Lucky Shot

by B. J Daniels

  “I feel better already,” he joked, smiling up at her.

  She looked into his blue eyes. “I couldn’t believe it when I got your message. You were mugged?”

  “At least that’s what my attacker wanted me to believe.”

  “What?”

  He motioned for her to close the hospital room door, before he spoke again. “Whoever attacked me last night wasn’t after the money in my wallet. He wanted my keys to get into my pickup. He took all my notes and your camera. I’m sorry, I’ll replace it with any camera you want.”

  “I don’t care about the camera,” she cried as she pulled up a chair next to his bed. “I’m just worried about you.”

  “Oh, yeah?” he asked, grinning again.

  “Be serious for once. You could have been killed.”

  “It’s just a minor concussion. He didn’t want to kill me or he would have. I’m guessing he just wanted to know how much I knew.” Max rubbed at his temples.

  “Your head hurts, huh? Can I get you something?”

  He smiled at her, even though she could tell it hurt. “Last night when you called, I was wishing you were with me. I’m so glad you weren’t.” He held her gaze. “How are you doing?”

  “Dad’s making arrangements for the funeral Friday.”

  “That soon?” He sounded as surprised as she’d been.

  “He wants it over as quickly as possible.”

  “The doctor said he’d release me later this afternoon. We’ll talk to him as soon as I get out of here. But there’s a problem. As soon as I came to and realized what had happened...my attacker took the photo.”

  “We can always get another copy, right?”

  He shook his head and then winced in pain. “I called the paper this morning as soon as the archivist got in. He said the original is missing.”

  “How is that possible?” she demanded.

  “The only way, given the paper’s security, is for someone to pay to have the original disappear. Kat, that photo has been in the archives since 1978. It wasn’t until we took an interest in it that it suddenly disappeared—along with our copy of it.”

  “The only other person who knew about the photo was my mother.” Kat sat back as that sank in. “If she told one of the members from the Prophecy, then that would mean—”

  “That she remembers a whole lot more than she is letting on. Let’s assume she really doesn’t remember. That means either someone at the paper tipped them off about my interest in the photo or I was right about her place being bugged.”

  “Max, this is scaring me. These people...they have resources... How can we possibly stop them?”

  “Your mother is still the key. And if we’re right, it’s tied in with your dad’s election. Is he going to continue running?”

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t said anything. But I fear if it came down to him either running for president or getting my mother back...”

  “He’d choose your mother. But if she needs him to be president, she won’t let that happen. Okay, don’t worry. We’ll talk to him.”

  “But without the photo...”

  Max sighed. “Yeah, your father won’t believe us. I doubt anyone would.”

  “What about your story?”

  He shook his head. “There’s nothing I can do until—”

  “Until the Prophecy does whatever they have planned, and by then, it will be too late.”

  He reached over and took her hand. “You’re freezing,” he said, rubbing her fingers to warm them. “Maybe we can’t convince your father, but if we can put enough doubt in his mind... Also, I think we need to go to the sheriff. I met him this morning. He seems like a good man.”

  She nodded. “I’ve known him all my life. He is a good man.”

  “Then we’ll tell him our story. He might not believe us either, but we have to try.”

  “But Sheriff Curry won’t be able to do anything,” Kat said. “We still have no proof.”

  “I’ll keep looking for it. Maybe I’ll get lucky.” He let go of her hand. “But I have to do this alone. It’s too dangerous for you to be involved.”

  “That must have been some knock on your head,” Kat said as she got to her feet, “because you should know I’m in this with you, one way or the other. You should get some rest. I’ll come back this afternoon. I don’t want you driving until you’re better.”

  She bent over the bed and kissed him before he could argue.

  As she started to pull back, he cupped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down for another kiss; this one curled her toes. Her gaze locked with his as he let go.

  “What happened to your golden rule?”

  “That baby is permanently broken,” he said. “If a nurse wasn’t apt to walk in here at any moment, you know what I’d do?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “Save it, Casanova. I’d say you aren’t up for much of anything right now.”

  “I might surprise you.”

  Kat laughed again. “Nothing you could do would surprise me.”

  “Now, that sounds like a challenge to me. I do love a challenge.

  She sighed and started to leave when he grabbed her again. “Kat?” he said, turning serious again. “Be careful. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”

  * * *

  MAX COULDN’T WAIT to get out of the hospital. His head still hurt, but he was anxious to get to Kat.

  He told himself that she should be safe on the ranch. His attacker last night had gotten what he wanted. He shouldn’t have any reason to come back.

  But Max didn’t want to take any chances with her safety. Once they talked to her father and then the sheriff, it would be out of their hands.

  Well, at least out of Kat’s. No matter what she said, she was done. He would have to keep digging. While he’d told Kat that the Prophecy might be bluffing about having something big coming down, he tended to believe it.

  And if he had to put his money on what it was, he’d bet on Buckmaster Hamilton as the target.

  He reminded himself that he was just a reporter. He had no business playing cops and robbers. But if they couldn’t get anyone to believe them, then he had no choice. He couldn’t stand back and let Kat’s father die—and the country take the hit—if he could help it.

  The election was still a year away, he reminded himself. He was convinced they wouldn’t do anything until then. But if he could uncover the truth before then...

  He looked up to see Kat coming down the hallway, and all his grand reasons for helping her went out the window. He was falling for this woman, plain and simple. Seeing her made his day.

  “Ready?” she said.

  He nodded and put his arm around her as they walked out of the hospital, as if he needed her to keep him upright. He suspected he did, which should have scared him off.

  They spoke little on the drive to the ranch. “Did you tell your father we needed to talk to him?”

  She nodded as she drove. “He gave me the impression he thinks you are going to ask for my hand in marriage.” She laughed as she looked over at him. “Don’t panic and bail out of the car.”

  He laughed, too, since bailing out was the last thing he wanted to do.

  * * *

  THE SENATOR WAS waiting for them in his den. He looked up and smiled as they entered. Max noticed that he’d seemed to age in the past twenty-four hours.

  Buckmaster shook his hand and offered him and Kat a drink. They both declined, so he made a drink for himself, and they all sat down.

  “You have something you want to tell me?” the senator asked, looking expectantly from Kat to Max and back again.

  “This may come as a shock,” Max said.

  Buckmaster laughed as if he still thought this was about Kat
and Max getting married.

  “We have discovered something disturbing in your former wife’s past,” Max said.

  The older man’s face fell.

  “I forgot for a moment that you’re a reporter,” the senator said, all friendliness gone.

  “I found a photograph of Sarah Johnson when she was in college,” Max said as if the man hadn’t spoken. “She belonged to a radical group called—”

  “Let me stop you right there,” Buckmaster said getting to his feet. “I don’t give a damn what Sarah might have—”

  “You must listen to us,” Kat said. “Max and I talked to two of the members of the group. They’re behind bars and have been since 1979. They told us that they have something big planned. Dad, we think they plan to kill you or at least compromise you in some way once you’re—”

  “Enough,” Buckmaster snapped. He set his half-empty drink down too hard on the coffee table. “I’m going through enough right now without this.”

  “I know the timing couldn’t be worse, but these people mugged Max last night to steal the photograph we had of the group. If you had seen the shot of Mother—”

  “You’re trying to tell me that your mother was involved in a mugging? You’re worse than Angelina about this. I don’t give a damn about Sarah’s past, and I don’t want to hear anymore.” He started for the door.

  “Mother called herself Red and dyed her hair,” Kat said to his retreating back. “They blew up government buildings, robbed banks and ended up killing five people. They call themselves the Prophecy, and Mother was one of the ringleaders.”

  He seemed to stumble at the doorway. But he hesitated only a moment and was gone.

  For a few moments, neither of them filled the silence that hung in the den.

  “I’m sorry, Kat,” Max finally said. “I knew he wouldn’t want to believe it. Even if we’d had the photo...”

  She nodded. “I know. Look how long I was in denial. He loves her,” she said simply. “And I’m afraid it’s going to get him killed.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  SHERIFF FRANK CURRY had his hands full with one dead reporter and another who’d been mugged. So he wasn’t exactly excited when he got the call that Max Malone and Kat Hamilton were waiting at his office. “They said it is important.”

  “Great,” he said into the phone. “Tell them I’m on my way.” He disconnected and asked his undersheriff if he had everything under control. The area had been secured after the remains had been identified as those belonging to Chuck Barrow.

  “It will be next to impossible to give you a cause of death,” the coroner had told him earlier. “Had his body been found a few months ago before the bears got to it—”

  “I get the picture,” Frank had said.

  “What’s up?” he said now as he stepped into his office to see the two young people waiting for him.

  “You might want to close the door,” Max said.

  Frank did. He was both curious and strangely anxious. Their expressions were so serious. “If this is about your mugging—”

  “It’s much bigger than that,” Max said. “We have information about Sarah Hamilton.”

  Now they had his attention. He moved behind his desk and sat down, trying hard not to look too eager.

  “I stumbled across a photo,” Max said and proceeded to tell him a remarkable story that ended with his mugging and the original picture missing from the newspaper in Los Angeles.

  At some point in the story, Frank felt goose bumps break out as his heart began to pound. He’d been right about Sarah Hamilton being up to something.

  When Max finished, Frank said carefully, “That is some story.”

  “I was with Max when we talked to the prisoners. They told us to our faces that the Prophecy is planning something big.”

  “And you say Sarah was the leader of this group?” Frank asked.

  “Coleader, but my sources say she was believed to be the brains behind it,” Max confirmed.

  Frank thought about the way Sarah had returned to Beartooth—parachuting into an area far from everything. The memory loss. The good Dr. Venable and his brain-wiping experiments. Even the tattoo. It all made sense.

  “Have you told anyone else about this?” he asked.

  “We talked to my father earlier,” Kat said.

  “And?”

  “He didn’t believe us.”

  The sheriff nodded. “This is all very interesting.”

  “It’s all true,” Max said. “If we had the photograph... Red, as she was called, was Sarah.”

  “She looked just like me at my age,” Kat put in. “I didn’t want to believe at first, but the men we talked to at the prison confirmed it.”

  “But she was never caught, nor was there any proof your mother was involved, or she would be in prison,” the sheriff pointed out. “You talked to her about this?”

  “We showed her the photo,” Kat said.

  Which was why they no longer had it, Frank thought. And why Max had a knot on his head and a minor concussion.

  “How did your mother react?” he asked, wishing he’d been there.

  “She didn’t recognize herself or anyone in the photo,” Max said.

  “She didn’t see the resemblance to this woman, Red?”

  He shook his head. “I believed her,” Max added. “I don’t think she remembers.”

  Frank nodded. The brain wipe wasn’t just the past twenty-two years, then. Or Sarah was a great liar.

  “If you had seen the photograph,” Kat said, sounding close to tears.

  Frank nodded. “But without hard evidence...especially given who we’re dealing with here...”

  “We think that she and the others may be planning to harm my father or worse, once he is president,” Kat said, her voice breaking.

  Max reached over and took her hand.

  “If there is any kind of attempt on your father’s life—or even a rumor of possible harm, the government will protect a candidate for president,” Frank said.

  Max looked up at him, deadly serious. “Sheriff, you may want to see that a security detail is put in place as soon as possible.”

  “Let me see what I can do.”

  “What about exposing my mother and her crazy friends?” Kat demanded.

  “That’s a little trickier,” the sheriff said. “Even if you went to the FBI or Homeland Security right now, they would be hesitant because of who your mother is. Without proof...”

  “Then we’ll find proof,” Kat said with conviction.

  “I fear that could be dangerous if you’re right about all this, which I’m not saying you’re not,” Frank said. “I would just be careful, if I were you two.”

  * * *

  “HE BELIEVED US,” Max said as they were driving away from the sheriff’s department.

  Kat looked over at him in surprise. “How can you say that?”

  “My guess is that he’d already been suspicious for some reason. He didn’t seem hesitant about getting protection for your father.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He wasn’t shocked enough,” Max argued. “But I do think the Prophecy was news to him. I’m betting he’s finding out everything he can about it right now.”

  “Do you think he will be able to get some sort of security for the rest of the campaign?”

  “I’m not sure your father needs it just yet, but he might as well get used to it. Once he’s president...”

  “We don’t even know he’ll still run,” Kat said as she looked out the window at the country blurring past. It was fall in Montana. The cottonwoods and aspens were still golden, because there hadn’t been a hard frost yet.

  “Also, your mother might go ahead and marry Russell.”

&nbs
p; She shook her head. “I’m betting that she was looking to Russell for support and that he wasn’t exactly the love of her life.”

  “I can’t help but think this was all part of the plan,” Max said. “Once Angelina was out of the picture—”

  “You think they killed her?” Kat knew she shouldn’t have been shocked. They’d attacked Max last night on the main street in Big Timber.

  “I’d like to think they’re too old for this, that there are only a few of them left, that after killing five people, they realized what a waste it had all been. They hadn’t accomplished anything. Ask anyone on the street, and they would never even have heard of the Prophecy.”

  “But you think they’ve recruited younger members?”

  He shook his head. “I sure as hell hope not. But those two in prison are certainly just as rabid as they were back in the ’70s. It makes me wonder what the other ones have been up to.”

  She looked up and realized they were headed toward Beartooth. “Where are we going?”

  “The Branding Iron. I’m—”

  “Starved? Really? At a time like this.”

  He looked over at her sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m a man ruled by his needs.” He grinned. “You should be glad I’m only hungry right now.”

  Kat thought about the night in the taxi. He’d been ready to break his golden rule. But today...he’d probably come to his senses, which she should be thankful for. Was she really ready to go there?

  The café was empty this late in the afternoon. Kat spotted the owner, Kate French, with her baby and said over her shoulder to Max, “I can order for myself. I want to see Kate’s little girl.”

  Callie, the waitress, broke away from the baby to come take his order and Kat’s. As the bell over the door jangled, an elderly couple came in, and Callie went over to talk to them.

  “Cute baby?” Max asked when Kat rejoined him.

  “Adorable.”

  He was watching the waitress and the older couple.

  “That’s Callie’s grandparents she never knew until a few months ago. It’s a long story, but nice to see that they found each other. She’s married to the former US marshal Rourke Kincaid. They have a ranch outside of town. Max?”