One Hot Forty-Five

by B. J Daniels

  “I’m sure he meant they’d been like brothers,” Dede said.

  “We ran the mental-hospital driver’s fingerprints and were able to ID him from an old arrest record,” Shane continued. “He was using an assumed name for employment at the hospital. His real name is Claude Ingram. Ed was his brother.”

  “Brothers?” Dede couldn’t believe this.

  “There’s more,” Shane said. “I checked into Frank Chamberlain’s background, assuming he must have been from the same small Idaho town since you’d said they’d apparently known each other since childhood.” Shane glanced at Dede. She nodded. “No Frank Chamberlain.”

  She felt herself pale.

  “Both Claude and Ed were born in Idaho, a little town called Ashton. They had two other siblings. A sister and a brother.”

  Dede felt a chill even in the small, cramped room.

  “Franklin John Ingram—”

  Dede let out a gasp.

  “—and Tamara Sue Ingram.”

  “Tammy was Frank’s sister?” She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “That can’t be possible. I thought Frank and Tamara…”

  “Apparently they were in business together—both in security alarm systems and the burglaries of the clients’ jewels,” Shane said. “We’re still waiting on DNA results, but from the identification found near the body, the woman found in the river was Tamara Fallon.”

  Dede shivered, remembering the photos of Tammy the PI had shown her. A slim, pretty woman with long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and high cheekbones.

  “No wonder Frank couldn’t say no to them,” Dede said. “Some family the Ingrams turned out to be. Is it any wonder Frank wanted to get away from them? Obviously he’d changed his name, thought he’d escaped them.” She felt sick. “And now they are all dead.”

  AFTER SHANE HAD TAKEN THEIR statements separately, he got the call from the judge. He quickly realized just how small a town Whitehorse was and how things worked here.

  Shane hung up and looked across the desk at Dede and Lantry. “Seems some strings have been pulled.”

  Dede would be remanded into Grayson Corbett’s custody, fitted with a house-arrest device that would monitor her movements within a quarter-mile of the ranchhouse.

  “How is Violet?” she asked Shane before she and Lantry left the sheriff’s department.

  “Looks like she’s going to make it.”

  “Can I see her? She saved my life…and Lantry’s.”

  Shane shook his head. “Only her mother has been allowed to see her. I can pass a message on to her mother for you.”

  “Just tell Violet thank you, all right? What she did was very brave.” Or some might say crazy. Dede wondered why she’d done it. Why hadn’t she just taken off and tried to save herself?

  Kate Corbett put Dede up in the main house’s guest suite and made her feel at home. Lantry was busy doing legal maneuvering, trying to keep them both out of jail, so she saw little of him that first day.

  She couldn’t believe it was almost Christmas Day. Trails West Ranch was decorated beautifully, and she knew that Kate had added several packages under the tree with Dede’s name on them.

  Dede wandered around the big house, feeling lost. She knew she was still in shock and dealing with everything that had happened. It saddened her how little she’d known about a man she’d married, and hated that Lantry might be right about marriage.

  She’d loved Frank, planned to have his children. Now she was thankful she hadn’t become pregnant.

  Dede looked up to see a UPS truck pull up out front. A moment later Kate came into the room carrying a large package.

  Kate had just gotten back from her knitting class in town and seemed more excited than usual. “I just found out that my daughters-in-law are all expecting! I’m going to have to learn to knit much faster if I hope to get baby buntings made before the grandbabies are all born.”

  Now Kate held out the package. “It’s for you. It’s from Lantry.”

  “Why would Lantry—”

  “Open it,” Kate said.

  Dede tore open the box to find a beautiful guitar inside. Carefully she took it out. How had Lantry known? She felt tears rush to her eyes.

  “You play?” Kate asked in confusion.

  “I used to.” Back before Frank, back before all of this. Her fingers ached to strum the strings, to make the music that used to fill her heart with such joy. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take it back to my room for now.”

  Kate nodded, looking concerned. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Dede smiled and touched the woman’s arm. Kate Corbett had been so kind to her. “Thank you, but I just need time to process everything that’s happened. I feel that I got Lantry into this, and I—”

  “Lantry and his profession got Lantry into this,” Kate said, not unkindly. “Lantry took your husband’s case. I would imagine he will always regret that.” She smiled. “Except that it brought you into his life,” she added quickly. “Otherwise, you two might never have met. I’ve seen the change in my stepson. Lantry had planned to go back to Texas right after Christmas, back to being a divorce lawyer. He won’t do that now, you’ll see. You’ve had a profound effect on him.”

  Dede smiled at that. “I almost got him killed. Have you heard anything on Violet Evans?”

  “She’s being moved to a private mental hospital close by right after the wedding Christmas Day,” Kate said. “Arlene is marrying Hank Monroe tomorrow. Arlene got special permission for her daughter to attend the wedding.”

  As she carried the guitar Lantry had given her down to her room, Dede thought about what Kate had said. They’d all been changed by what had happened. Would Lantry really give up his career because of it?

  Once in her room, Dede ran her fingers lovingly across the guitar strings. She hadn’t played in so long. Slowly, she picked up the guitar, her fingers remembering the music as she began to play.

  LANTRY HAD A LOT ON HIS MIND. In a word: Dede. At first he’d been so busy trying to get her cleared that he hadn’t had time to think about the future. Her mental evaluation had gone well. Now, if he could just work his legal magic, Dede would be free to return to Texas after Christmas.

  The duplicate necklace and both his and Dede’s statements, along with evidence that continued to come in on the Ingram siblings, had forced a judge in Texas to take another look at Dede’s commitment to the mental hospital.

  Just after the holidays, a local judge would rule on the other charges against Dede.

  There would be nothing keeping Dede in Montana after that. Nothing keeping him, either, for that matter.

  He had come so close to being disbarred. It surprised him that he wasn’t more upset about that. But he realized he had no interest in returning to his law practice in Texas. Or returning to Texas at all.

  He could sell his practice, walk away with a nice chunk of change, and then what?

  He knew he was at a crossroads, but not one where he’d ever been before. For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what he was going to do tomorrow or the next day.

  He thought about his father’s offer. “There’s some good grazing land that will be coming up for sale soon to the south. If you were interested in staying, I sure could use your help.”

  “Dad, I…I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” he’d said truthfully.

  “This case has changed your mind about being a divorce lawyer?”

  Lantry had chuckled. “You could say that.”

  “Or is it the woman?”

  “A lot of both,” he’d found himself admitting.

  “Are you in love with her?”

  Lantry had looked at his father, realizing this talk was Kate’s doing, since it was so unlike his father to ask such a question. “Dede’s still in love with her ex-husband.”

  “Oh.” His father had looked uncomfortable. “Kate seems to think Dede’s in love with you. Kate’s seldom wrong about these things.”


  Lantry had laughed. “And she told you to talk to me.”

  His father had laughed as well. “She might have suggested I mention that land I was thinking about buying. Said there was a beautiful spot down that way for a house.” Grayson had shrugged, unapologetic for trying. “You’re a cowboy, son. It’s in your blood.”

  That it was, Lantry thought as he drove toward the ranch, anxious to see Dede.

  THE HOUSE WAS QUIET, Juanita in the kitchen, Kate in her study, knitting. Dede felt restless and more anxious by the hour. Not about going to jail, for she knew Lantry would move heaven and earth so that didn’t happen.

  No, it was about leaving Montana—and Lantry.

  They hadn’t been together since the cabin in Landusky. She had seen Lantry struggling when he was around her.

  “He’s in love with you,” Kate told her that morning when she caught Dede watching Lantry leave the house.

  Dede had laughed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.”

  Kate had smiled a knowing smile. “He doesn’t know how to handle it, since he’s never felt like this before. Trust me. He’s in love with you. Look how hard he’s working to get you cleared of all the charges. Right now he’s trying to get that stupid house-arrest device off your ankle before Christmas day.”

  Now Dede stood at the window, remembering Kate’s words. Lantry had definitely spent every waking hour since her arrest trying to get her freed. But she suspected he liked the work because it kept him from having to deal with his feelings, deal with her.

  “Lantry thinks you’re still in love with your ex-husband,” Kate had said.

  “The man I fell in love with didn’t really exist,” Dede had told her. “It’s hard to explain how I feel about Frank. Empty. Sad. Disappointed. Sorry. I suppose a part of me still loves the man Frank could have been, the man he wanted to be.”

  Kate had smiled and hugged her. “You and I have more in common than you might think. I loved a man when I was young. He let me down. It is only now that I realize he never was the man I wanted or needed him to be. But I mourned for years for what that love could have been. As women it isn’t easy to let go of those dreams, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t,” Dede said to herself now. Just as it wasn’t going to be easy to leave this place, to leave Kate and the rest of the family who had welcomed her so lovingly. Or to leave Lantry.

  Just as it wouldn’t be easy to spend Christmas here with all of them, knowing she would be leaving as soon as the holidays were over.

  Since her father’s death, Dede had pretty much ignored Christmas other than to go to church on Christmas Eve.

  Kate had insisted Dede stay through the holidays even if Lantry was able to get her exonerated. Kate had been right about one thing: there was nothing waiting for Dede in Texas.

  She pressed her fingers against the cool glass of the window as she looked out over the ranch. A Chinook had blown in, the warm wind melting off the snow. The weatherman had promised a white Christmas, though, warning of another storm coming in tonight.

  Lantry hadn’t managed to get her freed of the house-arrest device on her ankle, but he had asked that she be given a larger area to roam.

  She watched one of the mares running around the corral as if enjoying the feel of the warm wind. Dede thought about telling Kate she was going to walk down to the corral, but didn’t want to disturb her when she was concentrating so hard on her knitting.

  The wind was warm and smelled of spring—an illusion, since winter had only begun. Growing up in Wyoming, Dede remembered days like this that teased and tempted.

  The sun was low, the daylight fading fast. She wondered when Lantry would be home. Late, she was sure. As she walked, Dede listened to the wind in the large pines. The Christmas lights swung to and fro on the branches.

  The mare came right over to her. Dede reached in her pocket and took out the apple she’d gotten from Juanita and offered it to the horse.

  “You’re sure pretty,” she said to the horse as the mare chomped the apple then snuffled her hand and pocket to see if there were any more.

  Dede felt a sliver of trepidation at the thought of someday enjoying riding again, but Kate had told her this mare was gentle, and as she rubbed its neck she thought the mare wanted to go as badly as she did.

  “How about I see if I can round up some tack?” she told the mare. “The best I can do is a ride around the corral, but if you’re up for it, so am I.” The mare whinnied.

  Dede headed for the barn, the mare trailing along beside her inside the corral.

  It was dark in the big old barn. Dede felt around for a light, snapped it on. Inside the cavernous barn, she could still hear the howl of the wind. It was cooler in here, cold compared to the warm wind and waning sunlight outside.

  She walked through the barn toward the stalls and found the tack room. She didn’t hurry and knew part of it was fear.

  It had been different riding the two horses she’d borrowed to escape. Greater fears had driven her.

  She didn’t have to ride ever again. She heard the mare whinny at the corral fence at the other end of the barn.

  Dede laughed as she dragged out a halter and horse blanket and was checking out the array of saddles when she heard the barn door open and close. The wind? Or had Lantry returned and come looking for her?

  Her heart did a little flip.

  She listened. Must just have been the wind, she thought, disappointed. Dede reached for one of the saddles.

  The barn lights went out.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lantry was almost to the ranch when his cell phone vibrated in his jacket pocket. He realized as he reached for the phone that he was hoping it was Dede. He knew he’d been avoiding her. Giving her space, is what he’d told himself.

  Sending her the guitar had been one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions. Now that he’d done it, though, he was excited to hear her play.

  Just the thought of talking to her made his heart beat a little faster and—

  It wasn’t Dede, but Shane.

  “Hey,” he said into the phone, reining in his disappointment as he stopped at the top of a hill to take the call, fearing it was about Dede’s case and knowing he was going to want all his concentration on that—not driving.

  “I have some news I thought you’d want to hear right away,” Shane said, tension in his voice that set Lantry on edge.

  “That body found in the canal in Texas wasn’t Tamara Fallon’s.”

  Lantry let that sink in. “I thought the police found ID—”

  “Given what we know now, the Houston police think she might have tried to fake her death so she could get away with the diamond necklace.”

  There was more. Lantry could feel it.

  “A woman matching Tamara Fallon’s description flew into Billings last night,” Shane said. “Lantry, the Houston police told me that her husband, Dr. Eric Fallon, said his wife was obsessed with one of her brother’s wives, and since Frank was the only one who was married…”

  That disquiet was now full-blown worry. “You’re saying Tamara Fallon flew to Montana because of Dede?”

  “Dr. Fallon seems to think that Tamara blames Dede for Frank turning his back on her and his brothers.”

  Lantry glanced toward the Little Rockies in the distance. “I’m almost back to the ranch. I’ve got to go.” He snapped off the phone and hit the gas. Everyone had planned to be away from the ranch house today except for Dede, Kate and Juanita.

  As he topped the next rise in the road, he saw the smoke.

  “HEY!” DEDE CALLED OUT. “MIND turning the lights back on?” No lights. No answer. “Hello?” She hated that her voice broke. The barn had taken on a weighty silence, and she realized she wasn’t alone anymore.

  But why didn’t whoever had turned out the lights say something? The Corbett brothers joked and kidded around with each other, but they weren’t big practical jokers, and this wasn’t funny.

  She looked around for
something to use as a weapon, telling herself she was just being silly. She couldn’t trust her emotions after everything she’d been through. Especially after falling for Lantry Corbett.

  That thought stopped her cold for a moment. She’d fallen in love with him. Why had it taken until this moment to admit that?

  “Hello?” she called again, praying someone would answer as she spotted a pitchfork stuck in a hay bale in one of the stalls.

  She took a step in the growing darkness of the barn toward the pitchfork, then another, trying not to make a sound as she listened. She could hear nothing over the howl of the wind outside.

  The barn had filled with deep shadows. She caught the scent of perfume just an instant before the figure stepped out of an adjacent stall in front of her—blocking her way out.

  A flashlight beam snapped on, blinding her. She flinched, heard a chuckle, then the beam dropped to the barn floor.

  Tamara Fallon had changed her hair color. She was no longer a blond. Her hair was short and dark. But the face was the same one Dede had seen in the photographs the private investigator had shown her.

  “Frank told me you were pretty,” Tamara said. “In a sweet way.” She made sweet sound like a dirty word.

  Dede could see the resemblance, though slight between the siblings. She was too startled to speak, and while Tamara wasn’t brandishing anything more deadly than a flashlight, she sensed that the woman was dangerous.

  “What’s wrong? Thought I was dead?” The woman’s laugh was sharp as a blade.

  “I’m just surprised to see you here,” Dede said truthfully. Surprised and fearful.

  “Did you know that Frank and I were fraternal twins?” Tamara shook her head. “I didn’t think so. Your private investigator died before he could tell you that, huh? There’s no stronger bond than the bond between twins.”

  “I’ve heard that,” Dede said, reasoning that antagonizing this woman would be a mistake. No one knew Dede had gone down to the barn, and she wasn’t sure when it would be discovered that she was missing, since she was able to go at least as far as the barn.