Chapter Fourteen
Clancy retrieved her phone from where she’d left it charging. It was fully charged now, and she checked her messages. There were a half dozen from the sheriff, worried about her, asking her to contact him or Goldie.
She moved past them to see that she’d heard from Sarah again.
Where RU? Worried. Text me. Need to talk.
Clancy couldn’t help feeling guilty for not answering the sheriff’s calls sooner. She dialed his cell phone number. It went straight to voice mail. She hadn’t expected that. Startled, she disconnected, not wanting to even try to explain everything in a message.
But then she quickly called back. “It’s Clancy. I’m fine. I’ll explain everything when I see you. Also, I have something for you.”
She looked at the time. Maybe the sheriff would call soon.
Dub wasn’t the only one anxious to get rid of the pendant and the rest of the jewelry.
Once she turned it over and told Max everything she knew, there would be nothing keeping her in Grass Range—especially with the killer more than likely still here.
Once the sheriff had the key, maybe he’d have his killer and it would be all over.
She looked around and realized how hard it would be to leave this guesthouse—let alone Dub.
But there would be no reason not to get her car fixed and head down the road to Billings with her birthday approaching so quickly.
Until Max had the perp behind bars for the murders, Clancy wouldn’t know the killer or the danger she was in until it was too late.
She re-plugged her phone in so it could continue charging and headed for the kitchen as she heard Dub come back in from the front deck. “I’d ask if everything is all right but—”
Pocketing his phone, he quickly stepped to her. “Have you looked outside?”
She glanced toward the window. The sky had turned black beyond it. This time of year, it got dark quickly and would continue to come earlier until spring.
“Come on,” he said. “Grab a jacket and I’ll meet you out on the deck over the creek. We can talk out there.”
* * *
MAX WAS brEATHING hard by the time he and Larry sprinted up a rise and spotted the two men they were chasing climb into an old pickup parked at the edge of the field.
The truck engine struggled to turn over, but then caught.
In a cloud of dark smoke, the pickup and the two men roared off and disappeared from view.
“It’s almost like they’ve done this before,” Larry said as he put his hands on his thighs to breathe. Max realized he hadn’t had to chase anyone in a really long time, as he tried to catch his breath as well.
“Why run if they’re innocent?” the sheriff asked between gasps.
“Oh, I’m sure they’re guilty of something,” the patrolman said. “Then again, I’ve found that some people just run when the cops arrive.” He shrugged. “Even if one of them isn’t your killer, I’m sure they’ve been up to no good somewhere.”
Maybe the Wilson brothers had left the area. Or maybe they hadn’t gone far. Max reminded himself that it could turn out that neither of them had type O negative blood or know anything about the murders at Shady Rest.
Still until he knew, he couldn’t scratch them off his suspect list. “Any idea where we might be able to find them?” he asked Larry on the way back to his patrol SUV parked at the Wilson house.
Larry shook his head. “They have relatives all over this state. Lots of cousins and next of kin. Quite frankly, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Worse, the family is pretty close-knit, so they aren’t going to help a cop.”
Max wasn’t surprised the brothers had lots of kin. He often felt that in Montana everyone was related, because of the generations who’d never left. “They ran like they’re guilty, but it might turn out that neither of them could have killed Jane. Esther is another story.”
The sun had set on another day, he noticed with regret.
He wasn’t getting anywhere with this case.
“I think I’m going to try another way to find out their blood types before I put any more effort into trying to track them down.
Birth certificates are government records. But I’ll need a court order.”
“Unfortunately, the brothers aren’t identical twins.
If they were, then you would only need one.
But fraternal twins might have different blood types,” Larry said.
Max shot him a surprised look, and the highway patrolman laughed.
“My brother and I are twins. Fraternal. We look nothing alike, while the Wilson brothers look like they might be identical, but aren’t. ”
“They share the same attitudes apparently, but maybe not the same blood type. While I’m at it, I’ll see if I can get the judge to require blood samples from the staff at Shady Rest and people closely associated with the place. Do you know a helpful judge?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
By that afternoon, Max had presented the judge with a written affidavit detailing the facts and evidence he hoped established the justification to require a blood test from the staff at Shady Rest Retirement Home. With the warrant, he called Dr. Frazer, who agreed to begin the process right away.
Max was so anxious for the outcome that he felt as if he were holding his breath. One of them had to be the killer.
* * *
DUB HAD SPREAD a large quilt on the deck. He motioned for her to join him. As she sat down, he lay back. “The night is so clear. Wait until you see all the stars.”
She lay back next to him and looked up. Stars were popping out in the endless dark above them.
She took a deep breath, smelling fall rising up from the creek, from the dried leaves blanketing the creek bank.
She tried to relax, but all she could think about was the call Dub had received from his father.
“Your dad wasn’t too upset with us?” she asked without looking at him.
“He understands now why we left like we did. He’s just worried about us, but he trusts me—unlike my brother.”
She looked over at him. “You spoke to Tanner too?”
Dub turned to look at her and rolled his eyes. “He was the one who called on my father’s phone. He hopes I go to prison.”
“Why is he like that?” she asked, really wanting to know why Tanner had so much animosity for Dub.
“My friends think he’s jealous because I’m so much better-looking than him.
” He chuckled to let her know he was kidding.
“Seriously, I honestly don’t know. Tanner resents me I think because I left the ranch to attend the university.
He calls me an overeducated ranch hand.” Dub shrugged.
“He’s right. That’s what I am right now. ”
“No, he’s not right. I hate that so many people put down education like it’s a bad thing, like it’s wasted if you don’t get a degree or work in your chosen field.
I didn’t go to university, but I took online courses.
” She smiled. “I’m an overeducated convenience store clerk and part-time rest home flunky with a degree in art and philosophy. ”
He chuckled. “I got my degree in engineering with my focus on architecture. I always wanted to build things.”
“I would think that would be helpful in getting a new bridge built at your ranch,” she said, only half kidding.
“What would you do if you could do exactly what you wanted?” he asked, looking up at the stars again.
“Have a studio where I could paint. I know I couldn’t make a living selling my work, but maybe I could teach art. What about you?”
He smiled in the growing darkness. “I’d design houses.”
“So what’s stopping you?” she asked.
“Probably the same thing that’s stopping you,” Dub said. “We’re too busy working, you to survive, me because I live on a ranch and there is always work.”
“Couldn’t Tanner and your dad handle it?”
“Tanner would love it if I left, but I know my dad wants me to stay.”
“Does he know how badly you want to do something else?”
He shook his head. “He was all for me taking engineering at college. He even suggested I use what I learned about architecture to build my own house on the ranch after I get married.”
She stared at him, shocked that she hadn’t even considered he might have someone in mind he planned to marry. “You’re getting married?” Her voice broke.
He was too slow rolling up on his side to look at her in the starlight.
She was fighting not to cry. It was silly, Dub saying he was going to marry her the first time they’d met, but somehow she’d believed he was kind of serious.
She felt so foolish. She’d turned down this cowboy numerous times.
She had no solid ground to stand on when it came to being jealous.
But just the thought of Dub in love with someone else and getting married made her heart ache.
She finally breathed a little easier when she saw the flash of his grin. “Are you asking if I have someone picked out?”
“I would imagine there’s cowgirls around here that you’ve dated and thought about marrying.”
“Oh, I’ve dated my share,” he admitted, still grinning.
“But none I considered marrying except one. Most everyone I know my age has already married and settled down. But you’re the only one I’ve told I wanted to marry.
What about you? Ever consider getting married?
” Dub lay back to stare at the stars as if bracing himself for her answer.
“No. Never. I didn’t want to marry young and not see at least a little of the world first.”
“How old are you?”
“I’ll be twenty-five in a few days.” She saw his eyebrow shoot up and swallowed.
“You are young.”
“How old are you?” she asked.
“I turn thirty-two in three months.” She’d just assumed he was close to her age.
“Pretty young yourself,” she said.
“Is that why you had planned to take off before all this happened? You want to see the world?”
“You’re going to think I’m delusional,” she said quietly as she glanced over at him. “I’ve always felt that my life was out there waiting for me, but that I’d miss it if I didn’t go find it.”
“What was your life out there waiting for you to do?”
She gave him the side-eye, not sure if he was mocking her.
“I know it probably sounds ridiculous to you, but I don’t know where I belong.
You were born and raised on a ranch. You have strong roots.
I’m like a weed that grows wherever it lands, but never feels like it belongs there. Ridiculous, huh?”
“I think most people get stuck in a place and don’t have what it takes to pack up and go. I admire you having the courage to want to strike out on your own to see if it is really greener down the road.”
Clancy couldn’t help but laugh. “It wasn’t courageous striking out, as if turned out. I was running from a killer. Who knows if I’d have had the strength to really go otherwise.”
“Change is hard. I know that feeling only too well, but you’re a lot stronger than you think you are. Look! A shooting star!”
As she lay back and watched a white light streak across the sky, she felt a sense of awe. The sky away from any artificial light was unbelievable. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d lain under the stars. Never with someone close by who quickened her pulse just being there.
“Did you make a wish?” he asked quietly.
“I did. How about you?”
He looked over at her. “I did.” He rolled up on his side again. She felt his fingers brush her cheek and turned to him. Their gazes locked and she could see need shining in his eyes. He wanted her as much as she wanted him right now.
“Dub.”