B.J. Daniels

by Forsaken

  * * *

  FRANK SWORE AS his cell phone rang. He released Lynette to glance at the screen and saw that Dillon was calling. After he’d turned in his resignation, gun and star, he couldn’t imagine what the undersheriff would want. Unless...unless maybe Pam had been caught?

  “I have to take this. Just give me a minute,” he said to Lynette. He just prayed that this call would end the nightmare he’d been living.

  “Frank?” Dillon said when he answered. He couldn’t hear him well and figured he was still up on the mountain. “We’ve got one hell of a deal going up here in the Beartooths. Every law-enforcement officer we can spare is on his way up here.”

  Dillon wasn’t going to try to talk him into coming back to work, was he? He was wasting his breath.

  He listened as the undersheriff told him about the crashed plane, the cocaine and what he’d found on the cell phone of one of the drug runner’s.

  “He made numerous calls to a cell-phone number. I had it run. The number belongs to J. D. West.”

  Frank didn’t need Dillon to tell him what that meant. Now they knew what J.D. was doing in town—and why he’d just left.

  He looked at Lynette. He wanted to tell her how right he was about her choosing the wrong men but held his tongue. She’d chosen him once. Maybe she was smarter than he thought by letting him go.

  “Frank, the drug smugglers knew about Jamison and Maddie being up here. One of them had Maddie Conner. Jamison killed him. We’re getting Maddie down to the hospital as soon as the other chopper gets here. She’s hurt but not badly. I’m figuring J.D. told the drug smugglers that the two of them were up here. Who knows how J.D. found out.”

  Frank didn’t need Dillon to draw him a picture. J.D. was involved. It came as no surprise. Nor did where J.D. had gotten all his information. Frank had wondered why J.D. had decided to stay with Nettie, why he’d wormed his way into her good graces and more. Everyone knew that if you wanted to know what was going on in the county, all you had to do was ask her.

  “One of the men got away with about fifty pounds of coke according to Clete. The man’s name is Tony Adams. We believe he’s headed for Gardiner. I wouldn’t have called you, but there was no one else—”

  “I’m with Lynette right now. But I’ll take care of it.” He disconnected the call and looked at Lynette. “Did you tell J.D. about Deputy Jamison and Maddie Conner going up to the sheep camp?” He saw the answer in her expression.

  “Are they all right?”

  “They’re bringing Maddie down to the hospital by chopper. It didn’t sound like her injuries were life-threatening.”

  Lynette covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide. He could see her fighting the consequences of her gossiping.

  “Did J.D. say where he was headed just now?”

  “What did J.D. do?”

  “Where was he going, Lynette?”

  “I don’t know. He said he was leaving for good, though.” She frowned. “But a few days ago, I know he went to Gardiner. Maybe he’s headed back there.”

  “I have to go.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small pistol and a box of ammunition. “I want you to keep this loaded and with you at all times. If you see Pam—”

  “I know what to do.”

  He kissed her and hurried out to his pickup. It was fairly new, with only a few miles on it since most of the time he was in one of the sheriff’s-department vehicles. He wished now he had a patrol SUV so he could use the siren and lights. But maybe it was better this way.

  Dillon obviously hadn’t turned in Frank’s resignation. Not that he was worried about that right now. He was going after J.D. He needed to catch him with the drugs. This time J.D. was going away for a long while.

  Frank didn’t regret turning in his star, but he could have used his gun. Fortunately, he always carried a pistol under the seat of his pickup and a shotgun on the rack behind his head. Both were loaded.

  Frank drove as fast as possible on the narrow paved road.

  J. D. West hadn’t been gone that long. Nor would he be driving as fast, Frank assured himself. Had he been thinking clearly, he would have followed the man sooner.

  He didn’t think clearly around Lynette.

  Ahead, he spotted J.D.’s black pickup at the edge of Big Timber. Hanging back, he followed as the pickup got onto Interstate 90 and headed west. Nettie might be right, Frank thought. It appeared J.D. might be heading for Gardiner—just as suspected since one of the drug runners was headed in the same direction. He dropped back. The last thing he wanted was for J.D. to realize he was onto him.

  * * *

  NETTIE STARED AFTER FRANK, her heart in her throat. What had she done? Everyone knew about Deputy Jamison and Maddie Conner going up to the sheep camp, didn’t they?

  But she was the one who’d told J.D.

  “Oh, Frank,” she said, practically wringing her hands. Just moments before, they’d been kissing. And now he was gone again. Gone after J.D.

  Her heart ached at the thought of losing him now, not after he’d told her he loved her. He’d finally broken down and said the words she’d been waiting years to hear.

  “Don’t you get yourself killed,” she said to the empty room. “Please, Frank. You have to come back to me.” She wiped at the tears and put through a call to the hospital. Maddie Conner hadn’t arrived yet.

  Nettie’s friend didn’t know what Maddie’s injuries might be.

  It quickly became apparent that her friend hadn’t heard anything about what had happened up in the Beartooths.

  “What’s going on?” her friend asked.

  Nettie wished she knew. But even if she had, she told herself she wouldn’t have said a word to a soul. As she hung up, her gaze shifted to the café across the street. A young woman was getting out of a car in front of the café.

  The slim, dark-haired woman stretched then pushed her sunglasses up on her head of long hair, glancing down the street of empty buildings before settling her gaze on the help-wanted sign in the lower café window.

  Nettie watched with interest as the woman headed for the café. She wore denim capris, a red T-shirt and sandals. She couldn’t have looked more out of place in Beartooth even if she’d tried.

  Sure enough, Nettie saw that the license plates on the car were from Washington.

  As the woman disappeared into the café, Nettie looked again down the empty highway. She was worried sick about Frank. Even more upset with herself for telling J.D. something she apparently shouldn’t have. But what did her telling J.D. about Maddie Conner and Deputy Jamison have to do with the phone call Frank had received or why he’d taken off like he had after J.D.?

  She thought of the bloody bandages J.D. had tried to hide in her Dumpster and was almost sick to her stomach.

  Across the street, she saw Kate remove the waitress-wanted sign from the window.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  FRANK KNEW THE BARN where Branch Murdock’s horse had been found. It was up a road out of Gardiner to the north and on the way to an old mining town called Jardine.

  But first he looked around Gardiner for J.D.’s black pickup. As he recalled, the truck had California plates on it. He’d written down the number, a habit he had when he was suspicious.

  Was that where J.D. had been living? He called the office and asked that the name James Dean West be run through the computer data searches.

  “Call me back when you have something,” he said and disconnected. Gardiner was a small tourist town on the edge of Yellowstone Park. What made it stand out from other such towns was the fact that it teetered on the edge of a deep gorge formed over the centuries by the Yellowstone River.

  A bridge spanned the deep cut, dividing the town in two sections. There were the usual curio, pizza and gas-station shops along with several cafés and a few bars and motels. The old road went under a famous stone arch. The story was that Teddy Roosevelt had laid the first stone.

  J. D. West’s pickup was nowhere to be see
n. Frank filled up his pickup with gas then took the road up the side of the hill overlooking the river gorge and headed for Jardine.

  “I ran that name and plate number for you,” his office told him when the call came through. “It was purchased in Banning, California, three weeks ago. The plates are new. Do you want last known address?”

  “Why not?” Frank said, although he had no reason to think J.D. would be headed back to it.

  “222 Mesquite Road, unit 4, Clovis, New Mexico.”

  Frank sat up a little. “New Mexico?” The last number he’d had for Pam was in New Mexico. “One more thing. Check the area code for me in Clovis.” He held his breath, telling himself he was clutching at straws. Or worse, off his rocker.

  “Clovis, New Mexico, is 575.”

  He hung up, shaken. It was just a coincidence that the number he’d reached his ex-wife at months ago had a 575 area code. Unless somehow Pam had met J.D. He could actually see how it might have happened. Some chance meeting, J.D. taking advantage of a woman who obviously was susceptible and one thing led to another. Maybe they got to talking about their pasts and realized they had something in common.

  Hell, a whole lot in common. Not just Beartooth, Montana—but Sheriff Frank Curry.

  J.D. was a good-looking guy—just the type Pam might let buy her a drink. What did Frank know of how she lived her life the past twenty years? He’d never known where she and Tiffany had lived or if they’d moved around a lot. Tiffany hadn’t wanted to tell him and Pam sure as the devil hadn’t given him a clue.

  Or maybe it was pure coincidence that J. D. West had been in Clovis, New Mexico, and so had Pam.

  The road toward the old mining town of Jardine narrowed. Frank concentrated on his driving. He had to be wrong about there being a connection between J. D. West and Pam Chandler. J.D. had been the one to save Nettie’s life when Pam had tried to run her down.

  They wouldn’t have staged something like that. Or would they? What would have been the point? But he knew the answer to that. More of Pam’s vengeful games. Nor had it hurt making J.D. look like a hero.

  Ahead, the road turned into a near 4x4 trail. Frank slowed to pull the pistol from under his pickup seat. He couldn’t wait to find J. D. West and get the truth out of him. If J.D. and Pam were somehow in on this together...

  Then wasn’t there a good chance J.D. would know where she was now?

  * * *

  DILLON INSISTED MADDIE be flown out of the mountains to the hospital as soon as the second chopper landed. Jamison had wanted to go with her, but they were shorthanded and needed all the men they could get on the mountain. DEA officers were flying from Billings, but local law enforcement was needed to secure the plane.

  “Don’t worry about your sheep,” Dillon told her. “Your neighbor Fuzz Carpenter and his son have offered to come up and take care of things until you are able to make other arrangements. They are on their way.”

  “Fuzz is doing that for me?” She was touched. After Hank had been killed, Fuzz had made an offer on her ranch. She hadn’t taken it in the vein it was probably offered. Instead she saw it as another rancher telling her she had no business running a sheep ranch because she was a woman.

  Now she merely accepted Fuzz’s help graciously. Her leg hurt too badly to argue. Her throat also ached and felt bruised from where Alex had choked her. Fortunately, her other cuts were superficial.

  She wondered if the undersheriff’s determination to rush her to the hospital had less to do with her injuries and more to do with getting her off the mountain and to safety.

  Tony Adams still hadn’t turned up, but all available local law enforcement that could be flown into the mountains were looking for him. Meanwhile, the bodies of Alex Branson and Geoff Worthington as well as Branch Murdock were to be brought out as soon as possible, Dillon had informed her.

  “Don’t worry about me,” she’d told him. She looked around for Jamison, hoping to see him as she was led to the chopper.

  “Bentley is briefing the others on the location of the plane,” Dillon said. “Is there anything you’d like me to tell him?”

  Bentley. She smiled, finally remembering his first name. “No,” she said. “There isn’t anything.”

  The chopper ride to the hospital was short. It amazed her the hours she’d spent on horseback riding up into these mountains. She could have saved herself another lifetime by taking a helicopter.

  Maddie knew then that she wasn’t holding up as well as she thought. Tears stung her eyes, but she willed herself not to cry. She wished Bentley Jamison was by her side, but he was a deputy foremost and he was needed back in the Beartooths, and it was time she learned what it was like to truly be alone.

  The doctor insisted Maddie stay in the hospital overnight because of fear of infection in her leg. He’d cleaned the deep wound, taped the cut closed and seen that she got antibiotics. Then he’d left her alone in the small room.

  Outside her window she saw that the sun had sunk behind the Crazies. It was hard for her to believe that just that morning she’d awakened in Jamison’s arms. She knew she was lucky to be alive and lying in this bed with only a knife wound to her leg.

  As she lay there, she told herself she had some decisions to make. But all she could think about was Jamison still up on that mountain with a killer. Her last thought was a prayer for him before she fell into an emotionally exhausted sleep.

  * * *

  BETHANY LOOKED UP as her husband came through the hospital-room door. She’d never been so happy to see him.

  But as he rushed to her, she saw the bruises on his face.

  “What happened to you?” she cried as she tenderly touched his discolored cheek and surveyed the cut lip and black eye.

  “It’s a long story,” he said. “But I’m fine.”

  His eyes were bright, and he seemed better than he’d been in a long time.

  “I was so worried about you.”

  “I was the one worried about you,” he said. “Oh, Bethany, I should never have taken the job.”

  “That’s all over now,” she said, cupping his strong jaw and drawing him down for a kiss. “Have you seen our son?”

  “He’s beautiful.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “He looks like you.”

  Clete put his arms around his wife. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

  “You’re here now,” she said as she hugged him.

  “I thought you might like to hold your son,” the nurse said, coming into the room from the nursery down the hall.

  Clete turned, his gaze going to the bundle in the nurse’s arms. He stepped to her, and she gently placed his son in his arms. Bethany witnessed the expression on his face when he turned to her. It was a moment she would never forget. There was such a sense of wonder in Clete’s eyes.

  He looked from the baby to her. “We did this?”

  She laughed, unable to hold back the tears any longer. “We sure did.”

  Drawing back the blanket the baby was wrapped in, he turned their son so she could see him. “That’s your mama,” Clete said then looked up at Bethany in alarm. “He doesn’t have a name.”

  “I thought we could name him after his father and call him C.J. for short.”

  Pride and gratitude welled in her husband’s eyes. “You have made me the happiest man in the world.”

  She smiled as he handed her their son and climbed up on the bed next to her. “Tell me what happened,” she said as they watched their son sleep.

  Clete began to talk, pouring out the horrible story. She gasped when he told her about being drugged and, worse, that at least one of the men had wanted to kill him.

  “You’re a hero,” she said when he’d finished.

  He let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, that’s me. I left my pregnant wife.”

  She shook her head. “If you hadn’t gone up there, they would have gotten someone else to take them back into the Beartooths. They didn’t kill you because they knew you, it sounds like. Who
ever else they might have gotten to take them wouldn’t have faired as well.”

  He turned to kiss her. “They are why my football career ended,” he said and told her what he’d overheard.

  “I’m so sorry.” She heard the pain in his voice and worried that he would always regret coming back to Beartooth.

  “It was a long time ago,” he said after a moment. “Who knows? If I hadn’t come back, maybe you and I would never have married and had a son. I’m not sorry. I’m just glad I know the truth now.” He looked over at her. “You are so beautiful,” he said with a sigh. “When do we get to take our son home?”

  Bethany felt all her worries dissolve like water vapor. They were both just learning about marriage and their commitment and each other. They had time to figure it out. All she knew at this moment was that they were going to be all right. Oh, yes, they were going to be just fine.

  * * *

  FRANK PASSED A FEW HOUSES, most looking as if they’d been there for years. Montana’s new prosperity of fancy houses owned by out-of-staters hadn’t hit Gardiner like it had other parts of the state.

  Farther up the road, in a wide ravine, he caught sight of what was left of the old mine. A large metal structure rusted in the waning light. The long-abandoned equipment cast a tall shadow against the hillside. Not far after that, he passed the barn where Branch Murdock’s horse had turned up and the small ranch house next to it.

  The road got worse shortly after that. Frank found a place in a stand of pines off the road and hid his pickup. He would go the rest of the way on foot. Taking the pistol and the shotgun he worked his way up the tight canyon.

  He found J.D.’s black pickup parked off the road in the trees a little way up the road. Sneaking through the pines, he approached the truck. He found it empty, but he knew J.D. couldn’t have gone far. His suitcase was in the back, and Frank was betting he hadn’t gotten what he’d driven up here for yet.

  Frank worked his way toward the spot where he figured the trail over the Beartooths came out. Had he not been going slow, he might have stumbled over J. D. West.

  His body lay in the shadow of a large pine, curled slightly forward as if at one point he had been leaning against the pine trunk—until he’d been shot.