Wyoming Winter--A Small-Town Christmas Romance

by Diana Palmer

  Before Colie had time to react, Rodney and his friend Barry came in the door. Rodney’s expression was one of regret and apology. His friend, holding a pistol in his hand, was arrogant.

  “Colie, you have to call your bosses and tell them not to go ahead with that drug case,” Rodney said quickly. He darted a glance at Barry. “She’ll do it, I know she will,” he added. “You don’t need the gun...!”

  “She’ll never do it,” Barry said, reading with accuracy the look on Colie’s face. “She doesn’t care if you go to prison.”

  “That’s not true...” Colie began, playing for more time to think, to do something. Let him shoot her, if he had to, but she must save Ludie. If only she’d asked J.C. to stay with them. Too late now.

  “But,” Rodney protested, and looked as if it actually mattered to him that his sister wasn’t harmed. For once, his eyes weren’t bloodshot. He looked like the brother he used to be, not under the influence of drugs.

  “Shut up, Rod,” Barry said. “It’s too late. Get the kid. You’re coming with me,” he told Colie.

  “No,” she said, and reached for a butcher knife on the counter.

  Barry simply pointed the .45 automatic at Ludie’s head. “Your choice,” he drawled.

  Now Colie was terrified. The man didn’t seem to be bluffing. If the court case went ahead, he’d be in federal prison in no time, and he knew it. He was desperate enough to do anything; even shoot a helpless toddler.

  “All right,” Colie said quickly, putting the knife down. “All right, I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt Ludie.”

  “Bad man,” Ludie said, staring at Barry. “Bad man.”

  “Bad enough,” Barry said with an arrogant smile. “Let’s go.” He pointed the gun at Colie. “Get the kid and come on.”

  “Where are you taking them?” Rodney asked, worried.

  “Just out for a ride, and a little conversation. You stay here and wait until I get back,” he instructed. “Give me your car keys.”

  Rodney did, primed to do anything this man said, because he was up to his neck in trouble and he knew Barry wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him, too. But he honestly didn’t realize for precious minutes what the man had said. “Until I get back.” Barry meant that he’d be returning alone.

  * * *

  “DO ANYTHING YOU like to me, just don’t hurt my daughter,” Colie pleaded as Barry drove up the road to a deserted stretch that ran alongside Ren Colter’s ranch.

  “You told them what you saw three years ago, didn’t you?” Barry asked as he drove. “You told them you saw me bring Rod a suitcase of drugs. You’re the only witness who can testify to that.”

  She caught her breath. So this was what it was really about—not the court case at all. “I never told a soul,” she protested.

  “Sure, you didn’t,” he said hotly. “But you won’t testify.”

  “No. I won’t. I promise,” she said, bargaining for their freedom. She held Ludie tight. There was no car seat, so Ludie was in her lap.

  “Too late for that.” He stopped the car and produced the gun. “This is a nice, private spot. No witnesses.”

  Colie had seconds to act. She threw open the door and put Ludie out on the snow-covered ground. “Run!” she told the child. “Run like the...wind!” Her voice broke as the man beside her pulled the trigger. Blood went everywhere, splattering even onto Ludie’s white jacket.

  Ludie screamed as she heard the shot. She tried to look back, but her mother cried, “Run!” one last time.

  She ran toward the fence, found an opening under it where some large animal had dug an entrance through the snow and crawled through it. With tears staining her cheeks, she ran as fast as she could into the sheltering woods.

  “You won’t hurt...my child!” Colie said, struggling with the man. She wasn’t big-boned, but she was strong. Even with adrenaline pumping through her, the wound was weakening her. She could barely get a breath and she was light-headed. She felt the life draining out of her through the hole in her chest. “You...won’t!”

  “She’ll freeze to death out there before too long,” Barry said harshly, “and she won’t be a witness, anyway.”

  “Witness...” He was blurring in her eyes. The chest wound was making odd sounds. She struggled to get a tiny breath of air.

  It had felt like a fist slamming into her rib cage, but now the pain was starting. If only Ludie made it to safety! She must try to stay conscious...

  She took a last, labored breath and passed out. Barry thought of pushing her out, but it might lead someone to the child, if they spotted small footprints in the snow. He didn’t want the child found. The dying woman beside him wouldn’t be able to tell where she was, anyway.

  He drove the car back to Rodney’s house.

  * * *

  ROD WAS WAITING on the front porch, pacing. He ran toward Barry. “What did you do... Sis!” he exploded when he saw her.

  “Just what was necessary,” Barry told him nonchalantly. “Now there’ll be no witness to testify against me for a drug deal, even if her law firm does pull the rug out from under the dealers. I can beat that rap. But an eyewitness to drug distribution could have put me in federal prison. I couldn’t take the chance.”

  “My sister.” Rod lifted her gently out of the car, tears running down his face. “My sister!”

  “Your car, her blood, guess who’ll go up for murder one?” Barry drawled.

  Rodney wasn’t hearing him. He laid Colie gently on the floor of the porch. “You killed my sister!” He looked into the open passenger door and his blood ran hotter. “Where’s Ludie?”

  Barry just shrugged. “Lost in the woods. You’d better think about what you’re going to do,” he said easily. “Me, I’m driving back to Jackson Hole. I may go to Aruba. You’re on your own. You were a lousy dealer, Rod. Just as well I don’t have to keep an eye on you anymore to see what your sister’s up to.” He looked at the dying woman. “She won’t be a problem anymore.”

  “Murderer!” Rod raged, and rushed him.

  Barry easily put him on the floor, adjusted his expensive suit and walked to his own luxury car. He got into it and drove away. Even if Rodney called the cops, Barry was in the clear. There were no witnesses, and the blood and the body could be traced to Rod’s car. It wasn’t Barry who’d go to jail for murder. Meanwhile, he could relax. There were no witnesses to what he’d done. And who knew, with the snow falling so hard, they might not find the kid’s body for a long time.

  * * *

  RODNEY CALLED 911 from one of his throwaway phones. He didn’t dare stay. Barry was right. He’d be on the rack for murder one if Colie died. His sister. He’d left her on her own, been reluctant to leave Barry and the quick money, sold out his own flesh and blood. His father was dead. His sister was dying. And Ludie. What about Ludie? He had no idea where she could be. Barry hadn’t been gone long, but it was a big area. He’d never be able to find the poor child, even if he had time to look for her.

  He smoothed back Colie’s hair. She had a sucking chest wound. It would kill her soon if she didn’t get help. He told dispatch where the house was, but he hung up almost immediately. He went into the house and got a big plastic bag from the kitchen. He put it on the chest wound and wrapped a blanket tight around her to hold it in place. During his term in service, he’d seen makeshift treatments for all sorts of wounds. Thank God he remembered this one.

  But she was still in bad shape and he didn’t dare stay. He wanted to leave a note, implicate Barry, tell Colie he was sorry he’d brought this on her and her child. Her child! His blood ran cold. It was J.C.’s child. He knew. Most people knew that Colie had only ever had one lover, and it was J.C. He was certain that no other man had fathered that little girl, and he could only imagine what J.C. would do when she was found dead. Or when Colie was found dea
d, if she didn’t survive.

  The safest place was going to be somewhere out of the country. Rod had money. He could get away. But only if he acted quickly.

  He jumped into the car, wincing at the blood on the passenger seat, and shot off into the distance down the road. He could stop at a service station and get some paper towels to clean up the mess. He’d find some rural one, on a less traveled road, to do that. Meanwhile he sent up a silent prayer that Colie would be found in time, even if she lived to testify and put him in prison. He’d been responsible for it all. His father had raised him to be a good boy, but he’d been weak and easily led with tragic results. His father would be ashamed of him. He was ashamed of himself. But he kept driving, just the same.

  * * *

  THE DEPUTY FOUND Colie on the porch and radioed for the EMTs. They were less than a minute away, having just checked out Ludie up the road where J.C. had found her.

  “Look at this,” one EMT told the other as they stabilized Colie, noting the makeshift bandage. “Somebody tried to help her.”

  “Maybe the person who shot her,” his companion said. “We’ve got something better than that, thank God. Let’s call it in and get her ready for transport.”

  “I’m way ahead of you,” the woman said, rushing back to the truck for supplies.

  * * *

  J.C. HAD JUST finished with Ludie in the emergency room. Except for some emotional trauma, the resident told him, the child would be fine. She was unharmed, even by the snow she’d been found lying in. Lucky, the man added, because frostbite would have been an issue if she’d stayed out in the cold much longer.

  J.C. thanked the man and cuddled Ludie close as they left the cubicle.

  “Mommy over there,” Ludie said, pointing.

  J.C. looked and then smiled. “No, baby, she’s not. They’re looking for her...” He didn’t have much hope that she’d be found alive. It was like acid, eating his heart, knowing that. He had to be calm, for Ludie’s sake.

  “Mommy,” the child insisted.

  J.C. looked again, and EMTs were rushing in with a woman on a stretcher.

  “Colie!” J.C. burst out. He ran to the stretcher with Ludie in his arms.

  “This is her child,” he told them as he followed. “Will she live?”

  “It’s a GSW,” one EMT said, meaning a gunshot wound.

  “It’s a sucking chest wound,” the female EMT added, not breaking stride on her way through the swinging doors to surgery. “She’s in bad shape. The doctor will have to evaluate her and give you a prognosis. Are you a relative?”

  “Her fiancé,” he said.

  “That’s my mommy,” Ludie told them, crying again. “Mommy be okay?” she asked.

  “We’ll do everything we can,” the man assured her.

  “This my daddy,” Ludie added, patting J.C.’s face.

  The EMT, who was local, just grinned at J.C., who looked at the child with mingled pride and delight.

  “We’ll wait out here,” J.C. told them.

  They rushed Colie back into the emergency section.

  * * *

  IT WAS A long time before a man in surgical gear came to talk to them, pulling down his mask as he walked.

  J.C. was on his feet immediately, with Ludie in his arms. “How is she?” he asked quickly.

  “She’ll live,” the man said, noting the horror that had been contained in the two pairs of eyes that were identical, a pale, shimmery gray.

  “Thank God,” J.C. said heavily. Ludie just smiled at the surgeon, who grinned at her.

  “There was some damage to the lower lobe of her lung. The bullet ricocheted and nicked her colon. It lodged in her back, in a place where it would be more dangerous to remove it than to leave it,” he added quietly. “The body will react by building a fleshy shield around it. She won’t know it’s there.”

  “I’ve got one in me somewhere,” J.C. replied. “Combat in the Middle East. It’s not a souvenir I really wanted, but my combat surgeon told me the same thing you just said about Colie.”

  “I’ve had some royal battles with policemen over removal of bullets for evidence. Went to court one time to make sure I wasn’t pressured into doing something I deemed an unnecessary risk. The policeman had to search for other evidence. He did find it, in case you wondered.”

  “Can we see Colie?” he asked huskily.

  The surgeon was reluctant until he looked into Ludie’s eyes. He relented. “Okay. Just for a minute, though. She isn’t out from under the anesthesia just yet.”

  They followed him back to the recovery room, where a nurse was overseeing two postsurgical patients.

  “Her daughter,” the surgeon told the hovering nurse, who took one look at Ludie’s little tearstained face and couldn’t help smiling.

  “Mommy!” Ludie exclaimed.

  J.C. moved to the still, white form under the sheet. “Dear God, I’ve never prayed so much in my whole life,” he said under his breath.

  “It was a close call,” the surgeon affirmed. “If she’d been found just a little later, and if someone hadn’t rigged a plug for the wound...”

  “A what?” J.C. exclaimed.

  “Somebody treated her before the EMTs arrived,” he said. “There was a makeshift bandage, a plastic one, over the sucking chest wound. Very effective. Probably saved her life.”

  “Yes.” J.C. hefted Ludie closer and reached down to touch Colie’s white face. He brushed back her thick, soft dark hair tenderly. “Colie,” he whispered huskily.

  Her eyes shot open. She looked up at them through a layer of mental fog brought on by the anesthesia. She blinked. She winced.

  “Mommy!” Ludie called.

  She looked at the child and managed a smile through the pain that was slowly returning. “Ludie. My baby,” she whispered.

  “Who shot you?” J.C. asked quickly.

  “Barry. He was going to kill...both of us. I put Ludie out. Told her...to run.” Tears threatened. “I was afraid...she could have frozen to death!”

  “She’s fine. I’ll take her home with me,” J.C. said gently. “You’ll be fine, honey. Just fine.”

  She looked up at him with pain-filled green eyes. “Thanks...J.C.” she managed.

  His big hand smoothed her hair. “We’ll come back to see you tomorrow. Okay?”

  She managed a smile. “I love you, Ludie,” she whispered.

  “I love you, Mommy,” the little girl replied. “Bad man ran away!” she added.

  “He won’t get far,” J.C. said curtly. “Half of Wyoming law has him in their sights.”

  “I want five...minutes alone with him,” Colie whispered. “With a tire iron...” She tried to laugh and drifted away instead.

  “She’ll sleep now,” the surgeon assured them. “You have to leave. So do I. I have another case waiting.”

  “Thanks for letting us in,” J.C. said with a wistful, relieved glance back at Colie. “We were scared to death.”

  “Mommy okay now, Daddy,” Ludie said, nuzzling close to him.

  He smiled over her head at the surgeon and walked out to the SUV.

  * * *

  HE CALLED SHERIFF BANKS from his cell phone when he and Ludie got back to Skyhorn, but the sheriff had been too busy to answer. He left a callback number. Banks needed to know what Colie had told him.

  He left Ludie with Ren’s wife, Merrie, with a plea to bathe her and wash her clothes while he went back to town to buy some clothes and a toy or two for the little girl, who was going to stay in his cabin with him. Merrie assured him that she’d take care of the child. It amused her to see the very real bond between father and daughter that had already appeared.

  Banks called him when he’d just pulled up in front of a clothing boutique that catered to children, in
downtown Catelow. “I talked to Colie at the emergency room,” he told Banks. “She said Barry Todd shot her. He was going to kill Ludie as well, but she pushed Ludie out and told her to run.”

  “I figured that. She must have something on Barry Todd, for him to have tried to murder her and the child, as well.”

  “Something she’s never told anyone,” J.C. agreed. “I thought it was because of the court case back in Texas. They have an informer who’s ready to blow the drug distribution network apart, and apparently it involves Barry himself.”

  “So maybe he had two reasons.”

  “Somebody dressed the wound. Somebody who knew how. It was a sucking chest wound. The surgeon said it saved her life.”

  Banks let out a sigh. “Thank God for small blessings. Todd wouldn’t have done that,” he added.

  “I know. I’m pretty sure it was Rod. He was in combat. I know he’d have some idea of what to do for a wound.”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a BOLO out for him, and for Todd. If we can find him, Todd will go up for attempted murder. And since he literally kidnapped Colie and her child from their home, I can bring in the feds to help. Federal offense, kidnapping. Todd’s sealed his own coffin.”

  “We can hope so,” J.C. said coldly. “I left Ludie with Merrie while I get her some clothes and I’m going to get her a kid’s meal from the local fast-food joint. I can cook, but I’m not in the mood right now. It’s been a damned long day.”

  “Tell me about it,” Banks laughed hollowly. “I’m out after a bank robber, believe it or not. He took several hundred dollars from a dry goods store at gunpoint and ran for his life. We’ve got him cornered at his grandmother’s house, but he’s threatening to kill her if we don’t back off. That’s why I haven’t been to the hospital to question Colie. She’s going to be all right, then?”

  “That’s what the doctor says. He had to leave the bullet in.”

  “Hey, I’ve got one of those, too,” Banks said.

  J.C. laughed. “Me, too. Maybe we’ll form a club or something.”

  “I have to get back to my men. I’ll let you know if we turn up Todd or Colie’s brother.”