Frozen Ground

by Webb, Debra

  Noon

  Abbey waited in Garrett’s office. She had never been so exhausted, grateful, hurt and angry in her life. All those years of pain and disappointment she and her family had suffered had been for naught.

  Steven was innocent.

  Garrett had interviewed and taken a statement from her and Steven separately. She hadn’t taken offense. From her book research, she understood this was standard protocol. He and Deputy Sheriff Wagner were at the hospital interviewing Hansen. They’d had to wait until after his surgery.

  She wasn’t sure she would feel warm and rested again until she’d had a long, hot bath and about a hundred hours of sleep.

  The door opened and she looked up, expecting Garrett with news. Not Garrett. Steven.

  She smiled. Her brother looked as rattled and unkempt as she had when she’d finally had a chance to seek asylum in the ladies’ room. “You okay?” she asked.

  He sat down in the chair beside her and appeared to think about the question for a moment. “Yeah. I think so. I’ll let you know when all the shock wears off.”

  “I understand.”

  With the polite conversation out of the way, they sat together in silence for a while. She imagined he felt as exhausted and emotionally rattled as she did. Maybe more so. Nearly half his life had been stolen from him. She desperately wished she could change that tragedy, but she could not. There were, however, some things she could do.

  “I was thinking,” she said. She studied his face, so familiar and yet so alien to her. She hadn’t seen him in person in sixteen years. His jaw was leaner, more square now. His shoulders had broadened and his tall lanky frame had filled out. No matter that his voice was much deeper, she still heard nuances of the teenage brother she’d adored in there somewhere. “We should go ahead with selling the place. You take the money and buy you a home and whatever else you need. Daddy would want you to have it. You’ve paid too much for the mistakes of others to be faced with unnecessary stress and compromise in the future. I don’t want you suffering financially or any other way from this point forward.”

  He stared at her for a long time before he spoke. “That wouldn’t be right. What happened wasn’t your fault. You shouldn’t be trying to shoulder the burden of making it right. It happened. We can’t change history.”

  “I don’t need the money, Steven. My career is doing great. I’m good. I want you to go to college or whatever it is you want to do. You deserve happiness. I want you to see your future with whatever vision feels right.”

  He laughed, a soft, low sound. “I’m thankful the truth has finally come out, but I missed a lot, Sis. I can’t get that back. Money, college, none of that really matters.”

  She understood he meant the time with their father. “He talked about you all the time, you know. He always said things like, when Steven can come home. When Steven this or that. You might not have been here, but you were always in his thoughts—in our thoughts.”

  “Thank you.” He lowered his head. “Knowing that means a great deal to me.”

  “You should come visit me in New York. I have a pretty cool apartment.”

  He searched her eyes for another of those long moments. “Are you sure you want to go back to New York?”

  She made a face. “Of course. Why would you ask?” Guilt that maybe he thought she should hang around a while for him instantly plagued her. “I can stay a while, if you’d like. I really could use your help going through things at the house.”

  He laughed out loud this time. “Not for me or all that,” he said. “For you and Garrett.”

  Before she could stop it, heat rushed up her throat. “We’re friends, Steven. Like always, but—”

  Steven shook head. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I saw it when we were kids. The guy has spent his whole life in love with you. How can you not see that?”

  Before she was forced to respond, the door opened again. This time it was Garrett. He closed the door behind him and rounded his desk, then collapsed into his chair. “This has been a long day.”

  Abbey couldn’t help herself, she stared at him. As disheveled as he was, he looked amazing. Handsome, sexy, strong. Her heart did the wildest little flip flop.

  “Really long,“ Steven agreed, looking from Garrett to her.

  She blinked and quickly nodded. “Do we know anything more about why Mr. Hansen did…” Emotion clogged her throat. She didn’t need to say the rest, both knew what she meant.

  “Once he conferred with his attorney, he told me everything—at least he claimed it was everything.”

  Abbey chewed her lip as she waited for Garrett to explain.

  Steven didn’t wait. “Did he kill her? Our mother, I mean?”

  “According to him, that was his wife.”

  “I knew it.” Steven shook his head. “I tried to tell everyone that Mrs. Hansen already had blood all over her when I found Mom. But no one would listen to me. They took her word over mine.”

  “Why?” Abbey needed to understand what had motivated the Hansens to hurt her family. They’d been neighbors all those years. Friends, for God’s sake. Holiday dinners, church outings. They’d done so many things together before…that awful day.

  “Hansen says he was in love with your mother—not that she ever did anything to make him feel that away,” Garrett explained. “He was the first to say she was completely innocent of his obsession.”

  “He told us that in the woods, but it’s still difficult to believe.” Abbey turned to Steven. “Did you ever see any indication of this?” She’d been too young to notice. Or maybe Hansen had been careful around her.

  Steven slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think I did. He watched Mom whenever he was around. You know, really watched her. He was always bringing her gifts he claimed were from his wife. I always wondered why Mrs. Hansen didn’t bring the gifts. But I was a stupid teenager, I never made the connection. I was too absorbed in my own dramas.”

  “He claimed,” she said to Garrett then, “that he covered for his wife so he wouldn’t be alone.” She shook her head. “But if he’d really loved our mother, he would have wanted justice for her.” Abbey drew in a deep breath to calm herself. The man was obviously warped or otherwise mentally impaired. “This was never about love. It was about obsession.”

  “He claimed he didn’t want anyone to find out about his obsession with her,” Garrett told them. “His wife threatened to tell everything if he didn’t protect her, so he did. He claims he was actually protecting your mother from any gossip or rumors. He said he wanted to protect her too.”

  “Did he tell you that she had dementia?” Steven asked. “He claims she said something to Dad which is what got him killed. He confronted Hansen about whatever it was and well, you know the rest.”

  Abbey suddenly remembered the letter. Where was her coat? She looked around, spotted it on the floor next to her chair. She reached down and pulled the letter from her coat pocket. She leaned forward and thrust the wrinkled envelope across the desk. “He sent Steven this letter but by the time he received it, it was too late. That is evidence—proof of what Steven is telling you.”

  Steven met her gaze. She saw the appreciation in his eyes that she had given the letter to Garrett without even opening it. Because she trusted her brother. He had never been a liar much less a killer.

  Garrett read the letter and placed it on his desk. “Thank you. This will be useful in the event Hansen attempts to withdraw his confession.”

  “Can he do that?” Steven wanted to know.

  Abbey was aware of some option along those lines, but she wasn’t versed enough in the law to respond. Surely it wasn’t as simple as him changing his mind.

  “He can try but it wouldn’t be easy. He made his confession freely with his attorney present. About the only way it could be thrown out is if the attorney was able to prove he wasn’t mentally fit to say the things he said.” Garrett looked to Abbey. “Based on all he said, I’m reasonably confident he used your arrival as
the opportunity to set his wife’s death as well as yours in motion. He stole Steven’s bat from his room to try and implicate him.”

  Abbey’s breath hitched. “I see his motive for wanting to kill his wife. He couldn’t trust her not to say the wrong thing anymore, but why would he have wanted to kill me or Steven?”

  “To make it appear Steven came back and finished off everyone involved.”

  “I can’t believe the man I knew all those years was so evil.” Abbey shook her head.

  “I can,” Steven admitted. “I saw it all in prison. You never know a person until you’ve shared time with them up close and personal.”

  Something else Abbey deeply regretted.

  “Mrs. Hansen understood her problem as well,” Garrett went on to explain. “She went to your house that day, before you arrived. She took your mother’s pearls and the lipstick she wore all the time as well as one of her dresses. Rather than wait for her husband to decide she was too much of a liability, she chose to go the suicide route. I suppose as a jab to him, she dressed herself up like your mother before taking an entire bottle of the Valium she’d been prescribed. Then she waited for him to come home.”

  “So he didn’t kill her?” Abbey felt confused. Hansen had said something like she beat him to the punch. Obviously, she was too tired to be following. Maybe she needed more coffee…or sleep.

  “He finished her off,” Garrett clarified. “She expected to be dead by the time he arrived, but I guess she overestimated the dosage she’d ingested. She was still breathing when Hansen found her. He arranged the crime scene to look as if Steven had returned and done the deed. What she’d done startled him so that he forgot about the bat and used a knife.” Garrett grimaced. “I have the concussion to prove he remembered the bat later, however.”

  “They checked you out at the hospital while you were waiting for Hansen to come out of surgery?” Abbey had hoped he wouldn’t ignore his own injury.

  “They did.” Garrett looked from her to Steven and back. “In the end, Hansen had decided that if he killed everyone related to your mother’s death, the past would never be resurrected.”

  Abbey shook herself to clear the awful images from her mind. “What about Mom’s pearls? Were they with Mrs. Hansen’s body?”

  “Hansen took them intending to keep them as a memento of your mother.”

  “What about the stuff in the treehouse?” Steven asked. “Who was staying there? It damned sure wasn’t me.”

  “It was a hunter. He thought I was with Fish & Wildlife when I dropped by the Munford place. When the APB went out for you, we mentioned a potential sighting in that area,” Garrett explained, “the guy called in and said he was the one. He didn’t want us chasing our tails when a suspected murderer was running around.”

  Steven nodded.

  “Sounds like all the loose ends are tied up.” Abbey was greatly relieved. The sooner this nightmare was over, the happier she would be. She had every intention of ensuring the local newspapers ran front page stories about her brother’s innocence.

  “Just about,” Garrett agreed.

  His gaze lingered on her and her heart reacted to what she saw in his.

  “I need a shower and food.” Steven stood as if keenly aware they needed a minute.

  Garrett pushed to his feet and extended his hand. “Thank you for what you did to protect Abbey.”

  Steven shook his hand, then shrugged. “I’m surprised you’re not detaining me since I violated my parole coming here.”

  “I’ve already cleared that up. It’ll take a bit of paperwork, but all that is going away. The state of Montana will be talking to you about compensation. What happened to you was wrong. We have to make that as close to right as possible.”

  Abbey couldn’t help herself. She shot to her feet, grabbed her brother and hugged him hard. They both cried just a little. Happy tears this time.

  “Deputy Nelson will take you to the Murray. There’s a room and an unlimited bar and dining tab waiting for you there.”

  When Steven had gone, Abbey stood very still, waiting to see what would happen next. Steven was right about more than who killed their mother. It was time, she and Garrett figured out this thing between them.

  “Your place will be a crime scene for a few days.” Garrett shrugged, the movement as weary as she felt. “The storm is moving out. Wyoming and Colorado are bracing for the worst and we’ll be cleaning up. I’m grateful it’s behind us for the most part. I guess we can get on with the rest of our lives now.”

  “Still no storm-related fatalities in our county?” she queried trying to keep her voice even, her tone light.

  “None that we know of. There could be folks in those mountain cabins who didn’t make it. But we can hope we survived without any lives lost. I will be immensely grateful if we do.”

  She could leave now and his life could go back to normal. Maybe that pretty reporter, Camille whatever her name was, would finally get the guy.

  Deep inside, an ache pierced her.

  No.

  She wanted this guy.

  “Right.” She reached down for her coat. “I’ll be around for a couple weeks more.” She shrugged. “I guess I’ll be at the Murray too.”

  He skirted his desk and took her coat, tossed it onto the chair Steven had vacated. “Actually, I was hoping you’d stay at the ranch for a while. You have that book to finish and the roads will be a mess for days. No need for you to rush. Steven can do the packing up. He needs some time to adjust without a lot of outside interference. Spending time at the house alone will be good for him.”

  Abbey peered into those dark eyes she knew so well. “Good points. But why would you want me to stay with you? Something like this could damage your bachelor status.”

  He grinned. “Being a bachelor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

  “I see.” She nodded. “You want me to help relieve you of that problem?”

  “Abbey.” He cupped her face in his hands. “If I could have married you at fourteen, I would have.”

  “We were foolish kids,” she argued no matter that her heart was racing so she could hardly manage a breath.

  “I have never wanted to spend my life with anyone else. I should have told you this years ago, but I was afraid you didn’t feel the same way. Maybe you don’t now, but it feels like you do. If I’m misreading the signs, set me straight and we’ll leave it at that.”

  “Apparently we’ve been in the same boat all these years,” she said. “We just didn’t know it. But we know it now. I really want to give us a try, Garrett. We can work out the logistics later.”

  He tilted her face up to meet his and kissed her. Softly at first, then with all the passion she felt simmering inside him. Inside herself.

  Holly had passed, but this was just the beginning of a new kind of storm—one of sweet emotions and endless possibilities.

  Livingston 31 News

  The cameraman gave Camille the countdown and then she was live with her final on-location broadcast about Winter Storm Holly.

  “I have good news today, folks. We survived Holly! Perfect timing for the start of the work week. Holly is passing over northern Wyoming and barreling toward Colorado. Portal, near Denver, is dead in her path. If you have friends or family in that area, urge them to take care. Rather than winding down, Holly hasn’t stopped building momentum since she started. Colorado may see her worst yet. Thankfully here, in our viewing area, we can move on to preparing for the holidays. There are only nine days until Christmas, folks. It’s time to get back in the spirit.”

  Camille smiled broadly for the camera. “Thanks again to all those deputies and police officers and so many other emergency personnel who helped us get through this record-breaking storm. This is Camille Dutton, Channel 31 News. Back to the studio!”

  * * *

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this book, please do leave a review.

  Read on for a sneak peek of the next STORM WATCH novel, Deep Freeze by V
icki Hinze.

  Sneak Peek

  DEEP FREEZE

  STORMWATCH, Book 2

  by Vicki Hinze

  Copyright © 2019 by Vicki Hinze

  * * *

  Tuesday, December 17th

  Darcy Keller stood on the side of the road in the blowing snow and checked her earpiece, watching for her cameraman’s cue. He counted down the last three seconds on his fingers. The anchor at the station segued to Darcy for the live shot.

  “A severe weather alert has been issued for our viewing area. Holly is the worst storm in eighty years, and she’s earning the title,” Darcy began. “Fatalities and extensive damage are being reported in Montana.

  “This morning, an abrupt jog has turned the storm to Colorado. Specifically, onto you, Portal. The weather is deteriorating rapidly. As you can see behind me, whiteout conditions are already occurring. High winds and a mix of snow and ice are making travel extremely dangerous and next to impossible. Authorities are advising you get where you’re going now and settle in.

  “For the last several hours, flights have been halted in Denver and diverted to Portal International Airport. We’re about five miles from PIA now, and it’s taken hours to get this far. All along our path, we’ve witnessed cars spinning and sliding off the road. An eighteen-wheeler jack-knifed near the intersection of Interstates 25 and 76. The driver is critically injured. Stranded motorists have abandoned their vehicles and are seeking shelter on foot despite being warned to stay with their vehicles. Temperatures are plummeting. We expect subzero within the hour. Roads are closed to all but emergency vehicles and will remain shut down until after the storm passes. The National Guard has been activated to assist stranded drivers but, be warned, if the winds get much higher, they, too, will be sidelined, as will emergency responders.

  “Over 1800 flights have been canceled at DIA in Denver. Now, I’ve just been advised, the diversionary airport in Portal has closed. With over 5,000 stranded travelers, Portal International is well over capacity. Our crew has been trying to make the typically thirty-minute trek from the station to PIA for over two and a half hours.