by Tina Leonard
It was a mistake he would not repeat.
The doorbell rang, and he was glad for the interruption. "Nan must have decided to use the front door for a change."
Pulling his gaze away from the warmth in Tessa's eyes, he went to open the door.
Hester barged past him into the living room, spying Tessa as she stood in the connecting hall.
"Mama, you should be resting," Tessa said.
"I'd sooner be resting in my casket than believe my eyes, Tessa Draper." Hester's eyes were scornful and angry. "Betty told me you hadn't been to your house in days, and right then, I
knew exactly where you'd be. Have you no shame at all?"
Tessa clutched Ellie to her, her blood running fast and cold. "Let me take you home."
"You get back home where you belong." She shot Cord a poisonous stare. "You're not going to throw yourself at him just because Spy-boy dumped you. Either you go home to your house, or you come home with me, but you leave this house where you've known sin."
The words hurt, but Tessa put her shoulders back and breathed deeply.
"I have not been dumped, and Hunt is not the horrible things you call him. If you can't speak to me respectfully, I'll have to ask you to leave."
"You should leave yourself!"
"I go where I want to. But I'm not leaving with you."
Her mother neared her, her attention caught by the necklace at Tessa's throat.
"Oh, sweet Jesus," she said. "The sugar does flow freely at Daddy's house, doesn't it?"
Cord started to defend Tessa, but she moved to the front door.
"Mother, I won't have you insulting me. I'll take you home or you can leave, but you're not going to stand here and insult Cord or my baby."
Hester wagged her finger at her.
"I promise this is the last chance you'll ever have for respectability. Either you leave with me now or my door is closed to you for good."
"That's your choice. Mama." Tessa shrugged, shaking her head but keeping her gaze locked with her mother's.
"Fine talk from a hussy." Hester glared at both of them. "I can't stand the sight of you. Don't ever darken my door again, especially not showing that big belly of yours. And don't ever bring your bastard child to my house and expect me to love it. "
Hester slammed out of the house.
"I really wouldn't expect you to love anyone, Mama," Tessa said, more to herself than anything. She hugged the puppy to her.
Cord closed his eyes. Hester had just thrown down a gauntlet Tessa would feel compelled to pick up. She would never stay under his roof another night - and she sure as hell wouldn't consent to marry him to give her child a name and love and a father. Hester's bitter words
would make her even more determined to raise her child alone.
Which wouldn't be a bad thing under normal circumstances.
Tessa was more than capable. But his brother had left her in a situation that was far from normal. The last thing she needed was her mother making certain she chose the direction that could lead to trouble.
"I don't suppose we could pretend she never showed up?"
"No." The slightest smile curved her lips. "I've often wished for that very thing, but unfortunately, Mama always makes sure her presence leaves scars." She sighed, putting her nose to the puppy's fur. "I'd better go. If nothing else, I know now that people are gossiping. This is a small town, and I don't want my child growing up being the favorite topic of
the day." She rubbed her stomach a little regretfully.
"Lately, I've been thinking about moving away. Maybe back to Dallas for good."
It was the last thing Cord expected her to say. His heart jerked uncomfortably, as if it stopped beating for the slightest second. He hoped she was speaking out of pain, but as he stared at her, he realized she meant every word.
If Tessa left Crookseye Canyon, taking his niece or nephew with her, the hole gouged in his life would be deeper and blacker than the dark tunnel of knowing he would never see his brother again.
"I realize then the talk will be that I was abandoned by Hunt and was too ashamed to stay." Tessa nuzzled Ellie before opening the front door to set her outside.
"But at least my child won't have to grow up with the whispers. Eventually, no one will remember me. Like Hunt, that may be the best thing for me, and for my child. "
Who would have thought Tessa and Hunt's relationship wouldn't just end but would result in their disappearing, each for their own reasons?
Cord's chest was heavy with the knowledge.
"Maybe it would be the best thing for you."
He didn't say he wouldn't like it because she already knew he'd take being an uncle seriously. And it wouldn't be right to hamstring her with his breaking heart. The best thing he could do for her was say goodbye.
"Yoo-hoof" Nan's voice drifted across the field.
"Yoooo-hoooo!" Unsteadily, she walked a treacherous path over the ice-slick snow. She carried a hunting rifle sideways in front of her.
"Oh, my God, I hope that's not loaded!"
Cord narrowed his eyes on his neighbor. "It's her husband's rifle. I'm willing to bet she's been cleaning it or wants me to fix something on it for her."
Nan weaved slightly before finding better footing.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think she was... drunk."
Cord nodded.
"She may have had a mite too much."
"Is that common?" Tessa's voice was astonished, though not condescending.
They watched as the elderly woman moved toward them slowly.
"Every once in a while, she lets me know she's going to wet her whistle. I join her when I can just to keep her from being too lonely." He strode across the snow toward Nan, his boots crushing the crisp layer of hard-packed snow.
"Come on," he told her, gently taking the rifle from her so he could support her. "I've got a fireplace that's just waiting to be warmed up, and a chair right beside it. You should have called me. Nan. I would have driven you over."
"Didn't want to bother you." Nan gazed at him owlishly. "Ish better for you to take care of Tesha. She needs you now."
"I still have time for a lady who makes certain I've got a hot loaf of bread in my kitchen on Sundays. Easy on the step." He carefully maneuvered her around Ellie, who hadn't moved a paw but sat shivering on the walk. Tessa grabbed Nan's other arm and together they helped
her to the wing chair opposite Cord's recliner.
"You shouldn't be out in the snow. Ish dangerous when you're carrying so high. Means it's a boy," Nan told Tessa.
Cord pretended not to notice Tessa's dangerously pink face as he settled an afghan across Nan's lap. She leaned her head against the headrest and promptly began to snore. He shook his head, waving Tessa to the hallway.
"Take the keys to my truck so you can get home, if that's all right. I'll have Nan drive me to your place later when she's slept this off."
"What? I'm not leaving you here with her like that!"
"Why not?" He frowned. "She's comfortable. This won't be the first time we've had a cozy chat over a few drinks and a hot fire." He checked the rifle. "Not loaded." Leaning it up against the wall, he decided against that and put it in the gun cabinet with his.
"Cord!" Tessa's plea for his attention turned him around. "I just can't run out on you when you could use my help. You've been too good to me. "
He wasn't going to have Tessa stay for that reason. If she felt it was better if she went home, he wouldn't fight her.
"I don't need your help with Nan. She's just lonely. Trust me. This passes soon enough. And it won't happen again for another month."
"I see." Tessa put her coat on slowly. "If you're sure, then. I would like to go home. I'd like to wash some clothes, see if I've got any mail..."
Her voice drifted away, and suddenly he heard what she couldn't say.
She needed to go to her own home, where everything was normal and familiar. Maybe walk around in fuzzy slippers and a worn bathrobe,
the way she'd done before he banged on her door and insisted she come with him.
"Here are my keys." He reached into his pocket, digging them out, lightly pressing them into her palm because she hadn't raised her hand to take them from him. Sensing her indecision, he opened the front door where Ellie still sat, uninterested in moving now that the real cold was settling in.
"Go. I'll call you later to check on you."
"Thank you," she said on a whisper. Scooping up her puppy and taking one last uncertain glance at Nan, she made her way down the steps.
He'd shoveled the driveway and it wasn't steep out to the main road.
All she had to do was navigate a wide circle around the woods and she'd be on sanded road. The truck engine roared to life, and Cord closed the door.
It had been a helluva day for goodbyes. Nan still dozed in front of the unlit fire, so he could get the logs started and grab himself a beer from the fridge.
He was almost in relax mode when the truck horn blasted over and over again from the road.
Panicked, Tessa punched the truck horn repeatedly, knowing the sound would bring Cord running. In less than a minute, he jerked open the truck door.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
She heard the worry and knew it was for her, but she couldn't speak to reassure him. With a shaking finger, she pointed to the man's shoe at the side of the road. It was a dress shoe, not inexpensive – and certainly not the kind of shoe one left lying in the gutter. She had a
bad feeling she knew how it had gotten there - and whose it was.
Cord examined the shoe, then followed what could be the path of a body being dragged into the dense, dark woods. Tessa shuddered with cold and distress, realizing she couldn't sit in the truck even with the doors locked. Terror was taking hold of her. Holding Ellie, she slid
down from the seat and headed after Cord, calling his name.
He joined her, grabbing her arm to steady her.
"You should stay in the truck."
Her teeth chattered uncontrollably. "I can't."
He didn't say anything else, his attention turning to the soft dirt and debris of pine needles and decaying leaves.
There wasn't enough light for anything to be very visible.
Tessa shook, her whole being trembling.
"Oh, God. Oh, no. Damn it to hell!"
Tessa nearly shrieked at the sound of Cord's emphatic cursing.
"What? What did you find?" She ran after him, though he tried to stop her from seeing what was hidden behind a fallen log.
John West lay faceup, his eyes unseeing, his face wet with melted snow.
His overcoat sprawled out from him, as if he'd been dragged and thrown carelessly to the ground. His other shoe remained oddly on his foot.
That forlorn disparity took Tessa to the edge of hysteria.
She whispered, "I'm going to throw up," and the last thing she remembered was Cord reaching out his arms to her. She was never so glad for anything in her life as she let herself slip into the security of his arms.
Chapter Ten
"Look. I found a drunk woman passed out in your living room who says she was carrying a rifle. You say it wasn't loaded, but forensics may say something different." The sheriff eyed Cord and Tessa testily.
"You got guns on the premises. A man is found dead on your property. Give me something else to go on here."
"I don't know what more to tell you," Cord stated. "Those are the facts, at least the way you see them. Nan brought the gun over for me to look at because the trigger was jammed. Anyway, there's no blood on the corpse, and a rifle would have left a gory mess that would be easily seen in the snow. We have no reason to want the colonel dead. Quite the opposite, in fact."
"You were the last people who saw him alive. Then he winds up snuffed. I'm thinking that's no way to treat a guest - unless you had a beef with him."
"We were not the last people who saw him alive. Whoever killed him was." Cord's chest felt tight even as he said the words. The colonel had been trying to do him a favour - and the price for his kindness had been high.
The sheriff wrote something down on a pad before glancing at his officers who were in the process of marking the crime scene. Policemen were also spread out nearby, combing the woods for evidence. The sheriff glanced at his notes.
"So how's the military treating your brother?"
"He's... retired from the military, actually." Cord decided at thelast second he was going to say as little as possible about Hunt.
Tessa stood still beside him, her face white and drawn. He'd tried to talk her into going inside to sit with Nan, but she'd refused. She slipped her hand into his for just a second, squeezing it, and he realized she was trying to communicate her approval for his reticence
regarding Hunt.
"Doing civilian work now?" Sheriff Grimes pressed.
"To be honest, I'm not certain."
"When's the last time you saw him?"
Cord hesitated.
"It's been a while."
Sheriff Grimes stared at him. "A while. Can you tell me how long of a while?"
"I really can't."
The sheriff turned his attention to Tessa.
"How about you?" He scanned her pregnancy with interest. "I know you're on friendly terms with Hunt Greer."
"What does that have to do with anything?" she demanded.
"I don't know. Who wants to kill a military officer?" The sheriff shrugged. "Maybe someone who didn't get along with him in the military. Maybe a jealous woman. Maybe an old woman who carries a rifle with her when she visits her neighbors. I just like to check every angle." He glanced back at Cord.
"It's not likely the colonel paid house calls to just anyone in the armed forces. His presence here would lead a reasonable person to believe that he was on good terms with my brother, so there's no call to assume that we would want him dead."
"Maybe. Or on bad terms he came to tell you. Care to fill me in on what he needed to tell you at that hour of the night? I suppose I can assume it wasn't exactly a social call. "
"He was in the neighborhood and wanted to see if Hunt was around."
Sheriff Grimes rocked back on his heels, assessing Cord.
"You're dangerously close to being uncooperative, Mr. Greer."
Their gazes clashed, locking.
Finally, the sheriff said, "Still, that leaves you, the girlfriend and the old woman. I'll include the invisible brother. Oh, and of course, the chance murderer who happened to be roaming around private property at the same time the colonel was leaving your house. Short suspect
list."
"There were two strangers who came by my house one night. I have reason to believe they'd been camping out in the woods. "
" Oh?" The sheriff perked up. " Why do you say that? "
" Because I found cigarette butts and a food wrapper in the tree house. They must have
holed up there during the storm. "
"Let me see this tree house," the sheriff said with visible enthusiasm.
"I sawed it down this afternoon."
For the first time. Sheriff Grimes's eyes widened with surprise.
"You... sawed it down this afternoon?"
"Yes."
Tessa squeezed his hand unobtrusively, and he felt warmed by it.
"You destroyed evidence of someone trespassing on your land?"
Cord shrugged.
"It was a few cigarette butts, a little garbage."
The sheriff crossed his arms.
"I don't get it. Why did you saw it down? You could have simply cleaned it out."
"The tree was dead," Cord said softly, his tone low and firm.
"The tree was dead. Excellent." The sheriff looked like he might rub off what little brown hair he had as he scratched his head. "Mr. Greer, that puts me back to the old lady, you, the pregnant girlfriend, and lastly, the unreliable chance-murderer-in-the-woods theory." He shook his head.
"The two of you look awful close to me, r
eal tight for almost in-laws. I'm sure there's more to this story than the simple " We were inside having cocoa sitting by the cozy fireplace' routine. "
A deputy came to stand beside them.
"No blood, no strangulation. No obvious wounds. Contact kill. My guess is he was ambushed, dragged out of his car and set upon by someone who knew what they were doing. An autopsy may show more, but this is my assessment. The M.E. will have to figure out the rest."
Tessa gasped. Cord glanced at her white face, wrapping one arm around her shoulders to press her to him.
"Knew what they were doing?" Sheriff Grimes repeated.
"Yeah. For a body to have no apparent injury, no obvious needle marks or signs of violence, he may have been killed in a sophisticated manner such as the exertion of pressure or a blow to just the right spot. Again, the M.E. will examine the corpse thoroughly, but with the deceased's prominence in the military, it's possible someone followed him out here. Someone with knowledge of complex assassination."
The sheriff's gaze slid to Cord. "Thanks. Let me know the final cause of death."
The deputy walked away, but Sheriff Grimes kept his eyes trained on Cord.
"Your brother is in the military."
"Was."
The sheriff nodded.
"Was. And the colonel was. But he came out here with something to say - and wound up dead. You see, now it gets messy because the military will poke around in this, and maybe the FBI and the media. Journalists sniffing around, making news out of nothing. Course, in a small town, sometimes that's a way of life." His glance grazed Tessa's stomach. "Mr. Greer, my thought is that the colonel was on the way out here to see your brother, who was doing a little A.W.O.L. good-timing with Miss Draper, the mother of his child. Maybe your
brother didn't want to see the colonel, or whatever, but I don't think the deceased dropped by to pay you a friendly visit over Corona and chips.
So, if you're hiding your brother, now is the time to speak. Cause I really don't want the big boys coming out here and throwing their weight around on what could be a minor wrong - time, wrong - place murder, and you really don't want to be locked up for hampering an
investigation."
"Oh, no!" Tessa protested. She pushed away from the shelter of Cord's arm. "Hunt isn't here."
