Dead Ringer & Classified Christmas

by B. J Daniels

  “What?” It was the last thing she’d expected. She dropped into a chair.

  “And wait until you hear who it is.” He did a drumroll. So like Bradley to play the moment to the hilt. “Rachel, your nemesis. That’s right, sweetie. The police found evidence in her locker—and in her boyfriend’s car. She got her boyfriend to do the dirty deed.”

  “Rachel?” Andi was still in shock. “Why would she—”

  “Isn’t it obvious? She wanted your job—and it worked like a charm, didn’t it? She continued sending the threats hoping you wouldn’t return and the newscaster job would become permanent.”

  Andi didn’t know what to say. Her whole theory that there had been an elaborate plot to get her to Montana came unraveled. Just moments before she’d been suspecting Bradley... She began to cry.

  “Sweetie, I thought you’d be happy to hear this.”

  “I am,” she managed to say. “I’m just so relieved.” So relieved that her stupid suspicions were unfounded and feeling guilty for even having them. “Rachel confessed?”

  “Right, sweetie. She’s denying everything and so is her boyfriend but the police found enough evidence between the two of them so it’s a slam dunk and truthfully, no one at the station is surprised in the least. So now you can come back to Texas. Your old job is waiting for you—and you have one fantastic story to break.”

  She didn’t know how to tell him. “There’s news up here, as well.”

  “You sound funny. Are you all right?”

  She told him about the attack.

  “That’s it,” he said. “You’re getting out of there.”

  “If I thought there was someplace I could run and get away from him, I would.”

  “You’re that convinced it was Lubbock Calhoun?”

  “Yes.” Her throat was sore and painful again. “I shouldn’t talk anymore.”

  “Then just listen,” Bradley said. “I have some more news although I was hoping you’d forget about the Calhouns and just come home. But the robbery money? It’s never turned up. At least none of the ‘bait’ money. I’m betting one of them hid it and for one reason or another couldn’t get back to it. Which could explain why Lubbock, if that’s who it is, put you on Starr’s trail.”

  What he said made sense. “Bradley, I feel as if I’ve been set up. I knew someone was pulling my strings once I got here, but I think it goes deeper than that.” She told him what Lubbock—if that’s who it had been—had said to her.

  “I didn’t want to say anything, but I think you’re dead-on,” Bradley said. “It seemed pretty obvious why. They have to know who you are, your connection to their family, and given the amount of exposure you’ve gotten in Texas...”

  “But why would they think I could find the money? That’s just crazy.”

  “Are you serious? Look, I’ve given this some thought. What else do I have to do at work all day?” he joked. “Number one, Lubbock sure as the devil couldn’t get close to Cade Jackson, but you can. Two, you’re trained to get information. Look at the stories you broke, including that famous murder case that you practically solved single-handedly.”

  She groaned, realizing that there were viewers out there who thought they knew her.

  “The good news is that it must mean that there is information to be found,” he was saying. “Whoever is after the money, Lubbock or Houston or even Starr possibly if you’re right and she faked her death, knows who you are. They’re using you, kiddo. Maybe even one of them got to Rachel for all we know.”

  She felt sick. “How am I going to find the money?”

  “The same way you go after news stories,” Bradley said. “If anyone can do this, it’s you.”

  “You haven’t seen this country. It’s vast and right now it’s covered in snow. A lot of it looks the same. It would be so easy to get lost in.”

  “Exactly,” he said, sounding excited. “You’ve just hit the nail on the head. The Calhouns would have had the same problems when they hid that money.”

  Even as exhausted and scared as she was, she saw where he was going with this. “You think they would have made a map back to the money.”

  Bradley laughed. “Isn’t that what you would have done? So now all you have to do is find the map. Don’t thank me yet,” he joked.

  “It seems like a lot of trouble to go to,” she said. “Why didn’t Starr just split the money with Houston and skip the country?”

  “Don’t forget Lubbock. He would have wanted a taste and I have a feeling him being arrested on that old warrant near Whitehorse was no coincidence. I’m betting the cops got an anonymous tip.”

  “Starr?”

  “That would take care of one brother for six years,” Bradley said. “Now all she had to do was contend with Houston. So she hid the money where she’s the only one who knows how to find it. Gives her leverage.”

  Especially if Cade was right and she wanted to start her life over. But then why not give up all the money?

  “I’m not so sure about the map, sorry,” she said. “Wouldn’t Cade have found it by now if there’d been one?”

  “It wouldn’t have been something obvious,” Bradley said. “It would have to be disguised as something else.”

  Andi laughed. It felt good to talk to him even if it did hurt her throat a little. “You’re really getting into this, aren’t you?”

  “I can’t help it. I’m down here where it’s safe and I can live vicariously through you,” he said. “Aren’t you scared?”

  “Terrified. I’m afraid the Calhouns think I’m a lot smarter than I actually am.”

  “I’d argue that. But you can quit, go to the cops, get out of there. Just tell me what time I should pick you up at the airport.”

  “You know I’m no quitter and quite frankly I’m afraid to go to the cops. The ones in Fort Worth certainly didn’t do much to find my stalker when I was down there.” She didn’t mention that the sheriff up here was more suspicious of her than her attacker because of a phone call she couldn’t explain.

  If she told Sheriff Jackson what she was really thinking about this whole mess, she knew he’d be as disbelieving as she was.

  “You are so much braver than I would be,” Bradley said.

  “Goes without saying,” she joked, so glad her fears about him were baseless. Talking to Bradley, it was easy to forget the trouble she was in. At least for a while. “I do miss you.”

  “Good. So keep in touch, okay? Call me every day. I need to know that you’re all right. And be careful of this Cade Jackson character. I think he knows more than he’s telling you. I’d hate to see you get taken in by a pretty face.”

  She thought of Cade, remembering his expression when he’d seen her looking at the outlaw exhibit. There was no doubt that he knew more than he was telling her.

  “You’re probably right,” she said noncommittally as she thought of the way he’d rubbed her feet, the way he’d thrown the mug of coffee and stomped out at even the suggestion of digging up his wife’s grave and how he’d held her earlier after the attack.

  “I do love a treasure hunt. Except for the fact that it’s a killer sending you the clues.”

  She groaned. “I thought gay men are supposed to be so sensitive?”

  He laughed. “Sleep tight. And by all means, be careful.”

  After she hung up, she wished for a moment that she’d taken the sheriff’s advice. “You might consider staying at a motel tonight if you don’t feel safe here,” he’d said before he left.

  She’d seen his suspicion. He didn’t believe that she hadn’t made the call. She couldn’t blame him. It made no sense to her, either. Why would Lubbock make the call? Unless someone else had been in her apartment.

  With the blinds closed and the doors locked, she had to check the apartment again for herself.
She didn’t expect her attacker to return. He wanted the money. His threat had been strong enough that he didn’t need to come back tonight to make sure she got the message.

  She knew she should have told the sheriff everything. But then she would have to tell him the rest of it and she didn’t doubt that Lubbock’s threat was more of a promise. A man like Lubbock Calhoun could and would carry out that promise.

  Look what had happened in Texas with her stalker. The police hadn’t been able to protect her. Nor had they caught the people behind it until after she left—and as Bradley said, it was so obvious who had the most to gain with her gone. If the police hadn’t been able to catch Rachel until now, then Andi had even less faith that the local sheriff could stop someone like Lubbock Calhoun.

  At least the stalker had been caught. She still felt guilty about her suspicions about Bradley. Thank goodness she hadn’t voiced them.

  She turned on the television, found an old Western, Bradley’s favorite, and curled up to watch it, knowing she would never be able to sleep.

  She was still shocked about Rachel even though she’d known how ambitious and competitive the woman had always been.

  A little after midnight, though, Andi’s apartment windows began to rattle from the wind. Snow pelted the glass that had already frosted over. She scraped at the frost on the inside of the glass, trying to see out. But she couldn’t even see across the street because of the falling and drifting snow.

  She realized she couldn’t tell if Lubbock Calhoun or anyone else was out there watching her apartment. But as a gust of wind whirled snow down the street, she saw a familiar pickup parked directly below her window. Cade?

  Andi told herself it couldn’t be, but secretly she hoped it was him keeping a vigil over her.

  She finally fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning, after she’d talked herself out of going down and seeing if Cade was in that pickup. What would she do if he was? Invite him up?

  * * *

  CADE SPENT THE night in his pickup parked outside Andi’s apartment. He was angry at his brother but after he’d cooled down, he had to admit he had a lot of questions himself.

  If this was the stalker from Texas, then why hadn’t Andi mentioned it to his brother? Instead she’d acted like she didn’t know who had attacked her.

  He’d seen how scared she’d been. Wasn’t it time to tell Carter everything? And yet, he hadn’t spoken up, either, he reminded himself.

  His sleeping bag was good to fifty below zero and he was damned glad of it. Snow swirled around the truck, burying it by morning.

  Her light was on late into the night. He could see the flicker of her television screen. He took comfort in the fact that she couldn’t sleep, either.

  Several times he thought about going up to her apartment. He had a lot he wanted to talk to her about, including the attack and what she was keeping from him. His biggest fear was that the attack had something to do with Grace. And that damned money.

  But he talked himself out of going upstairs. At this late hour and feeling the way he was toward her, going up to her apartment wasn’t a good idea.

  At one point, his brother had cruised by in his patrol car. Cade had slid down in his seat, but he was sure his brother had seen him—and thought him a fool.

  * * *

  THE NEXT MORNING Andi heard on the radio that because of the chill factor with the wind the temperature was twenty-four degrees below zero. She’d never been anywhere that cold and when she looked out the icy window she was startled to see that the snow had blown into huge sculpted drifts.

  Cade’s pickup was gone, she noted with a disappointment she had no business feeling. Her own car was buried in the snow, a huge drift completely hiding the rear of the car.

  What was she doing here? All her life she’d felt more than able to handle anything that came her way. But she was completely out of her league. Not just that a hardened criminal was threatening her life. She wasn’t prepared for this kind of weather.

  This morning, her throat bruised and raw, she didn’t feel strong enough to do this. She hated what she was doing to Cade Jackson. She was completely inept in this wild and dangerous country. And common sense told her she was so far in over her head that it was doubtful she’d get out of this alive.

  Feeling the chill of the apartment, she turned up the heat and went to shower, angry with herself for bailing out of Texas. She’d jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. If she hadn’t run, none of this would be happening. But even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t true.

  Come hell or high water, someone had been determined to get her here—and now she knew why. And she wasn’t about to leave without the story.

  When she came out of the shower after drying her hair and dressing for work, she put on her warmest coat, hat, boots and gloves—which she knew would be sorely inadequate for this weather. Unfortunately she would have to wade through the drift to get to the hardware store to buy a snow shovel.

  But when she opened the door she was shocked to see that a walkway had been carved through the drifted snow to her car.

  The snow was piled deep on each side and as she neared the street and her car she saw snow flying through the air.

  Closer she saw that someone with a shovel was on the other side of her car making that cloud of snow as they dug out her car. Some Good Samaritan. She only caught a glimpse of a stocking-capped head coming out of the cloud with each shovelful, but she was more than grateful for the help.

  She’d reached the end of her car and had to yell to be heard over the howling wind and the scrape of the shovel.

  The man stopped shoveling to turn around to look at her.

  Cade Jackson. And he didn’t look happy.

  She couldn’t have been more surprised. “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like?” he snapped and went back to shoveling.

  “I could have done that myself,” she hollered at him, wondering why he was angry with her. Because he’d had to sleep in his pickup last night in the cold? Whose idea had that been? Not hers.

  “You have a snow shovel?” he asked as he stopped to lean on his. “I didn’t think so.” He held out his hand. “Give me your keys. I doubt your car will start since you forgot to plug it in last night, but I’ll try it for you.”

  Plug in her car? Was he joking?

  He seemed to see her confusion.

  “When it’s this cold you have to get a head-bolt heater and plug your car in every night. Welcome to Montana.”

  She dropped her keys into his outstretched palm. “Thank you,” she said meekly.

  He grunted something she couldn’t hear and handed her the snow shovel as he went to her car and tried to start the engine. The engine growled a few times.

  “Come on,” Cade said, getting back out of the car and slamming the door. “I’ll give you a ride to work.” Without waiting, he turned and started toward his pickup parked down the block, leaving her holding the snow shovel. “Keep the shovel, you’re going to need it,” he said over his shoulder.

  Chilled to the bone, she wasn’t about to argue as she stood the shovel against the wall of snow next to her apartment and hurried after Cade.

  He’d left his pickup running. The inside of the truck was warm when she climbed in. She wanted to kiss him she was so glad to be inside somewhere warm. Just that few minutes outside had chilled her to the bone.

  He glanced over at her as he put the truck in gear. “How ya like Montana now, Tex?”

  “Just fine,” she managed to say through her chattering teeth. “It’s beautiful.”

  He smiled at that. “It’s a lot prettier if you’re properly dressed. Stop by the department store. They’ll get you outfitted. Unless of course you’re having second thoughts about staying after what happened.”

 
He’d stopped in front of the Milk River Examiner office. He glanced over at her. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  “Thank you for the ride and the snow shovel,” she said as she opened her door. She had to hang on to the handle to keep the door from blowing away. The cold took her breath away. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You might change your mind about that sooner than you think,” he said and revved the engine.

  She was already halfway out of the pickup or she would have demanded to know what that was about. As she hurried into the office and Cade Jackson sped away, she saw Sheriff Carter Jackson waiting for her inside.

  * * *

  CADE WENT BACK to the bait shop to find Harvey Alderson waiting in his pickup.

  “’Bout time,” Harvey said irritably and glanced at his watch.

  “Kind of cold for ice fishing, isn’t it, Harvey?” Cade said, opening the shop.

  “It’s warm in the icehouse,” Harvey said and began going through the fish decoys before he began to inspect one of the spears.

  It was clear to Cade that Harvey was just killing time and had no intention of buying anything let alone going spearfishing out on the reservoir even though the ice was plenty thick.

  The moment Harvey left without buying anything, Cade put up the closed sign. He’d been mulling over everything his brother had told him, especially the part about Andi Blake.

  Could he believe that a stalker had run her out of Texas and that she just happened to end up in Whitehorse, Montana?

  He wondered if he was just a fool when it came to women. He’d believed Grace Browning was the woman she appeared to be. Look how wrong he’d been.

  And now he’d bought into Andi Blake’s story when clearly it was no coincidence the woman was here.

  His head hurt from trying to sort it all out. Part of him wanted to go over to the newspaper office and get the truth out of her. But his good sense told him he needed to calm down, to figure a few things out before he talked to her again.

  What he needed more than ever was to do the one thing that had kept him sane the last six years—fish. He’d always thought better out fishing.