One Hot Forty-Five

by B. J Daniels

  At the speed she was coming…He would just have to make sure he cleared the bank. Either way, Violet Evans was going down.

  He took a breath, held it, finger resting on the trigger as the car bore down on him as seconds ticked off. He could smell the car’s exhaust, feel the rush of cold air coming at him in front of the car.

  He focused on the woman behind the wheel, counting off the seconds, the sight on the handgun aimed just inches below her chin. The gun would kick a little, just enough that the bullet should hit right between her eyes.

  She was so close now that he could see the whites of her eyes. And then she did something so totally unexpected…

  She swerved and hit her brakes, and he had an instant when he thought, Hell, maybe she isn’t as crazy as I thought.

  The car fishtailed and struck the unforgiving snowbank only feet from him, then pinged off to do a three-sixty in the middle of the snow-packed highway before smacking the opposite snowbank and bouncing off, disappearing behind him.

  For a moment, Ed couldn’t move. The car had come so close to him that he’d felt the back bumper brush his pant leg as it slid past. He began to shake as he realized how close she’d come to taking him out.

  Had he moved a fraction of an inch, she would have gotten him. His skin went clammy, then ice cold as he realized that at this very moment she was probably putting the bead of her gun on his back.

  He swung around, leading with the handgun in time to see the car come to a stop against the snowbank on the other side of the highway a good twenty yards away.

  The car had come to a stop facing his direction, but unmoving. At least for the moment. He rushed toward it, gun aimed in the vicinity of where the driver should be, since he couldn’t see her because of the angle of the sun reflecting off the windshield.

  It wasn’t until he came alongside and grabbed the door handle, that he saw Violet. Her head was tilted at an odd angle. He jerked open the door. Violet groaned and lifted her head. Apparently dazed, she stared stupidly at him, then made a grab for something on the passenger seat.

  Before she could close her fingers over the weapon on the seat, he knocked her into next week.

  Then he just stood there for a few moments, breathing hard. He was getting too old for this crap, he thought as he holstered his gun and reached across Violet for her pistol. Tucking the gun into his waistband, he considered what to do with her.

  Leaving her beside the road was almost too tempting. But he doubted he could lift her up onto the high snowbank, and if he left her in the middle of the road, she would be found too quickly. Then the authorities would be able to put all their resources into finding Dede. He didn’t want that.

  With Claude dead, Ed didn’t kid himself that he might not get the chance at Dede if she was picked up again and sent to the hospital. He had to find her. She was his bait to get what he needed from Lantry Corbett.

  Ed looked up and down the highway. Someone was coming from the direction of Whitehorse, the vehicle still only a speck on the horizon. Hurriedly, he popped open the trunk and dragged Violet out of the car.

  Violet was heavier than she looked. Dead weight, so to speak, Ed thought as he dragged her back to the trunk, thankful he’d gone for the full-sized car—and trunk.

  He had to strain to pick her up. She tumbled in, banging her head. He started to slam the trunk lid, but realized he couldn’t have her coming to and causing a ruckus.

  He’d bought duct tape and a coil of rope in case he needed it for dealing with Dede and the lawyer. He ripped off a length of duct tape, wrapping it around Violet’s wrists behind her back, then taped her ankles, working quickly.

  As he ripped off a strip to cover her mouth, he thought to check her pulse. Hell, he might be tying up a dead woman. Nope, she was still alive. He slapped the tape over her mouth and slammed the trunk lid.

  As he started toward the open driver’s side door, he saw that the vehicle was almost to him.

  Hurriedly, he climbed behind the wheel and got the car going, glad the engine was still running. The solid ice snowbanks on each side of the highway had played hell with the body of the rental, but fortunately hadn’t disabled the engine.

  As the other vehicle grew closer, Ed saw that it was a pickup. He felt his pulse jump. It was the same color as the one Lantry Corbett had parked in front of his cabin.

  In the rearview mirror, Ed saw the driver. Lantry Corbett. As the pickup passed him, Ed turned his face away but not before he’d seen the woman in the passenger seat. Dede Chamberlain. It seemed they were all on Highway 191 headed south.

  Ed couldn’t believe his luck. Lantry had taken the bait. Since he’d come from Whitehorse, he would have seen the van and the bodies inside it. But instead of taking Dede back to town and the authorities, he must be taking her some place where the two of them could be safe.

  He watched the pickup keep going and continued at his slower speed, keeping the truck in sight as he followed at a safe distance.

  Chapter Ten

  Distractedly, Lantry glanced back at the car he’d just passed, then over at Dede. The woman just continued to surprise him—and worry him.

  “Dede, I need to know what happened back at the van,” he asked finally.

  Her eyes filmed over for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out. He listened without saying anything until she was finished. “That’s pretty much what I figured.”

  He could feel her gaze. “You believe me?”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” he asked, glancing over at her as he drove.

  Dede was studying him. “What changed your mind about me?”

  What exactly had changed his mind? Not her angelic face. Or those innocent big blue eyes. Or the sweet taste of her when he’d kissed her back at the farmhouse. But he had to admit, some of that had played a part.

  “I don’t know. I wanted to believe you at some point. Then when I found out Frank had given me a gift just as you’d suspected and someone took a potshot at me…” He frowned. “You don’t seem surprised.”

  “I told you Ed would try to kill you again.”

  “Except he didn’t try to kill me. Unless he’s a really bad shot, he purposely missed.”

  That seemed to surprise her. “You think he was just trying to scare you?”

  Hell, he did scare me. “No, I think he wants something he thinks I have, and he just wanted to let me know he’ll be coming for it.”

  “What Frank hid in the boat?”

  Lantry nodded.

  “And you have the boat with you?” she asked, glancing behind the seat into the extended cab and the two boxes there.

  He found himself staring at her again. Only this time it had nothing to do with kissing her. “You know what’s in the boat, don’t you?”

  “I told you—”

  “I know what you told me. How about the truth?”

  Those blue eyes narrowed into deadly daggers. “I am telling you the truth. I’m afraid the necklace is in the boat.”

  “From the burglary.”

  She nodded, then turned to look out her side window as the road climbed into the foothills of the Little Rockies.

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t telling him everything. Was it possible that Frank had left something that might incriminate Dede Chamberlain, and that was why she’d risked everything to find it? Or that Dede had been after the necklace all along?

  As he turned onto the road to Landusky, he checked his rearview mirror. The large brown car they’d passed earlier was a dozen car lengths behind them, but no other vehicle was in sight.

  Lantry tried to relax. They were safe. No one would think to look for them in Landusky.

  “THIS IS WHERE WE’RE GOING?” Dede asked, both surprised and apprehensive as she spotted the handful of old buildings clinging precariously to the side of the mountain, half-buried in the deep snow.

  “It’s pretty much a ghost town now,” Lantry said. “The town was named after Pike Landusky. He and another m
an discovered the gold here back in the late 1860s. Landusky was some character, I guess.”

  Lantry chuckled to himself. “As the story goes, one time he was taken captive by an Indian war party. Landusky, who should have been afraid for his life, attacked one of the braves—allegedly with a frying pan. The Indians, thinking he must be crazy, gave him two ponies to appease the demon and left him alone from then on.”

  “So what happened to him?” she asked, seeing how much Lantry was enjoying the story.

  “Pike Landusky got on the wrong side of Kid Curry. The Curry brothers ranched about five miles to the south of here. Kid Curry killed him after an altercation in the local saloon. Landusky was buried nine feet deep—instead of six—to make sure he didn’t come back.”

  Dede smiled, thinking Lantry would have fit into that Old West. She wondered, though, whether he would have been a Pike Landusky or a Kid Curry.

  He drove through what was left of Landusky’s wild town and took a side road that was even more narrow and lined with banks of snow. Then, shifting into four-wheel drive low, busted up through the pines on what appeared to be nothing more than a trail.

  A large log structure appeared as they topped the hill. Lantry brought the pickup to a stop.

  “We can stay here for a while,” he said, cutting the engine. “It’s all right. The place belongs to one of my brothers. He’s having it built for his wife’s birthday, but it’s a surprise—so no one in the family knows about it except me. I took care of the legal work for him.”

  “This brother…”

  “Not Shane, the deputy sheriff. Dalton, the cowboy rancher.”

  “How many brothers do you have?” Dede asked as they got out and waded through the snow to the backdoor.

  Lantry fished the key out of its hiding place and opened the door. “There’s five of us.” He stepped in to turn on the lights, glad to see the electricity was still on. “It’s kind of a mess because it’s still under construction.”

  There were ladders and sawhorses, piles of lumber and tools, as well as sawdust and drop cloths.

  “I guess I didn’t realize your whole family had moved to Montana,” Dede said, working her way through to the living room.

  “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you about it some time.” Lantry looked around. “The fireplace is finished, and at least one bedroom.” He pointed to the loft. Apparently the interior decorator had finished up there, since she could see a large bed with a brocade spread and other furnishings.

  “See if there’s anything to eat in the kitchen,” Lantry said. “I’ll get the boxes out of the truck.”

  Dede wandered into the kitchen. Unlike the ranchhouse they’d broken into, these cupboards were practically bare. But she found some food in the refrigerator that the construction workers must have left.

  As she walked through the beautiful log lodge, she envied Dalton Corbett’s wife. To have a man love you so much that he planned such a wonderful surprise…

  Dede caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Through the dusty window, she saw Lantry standing outside by his pickup. He was on his cell phone.

  Her heart dropped.

  “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?” SHANE demanded the instant he answered.

  Lantry had stepped outside so Dede couldn’t see or hear him use the cell phone. He knew he’d be able to get service because the town of Landusky was just down the mountain side. He had thought about telling her he planned to call his brother, but he feared it might make her run again. “We need to talk.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Shane asked, lowering his voice.

  “I have Dede Chamberlain.”

  “When are you bringing her in?”

  “I’m not.” He waited until his brother quit swearing. “At least not for twenty-four hours.”

  “Twenty-four hours?”

  “There’s something I need to check out first.”

  Shane bit off each word into the phone. “Do you have any idea the spot you’ve put me in?”

  “I’m sorry, but like I told you, I believe her.”

  “Damn it, Lantry, Dede Chamberlain isn’t just wanted for escaping a mental hospital or two. Bodies are piling up. Frank Chamberlain, Tamara Fallon, the hospital guard, one of the patients…” A beat, then, “I’m waiting for you to sound surprised, damn it.”

  “She didn’t kill anyone.”

  “And you know that how?”

  “She loved Frank Chamberlain. She still does. And as for the guard and the patient, Dede told me that the guard stopped the van and told her to get out. He was going to kill her, Shane.”

  “The guard from the hospital? So you’re telling me it was self-defense.”

  “Yes, only Dede never touched the guard’s gun. If you check, you’ll find that the guard is from Texas. He’s an old friend of Frank Chamberlain’s, Dede’s ex, and he only recently got the job at the hospital up here.”

  “And what did she tell you happened after the driver told her to get out of the van?” Shane asked.

  Lantry could hear the skepticism in his voice. Why did his brother always have to be a cop? “The other escapees saw what was going to happen. The guard opened the metal mesh door between him and them and Roberta went for the gun. She and the guard were shot in the scuffle. Violet ended up with the gun. Dede feared she’d be next and took off across the pasture and hid until she saw Violet hitchhiking up the road.”

  “At least that’s Dede’s story.” Shane slammed a file cabinet drawer or something that sounded a lot like one. The noise reverberated through the phone. “Listen to me. You have to turn her over now, Lantry. Otherwise, you are looking at aiding and abetting. I don’t think I have to tell you what kind of sentence that carries with it, since you’re a damned lawyer.”

  “I need twenty-four hours. That’s all I’m asking. By then I hope to have the proof I need and can file papers to keep Dede from going back to that hospital.” He could hear his brother breathing hard on the other end of the line. “Shane, I know this woman didn’t kill anyone.”

  “You don’t know. You can’t know her after spending only a few hours with her.”

  “Either way, I take full responsibility for what I’m doing.”

  Shane’s chuckle held no humor. “Even you may not be able to use that high-priced law degree to get out of this one, Lantry. There is a state manhunt on now for Dede and Violet. Turn her over to me, and then you can work your legal magic to get her freed. In the meantime, I will do everything I can to help her.”

  “I know you would,” Lantry said. “But I can’t trust that the men after her won’t get to her through one of the mental-hospital guards or some rogue deputy.”

  “You’re talking just as crazy as she is,” Shane snapped.

  “Don’t forget that someone took a potshot at me. Did either of the three escapees or the hospital guard have a high-powered rifle on them when you found them? I didn’t think so. There’s still a killer out there. Give me twenty-four hours to find out why this person wants Dede and me dead.”

  “Do you believe this woman because of that face of hers or those big blue eyes or because she’s actually telling the truth?”

  “You should know me better than that,” Lantry snapped back. “Check out Claude, the driver of the mental hospital van. He has a friend named Ed. That’s all I know. But I figure Ed can’t be far behind him.”

  “When I find you, I’m going to kick your butt all the way back to Texas,” Shane said.

  “Twenty-four hours.” He snapped the phone shut and swore. He hoped the sheriff’s department couldn’t trace the call. He doubted it.

  His brother was right about one thing: Dede had gotten under his skin. He just hoped to hell it wasn’t for the reason that Shane thought.

  SHANE HUNG UP, FURIOUS WITH his brother and yet more worried than angry. Lantry had no idea what he was dealing with.

  He thought about Dede Chamberlain and could understand how someone could be taken in by her. But Lantry?
The divorce lawyer had never even had a serious relationship. He dated but seldom, and he’d made it clear he’d never planned to marry. That was a given, but he’d also never gotten close enough to a woman to give a real relationship a fighting chance.

  So what was different about Dede?

  She was a woman in trouble. That alone was a siren call for any of the Corbett brothers, Shane thought with a groan. But sticking your neck out to save a woman was one thing. Lantry had crossed a line with this one.

  Shane knew what had him so upset. It wasn’t that every law officer in several counties was looking for Dede Chamberlain or even that she was wanted for questioning in three murders.

  It was Lantry trusting this woman with his life.

  Sheriff Carter Jackson looked up as Shane stepped into his office. They’d just come off a shift change, though Shane had no thought of going home. He had to find his brother before it was too late.

  “I just spoke with Lantry,” Shane said, shutting the door behind him.

  “Okay,” Carter said. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Lantry found Dede Chamberlain. He has her.”

  “He’s bringing her in, right?”

  “He wants twenty-four hours. He says he’s following some lead and will bring her in then.”

  The sheriff was shaking his head. “He needs to bring her in now. I assume you told him that. He knows about the murders?”

  “He found the van.”

  “So those were his footprints we discovered.” The sheriff let out a curse. “You said he’s a lawyer, so he knows that he’s now wanted for questioning along with aiding and abetting?”

  Shane nodded solemnly. “I tried to talk some sense into him, but he’s convinced that if he brings Dede in, she won’t live long enough to make it back to the state hospital. Given what happened to the van driver and the other patient…”

  “You know we can keep her safe here at the jail.”

  “I’m sorry, Sheriff, but, truthfully, I don’t know that. Look what happened before. Don’t get me wrong. I did everything I could to convince my brother to bring her in. But just between you and me, she might be safer with Lantry right now.”