Chapter Twenty-Two
Clancy bit Abel’s hand. The moment he jerked it back, she cried, “Don’t do it!” her eyes burning with tears as she looked from Luther to Abel and back. “If it’s Dub coming down the road, please don’t hurt him.”
“It’s not Dub,” Luther snapped.
“The sheriff? He’s my cousin’s husband. Goldie’s pregnant,” she said, a tear escaping at the thought that all this was her fault.
“It’s not the sheriff either,” he said. “It’s your boss from Shady Rest.”
Vernon? Clancy’s mind raced. What was he doing here? Was it possible he’d come to save her?
“Look,” Luther said, “I don’t want to have to gag you and tie you up, but I will if you force me to, okay? Let us handle this.” He pulled out the gun. “You keep quiet and you get to live and so does your boss, fair enough?”
“You want me to get rid of him?” Abel asked and brandished a large knife from inside his boot.
“Put that away,” Luther said. “He’s probably looking for Sarah. Just go out and find out what he wants. If he’s looking for Sarah, tell him she’s not here and we don’t know where she’s gone. Tell him we came out here looking for her.”
Clancy heard the vehicle pull up in front of the cabin.
A moment later, the engine died and a door opened, then closed with a thud.
Her heart took off like a galloping horse.
Why would Vernon be looking for Sarah? He had to have found out from Max that she was missing.
He’d come here to save her! But he didn’t stand a chance against the Wilson brothers who were both armed.
She heard the creak of the rest home manager’s weight on the steps. She swore she could smell the cloying scent of his cologne even before Abel opened the door and stepped out. She could hear their voices, but not what was being said.
Then one word seemed to float on the air. “Clancy.”
Vernon was looking for her. He had come to rescue her. The sheriff must have told him, and Vernon had known about the cabin. Luther still had the gun, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was watching his brother talking to Vernon.
She had to do something. She couldn’t let Vernon leave.
* * *
THE SHERIFF DROVE in silence for a few minutes. “You’re trying to tell me that Vernon killed both women. Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, but it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Sarah said. “There were four people in that doctor’s office. Two people with type O negative blood. If not Diana and the doctor…and it explains what I saw the night of the murder.”
Max glanced back at her. “What did you see?”
“When I was doing my rounds, I saw Alice Chambers in the laundry room. It was almost one in the morning, and she was a loading a bloody shirt into the washing machine.”
“What? If true, why am I only hearing about this now?” Max demanded.
“At the time, I thought she’d had another of her nose bleeds, but then I didn’t know about either of the murders,” Sarah said. “It wasn’t until you told me about the vials being switched that I remembered—and realized I recognized the shirt she was stuffing into the machine. It was Vernon Vance’s.”
“Why would Alice be washing Vernon’s shirt?”
“They’re lovers. They think no one knows. Everyone knows.”
“Even if true, the evidence is gone. Yet I still have the threatening notes you sent to Esther in your handwriting.”
Sarah scoffed at that. “I heard Vernon just happened to find them and show them to you. He’s been trying to make someone else look like the killer. First it was Clancy, now it’s me.”
“Even if you didn’t kill anyone, you have admitted that you abducted Clancy and took her by force to your cabin, where you say you have your two cousins holding her there against her will. Am I wrong about that?”
“She thinks I killed Esther and Jane and there wasn’t time to try to change her mind. I had to get to that safety deposit box and find out if the money was even there. Now that I know it is…I have plans for it.”
“I bet you do. If I hadn’t stopped you at the bank, you could be headed for an airport right now,” the sheriff said.
“Leave Montana? Never,” she said. “There’s enough money in there for me to fix up my cabin, help my relatives and make it where I don’t have to work double shifts at the rest home.
I’d like to have a little free time to enjoy life.
But first I have to make sure my friend and my cousins are all right.
Call the rest home and make sure Vernon is still there. ”
Max hesitated, but only for a second. The moment someone answered at Shady Rest, he asked for Vernon. The sheriff could see how anxious Sarah was as she waited to hear.
“He’s not here,” the person who answered said. “He left.”
He met Sarah’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “How long ago did he leave?” Sarah looked worried.
“I don’t know for sure, maybe thirty minutes or so, maybe an hour.”
“When is he expected back?”
“He didn’t say. Said he had an urgent matter to take care of.”
“Would you please have him call Sheriff Max Lander when he returns?” He disconnected. “You heard.”
“Do you believe me now?” Sarah demanded. “We have to get to my cabin.”
He would have loved to argue that they didn’t know that was where Vernon had gone, but he heard something in her voice that sounded a lot like the alarm now going off in his own head.
“Call the home back,” she said. “Ask for Myrna. She always knows what’s going on.”
Max wasn’t used to his prisoners telling him what to do, but he placed the call. When Myrna came on the line, Sarah said, “Put her on speaker.”
“Myrna, it’s Sarah. I was trying to reach Vernon. What’s been going on there?”
“Sarah! You know everyone is looking for you, including this really cute cowboy. Well, he was looking for Clancy. Is she all right?”
“I hope so. I heard Vernon left.”
“He did. Seemed to be in a real rush too.”
“And the cowboy?”
“He left right after.” Myrna lowered her voice. “I overheard Diana giving him directions out to your cabin.”
She met Max’s gaze in the mirror. “Is there any chance Vernon might have heard those directions?”
* * *
CLANCY HEARD THE creak of the porch steps as the conversation sounded like it was coming to an end.
Any moment Vernon would walk off the porch down to his car, get in and leave.
She couldn’t keep wishing that Dub would come save her.
Or even Max. He was probably trying to find Sarah before she killed someone else.
He wouldn’t even know that she had been abducted.
It felt as if time was running out. Sarah could come back soon and then—
“Help! Help me!” she cried out as loudly as she could, shooting up out of the chair and rushing for the door. The sound of a gunshot made her freeze before she could grab the doorknob and turn it.
Had Luther shot her? She didn’t know if she’d been hit or if she just hadn’t felt it yet, before Luther grabbed her and jerked her back away from the door as another loud blast seemed to rattle the cabin.
Luther had one strong arm locked around her neck and was holding her back from the door. She felt dizzy and confused. She wasn’t wounded and bleeding. The gunshots had come from outside.
Her ears filled with the pounding of her pulse and her rapid breathing.
Had Abel shot and killed Vernon? Everything fell silent both inside and outside the cabin.
Abel must have had a gun along with the knife in his boot.
She felt sick. She’d gotten the manager killed while he was trying to help her.
The sound of Vernon’s voice startled her.
“If you don’t want your brother to die, you need to open the door,” she heard him say in the same tone he used at the rest home.
If any of us are going to get some work done today you need to get out of my office and quit complaining.
If you just stay out of your rooms and let Sarah and Clancy do their job, you’ll get back in them a lot sooner.
Vernon was alive! Wait. Abel was the one who’d been shot?
Clancy could feel Luther making up his mind. Of course he would hand her over to save his brother. This was almost over, she thought as Luther tightened his hold on her.
“If that’s what you want, your brother bleeding to death out here, fine, but I’m not leaving here without Clancy,” Vernon said.
She’d been right. The rest home manager had come here for her.
Yet, she couldn’t imagine the man she’d known coming to her rescue, far from shooting anyone, maybe especially a man like Abel twice.
Vernon wasn’t what she considered hero material.
She would have never guessed that he even owned a gun, let alone knew how to shoot it.
Even harder to believe was that he’d come all the way out here by himself to save her.
Now Abel was out there on the porch bleeding to death—all because of her.
“You should let me go and see to your brother,” Clancy said, hoping Luther would see the wisdom in it. She could see that the thought of losing his twin brother was killing him. “Luther, let me—”
He dragged her toward the door. He was going to release her.
But when he reached the door, he quickly turned the dead bolt before dragging her back to the chair.
When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, filled with pain and anger.
“Sit down. I promised Sarah I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.
” He looked as if he regretted that promise and would have gladly turned her over to anyone to save his brother.
“If anything happened to you…” He didn’t finish as he quickly moved to the back door, locking it as well—all the time keeping her in his sights.
“Luther,” she said, trying to make him understand. “Vernon came out here to rescue me. He wouldn’t—”
“He just shot my brother!”
“Abel must have pulled that knife on him.” Luther didn’t seem to hear as he stepped cautiously to the window before leaping away from it as a bullet shattered the glass.
“I can keep shooting,” Vernon called. “Or you can give me Clancy. If not, I’ll light this cabin on fire and let all three of you burn.”