Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene

by B. J Daniels

  She’d forgotten he was even still in the room. A slight man with an unmemorable face, he practically disappeared into the wallpaper. “You’re sure you can handle this properly?” she asked as she looked past her own image to his.

  He sighed. “Yes.”

  “I don’t want Bianca ever to know. If that means paying this woman to keep quiet—”

  “I told you I would take care of it. But it is going to cost you. Your daughter left us little choice unless you want to see your family’s reputation destroyed by a complete stranger.”

  A complete stranger. That was what Dee Anna Justice was to her. Marietta had never laid eyes on this...granddaughter, hadn’t even known she existed until her daughter’s deathbed confession. “Just see that it’s done and spare me the sordid details.”

  “Don’t I always?” As he started to leave, she heard a rustling sound and looked up in time to see Ester skittering away.

  * * *

  DANA WAS TELLING her about the “canyon,” as the locals called the Gallatin Canyon. It ran from just south of Gallatin Gateway almost to West Yellowstone, some fifty miles of twisting road that cut through the mountains. Sheer rock cliffs overlooked the highway and the Gallatin River.

  The drive was breathtaking, especially for DJ, who’d never been in the mountains before—let alone in winter. The winding highway followed the river, a blue-ribbon trout stream, up over the Continental Divide.

  “There used to be just a few places in the canyon, mostly ranches or dude ranches, a few summer cabins, but that was before Big Sky,” Dana was saying.

  DJ could see that luxury houses had sprouted up along the highway as they got closer to the ski resort and community that had grown around it.

  “Our ranch was one of the first,” her cousin said with obvious pride. “It is home. The only one I’ve known. And I have no intention of ever leaving it.”

  DJ couldn’t imagine what it must have been like living her whole life in one place.

  Dana slowed and turned not far past the sign for Big Sky Resort. Across the river and a half mile back up a wide valley, the Cardwell Ranch house sat against a backdrop of granite cliffs, towering snow-filled pines and bare-limbed aspens. The house was a big, two-story rambling affair with a wide front porch and a brick red metal roof. Behind it stood a huge new barn and some older outbuildings and corrals.

  “Hud, my husband, keeps saying we need to build a bigger house, since we have four children now. But...well...”

  “It’s wonderful,” DJ said and tried to imagine herself growing up here.

  “You’ll be staying in one of our guest cabins,” her cousin said and pointed to some log buildings up on the side of the mountain. “I think you’ll be comfortable there, and you’ll have your privacy.”

  DJ was overwhelmed by all of it, so much so that she couldn’t speak. As Dana parked, a dark-haired woman came out on the porch to greet them.

  “Stacy,” Dana called. “Come meet our cousin.”

  Chapter Six

  DJ thought Stacy looked like an older version of her sister. She’d been prettier at one time, but her face told of a harder life than Dana had lived. Seeing how much she resembled both of her cousins gave DJ a strange feeling. For once, her father had told the truth. These people were her family.

  Dana introduced them and then asked her sister, “How were the kids?”

  “Dad came by and took them sledding,” Stacy said. “He called just before you drove up to say he’s decided to take them to Texas Boys Barbecue, since they say they’re too starved to wait for supper. The café is owned by our cousins from Texas,” she said to DJ. Turning back to her sister, she said, “I’m working this afternoon at the sewing shop, so I’d better get going, since I need to pick up a few things before then.”

  “Go, and thanks.”

  Stacy looked to DJ, who’d been taking in the ranch in a kind of awe. “It was great to meet you. I’ll see you later?”

  “You’ll see her. DJ’s staying for a while,” Dana declared and climbed the porch steps to open the door and usher DJ in.

  She stepped into the house and stopped. The decor was very Western, from the huge rock fireplace to the antler lamps and the Native American rugs on the hardwood floors. Even the Christmas decorations looked as if they’d been in the family for years.

  There was also a feeling of déjà vu as if she’d been here before. Crazy, she thought, hurriedly wiping at her eyes.

  “It’s so...beautiful,” DJ said, her voice breaking.

  Dana laughed. “My Christmas tree? I know it’s hard to put into words,” she said, considering the misshaped evergreen in the corner, decorated with ornaments obviously made by children. “But I’ve always been a sucker for trees that would never have gotten to be Christmas trees if it wasn’t for me.”

  DJ managed to laugh around the lump in her throat. “I meant your house,” she said, smiling at the sight of the ungainly tree, “but your Christmas tree is...lovely. An orphan tree that you brought home. It’s charming.”

  Her cousin smiled at her. “Let’s have a late lunch, since I know you couldn’t have gotten much on the plane, and we can visit.”

  She followed Dana into the large, cheery kitchen, wondering if she hadn’t been here before. It felt strangely...familiar. Had her father brought her here at some point? Why else was she feeling so emotional about this large, rambling old house?

  “I can’t tell you how surprised I was when I found some letters from your father and realized that my mother had a brother I’d never known existed,” Dana said as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a large bowl. “I hope you like shrimp macaroni salad.” DJ nodded and Dana continued. “It wasn’t like my mother, Mary Justice, to keep a secret like that. Then to find out that he hadn’t actually died...” Her cousin put the bowl on the table and got out plates, forks and what looked like homemade rolls. “Coffee, tea, milk?”

  “Milk.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had milk, but it sounded so good, and it felt right in this kitchen. Everywhere she looked she saw family history in this house. One wall was covered with photos of the children, most atop horses.

  “Sit, please.” Dana waved her into one of the mismatched multicolored wooden chairs in front of the long, scarred table.

  “I didn’t know about you, either,” DJ said as she pulled out the chair and sat. Dana joined her after filling two plates with pasta salad. DJ took a bite. “This is delicious.”

  They ate in a companionable silence for a while. The house was warm and comfortable. From the window over the sink, DJ could see snow-laden pines and granite cliffs. It was all so beautiful, exactly how she had pictured Montana in December. She hadn’t thought she was hungry, but the salad and the warm homemade roll dripping with butter quickly disappeared. This felt so right, being here, that she’d forgotten for a while why she’d accepted the invitation.

  DJ was running her finger along one of the scars on the table when Dana said, “I can’t understand why my grandparents would disown their son the way they did. They were a lot older when they had your father. Maybe it was that generation...but not to tell us...”

  DJ took a sip of cold milk before she asked, “Who told you he was dead?”

  “I didn’t speak to your mother personally, but her assistant—”

  “My mother’s assistant?” DJ asked, abruptly putting down her milk glass. “When was this?”

  Her cousin thought for a moment. “That would have been in the spring three years ago. Her assistant, at least, that’s who she said she was, told me that your mother couldn’t come to the phone.”

  “I was always told that my mother’s been dead since I was born,” DJ said. “It’s what I’ve believed all my life, so I don’t understand this.”

  “I don’t understand it, either. Then w
hose assistant did I speak with, if not Marietta Pisani’s?”

  “She told you my mother’s name was Marietta?” She shook her head. “Where did you get the number to call her?”

  “From...from the woman who’d pretended to be you, Camilla Northland. After she was caught, I asked her where the real Dee Anna Justice was. I thought she was telling me the truth.” Dana put a hand over her mouth. “Why did I believe anything that woman told me? I feel like such a fool.”

  “No, please don’t. So my roommate gave you the number?”

  Dana nodded. “She said a woman had called the apartment asking for you before she left to come out here to Montana to pretend to be you. When your roommate asked who was calling, she said her name was Marietta.”

  “That’s my grandmother’s name, but she is also deceased. At least, that’s what my father told me. But since he kept all of you from me...” Her life felt like one big, long lie. “My father told me that my mother’s name was Carlotta.”

  Her cousin looked flummoxed. “Camilla seemed to think Marietta was your mother. Either she lied, or—”

  “Or the person who called lied.”

  Dana nodded thoughtfully. “I believed Camilla, since she also told me that the reason my uncle had been disinherited was that he’d married a foreigner. The woman who said she was Marietta’s assistant had an Italian accent. I asked about her daughter. I’m not even sure I called you by name. She said you were in Italy—or was it Spain?—visiting friends. Is any of this true?”

  DJ shook her head. “I’ve been in San Diego all this time except when I was traveling for work. I have no idea where my former roommate could have gotten her information, but that she knew my grandmother’s name... I don’t think she was lying about the phone call. Do you still have that number?”

  Dana shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

  “I was hoping you could help me piece together more of my family history. My father told me that he and I were the only two left. Until he told me that you might be calling, I had no idea that wasn’t true.”

  “Well, you have me and Stacy, plus my brothers, Jordan and Clay, as cousins, plus our cousins from Texas. You’ll meet Jordan tonight. Clay lives in California, not that far from where you live now. So, you never met anyone on your mother’s side of the family?”

  “No. All I knew was that my mother’s name was Carlotta and my grandmother’s was Marietta. My father’s never been very...forthcoming with information. He let me believe I didn’t have any family.”

  “Oh, DJ, I’m so sorry,” Dana said, reaching across the table to take her hand. “Family is...my heart. My father and uncle, my father-in-law, are often...trying,” she said and smiled. “I’ve fought tooth and nail with my siblings, lost them for a few years, but finally have them back. I can’t imagine not having any of them in my life. I’m so glad that now you have all of us.”

  DJ’s eyes burned as she squeezed her cousin’s hand.

  “All of us and Cardwell Ranch,” Dana added and let go of her hand.

  DJ picked at her lunch for a moment. Was it possible that her grandmother Marietta was still alive? Then wasn’t it also possible that her mother, Carlotta, was alive, as well? She could see why her father might have kept her from his family, since they had disinherited him, but why had he kept her from her mother’s family?

  DJ remembered the night she’d finally badgered her father into telling her about her mother. He’d had too much to drink. Otherwise all he’d ever said was that her mother had died and it was too painful to talk about. That night, though, he told her that Carlotta had been a beautiful princess and the love of his life.

  “She was too beautiful,” he’d said. “Too spoiled, too rich, too much of everything. Her family didn’t think I was good enough for her. They were right, of course.” He’d let out a bitter laugh. “It cost me my family as well, but I will never regret loving her.” He’d blinked back tears as he looked at DJ. “And I got you. I’m a lucky man.”

  She’d been full of questions. How could he have lost Carlotta and his family, too?

  “Do you understand now why I don’t want to talk about your mother? So, no more,” he’d said with a wave of his hand. “I can’t bear it.” His gaze softened as it fell on her. “Let’s just be grateful that we have each other, because it’s just you and me, kid.”

  Even now, she couldn’t be sure any of his story was true. Her heritage was a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. “I’m surprised that you’d never heard of my father before you found the letters,” she said.

  “I was shocked. Like I said, I still can’t believe my mother would have kept something like that a secret.”

  “You said you still have those letters?”

  “I can dig them out, along with that number—” At the sound of a vehicle, followed by the eruption of children’s voices, Dana added, “After I corral the kids.”

  DJ cleaned up the dishes while Dana went to greet the children. She could hear laughter and shrieks of playfulness outside. She couldn’t help but smile to herself.

  Drying her hands, she pulled out the photo and studied it in the light from the kitchen window. With her cousin’s help, she was going to find the family she’d been denied.

  She gazed at the photo of the baby—and the doll in the stroller. If she wasn’t the baby the smiling woman was holding, then who was, and why had someone wanted her to believe they were family?

  Whoever had left her the doll and the photo knew the truth—and wanted her to know it. But what was the truth? And what was the motive? To help her? Or to warn her?

  She felt a sudden chill. She would find out, but at what cost?

  * * *

  ON THE WAY to the small resort town of Big Sky, Stacy couldn’t get DJ off her mind. There was a distinct family resemblance because of the dark hair and eyes, but still...she had the feeling that she’d met her when they were kids.

  At the drugstore, she got out and was about to lock her car when she heard the sound of footfalls in the new snow behind her.

  “Stacy?”

  She started at the familiar male voice directly behind her. Turning, she came face-to-face with her old boyfriend from high school. “Jimmy?”

  He grinned. “I go by James now. I’m surprised you remember me.”

  How could she not remember Jimmy Ryan? He’d dumped her right before her junior prom to go back to his old girlfriend, Melody Harper. He’d been the first in a long line to break her heart.

  “Are you here for the holidays?” He and Melody had gotten married right after high school. Melody, it turned out, had been pregnant. He’d taken a job with Melody’s uncle in California, and that was the last Stacy had heard or seen of him.

  He was looking at her the way he used to, unnerving her. “I wondered if you were still around.”

  “I left for a while. How is Melody?”

  “Wouldn’t know. We’re divorced. How about you?”

  For a moment she couldn’t find her voice. “Divorced.” More times than she wanted to admit. “I have a daughter, Ella.”

  “Lucky you. It turned out that I couldn’t have children.”

  She blurted out in surprise, “But I thought Melody was pregnant.”

  “Turns out she wasn’t,” he said bitterly. “She told me that she’d miscarried, so we spent a lot of years trying before the truth came out.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  His gaze met and held hers. He was still the most handsome man she’d ever known. His dark hair was salted with gray at the temples, which only seemed to make his gray eyes more intense. “Could I buy you a cup of coffee?”

  Stacy felt that old ache. Had she ever gotten over Jimmy? Wasn’t he why she’d jumped into one relationship, one marriage after another? “I have to get back to the ranch soon.”

 
“Just a quick cup of coffee. I’ve thought about you so often over the years and regretted letting you down the way I did.”

  How many times had she dreamed that he would say those words—or at least words much like them?

  She glanced at her watch. “I suppose a cup of coffee wouldn’t hurt.”

  * * *

  “YOU’RE TIRED FROM your long trip,” Dana said after introducing DJ to all the children and her father, Angus Cardwell. “Dad, if you don’t mind staying around for a few minutes, I’m going to take DJ to her cabin so she can get some rest.”

  “You’re in good hands,” Angus said. “Trust me.”

  DJ couldn’t help but smile. Trust wasn’t something that came easy for her. But Dana and this family inspired trust.

  “The kids want to go see a movie in Bozeman,” Angus said. “Maybe we’ll do that and really make a day of it.”

  There were cheers from the five children. Dana laughed. “You haven’t had enough of them? Fine. But we’re all going to The Corral tonight. Stacy has agreed to babysit.”

  As they stepped outside, DJ on impulse turned to her cousin and hugged her. “Thank you for everything.”

  “I haven’t done anything yet,” Dana said. “But I am so glad you’re here. Families need to stick together.”

  With that, her cousin walked her up to her cabin on the mountainside.

  DJ couldn’t believe the cabin as her cousin opened the door and ushered her in. Someone had started a fire for her. It blazed bright in a fireplace on the other side of a seating area. There was a small kitchen that she knew would be stocked with anything she might need even before Dana opened the refrigerator door to show her.

  But it was the bedroom that stole her heart. “Oh, that bed.” It was huge, the frame made of logs, the mattress deep in pillows and quilts. “I won’t want to get out of it.”

  Her cousin smiled and pulled out a step. “This is how you get on the bed. I told them it was too high, but my brother Jordan made the beds, and so far everyone loves them.”

  “I can see why,” DJ said, laughing. “This is amazing. Really, thank you so much.”