Boots and Bullets

by B. J Daniels

  They stopped in Bozeman for lunch and were just heading for the Gallatin Canyon, which would take them to West Yellowstone, when his cell phone rang.

  “Cyrus?” He recognized the sheriff’s voice and glanced over at Kate. McCall had found out something or she wouldn’t be calling. “Where are you?”

  “On our way to Kate’s grandmother’s cabin in West Yellowstone. She thinks the answers might be there.”

  “I tracked down Candace Porter, the real Candace Porter,” the sheriff said. “She used to be a nurse at a hospital in Missoula, Montana. Her purse was stolen the day of her going-away party. She was headed for Paris, where her fiancé was living. The two of them were planning to travel around Europe before settling down.”

  “Let me guess. Katherine Landon worked at the same hospital.”

  “Bingo. She was a nurse’s aide before she miraculously became a nurse by the name of Candace Porter.”

  Cyrus had suspected it might be something like this. “Was Candace Porter’s family ever contacted after the murder?”

  “No next of kin could be found. She was buried here in Whitehorse.”

  “Thanks for letting me know. We’ll be back tomorrow, probably late.”

  “Don’t worry. We’re keeping an eye on the shop, but if you’re right about what the burglar was after, then I doubt there will be another break-in.”

  He agreed. For a moment he thought about telling McCall what else he’d seen that night in his dream—Katherine Landon switching the two baby boys in bassinets in the hospital nursery, but he didn’t want to do it on the phone. “Thanks” was all he said before he hung up.

  Cyrus realized it felt like a betrayal to say anything to the sheriff about the babies until they had some evidence that the babies had even existed. He realized the ramifications if the babies had been switched as they had been in his dream. Both of the boys would be thirty now. What a time to find out that the parents you’d known all your life weren’t really your parents. He’d heard of a case or two like that. He couldn’t imagine how it would affect not only the parents, but also the young men.

  He couldn’t, however, keep what McCall had told him from Kate, even though he knew she wasn’t going to like hearing it.

  “I suspected as much given that she wasn’t using her real name,” Kate said after he told her. He could see she was taking the news much worse than she let on. “I wonder if my mother knew about her sister stealing another person’s identity, pretending to be a nurse?”

  “I suspect it might be why she left you to go to Whitehorse. Clearly your aunt was in over her head. Kate, there is something I haven’t told you that I saw in my dream. I saw her switch the babies in the bassinets.”

  Kate stared at him in disbelief. “Why would she do that?” He shook his head. “Did you tell the sheriff?”

  “I’ll have to if we find any evidence that it really happened.”

  Kate was silent for a few minutes, as if taking it in. “You think that’s what got her killed. Someone put her up to the baby switch. But why would they turn around and kill her?”

  Because they didn’t want a witness who could come forward years later, he was about to suggest.

  “But what if she was switching the babies back, what if she’d changed her mind?” Kate said. She had a point.

  “I suppose, depending on the deal that was made, that could have gotten her killed,” he said.

  “Maybe my mother talked her out of it.”

  He could see that’s what she wanted to believe.

  “And it got them both killed.”

  Cyrus thought she could be right. He just hoped they would find what they needed in West Yellowstone.

  THE DRIVE DOWN the narrow Gallatin Canyon through the mountains in October was beautiful. The highway followed the Gallatin River, with its crystal-clear water rushing over large granite rocks. The trees had turned to an array of golds, reds and rusts, and now the breeze showered the cold river with the colorful leaves. Caught in the current, they floated quickly downstream.

  During the drive, Kate talked about what it had been like growing up in West Yellowstone with her grandmother. “I loved living in a tourist town when I was a kid. Summers were wild and crazy with the town packed with people. They used to have street dances in front of the old Texaco gas station and one of the bars used to pipe the music from the bands out onto the street.”

  Beside the highway, a few fly-fishermen braved the chilly day to cast long, sleek lines out over the deep, cold green of the river.

  “I would imagine winters were quite different there,” he said as they passed Big Sky, the snow-capped Lone Peak spectacular against the clear blue sky.

  “It wasn’t like now, but snowmobiles definitely changed things,” she said. “It was how we got around town. There were trails on top of the huge drifts where the snow had been plowed.” Kate smiled in memory. “We used to run all over at night in the cold, snowy darkness. It really was a wonderland.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t go back after college,” Cyrus said.

  “The town changed for me. Or maybe I was the one who changed. I guess that’s why I love Whitehorse. I like the small-town feel.”

  “Whitehorse suits you.”

  She laughed. “Thanks. I agree.” Then she sobered. “No matter what we find out, I won’t be leaving Whitehorse.”

  Yes, he thought, he’d known that when he’d seen her shop. She’d found herself a home. He knew she would hate Denver.

  The canyon opened at the top of Fir Ridge for a view of Hebgen Lake, the surface golden, in the distance. Then the road ran through the dense pines into town.

  West, as the locals called it, was a small tourist town on the edge of Yellowstone Park. It sat among tall pines, a mix of old log cabins and new motels and businesses. Once a town that boarded up and closed all but a few businesses in winter, it was now a mecca for snowmobilers who wanted to see Yellowstone in its frosty-white season. This time of the year, though, things were pretty quiet as everyone waited for snow.

  KATE’S GRANDMOTHER’S CABIN sat back in the tall pines, rustic and rambling, on one of the lots at the edge of town. Past the property the trees and land ran east to hit the boundary of Yellowstone Park.

  “My grandmother left the place to me,” Kate said as she opened the door. “I don’t get down here much, but I can’t part with it. I grew up here. It’s a part of me.”

  “I envy you,” Cyrus said. “This cabin is wonderful. There is no place that I could really call home—not since my grandmother kicked us all off the ranch.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, studying him for a moment. “Everyone needs a place to call home.”

  “We moved a lot when I was growing up,” he said as he brought in their bags and set them down in the living room. “My father worked on different ranches across the west. So I got used to things being temporary.”

  “Not even Denver feels like home?”

  He chuckled. “Maybe especially Denver.”

  Kate looked around the cabin. Now that she was here, she didn’t know what to do.

  “You said your grandmother saved everything,” Cyrus commented. “You weren’t kidding.”

  “Because of that I have no idea where to start.” She couldn’t help sounding discouraged. It had been a long drive. She was tired. But probably more than anything she was afraid of what they were going to find here.

  “We don’t have to do this tonight,” he said. “We could wait until the morning if you want.”

  She shook her head. “There is so much to go through—it is still early enough.”

  “Okay. How about those files?” he said, pointing to three metal file cabinets next to a desk in what appeared to be a small office.

  She put down her purse but didn’t move.

  “You sure you want to do this?” he asked as she only stared at the filing cabinets.

  “Yes.” She gave herself a push and stepped to the first cabinet and pulled open the top dra
wer. “Oh, this is not going to be easy.”

  “You take one drawer and I’ll take one,” he suggested. “Anything from thirty years ago.”

  She nodded as he carried the top drawer to the kitchen table. Kate sat next to the drawer he’d put there for her and pulled out the first manila file folder.

  Cyrus went for the next drawer, bringing it back to sit down across from her. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, but she didn’t know what else to do.

  It was a little after 10:00 p.m. when Kate found the letters. She froze, her fingers trembling as she read the name the letter was addressed to: Elizabeth Landon. The postmark was Whitehorse, Montana, dated Dec. 12, 1980.

  “Cyrus.” That was all she could get out.

  He came to her at once. She handed him the envelope, he glanced at it, then started to hand it back.

  She shook her head. “Would you read it, please?”

  He nodded, pulled the letter from the envelope, unfolded it and quickly read through it before he handed it to her.

  Kate didn’t look at it, just at him. “Tell me.”

  “Your aunt said she needed her sister. Just for a little while. She wanted her to come to Whitehorse. She’d done something and she feared this time she was in real trouble. She said she’d exaggerated on her employment application and her boss had found out. But it was more complicated than that.”

  Even though Kate had known this must have been what happened, she still had trouble believing it. “Didn’t my aunt realize that I was just a baby? She’d gotten herself into this mess and she drags my mother into it?”

  Kate shoved back from the table and stormed into the living room, only to stop because there was no place to run from this. Angry tears burned her eyes.

  “I can’t believe my mother would go,” she said, fighting to keep from crying. She heard Cyrus rise from the table and come up behind her.

  “I can,” he said softly. “If my brother was in trouble, I’d be there tomorrow. He’d do the same for me.”

  “But to bail out a sister like Katherine? I’d heard she was always in trouble. Lying about being a nurse…” Kate shook her head. “Couldn’t she have gone to jail over that?”

  “Possibly,” he said, putting his large, warm hands on her shoulders and turning her around to face him. “Sometimes with siblings it’s a love-hate relationship, but when push comes to shove, especially if that sibling is in some serious trouble, then you’re going to be there. Your mother had to make a difficult choice, but she knew you would be fine with your grandmother.”

  Kate nodded and made a swipe at her tears. “I envy that kind of relationship.”

  “Your grandmother was like that with you. She hid the truth from you to protect you.”

  “I know.”

  He bent down a little to look into her face. “We can stop this right now.”

  “No,” Kate said. “We can’t. My aunt said in that letter that her boss had found out about her not being a nurse, and yet she was still working at the hospital?”

  CYRUS HAD THOUGHT the same thing. If Katherine had been caught then she should have been fired immediately. Why hadn’t she been?

  He couldn’t wait to get back to Whitehorse and ask the hospital administrator, Roberta Warren.

  Kate took the letter from him. He watched her read through it. He could tell she was exhausted. “It’s late,” he said.

  She nodded. “I think I will call it a night. Take any bedroom you want. I made up the beds with clean sheets the last time I was here.” She glanced toward the table. “There are more letters…”

  “I can take a look at them and see if there is anything in them,” he offered.

  Her emerald gaze filmed over with tears again. “Thank you.”

  Kate looked into his handsome face and lost a little piece of her heart to Cyrus Winchester. He was so kind and caring and she didn’t know what she would have done without him being here with her.

  She thought about the first time she’d seen him standing in the old hospital hallway. Cyrus Winchester in his jeans and boots, western shirt and Stetson. She hadn’t been able to get that image out of her mind, or shake the feeling then that he was in some kind of trouble.

  Is this the way her mother had felt about her sister? Is this why she had to leave Kate to go to Katherine?

  “Cyrus…” Words failed her as she was filled with love for this man and understood how feeling like this would make a person drop everything to go to the one they loved.

  She searched the depths of his dark eyes and lost herself. The kiss seemed the most natural thing in the world. Her mouth brushed over his, sending sparks flying. She could feel the struggle going on inside him, him and his darned cowboy code. He was afraid he would end up hurting her.

  Kate pulled back, realizing how easy it would be, just the two of them alone in the cabin, to end up doing something they might regret. An image of the two of them beneath one of the thick quilts flashed before her, her lying naked in his arms. She shivered at the thought.

  Cyrus hadn’t moved. She looked into his eyes and saw something close to pain. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. But his life was in Denver. Hers was in Whitehorse. This was impossible. And yet it would be so easy to throw caution to the wind.

  She knew it would change everything between them. So did he.

  “Good night,” she mumbled and hurried into one of the bedrooms, closing the door behind her.

  CYRUS LISTENED to Kate getting ready for bed in an adjacent room. He groaned, still feeling the effects of her kiss. Damn that woman, she was going to be the death of him. He stood for a long time, staring at her closed door, wanting desperately to go after her, needing her in his arms.

  Just the thought of making love to Kate… He moved to the closed bedroom door and pressed his fingers against the cool wood. Listening, he heard nothing beyond the door. Maybe Kate had already fallen asleep.

  Or maybe she was lying awake, waiting for him to come to her. He groaned inwardly. He cared too much for her to have casual sex. That thought made him laugh to himself. There would be nothing casual about it.

  Growling to himself at the thought, he moved away from the door to go back to the table. He picked up the stack of letters Kate had found and tried not to think about her, just in the next room in one of those tall iron beds he’d glimpsed through the doorway.

  There was one more letter from Katherine to her sister, more urgent than the other one, pleading with Elizabeth to help her.

  Cyrus sat down and tried to put Kate out of his mind. But it had been impossible since the day he’d met her.

  HOURS LATER, after going through files and boxes filled with every birthday card, Christmas card, note or letter Jenny “Dimple” Landon had ever received in her long life, he found the box with the bank statement in it.

  His gaze shot to the return address and he felt his heart drop to his feet. The return address was a bank in Whitehorse.

  The statement was under both Katherine Landon’s and her mother, Jenny Landon’s names. Katherine had apparently had her bank statements sent home to her mother in West Yellowstone.

  The statements were filed by date. He pulled out one from the end of December, 1980.

  Then he saw the balance and did a double take.

  Katherine had deposited five thousand dollars into a savings account that had previously only had seventeen dollars in it.

  Cyrus found the next—and last—statement. Thirty years ago Dimple had closed the savings account and had the money transferred into a local savings account in Kate’s name.

  As he glanced through the financial papers, he surmised that Dimple had saved the money to make a nice nest egg for her granddaughter.

  So that was what Kate had used to buy the old library in Whitehorse and start her shop. He had a feeling that Kate had no idea where the money had come from. Had her grandmother?

  He closed the folder, wondering what Dimple had thought when she’d found out that her
daughter had put the money in a joint savings account with her as beneficiary. Had she known it might get her killed?

  And what had Dimple made of all this? She had to wonder where Katherine had gotten the money. Her daughter had been working as a nurse’s aide before assuming a nurse’s identity. Still, she hadn’t been making much money in Whitehorse.

  And suddenly, on Dec. 19, she’d come into five grand. Five thousand dollars on the same day she’d switched the babies in the nursery and gotten herself killed.

  Cyrus sighed and turned out the light before heading to one of the bedrooms Kate had pointed out to him.

  The bed had a great iron frame. He climbed up on top of it without even removing his clothes and shut his eyes.

  He’d expected his thoughts to be on all the paperwork he’d gone through or the unexplained five grand.

  But as he closed his eyes, his only thought was of Kate and the kiss. It hadn’t been the first time she’d kissed him. He wanted her. So what was holding him back? Could he really walk away from her when all of this was over?

  Hours later, after having trouble getting to sleep, he’d just drifted off when he felt someone touch his shoulder. Cyrus opened his eyes to find Kate standing over him. She was wearing a long white nightgown with what looked like moose on it, but for just an instant he thought she was an apparition straight from his dreams.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting up quickly.

  She shook her head. “I had a bad dream.” She sounded scared and he could see that she was shivering. The temperature had dropped during the night up here at over six thousand feet above sea level.

  He reached for the heavy quilt at the end of the bed and she slid in beside him. Covering her, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.

  “It was just a bad dream,” he whispered into her hair.

  “And we all know there is nothing to our dreams.”

  “Well, you’re safe now,” he whispered back.

  Kate snuggled against him in answer and a few moments later, she was asleep. It took him a lot longer to fall back to sleep with her lying in his arms.