by B. J Daniels
Jack had made some progress on the rock wall the past two nights. He worked harder and faster tonight, anxious to get back to Josey. He didn’t believe there was any way that her homicidal stepbrother could find her, and he’d made sure he had the Cadillac keys on him so she didn’t do anything crazy like leave on her own.
He wished he could just let this go, but he’d promised his mother and himself years ago that he would see that Pepper Winchester got what she deserved. Today was that day. Then he could put this place and all that behind him.
But even as he thought it, Jack realized that something had changed in him. For years he’d been waiting for an opportunity to get back on this ranch and see what was behind this wall. It had always been there, that need to finish things in Montana. It hadn’t mattered how well his life or his career had been going in Wyoming. There had always been this mission hanging over his head.
Now, though, his thoughts kept returning to Josey, and he realized just how much he’d changed since he’d met her. It was all he could do to keep chipping at the mortar. Did he really need to know what was behind this wall anymore?
The mortar in the wall was old, more than forty years. He chipped out another stone and set it aside. As he shone his flashlight into the space behind the wall, he could make out what looked like a large bundle wrapped in cloth.
His pulse kicked up a beat. Hurriedly, he removed another rock. There was definitely something in there. Something wrapped in what appeared to be an old canvas tarp.
For so long he hadn’t been sure if his mother’s story was even true. After all, she’d heard it from Angus Winchester, her lover, the man who’d lied to her for years.
Jack worked another rock out, and then another. Just a few more and he would be able to see what had been hidden for all these years behind this rock wall.
AFTER SEEING ALFRED with the ax headed for the wing where she knew Jack was working, Josey grabbed the gun out of the backpack and tore out of the room at a run. She heard someone call to her as she threw open the front door, but she didn’t look back as she sprinted toward the closed wing.
The air chilled her to her bones. That and the fear that had her heart in her throat. There was no sign of Alfred as she ran the length of the building. She skidded to a stop as something moved out of the darkness just before she reached the door into the closed wing.
A low rumbling sound filled the air, and she froze as she saw the old dog. It blocked the way, the hair standing up on the back of its neck, a low growl coming out of its throat.
It took a step toward her. She raised the gun, but knew she wouldn’t be able to shot it. “Nice dog,” she whispered, and took a step away from it and the side of the building. The dog remained where it was. She took another step, then another, frowning. The old dog acted almost as if it was protecting something.
A bone? She squinted into the blackness at the edge of the building. Her blood suddenly ran cold. At first she thought it was a fawn deer or some other animal that the dog had killed and was only protecting its food.
But then she caught the glint of metal and saw that something was protruding out of the center of the dead animal. An ax.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed as the moon broke free of the clouds, and she saw Alfred lying on his back, the ax buried in his chest.
Her mind whirled. Who would…? Jack! Where was Jack?
She turned and ran the last few steps to the door into the closed wing.
JACK REMOVED THE LAST ROCK in his way. Kneeling down, he picked up one end of the tarp. The canvas, rotten after all these years, disintegrated in his fingers.
The first thing he saw was what was left of a boot. He suddenly felt weak as he stared at what lay beyond the boot—a mummified body. Call Winchester.
Jack sat back on his haunches, surprised at the range of emotions that rushed through him like a wildfire. He’d dreamed of the day he would fulfill his promise to his mother. He’d expected revenge to taste sweet. Finally Pepper Winchester would get what she deserved.
But there was no sweetness, only a deep sorrow in him as he looked at what he knew were his grandfather’s remains. He’d spent his adult life working hard to succeed in business, waiting for the opportunity to break down this wall and show the world who Pepper Winchester really was. It was going to make it all that much sweeter that she was still alive and would know who uncovered her deadly secret.
Jack waited for the relief, the elation, the smug satisfaction. He finally had proof that his grandmother had killed her husband and hidden his body behind this rock wall, just as his mother had heard.
He’d gotten what he’d come for. He didn’t give a damn about any inheritance. Now all he had to do was call his cousin the sheriff and let her take it from here. He could wash his hands of this place that had haunted him all these years.
But what he hadn’t expected was to feel a connection to this ranch or this family. He hadn’t expected to meet Josey or fall in love. Or feel anything for his grandmother, let alone a dead grandfather he’d never known.
Jack heard a sound behind him. Josey, he thought. Of course she wouldn’t be able to stay in the room. She would be worried about him. She would— He turned and saw the figure framed in the doorway.
PEPPER WINCHESTER had been coming out of the parlor when she’d seen Josey racing down the stairs as if the devil himself were after her.
“Call the sheriff,” Josey had cried. “I have to get to Jack.”
She’d tried to stop the girl to make sense of what was happening, but Josey had rushed out without answering. The fear in the young woman’s face had sent an arrow of panic through Pepper’s own heart.
“What is wrong with that girl?” Virginia demanded, coming out from her room at the back wing.
“Stay here. Call the sheriff. Tell McCall there’s some kind of trouble.”
Her daughter’s eyes widened in alarm. “You’re not going out there.”
But Pepper was already following Josey. She couldn’t move as quickly, and once outside it took her a few minutes for her old eyes to adjust to the dark. She caught a glimpse of Josey running toward the closed wing of the lodge.
That building was actually the first homestead. Call had workers add on to it, the lodge expanding, as his grandiose plans developed, into what it was today. But Pepper remembered his stories about his parents living in what people would call an old shotgun house. Long and narrow, the hall ran straight through every room to the back door. Only this one didn’t have a back door. The house ended in an old root cellar tucked into the hillside.
She saw Josey stop, heard the old dog growling even from here. As she worked her way in that direction, Pepper realized it had been years since she’d ventured out of the house. She wasn’t used to walking on uneven ground, even with her cane. She felt exposed out here and suddenly afraid as she saw Josey give the dog a wide berth before slipping past the dog and disappearing into the door of the wing Pepper had Alfred close off years ago.
She quickened her pace, gasping for breath, as she realized that what she had feared for more than forty years was about to come true.
RJ WAS MOVING down the hallway toward a scratching sound and a sliver of light under one of the doors, when he heard someone come into the house behind him. He quickly stepped into one of the darkened rooms, pressing his back against the wall.
He’d heard the dog growling, heard someone trying to soothe it. He’d expected whoever it was to run back to the house screaming after seeing the old man’s body with the ax buried in it.
Rubbing his wounded shoulder, RJ swore under his breath at the pain. He hadn’t seen the old man until it was too late. He’d sensed someone behind him in time to avoid the brunt of the ax. But the wooden handle had hit his shoulder.
The ax had stuck in the side of the log house. As the old fool had tried to wrestle it free, RJ had hit him, knocking him backward. Then, close to blacking out from the pain of the blow on his already injured shoulder, RJ had furiously
jerked the ax from the wall and swung it as hard as he could. It stuck with a suctioning sound.
RJ had looked around, but he hadn’t seen anyone else. One down, he’d thought. Then he’d heard an odd noise coming from within the building. He’d looked for a way into this wing and found an old door where someone had removed the boards that had been tacked over it.
Someone was in there working at this hour? There was a chipping sound, then a scraping sound, as if something large was being moved across the floor.
He’d opened the door, listened, then stepped through, and was partway down the hall when he’d heard someone come in behind him.
Now he held his breath, wondering what was going on and why everyone was headed for this particular part of the strangely built house. The only light was a faint glow coming from under a door farther down the hallway. Where he stood there was total darkness. But he could feel a draft and realized that the window across from him, although partially boarded up, had a hole in the glass between the boards the size of a small rock.
Tentative footsteps moved in his direction. RJ pulled the gun he’d stolen from his jacket pocket, half wishing he’d brought the ax with him. He didn’t dare fire the weapon for fear of who it might attract. He’d have to use it as a blunt force instrument. He’d had some experience with that.
As he listened to the footsteps growing closer and closer, he heard something outside the building that made his heart beat faster and his stomach drop. Through the broken window came the whine of a car engine in the distance.
It was headed toward the house, which meant there was another road into the ranch.
MCCALL HAD TURNED OFF her lights and siren as soon as she’d gotten out of town; she hadn’t needed them because of the lack of traffic. Now she stopped in a low spot and killed her headlights and engine. She reached for her shotgun. She was already wearing the Kevlar vest under her jacket and had her Glock in her holster. Both the shotgun and the pistol were loaded and ready to go.
Easing open the door, she slid out and started down the road. Over the first rise, she saw the lodge sprawled against the mountainside. She could hear the wind in the cottonwoods as she neared the creek. The antique weather vane on the barn turned slowly.
She pulled up short as her eyes picked up movement in front of the house. Someone was walking toward the far wing. She heard the tap of a cane on the gravel. Her grandmother? Where was she going?
McCall began to run, hoping to hell her grandmother wasn’t armed and would mistake her for a trespasser. But she wasn’t about to call out and warn RJ that she was coming. She’d have to take her chances with her grandmother.
VIRGINIA PEERED OUT THE WINDOW, seeing nothing. Where had her mother gone? The old fool. Well, she wasn’t going out there after Josey, who’d probably just had a spat with her husband. Newlyweds!
She looked around, wondering where Enid and Alfred were. They lived in the wing opposite the kitchen and laundry rooms. Virginia realized she hadn’t heard a peep out of either of them.
And it certainly wasn’t like Enid to miss anything. Why hadn’t she come out when Josey had come tearing through the house and both Virginia and her mother had raised their voices to call after her?
Virginia thought the whole thing ridiculous, but she stepped to the phone and began to dial 911 before she realized the line was dead.
She slowly put down the receiver. Her cell was useless out here; in fact, her grandmother didn’t even own one and with good reason. Cell phone coverage was sketchy in this part of the county.
The huge old place seemed too quiet. She shivered and hugged herself, wishing her mother would come back and assure her there was a good reason the phone line was down.
Should she stay in here and wait, or should she go out and see what was going on herself? Maybe her mother needed her.
The thought actually made Virginia laugh out loud.
The wind buffeted the old glass at the window, making her jump. She’d been so busy listening to the house that she’d failed to realize how hard the wind was blowing. It thrashed the cottonwoods outside, sending leaves swirling across the yard.
She tried to convince herself that the wind had knocked down the phone line, just as it used to when she lived here. But she knew something was terribly wrong. She could feel it.
She eased open the front door and peered around the corner, hoping to see her mother. A gust of wind nearly wrested the door from her hands. She stared into the darkness. Was that Pepper headed for the old wing of the house?
She let out a small cry as ice-cold fingers bit into her upper arm. The door slipped from her fingers and swung open, banging against the wall as she swung around.
“What are you doing?” Enid demanded.
The elderly housekeeper looked odd. Or maybe it was the way the wind blew her hair back from her face in this dim light.
“You scared me half to death,” Virginia snapped. “You have to quit sneaking up on people like that. You’re going to give my mother a heart attack.”
“It would take more than that to kill your mother.” Enid glanced down the hallway in the direction of Pepper’s room. “Where is your mother?”
“She’s gone outside after Josey.”
Enid pushed past her, fighting the wind to see.
Virginia heard her mother scream like a wounded animal, the sound getting caught up in the howl of the wind, as Enid began to run awkwardly in the direction Pepper had gone.
Virginia slammed the door, then hurried down to her room and locked herself inside.
RJ KNEW HE COULDN’T BE SEEN where he was standing in dense shadow, and yet he’d almost blown it—he’d been so surprised to see Josey walk past the room where he was hiding in plain sight.
He wanted to laugh. Could his luck get any better than this? He felt he was on a roll. Nothing could go wrong.
The hardest part was waiting until he heard her footsteps stop. Still, he waited as he heard a door creak open. He started to take a step when he heard Josey speak—and a man answer.
Perfect. RJ took a cautious step out, then another. The door to the room down the hall was open now, a dim light spilling out. He could hear their voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Something in the tone, though, told him this was the driver of the Cadillac parked out front, the cowboy who’d saved Josey. Or thought he had, RJ thought with a smile.
He eased down the hallway, stopping as soon as he could hear what they were saying.
PEPPER TEETERED on her cane as McCall reached her.
“What is going on?” Pepper demanded, her voice warbling with emotion.
McCall steadied her for a moment, following her grandmother’s gaze to the body lying in the shadow of the house and the old dog sitting next to it.
“It’s Alfred,” her grandmother said. “He has an ax in his chest.”
McCall could see that. “What are you doing out here?”
“Josey rushed out of the house saying to call you because Jack was in trouble. I came out to find out what was wrong.”
Josey, McCall thought, looking around the ranch yard. “I want you to go back to the house.” At the sound of a sole crunching on the gravel, McCall swung around to see Enid. She had stopped short of where her husband lay dead next to the door. She had her hand over her mouth.
“Enid,” McCall said, going over and taking hold of her arm. “I want you to take Pepper back into the house. Do you hear me?”
The ancient housekeeper nodded slowly.
“Now! Both of you, and stay there.” McCall moved along the building, glancing back to see that neither old woman had moved. Damn it. She didn’t have time to herd them back to the house. She reached the end of the building and saw where the boards had been removed.
The door into the old section of the house was open. Cautiously, she moved toward it.
FOR A MOMENT, Josey stood, her heart in her throat, afraid to breathe.
“Jack?” she whispered, as she stared into the dark roo
m. The gun was in her hands, one finger on the trigger. She knew RJ might have already gotten to Jack. That if anyone was in the room it could be RJ, standing in the dark and laughing at her.
A light flashed on, the beam pointed at the floor.
Her finger brushed the trigger and jerked away. “Jack!” she cried. She lowered the gun and rushed to him. Her relief at seeing him unharmed made her throat swell with emotion. She could barely get the words out. “Alfred. He’s dead. RJ—” The rest was choked off as she saw the hole in the wall and what lay just inside it. “Oh, my God. Who—?”
“My grandfather,” he said, taking the gun from her and laying the flashlight on one of the shelves so the beam wasn’t pointed at them. “My mother had heard stories from people who used to work on the ranch about Alfred rocking up a wall in the old wing the day Call Winchester disappeared.”
The mention of Alfred brought back the horrible scene just outside. The words spilled out of her as she felt the urgency return. “I saw Alfred earlier carrying an ax and headed this way, so I came to warn you, but…” She shuddered as she met Jack’s eyes. “He’s dead. The ax is in…his chest. RJ’s here.”
Jack gripped her arm with one hand. He had the gun he’d taken from her in the other. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They both seemed to hear the creak of a floorboard behind them at the same time. Turning toward the doorway, Jack stepped in front of her as they were suddenly blinded by a bright light.
JACK BLINKED, covering his eyes as he shielded Josey from the man standing in the doorway holding the gun on them.
“Drop the gun,” the man ordered, and lowered the flashlight so it wasn’t blinding Jack.
Jack knew he could get off at least one shot before RJ fired. He couldn’t take the chance that Josey might be hit.
He had risked her life for revenge. He would never forgive himself. But he knew even if they’d left earlier, one day RJ would have caught up to them. This encounter had been inevitable.
