Rugged Defender Page 5

  Nici looked down at her gloved hands. When she looked up she smiled. “Sounds like he got what he deserved.”

  “Let’s assume you didn’t kill him, then how about one of his friends or associates?” Chloe asked wriggling her toes in her boots to keep her feet warm. Nici didn’t seem to be the least bit cold even though she was wearing a much less insulated coat and thinner gloves.

  “Friends? I’m not sure Drew had any. But associates...”

  “Yes?”

  Nici met her gaze. “You do realize that there are some people in town who won’t like what you’re doing.”

  “I’m not worried about them.”

  “Maybe you should be.”

  “Tell me about his associates,” Chloe said.

  Nici took her sweet time, but finally said, “There were a group of guys he played poker with. I heard he got caught cheating.” She shrugged. “The man who caught him was one who’d lost the most money to Drew, a man named Monte Decker. He works at the bank.”

  Chloe didn’t know him. “Anyone else?” She waited, cold, her cheeks and nose feeling icy and her skin stinging. The air along the frozen creek felt as if it was at least ten degrees colder than in town.

  “Al Duncan. He bought a horse from Drew and later found out that it was lame. The day he bought it, the horse was so full of drugs, he couldn’t tell. Drew refused to give him back his money. Al was drunk one night down at the Mint threatening to kill Drew.” She shrugged again. “I’m sure there are more. Like Pete Ferris. Rumor was that Drew was sleeping with his wife. They almost got a divorce over it. Still might even all these years later.”

  “Thanks,” Chloe said as Nici pushed off the bridge railing making it clear that she was done. “I’ll walk you back.”

  “Don’t bother. I know the way.” Nici brushed past her but turned before exiting the bridge. “Seriously, why stick your neck out like this? Why stir this all back up? I can tell you right now Bert Calhoun isn’t going to like it—not to mention Justin. So I’m not sure who you think you’re going to make points with—”

  “Hasn’t there been a time when you did something just because it felt like the right thing to do?” Chloe asked her.

  “Whatever,” Nici said with a shake of her head before turning and leaving.

  Chloe stood for a few moments longer on the bridge, looking down at the frozen river. Fall leaves had gotten stuck in the ice making strange dark patterns. She thought of what Nici had told her. She heard her grandmother’s voice in her ear.

  Best be ready for the consequences when you go poking a porcupine with a stick, missy. Someone’s bound to get hurt and it won’t be the porcupine.

  * * *

  JUSTIN’S CELL PHONE rang as he was headed into town from the Rogers Ranch. He’d spent part of the morning having breakfast and visiting with Dawson’s mother, Wilhelmina. Willie was a tall, wiry ranch woman with a true heart of gold. She’d taken him in and fed him more times than he could remember.

  He’d always had the feeling that she would have loved to have given his father a piece of her mind. But had hesitated because she feared that Bert would take it out on him.

  He saw it was Nici calling and picked up. “Hey,” he said.

  “I thought I should give you a heads-up,” she said. “Chloe Clementine.”

  Justin felt his chest tighten. “What about her?”

  “You know she’s an investigative reporter, right? Well, guess what she’s investigating?” She didn’t give him time to guess, even if he had been about to. “Drew’s death.”

  Justin swore under his breath. “How do you know this?”

  “I just went for a walk with her. She wanted to know who hated Drew enough to want him dead.”

  He could see the outskirts of town ahead. “What did you tell her?”

  “I thought about not giving her anything,” Nici said. “But then I thought, it’s her funeral. So I gave her some names.”

  He swore again. “Who?”

  “Monte Decker, Al Duncan and Pete Ferris.”

  “Why is Chloe doing this?” He hadn’t realized he’d asked the question aloud until Nici answered.

  “She says all she’s after is the truth and that it’s the right thing to do. Some BS like that. But I can tell she’s doing it for you.”

  He swore. That was the last thing he wanted.

  “I thought the sheriff ruled Drew’s death an accident?” Nici said.

  “She did.”

  “So why is Chloe—She said that someone threatened her if she kept looking into Drew’s death.”

  “It wasn’t you, was it?” He had to ask.

  She laughed. “No, maybe if I’d thought of it and known she was looking into Drew’s death. So you didn’t know.”

  “No, but I’ll make a point of asking her what she thinks she’d doing when I see her. Thanks.” He disconnected as he entered Whitehorse and headed for the house where Chloe and her sisters had grown up.

  * * *

  CHLOE WALKED INTO Monte Decker’s office at the bank and closed the door. Monte was a forty-something rangy former Eastern Montana farm boy with a small bald spot in his short dark hair. He wasn’t bad looking in his expensive suit, although as he tugged at the neck of his shirt she got the feeling he wasn’t comfortable with his position. Or maybe she just had that effect on men, because he had a strangled look when he glanced up from the paperwork on his desk and saw her.

  “You probably don’t know me,” she said as she took a seat. Other than papers strewn across his desk, there was a framed photo of Monte holding a huge walleye. From the background, it seemed he’d caught it at Nelson Reservoir. Why it caught her attention was because it was the only framed photo on his desk. No wife and kids. No favorite old dog. Just Monte and a fish.

  “I’m Chloe Clementine.”

  “Clementine? Frannie’s...”

  “Granddaughter. I’m an investigative reporter.”

  Before that, he’d looked as if he’d expected her to ask for a loan. Now though, he leaned back and took her in, clearly speculating on why she was sitting in his office.

  “What was your relationship with Drew Calhoun?”

  The question startled him. He glanced out through the glass partitions that formed his office as if worried about who was watching them.

  Monte began to perspire. He tugged at his collar. “What kind of question is that?”

  “I know you played poker with him, that you caught him cheating and that you lost a lot of money to him.”

  Monte looked around as if he wanted to run. “I don’t know where you got your information but I really don’t have time for this. Drew is dead. Why are you asking questions about him?”

  “Because I believe he was murdered and not by Justin Calhoun.”

  Monte opened his mouth, closed it and opened it again. “I—I thought it was an accident.”

  “You must have been angry when you caught him cheating,” she said.

  Realizing there was no place to run, he took a deep breath and said, “This really isn’t the place to talk about this.”

  Chloe reached back and closed the door of the small glassed-in office. “Help me out here. You had reason to want Drew dead if you lost a lot of money to him and then realized he’d been cheating.”

  “He paid me back with interest,” Monte said.

  She wasn’t sure she believed him, but she didn’t call him on it. “So you were friends?”

  The banker didn’t look as if he would go that far. “We’d known each other since we were kids.”

  Chloe leaned toward him. “I know Drew had enemies. I’m betting there was one of them who hated him enough that they wanted him dead. If not you, then who?”

  “Not me,” Monte said, looking around the bank again. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down for
a moment.

  “I really appreciate your help. I don’t want to stay in your office longer than is necessary. There must be someone—”

  “Pete Ferris,” Monte said in a hoarse whisper. “This did not come from me. If anyone hated Drew, it was Pete and with good reason after he caught Drew with his wife, Emily,” he said quietly. “Now please. I need to get back to work.”

  “Where can I find Pete?”

  * * *

  JUSTIN NEVER MADE it to the Clementine place. He was a few blocks away when he spotted Chloe walking down the street. He pulled alongside and put down his window. “Hey, girl!” His earlier shock and anger at what she was doing faded as she turned in his direction. He’d seen her only in his memory since that winter kiss so long ago. If anything she was more beautiful, her cheeks glowing from the cold, her blue eyes sparkling in the frosty morning. For a moment, it took his breath away seeing her again.

  She stopped walking, just stood looking at him. Her features softened, those big blue eyes warming.

  “Wanna hop in?”

  Chloe seemed to hesitate for only a moment before she walked over and climbed into the passenger side of his truck.

  The scent of her perfume hit him like a fist. Funny how a scent could transport a person back years. Her blond hair was short now, cut in a bob that made her high cheekbones look ever higher. And those eyes...

  “Damn, but you look good,” he said.

  She smiled then, lighting up the cab of the pickup and sending his heart drumming. “You look pretty darned good yourself.”

  He grinned at that. “Seems we need to talk.”

  “Nici.” She nodded. “I figured she’d call you.”

  Justin shifted the pickup into gear. “Buy you lunch?”

  Chapter Six

  “Chloe, what are you doing?” Justin asked once they were seated at the back at Ray J’s Barbecue.

  She shook her head. Earlier, she’d felt alive for the first time since she’d lost her job. She’d been on an investigation and she’d known she was onto something big. Her heart had been pounding, her blood rushing. She had purpose again. She was like a hound on the scent and it felt good.

  Now though, sitting here with Justin, she wasn’t so sure. She didn’t want to make things harder for him. Seeing him reminded her of how opening all of this up again was going to affect the one person she cared about.

  “I want to clear your name,” she said, thinking that was only partly true.

  “Chloe, I wasn’t arrested. I’m not in prison. I’m a free man. I don’t need to be cleared.”

  “Don’t you?” She glanced over her shoulder. Two couples were sitting at a table just inside the door. They were looking in her and Justin’s direction and it was clear they’d been talking about one of them.

  “I don’t give a damn what the locals think,” he said.

  She didn’t believe him, but didn’t argue the point. He wouldn’t have left and stayed away for so long if he didn’t care what people in Whitehorse thought about him. She leaned toward him. “Help me find out the truth.”

  “Chloe—”

  “Don’t you want to know what really happened that night?”

  He brushed a hand through his sandy blond hair. It looked as if it had been freshly trimmed. Just like his designer stubble. But there was still a ruggedness about him. She’d fallen for a boy. This was a man across from her.

  He looked strong and determined. And yet when she looked into those blue eyes, she also saw a man who’d been dragged through hell. Her heart went out to him.

  She reached across the table and placed her hand over his warm one. “I’m good at my job. Between the two of us—”

  He shook his head, looking sad as his blue gaze met hers. He turned his hand to cup hers in his large palm. For a moment, he looked down at their hands intertwined together. Was that regret she saw in his expression? Did she really think that they could pick up where they’d left off all those years ago?

  As the waitress brought their pulled pork meals, Justin changed the subject, asking about her life since they’d last seen each other. She told him about college and the newspapers she’d worked for and even some of the stories she’d done.

  “I suppose you already know my story,” he said after they’d finished eating. He pushed back his plate and studied her. “I know you want to help me and I appreciate that, but that’s not why I came back.”

  She had finished what she could eat of her meal. Her stomach had been churning from the moment Justin had pulled up next to her on the street. Seeing him again had been her dream and her fear. When she saw him sitting behind the wheel of the pickup, her heart had leaped to her throat. He was so handsome. She’d been frozen to the spot just looking at him.

  The waitress came by. Chloe asked her for a go-box since she hadn’t done the wonderful meal justice.

  “Why did you come back?” she asked after the waitress left.

  “There were people I needed to see.” He smiled, his eyes crinkling. “I wanted to ask you to the New Year’s Eve Masquerade Dance. That is, if you don’t already have a date.”

  She couldn’t help but smile. “I’d love to go with you.” She cocked her head at him. “You aren’t asking me out thinking that it will stop me from digging into Drew’s death with or without your help, are you?” She thought for a moment he would take back his invitation.

  His smile faded but he chuckled and shook his head. “I doubt there is anything I could do to stop you short of hog-tying you. No, the invitation had no strings. You do what you feel you have to do, but Drew’s death was an accident. A senseless tragedy.”

  Maybe, she thought as she studied him. Why is it I don’t think you believe that any more than I do?

  * * *

  “WAS THAT JUSTIN CALHOUN?” Annabelle cried, staring out the window at the pickup pulling away as Chloe came in the door.

  “I thought you were out at the Rogers Ranch with your fiancé,” Chloe said.

  “I was. I came back to tell you that Justin is staying at Dawson’s house. But I see that you already know he’s in town.” Annabelle looked as if she wanted to jump up and down with excitement. “So did he ask you?”

  She didn’t have to ask what her sister meant. “Yes, he asked me to the dance New Year’s Eve and I said yes, but then I told him I wasn’t going to stop looking for Drew’s killer.”

  Her sister’s face fell. “Was that really necessary?”

  “I think it is. I’m sure I’m onto something and I don’t intend to stop,” she said as she hung up her coat by the door.

  “Are you sure this isn’t about you missing your job?” Annabelle asked.

  “You’ve been talking to TJ. By the way, where is she?”

  “With Silas. They went down to Art’s to pick out flooring for their house.”

  Annabelle rushed to her to hug her tightly. “I just feel bad for you.”

  “Don’t. I’m fine. I’ll find a job when I’m ready and—”

  “I was talking about a man.”

  She groaned. “Please, do not start. I have a date. Isn’t that enough for right now?”

  Annabelle stepped back from the hug. “Unless you find out that he’s a killer. It would really stink if he was in jail by New Year’s Eve.” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Or worse if he—”

  “Justin didn’t kill anyone.”

  “You’d better hope so if you’re going to start hanging out with him. But I’d be careful. Who knows for sure what happened that night? If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people aren’t always who you think they are.”

  * * *

  JUSTIN HADN’T BEEN out to the ranch in more than five years. As he drove down the dirt road toward the Little Rockies, he was filled with so many bad memories. He tried to remember some good ones. The good ones all involv
ed his mother. She’d died when he was fourteen. It seemed looking back that she spent what years she had with him trying to make up for the love his father didn’t have for him.

  Ahead he saw the ranch sprawled out in front of him, running clear to the mountains. Thousands of acres, thousands of cattle. Anyone who knew cattle knew the Calhoun Cattle Company Angus. From his great-great-grandfather to his father, each had continued the legacy—one Drew would have stepped into, had he lived. Their father had raised him to take over one day.

  What was ironic about it was that his older brother hated the ranch. He felt tied down. His future had been set even before he was born and he’d resented the hell out of it. No wonder he’d been the way he was when it came to the drinking, gambling and women, Justin thought. Drew had rebelled every way he knew how. And he’d resented Justin for not being the chosen one.

  Justin let out a bitter laugh. All he’d ever wanted was to take over the ranch and keep the legacy alive. He felt as if it was in his blood. He’d worked hard, hoping his father would notice. But while Bert Calhoun had cut Drew slack time and time again, he’d never given Justin the same.

  As he turned down the road that lead to the main house, Justin was shocked to see that several of the fence posts had rotted and now hung from the barbed wire. He felt a jolt of anger and confusion. One thing that his father prided himself on was keeping the place up. Junk was hauled off. Nothing was left out in the pasture to rust and fall to ruin. Fences were constantly mended. Everything got a fresh coat of paint as needed. His father never left anything undone. It was that pride in what the family had built that Justin had missed the most while he’d been gone.

  “We have a standard we need to keep,” Bert Calhoun always said. And then would pat Drew on the back.

  Justin sighed, wondering for a moment what he was doing here. The main house came into view but there was still plenty of time to turn around and leave before his father saw him. He thought of Chloe and her determination to do what she thought was right—no matter what.

  He’d hoped there was some way to stop her. But her determination was something he admired in her. He did worry, though, whether she had any idea what she was getting herself involved in.