Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch Read online

  Dana wrenched the gun from his hands and crawled back away from him and the well.

  Kitty was still standing there, head up. The one leg of her slacks looked black with blood. She didn’t seem to notice Lanny lying on the ground next to her.

  Dana turned as Hud came out of the shadows, his weapon still pointed at Kitty. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the movement and heard Hud yell, “No!”

  Dana turned in time to see Kitty Randolph smile as she stepped back and dropped into the well.

  A few seconds later Dana heard the sickening thud as Kitty hit the bottom. But by then, Hud was pulling Dana into his arms and telling her he loved her, over and over again. In the distance she could hear the wail of sirens.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Hud parked by the Hebgen Lake house and got out, noting that his father’s vehicle was in the garage and there were no fresh tracks.

  But when he knocked at the door, he got no answer. He tried the knob, not surprised when the door opened in. “Dad?” he called. The word sounded funny and he tried to remember the last time he’d said it.

  As he moved through the house, it became more apparent that Brick wasn’t there. Hud felt his pulse start as he reminded himself how old his father had seemed the other day, then recalled with shame and embarrassment what he’d said to Brick.

  But Hud knew the panicky feeling in the pit of his stomach had more to do with what he hadn’t yet said to his father.

  “Dad?” he called again.

  No answer. He glanced into the bedrooms. Both empty, beds made. Hud had never expected his father to keep such a neat house. Hud’s mother had hated housework.

  The kitchen was also empty, still smelling faintly of bacon and coffee. But as he looked out the window across the frozen white expanse of the lake, he spotted a lone figure squatting on the ice.

  Hud opened the back door and followed the well-worn footprints across patches of glistening wind-crusted ice and drifted snow, his boot soles making a crunching sound as he walked toward his father.

  Dressed in a heavy coat and hat, Brick Savage sat on a log stump, a short ice-fishing pole in his gloved hands. The fishing line disappeared down into the perfect hole cut in the ice at his feet.

  His father looked up and smiled. “Heard the news. You solved both murders. Figured you would.”

  Just then the rod jerked. Brick set the hook and hauled a large rainbow trout out of the slushy water and up onto the ice. He picked up the flopping trout, unhooked it and dropped it back into the water.

  Hud stood, trying to put into words everything he wanted—needed—to say to his father. Hud had been so sure that his father had set him up so he could kill Judge Raymond Randolph and frame the Kirk brothers. “Dad, I—”

  “There’s an extra rod,” Brick said, cutting him off. He motioned to the rod resting against an adjacent stump.

  “You knew I’d be showing up?” Hud asked in surprise.

  His dad smiled. “I’d hoped you would.”

  “There’s some things I need to say to you.”

  Brick shook his head. “Your coming here today says everything I need to hear.” He reached over and picked up the short rod and handed it to his son. “If you want, we could keep a few fish and cook them up for lunch. Or if you’re in a hurry—”

  “No hurry. I haven’t had trout in a long time,” Hud said, taking a seat across from his father. “I could stay to eat trout for lunch.”

  His dad nodded and Hud thought he glimpsed something he’d never seen, tears in his father’s eyes. Brick dropped his head to bait his hook and when he looked up again, the tears were gone. If they were ever there.

  He watched his father, thinking he might call Dana after lunch to see if she’d like trout for dinner tonight. “I’ve been offered the marshal job,” he said as he baited his line and dropped it into the hole.

  “I’m not surprised.”

  “I heard you put in a good word for me,” Hud said, feeling his throat tighten.

  “Rupert’s got a big mouth,” Brick said but smiled. “The canyon’s lucky to get you. Dana pleased about it?”

  He nodded and hooked into a fish. “You know about Rupert and Kitty Randolph?”

  “I knew he liked her. He’s taking it all pretty hard. He likes to think he’s smarter than most people when it comes to figuring out criminals,” Brick said.

  “Kitty fooled a lot of people.”

  “Yes, she did,” Brick said.

  They spent the rest of the morning fishing, talking little. Later while Brick was frying up the trout for lunch, Hud called Dana and told her he was bringing trout for dinner.

  “You ask her to marry you yet?” Brick asked after he hung up and they were sitting down to eat lunch.

  “I’m going to tonight,” Hud said.

  Without a word, his dad got up from the table and returned a few minutes later with a small velvet box. He set it beside Hud’s plate and sat. “I know you bought her an engagement ring before. I couldn’t afford an engagement ring for your mother so she never had one. But I was wondering if you’d like to have your grandmother’s?”

  Hud frowned. He’d never known either of his grandparents. His father’s parents were dead before he was born and from what he’d heard, his mother’s family had disowned his mother when she’d married Brick. “My grandmother…?”

  “Christensen. Your grandmother on your mother’s side,” he said, and handed the small velvet box to Hud. “She left it to me in her will. I guess it was her way of saying she was sorry for making it so hard on your mother for marrying me.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I know your mother would want you to have it.”

  Hud opened the small velvet box and pulled back in surprise. “It’s beautiful.”

  Brick helped himself to the trout. “Just like Dana.”

  Hud studied his father. “Thank you.”

  “There’s some money, too,” Brick said. “Probably not near enough to pay off Dana’s brothers and sister and keep the ranch though.”

  “I doubt there is enough money in the world for that,” Hud said. “Jordan won’t be happy until the ranch is sold, but I’m sure he’ll be disappointed when he realizes how small his share is. He would have been much better off if his mother’s new will had been found. He would have gotten money for years from the ranch instead of a lump sum, and in the end come out way ahead.”

  “But he wants it all now,” Brick said. “You think he found the new will and destroyed it?”

  “Probably.”

  Brick handed him the plate of trout.

  “I got a call from Stacy Cardwell this morning. She’s in Las Vegas. She said Kitty threatened to kill her when she stopped by the woman’s place the night before she left. I guess Stacy thought she could get some traveling money out of Kitty as if blackmail went both ways,” Hud said, shaking his head.

  “It’s a wonder Kitty didn’t shoot her on the spot.”

  Hud remembered Dana’s story about finding Kitty on her hands and knees digging in the closet. “Probably would have but she’d forgotten she still had the .38. There was a struggle though. Dana said Kitty had a bruise on her cheek.”

  Brick nodded. “You could bring Stacy back to face charges.”

  Hud shook his head. Both Lanny and Kitty were dead. It was over.

  He and Brick ate in silence for a while, then Hud said, “I saw you with Ginger that night.”

  His father paused, then took a bite of fish. “I remembered after you were gone. I pulled her over that night. She’d been drinking. I thought about taking her in, made her get out of the car and go through the sobriety tests.”

  Hud recalled the sound of Ginger’s laughter. As Hud had driven past, she’d been flirting with Brick, spinning around in that red dress and those bright red high-heeled shoes.

  “I saw all her stuff in the back of her car,” Brick said.

  Hud wondered if the judge or Kitty had gotten rid of Ginger’s belongings and her car. No one would have ever
known about her death, if Warren hadn’t seen her skull at the bottom of the Cardwell Ranch well.

  “She told me she was leaving town,” Brick was saying. “I told her to be careful. If I’d locked her up that night, she might still be alive.”

  DANA STOOD in the kitchen after Hud’s call, looking up the hillside. There was no old chimney or foundation anymore. It was as if there’d never been an old homestead up there. Or an old well. A backhoe operator had filled in the well. Soon after the land was cleared, it had begun to snow again, covering up the scarred earth.

  Dana thought she could get used to the new view, but it would take time. She frowned at the thought, realizing she didn’t have time. After everything that had happened, she had given up her fight to save the ranch. Jordan was right. All she was doing was costing them all attorney’s fees and eventually, she would lose and have to sell anyway. She’d told Jordan he could list the property with a Realtor.

  She turned away from the window, turning her thoughts, as well, to more pleasant things. Hud. She smiled, just thinking about him. They’d been inseparable, making love, talking about the future. Even now she missed him and couldn’t wait for him to get back.

  He was bringing trout for dinner. She was glad he’d gone up to see his father. Her mother had been right about one thing. Family. It did matter. Her own father was out of the hospital and planning to be back playing with Uncle Harlan in the band. They’d both offered to play at the wedding. Her father had promised to cut back on his drinking but Dana wasn’t holding her breath. She was just glad to still have him.

  She smiled, thinking of the wedding she and Hud would have. That is, if he asked her to marry him again.

  Since Kitty Randolph’s death, a lot of things had come out about the judge. Some of the things Hud had blamed on his father had been the judge’s doing.

  Hud had even realized that his mother’s bitterness toward Brick was fueled by her family and that it had made Brick into the hard man he was when Hud was growing up.

  The last few days had changed them all. At least Dana had decided she was ready to let go of all the old hurts and move on, whatever the future held.

  She stopped in the middle of the kitchen as if she’d just felt a warm hand on her shoulder and it was as if she could feel her mother’s presence. Wasn’t this what her mother had wanted? For her to forgive and forget?

  Dana smiled, the feeling warming her as she moved to the cupboard that held all her mother’s cookbooks. Like her mother, she loved cookbooks, especially the old ones.

  She pulled out her mother’s favorite and ran her fingers over the worn cover. Maybe she would make Hud’s favorite double-chocolate brownies from her mother’s old recipe. She hadn’t made them since Hud had left five years before.

  As she opened the book, several sheets of lined paper fluttered to the floor. Stooping to pick them up, she caught sight of her mother’s handwriting. Her heart leaped to her throat. Hurriedly, she unfolded the pages.

  Her heart began to pound harder as she stared down at her mother’s missing will.

  * * * * *

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  ISBN-13: 978-0-373-22897-3

  ISBN-10: 0-373-22897-X

  eISBN: 978-1-4268-3066-2

  CRIME SCENE AT CARDWELL RANCH

  Copyright © 2006 by Barbara Heinlein

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.n.

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