When the Wolf Prowls: A Cimarron/Melbourne Thriller - Book Three

by Vanessa Prelatte

  “That’s good news, Rick,” she said. “Where did you find him?”

  “In Laramie. He’s working as a trainer at a horse ranch on the outskirts of town. I’m leaving here and driving up there to interview him.”

  “Good luck. You’re still thinking that Marc disposed of Samantha’s body somewhere on the Brown River Ranch, then.”

  “Given the proximity of the ranch to the location where he shot your Officer Jordan, yeah. I have a search team with cadaver dogs standing by. If Prezlocki has any specific information that might help us pinpoint a location, we’re going in. That ranch is too extensive for us to search in any sort of a piecemeal fashion.”

  “Keep me in the loop, will you? Let me know if you make any progress on the case.”

  “I will. See you around, Cimarron.”

  Chapter 49

  The following afternoon, just as she was about to leave work, Dawn received a call. Heading out to her car, she took off, not in the direction of home, but toward Jackson Highway, where the whole case had begun. Driving past the point where Marc had abandoned his stolen car, she traveled just a few more miles before turning off onto a dirt road. A few more rights and lefts, and then she was at the entrance of the Brown River Ranch.

  Patrol cars from the State Patrol blocked her way, so she got out of her car, identified herself, and asked the state troopers some brief questions. Minutes later, she started off, walking behind the bunk houses and into the woods beyond. She hiked steadily for quite a distance before she sighted the spot she had been directed to.

  It was a lonely place, Dawn reflected. She had descended one side of a valley and gone through a clump of trees to a spot where the hillside leveled out briefly into a small plateau. There was an open stretch of land in the midst of a thicket, and this was the place where Rick and the forensic team were gathered.

  Dawn advanced to greet Rick. “How did you pinpoint this spot?” she asked.

  “Cy Prezloki remembered a conversation he and Marc had once had,” Rick responded. “They were out looking for a stray calf. It had wandered off from its mother, and the two of them found it back there, tangled in the thicket. After they had released it, Marc made a comment to Cy that this area would be the perfect place to dispose of a body. No one would ever find it, he claimed. Cy is an avid mystery fan, and he and Marc often talked like that. It never occurred to him to take Marc seriously. We did, however. When the team turned the dogs loose, they sniffed around for a while and then alerted, right here.”

  He turned away and walked over to observe his team more closely. The forensic team had been working cautiously, excavating the area with the care of an archaeological dig. It seemed to take forever, but finally they struck something hard and white. Rick knelt down and watched as one of the team brushed the dirt aside to reveal a human skull.

  Rick stiffened and straightened up from his kneeling position. Without a word to anyone, he walked off into the trees at the far edge of the clearing. Dawn followed him. Rick paused under a huge pine tree. His face was working. This surprised Dawn, for Rick was not one to give way to emotion. He turned to her abruptly.

  “She was a gutsy little thing, Samantha. Fifteen years old, and she got out, brought down the entire cult. She moved on, found someone to love, and had her whole life in front of her. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

  He glanced up and met Dawn’s eyes. “We were too focused on the boyfriend. My people were so sure that he was the guy. So we missed it.”

  “It wouldn’t have helped her, Rick. She was already dead.”

  “Yeah. But if we hadn’t been so focused on the boyfriend, maybe we’d have caught Foxe and locked him up before he killed Zoe, beat Alison half to death, and terrorized her kids.”

  He looked off into the distance. “I need to inform Samantha’s aunt. I’m not looking forward to that, even if it does bring her some closure.”

  There didn’t seem to be much to say to that, so Dawn remained silent. Presently, Rick turned to her. “I’ve been doing some thinking about what you said to me at the airport in Pueblo,” he said.

  “Oh?” she responded carefully.

  “We weren’t meant to be. That’s what you said.” He paused for a minute then said, “Your husband. He’s the one for you? You’re sure?”

  “Positive, Rick. There’s no comparison.”

  “Right. That’s that, then. I’m glad you’re happy, D.C.”

  “Thanks, Rick.”

  “We worked pretty well together on this case, though, didn’t we? Who knows? Maybe some time in the future, we’ll have a chance to work together again.”

  Dawn devoutly hoped not, but contented herself with responding, “Maybe. See you around, Rikovsky.” Then she turned and made her way back to her car.

  Chapter 50

  Coloring Easter eggs was a welcome change from dealing with ex-lovers and chasing down murderers, Dawn reflected as she collected two cartons of eggs from the refrigerator in Ty’s kitchen. The kitchen table had been covered with newspaper, and her mother-in-law was seated there, watching Dawn with some amusement in her eyes.

  Dawn had boiled the eggs earlier in the day and set them in the refrigerator to cool. She proceeded to get out bowls, water, vinegar, and dye kits. After everything was ready, she and Maeve dissolved a tablet in each bowl full of water.

  Lotti walked in, Echo perched on her hip.

  “Eggs!” Echo said.

  “Yes, we’re going to dye the eggs now, Echo. What color do you want to do?”

  “Blue!”

  “Okay. Come here and I’ll help you put the egg on the dipper.” Once that task was accomplished, Lotti steadied Echo’s hand while the toddler slowly lowered the egg into the bowl.

  Meanwhile, in Ty’s dining room, Sloan was busy opening up and stuffing a mountain of plastic eggs with chocolates, jelly beans, and coins for an Easter egg hunt he planned on hosting for Echo and her friends the next day. He had roped Ty into assisting him.

  “You know, you could have had the servants at your house do this, right, Dad?”

  Sloan just scowled at him. “What’s the fun of that?” he said. His cell phone rang just then, and Sloan paused in order to answer it. After a brief conversation, he disconnected the call and turned to Ty. “We need to get Lotti in here,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “I just got a call from a connection of mine in Illinois. They’ve found Riley.”

  “Alive or dead?”

  “Dead, fortunately.”

  Ty went into his kitchen and returned with Lotti. Her face remained expressionless as Sloan told her the news about her ex-husband.

  “They’ve made a positive identification?” she asked when Sloan had finished.

  “Yes. After almost a week in the water, the body was pretty badly decomposed, but they were able to confirm his identity through his dental records. He’s gone, Lotti. You’ll never have to worry about him again.”

  “Are you okay?” Ty asked his cousin. “Do you want to be by yourself? If you do, I can make your excuses to Mom and Dawn and drive you home.”

  “No,” Lotti responded. “I spent enough years allowing Riley Nordgram to dictate my actions. I’m going to continue to live my normal life and try not to even think about him again. He’d hate that, you know. To him, the worst thing in the world was being ignored.”

  With a nod at Sloan and Ty, she returned to the kitchen. Echo, assisted by Maeve, was carefully extricating a purple egg from its bowl. As the two of them placed it on a rack to dry, Lotti returned to her seat beside Dawn.

  “Was that the last one?” she asked Dawn.

  “Yes. Mission accomplished,” Dawn replied. “How’s the great stuffing of the plastic eggs caper going?”

  “They look like they could use some help in there,” Lotti admitted.

  “Echo and I can help them,” Maeve said. Helping Echo down from her seat, Maeve took her hand, and the two of them disappeared into the dining room.

  D
awn looked at Lotti. “What’s up?” she said.

  Lotti told her the news about Riley. When she had finished, Dawn arose, walked over to the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of champagne, and filled two champagne flutes. Returning to the table, she handed one flute to Lotti and raised her own in a toast.

  “Happy Easter,” Dawn said.

  The Easter egg hunt the next day was a success. Maeve, Dawn and Ty were there. So were Rafe, Lotti, Tara, and Lotti’s friend Bree. Aunt Mattie and Uncle Pete had returned from Florida, so they were there as well. Sloan had arranged it so that some of the eggs were easier to find than others. That way, it was challenging for the older children, without being too hard for the younger ones.

  The baskets had been carefully constructed so that each only held six eggs. Once a child’s basket was filled, he or she returned to the table to receive prizes and let the other children find the rest of the eggs.

  After the hunt was over, Lotti sank into a lawn chair beside Rafe.

  Thinking about his promise to Tara, Rafe cleared his throat and said, “I’m off work for the next week. I don’t suppose you’d like to get together some night, maybe have dinner or something?”

  Lotti looked confused. “You mean, like a date?”

  “Yeah.” Misinterpreting Lotti’s expression, Rafe said, “Look, maybe we can just forget I said that. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

  Lotti hesitated only a minute. Prior to Riley’s death, her feelings had been different. But now, it was like she had been set free. She was ready to move on, to try out a new relationship.

  So she said, “I’m not uncomfortable. I was just a little confused, that all. I’d love to have dinner with you some night, Rafe.”

  His expression cleared. “Great. How about Friday?”

  “Friday is fine. I’ll look forward to it.”

  Maeve called Lotti’s name, and Lotti arose to go over to her side. Dawn then dropped into the seat next to Rafe’s.

  “Dawn?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I just asked your husband’s cousin out for a date.”

  “Huh. I didn’t see that one coming.”

  “Does it bother you?”

  “No. Why would it?”

  “I don’t know. I thought it might be weird for you.”

  “Not at all. In fact, I kind of like the idea.”

  “You do? Why?”

  “Lots of reasons. But the main one is that Lotti’s nothing like Cynthia. I always thought that Cynthia was all wrong for you.”

  “You never said anything, the whole time we were married.”

  “I was still pretty young when you got married. I didn’t think it was my place to give you advice on how to run your life.”

  “What about now? What if things don’t work out between Lotti and me? What if we end up hating each other? It might make things awkward between us.”

  “Nah. That’ll never happen.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “I know you, and I know Lotti. Bad breakups and people hating each other aren’t in the cards for you.”

  Not like it had been for her and Rick Rikovsky, she added mentally. Then Ty walked up to her and brushed his fingers across her face, and she banished all thoughts of her ex- fiancé from her mind.

  *****

  Rick Rikovsky was spending his Easter morning in a very different manner. Walking up to Jason Gamarel’s apartment, he knocked on his door.

  Jason opened the door and just stared at Rick for a few seconds. Presently, he said, “You found her. I heard it on the news.”

  Rick nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “So it was her step-brother. Are you sure he was the one who did it?”

  “Yeah. The forensic evidence was pretty convincing by itself, but on top of that, he admitted it before he died.”

  “Was he sorry about it? That he killed her?”

  “I wish I could tell you that he was. But it was just the opposite. He showed no remorse at all.”

  “Did you kill him?” Jason asked.

  Rick shook his head “No – one of his victims did.”

  “How did that happen?”

  “It’s a long story. One of the girls he had kidnapped got her hands on a rifle, and she shot him. It turns out she is an excellent shot. He was killed instantly.”

  “Will she get in trouble?”

  “No. He was threatening another victim at the time.”

  “Another victim?”

  Rick nodded. “A kid this time. A boy of twelve.”

  “Thanks for taking the time to tell me personally.”

  “I guess I felt I owed you that, at least. After suspecting you for so many years.”

  “I told you from the beginning. She was the love of my life. And now I’ve lost her forever.”

  “Yeah, I know how that one feels.”

  Jason looked a question.

  “I lost mine to another man,” Rick said. “But in this case, he didn’t take her life; he married her. And it was my own fault. I lost her because I’m a screw-up and a jerk. You at least made Samantha happy during the time you were together. You didn’t cause her any pain. I don’t even have that.”

  As Rick left Jason’s apartment and walked back to his car, he took stock of his life and made a decision. Encountering Dawn again had made him realize something.

  Rick Rikovsky was going to have to change his ways.

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  Other books in this series:

  When the Tiger Kills

  When the Serpent Strikes