by B. J Daniels
Cordell pushed back his chair and walked over to the fireplace. She watched him grab the mantel and lower his head. “This Orville Cline, where is he now?”
“Serving time at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. He confessed to taking Emily Frank and killing her.”
Cordell spun around in surprise. “Wait, if—”
“He lied. I have evidence that he couldn’t possibly have taken Emily Frank.” She picked up the folder on Orville Cline and handed it to Cordell, who read it standing up. She watched him read the confessions Orville had made during the trial. Raine had read this so many times, she could have recited the man’s confession to Emily Frank’s abduction and murder verbatim.
Cordell snapped the folder shut and looked up in surprise. “Why would he confess in horrific detail about an abduction and murder he’d didn’t commit? Maybe he confused her with another little girl.”
Raine shook her head. “They don’t forget or mix up their victims. That’s part of the high they get out of it, remembering. He knew he didn’t take Emily Frank.”
“Then why confess?”
She rose and walked over to the French doors again.
The rain had stopped and now a cool breeze swept across the balcony smelling sweet and summery. “I think he made some kind of deal with the couple who really abducted Emily.”
“But you don’t know that for a fact.”
“No, but I do know that he lied about it,” she said, turning back to him. “Open the small manila envelope.”
She opened the door wider. The breeze felt soothing against her cheek as she listened to him sort through the items on the desk. She heard him open it, heard his sharp intake of breath, then the silence that followed broken only by the rustle of the sixteen-year-old spiral notebook pages.
“My God,” Cordell said behind her. “Emily wrote this?”
“She kept a diary of the days she was imprisoned after her abduction. Her handwritten notes contradict what Orville Cline said happened. He lied.”
Cordell frowned. “Where did you get these?”
“They were sent to me recently.”
That surprised him.
“I don’t know from whom or what their motive is, but I believe they want me to find out the truth about Emily Frank’s abduction.”
“Orville Cline?”
“Doubtful. I think it was one of the people who abducted Emily.”
“Why would… Are you telling me you think one of them wants the truth to come out?”
She shrugged. “That’s what I thought until someone tried to run me down last night.”
“Exactly. It looks more like they just tricked you into coming up here. If you’re telling the truth, someone tried to kill you last night. That was no accident behind the hotel.” He was frowning again. “But why? If Orville Cline confessed to Emily Frank’s killing, they are in the clear. So…why contact you?”
“Journalists are often targets,” she hedged. “Especially ones who might have some new information on the case.”
“Can you prove this Orville Cline couldn’t have taken Emily?”
“Not yet,” she admitted. “But that diary Emily kept proves he lied about the details.”
Cordell looked down at the pages with the heartbreaking words neatly printed on them. Like her, he had to be awed by the girl’s courage, her hope and faith in a world that hadn’t been kind to her, her perseverance in such a horrible situation. Emily believed she would be rescued.
“The person who sent you these has to be involved,” he said quietly as if the full weight was just now making an impact on him. “If you’re right and Emily wasn’t the only child they abducted and there is even a chance that this person wants the abductions to stop…”
“Now do you understand why I’m here, why I’m willing to risk my life?”
ENID HAD A SCOWL ON her face when Pepper walked into the kitchen. Nothing new there. She studied her housekeeper, considering giving her hell for eavesdrop ping on her private conversation. But Enid had been eavesdropping for years. It was one reason she was still employed here. She’d overheard too much.
“Brand is coming,” Pepper said. “Please make a room for him. I told him to plan on having supper with us.”
Enid grunted unhappily and Pepper had to wonder why the woman stayed. Then grimaced at her own foolishness. Enid was here only for one thing: the Winchester fortune. She planned to get her share. One way or another.
An uneasy truce had hung between them since the latest secrets had been uncovered at the ranch. Though no bargain was made, it was assumed that Enid would stay on at the ranch as housekeeper and cook. But she would be rewarded for her loyalty.
The elderly Enid never spoke of her husband’s murder nor did she seem to grieve for his loss. If anything, Alfred appeared quickly forgotten by his wife.
Pepper understood such behavior, though she secretly believed she’d been grieving for her own lost husband for years.
“Did you see what your latest grandson dragged in here?” Enid said, raising her eyes to the ceiling where she’d made up rooms for Cordell and the young reporter. “We’ll be lucky not to be murdered in our sleep.”
Pepper laughed at that. She’d put money on herself and Enid being much more dangerous than that young woman upstairs. She watched Enid make a vegetable beef soup for their lunch. It had been days since the elderly cook had attempted to drug her.
For months after her son Trace’s disappearance, Pepper had welcomed the drugs Enid surreptitiously slipped her. She had welcomed the oblivion. She hadn’t even considered why Enid was doing it.
But once Trace’s murder had come to light, everything had changed. Pepper now wanted her wits about her. She was in search of the truth about her son’s murder and suspected there had been an accomplice—right in this house.
It was why she’d gotten her family back here. Also why she dumped most cups of tea her housekeeper brought her down the drain.
Enid was no fool. She had to know. Which made her wonder what Enid would do next.
One thing Pepper knew for certain. It was just a matter of time before the aging housekeeper would demand payment for keeping Pepper’s secrets.
“I’m going to find Cordell,” Pepper said, gripping her cane.
Enid shot her a disapproving look. “I hope you’re not planning to ask another one to stay on the ranch.”
“With Alfred gone, we need Jack here,” she said of her grandson Jack Winchester. Jack had promised to come back. He and his new bride, Josey, were on an extended honeymoon, but Pepper was hoping when he returned that he would take her up on his offer to turn Winchester Ranch into a working ranch again.
“That new bride of his isn’t going to want to come back here,” Enid said.
“It can be lonely and sometimes the wind…” She shook her head, remembering how the sound of the wind had nearly driven her crazy when her husband had brought her here after their honeymoon. “It can be a harsh, unforgiving place.”
Enid huffed at that. “Life is what you make it.” Her gaze met Pepper’s. “But I guess I don’t have to tell you that. You’ve managed fine, haven’t you?”
She heard the insinuation in Enid’s words. Keeping secrets was a dangerous proposition, Pepper wanted to tell her. Enid thought she had her right where she wanted her. But Pepper had a plan.
Actually, she felt it was her duty not to leave this world without first making sure this mean, old bitch was sent straight to hell ahead of her.
Chapter Six
Cordell started at the knock and quickly put all of the documents back into Raine’s satchel.
At the door he found the housekeeper. “Your grandmother wants a word with you down in the parlor,” Enid said. “Also dinner will be served tonight at six sharp. Don’t be late.”
Cordell had been waiting for the other shoe to drop since receiving the letter from his grandmother’s lawyer. He glanced back at Raine, hating to leave her alone.
“Do I have
time to take a bath?” she asked, getting to her feet. When she reached to take the satchel with her to her room, he stopped her, saying, “Leave that. I’d like to look at it again. I need to go see what my grandmother wants.”
She nodded and scooped up her computer. He didn’t say anything, pretty sure she couldn’t get Internet service out here and what difference would it make if she could?
“We’ll leave as soon as we can. Believe me, I’m more anxious to get out of here than you are.”
Cordell waited until Raine disappeared into her room across the hall before he stepped out, closed and locked his own room. Enid saw him pocket the old skeleton key. He knew he’d only managed to increase her curiosity.
Pepper was waiting for him, standing at the window leaning on her cane in what Enid had called the parlor. It was a nice-size room with leather furniture, a stone fireplace and a single large window that opened to the front of the house. Even though it was June, a blaze burned in the fireplace, but did little to do away with the chill in this house.
When she heard him enter the room, Pepper turned and took one of the chairs. He sat across from her in a matching leather chair. It creaked under his weight and he realized this was the same furniture they’d had when he was a kid living here. In fact, little about the lodge had changed over the past twenty-seven years. Everything was more worn, but the memories were still fresh.
“I had hoped you would have answered my letter to let me know when you would be arriving,” his grandmother said reproachfully.
“The letter wasn’t from you, but your attorney, and I didn’t see any reason to answer it. Truthfully, I’d hoped I could change Cyrus’s mind about coming out to the ranch. I don’t have a lot of good memories of this place.”
“You don’t like me.”
“No.”
She smiled. “You and your brother look so much like your father.”
His jaw ached from clenching it. “I don’t really think you want to talk about that, do you?”
“Brand called. He’ll be here tomorrow and will be staying on the ranch.”
Cordell couldn’t help being surprised. He’d called his father after he’d received the letter from his grandmother, figuring Brand had gotten one, as well. He had. He’d been adamant about not coming back except for his mother’s funeral and, even then, he wasn’t sure about that.
Cordell’s father never talked about the ranch or his childhood here. He’d thrown himself into raising his boys after their mother had taken off when they were babies. Brand never said it, but he blamed Pepper. She couldn’t stand any of the women her sons brought home and made their lives hell until they couldn’t take it anymore and bailed.
After the twins left home, Brand threw himself into work. To Cordell it seemed his father had spent his life running away from the past.
“I know everyone blames me for their unhappiness. Do you think it is fair though, blaming me for what your grandfather did?” There was an edge to his grandmother’s voice, a blade of both anger and pain.
“You were the mother. Mothers are supposed to protect their children.”
He was instantly reminded of photographs of the children who’d been abducted from this area. “You didn’t protect my father.”
“No, I didn’t. I let Call discipline them.”
“Until Trace came along. What was it about him that made you protect him and not the others?”
She actually looked uncomfortable. “I was older. I felt as if I’d lost the others a long time ago. I guess you could say I drew a line in the sand.”
Cordell laughed. “Is that what you call it? I’d always heard that my grandfather rode off one day and just never returned. Apparently that wasn’t the case, huh. And, no, I don’t believe for a moment that Alfred Hoagland killed my grandfather.”
“His wife, Enid, swears that is the case.”
He shook his head. “Why don’t we cut to the chase? What do you want? You didn’t invite me and Cyrus back here out of the goodness of your heart. Or because you’re dying. You don’t have a sentimental bone in your body.”
She lifted her chin, body erect, and he saw a steely gleam in her dark eyes. She was still a beautiful woman, graceful and elegant, but cold and unfeeling, no matter what she said. “You might be surprised. Jack has already told me that you boys were in the third-floor room the day Trace was murdered,” she said, her voice strong. “I need to know what you saw.”
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected her to ask him. Not this. That awful room was where his father and aunt and uncles had been sent as punishment. He and his brother had been forbidden to go to the room so of course they’d sneaked up there. “Saw?”
“Jack told me that you and your brother had a pair of small binoculars that you were arguing over.”
Jack, the nanny’s son? “Why would you believe anything Jack—”
“He’s my grandson.” She smiled wryly. “Those rumors about the nanny and my son Angus? They were true.”
Cordell shook his head. “What a family.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” She lifted her cane and pointed toward the window. “See that ridge over there? That’s where Trace was murdered.”
His eyes widened. He’d had no idea his uncle had been killed within sight of the ranch. No wonder she was asking about this. From the third-floor room with a pair of binoculars was it possible one of them could have witnessed the murder? Apparently his grandmother thought so.
“I didn’t see anything.”
She nodded solemnly. “What about your brother?”
He shrugged. “You’re going to have to ask him.” He felt that awful pain and fought the thought that if Cyrus had seen something, they might never know. Cyrus might never regain consciousness. “What is it you think he might have seen? I thought Uncle Trace’s killer was caught.”
“Yes, but died after suggesting there was a co-conspirator.”
That took him by surprise. “If Cyrus had seen a murder, he would have said something.”
His grandmother didn’t look convinced. “Not if he’d seen someone from this family on that ridge that day.”
“If you think my father—”
“I didn’t say it was Brand. Cyrus might have been so shocked that it was a family member he might not have dared tell. I know there were more children in that third-floor room than just you and Cyrus and Jack. Who else was up there?”
Cordell shook his head. “I just remember the three of us.” He could feel his grandmother’s gaze boring into him. She knew he was lying. He wasn’t sure why after all these years he was still keeping the secret.
Because he’d promised. It was that simple.
The question was, how had his grandmother found out? Had Jack told that there had been two girls, one a year younger than him and her kid sister? They had ridden their horses over from the ranch down the road and he and Cyrus had sneaked them up into the room.
His grandmother would have gone ballistic had she known they were in the house. Pepper had never liked any of the neighboring ranchers—not that any of them were close by. But she’d especially disliked the McCormicks.
When she didn’t come out and ask about the girls, he realized Jack hadn’t told.
That made Cordell feel better about his “cousin” Jack.
“I called the hospital,” his grandmother said. “There is no change in Cyrus’s condition.”
Cordell said nothing. He’d checked his cell phone on the way downstairs. There’d been no messages. That meant no news.
“Is that all?” he asked, getting to his feet.
His grandmother nodded, though she didn’t look pleased.
Now at least he knew why she’d invited them all back to the ranch. She was looking for a traitor in the Winchester family.
Cordell smiled to himself at that as he headed back upstairs. Didn’t she know that you couldn’t throw a rock around here without hitting someone with traitorous motives?
RAINE TURNED ON THE tub water an
d poured in a shot of bubble bath, waiting until she was sure Cordell and the old housekeeper had gone downstairs before she pulled out her cell phone. No service. Tossing it back into her purse, she opened her small laptop. It only took a moment to get online via satellite.
Just as she suspected there would be, there was an e-mail from Marias.
“Get in touch.”
She replied through instant messaging. “No cell service. What’s up?”
A few moments later. “Winchesters squeaky clean, good rep, tough and damned good-looking from their photos on their Web site.”
Raine shook her head, smiling as she got up to turn off the water in the tub. It was just like Marias to check them out to see just how handsome they were.
“So nothing to worry about, right?” she typed when she returned to her computer.
“Doesn’t look that way.”
They’d apparently taken time off from work to come visit their grandma. Except Cordell hadn’t wanted to and couldn’t wait to get out of here. She wondered how things were going downstairs with the two of them.
No reason to be suspicious of the Winchester brothers apparently.
“But you did get another package from Montana.”
Raine jumped, startled by the tap on her door. “Raine?”
Cordell.
She typed, “I assume you opened it.”
Marias typed a smiley face.
“What’s in it?”
“A crude map. Almost looks like a kid drew it. I think it might be a map to the house.”
Raine felt her heart clutch in her chest. “Can you e-mail it to me?”
“Could take a few minutes.”
Cordell tapped again, then she heard the creak of the hardwood floor as he went across the hall. She listened to the sound of a key in the lock, his door opening and closing, then silence.
In the bathroom, she tested the water. Still hot. The room was steamy. She closed the door and stripped off her clothing before gingerly stepping into the tub and sinking down in the scented bubbles.
