him?”

  “I could hear Shelby screeching from where I was standing. She was livid about whatever it really was.”

  “Did he send her some photos from high school?”

  “I told you, that was just a story he came up with. He had some photographs from high school. I kept the ones of me and gave him the rest.”

  “Where are those photos now?”

  “I threw them out with Alex. I assume he took them to his apartment,” she said.

  “Do you have a key?”

  “He left one with me, but I’ve never used it.” She got up and walked out of the room, returning a moment later with a shiny new key and a piece of notepaper. “Here’s the address.”

  Liza took it. “Was that the only Big Sky friend who contacted Alex?”

  “Right after that was when Alex started driving up to Big Sky and I threw him out.”

  “What made you suspect he was seeing Shelby?” Liza asked.

  For a moment, Crystal looked confused. “I told you—”

  “Right, that a woman knows. But how did you know it was Shelby?”

  “After Tanner broke up with her in high school, she made a play for Alex. He was dating Tessa Ryerson before that. The two of them got into it at school one day. That’s when he and I started dating.”

  “Did he tell you what his argument with Shelby was about?”

  She shrugged. “Eventually everyone has a falling-out with Shelby—except for her BFFs.” She made a face, then listed off their names like a mantra. “Shelby, Tessa, Ashley, Whitney and Brittany.”

  Liza noted that Brittany was on the list. “When did Alex and Shelby have the falling-out?”

  Crystal frowned. “It was around the time that Tanner committed suicide. After that Alex hadn’t wanted anything to do with her. That is until recently.”

  Liza could tell that Crystal was having second thoughts about accusing her husband of infidelity.

  “You said your father was killed in a hunting accident. Did you hunt?”

  “No. Alex did and so did his friends,” she said distractedly.

  “What about Shelby?”

  “She actually was a decent shot, I guess, although I suspected the only reason she and her friends hunted was to be where the boys were.” Her expression turned to one of horror. “You don’t think Shelby killed Alex, do you?”