B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection

by B. J Daniels

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dana stared at the sleeping Ella as her husband updated her on Liza’s condition. She’d had a scare, but she was going to be fine. In fact, she’d already checked herself out of the hospital and was working.

  “You didn’t try to stop her?” Dana demanded of her husband.

  He gave her a look she knew too well.

  “All right, what did you find out about Stacy?” she asked and braced herself for the worst.

  “There is really nothing odd about her having Clay’s car,” she said when he finished filling her in. “Obviously they’ve been in contact.”

  “It wouldn’t be odd if Clay had been cashing his checks for the last six months,” Hud said. “Why would he be driving an old beater car if he had money?”

  “Maybe it was a spare car he let Stacy have,” she suggested.

  Hud rolled his eyes. “It is the only car registered to your brother. Nice theory.” He instantly seemed to regret his words. “I’m sorry. I’m not telling you these things to upset you. On the contrary, I know you’ll worry more if I keep them from you.”

  “Which proves you’re smarter than you look,” she said, annoyed that he was treating her as if she was breakable. “The babies are fine. I’m fine. You’d better not keep anything from me.”

  He smiled. “As I said…”

  “So you can’t find Clay or Stacy.”

  “No. But I’ve put an APB out on Stacy’s car. It was the only thing I could do.”

  “Something’s happened to her,” Dana said. “She wouldn’t leave Ella.” When Hud said nothing, she shot him an impatient look. “You saw how she was with that baby. She loves her.”

  “Dana, we haven’t seen your sister in six years. She doesn’t write or call when she gets pregnant. She just shows up at the door with a baby, which she then leaves with us. Come on, even you have to admit, something is wrong with this.”

  She didn’t want to admit it. Maybe more than anything, she didn’t want to acknowledge that Stacy could have done something unforgiveable this time. Something that might land her in prison.

  “What do we do now?” she asked her husband.

  “I’ve held off going global with Ella’s description, hoping Stacy would show back up. But Dana, I don’t think I have any choice.”

  “You haven’t heard anything on the DNA test you did on Ella and me?”

  “I should be hearing at any time. But if the two of you aren’t related, then I have to try to find out who this baby belongs to—no matter what happens to Stacy.”

  * * *

  LIZA DROVE TO THE APARTMENT address Crystal Winslow had given her. She used the key to get into the studio apartment. As the door swung open, she caught her breath and pulled her weapon.

  The apartment had been torn apart. Every conceivable hiding place had been searched, pillows and sofa bed sliced open, their stuffing spread across the room, books tossed to the floor along with clothing from the closet.

  Liza listened, then cautiously stepped in. A small box of photographs had been dumped onto the floor and gone through from the looks of them. She checked the tiny kitchen and bath to make sure whoever had done this was gone before she holstered her weapon and squatted down to gingerly pick up one of the photographs.

  It was a snapshot of Jordan Cardwell with two other handsome boys. All three were wearing ski clothing and looking cocky. She recognized a young Alex Winslow and assumed the other boy must be Tanner.

  A curtain flapped loudly at an open window, making her start. Carefully, she glanced through the other photographs, assuming whatever the intruder had been looking for wasn’t among these strewn on the floor.

  It took her a moment though to realize what was missing from the pile of photos. There were none of Crystal. Nor any of Shelby or the rest of her group. That seemed odd that the women Alex had apparently been close to were missing from the old photographs. Nor were there any wedding pictures. Crystal had said she’d taken the ones of her. But who would have taken ones of Shelby and the rest of the young women he’d gone to school with in the canyon?

  Rising, Liza called it in to the Bozeman Police Department, then waited until a uniformed officer arrived.

  “I doubt you’ll find any fingerprints, but given that Alex Winslow is a murder victim and he hasn’t lived here long, I’m hoping whoever did this left us a clue,” she told the officer. “I’ve contacted the crime lab in Missoula. I just want to make sure no one else comes in here until they arrive.”

  As she was leaving, Liza saw an SUV cruise slowly by. She recognized Crystal Winslow behind the wheel before the woman sped off.

  * * *

  JORDAN HAD JUST REACHED the bottom of the gondola for the ride up the mountain to the reunion picnic, when he spotted Liza.

  She wasn’t moving with her usual speed, but there was a determined look in her eye that made him smile.

  “What?” she said when she joined him.

  “You. After what happened, you could have taken one day off.”

  “I’m going to a picnic,” she said. “I’m not even wearing my uniform.”

  She looked great out of uniform. The turquoise top she wore had slits at the shoulders, the silky fabric exposing tanned, muscled arms as it moved in the breeze. She wore khaki capris and sandals. Her long ebony-dark hair had been pulled up in back with a clip so the ends cascaded down her back. For as banged up as she was, she looked beautiful.

  “I’m betting though that you’re carrying a gun,” he said, eyeing the leather shoulder bag hanging off one shoulder.

  “You better hope I am.” She laughed, but stopped quickly as if she was still light-headed.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” he whispered, stepping closer.

  “Dandy.”

  Past her, he saw Whitney and Ashley. Neither looked in a celebratory mood. When they spotted the deputy marshal, they jumped apart as if talking to each other would make them look more guilty.

  “This could be a fun picnic,” he said under his breath.

  A few moments later Brittany arrived with her husband and small brood. Jordan was taken back again at how happy and content she looked.

  I want that, he thought as his gaze shifted to Liza.

  As their gondola came around, they climbed in and made room for Whitney and Ashley, who’d come up behind them. Both women, though, motioned that they would take the next one.

  “I’d love to know what they’re hiding,” Jordan said as he sat across from the deputy marshal. The gondola door closed then rocked as it began its ascent up the mountain. He had a view of the resort and the peaks from where he sat. And a view of Liza.

  He could also see the gondola below them and the two women inside. They had their heads together. He wondered at the power Shelby still held over these women she’d lorded over in high school. Did anyone ever really get over high school?

  “There’s something I need to ask you,” Liza said, drawing his attention back to her, which was no hardship. “How was it that you were the first person on the scene last night?”

  He smiled, knowing that Hud was behind this. “I got worried about you and I wanted to see you. I drove up the canyon thinking I could talk you into having dinner with me. Another car had stopped before I got there. I was just the first to go into the river.” He hated that she was suspicious of him, but then again he couldn’t really blame her.

  “Did you see the pickup that forced me off the road?”

  He nodded. “But it was just an old pickup. I was looking for your patrol SUV so I really didn’t pay any attention.”

  She nodded. “I’d already told you I wasn’t having dinner with you.”

  He grinned. “I thought I could charm you into changing your mind.” He hurried on before she could speak. “I know y
ou already told me no, but I thought we could at least pick up something and take it back to my cabin or your condo.”

  “You just don’t give up, do you?”

  “Kind of like someone else I know,” he said and smiled at her. “I didn’t have any ulterior motives. I’ve given this a lot of thought. Somehow, I think it all goes back to that party Tanner had at the cabin that night and the vandalism.”

  “And the photographs?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I wish I’d stayed around long enough that night to tell you who took them.”

  They were almost to the top of the gondola ride. Off to his left, he saw where the caterers had set up the food for the picnic.

  The gondola rocked as it came to a stop and the door opened. Jordan quickly held the doors open while the deputy marshal climbed out, then he followed, recalling what he could of that night, which wasn’t much.

  * * *

  LIZA HOPED THE PICNIC WOULDN’T be quite as bad as the dinner had been. Jordan got them a spot near Shelby and the gang on one of the portable picnic tables that had been brought up the mountain.

  “Whatever happened to you?” Shelby exclaimed loud enough for everyone to hear when she saw Liza.

  While everyone in the canyon would have heard about her accident, Liza smiled and said, “Tripped. Sometimes I am so clumsy.”

  Shelby laughed. “You really should be more careful.” Then she went back to holding court at her table. The usual suspects were in attendance and Tessa had been allowed to join in.

  Liza watched out of the corner of her eye. Shelby monopolized the conversation with overly cheerful banter. But it was as if a pall had fallen over her group that not even she could lift.

  After they ate, some of the picnickers played games in the open area next to the ski lift. When Liza spotted Tessa heading for the portable toilets set up in the trees, she excused herself and followed.

  Music drifted on the breeze. A cloudless blue sky hung over Lone Peak. It really was the perfect day for a picnic and she said as much to Tessa when she caught up with her.

  “Deputy,” Tessa said.

  “Why don’t you call me Liza.”

  The woman smiled. “So I forget that I’m talking to the law?”

  “I’m here as Jordan Cardwell’s date.”

  Tessa chuckled at that, then sobered. “What happened to you?”

  “Someone tried to stop me from looking into Alex’s and Tanner’s deaths.”

  The woman let out a groan.

  “I was hoping you would have contacted me to talk,” Liza said. “I can see you’re troubled.”

  “Troubled?” Tessa laughed as she glanced back toward the group gathered below them on the mountain.

  Liza followed her gaze and saw Shelby watching them. “We should step around the other side.”

  Tessa didn’t argue. As they moved out of Shelby’s sight, Tessa stopped abruptly and reached into her shoulder bag. “Here,” she said, thrusting an envelope at the deputy marshal. “Alex left it with me and told me not to show it to anyone. He said to just keep it and not look inside until I had to.”

  Liza saw that it was sealed. “You didn’t look?”

  Tessa shook her head quickly.

  “What did he mean, ‘until you had to’?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t know what’s in there and I don’t care. If anyone even found out I had it…”

  “Why did he trust you with this?” Liza had to ask.

  Tessa looked as if she wasn’t going to answer, then seemed to figure there was no reason to lie anymore. “I was in love with him. I have been since high school. Shelby always told me he wasn’t good enough for me.” She began to cry, but quickly wiped her eyes at the sound of someone moving through the dried grass on the other side of the portable toilets.

  Liza hurriedly stuffed the envelope into her own shoulder bag.

  An instant later Shelby came around the end of the stalls. “Are they all occupied?” she asked, taking in the two of them, then glancing toward the restrooms.

  “I just used that one,” Liza improvised. She turned and started back down the hillside.

  Behind her she heard Shelby ask Tessa, “What did she want?”

  She didn’t hear Tessa’s answer, but she feared Shelby wouldn’t believe anything her friend said anyway. Tessa was running scared and anyone could see it—especially Shelby, who had her own reasons for being afraid.

  Liza thought about the manila envelope Alex had left in Tessa’s safekeeping. What was inside it? The photographs that Shelby had been trying to get her hands on? Liza couldn’t wait to find out.

  * * *

  HUD HAD PUT A RUSH ON ELLA’S relational DNA test. He’d done it for Dana’s sake. He saw that by the hour she was getting more attached to that baby. If he was right and Stacy had kidnapped it, then Dana’s heart was going to be broken.

  He was as anxious as she was to get the results. Meanwhile he needed to search for Stacy as he continued to watch for possible kidnappings on the law enforcement networks.

  So far, he’d come up with nothing.

  He found himself worrying not only about Stacy’s disappearance, but also everything else that was going on. He’d done his best to stay out of Liza’s hair. She could handle the murder case without him, he kept telling himself. Still, he’d been glad when Hilde had called and said she could come stay with Dana if he needed her to.

  His phone rang as he paced in the living room. He’d never been good at waiting. He saw on caller ID that it was Shelby Durran-Iverson.

  “Marshal Savage,” he answered and listened while Shelby complained about Liza. It seemed she’d seen the deputy kissing Jordan. Hud swore silently. He had warned Liza about Jordan, but clearly she hadn’t listened.

  “Deputies get to have private lives,” he told Shelby.

  “Really? Even with the man who was with Alex when he was murdered? I would think Jordan Cardwell is a suspect. Or at least should be.”

  It was taking all his self-control to keep from telling Shelby that she was more of a suspect than Jordan was.

  “I’ll look into it,” he said.

  “I should hope you’d do more than that. Isn’t fraternizing with a suspect a violation that could call for at least a suspension—if not dismissal?”

  “I said I would look into it.” He hung up just as a car pulled up in front of the house. With a sigh of relief, he started to open the door to greet Hilde when he saw that it wasn’t her car. Nor was it Stacy’s.

  When he saw who climbed out, he let out a curse. Before he could answer the door, his phone rang again. Figuring to get all the bad news over with quickly, he took the call from the lab as he heard footfalls on the porch and a tentative knock at the door.

  “Hud, who is that at the door?” Dana called.

  He listened to the lab tech give him the news, then thanked him and, disconnecting, stepped to her bedroom doorway.

  “What is it?” she demanded. “Was that the lab on the phone?”

  He nodded. “Ella is your niece.”

  Dana began to cry and laugh at the same time as she looked into Ella’s beautiful face.

  There was another knock at the door.

  “Is that Stacy?” she asked, looking up, her eyes full of hope.

  He shook his head. “I wish,” he said and went to answer the door.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Clay?” Dana said as her younger brother appeared in the bedroom doorway, Jordan at his heels.

  “Hi,” he said shyly. Clay had always been the quiet one, the one who ducked for cover when the rest of them were fighting. “Jordan told me you’re pregnant with twins. Congratulations.”

  “Jordan?” she asked, shooting a look at her older brother. “Clay, what are
you doing here?”

  “I called Clay at the studio where I knew he was working,” Jordan said.

  “The studio let me use the company plane, so here I am,” Clay said.

  “Tell me what is going on. Why haven’t you cashed your checks for the past six months and why does Stacy have your car?”

  “Easy,” Hud said as he stepped into the room. He gave both her brothers a warning look.

  She didn’t look at her husband. Her gaze was on her younger brother.

  “I’ve been in Europe the past six months, then I changed apartments and forgot to put in a change of address,” Clay said. “That’s why I haven’t cashed my checks. As for the car, I wasn’t using it, so I told Stacy she could have it. I’m working for a movie studio in L.A. so I have a studio car that picks me up every morning.”

  “I’m glad things are going well for you,” Dana said. “But you know what’s going on with Stacy, don’t you?”

  “All I know is that she said she needed to get here to the ranch and could she borrow my car,” Clay said. “So where is she?”

  “That is the question,” Hud said next to him. “She seems to have disappeared.”

  “Well, if you’re worried because she has my car, it’s no big deal.”

  “It’s not the car that we’re worried about,” Dana said. “She left her baby here.”

  “Her baby?” Clay said. “Stacy has a baby?”

  At the sound of another vehicle, Hud quickly left the room. Dana assumed it would be Hilde, but when he returned, he had Liza with him.

  “You’ve met my brother Clay,” Dana said.

  Liza nodded. “Looks like you’re having a family reunion.”

  “Doesn’t it though,” Hud said under his breath.

  “Yes, all we need is Stacy,” Dana said. “And a larger bedroom.” She saw a look pass between the deputy and her husband. “I know that look. What’s happened?”