by B. J Daniels
“Is that what happened to your father’s marriage to your mother?” Kate asked quietly.
“No woman was ever good enough for Pepper’s sons. Or man for her daughter. Now my grandmother is obsessed with finding out if someone in the family was a co-conspirator in Trace’s death. That’s why she was asking about the third-floor room.”
Kate listened as he explained this room Call Winchester had used to punish his children. “It sounds horrible. Your grandmother believes one of you saw Trace’s murder?”
“Or at least who else was involved. I have to admit, it is strange that Trace was killed within sight of the ranch. You see now what a screwed-up family I have?”
“Is that why you were afraid of getting involved with me?”
Cyrus shot her a look, then turned quickly back to his driving. “It doesn’t matter my reasons. I am involved.” He didn’t sound happy about it.
“So your grandmother locked herself away in that ranch lodge for the past twenty-seven years.” She feared Cyrus had locked himself away, at least emotionally, as well. As they drove under the Winchester Ranch sign, Kate realized something.
“Your grandmother wasn’t the only one who would have been unhappy about Virginia and Jordan McCormick,” she said. “If the rumor was true about Pepper and Hunt McCormick…”
Cyrus swore. “Joanna McCormick hates my grandmother with a passion, so I would imagine there is something to the rumors about Pepper and Hunt.”
“So what is this Joanna McCormick like?” she asked.
He hit the brakes, surprising her. “The McCormick Ranch is just back down the road. I say we pay her a visit.”
CYRUS HATED that his visit to his grandmother had upset him more than he wanted to admit. Being back on the ranch had brought back so many memories. Good memories of when they’d all been a family.
“You never mention your mother,” Kate said as if reading his mind.
He chuckled. “That’s because she left when I was little. She wasn’t strong enough to stand up to my grandmother, so she hit the road. I’ve heard she remarried and has four sons.”
“I’m sorry.” She squeezed his arm and let go.
He was sorry to lose her touch. When he glanced over at her, she had tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped at them. “Hey, it wasn’t all bad. I was just thinking of all the great memories I had at the ranch. It was a wonderful place to grow up. Cordell and I learned to ride when we were two. We used to ride every day. We literally had the run of the ranch by the time we were seven.”
“But then you were exiled,” she said. “It’s so sad. You have this big family and yet…”
“There’s the McCormick Ranch,” he said, as if needing to change the subject. “You up to this?”
She nodded. “Does Jordan still live here?”
“He was killed in a hay-baling accident about a year after Virginia gave birth.”
Kate shot him a shocked look. “How horrible.”
Cyrus nodded. “Joanna has two daughters, both much younger than Jordan. I haven’t seen them for the past twenty-seven years and have no idea what happened to them.”
As he turned into the McCormick Ranch, he thought about the bad blood between the two families and wondered what kind of reception they would get.
He also wondered what his grandmother would do with the information he’d given her about the two McCormick girls being in the third-floor room the day Trace Winchester was murdered within sight of the ranch.
That day he and his brother had had a small pair of binoculars they’d been arguing over. The last thing he remembered was Cordell letting the girls look through them. They had looked out toward the distant ridge.
What if one of them had seen the murder?
But if one of them had, why wouldn’t they have said something—especially if they’d seen more than one Winchester on that ridge that day?
AS CYRUS DROVE into the McCormick Ranch, Kate saw a man shoeing a horse over by an old barn. He looked up, watching them drive by.
She looked away from his intense gaze, suspecting they weren’t going to get a warm welcome anywhere on this ranch.
Cyrus parked in front of the large ranch house. As Kate got out, she looked back toward the old barn. The man was still watching her and Cyrus with interest.
“Looks like everyone is over by the corral,” Cyrus said and they walked over to see what was going on.
Kate knew at once that the older woman sitting on the corral fence was Joanna McCormick. At sixty-eight, Joanna was a tall, athletic-looking woman with short brown hair and a weathered face that told of many hours spent outdoors.
She was watching intently as a trainer worked with a horse in the ring. Several cowboys sat a little farther down the fence, also watching.
Kate had heard that Joanna McCormick was known for the quarter horses she raised. Cyrus said he’d seen her once years ago at a quarter-horse sale outside of Laramie, Wyoming, on a ranch where his father had been working at the time.
Her husband, Hunt, had been with her. Cyrus had described Hunt as a large, gentle-looking man with a kind face. Not handsome like Call Winchester had been. Cyrus had wondered at the time what his grandmother had seen in Hunt. And, if it was true that his grandmother had had an affair with him, why Hunt hadn’t left his tightly wound, brittle wife for Pepper.
Joanna gave them only a glance from under her Western straw hat as they joined her on the corral fence. “Do I know you?” she said without looking at them.
“I’m Cyrus Winchester.” Her brows shot up as she turned to give him a hard look. “And this is Kate Landon.”
“What do you want?” Joanna said, turning back to what was going on in the corral.
“We need to talk to you about Jordan and Virginia,” Cyrus said.
The older woman acted as if she hadn’t heard him as she called to the trainer to keep the horse’s head up.
“If you prefer to talk to the sheriff…” Cyrus said.
“My son is dead and I could give a damn about Virginia Winchester,” Joanna replied. “So I can’t imagine why the sheriff would want to talk to me.”
“So you didn’t pay Candace Porter to switch the babies so it appeared Virginia’s had died?” Cyrus asked.
The cowboys down the fence weren’t looking in their direction, but they were clearly listening.
Joanna McCormick swung her legs over and dropped off the corral fence, her face crimson with anger. “How dare you—”
“Candace Porter was my aunt,” Kate said, keeping her voice low. “The other woman who disappeared at the same time was my mother. We believe whoever paid to have those babies switched killed both women to keep the secret that Jace Dennison is really your grandson.”
Without a word, Joanna started for the house. Cyrus shot Kate a what-the-hell look and they followed her.
The McCormick ranch house was a sprawling two-story. Like the Winchester Ranch, it had many of the same amenities, including the western décor, Native American rugs and antler lamps and fixtures. A huge wagon wheel hung down from the ceiling in the massive living room, lights glittering from it.
A fire in the massive fireplace had died to only glowing embers.
Joanna McCormick walked to it, picked up the poker and stabbed angrily at the coals. “Isn’t it enough that your grandmother tried to take my husband?” she demanded, turning to glare at them. “Now you want to try to take another woman’s son?”
“You don’t seem all that surprised,” Cyrus said. “I think you knew all about the baby switch.”
“I know nothing of the kind,” she snapped. “Why would I let someone else raise my grandson?”
“Because you couldn’t bear the alternative. I think you were afraid Jordan would marry Virginia.”
“He would never have married her.”
“Was that his idea or yours?” Cyrus asked.
“I told him that if he married her, he was off the ranch. That was all I had to do.”
“Didn
’t you care that Virginia’s baby was your flesh and blood?” Kate asked.
“Was it?” Joanna asked pointedly. “Even Jordan wasn’t sure of that.”
Cyrus laughed. “You remind me so much of my grandmother. You know, I wouldn’t put it past the two of you to have come up with the baby switch together. You both had motive for switching the babies. Coming up with the five thousand dollars to pay off the nurse wouldn’t have been that hard, even though that was a lot of money thirty years ago. You could have split it. Would be easier to cover up.”
Joanna looked at him, aghast. “Your grandmother and I? We can’t be in the same room together.”
“Unless you had a common goal. My grandmother wasn’t about to let your son marry into the Winchester family.”
Joanna raised a brow at that. “Why? She tried to marry into the McCormick family.”
“That was years ago,” he pointed out.
“I have a good memory,” she said. “Do you really believe Jace would have been better off being raised by Virginia?”
“You stole her baby and any chance she might have had for happiness with your son,” Cyrus said. “So I guess we’ll never know how different she might be today.”
Kate knew Cyrus was winging it, hoping for a reaction, but Joanna McCormick, other than being furious, wasn’t giving him much.
“The only thing I’m not sure about is which one of you killed Candace Porter and her sister, who was in town because she knew about the switch,” Cyrus continued. “It’s a toss-up which of you is more cold-blooded.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Joanna said. “If you had any evidence, the sheriff would be here, not you two. Now get out. If you don’t leave I am going to call the sheriff.”
“You won’t have to bother calling Sheriff McCall Winchester,” Cyrus said. “She’ll be paying you a visit soon enough.”
Joanna made an angry sound. “Too many damn Winchesters around here.”
“More Winchesters than you want to admit,” he said.
Some of the steel seemed to leave Joanna’s spine. “What is the point of ruining Jace Dennison’s life if somehow the babies did get switched? I watched him grow up, saw him at every rodeo. He’s a fine young man and Marie is a wonderful mother. Are you really going to take that away from them when you aren’t even certain the babies were switched?”
She looked to Kate as if hoping to find sympathy with her. “Maybe your aunt getting killed had nothing to do with either of the babies.”
“Or are you worried about Jace Dennison?” Cyrus asked. “Or what’s going to happen to you and the McCormick Ranch when you go to prison for murder? Maybe my grandmother will come after your husband again.”
“Get out!” Joanna screeched.
Cyrus turned to leave, Kate leading the way.
“If I ever see you on my land again, I’ll shoot first and ask questions later,” Joanna McCormick yelled after them. Behind them they heard something break. Neither looked back.
But as they were leaving, Kate saw the man she’d seen watching them earlier. He was standing just outside and she got the impression he’d been listening to their conversation.
As Cyrus slid behind the wheel, she asked, “Who is that man?”
“What man?” he asked as he started the pickup.
“The one standing by the side of the house,” Kate said. “He was watching us earlier and I think he was eavesdropping on our conversation with Joanna McCormick.”
Cyrus glanced up, but when Kate followed his gaze, the man was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
“Boy, have you been stirring the pot,” McCall said when she got Cyrus on his cell the next morning. “Joanna McCormick called. She is hotter than a pistol and it sounds like with good reason.”
“I know I probably shouldn’t have gone by there. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Cyrus said.
“She said you accused her of baby switching and murder and taunted her with our grandmother coming after her husband—once Joanna was behind bars.” McCall laughed. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“I couldn’t help it. Damn, she is just like Pepper. Only I swear I think she’s meaner,” he said.
“She wants me to arrest you for everything from trespassing to slander. I calmed her down a little. She did make it clear that if I run for sheriff again, she won’t vote for me. As if she did this time.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, that was a real heartbreaker.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she paid to have the babies switched. As for the murder or possible murder…I don’t know. She’s mean enough.”
“Cyrus, I didn’t call you just about Joanna,” McCall said, her tone suddenly serious.
He knew at once. “Roberta.”
“We found a suicide note. She confessed to paying Candace Porter to switch the babies. She also confessed to killing Candace when she saw her switch the babies back.”
Cyrus shot Kate a look. Moments earlier they’d been sitting at the kitchen table having cinnamon rolls and coffee. Kate had stopped what she’d been doing and was now staring at him.
“She confessed to killing Kate’s mother, as well.”
He was trying to get his mind around this. He’d known Roberta was involved but he hadn’t expected this. “How did she kill herself?”
“Pills.”
“Did she say anything else?” he asked.
“No. The confession was handwritten, the writing deteriorating pretty quickly as the pills must have taken effect.”
So they might never know what she’d done with Kate’s mother’s body.
“Would you like me to tell Kate?” McCall asked.
“No, I’ll do it.” He hung up and looked at Kate. Before he could say anything, she stepped into his arms.
KATE FELT AS IF she was in shock. Roberta Warren had confessed? She’d known the hospital administrator was involved, but she’d suspected the person who’d paid her aunt to switch the babies would be Pepper Winchester or Joanna McCormick or Audie Dennison.
She’d thought there would be more.
“I’m sorry,” Cyrus said. “That’s all Roberta said in the suicide note.”
Kate knew she should have been relieved. She’d been right about her aunt changing her mind and switching the babies back. She’d also been right that whoever had killed her aunt had also killed her mother.
She even knew why Roberta had done it.
Cyrus had said he thought a woman had cut the cable in the basement because it had taken her several tries. The crying baby doll was also something a woman was more likely to use as a threat, rather than a man.
It all added up.
So why didn’t she feel some relief at knowing the truth? Instead, she just felt empty inside. She was disappointed that she wasn’t going to get to bury her mother beside Katherine in the cemetery. But did she really want to know what Roberta had done to her?
She looked at Cyrus and felt the full extent of this news. It was more than an end to their search. Cyrus would be going back to Denver now. There would be no reason for him to stay any longer. The threat was over.
“Do you want me to make some hot chocolate?” Cyrus asked.
She smiled, her eyes filling with tears at his kindness, but she shook her head. Not even hot chocolate with marshmallows would work this time.
“McCall is tracing Roberta’s bank statements to see if she can find the five thousand dollars,” Cyrus was saying.
It took her a moment before she shot him a look of surprise. “If Roberta confessed…”
“McCall is just covering all the bases.” He hesitated. “Kate, maybe you should cancel the haunted house.”
“Why?” she asked studying him intently. “You don’t think she acted alone?”
“Until McCall can verify Roberta’s story, I would just feel better—”
“No.” They’d both put their lives on hold during all this. Cyrus especially. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.
There really isn’t any reason you need to—”
“I’m staying to help with the haunted house,” he said, almost seeming hurt that she would try to get him to leave sooner.
A LINE HAD ALREADY formed outside Second Hand Kate’s before Kate signaled for Cyrus to open the door. All the volunteers were in place. Kate couldn’t have been happier with the results.
She’d gone around making last-minute changes, knowing she was only making them to keep her mind off everything that had happened. She’d also been avoiding Cyrus. He’d worked tirelessly all afternoon in the basement, changing all the locks, not only on the doors, but also the windows.
If she hadn’t known he would be leaving, his effort to make her safe was a sure sign.
There was an air of excitement as the door opened and she got her first glimpse of the children and their parents pouring in. Kate told herself that Whitehorse was her home. She could handle whatever life threw at her after this.
No regrets, she thought as she took her place at the exit door. Jasmine had sewn her a devil costume. It was huge and allowed her to step into it, disappearing in the darkness by the door until it was time to give everyone one last fright.
No, she would never regret this time spent with Cyrus. Eventually she would get over him, she told herself, even though she feared she was lying.
She wondered where Cyrus was and half feared that he might have already left. He’d told her he hated goodbyes because of all the places he’d had to leave due to his father’s work when he was growing up.
Maybe it would be easier if, when the haunted house closed its doors at 10:00 p.m., she would find him gone. The thought broke her heart. She couldn’t imagine never seeing him again.
She brushed at the sudden tears that welled in her eyes. She could hear someone moving quickly through the maze and got ready to play her part.
CYRUS HAD TRIED to station himself where he could see Kate, but the moment she stepped back into the huge devil costume, she disappeared into the darkness from sight. The basement had quickly filled with screams of terror and excitement. It echoed through the cavernous room.