Chapter Twelve
Max couldn’t believe it when he got the call from John Crawford. He’d been relieved and furious with Clancy for not letting him know she was all right. John had told him about the temporary bridge that they were putting in and said they could meet at his ranch.
He managed to cross the bridge, but John had bad news by the time he reached the house. Clancy had taken off yet again. This time she was on the run with John Crawford’s youngest son, Dub.
Max swore, dragging off his Stetson to rub the back of his neck. “I’m going to need the license plate number of the rig he’s driving so I can put out a BOLO on the truck.”
“Can you hold off on that?” John asked. “I know my son. I’m sure he’s trying to protect her. He’ll call me and I’ll advise him to contact you.”
“Good luck with that,” Tanner, the eldest son, piped up. “He’s got something for this…woman. Trust me, he isn’t going to listen. They say love is blind. Apparently, it makes you stupid too.”
“Why don’t you go see to the animals, son,” John said not unkindly, but with steel in his tone.
For a moment, Max thought Tanner would argue. The man seemed awfully angry. But he must have been familiar with his father’s I-wouldn’t-argue-with-me-tone, because he left, slamming the door on the way out.
Max couldn’t help but think about his wife, now very pregnant with their first child.
He hoped he would make a good father, but never having had one of his own, he worried he’d mess up.
Goldie assured him they were going to both do great, but he wished he’d had someone like John Crawford around when he was growing up.
So much would have been different. He and his brother Cordell had deserved better than they got.
“You say Clancy is your wife’s cousin?” the rancher asked after the door slammed. “I’m sure you’re worried, but I can tell you this. Dub will look after her. He’s as levelheaded as they come. I’m sure he saw what I did in Clancy.”
Max hoped the man was right about his younger son and Clancy as well.
But so far, Clancy certainly hadn’t used good judgment, taking off the way she had.
“I’d appreciate it if you could get your son to talk her into calling me.
I worry that she has important information in this case I’m working on, but is afraid for one reason or another to come forward. ”
John assured him he would. “I’ll also let you know if I hear anything from them.”
Thanking him, the sheriff asked, “You wouldn’t know the Wilson brothers, Luther and Abel, would you?” John seemed a man who looked for the best in everyone, but Max saw the rancher’s reaction to the Wilsons. “Anything you can tell me would be a help.”
“I suspect you’ll hear this, so I’m not carrying tales out of school,” the rancher said.
“Raised by their mother Mildred, they’ve been in and out of trouble for years.
Nothing with the law as far as I know, but definitely a menace to the community often.
Millie did her best with them, but you probably know she recently died. Heard the two took it hard.”
“When you say menace to the community, what exactly do you mean?” Max asked.
“Fights, general mischief,” John said. “Maybe they’ll grow out of it. I hope so.”
Max wondered if John was still talking about the Wilson brothers as the man looked at the door Tanner had exited through.
“Do you think they are capable of murder?” He could see the rancher fighting not to malign the two men any worse.
“If given a reason to set them off, possibly even murder,” the rancher finally said. “I guess you wouldn’t be asking if you weren’t considering them as suspects.”
The sheriff nodded. “I understand they still live in the house where they grew up between here and Lewistown?”
John nodded. “If I were you and they are suspects, I wouldn’t go out there alone.”
That pretty much said it all, he thought. “Thanks for your help and thanks for taking care of Clancy. I was worried when we found her car beside the road and no sign of her. Glad you’re the one who picked her up. Sorry she got your son involved.”
“Oh, Dub’s his own man. I just don’t want him in trouble with the law or worse. He’s good-hearted, maybe even a little too much sometimes.” John chuckled as he walked him back out to his patrol SUV.
“I’m hoping I find her before I have to put out a BOLO on your son’s truck,” the sheriff said.
“Dub’s going to ruin his life because of that woman,” he heard Tanner say from where he’d been standing just outside. “Someone needs to stop him before it’s too late.”
Max opened his driver’s-side door.
“He worries too much about things that don’t involve him,” John said under his breath. “Especially when it involves his younger brother.”
He heard the worry in the rancher’s tone. “Thanks again, John. You’ll be hearing from me.” From the front of the house, Tanner glared at his father as Max drove away.
* * *
AS CLANCY PULLED clean clothing out of her backpack after her shower, she saw the bag of jewelry lying in the bottom.
Slowly, she pulled it out and held it up to the light.
What if this seemingly cheap costume jewelry was why Esther was murdered and Jane too?
It seemed impossible because it didn’t make any sense to her.
Maybe like she’d first thought, Esther had put it in her backpack to get rid of evidence that she’d been stealing from all the other residents.
That made more sense. It wasn’t that Esther really meant what she said about the bag of jewelry being worth more than she owed her.
Esther was only covering her own criminal behavior by getting rid of the evidence.
Clancy was sure that the residents at Shady Rest had other reasons to dislike Esther to the point that one of them finally did her in. But Jane?
She shook her head, convinced there was only one reason Jane was dead.
She’d seen the killer that night—or at least the killer thought she had.
Her death couldn’t have anything to do with this bag of jewelry.
Maybe Esther’s didn’t either. Clancy almost wished that she’d thrown the junk away already.
Her stomach growled and she hurriedly finished getting dressed. But as she was gathering up her belongings and straightening up this magnificent bathroom, she kept the bag of jewelry out. What if she was wrong and everything that had happened was because of something in this bag?
What bothered her was that she hadn’t told Dub about it. Because she didn’t think it had anything to do with the murders? Or because she feared he’d think she’d taken it from Esther?
She just hoped he would understand why she hadn’t mentioned it before now as she picked it up from the bed. Even as she held it up to the light, she couldn’t believe anyone would commit murder for this plastic bag full of cheap junk.