by B. J Daniels
Her mother hadn’t moved. She seemed frozen on the seat, as if facing death rather than her sister. Ella thought again how different they were. Dana faced things head-on. Stacy ran from anything distasteful.
“You might as well get out,” Ella said as she looked over at her mother. “I’ll be with you. And so will Jeremiah.”
Stacy attempted a smile and reached for Ella’s hand. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all these years.” She squeezed her hand and then let go as she opened the pickup’s door.
* * *
DANA HAD BEEN scared out of her mind for Ella and, of course, for Stacy. She hated the thought of Ella getting involved in one of her mother’s problems. Now, as she watched her sister exit Ella’s pickup, she felt her heart fill with love rather than anger.
“You’re going to have to help Stacy,” their mother had said that night on her deathbed. “She isn’t like you and me. She’s fragile.” Dana had silently scoffed at that but nodded. “I’m leaving you the ranch because I know it will be in good hands. That’s going to hurt your sister even more than it will your brothers, but it can’t be helped. Promise me you’ll be there for Stacy, no matter how hard she tries to push you away. She’s jealous of you, Dana, and wishes she was more like you. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to be your sister’s keeper.”
Dana had balked, finding herself at war with her sister over the ranch, and yet her promise had come back to haunt her time and again. Even when Stacy had returned with Ella and seemed to have settled down, she was still sometimes so exasperating, especially when she’d take off for days without a word.
But Dana knew, more than anything, she never wanted to lose her sister again and hoped with all her heart that she wasn’t about to. She watched Stacy stop at the bottom of the porch steps before she started up toward her and the ranch house, a house that had withstood all kinds of trouble for more than a hundred years.
* * *
ELLA STOOD NEXT to her pickup, watching her mother climb the stairs. As if without a word, she watched Stacy step into her sister’s outstretched arms. Ella couldn’t help the tears that stung her eyes as she saw the two sisters hugging each other. She wiped hastily at them as Jeremiah stepped up beside her.
“You think you’re not like her,” he said.
“I’m not,” Ella snapped. “I’m nothing like her.”
“Just keep telling yourself that.”
She was glad when Waco joined them.
“I thought I’d let them have their reunion before taking Stacy in to get her statement,” he said.
On the porch, Stacy had stepped out of her sister’s arms, and both were now looking at the three of them standing together. Ella watched her aunt’s expression as she took in Jeremiah. Stacy quit talking, and for a moment, the two of them seemed suspended there on the house porch.
Dana took the first step down the stairs, then the next, making a beeline for Jeremiah. Ella looked over at him. “Brace yourself,” she whispered. “She’s going to hug you and welcome you into the family. She’ll cry and then she’ll take you in the kitchen and feed you. It’s just the way Aunt Dana is, so you might as well get used to it.”
He looked like a deer caught in headlights as Dana rushed at him, threw her arms around him and cried.
Chapter Nineteen
“Looks like everything is going to be all right, Ella,” Waco commented as the two of them walked toward the creek. He’d noticed Stacy standing alone on the porch, watching her sister and son. There was something about the expression on Stacy’s face that made him uneasy. “Did you and your mother have a nice talk on the way here?”
Ella nodded and kept walking. He followed her down to the creek, where she stopped at the edge—out of sight from the family and out of hearing range.
She didn’t look at him as she said, “I need to tell you about the key you said was found in the well. My mother said she drugged Marvin and switched the keys the night before she planned to run away. If true, then the one you have is worthless.”
He let out a low whistle. He knew he didn’t have to tell Ella that this didn’t help Stacy look any more innocent. “Your mother has the key but she’s never used it?” He couldn’t keep the disbelief out of his voice. A woman who would drug her husband...
“According to her, she doesn’t know what it opens.” Ella finally looked over at him. “But someone in that family has to know.”
He caught a gleam in her eye and took a step back as he held up his hands. “Hold on. I don’t think I like what you’re about to suggest.”
Ella looked surprised that he had read her so well. After all, they hardly knew each other. “Have you returned the key found in the well to the family yet?”
He shook his head, suspecting where this was going. “Some of the family is anxious to get the key.”
“But maybe not all,” she said. “Because one of them already knows the key doesn’t work.
“At first,” she continued, “when I heard about a key being found in the well, I thought that Marvin had taken the secret—and the key—to his grave. But I couldn’t understand why the killer would have let that happen unless Marvin had refused to give up the key, which is why it was found in the bottom of the well with him. But why would the killer have let that happen? It didn’t make any sense. Was the key in the well still attached to the chain Marvin Hanover wore around his neck?”
Waco shook his head, making her smile knowingly. “You think the killer took what he or she thought was the original key and tossed one that resembled it into the well so, if the body was ever found, the key would seem to be with the remains.”
“I’d wager that is exactly what happened.” Ella frowned. “How did you even learn about the remains in the well?”
“An anonymous caller.”
There was that gleam again. “So the killer isn’t going to be anxious about getting the key from you because he or she knows it is a fake,” she said. “But what if the family finds out that my mother took the original?”
“By the way, where is that key?” he asked. She only smiled. “You do realize that I can have you arrested for not handing it over.”
“You keep threatening to put me behind bars,” she said, clearly flirting with him. “Is that a fantasy of yours?”
Waco chuckled. “Seriously, Ella. I need that key.”
“I didn’t have to tell you about it,” she said, chewing at her lower lip for a moment. “You want to catch this killer, right?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “I have a plan.”
“Forget it.”
“You haven’t even heard what it is,” she said.
“I don’t need to. I can tell it involves you putting yourself in danger and interfering with my investigation. I’m not having any of it.”
Ella nodded. “My mother has the key. I’m sure she’ll give it to you when you take her in for questioning.” She started to turn away, but he grabbed her arm, turning her back toward him.
Waco brushed a lock of blond hair from Ella’s face. He hated it when he couldn’t see her eyes. All that green that seemed to change shades depending on her mood. Right now, they were a dark emerald and slightly narrowed as she took him in.
“Detective?”
“Aren’t we at the point that we can use first names?”
“Waco.” She seemed to move the letters around in her mouth, tasting them slowly, her tongue coming out to lick her lips. “Waco.”
He smiled, loving his name on her lips as he pulled her closer. “Ella.” He cupped her jaw, ran his thumb over her lips and felt her shiver.
“Was there something you wanted to ask me?” he whispered.
Her lips parted. He saw the dart of her tongue as it touched her upper lip. He felt the sensual thrill rocket through his veins.
In no hurry, he slowly dropped his mouth to Ella’s. He brus
hed his lips over hers, felt a quiver that stirred the flames already burning inside him. He touched the tip of his tongue to hers. She let out a long sigh, leaning into him, those eyes locked with his.
It was as if all his senses came alive. He had feared that if he ever kissed Ella, there would be no turning back. He would want her. Want her for keeps.
Pulling her up, he deepened the kiss and felt her melt against him.
“Detective?”
Waco quickly let Ella go and turned to see Stacy standing on the rise over the creek above them. That one word reminded him that he had no business kissing this woman—or, worse, wanting more from her. Not now. He had an old murder to solve.
“You said you wanted a statement from me,” Stacy said, looking from him to Ella and back again. “If you’re interrogating my daughter...well, I do like your style.”
* * *
AFTER THE KISS, Ella felt almost guilty for what she was about to do as she watched her mother leave with the detective. Her face had flushed to the roots of her hair at being caught kissing Waco. It wasn’t the “being caught” part that embarrassed her. It was the fact that she’d never felt anything like that before in just one kiss. She’d seen the way her mother had looked at her. Surprised at first, then a slow, knowing smile, as if she could see herself in Ella.
Ella tried to put that thought out of her head, along with the guilt, as she pulled out her phone and called the Hanover house. An older male answered. Lionel, she assumed.
“My name is Ella Cardwell. I think I might have something you’ve been looking for.” Silence.
“I can’t imagine what that might be,” he said at last.
Yeah, right, she thought. “How about I stop by to discuss it? I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.”
He started to say something, but seemed to change his mind.
Ella disconnected, knowing she was taking a huge risk.
The first thing she had to find out was how badly one of the Hanovers might want the original key. It was dangerous, but not that much, she assured herself, given she wouldn’t be taking the key. So, if they really wanted it, they would be smart not to harm her.
Also, she wondered about the will that left everything to Jeremiah. The will her mother swore was real. Did the family know about it—if it existed?
The only person in the family Ella’d ever met had been Mercy Hanover, so she was looking forward to meeting the others. Although she didn’t have much time. Waco had taken her mother to the marshal’s office to get her statement.
At some point, he would demand the key Stacy had taken from her former husband.
* * *
“LET’S GET RIGHT down to it,” Waco said once he had the video camera set up and had entered the preliminaries. He looked directly at Stacy Cardwell. “Did you kill Marvin Hanover?”
“No, I did not. Are you leading my daughter on?”
He blinked. “This is not the time to—”
“I want to know what your intentions are toward my daughter, Detective.”
Waco swore under his breath. “I’m falling in love with her. Now, can we move on? Tell me how you met Marvin Hanover.”
Stacy stared at him for a long moment before she nodded and began to talk.
He’d already heard most of it, but wanted it on the record. He suspected there might have been things she hadn’t told her daughter.
“Is that really important?” When he merely waited, she said, “I met him through a friend. I know what you’re asking. I married him for security. He had money. We saw each other a few times and one thing led to another.” She looked away. “I told him I was pregnant.”
“Were you?”
“Not yet,” she admitted, looking at him again. “My daughter is nothing like me.”
He gave her an impatient look. “When did things go sour between you and your husband?”
She laughed. “The ink wasn’t dry on the paper before he told me how things were going to be. He’d made me sign a prenuptial agreement. It promised me ten thousand in cash on the day I came home with proof that I was pregnant with a son.”
“But you weren’t.”
“I kept putting him off, telling him it was too early to know the sex. The rest of his family were telling him that I was lying about being pregnant.” She shrugged. “Actually, that worked to my benefit later when I really was pregnant, but I didn’t want them to know.”
“Eventually, you got pregnant with his son.”
Stacy nodded. “I thought I’d gotten lucky. I brought home the sonogram and he forked over the ten thousand. That’s when he told me that he was going to keep my son. That I wouldn’t be allowed to ruin him, and unless I cooperated, he would divorce me without a cent.”
“Sounds like motive for murder.”
“Oh, I wanted to kill him, but I had a son growing inside me. My son. I knew I had to save my baby from this horrible man. I’d seen how he was with his other offspring. So I planned to leave him.”
“Weren’t you worried he would come after you?”
“I pretended to lose the baby. He bought it. The rest of the family hadn’t believed I was pregnant to begin with, so it worked. I assured him I could get pregnant again with a son and I planned my escape. But before I could leave, he disappeared.”
“Didn’t you take something before you left?”
She looked confused for a moment. “The key. I might have drugged him and exchanged the keys.” Before he could speak, she said, “Okay, I did drug him and exchange the keys.”
“Where is the original key?”
She hesitated, but only for a moment before she patted her pocket. “I have it.”
Why did this feel too easy? “You kept it all these years. You never used it? How do I know it is the original?”
She sighed. “I never figured out what it fit. While I lived in that house, I looked for something that a key that shape might fit into. I never found anything, and Marvin wasn’t about to tell me or his family.”
“How do you know he wasn’t lying to keep both you and his family under his thumb?”
Stacy nodded. “That would be just like him. That way, he got the last laugh, huh.”
“In that case, you would have killed him for nothing, then.”
“Detective, I told you. I didn’t kill him. I was planning my escape when he disappeared. I woke up one morning, his side of the bed was empty. He didn’t show up the next morning or the next. No one in the family seemed that upset. They must have thought, like I did at first, that he’d gone off because he was upset about me losing the baby. Losing his son. He had been hoping to replace all of them with new children, apparently. After a week, I filed for an annulment based on abandonment. I couldn’t stand another day in that house and I was worried he would show up before my annulment went through. As it was, I didn’t have to worry, huh.”
“You do realize that your life is on the line here, don’t you?” Waco demanded.
“I didn’t kill Marvin.”
“We only have your word for that. His family thinks you did. Also, before he died, he scratched your name into the rock at the bottom of the well.” She looked horrified. “Your name and the word don’t.”
Stacy shook her head. “I have no idea why he would do that. I swear, unless he hoped to incriminate me. It had to be one of his family who killed him. You’ve met them, right? That’s why you have to promise me that my son will be safe.”
“As long as he stays on Cardwell Ranch, he will be.” Waco knew it was just a matter of time before the Hanovers heard about Jeremiah. They would do the math. Once they realized that he was Marvin’s son and the heir to the fortune—
He had to find the killer before that happened. “The only way to protect him is for the two of you to remain on Cardwell Ranch until this is over. Please don’t run again. I’ll just have to trac
k you down, when I need to be taking care of things at this end. Your family is safe as long as you stay on the ranch.”
Stacy shook her head. “You know you won’t be able to keep Ella out of this, don’t you? So, basically, you will be jeopardizing the lives of both of my children.”
“Ella isn’t part of the investigation.”
She let out a bark of a laugh. “Clearly, you don’t know her. Just because you’ve shared a few kisses—”
He reached over and turned off the recorder. “It was just one kiss.”
With a roll of her eyes, Stacy said, “I witnessed the kiss, so don’t even try to downplay it to me.” He started to deny the impact of the kiss on him, but she waved off any denial. “I know my Ella. You’re the first man who’s really turned my girl’s head. I saw it right away. I should have known it would take someone like you. A cop.”
“I thought you were going to say it was because I’m a smart, capable, relatively good-looking cowboy, cold-case detective.”
“I hope you’re smart and capable,” she said, clearly not appreciating his attempt at humor. “Save my son and daughter. Please. Because whether you realize it or not, they’re both in danger.”
He nodded, thinking of Ella, thinking of the kiss. “I need the key,” he reminded her and held out his hand.
Stacy reached into her pocket. He saw her feeling around, her movements becoming more frantic, her eyes widening in what could have been surprise.
“You do have it, right?”
“I did.” She stopped searching her pocket for it.
“What?” he demanded.
“It was in my pocket. Now...it’s gone.”
He groaned.
“It’s the truth, I swear.”
“When was the last time you saw it?” he asked.