Chapter Eighteen
“You’re driving,” Sarah said as she motioned for Clancy to get behind the wheel. “And don’t do anything stupid like crash the car. You’ll get us both killed. Think about this cowboy you’ve been crazy over for months. If you want to see him again, then do what I say, okay?”
Clancy feared that getting into that car would be the worst thing she could do. “What did you do with Dub?” she demanded, afraid she’d been right to worry about him. He wouldn’t have left without telling her, without leaving a note. He’d been taken—just like she was being taken.
Sarah frowned. “That cowboy who turned your head? That’s who you were expecting to show up and save you? I didn’t do anything with Dub, but it’s a good thing he didn’t show up. It might have saved his life.”
If Clancy had thought Sarah might let her go, she could quit deluding herself. Sarah had just made it perfectly clear she wouldn’t be walking away from this.
“You know how to drive a stick?” Sarah asked. “No? Well, you’re about to learn,” she said as she opened the driver’s-side door.
Clancy slipped behind the wheel and immediately reached for the ignition, hoping to find the keys there.
Sarah chuckled. “You really think I’m that dumb?” She slammed the driver’s-side door and went around to the passenger side and climbed in. Once she’d put on her seat belt, she started to hand Clancy the keys. “Put on your belt. I know how you drive.”
As Clancy snapped on her seat belt, she thought about the trip she and Sarah had taken to Billings a month ago.
Clancy had offered to drive her car since Sarah’s was in the shop.
They’d sung along to the radio on the way down, excited about going to the big city to shop and have lunch.
They’d both needed to get away and jumped at the chance to enjoy themselves. And they had.
Her heart ached when she thought about the closeness they’d shared since they’d met. How was it possible that she hadn’t seen the other side of Sarah? How could she be so wrong about her?
“Like I said, we really need to get out of here,” Sarah repeated as she handed over the keys.
“Where am I driving?” Clancy asked as she inserted the key and tried to recall everything Goldie’s friend Josephine had tried to teach her to drive one of the farm pickups. She put one foot on the clutch, the other on the brake and started the car.
“Not bad,” Sarah said as Clancy took her foot off the brake and put it on the gas while carefully releasing the clutch.
She heard the admiration in the woman’s voice and felt sick to her stomach. Sarah was acting as if they were still good friends while holding a gun on her.
As they drove away from the guesthouse, Clancy couldn’t help worrying about Dub. Sarah said she hadn’t done anything with him, but she’d be a fool to trust anything the woman said.
But if Sarah hadn’t done something to him, then where was he? Right now she would love to see him come driving up this road. She had a feeling that he could handle even an armed Sarah without any trouble.
When she reached the highway, she reversed what she’d done to get the car going and stopped.
“Turn right,” Sarah said. “Once we get on the highway you’ll have to shift gears, but I think you’ve got it.”
Clancy pulled out on the two-lane, this time the car jerking until she got her speed up. She pressed down on the clutch, shifted and let go. The engine roared more than it should have. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sarah flinch.
“Where are we going?” she asked as they left Grass Range far behind, heading north. There wasn’t another town for miles, nothing but rolling hills, pines and rocks. Houses were few and far between for miles. Sarah didn’t bother to answer. Clancy drove in silence until the silence got to her.
“I don’t understand something,” she said. Anything to keep her from wondering what lay in store for her. “Mildred Wilson really did leave you the pendant?”
“I have the will, but the pendant was worthless without the key that was inside it. I knew Esther had it, but my attempts to get it back failed even after I sent notes to her, threatening to kill her if she didn’t return what she’d taken.”
Clancy shifted into a higher gear. She couldn’t imagine where they were going and what happened when they got there.
“That explains why Esther had been so nervous that day. When I went to get the money she owed me, she begged me to take the bag of jewelry. I knew it had to be stolen, and she was afraid of being caught with it. Why else try to give it to me? But if you’d been threatening her, why didn’t she just give you the pendant? ”
Sarah let out a bitter chuckle. “I didn’t realize that the old crone didn’t even know what she’d stolen or where she’d ripped it off from.
Apparently, she just liked to take other people’s things.
None of it meant anything to her. Had she realized all I wanted was the pendant she’d stolen from Mildred, she could have given it back and it would have been over. ”
“Except by the time you went to her room that night, she didn’t have it anymore because she’d slipped it into my backpack,” Clancy said. “But I’m sure Esther told you that.”
“Oh, yes,” Sarah said with a chuckle. “If you’re asking if she threw you under the bus, yep, and without any hesitation.
“So you knew when I called you that I had the jewelry,” Clancy said, shooting a look at her.
“The road,” Sarah said, pointing at the highway as the car swerved toward the ditch. “You really can’t talk and drive, can you? I knew you had the jewelry, but did you?”
Without looking at her, Clancy shook her head.
“I didn’t find it until I was picked up after my car broke down, by John Crawford, Dub’s father.
Otherwise, I would have gotten rid of it before we reached the ranch.
I didn’t want a bunch of stolen jewelry.
You might remember I had enough to worry about. ”
“You still think I killed her, don’t you,” Sarah said, sounding sad about that.
Clancy thought about the voices she’d heard in Esther’s room that night. “It was you I heard in her room, wasn’t it?”
“Probably. But once I knew she no longer had the pendant, that she’d given it to you, we really didn’t have any more to say to each other.”
Clancy shuddered at how casual the woman was about murdering the elderly woman. “You watched me from her apartment window that night after you’d killed her. I was terrified when I realized the killer had seen me.”
“Sorry, but it wasn’t me,” Sarah said. “I left Esther’s apartment. She was very much alive then. I saw Jane coming toward me down the hallway, said hello to her and then went on my break. I was feeling guilty for not even trying to get the money Esther owed you.”
“I saw you in the window,” Clancy argued.
“You saw someone in the window. Like you told me on the phone, you couldn’t make out the face or even the size of the person. I’m telling you it couldn’t have been me, because I didn’t see you.”
“Why should I believe you?” Clancy demanded. “You’re holding a gun on me.”
“The gun was actually for anyone who tried to stop us as we were leaving back there,” Sarah said. “But since you’ve convinced yourself that I’m a killer, I doubt you’ll do what I need you to do without the gun.”
“If you’re telling the truth, then let me drive us to the sheriff and we can both tell him what we know.”
“Neither of us can do that since the sheriff hasn’t caught the killer yet,” Sarah said.
“How do you know that?” Clancy demanded.
“I have a friend who works at the hospital. The killer apparently has O negative blood type. The sheriff thought that person was Diana, but Diana has O positive.”
Clancy recalled what Max had told her on the phone. She hated to admit that Sarah might be right. “Max hasn’t found the killer yet?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Until he does, you’re in danger. Like you said, the killer saw you.”
“You do realize how ironic it is for you to say I’m in danger when you’re holding a gun on me, and you’ve admitted that you were in Esther’s room that night.”
“You might not be the only person the killer saw that night,” Sarah said. “Start slowing down. We’re going to turn up here to the right.”
Clancy hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going.
She realized that she hadn’t seen even a ranch turnoff for some miles.
Sarah’s words finally registered. What if she was telling the truth?
Had she gone to Esther’s room to get the pendant?
After learning that Esther had gotten rid of it, would Sarah have really just walked out of the apartment?
Now she’d shown up at the guesthouse this morning with a gun, determined to get the key.
Clancy turned onto a narrow dirt road that looked more like a jeep trail.
Where was Sarah taking her? She looked ahead, but all she saw were trees and rolling foothills.
That and fresh tracks on the road. Someone else had driven up here recently.
But before that, the road hadn’t had much use, from what she could see of the tall weeds between the ruts.
Whatever was at the end of the road, it was in a very isolated spot where no one would hear a scream—or a gunshot.
“Weren’t you worried about getting the pendant from me?” she asked, her voice tight. But Sarah didn’t seem to notice.
“Not really. I figured you didn’t even know it was in your backpack. All I had to do was get it from you. But you took off before I could.”
“You texted me about the murder as soon as I got to work at the convenience store. When you told me Esther had died before midnight, what did you expect me to do? You knew I’d seen someone in her window after midnight because it was you. You wanted me to run.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sarah shake her head and sigh.
“I was worried that you were in trouble because I saw the rock in the door earlier that night. I knew you’d come back to try to get your money.
Once I heard Esther had been murdered, I feared you would look guilty.
I foolishly thought that after the text I sent, you’d come to me for help since we’re friends. ”
“Right,” Clancy said bitterly. “Friends. If you hadn’t mentioned Esther’s time of death, I probably wouldn’t have left the way I did. That’s when I realized Esther’s killer had seen me the night before. So of course I ran.”
“But I didn’t know that,” Sarah said more forcefully. “The last thing I wanted you to do was take off with the pendant. I was afraid that when you found the jewelry in your backpack, you’d throw it away. I’m glad you didn’t.”
“I had planned to,” Clancy admitted. “Tell me the truth, did you do something to Dub?” Her heart broke at the thought. She’d gotten Dub involved in all this. She’d never forgive herself if she’d caused him pain—let alone gotten him killed.
“Why would I do something to Dub?” Sarah demanded.
“Boy, once you turn against someone…” She sighed again.
“Clancy, I’m trying to save your life and mine.
I didn’t kill anyone. Yes, I have to get to the safety deposit box before some of my more distasteful relatives try to stop me.
After that…” She shook her head. “I’m not going to waste my breath trying to convince you that I’m one of the good guys. ”