by B. J Daniels
He loomed over her. “Don’t bother, we’re way past that.” He shook his head, studying her. A chunk of memory fell into place making him frown. Drugged, he would have appeared drunk. Which would explain why the stewards thought he had a drinking problem while on board the ship.
AJ had said that it was suspected he’d climbed up on the railing drunk and had gone overboard. And at that hour of the night, no one had witnessed it.
He saw her look at the clock on the wall. “Expecting company?”
She didn’t bother to answer. They both knew it would be a lie anyway. “We realized you were going to have to be taken care of. You’d gotten wise to me drugging you. You pretended you were knocked out in our cabin and later followed me up to the deck.”
He nodded. “Let me guess. You were with Otis and Arthur, your criminal masterminds.”
“There was a scuffle. We couldn’t let you go to the captain. I was afraid you’d already made a call from the room to either the authorities or your girlfriend. We had no choice.”
“No choice but to throw me overboard.” He laughed. “Come on, Juliette. Admit it, you were planning to kill me even if I hadn’t discovered what was going on.”
“If I had planned to throw you overboard before our ‘honeymoon’ was over, I would have made sure you were too drugged up to have survived,” she spat at him.
“That’s the loving wife I remember,” he said. He chewed at his cheek for a moment. “So from the very beginning you planned to trick me into marriage and then kill me.”
“You’re wrong. Yes, I was desperate for money and I thought you had more than you do. But the last thing I needed was another dead husband,” she said.
“Then how did you think you were going to get away with all this?”
She shrugged. “I was going to divorce you once we got back to the States. It would be my word against yours. You think anyone would believe some story about me pretending I was FBI to get you to marry me? Especially when there were witnesses on the ship who would testify that you seemed to be drunk most of the voyage. Unfortunately, you became a problem for us on the ship and had to be disposed of.”
“Disposed of. You really are a heartless—”
“If you hadn’t survived, I would have gotten away with it because I even had your family believing that you’d had too much to drink and must have climbed up on the railing that night.”
“AJ never believed it,” he said.
“AJ.” Juliette swore. “I really didn’t plan on her. You weren’t wearing a wedding ring. When we interrogated you, we confirmed that you weren’t married. You never mentioned a girlfriend. Then along comes AJ determined that you’re alive. That you had to have survived. She suspected right from the start that something was wrong with the entire story.”
He smiled. “Thank God for AJ. She knew I was alive. She...felt it. That’s true love, not that I think it is something you have ever experienced or ever will.”
Cyrus realized the gun in her purse hadn’t been the only thing she had gone for. She pulled out her cell phone and hit a few numbers.
As he pocketed the FBI badge, he said, “Give me that.”
When she didn’t hand it over, he grabbed it out of her hand to stop the call from going through to whoever she’d been dialing.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“What do you think? I’m calling Flint. He’s going to love locking you up.”
“He won’t believe you.”
“I think he will, especially when I show him the badge you used.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Juliette said as she got to her feet an instant before Cyrus heard the creak of a floorboard behind him.
He spun around into Otis Claremont’s big fist.
* * *
“I WAS AFRAID you weren’t going to get here in time,” Juliette cried and threw herself into Otis’s arms.
“And leave you here alone with Arthur? Not a chance.”
“The damned fool just about got caught over at the saloon and now he didn’t check to see if Cyrus was here and came in the back door flapping his lips... Cyrus went after him but didn’t catch him, thankfully. But when Cyrus came back, I could tell his memory was coming back. Then he saw my FBI badge. I was packing, planning to get make a run for it.” She groaned. “He remembered everything.”
“I heard.”
“What are we going to do with him?”
Otis looked down at Cyrus. He had quickly gagged and handcuffed him, binding his ankles with tape. “What we planned all along. I got here late last night. Heard something on the radio that got me thinking. Found this little canyon... I’ve got it covered.” He grinned.
“It has to look like an accident or suicide or something. And we have to get rid of his girlfriend. I want her dead.” She looked down at Cyrus who was struggling to get out of his bondage. The blow had only stunned him long enough for Otis to get the cuffs on him. She’d had to help hold him down to get his ankles bound and the gag on him. “But isn’t that going to look suspicious?”
Otis touched her cheek. “I told you, baby. I’ve got it all figured out. Call Arthur. I’m going to need his help. The place I found is perfect. We get rid of both of them. Make it look like they took off together. When they’re found...” He grinned again and she realized that he’d seen the check Cyrus had written her. “We are going as far as this will take us,” he said, picking up the check and waving it like a fan. “Warm weather, ocean breezes, you and me.”
Juliette studied him, feeling as if she’d gone from the frying pan into the fire. She raised an eyebrow as he pocketed her check. “Any trouble getting here with that BOLO out on you?”
“Borrowed a vehicle and an ID.”
“And you had time to scope out a perfect place to finish this?” she asked, feeling the hair rise on the back of her neck. Sometimes he scared her.
“To take care of things. I couldn’t leave it to Arthur.”
She looked into his handsome face and felt a shiver. She knew he would double-cross her in a heartbeat if the money was right.
“Once he and his girlfriend are dead, you get everything Cyrus had,” Otis said.
“And where will you be?”
He pulled her to him. “Sweetie, I can’t stick around here. I’ll take care of Arthur and then I’ll meet you somewhere sunny and warm. Isn’t that the way we always planned it?”
“Take care of Arthur?”
“It’s time to lose him. It’s been time for a while, don’t you think? But first call him. Get him back here. I need his help. Then call the girlfriend. Get her over here and then bring her out to the spot I found. I’ll draw you a map.” He stepped to the small table by the door and picked up the notepad there and began to draw. “If she ever wants to see Cyrus alive, she’ll do what you say.”
“Where’s this perfect spot?”
“Not far from here, actually. Back in the mountains.”
On the floor, Cyrus was staring daggers at her. If looks could kill...
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
AJ JUMPED WHEN her cell phone rang. She’d been on edge since waking up to Cyrus’s note. She’d seen how furious he was last night. And how frustrated. He’d brought this woman into their lives and he had no way of getting rid of her—short of selling his family’s ranch.
She could tell that as badly as he wanted free of Juliette, he couldn’t do that to the Cahills. Even if he couldn’t remember his family, he had seen how much they cared about him. If push came to shove, they would give up the ranch to save him.
So she hoped he wouldn’t take things into his own hands with Juliette. The Cyrus she’d known had been strong but gentle. He wasn’t a killer. Neither was AJ. But Juliette had changed that, hadn’t she?
There were times when she relived that night on the trail down from the hot springs. She saw h
erself lifting the rock and bringing it down. She shuddered at the thought. She’d saved Cyrus. Fortunately, she hadn’t killed the man. She didn’t want to be faced with such a decision again before this was over. She feared neither of them would ever be the same and worried where that left their relationship. They couldn’t look at each other without remembering what they’d had to do to survive.
Nerves jangling, she pulled out her phone and was surprised to see who was calling. “Juliette?” she said without preamble.
“I thought we should talk. I was hoping you’d come by my cabin.”
“Have you seen Cyrus?” AJ asked.
“No, why?” Juliette said.
“I thought he might have stopped by.”
“Really? If this is about the baby—”
And then there was the baby, AJ thought with a silent groan. She told herself that Juliette was lying, like she did about everything. But what if she wasn’t? She pushed the thought away. “Last night someone attacked me in my apartment.”
“That’s awful!” Juliette cried. “But you’re all right?”
“A little bruised, but fine. You wouldn’t know anything about it I’m sure.”
“No, this is the first I’ve heard,” Juliette said. “How frightening. Well, I can tell you I’m going to make sure I lock my cabin door tonight. I thought Gilt Edge didn’t have any crime.”
AJ gritted her teeth.
“Still, you and I need to talk,” the woman said. “It’s about Cyrus. I think I have a plan that might put an end to all of this. I know how much the two of you want to be together. I can make that happen.”
“For a price.”
“Please. Let’s just sit down, girl to girl. Maybe I’m not as heartless as you think I am.”
AJ wasn’t about to touch that line. Heartless, soulless, evil. “I’ll be right there.” She disconnected, wishing Cyrus had a cell phone. That should have been one of the first things they picked up for him when they returned to the States. Not that he would think he needed one, she was sure.
Grabbing her coat, she ran downstairs. She wasn’t looking forward to this meeting with Juliette, but if there really was a way to get the woman out of their lives, she would jump at it.
“Where are you off to?” Billie Dee asked, looking worried as she stepped to her to gently touch the side of her face. “That bruise is awful. If that man comes back around here, I’d like to take a rolling pin to him.”
AJ laughed in spite of her sore cheek and jaw. “If you hear from Cyrus, would you tell him Juliette called and wants to talk about freeing him from their marriage. At least I hope that’s what she meant.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea going over there alone? You know what that woman is capable of doing.”
She hugged Billie Dee. “That’s why I’m telling you where I’m going. I think Juliette is beginning to realize she can’t win this one.”
The cook looked skeptical. “That man who attacked you last night—”
“He might not even know Juliette.”
“We both know better than that. I’m sorry, but that woman isn’t the kind to give up. Gigi’s father was like that,” she said of the man who’d fathered her daughter. “Even after all these years, if he knew where I was now, he would make trouble for me and worse for Gigi. Those kind never give up.”
“I hope you’re wrong about Juliette because I’m afraid of what Cyrus will do.”
* * *
DEPUTY HARPER COLE groaned inwardly at he took down the information from Logan Sparks about his missing snowmobile.
“So what would you say the value of your machine was?” Harp asked the elderly rancher.
“Value? To me? Priceless. On the open market?” Sparks laughed. “Hell, doubt I could give it away. You’re missing the point, son.”
“I know. You just want it back,” he said before the old man could lecture him. “Can you describe it?”
He listened as Sparks told him what he’d suspected. The snowmobile was so old they didn’t even make that brand anymore. The seat was cracked on it, the paint faded, the short windshield broken off and the body dented and rusted.
“But it still runs,” the man said. “And I still use it.”
Harp groaned inwardly. “When did you last see it?”
“Was in the barn yesterday evening.”
“With the key in it?” the deputy asked.
“Of course the key was in it. You think I want to be carrying the key around? Wasn’t like I thought anyone was going to steal the damned thing. You have to pull start it. Weren’t easy, either. About jerked my shoulder off sometimes getting it started but once I did, it ran just fine.”
Harp looked from the barn where they stood to the house. “I would imagine it was noisy running.”
“Deafening. I hear the newer ones aren’t quite so loud.”
“But you didn’t hear it being taken?”
“Yep, see what you’re getting at. I sleep like the dead. Especially with my hearing aid out.”
Harp nodded and put his notebook away. “So the snowmobile was parked here.” He pointed to a spot not far into the barn where the dirt was displaced by the track and skis on the snowmobile. Glancing out the barn door he could see the tracks heading toward the south. He figured he would find the snowmobile buried in a drift where some kids had gotten it stuck and couldn’t get it to go any farther.
He sighed. “I’ll see if I can find it and let you know.”
“You find it and I’ll identify it,” Sparks said. “Doubt there’s another one like it still running.”
Harp nodded and began following the fresh snowmobile tracks through the snow, telling himself that he deserved better than the kind of cases the sheriff sent him on. He knew Flint resented him from the start. The sheriff had inherited him when he’d taken the job. The fact that Harp was the mayor’s son had kept Flint from getting rid of him from the get-go.
Admittedly, he’d made some mistakes. He hadn’t taken the job seriously for a while. But now that he was married, had a son and a wife who was expecting again, he was a changed man.
Not that he thought Flint was ever going to trust him with real lawman work. What did he have to do to prove himself? He’d helped solve a half-dozen cases. What more did Flint want? Harp had settled down. He was doing his best to prove himself. Didn’t that show that he was trustworthy?
Suddenly the snowmobile tracks stopped so abruptly that Harp stumbled to a halt and blinked. “What the hell?” He’d been so sure it was kids who’d stolen the old snowmobile. But as he stared at the track at the edge of a small secondary snow-covered road, it took him a moment to realize what he was seeing. He couldn’t help being surprised since as Sparks had said, the snowmobile wasn’t worth anything.
But darned if someone hadn’t pulled up to the edge of the road, backed up against a snowdrift and driven the snowmobile up into the bed of a pickup. He could see the indentation of the pickup’s bumper in the snowbank.
He bent down and realized that wasn’t all he saw. The license plate had also been pressed into the snowbank. Harp let out a laugh as he pulled out his cell phone and took a photograph of the plate complete with numbers. He was going to find Sparks’s snowmobile. Another crime solved. So there, Sheriff Flint Cahill, he thought as he called in the plate number and let out a low whistle when he heard the news.
The pickup had been stolen from a barn down by Red Lodge. This case was getting more interesting, he thought as he noticed that the truck hadn’t headed toward the main road, but had driven toward the road to Horse Thief Canyon.
* * *
AJ PULLED UP in front of Juliette’s cabin and felt a shiver as she looked around, thinking about what Billie Dee had said. This place was definitely isolated. The office was six cabins away and up by the main road while this last cabin was back in the pines by itself. Sh
e didn’t think it was coincidence that Juliette had chosen it.
The woman’s car was parked out front. Next to it, there were tracks in the snow where someone had also been here. Cyrus? Had Juliette lied about not seeing him this morning?
Why had Juliette gotten her out here? Just then, the door of the cabin opened. The blonde stuck her head out and gave her an impatient nod to come in before closing the door. AJ noticed that the woman’s rental car was covered with snow. It appeared she hadn’t been anywhere recently.
She took a breath and let it out, just wanting to get this over with. If there was a way to free Cyrus of this woman, she had to try, she told herself as she climbed out and walked toward the cabin.
It was one of those March days when the weather didn’t seem to know what it wanted to do. This time of year in Montana it could snow two feet just as easily as it could be sunny and warm. Today it was overcast and the weatherman had mentioned another storm coming in.
The snow in the mountains was deep this time of year. Down here in the valley, there was a good foot of it. Everywhere there were piles of snow that had been removed from the streets and deposited around town in high mountains that the local kids played on until June when the snow finally melted.
AJ felt the cold dampness as she tapped on the cabin door. A few flakes began to fall around her, growing more dense quickly. She started to reach for the knob, wondering what she was doing here. Did she really believe they could work something out?
The door opened so fast that she was taken aback for a moment. Juliette had clearly been impatiently waiting for her just inside the door. AJ hoped that was a good sign. Maybe she really did want to settle and be on her way.
She started to step in when she noticed that Juliette was wearing her coat and boots. She stopped in the doorway. “Were you coming or going?”
Juliette smiled, reminding her that the woman was attractive when she wasn’t scowling. “Just waiting on you.”
“With your coat on?” Juliette appeared a little nervous. AJ got the impression that she was lying about something, but then again most things out of the woman’s mouth were a lie. “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” AJ said and started to step back outside when Juliette pulled the gun from her coat pocket.
