Justice at Cardwell Ranch (10 page)

She’d been a tomboy, so dresses had never really appealed to her. Add to that her profession, she’d had little need of anything besides jeans and boots.

“I don’t know what I’m going to wear,” she said when Dana answered the phone. “I know it doesn’t matter. It’s not like it’s a date.”

“No, going out with a suspect probably couldn’t be called a date,” her boss’s wife agreed with a chuckle. “Come over. You’re welcome to dig through my closet. I’ll call Hilde. She’s more girlie than either of us. She’ll help.”

“Thanks,” Liza said, relieved. She definitely needed help.

“How is the investigation going?” Dana asked.

Liza knew Dana must be bored to tears now that she was being forced to stay in bed. “Slowly.” She didn’t want to admit that it brought up a lot of high school memories, ones she thought she’d left behind when she’d graduated.

“And Jordan?” Dana asked.

She didn’t know how to answer that. “He’s fine. Actually, I get the feeling he’s changed. Don’t worry,” she said quickly. “If he hasn’t, I’ll be the first to know. He’s still a suspect.”

“But you don’t think he killed Alex Winslow.”

“No. I think he really did come back to find out what happened to his friend Tanner. It’s looking like he had reason to be concerned.”

Dana was silent for a moment. “Tell him to stop by, if he wants to.”

“I will. I’ll drop by later this afternoon for the clothing search.” In the meantime, she thought, closing her closet door, she wanted to pay Tessa Ryerson Spring a visit.

* * *

D
ANA COULDN’T HELP THINKING
of Jordan and half wishing she hadn’t told Liza to have him stop by. Feeling the babies kick, she willed herself not to worry about Stacy or her brother. Instead, she put in a quick call to Hilde, who, of course, was delighted to help with Liza’s clothing dilemma.

“I’ll gather up some dresses and bring them over later,” her best friend said. “Can I bring you anything?”

“Maybe some needlepoint from the store?” Dana suggested, cringing since the mere thought had always given her hives.

“Oh, girl, you really are bored to tears!” She laughed as she hung up.

After she’d found her mother’s will and got to go back to ranching, Dana had become a silent partner in Needles and Pins, the small sewing shop she and Hilde had started in Meadow Village. She’d never been the one who sewed. That had been Hilde. But Dana had always loved working with her best friend in the shop.

She missed it sometimes. Not that she and the kids didn’t often stop in to visit. Mary and Hank loved all the colorful bolts of fabric and Hilde always had some fun craft for them to do.

“Look what we made, Mommy!” Mary and Hank cried in unison now as they came running into the bedroom. They held up the clay figures, and Dana praised them for their imagination and their choice of multiple bright colors.

Behind them, Stacy stood in the doorway looking on with what appeared to be contentment. Dana had been watching her sister all day. She hated letting Hud’s suspicions cloud her forgiving thoughts about Stacy. She’d missed having a sister all these years. Not that she and Stacy had been close like some sisters. There were no tea parties, doll playing or dressing up for pretend weddings.

Stacy had done all those things, but Dana had been an outside kid. She loved riding her horse, climbing trees, building forts. Two years older, Stacy had turned up her nose at most things Dana thought were fun and vice versa.

“Okay, let’s clean up our mess,” her sister told the kids. “I think that’s your daddy who just drove up.”

As they scampered out of the room, leaving a couple clay figures beside her bed to keep her company, Dana waited expectantly for Hud. She knew where he’d gone and what he’d been up to—running a check on her sister. A part of her feared what he might have discovered.

She listened. The moment he came in the house, Mary and Hank were all over him. He played with them for a moment, and, like her, praised everything they’d made before coming into the bedroom. When he closed the door, she knew the news wasn’t going to be good.

* * *

L
IZA COULDN’T SHAKE
the feeling that Jordan was right about the two deaths being connected. While anxious to talk to Tessa Ryerson Spring, she went to the office and pulled out the Tanner Cole investigation file. There wasn’t much in it since the coroner had ruled the death a suicide.

The incident had happened back up the North Fork where the victim had been staying in a cabin. His body had been found hanging from a tree limb in sight of the cabin, a rope noose around the victim’s neck. There was evidence of a log stump having been dragged over under the limb of the tree. When the body was found, the stump was on its side, a good foot from the dead man’s dangling boots. Cause of death was strangulation.

The victim was found by Jordan Cardwell, who’d gone looking for Tanner when he hadn’t shown up for school.

Attached were a half dozen black-and-white photographs taken at the scene. She flipped through them, noticing that the tree where Tanner was found hanging was next to a fire ring. She could see that there were dozens of footprints around the scene, no doubt because the area had been used for a party. Other stumps had been dragged up around the campfire area. Numerous discarded beer cans could be seen charred black in the firepit.

As she started to put the file back, something caught her eye. The investigating officer had been Brick Savage—Hud’s father.

* * *

H
UD SMILED SHEEPISHLY
at his wife after closing the door. She was watching him expectantly. He wished she didn’t know him so well sometimes. Walking over to the bed, he bent down and, touching her cheek, kissed her. “You get more beautiful every day.”

She swatted his hand playfully as he drew back. “If you think you can charm me—”

He laughed as she moved over to let him sit on the edge of the bed next to her. “Just speaking the truth.” She
was
beautiful. The pregnancy had put a glow in her cheeks and her eyes. Not that she wasn’t a stunner anytime. Dana had always smelled of summer, an indefinable scent that filled his heart like helium. He counted his blessings every day he woke up next to her.

“Okay, charmer, let’s hear it,” she said. “With you being so sweet, I’m guessing it’s bad news.”

He shook his head. “Am I that transparent?”

“Hud,” she said impatiently.

“I didn’t find out much. There wasn’t much to find out. Apparently, she doesn’t have credit cards or even a checking account.”

“She’s in the process of moving and not having credit cards is a good thing.”

He sighed, seeing that she was determined to think the best. But then, that was Dana. But with her family, their history proved out that he definitely had reason to be suspicious. He knew she wanted to believe that Stacy had changed. He did, too. He was just a whole lot more skeptical than Dana.

“A tiger doesn’t change its spots,” he said.

“Isn’t it ‘a zebra doesn’t change its stripes’ and what does that even mean?” she demanded.

“I had a look in her car last night after everyone went to bed. If she’s moving to Great Falls, she sure didn’t pack much.” He held up his hand. “I know. She apparently doesn’t have any money. But she gets the check from the ranch profits.”

“You know that isn’t enough to live on.”

“Well, you’d think she would have had a job for the past six years.”

“Stacy didn’t go to college so more than likely she can’t make much more than minimum wage.”

He shook his head. “I could find no employment in her past.”

“So she worked off the books somewhere. Or maybe the baby’s father has been taking care of her and now she can’t work because she has a baby to raise.”

Yeah, Hud thought. That’s what had Dana so desperate to believe Stacy had changed. That baby. Ella was cute as a bug’s ear. No doubt about that. Just the thought of Stacy raising the child, though, terrified him.

“So that’s all you found,” Dana said.

He nodded. “No warrants or outstanding violations.” No missing kids on Amber Alert who matched either the name Katie—or Ella’s description.

“So there is nothing to worry about.”

“Right.” He just wished he could shake his uneasy feeling.

“And don’t you go interrogating her,” Dana said. “Give her the benefit of the doubt. She is in absolute awe of that baby. She couldn’t be prouder of Ella. It’s the first time I’ve seen my sister like this.”

He nodded, not wanting to argue with her. He needed to keep Dana in this bed for their twins’ sake. Placing a hand on her stomach, he felt their babies move. It had a calming affect on him. Just as being here with his family did.

But in the other room he could hear Stacy with the kids. Something wasn’t right with her story. Call it his marshal intuition. But Stacy wasn’t telling them the truth. And as much as he hated to think it, whatever she was lying about, it had something to do with that precious baby.

* * *

T
ESSA
R
YERSON
S
PRING
didn’t answer her phone so Liza drove over to the house. Getting out of the patrol SUV, she walked past the garage, noting that at least one vehicle was inside, before she rang the doorbell.

She had to ring it four times and knock hard before Tessa appeared. She’d wrapped a towel around her head and pulled a robe on, no doubt hoping Liza would think she’d been in the shower.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking more than a little flustered. “Have you been standing here long?”

Long enough. “Mind if I come in for a moment? Or you can come down to the office? Which works better for you?”

“Actually, I was just…” Tessa gave up and said, “I suppose I have a few minutes.” She stepped aside to let Liza in. “I should make some coffee.”

“No, thanks. Why don’t we sit down for a minute.” She could tell that Tessa wanted something to occupy herself. Jordan was right about one thing. Tessa was nervous and clearly afraid.

“This won’t take long,” Liza assured her.

The woman finally perched on the edge of the couch. Liza took a chair across from her. Like many of the residences at Big Sky, the decor was made to look like the Old West from the leather furniture to the antler lamps. The floor was hardwood, the rugs Native American, the fireplace local granite.

Tessa straightened the hem of her robe to cover whatever she was wearing beneath it, then fiddled with the sash.

“I’m here about Alex Winslow’s death.”

“Oh?” Her smile was tentative. “Why would you want to talk to
me?
”

“You were a friend of his in high school.”

“Yes, but that was twenty years ago.”

“But you talked to him recently. The calls were on his cell phone,” Liza said.

Tessa’s eyes widened with alarm. Her hand went to her forehead as if suddenly struck with a migraine. Clearly she hadn’t expected anyone to know about the calls.

“I’m curious what you talked about,” Liza said.

After a moment the woman pulled herself together. “I’m sorry. I’m just upset. I heard he was murdered?”

“So what did you talk about?”

“The reunion. Shelby must have told him to call me. I’m in charge of the picnic on Sunday. It’s going to be at the top of the gondola. Weather permitting, of course.” Her smile was weak, nervous. She worked at the robe sash with her fingers, toying with the edges.

“You and Alex dated in high school.”

She nodded. “For a short while.”

“But you were close?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I mean Alex trusted you. He would have confided in you.”

“I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“He would have told you if he had some reason to suspect that Tanner Cole didn’t kill himself.” The statement had the effect Liza had hoped for.

Fear shone in the woman’s eyes. Her hand went to her throat. Jordan was right. She knew
something.

“Had you ever been up to the cabin where Tanner was staying that spring before high school graduation?” Liza asked.

“I might have.”

“With Alex?”

“Maybe. I really can’t remember.”

“Do you knit?” Liza asked.

“What?”

“I wondered if you knitted because this case started like a loose thread in a sweater. At first it was just a small problem, but once it started unraveling…” She shook her head. “Alex started it unraveling. Now it’s going to come apart. No doubt about it.”

Tessa managed a smile. “That’s an odd simile.”

“Metaphor,” Liza said. “It’s a metaphor for murder. Alex was just the beginning. As this unravels, more people are going to die. Because even though you believe you can keep this secret, whoever killed Alex is afraid you can’t. You see how this works? You just can’t trust each other anymore and when push comes to shove…”

“I’m sorry, deputy,” Tessa said, getting to her feet. “I have no idea what you’re talking about and I’m running late for an appointment. She held her head in a regal manner. Liza got a glimpse of the girl Tessa had been when she and Shelby and the others had been on the pinnacle of popularity and thought nothing could bring them down. But as they all seemed fond of saying, “that was high school.” This was real life.

“Think about it, Tessa. If they think you’re the weak link, they’ll attack you like rabid dogs.” Liza rose. “I’ll see myself out.”

Chapter Eight

Jordan hadn’t seen his father since the last time he was in Montana. They talked once in a while by phone, but they really didn’t have much to say to each other.

For a long time Jordan blamed his mother for the divorce, believing she cared more about the ranch than she did her husband. There was probably some truth in that. But the divorce wasn’t all her fault. She hadn’t driven his father away. Angus Cardwell was more than capable of doing that himself.

He found his father at Angus’s favorite watering hole, the Corral, down the canyon from Big Sky. Angus had been one handsome cowboy in his day. It was easy to see even now why Mary Justice had fallen in love with him.

Unfortunately, Jordan’s mother had loved ranching and her husband had loved bars and booze. The two hadn’t mixed well. Angus had taken the healthy settlement Mary had offered him and had left amicably enough. He’d made the money last by working an odd job here and there, including cash he and his brother made playing in a Country-Western band.