She chewed on her lower lip. He’d promised to retrieve her knapsack, with her tools and the evidence in it. Sterling was supposed to meet him at the site. But what if something had happened and Sterling had been delayed? Or hadn’t shown up?
No, she was being silly. One thing she knew for sure—Judd could take care of himself. He was careful and alert.
A vision of the wolf-faced monster came to her.
She shivered as her fear increased a notch. She’d call Jessica and find out what time Sterling had gotten home. That was the sensible thing to do. It was stupid to stand around stewing over nothing. She crossed the room and dialed the number.
“Jessica? This is Tracy,” she said when her hostess answered. “I, uh, was wondering—has Sterling gotten home yet?”
“He’s been home all afternoon,” Jessica said. “What’s happening? Hasn’t Judd stopped for you yet?”
“No. I wanted to check with you that he knew he was supposed to pick me up.”
“He did. I reminded him when he called to tell Sterling to forget meeting him at the reservation.”
Fear clutched at Tracy. “He told Sterling not to meet him?”
“Yes. He said he’d found you.” Jessica laughed softly. “He was one worried man until then.”
“Jessica, Judd went out to the site after leaving me,” Tracy said, her own worry apparent in her voice. “Now he’s late.”
“And Judd is never late. Hold on.”
Tracy heard Jessica calling to her husband. She heard Sterling’s baritone voice as he joined his wife. Jessica told him what had happened.
“Tracy,” he said into the phone. “The old man hasn’t shown up, huh?”
“No. He was going to check out the person who frightened me. I thought you were going to meet him. It’s dangerous. I’ve got to go—”
“Whoa, there. Tell me exactly what happened. He didn’t mention any of this.”
Tracy explained as quickly as she could. “I’m going out there,” she added.
“Stay put,” Sterling ordered. “I’ll handle it.”
When they hung up, Tracy ran to the bedroom and changed to jeans and a shirt, thick socks and her sturdy boots. She grabbed a raincoat and a flashlight, switching it on to make sure it worked. It did. She rushed out.
The rain was coming down in a steady drizzle as she retraced her path along the highway and onto the reservation. Sterling’s truck was at the bluff when she arrived. She parked beside it and slid out. She decided she didn’t need the flashlight yet.
Ducking under the police tape, she sped along the deer track to the ledge under the limestone. There she found her knapsack torn to shreds. She felt sick with worry.
What if the monster had attacked Judd? Killed him?
She saw a shadow among the trees and hid behind a boulder.
“It’s me,” Sterling said. He came to her. “Did you see anything on the way up?”
“No.” She showed him her slashed tote. “Look.”
“Damn,” he said. He bent to the ground.
She flicked her light on and held it so it would highlight any footprints.
“He was here,” Sterling said. “This way.”
They walked to a steep section of the bluff, found the broken limb on the shrub and followed skid marks over the ledge.
Sterling lifted a large, round rock, examined it, then put it down. Tracy noted there was no depression in the dirt under it. The detective peered at the edge of the bluff. The place where the fractured chip had given way was obvious. When he looked up, he gave her a probing glance.
“I’m all right,” she said, knowing that Judd must have gone over the side. “How do we get down?”
“We’ll take the main road. It’s faster than the dirt trail. Stay close to me. I’ll have my siren on.”
Clutching the steering wheel of her car, she rode the bumper of the unmarked police vehicle. Its wail reminded her of a scream in the gathering dusk when Sterling used it to clear a path through the traffic. They followed a paved county road, then a short dirt track, then no road at all as they drove across a meadow. She stopped when he did.
“We’ll have to walk from here,” he said.
They jogged along the creek on a path worn through the grass and underbrush by generations of fishermen.
Tracy had gone through so many emotions on the drive that she felt numb as they searched along the base of the bluff.
“We’re near where he went over. I’m going across to the other side,” Sterling told her. “Stay close to the creek. Start calling. He may hear.”
If he’s conscious. If he’s alive.
“All right.” She waded through the twilight as if she walked through a strange medium, thick and cloying, instead of air. Each breath burned her throat as she ignored a need to cry.
“Judd,” she called softly, over and over. She was afraid her voice would alert the madman who’d tried to kill her, if he was still around. Sterling didn’t seem to think he was.
She skirted a section of high boulders, pushed into their present disorder by glaciers from long ago, she decided inanely as she searched. “Judd,” she called, a bit more desperately.
“Here.”
She stopped, listened. Nothing. “Judd?”
“Here.”
“Where? Keep talking,” she ordered. His voice had been so low and weak. Fear crawled along her spine. “Judd?”
“Here.”
She found him lying on the bank between two boulders. One foot still in the water, as if the effort to pull it out had been too much for him. When she touched him, his skin was cold.
“You’ll catch pneumonia,” she murmured.
“Yeah. The water’s cold.”
She ran one hand over him while she held the light with the other. She couldn’t find any injuries. “You fell from the cliff?”
“Yes. Caught a bush…but it wouldn’t hold.” He was plainly irritated by this fact. “A damned goat sneaked up on me.”
She’d thought he was lucid until this last statement. Now she realized he must be delirious. “Don’t try to talk,” she soothed. “Save your strength.”
“Trace, be careful. Winona said you were in danger.” He pushed himself up on his elbows and glanced all around.
Tears filled her eyes as she realized he was concerned for her. “I’ll be careful. Sterling is with me.”
“Good,” he muttered. “That’s good.”
She straightened and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Sterling!” she yelled as loudly as she could. She waved the flashlight in the air. “I’ve found him.”
“Coming,” he called at once.
She stripped out of her rain jacket and laid it over Judd. The drizzle went right through her shirt. “Hurry,” she shouted.
“I’m here.” He spoke near her, startling her.
“Thank God,” she said. “He’s hurt. I don’t know how bad.” Training the light on Judd, she waited while the detective pulled him onto the path and checked him over.
“His leg is broken. I’ll make a splint. Then we’ll get him to the hospital.”
He found a stick and secured it to Judd’s leg with their belts. They were going to carry him, but Judd insisted he could walk. After making a rude sound, Sterling lifted his boss to his feet. Tracy swung one of Judd’s arms over her shoulder while Sterling did the same. They headed for the road where the vehicles were parked. It seemed to take forever.
Tracy’s shoulders were burning by the time they hoisted Judd into Sterling’s cruiser. The detective gave Tracy her coat and tucked a blanket around the patient.
“Follow me,” Sterling ordered.
Reluctantly, she left Judd and got into her car.
They arrived at the hospital in record time. The nurse recognized her when she entered the emergency room and joined Sterling. The woman smiled reassuringly, then bent over Judd.
The trauma team on duty that night checked him over, then wheeled him into a curtained area. They were te
asing Judd about taking a dip in the creek at his age. Tracy wished they’d get on with it. She’d seen the paleness of his skin despite his tan.
Sterling went to call Jessica to let her know what had happened. By the time Judd was taken to have his leg set in a cast, Jessica as well as Jackson and Maggie Hawk had arrived, Jessica after first dropping Jennifer at a sitter’s. Lily Mae breezed in hot on their heels.
“I listen to the police band,” she explained when Tracy stared at her in surprise. “I brought you some soup.”
“Thank you, but I couldn’t eat,” Tracy said. She had no time for food now, not when Judd was hurt.
“For later.” Lily Mae brought coffee and forced Tracy to drink it. “You’re wet clear through, child,” the widow scolded.
Tracy thanked her for her care. “I’d better call Winona,” she murmured, feeling as if she needed to talk to her friend. She borrowed some money and went to the pay phone by the door.
Winona answered on the first ring. “Tracy?”
“Yes.” Tracy told her what had happened.
“I saw the wolf,” Winona said in confirmation, “and called Judd. I knew you were in danger and needed him.”
“He’s hurt because of me.” Tracy was guilt stricken.
“No, because of some crazy person who’s committed a crime and doesn’t want to be discovered,” Winona corrected. “Take care of him. He needs you.”
Tracy swallowed as emotion tightened her throat. “I will,” she promised solemnly. “I owe him.”
Winona chuckled suddenly. “You may pay more than you mean to.” She said good-night and hung up.
Tracy returned to the hospital cafeteria and joined the others. Lily Mae had gone to visit a patient. She’d left a container of soup with Jessica to give to Tracy.
Another patrol car arrived. Rafe Rawlings got out and came inside. “How is he?” he inquired of Sterling.
“He has a broken leg. That’s all we know.”
Kane Hunter entered through the hallway leading to the emergency room. “He’s fine, grouchy as a spring bear and demanding to go home. He’s had a painkiller and is a little groggy right now. Who’s going to baby-sit him tonight?”
“I am,” Tracy said.
Several pairs of eyes turned to her. Sterling nodded. “Good idea,” he said. A smile appeared on the tough detective’s mouth. “I’ll help you get him home. His place or yours?”
The question was so suggestive—and Sterling, the rat, knew it—that Tracy blushed. Jessica frowned at her grinning husband. Maggie did the same with hers.
“Jessica, your dinner!” Tracy exclaimed, remembering suddenly. “It’s ruined.”
“Now don’t you worry about that,” the other woman soothed. “I’ll bring you a plate over in a little while.”
“I have the fry bread in the car,” Jackson stated.
It ended that the two men took Judd home in the patrol car. At the house, they dressed him in pajamas, and put him to bed while Tracy found coffee in the kitchen and put on a pot.
Jessica and Maggie brought over the food, which consisted of Brunswick stew, plus a salad and dinner rolls.
“Do you feel like eating?” Tracy asked Judd, going into the master bedroom a few minutes later.
“Yes. I don’t need a baby-sitter. Kane is worse than a mother hen. Tell everyone to leave.”
“That wouldn’t be polite. We’re having dinner here.”
She glanced around the bedroom as they talked. The furniture was made of golden oak. It had belonged to Judd before they were married. His parents had given it to him.
The room was the same as when they’d lived there. Even the family picture of Thadd, Judd and her hung on the wall in its usual place near the dresser.
“I looked for that,” she said. “When I left.”
“I took it to the office.”
Their eyes locked for a long minute. She sensed the questions that neither of them could voice. It was too soon. The attraction between them was too compelling to ignore, but the old hurts were still too raw to examine at present.
She switched to a safer subject. “Were you injured anywhere besides your leg?”
“Some scrapes. Nothing major. The break was clean. It should heal without a problem.” He glanced at his palms.
“Good.” She moved closer and looked at them, too. “Oh, Judd, your hands.”
The gouges weren’t deep, but they were extensive. Kane had cleaned them with an antibiotic and sprayed on a medical coating of synthetic skin until Judd’s own could grow back.
“How did you happen to fall?” she asked.
“Damned if I know,” he responded with a grouchy frown. “I thought one of Winona’s goats butted me in the back of my bad knee. Crazy.” He shook his head.
“Not so crazy,” Sterling corrected, coming in with a tray. “Someone could have hit you in the leg. I noticed a round rock there where the skid marks were—a hefty one about four inches in diameter. That would have done the trick.”
Tracy recalled the rock that hadn’t made an impression in the dirt, which indicated it hadn’t been in that spot long.
“But why?” Jessica came in with a cup of coffee for Judd.
Jackson and Maggie joined them. Soon they were all sitting in the bedroom, eating their supper and discussing the case.
“Does this mean someone is afraid of the bones?” Maggie asked.
Everyone looked at her.
“You know, like if we find out who the bones belonged to, then we’d know who killed the person?”
“It must be someone local, someone still here,” Jessica said, “someone who doesn’t want to be discovered.”
“Kane said something.” Sterling paused and studied Tracy. “He said there’s a hermit who roams the area, a man named Homer Gilmore. He’s harmless, but he does look rather weird—long, gray hair that sticks out around his head, sharp facial features. He prospects around in the hills. He has been known to scare the life out of unsuspecting backpackers.”
“It wasn’t an old man,” she said. “Not unless he was dressed in a variety of Indian clothes and something that looked like a Halloween mask with a werewolf face, plus a wig made out of buffalo hide. It was…very strange.”
“To say the least,” Jessica agreed. “To scare someone that way—the knives and all—was a terrible thing to do.”
“The person may have meant to do more than scare Tracy.” Judd scowled with visible anger. “He threw a knife at her.”
“Well, at my car,” she corrected with a faint smile. “I don’t know that he was trying to actually hit me.”
Sterling gave the three women a stern raking with his dark eyes. “When someone has a weapon, you always assume he means to kill you. Always, got that?”
“Right,” Judd declared.
“Absolutely,” Jackson stated unequivocally.
The three women looked at the three fierce, unsmiling men. They nodded solemnly.
Tracy studied the convivial group. A feeling of peace descended over her, in spite of the day’s odd, dangerous events. She was among friends. She felt as if she’d come home.
A welter of emotions washed over her, destroying the brief contentment. Yearning so painful she had to clench her teeth to hold it back rose to her throat.
She looked at the two married couples, then at Judd. Once they had been like that—happy and in love. Once…She wanted it again.
Ten
“C all if you need anything,” Maggie told Tracy as she and Jackson left the house. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
Tracy waved to the couple, then closed the door. It had been a pleasant evening. Even Judd, in spite of his painful leg, had laughed and chatted with ease.
He and Sterling McCallum were cut from the same cloth, she thought. Jackson was more open. Or maybe he seemed that way because she’d known him most of her life.
She poured a glass of water, glanced around the kitchen, which the three women had cleaned, then returned to the master bedro
om.
“Where are the painkillers Kane gave you?” she asked.
“Who said he did?” Judd challenged. “Besides, I don’t need anything for pain. I feel fine. You can go home.”
She ignored his dismissal and rummaged through his damp clothing, which was hanging in the bathroom. She found several packets of pills. She opened one, dumped the two tablets on her palm and carried them to him with the water.
“I can tell you’re hurting,” she said softly.
“You can read minds?” he demanded. “Even Winona can’t do that. You two should go into business together.”
“Don’t be a goose,” she reprimanded mildly. “You get a tense look around the eyes when you’re in pain.” She held out the pills.
He snorted, threw the tablets into his mouth, took the glass and swallowed the medicine in one gulp. He finished off the water and set the glass on the lamp table. “There, all gone.”
“Good. Do you want to sleep or shall I read to you?”
“Neither,” he said, giving her a sour glance. “You can go.”
“I’m spending the night.”
“Like hell!”
“It might come to that.” She grinned at him, feeling very much in control. He could hardly get up and throw her out…well, knowing Judd, he probably could, but he wouldn’t.
He took a deep breath. “Look, I appreciate your TLC, but I’m all right. Really. You don’t have to play nurse.”
“I’m staying.” She took his wet clothing from the bathroom and went to the laundry room, which was right off the kitchen. She tossed the clothes in the tub, saw a basket of other items, sorted them, added them to the load and started the machine.
While she checked the refrigerator and started a grocery list, she wondered if he did his own cooking and cleaning. Tomorrow she would bring over food from her place.
Hmm, perhaps she’d better go tonight. She needed her pajamas and toiletries.
She realized she was planning on staying for more than the night. But maybe not. There had been wariness and resentment in Judd’s eyes whenever he’d looked her way during the evening.
Sighing, she rubbed the slight tension headache that had settled in the back of her skull and considered what to do. Well, she’d stay until Judd was up and about. Kane had said he’d drop off a pair of crutches in the morning.
Montana Mavericks 04 - The Once and Future Wife Page 14