Murder Gone Cold Read online

  “Can you think of any reason your stepmother would be so upset about talking to me about the case?”

  She shook her head, took a gulp and looked over at him. “You can’t really think that she is somehow involved.” When he didn’t speak instantly, she snapped, “James, my stepmother wouldn’t hit a child and keep going.”

  “I’m not saying she did. But she might know who did.”

  Lori shook her head, drained her paper cup and set it on the edge of his desk as she rose. “You really think she would keep a secret like that?”

  “People keep secrets from those they love all the time,” he said.

  She glared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Just that she might be covering for someone.”

  Her eyes flared. “If you tell me that you think she’s covering for me—”

  He stood, raising both hands in surrender as he did. “I’m not accusing you. I’m just saying...” He met her gaze, surprised at how hard this was. He and Lori had gone through school together and hardly said two words the entire time. It wasn’t like that much had changed over the past few days, he told himself, even as he knew it had. He liked her. Always had.

  MURDER GONE COLD

  New York Times Bestselling Author

  B.J. Daniels

  B.J. Daniels is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. She wrote her first book after a career as an award-winning newspaper journalist and author of thirty-seven published short stories. She lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three springer spaniels. When not writing, she quilts, boats and plays tennis. Contact her at bjdaniels.com, on Facebook or on Twitter, @bjdanielsauthor.

  Books by B.J. Daniels

  Harlequin Intrigue

  A Colt Brothers Investigation

  Murder Gone Cold

  Cardwell Ranch: Montana Legacy

  Steel Resolve

  Iron Will

  Ambush Before Sunrise

  Double Action Deputy

  Trouble in Big Timber

  Cold Case at Cardwell Ranch

  Whitehorse, Montana: The Clementine Sisters

  Hard Rustler

  Rogue Gunslinger

  Rugged Defender

  HQN

  Montana Justice

  Restless Hearts

  Heartbreaker

  Heart of Gold

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  James “Jimmy D” Colt—The handsome rodeo cowboy is back home in Lonesome, Montana, banged up and down on his luck—until he bunks in his father’s old private detective office and finds both trouble and true love.

  Lorelei “Lori” Wilkins—Her sandwich shop business is going great and so is her life—until Jimmy D Colt moves in to the building next to hers and begins investigating a cold case that hits too close to home.

  Del Colt—James’s father was killed before he could solve his last case involving a hit-and-run.

  Billy Sherman—The boy saw something out his window. Otherwise, why would a seven-year-old afraid of the dark go outside alone in a thunderstorm? Someone ran down the seven-year-old one dark rainy night and got away with it—until now.

  Alice Sherman—She’s spent years trying to live with the loss of her son. The last thing she wants is James digging it all back up.

  Senator Fred Bayard—He definitely has something to hide other than his girlfriend, but is it an old hit-and-run murder?

  Karen Wilkins—Lori’s stepmother is neck-deep in the old mystery, and with James’s help, Lori plans to get to the bottom of it—even if it’s murder.

  Sheriff Carl Osterman—Carl and his brother, former sheriff Otis Osterman, had hoped to never see any of the Colt brothers again. How long before James finds out just how dangerous it is to follow in his father’s footsteps?

  Shelby Crane—She’d do anything to keep her son Todd from being dragged into the hit-and-run case of his once best friend Billy.

  Cora Brooks—The older woman liked to spy on people and use what she learned to her advantage. She knew one day it might get her into trouble. Apparently that day has come.

  This new Intrigue series is dedicated to all my fans who have followed my books from Cardwell Ranch to Whitehorse and back again. I hope you like these wild Colt brothers and Lonesome, Montana.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Nine years later

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Excerpt from Decoy Training by Caridad Piñeiro

  Prologue

  Billy Sherman lay in his bed trembling with fear as the thunderstorm raged outside. At a loud crack of thunder, he closed his eyes tight. His mother had warned him about the coming storm. She’d suggested he might want to stay in her room now that his father lived somewhere else.

  “Mom, I’m seven,” he’d told her. It was bad enough that he still slept with a night-light. “I’ll be fine.” But just in case, he’d pulled out his lucky pajamas even though they were getting too small.

  Now he wished he could run down the hall to her room and crawl into her bed. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He had to face his fears. That’s what his dad said.

  Lightning lit up the room for an instant. His eyes flew open to find complete blackness. His night-light had gone out. So had the little red light on his alarm clock. The storm must have knocked out the electricity.

  He jumped out of bed to stand at his window. Even the streetlamps were out. He could barely see the house across the street through the pouring rain. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Maybe he should run down the hall and tell his mother about the power going off. He knew she would make him stay in her room if he did.

  Billy hated being afraid. He dreamed of being strong and invincible. He dreamed of being a spy who traveled the world, solved mysteries and caught bad guys.

  His battery-operated two-way radio squawked, making him jump. Todd, his best friend. “Are you asleep?” Todd’s voice sounded funny. Billy had never confided even to his best friend about his fear of the dark and storms and whatever might be hiding in his closet. But maybe Todd was scared sometimes too.

  He picked up the headset and stepped to the window to look out at the street. “I’m awake.” A bolt of lightning blinded him for a moment and he almost shrieked as it illuminated a dark figure, walking head down on the edge of the road in the rain. Who was that and...? He felt his heart leap to his throat. What was it the person was carrying?

  Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. He wasn’t hiding in his room being scared. He would be strong and invincible. He had a mystery to solve. “I have to go,” he said into the headset. “I saw someone. I’m going to follow whoever it is.” br />
  “No, it’s storming. Don’t go out. Billy, don’t. Billy?”

  He grabbed his extra coat his mother kept on the hook by his door and pulled on his snow-boots. At the window, he almost lost his nerve. He could barely see the figure. If he didn’t go now he would never know. He would lose his nerve. He would always be afraid.

  He picked up the headset again. “The person is headed down your street. Watch for me. I’ll see you in a minute.” Opening his window, he was driven back for a moment by the rain and darkness. Then he was through the window, dropping into the shrubbery outside as he’d done so many other times when he and Todd were playing their game. Only the other times, it hadn’t been storming or dark.

  He told himself that spies didn’t worry about a thunderstorm. Spies were brave. But he couldn’t wait until he reached Todd’s house. Putting his head down he ran through the rain, slowing only when he spotted the figure just ahead.

  He’d been breathing hard, his boots slapping the pavement, splashing through the puddles. But because of the storm the person hadn’t heard him, wouldn’t know anyone was following. That’s what always made the game so much fun, spying on people and they didn’t even know it.

  Billy realized that he wasn’t scared. His father had been right, though he didn’t understand why his mother had gotten so angry with his dad for telling him to face his fears and quit being such a baby. Billy was facing down the storm, facing down the darkness, facing down all of his fears tonight. He couldn’t wait to tell Todd.

  He was smiling to himself, proud, when the figure ahead of him suddenly stopped and looked back. In a flash of lightning Billy saw the face under the hooded jacket—and what the person was carrying and screamed.

  Nine years later

  Chapter One

  Cora Brooks stopped washing the few dinner dishes she’d dirtied while making her meal, dried her hands and picked up her binoculars. Through her kitchen window, she’d caught movement across the ravine at the old Colt place. As she watched, a pickup pulled in through the pines and stopped next to the burned-out trailer. She hoped it wasn’t “them druggies” who’d been renting the place from Jimmy D’s girlfriend—before their homemade meth-making lab blew it up.

  The pickup door swung open. All she saw at first was the driver’s Stetson as he climbed out and limped over to the burned shell of the double-wide. It wasn’t until he took off his hat to rake a hand through his too-long dark hair that she recognized him. One of the Colt brothers, the second oldest, she thought. James Dean Colt or Jimmy D as everyone called him.

  She watched him through the binoculars as he hobbled around the trailer’s remains, stooping at one point to pick up something before angrily hurling it back into the heap of charred debris.

  “Must have gotten hurt with that rodeoin’ of his agin,” she said, pursing her lips in disapproval as she took in his limp. “Them boys.” They’d been wild youngins who’d grown into wilder young men set on killing themselves by riding anything put in front of them. The things she’d seen over the years!

  She watched him stand there for a moment as if not knowing what to do now, before he ambled back to his pickup and drove off. Putting down her binoculars, she chuckled to herself. “If he’s upset about his trailer, wait until he catches up to his girlfriend.”

  Cora smiled and went back to washing her dishes. At her age, with all her aches and pains, the only pleasure she got anymore was from other people’s misfortunes. She’d watched the Colt clan for years over there on their land. Hadn’t she said no good would ever come of that family? So far her predictions had been exceeded.

  Too bad about the trailer blowing up though. In recent years, the brothers had only used the double-wide as a place to drop their gear until the next rodeo. It wasn’t like any of them stayed more than a few weeks before they were off again.

  So where was James Dean Colt headed now? Probably into town to find his girlfriend since she’d been staying in his trailer when he’d left for the rodeo circuit. At least she had been—until she’d rented the place out, pocketed the cash and moved back in with her mother. More than likely he was headed to Melody’s mother’s right now.

  What Cora wouldn’t have given to see that reunion, she thought with a hearty cackle.

  Just to see his face when Melody gave him the news after him being gone on the road all these months.

  Welcome home, Jimmy D.

  * * *

  JAMES HIGHTAILED IT into the small Western town of Lonesome, Montana. When he’d seen the trailer in nothing but ashes, he’d had one terrifying thought. Had Melody been in it when the place went up in flames? He quickly assured himself that if that had happened, he would have heard about it.

  So...why hadn’t he heard about the fire? Why hadn’t Melody let him know? They’d started dating only a week before he’d left. What they’d had was fun, but definitely not serious for either of them.

  He swore under his breath, recalling the messages from her that he hadn’t bothered with. All of them were along the line of, “We need to talk. Jimmy D, this is serious. Call me.” No man jumped to answer a message like that.

  Still, you would think that she could have simply texted him. “About your trailer?” Or “Almost died escaping your place.”

  At the edge of the small mountain town, he turned down a side street, driving back into the older part of town. Melody’s mother owned the local beauty shop, Gladys’s Beauty Emporium. Melody worked there doing nails. Gladys had been widowed as long as James could remember. It was one reason Melody always ended up back at her mother’s between boyfriends.

  He was relieved to see her old Pontiac parked out front of the two-story rambling farmhouse. A spindly stick of a woman with a wild head of bleached curly platinum hair, Gladys Simpson opened the door at his knock. She had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. She took one look at him, turned and yelled, “Mel... Someone here to see you.”

  Someone? Lonesome was small enough that he could easily say that Gladys had known him his whole life. He waited on the porch since he hadn’t been invited in, which was fine with him. He’d been toying with the idea that Melody was probably mad at him. He could think of any number of reasons.

  But mad enough to burn down the double-wide out of spite? He’d known some women who could get that angry, but Melody wasn’t one of them. He’d seen little passion in her before he’d left. He’d gotten the impression she wasn’t that interested in him. If he’d had to guess, he’d say she’d been using him that week to make someone else jealous.

  Which was another reason he’d known their so-called relationship wasn’t going anywhere. In retrospect though, leaving her to take care of the place had been a mistake. It hadn’t been his idea. She’d needed a place to stay. The double-wide was sitting out there empty so she’d suggested watching it for him while he was gone.

  Even at the time, he’d worried that it would give her the wrong idea. The wrong idea being that their relationship was more serious than it was. He’d half hoped all the way home that she’d moved back in with her mom or a friend. That the trailer would be empty.

  He just never imagined that there would be no place to come home to.

  “Jimmy D?”

  From the edge of the porch, he turned at the sound of her voice. She stood behind the door, peering around it as if half-afraid of him. “Melody, I was just out at the place. I was worried that you might have gotten caught in the fire.”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t living there anymore when it happened.”

  “That’s good.” But even as he said it, he knew there was more story coming. She was still half hiding behind the door, as if needing a barrier between them. “I’m not angry with you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  He watched her swallow before she said, “I’d rented your trailer to some guys.” He took that news wit
hout reacting badly. He figured she must have needed the money and he had left her in charge of the place, kind of.

  “Turned out they were cooking meth,” she said. “I didn’t know until they blew the place up.”

  James swallowed back the first few words that leaped to his tongue. When he did find his voice, he said, “You didn’t know.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t.” She sounded close to tears. “But that’s not all I have to tell you.”

  He held his breath already fearing that the news wasn’t going to get better. Before his grandmother died, she’d explained karma to him. He had a feeling karma was about to kick his butt.

  Then Mel stepped around the edge of the door, leading with her belly, which protruded out a good seven months.

  The air rushed out of him on a swear word. A million thoughts galloped through his mind at breakneck speed before she said, “It’s not yours.”

  He felt equal parts relief and shock. It was that instant of denial followed by acceptance followed by regret that surprised him the most. For just a second he’d seen himself holding a two-year-old little girl with his dark hair and blue eyes. They’d been on the back of the horse he’d bought her.

  When he blinked, the image was gone as quickly as it had come to him.

  “Who?” The word came out strangled. He wasn’t quite over the shock.

  “Tyler Grange,” she said, placing her palms on the stretchy top snug over her belly. “He and I broke up just before you and I...” She shrugged and he noticed the tiny diamond glinting on her ring finger.

  “You’re getting married. When?”

  “Soon,” she said. “It would be nice to get hitched before the baby comes.”

  He swallowed, still tangled up in that battle of emotions. Relief was winning by a horse length though. “Congratulations. Or is it best wishes? I never can remember.”

  “Thanks,” she said shyly. “Sorry ’bout your trailer. I’d give you the money I got from the renters, but—”