Dirks stood in the doorway of the guest house and watched the two women ride out. He didn’t much like that they were headed out alone but he was smart enough to know he couldn’t prevent it. He wasn’t surprised when Trouble came yowling to his doorway and slipped inside.
Pouring another cup of coffee, Dirks returned to his laptop. He hadn’t slept well and had been up for a while digging through the accumulation of information he’d received that morning.
He tried to ignore the black cat pacing at his feet but Trouble wasn’t about to be disregarded. Dirks gathered up his laptop and papers. “Come on, Mister. Let’s at least get outside.” After a moment’s hesitation, he headed to Avery’s side garden and the comfortable double-glider.
For just a moment, he allowed himself to focus on his memory of her sitting there the evening before, the late sunlight picking up the lighter tones through the curls that tumbled to her shoulder, catching on the brilliant green of her eyes. “Man,” he said softly to himself, “you’re hooked.” That much, he knew was true, and just as soon as he had sorted out the problems in her life and ensured her safety, he was going to do something about the fact. Maybe she didn’t want another man in her life after all she’d been through, but he was damned if he would just walk away without trying.
He settled on the glider, wishing she were beside him. Trouble continued to pace, frequently swatting at his leg in a frustrated attempt to communicate his desire for Dirks to take some action. The problem was Dirks didn’t know what action he was supposed to take.
He read, re-read, and filed a few more reports before hitting one with the handwriting analysis he’d requested. A keen sense of satisfaction came with the verification that Avery’s signature conclusively did not match that on the checks she had purportedly signed. They were close but not close enough. To his surprise, however, Craig Danson’s also did not match. That information was completely unexpected and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. He filed that document away as well.
The next report was filled with photographs of Craig Danson. There were a multitude of them over recent months and he scanned through rather cursorily. Then one brought his scrolling to a complete stop. It was the local casino and the photograph was circled in bold red as were the next few. The researcher had realized quickly that the photographs were not of the same person. This Craig Danson, impeccably dressed in what Dirks felt certain was a name brand sports coat and derby hat, looked much younger, though the features seemed uncannily similar. At least what Dirks could see of them. None of the circled photographs had caught him actually facing the camera. Did Danson have a son or a younger brother? No one had mentioned those possibilities to him, not here at Summer Valley or during the course of his investigation. Why hadn’t he thought to ask? Avery had told him Carlee didn’t have any family besides her father, but maybe she didn’t know. Damn it! He wished he’d dug a little deeper.
Dirks stood abruptly, paced, tried not to step on Trouble who remained determined to get him to do something. He returned to study the photographs again, one at a time. There were several, all from casino security, taken at what appeared to be a cashier’s cage.
Dirks felt a prickle along his neck. He didn’t know the man but he’d seen that face. He entered Avery’s house without hesitation, searching for the calendar of ranch photographs they’d all admired last night. He found it on the counter and flipped to the month of September, of Carlee with her hair pulled back and up and tucked under a fedora, her face little more than a profile, turned away from the camera. The barest glimpse, all he could see, of a strong jawline without the softening effect of hair swirling around her jaw and neck. A dark, arched eyebrow. What little was visible anyway. For whatever reason, the women had preferred the horses, not themselves, to be the focal points of the photography.
Not a son or a brother, then. Carlee.
Dirks pulled his cell phone from his pocket and hit Avery’s number. The call went straight to voice mail. His gaze moved to Trouble who had followed him in, undoubtedly anxious and trying his best to get Dirks to understand what the cat had clearly already deduced.
“Can you find them?”
Trouble meowed sharply and turned, heading toward the door, obviously satisfied now that Dirks had shown himself at last ready to take action.
Dirks made only one stop. To grab his rifle from behind the seat of his truck.
I can only hope Mr. Military can keep up with me. I’m fairly confident I know the destination of Ms. Gorgeous and Carlee but we must take a short cut over some tricky territory if we are to get there ahead of them. Fortunately, Mr. Military’s exercise routine is daily and strenuous - he’s no lay about - and he has a propensity for loaded fire arms that he carries concealed at all times, one at his shoulder, one at his ankle. The rifle, he has retrieved, is just lagniappe.
I’m quite beside myself at the thought we may not reach Ms. Gorgeous in time. Nor am I sure of all the implications but clearly Mr. Military was disquieted by the picture of Carlee. I can only discern that it is from Carlee that Ms. Gorgeous must be protected. The whys and wherefores can come later. Time is of the essence.
The morning proved absolutely beautiful and Avery felt a peace she hadn’t enjoyed in some time. The horses were content to walk when the path was uncertain and trot or slow gallop when the ground was flat. Avery let Carlee choose the pace, confident the young woman would always be careful with the safety of the horses.
“Let me know if you get ready to stop,” Carlee said to her. “If you get tired.”
Avery shot her an amused look. “We’ve only been riding a couple of hours and walked as much as anything. This is hardly the pace of our normal day. What about you? Holding up okay?”
“Quit worrying about me, Avery, I’m fine.”
“I know, but I can’t shake the realization that I nearly lost you, that you could have been killed in that car wreck. I don’t want you to push yourself.”
“We’ve both been pushing ourselves for a while,” Carlee said dryly.
“That reminds me of something I was considering earlier. I think it’s time we thought about adding full-time barn help or doubling our part-time crew. I see plenty of benefits to full-time positions because that would give us an eventual knowledge base for backup and possible training as ‘fill-in’ instructors.”
Carlee pondered that a moment. “On the other hand, we’ve been able to help some really bright kids get through college without an overload of debt with our part-time work.”
“Exactly. And I hate to lose that aspect.”
Carlee swatted at a horsefly aggravating her young mount. “What if we mix the ideas? Alan will graduate this semester. What if we take his opening and make one full time position and keep the other two as part-time for now?”
“I like that. It would give us a chance to see how the full-time will work out.”
Carlee swatted again. “Let’s speed up a bit, put them into an extended trot and see if we can shake some of these horseflies.”
Avery pressed her heels lightly but firmly into Bella’s sides as Carlee gave a quiet verbal command to the young grey she was riding. When the terrain grew rocky, they pulled back to a walk but Avery was pleased to note the tactic to leave the irritating insects behind seemed to have worked, at least for now.
They walked the horses in silence, each lost to their thoughts, as the hills leveled and the stand of oaks that was their destination became a haze of green on the horizon.
Avery hadn’t realized that Carlee had fallen behind her until she spoke again, so quietly and evenly the words didn’t make sense until Avery glanced back and saw the pistol Carlee held trained at her back. “What? What did you say?”
“I said I killed Caren. My mother, too.”
For a moment Avery didn’t, couldn’t, speak. Her mind could not comprehend. “Your sister drowned.”
Carlee’s expression was serene. They could as easily have been talking about the weather or the ranch. The pistol i
n Carlee’s hand was absolutely steady as was her gaze on Avery’s face. Waves of cold swept over Avery. Mind racing, she fought not to let it show. No weakness, she thought, I mustn’t show weakness, though she didn’t know why not or what difference it could possibly make.
“Caren did drown, yes. I always made sure she was safely seat-belted into her wheelchair. It was my job. Mom said so. Couldn’t have her falling out and getting hurt. So I double-checked that she was securely strapped in when I slipped up behind her to unlock the wheels.” The corner of Carlee’s mouth lifted in a half smile. “Caren never heard me, never knew I was there until I gave her chair a push toward the pool. She opened her mouth to cry out, but I said her name. When she turned and saw me, I said, ‘I’ve got you, Caren. It’s okay.’”
Carlee paused and Avery heard the call of a bird, the rustle of a rabbit in the brush close by. “And you drowned her.” Even as Avery said the words, she couldn’t believe them. Not yet.
“It wasn’t hard. Caren trusted me so she didn’t call for mom, who was asleep anyway. I’d already sneaked into the house and made sure of that. I was right there, after all. I always had her. When I jumped into the water, Caren thought I was coming to save her. It was easy to hold the wheel chair down long enough for her lungs to fill with water. She watched me, every second, there under the water. Just watched me. After that, all I really had to do was ‘find’ her when I came in from ball practice. I did the hysterical thing really well, seems I have a talent for acting.” That half smile reappeared fleetingly then Carlee’s expression turned cool, unemotional, a look Avery had seen on many occasions and failed to interpret.
Avery was hit by waves of nausea. “Why? Why would you do that? How could you kill your own sister?”
Carlee’s gave a casual shrug. “She took up too much of Mom’s time. There was so much I wanted to do, places I wanted to go, but there was always Caren, her disability, in the way. Caren was okay but she was weak. I can’t stand weakness. That’s why I always liked you. You were always strong.”
“And your mother?” Avery watched her as she would a rattlesnake, a creature cold and deadly and completely devoid of humanity.
“Mom was even weaker than Caren but in a different way. Drank herself into a stupor every night after Caren died – all because she’d fallen asleep on the sunporch with Caren still outside by the pool. She thought if Caren needed anything, she’d hear her and wake up.” Carlee shrugged. “And she probably would have but I couldn’t very well tell her. She couldn’t bear the guilt and I couldn’t take it from her.”
“So it wasn’t suicide.”
“I’m sure Mom wanted to die. She even told me that once. And she would have drunk herself to death eventually. So I guess you could say it was suicide, just daughter-assisted.”
“And you’re planning to kill me because ….?”
“Oh, I’m not just planning to kill you. I have to kill you. And don’t even think about the rifle in your scabbard. Yours isn’t loaded. Mine is.”
“But why me? Why now? I don’t understand. Carlee, everything I have would have been yours.” Avery couldn’t wrap her mind around anything Carlee had said. The sounds of nature around them that had sounded so sweet just minutes ago now seemed a mockery.
“And so it will be – just sooner. Actually, I was going to wait awhile, but you and Mr. Hanna are getting much too cozy. Do you think I haven’t noticed? Besides, you’ve kept way too close an eye on things since you found out Dad was cheating you and I can’t be sure you won’t eventually figure out I was too. And if you don’t, Dirks Hanna will. He’s smart, too smart. I can’t risk you changing your will if that happens. I’ve worked too hard for this place, I’ve earned it.”
“You asked me to change my will.” Avery felt as if she’d fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice in Wonderland, to a world where absolutely nothing made sense. She struggled to make logic of what she was seeing and hearing in a person she thought she knew as well as she knew her own self.
“Well, yes, but I knew you’d never do that. I wanted you to believe I’d give up everything to keep you safe … until I was ready. I need Dad out of the way and soon. He’s no use to me now that you’re divorced. He’s made a complete mess of things and is way over his head in debt to some particularly nasty men.”
“His gambling debts, you mean.”
“Yes, and how dumb is that? I like to gamble, too, seems to be the only thing we have in common these days, but I don’t drink when I gamble and I don’t gamble with sharks. All my debt is in his name. So poor Dad is in way too deep with men too smart for him to handle and those guys are going to keep on making trouble until he’s out of the way for good. I thought they’d take care of that for me but now they’ve turned their attention to the ranch and the horses. Can’t have that, now can I?”
She sounded indignant, Avery thought, feeling as if she were caught in some nightmare. Carlee was indignant that her father hadn’t been murdered by thugs to keep her from having to do it. Avery felt sickened at the realization that she, a trained professional, had completely missed that Carlee lacked the ability to care about any human, even those closest to her.
“On top of all that, you and Leanne just keep pouring the ranch resources into rescue horses and then giving them away. That’s not good business. Anyway, it just makes more sense to kill you now that I’ve got it all worked out.”
“What? What have you got worked out?”
Carlee looked at her as if she were simple-minded. “Dad calls me for help almost every day. This time I told him to meet me here and I’d help him a little. Unfortunately, he’s going to shoot your horse out from under you and you’ll hit your head on some rock or break your neck or something. I’ll figure that out before we get to the oak grove. I’ll have to kill him trying to save you but, oh so sad, his death will be in vain as you’ll be beyond saving. Your part’s easy. All you have to do is keep riding.”
Avery looked toward the oak trees growing ever nearer and tried her best to marshal her thoughts. She was alone and without a weapon, but she’d be damned if she’d die without a fight.
Chapter Eighteen
Ahead of us are the oak trees that I believe to be Carlee’s destination. The site is not ominous in the least, just a small grove with only one very old, very large oak among the several younger ones. However, I remain fearful of what it portends. Nonetheless, I am rather pleased with my human. We’ve managed to arrive ahead of the villainess and our Ms. Gorgeous. Mr. Military has proven himself a man of strength and stamina. Fortunately, we could take a more direct route than the horses though it involved Mr. Military scaling a few fences and fording a few rocky streams.
Now, Ms. Gorgeous must prove herself a woman of fortitude and ingenuity. I have no doubt that both traits will be needed in the moments ahead if all is not to end in disaster.
Dirks scrambled up the oddly shaped branches of the largest tree behind Trouble, praying that Avery and Carlee were too far distant to discern any real movements around the copse of oaks. His pulse thudded and he recognized the primal fear that gripped him. Avery, his woman, was in peril and every bit of strength and knowledge he could claim might not be enough to save her.
He watched the approach of the two horses. Avery rode at the front. Carlee followed close behind. The sun glinted on the pistol in Carlee’s hand and Dirks’ gut clenched. He had not been mistaken then. Unlikely as it had seemed, Carlee - not her father - was the threat to Avery’s safety.
Dirks had a choice to make. Ease the rifle into position and risk a distance shot with Avery riding in front of Carlee or secure the rifle and ensure his pistol was at the ready. Either carried a peril. Any animal was subject to an unexpected movement and young horses particularly so. Once he pulled the trigger, if Avery’s sorrel shifted the slightest in the wrong direction, she could be placed in the path of the bullet he released. Waiting until they were within pistol range would leave Avery at Carlee’s mercy that much longer and he had no way to
be sure this small thicket of trees was even their final direction although Trouble had led the way and certainly seemed confident that it was.
In the end, Dirks decided to trust whatever instinct or knowledge had steered the cat to this spot. The cat had been dead-on so far. Dirks held his breath and eased his pistol from its holster. Sweat that had nothing to do with the heat trickled down his forehead as he watched their slow approach. He sensed, rather than heard, Trouble shift position as the women neared their hiding place and prayed that neither woman would notice. If Avery felt their presence and glanced up, Carlee’s gaze would follow hers and Dirks had no earthly idea how she might react at that point.
“I don’t see your father.”
Dirks tensed. Was Craig part of this after all? Dirks couldn’t risk looking around for him. Not now when Avery and Carlee were so close upon the tree where he and Trouble waited.
“Well, I don’t really need him here right now.” Carlee hesitated, seeming to weigh her options. “Besides, he’s such a loser I can’t even be sure he’ll show up.”
Dirks saw her grip shift, tighten on the pistol. Avery must have seen it as well. In a move that startled Carlee as much as it did him, Avery kicked her feet free of the stirrups, slapped her mount on the neck and leapt for Carlee’s horse, all in one swift act of desperation.
Forced to hold his shot, Dirks dropped from the tree, landing hard on his feet just as a yowling black cat dropped from the limb beside him to land squarely on the hip of Carlee’s horse.
As her panicked mount whirled at the weight of the cat and the feel of claws digging into tender hide, Carlee’s shot went wild and she growled with rage. Before she could fire a second time, Dirks grabbed her arm, dragging her from the horse. She tumbled to the ground, and her pistol fell and discharged again. Dirks could only pray that shot, too, went far wide of any mark. With a rough twist of her shoulder, he pinned her, face down and planted a knee in her back. Only then, with heart still thudding, could he let his gaze find Avery.
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