by Leona Karr
Her sister mumbled something that Kerri couldn’t quite hear, but in a minute Harry came on the line, and listened as Kerri filled him in. “There seems to be a connection between Ardie Richards and a man, Thomas Tanner, who has a home between Central City and Blackhawk. Just what the connection is, I don’t know, but if you could run a driver’s license check on Thomas Tanner and get an address from his license, that would help a lot We’re at the Prospector in Central City where he stays sometimes, but if we don’t connect here with him, we’ll need to go to his home. I have the feeling that he may be the victim of a setup.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. What’s the telephone number there?” After she gave it to him, he promised to get back to her as soon as he had the information.
She put the telephone down on the stand beside the bed, and then she just sat there, staring at the ugly tweed carpet. She was so lost in thought that Mark refrained from saying anything to her. He quietly took some things out of his overnight bag and went into the bathroom.
When he came back in the room, she was standing at one of the tall narrow windows, looking out at the night sky. As she turned around, her stunned expression startled him. “What is it?”
She moistened her lips as if they were too dry to shape words. “It’s been clear from the beginning and I missed it. I don’t know how, but I missed it.”
“Missed what?”
She said very slowly, “Ardie Richards isn’t the children’s mother.”
Chapter Eleven
The impact of her words tightened every muscle in his body. His mind refused to accept what she was saying, and instant denial sprung to his lips. “Of course she’s their mother.”
“No, she’s not.”
“How do you know that?” What could have happened in the short time he’d been out of the room to bring about this incredible revelation?
She walked over to the desk where she had spread out papers from her briefcase. “Something bothered me from the first time that I saw Ardie’s note, but I couldn’t put my finger on it—until tonight.” She held the note out to Mark.
He read the curt message again, but looked equally blank when he’d finished.
“See the bold strokes,” she said. “The heavy T and A. The graphologist’s report pointed them out. And then there’s the almost perpendicular slant to all the letters.”
“So?”
“When I saw that envelope tonight, the same heavy T was in Thomas Tanner’s name. There’s no doubt about it, Ardie addressed that envelope to him.” “All right, Ardie wrote the note and addressed the envelope. I don’t see how that brought you to the astounding conclusion that she’s not the children’s mother. What am I missing?”
Her eyes flashed with excitement. “Timmy’s book, Are You My Mother?”
Mark looked at her as if she’d taken leave of her senses. “That book tells you who Timmy’s mother is?”
“Not the book,” she answered impatiently. “The inscription.”
“What inscription?” he asked, doing his best to try to understand how a children’s book had turned all their assumptions upside down.
“On the inside cover of that book, his mother wrote, ‘To Timmy Lee on his fourth birthday, Love, Mother.’” Kerri met Mark’s eyes squarely. “The writing is not the same as Ardie’s note, nor the address on Mr. Tanner’s envelope. The T in Timmy was flowing and the letters small and uniform. The person who gave that book to her son is not Ardie.”
He let out a slow whistle.
“My subconscious registered the difference in the handwriting, but I was so focused on the false assumption that Ardie was the mother, that I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me about the note. I thought it was the content that was trying to tell me something, but it didn’t hit me until tonight that it was the handwriting.”
Mark swallowed against a sudden constriction of his throat “But if Ardie’s not the mother,” he asked hoarsely. “Who is?”
“I don’t know. But I’m pretty darn sure we’ve been asking the wrong questions,” she admitted, remembering Timmy’s reaction when the subject of his mother came up. The boy was obviously hurting from his mother’s absence, but it wasn’t Ardie who brought the flow of tears to his eyes. “When we asked Timmy about his mother, we assumed he was talking about Ardie, but he wasn’t. The children are missing their real mother.”
He ran an agitated hand through his hair. “Wow, this puts a whole different twist on the woman’s disappearance. If Ardie’s not the children’s mother, where is their father? And how did my brother get roped into this whole thing?” Mark groaned. “I did my best when Jason was growing up to keep him from making stupid mistakes, so he wouldn’t hurt himself and others, but he really spun out of control on this one.”
“We don’t know that,” Kerri said as reassuringly as she could. “We know your brother married Ardie, but that’s all we know.”
“Isn’t that enough? He’s in the middle of this mess, and we both know it.”
The telephone rang and saved Kerri from having to answer. “Got the address for you,” Harry told her. “26 Canyon Butte Road. Blackhawk, Colorado.”
“How about the statistics on the license?”
“Age, fifty-nine. Height, five foot seven. Weight, 190 pounds. His picture shows a full face, double chin, thinning hair and brown eyes.” Harry added, “Looks kinda of shifty to me. I don’t like the idea of you trying to run him down. Why don’t I call the sheriff and have him check this guy out?”
“There’s no need to bring in anyone from the outside. I’m only going after information that will help me find Ardie. Either he’ll help me or he won’t.”
“What if he gets ugly?”
“Quit worrying. Mark is with me, if I need reinforcements. Thanks for your help, Harry. I’ll call you back first thing in the morning and tell you whether or not we found the guy.”
“Okay, but I’m less than an hour away if you need me.”
Kerri thanked him again and then hung up.
Mark said, “You’re amazing. I’ve never known anyone so relentless and tenacious. I gather from that spark in your eyes you got the address.”
She laughed softly. “Am I that transparent?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted, not too happily. He could tell that she was going full steam ahead with the investigation until she ran out of leads.
He reached out a hand and pulled her to him. Lowering his face to hers, he claimed the lips that parted to receive his. As he pressed her length against his, his hands molded the sweet curve of her back and waist, and he kissed her with a building hunger that blotted out everything else.
All the ugliness of the world passed them by for a brief moment. Then she reluctantly pushed away from his embrace. “We have to go,” she whispered with bruised lips.
“I know,” he said, kissing her one more time.
For the first time in her career, she was tempted to forget about business and linger in his arms, but a deeply imbedded sense of responsibility sent the temptation fleeing. She knew they shouldn’t waste any time in finding Tanner. She was almost positive that he’d lead them to Ardie.
“I suppose there’s no time for a leisurely dinner before we head out to find Canyon Butte Road?” Mark protested.
“We can pick up some food from the restaurant downstairs and eat it on the way.”
“I’ll forgo the food for something else, my sweet,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose. “What do you say?”
“I’m tempted,” she admitted. “But I have the feeling that we’d better find Mr. Tanner as soon as possible.
They left their room and knocked on the door of 207 across the hall just to be sure the man hadn’t come back during the few minutes they’d been in their room, but there was no answer.
Downstairs, they asked the pretty desk clerk if Thomas Tanner had picked up his messages, speculating that he might have come in and lingered in the casino or restaurant, but Bunny shook her blond head.
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
They were about to turn away, when she added “But your friend who left the message for him was here a few minutes ago.”
An earthquake wouldn’t have been any more of a shock. Kerri and Mark gasped almost in unison. “She was here?”
“Yeah, she wanted to know if Mr. Tanner had picked up her envelope. When I told her that he hadn’t, she seemed anxious, so I told her you guys were looking for him, too. She wanted to see the card that you left for him but I didn’t show it to her,” she said with satisfaction. “I did tell her which room you were in, though, since you said you wanted to talk to her, but she just took off.”
Kerri swore under her breath. She hadn’t considered staking out the lobby, because there was no reason to believe that Ardie would return so soon to see if her message had been picked up. Blast it all! Not only had they missed Ardie when she was under their noses, but now she knew someone was interested in Thomas Tanner. No telling if she’d hightail it out of the area before they had a chance to catch up with her. Kerri couldn’t believe that they’d been under the same roof with the woman a few minutes earlier.
Mark could tell Kerri was blaming herself. “Honey, you’re not clairvoyant, and neither am I. Who would have guessed Ardie would come waltzing in here a second time? We’re getting closer, that’s all that counts.”
Kerri held her tongue. She knew that no matter how close she came to finding a missing person, the individual could vanish again, could disappear as completely as the first time. Weeks of careful work would be lost, and the whole investigation forced back to square one. In this instance, Kerri was pulled in two directions. Should they wait here for Tanner, or try his home in Blackhawk?
Making her decision, Kerri said, “We can make a quick trip to Canyon Butte Road, and if we come up empty, we’ll come back here and wait for Tanner to show up.”
“Okay. You get a map while I order some sandwiches and coffee. I don’t like playing Blindman’s Bluff on an empty stomach.”
He strode off toward the restaurant while Kerri turned her attention to a rack of brochures and maps. Once she found the map she needed, she had no trouble locating Canyon Butte Road, which snaked off Highway 279. She knew that finding the road on the map and finding the right house on the hillside were two different things. Even in the daylight, mountain homes were hard to see because they were nestled in clumps of trees and boulders, hidden from the road. At night, a flickering light through the trees might betray a hidden dwelling, and she hoped that would be the case with Thomas Tanner’s house.
As they drove back to Blackhawk, the roast beef sandwich she’d begun to eat didn’t sit well in Kerri’s tense stomach, so she returned most of it to the sack. Hot, strong coffee was better, and as she sipped it, her thoughts raced ahead. She mentally calculated what they knew about Thomas Tanner. He stayed at the Prospector when he was in town gambling, but had a home of his own. He was probably the gray-haired gentleman that had taken Ardie away from the bedand-breakfast. And why all the urgency to find him? Ardie was anxious to give him a message of some kind. Was she was setting him up to get fleeced in a crooked gambling game? Unanswered questions swirled like dry leaves in a devil’s wind.
Mark couldn’t see much beyond the sweep of his headlights, but he spotted a weathered sign on a listing pole that alerted them they had reached Canyon Butte Road. The car rumbled across a cattle guard, and began climbing a road so narrow that it would have been easy to scrape the car against protruding boulders.
“I don’t like this,” Mark said, as the darkness closed in around them. “It’s hard enough to see anything in the trees, let alone a mailbox.”
When the beam of his headlights swept past a rutted road to the right, he wondered if he should have turned on it. How could they know whether Tanner’s house was on this gravel road, or set back like so many others in a maze of long driveways?
As the road climbed, they passed several clusters of mailboxes, but none had the right name or address. At least they were still on Canyon Butte Road, Kerri thought, completely disoriented as the road twisted back upon itself in a series of hairpin curves. Tree branches moving darkly against shelves of rocks gave an eerie impression of waving arms. Not once did they pass a car coming or going on the narrow road.
Mark wondered if they would come to an abrupt dead end or whether the road would eventually turn back upon itself. He was about to ask Kerri to check the map when she grabbed his arm.
“Stop. Back up,” she ordered, as she peered out the side window at a small wooden sign and arrow they’d almost missed: 26 Canyon Butte Road. The arrow pointed to the left where a side road made a sharp turn into an infinity of trees, scrubs and rocks.
Mark hesitated. If he’d been alone, there wouldn’t have been any question about going ahead, but putting Kerri in any kind of danger made him cautious. “Are you sure you want to tackle this tonight? Now that we know where Tanner lives, we could come back in the daylight and talk with him.”
“We could,” she granted, “but waiting until tomorrow might mean the difference between finding Ardie and losing her again. We may already be too late. She may have taken off like a bird in flight, and if she has, we’ll need to move fast. If she’s trying to contact Tanner, he could be our lead to her next move.”
Mark knew it was useless to argue, so he ignored an uneasy feeling in his stomach and headed the car through a tunnel of trees. Rocks spit out from under the wheels as they climbed sharply up the side of a hill. When they reached top, the road made an abrupt descent down the other side, and they saw the house.
Kerri felt some of her tension ease as brightly lighted windows spilled a yellow glow out into the night. Made of logs, the ranch-style house was fashioned with a wide veranda circling the front and sides, and a wide driveway led up to the front entrance. Thomas Tanner must be at home, she thought, and if the three cars parked in front were any indication, he must have company. What kind of company? The thought made her shoot a quick look at Mark. Maybe he’d been right about waiting until the next morning. And maybe, she should have taken Harry’s advice, and brought someone in authority with them. As quickly as the doubts came, she shoved them away.
Mark sensed her uneasiness, and spoke as lightly as he could. “Looks like we might be crashing a party. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re turning away unexpected guests.”
“I guess we’ll find out All I want is a few minutes conversation with Mr. Tanner.” Her frown deepened. “But if Ardie was expecting him at the Prospector, he may not even be home.”
Mark looked at the brightly lighted house. “But somebody sure is. Come on, let’s find out who.”
He opened the car door for her, and slipped his arm through hers as they walked up a flight of steps to the front door. He pushed the doorbell button and a melodic chime echoed from inside.
After a long moment, the door opened and Ardie stood there in the doorway, looking straight at them.
Mark and Kerri stared in disbelief.
“Who is it, Ardie?” A man shouted from the depths of the house.
She turned halfway and called back. “Just someone needing directions.”
The lie took Kerri so much by surprise that she couldn’t find her voice, but Mark recovered much faster. He guided Kerri past Ardie into a small foyer. Then he closed the door and positioned himself in front of his brother’s late wife. “Well, well, life is full of surprises, isn’t it?”
“Please, we can’t talk now.” She gave a furtive glance down a hall that ran the width of the house.
“Oh, I think we can,” Mark countered with a stubborn jut to his chin. “I’ve got three kids that belong to someone. You’d better start talking, Ardie, and the truth would be nice this time.”
“Easy, Mark,” Kerri cautioned. She could tell the woman was running on adrenaline overload. Her eyes were darting in every direction like a cornered animal. “We need to talk, Ardie,” Kerri said quietly in a nonthreatening tone.
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nbsp; Ardie hesitated, and then motioned toward a closed door a few steps down the hall. “In there, but be quiet,” she ordered in a hoarse whisper. “Don’t let them know you’re here. I’ll tell you everything and then you’ve got to leave, quick.”
As they crossed the hall, they could hear men’s voices coming from a room at the back of the house. Ardie stealthily opened the door, turned on a small light, motioned them in, and then quietly closed the door after them.
The room was a small study with bookshelves, leather chairs and a sofa banking a fireplace. Ardie quickly drew the blinds, and nervously sat on the edge of one chair while Mark and Kerri faced her from the couch.
She was a smaller woman than Kerri had visualized, and crow’s feet which didn’t show in the license photo marred the beauty of her blue eyes. A haunted expression deepened the lines around her mouth, and she seemed to be searching for a place to begin as she wiped sweaty hands on tight-fitting jeans, and pulled her lower lip between her teeth.
Mark waited as long as he could, then asked the question that topped his concerns, “Whose kids do I have?”
Kerri was afraid Ardie was going to refuse to answer. Ardie stared at Mark as if he were someone who had asked a question in a foreign tongue, but after a moment she moistened her lips and said clearly, “My sister’s.”
“Your sister’s?” Mark said loudly enough for Ardie to put a warning finger up to her lips.
“And you have custody of them?” Kerri asked, wishing she had a tape recorder to validate everything that was being said.
Ardie nodded.
“What happened?” Kerri coaxed. “Three little children are a huge responsibility for anyone.”
Ardie looked relieved as she turned to Kerri, obviously grateful that someone finally understood. “My sister, Irene, died a couple of months before I met Jason. Her husband was killed in a small plane crash when she was two months pregnant with the baby, and I think she died of a broken heart, although the doctors said it was an aneurysm. Anyway, there was no one else to take the kids, and when I met Jason, he really took to them, so I decided to marry him. My own husband was dead, and I thought I could change my life for the better.” Her lips quivered. “But I only brought Jason down with me.”