Luck of the Draw Read online

  Her mother always told her that sometimes other forces were stronger than any potion or spell. That’s how her mother explained why the love spells she put on the postman, butcher or mechanic hadn’t made them succumb to her.

  “If Sheriff Sid Anderson had a crush on me, I’d know it,” she told the other woman and kept her eyes on her knitting. Of course she knew it. It didn’t take second sight to see how tongue-tied the sheriff got around her. Or how he nervously worked the brim of his Stetson in his fingers and looked at his boots when he talked to her.

  “He tries to flirt with you every time he sees you,” Eleanor was saying. “Surely you’ve noticed.” The small, gray-haired woman kept knitting but looked up suddenly. “I actually thought that was why you joined our knitting group. You really didn’t know he was a member?”

  She wasn’t about to admit anything as she labored over each stitch, repeating in her head “knit one, purl one, knit one, purl one.” For almost half her life, she’d spent her spring, summer and fall up at Sterling’s Montana Guest Ranch where she supervised pretty much everything to make sure the staff did their job. Or at least stuck her nose into everything. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else—no matter what the sheriff might have in mind. She’d heard he was retiring soon.

  “Crush or not, I doubt he’ll get up the courage to ask you to marry him,” Eleanor said. “His wife Adeline’s been dead for years. Bless her soul. Sid’s managed bachelorhood this long...”

  “I could never leave the boys anyway,” Dorothea said. The Sterling brothers, Will, Garrett and Shade, had pretty much adopted her after their mother died. She told herself that they wouldn’t know what to do without her—and hoped it was true.

  “Even if Sid got down on one knee and proposed?” Eleanor said, stopping knitting to narrow her eyes in disbelief.

  “At our age, he’d be a fool to get down on one knee,” Dorothea said. “He might not be able to get back up.” She laughed and Eleanor joined in. “What would the sheriff see in me, anyway?” she asked, happy to set her knitting aside for a moment. It was true. She owned a mirror. She was a short, squat woman with a helmet of dark hair and piercing dark eyes that came across as a disconcerting glare. “I’m bossy, set in my ways and a butt-in-ski. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”

  Eleanor chuckled in obvious agreement. Her needles began to clack away again as yarn magically turned into a sweater on her lap. “You can’t kid me, Dorothea Brand. I’ve seen you giving the sheriff an assessing eye right back. Anyway, the boys, as you call them, are grown. Will’s married now. Won’t be long before the other two head to the post, I’d wager.”

  She realized the woman was right. The time was coming when they wouldn’t need her anymore. On top of that, her heart always beat a little faster around the sheriff, making her feel like a girl again.

  “Sid’s not a bad-looking man for his age,” Eleanor said. “The silver hair suits him. You could do worse.”

  She wasn’t sure how to take that. She wanted to defend Sid, but she wasn’t sure if the “you could do worse” was more about her rather than the sheriff, so she kept her mouth shut.

  “He’s a straight arrow though. He’s the kind of man who’d want to get married if he does come a courtin’,” Eleanor said, glancing over her dime-store glasses and pursing her lips. “You might be too much of a Bohemian for that.”

  Dorothea snorted. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been asked before. That was back in her late teens before she’d taken the job at the guest ranch. She’d always told herself that the timing had been wrong, but she knew it was more than that. She hadn’t wanted to be tied down at that age and wasn’t sure she did at this age, either.

  “Well, when he asks, I say go for it,” the elderly Eleanor said. “It’s not the worst thing, being married.” She looked up. “Sid might put a smile on your face.” The woman cackled, not missing a stitch.

  * * *

  COLD, WET AND CHILLED, Garrett stood under a large pine to wait out of the driving rain. He had no doubt what the sheriff would find. But he knew Sid was still hoping that this was a wild-goose chase. Anything but murder.

  The scene kept playing over like a video in his head. He saw the two people, the man forcing the woman deeper into the woods, the man holding the gun to the woman’s head. Even in his memory, he couldn’t see their faces. He’d been focused on the gun in the man’s hand, more than their faces.

  But when he thought about it now, he recalled the wind whipping the woman’s long dark hair around her face. He frowned and tried to see the man, but the killer had been wearing a hoodie, his face in shadow.

  Shaking his head, he attempted to put the disturbing images out of his head as he watched Sid move carefully along the ridgeline through the rain toward the spot where the woman’s body should be. Water poured off the brim of his Stetson, making it even harder to see ahead of him.

  He shuddered against the cold, the rain, the shock, wishing he had been mistaken but knowing he wasn’t.

  * * *

  AS THE STORM howled around him, Sid stared into the swaying tall grass, looking for a body, but hoping not to see one.

  “You should be getting close,” Garrett called from where he’d left him.

  Wind lay over the tall grass, making it look like waves moving across the side of the mountain. He squinted down over the ridge into the ravine. This time of year the wild grasses were tall and lush and could easily hide a body. If there was a body here. He still wasn’t convinced he would find one.

  He moved farther down the ridgeline. A gust of wind moved through the grass, keeling it over, as it rushed toward him. He was thinking of dry clothes and a hot cup of coffee when all his hopes of this being a mistake blew away in the cold icy gust. As the grass lay over, he saw what appeared to be part of a jeans-clad leg.

  Sid motioned for Garrett to stay where he was before he began to slide in the mud and slick grass toward the body.

  He caught a glimpse of a sneaker sole as he slid down to the spot, stopping just feet from the figure. He could see that the leg was twisted awkwardly under the body. Stepping closer, he saw more of the torso and thought again of what Garrett had said he’d seen. A man and a woman. The man dragging the woman by the arm into the woods. The man putting the gun to the woman’s head.

  Sid stepped closer until he could see the victim’s jacket soaked in rain and blood. It appeared that all four shots had gone directly to the chest. Kneeling, he parted the tall grass to get a look at the face, no longer shocked by what he was seeing—but definitely surprised. He checked for a pulse, even though he knew he wouldn’t find one. Four bullets to the chest would do that.

  Rising, he glanced back up the mountain to where Garrett stood in the rain. The rancher hadn’t moved, his expression even grimmer now that the body had been found.

  The sheriff looked again at the deceased lying in the grass. Garrett Sterling had witnessed a murder all right. Except it hadn’t been the woman who’d taken the four bullets.

  Dead on the side of the mountain was a man, no doubt the man the rancher had seen. Lying in the grass beside the body was a pistol.

  And the woman? Somewhere in a dark blue SUV probably trying to put as many miles behind her as she could.

  CHAPTER THREE

  FIGHTING TO SEE through the pouring rain, the woman took the curve in the narrow road too fast as she careened off the mountain in the dark blue SUV. The tall pines on each side of the road whipped past in a dizzying green blur. The wipers clacked frantically, losing the battle against the relentless rain that pounded like the pounding in her head.

  She caught her reflection in the side mirror, wincing at her already bruised cheek where the man had hit her the first time. The blow had knocked her senseless and taken all of the fight out of her as he’d forced her into his SUV. She tried not to think about what had happened on the mountainside.

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; Her head ached, but she could feel adrenaline burning like a wild grass fire through her veins. She gripped the wheel to still her shaking hands, fighting to keep the vehicle on the road. She was driving too fast but she refused to let up off the gas even as her stomach heaved. She had to reach town and help as quickly as possible.

  The dark, dismal day pressed down on her with a weight that made her claustrophobic. If she didn’t get out of these trees, this rain and off this endless road soon she thought she’d lose her mind.

  A blinding flash of lightning exploded in front of the SUV. She jumped and felt the rear of the vehicle begin to slide out of control on the muddy track. Seeing the wall of trees coming up fast, she corrected but not soon enough. A tree branch smacked the windshield and ripped off the side mirror. Through strength of will alone, she managed to keep the SUV on the road.

  The clap of thunder that followed the flash of lightning felt like a gunshot to her chest. She shuddered and looked down. With a jolt she saw something that had escaped her attention before. There was dried blood on her hands and clothing. The man’s blood. Her stomach roiled and the realization hit her harder than the man had. She literally had that man’s blood on her hands. How many more men’s blood would she have on her hands before this ended? That was if they didn’t get her first.

  She glanced in the rearview mirror even though she knew there was no way he could be following her. He was dead. Even if he wasn’t, he didn’t have a vehicle. She’d taken his. But there would be others after her. In fact they could already be on this mountain.

  Her gaze shot to the rearview mirror again. Something flickered in the dull light behind her like the gleam of metal on a vehicle. In her mind’s eye, she saw the car gaining behind her. She saw the man lean out, the gun in his hand as he fired. She felt the rear window explode in a shower of glass before the sickening thud of the bullet as it tore through the SUV to splatter her brains all over the windshield.

  She blinked. There was nothing behind her but muddy road and rain hemmed in by pines. Tears welled in her eyes. She feared he’d hit her harder than she thought this last time with the gun. The gun she’d dropped at the scene, she realized.

  She shook her head, running scared. She was imagining things, things that seemed so real because she’d felt that she’d been running for her life for so long. She tried to calm down, knowing what was at stake if she didn’t get off this mountain in time.

  Gripping the wheel harder, she concentrated on keeping the SUV on the rain-slick road, but her vision kept blurring. The blows to her head had left her dazed. Or was it her mind refusing to believe what had happened back there. Even as he was forcing her along the ridgeline, it hadn’t seemed real.

  Not until she heard the gunshot.

  She wanted to rub her eyes, now dry and strained from staring through the rain, but she didn’t dare take her hands off the wheel even if her hands hadn’t been covered with the man’s blood. She knew she should slow down. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Could she have a concussion? Was that what was wrong with her? Or was it the fear, the horror of what she’d done, the realization that all of this had been real? Someone had tried to killer her.

  She blinked hard, gripping the wheel even tighter. It couldn’t be that much farther to town and help. And yet this wasn’t the road the man had taken her on earlier. If it had been, she would have reached town by now. She was lost. The thought filled her with panic.

  Worse, what if she was already too late?

  Feeling as if she might throw up, she almost clipped another pine tree. Ahead, there seemed to be nothing but more rain, more trees, more of the narrow snaking road against the backdrop of more mountains. The landscape, the rain, the speed she was traveling all had a dizzying effect as if none of this was real. She pushed down harder on the gas pedal, frantic to get out of these mountains to get...

  If she was too late then nothing mattered. All of this would have been for nothing. Tears welled in her eyes again. She wiped at them with her sleeve, losing sight of the road for just a moment.

  It was a moment too long.

  * * *

  NUMB WITH SHOCK and cold, Garrett repeated what he’d seen for the record as he and the sheriff waited in the patrol SUV for the coroner and forensics team to arrive. Sid had said he wanted to get it down while it was all still fresh in Garrett’s mind.

  Now he stared into the video camera and went over it again to the sound of rain thumping on the roof and the whir of the heater. The windows of the patrol SUV had fogged over from their wet clothing, making all of it seem even more surreal.

  He couldn’t help feeling scared and confused. He’d been so sure about what he’d seen. Now, after finding out that the body lying in the deep grass wasn’t the woman’s... He thought of the only other time he’d given a statement to law enforcement and cringed at the memory. It hadn’t been a lie, not exactly. He’d had his reasons for withholding information that time. He’d been protecting someone else.

  Shaking his head, he wondered why he was thinking of that now?

  “You all right?” the sheriff asked.

  “Still in shock.”

  “That’s understandable. We’re almost done here. Had you ever seen the man before?” Sid asked after Garrett had gone through his story once again.

  He shook his head. “Like I said, I couldn’t really see their faces. They were moving through the pines on the other side of the ravine. I kept losing sight of them. Then when they finally emerged from the trees... It all happened so fast.” He frowned as he realized why he hadn’t gotten a good look at them. “The woman had long dark hair that was whirling around her face and the man had the hood up on his jacket, shading his features.”

  The sheriff nodded. “But the dead man on the side of the mountain, was that the man you saw?”

  “I would assume so,” he said, recalling the sheriff asking him to slide down the mountainside to where the body had come to rest against a rock. “I honestly can’t say definitively, but who else would it be? The man I saw was wearing a hooded dark jacket and so was the dead man. He has to be the man I saw from across the ravine.”

  He knew what the sheriff was getting at. If there was only the man and the woman and now the man was dead, then logically, the woman had to have killed him. But when Garrett had first seen the two, the man had been the aggressor. He had been the one with the gun. He had been forcing the woman deeper into the woods and threatening her with the weapon.

  “You said at one point she got away, but the man caught up with her and hit her?” Sid asked.

  Garrett nodded. “He hit her hard enough with the hand holding the gun that she would have fallen to the ground if he hadn’t had hold of her wrist. I saw her sag as if the blow had almost knocked her out. Then he put the barrel of the gun to her head. At that point, it had certainly appeared that the man planned to use the weapon to kill her.”

  “That’s when you fired the shot to let the man know he had been seen.”

  “I had to put down the binoculars to draw my pistol.” So what had happened when he wasn’t watching? Was it possible she’d gotten the gun away from him that quickly, shot him four times and then taken off before Garrett could holster his pistol and pick up the binoculars again?

  Not just possible. The only conclusion he could come up with since a gun had been on the ground next to the man’s body. Unless the woman had had a gun or... He rubbed his temples, his head aching.

  “What else can you tell me about the woman?” the sheriff asked.

  He thought for a moment. “Long dark hair. Slim. She was shorter than the man and probably fifty to seventy-five pounds lighter.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, that’s the best I can do.” He shivered from the cold, his clothing soaked to the skin, and the shock and confusion.

  “It’s all right,” Sid said as he shut off the video camera. “If you remember anythin
g else, let me know.”

  Garrett promised he would. As the sound of sirens filled the air, he climbed out into the rain to run to his pickup. Once behind the wheel, he considered driving back to the closed guest ranch. He’d been staying up there this summer while the construction work was being done and his brother Will was on his extended honeymoon with Poppy.

  But after what he’d seen on the mountainside, he’d called his brother Shade to ask him to take care of the construction crew working up there since it was Friday and payday. Which meant given the hour, the crew would be gone. He would be all alone up on the mountainside. Normally, that would have appealed to him. But not this dark, late, rainy afternoon. Not after the day he’d had. He didn’t feel like being alone tonight at the isolated guest ranch.

  Deciding to head to the main ranch in the valley, he started the engine and backed out onto the road after the ambulance and sheriff’s deputies patrol SUVs passed on their way up the mountain. Driving through the rain, he tried to quit going over what he’d seen earlier across that ravine. But it kept playing, over and over in his mind.

  He was beginning to doubt everything he’d thought he’d seen.

  * * *

  THE SHERIFF LED the coroner and crime scene techs to the crime scene, before going back to his patrol SUV to make sure the area remained closed off. He doubted there would be hikers today, but he wasn’t taking any chances. The tracks were still preserved as much as they could be in the rain. The techs might be able to get a useable print, once things dried out. But not if anyone drove over them.

  All the way back to his rig, he’d thought about the shooting. Self-defense? Or something else? Maybe the woman was on her way to the sheriff’s office right now. Or not.

  Earlier, when he’d called for backup, he’d asked what deputies were in the area. Sid had Undersheriff Ward Farnsworth patrolling north of town. It was summer, tourist season, and the traffic was unbelievable this close to Glacier Park. There weren’t enough law enforcement officers to cover a state as large as Montana, but they did the best they could with the help of other law enforcement as needed.