by C. J. Box
It was ten thirty in the morning and her head was foggy despite nine hours of sleep. As it cleared, the events of the night before came flooding back and she rubbed at her eyes. It was all still unbelievable and immensely depressing.
The foundation of the case against Blake Kleinsasser was crumbling all around her. The sheriff in charge of the investigation was crooked which meant everything he’d been involved in—the time line, the affidavits, the evidence—was suspect. Witnesses including Jody Haak and Lindy Glode were either avoiding her or hiding out. She’d been spied on by someone. Her car and possessions had been destroyed. The entire Kleinsasser family wanted her gone. The accused was in a coma and might not recover.
And a truck driver had tried to kill her but instead murdered an innocent woman.
You need to get out of there now rang in her ears.
*
“Why aren’t you in school?” she asked Ben when he picked up.
“I’m not feeling good today. I’m sick.”
He did sound very down and unlike himself, she thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, my stomach. I might have eaten too much.”
Despite herself, she smiled.
“Is Isabel okay with you staying home?” Cassie asked.
“I guess. She went to her hot yoga class.”
“We’ve been really missing each other on these calls,” Cassie said. “You were going to tell me something the other night and we got cut off.”
“By the cops,” Ben said.
“Yes, by the cops. So, what was it?”
“It seems like a million years ago now,” he said with a sigh.
Cassie sat straight up when he told her about the eighteen-wheeler.
“Did you get a look at the driver?”
“No. He was too high up to see in the window.”
“Did you get the license plate number?”
“No, Mom. I didn’t even think about it.”
“Did you call the police?” she asked.
“Nah. Erin said they’d think we were crazy.”
“I don’t,” Cassie said. “I absolutely believe you.”
She debated whether to tell him about the destruction of her motel room and decided against it. She’d tell him later when she returned and they were together. She didn’t want to alarm him.
“Have you seen it again?” she asked.
“No.”
“Has Erin?”
“She might have. That’s what she told me last night.”
“Ben,” Cassie said, “I’m not really convinced that you’re sick enough to stay home. But I’m glad you did.”
“Why?”
“I’ll explain it all later,” she said. “I’m just glad we finally connected. It’s been just as crazy here and it’s nice to talk with you. It feels so normal.”
“Are you coming home?”
“Yes. Probably tonight.”
“Good.”
She’d just made the decision during the phone call with her son. Cassie would make another attempt to find Lindy Glode and Jody Haak, then return to Bozeman even if she wasn’t successful in locating them. It seemed almost pointless now to continue her investigation. All she was really doing was checking off boxes. She’d had enough. She was whipped.
“Is that all that’s wrong—that your stomach hurts?” she asked. “I can tell by your voice that something’s bothering you.”
“You can?”
“I’m your mother. Are you doing all right besides?”
He paused for a long time. “I guess I just don’t get girls very well.”
“Are you talking about this Erin?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
So now she knew who he’d been texting. And who had put him into such a giddy mood for the last week or two.
“Teenage girls are hard to figure out sometimes,” she said. “Even mature women are sometimes hard to figure out. Except me, of course.”
He laughed weakly at that.
“It’s just hard to know what to say,” Ben continued. “Or how to know what I should have said, I guess.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Not really. Why would I want to tell my mother about it?”
“Because maybe I can help a little,” she said.
He seemed to think about it, then said, “Nah. That’s okay.”
“You know you can always talk to me,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“So, rest your stomach and plan to go to school tomorrow. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Don’t fight with Isabel.”
“That’s a little harder to do,” he said. She could tell he was smiling.
“And don’t worry about Erin,” Cassie said. “Girls that age can turn on a dime. You never know why they act a certain way. It may even not have anything at all to do with you.”
“Yeah.”
She disconnected the call and hugged herself. It was nice to have a hopeful feeling. She loved that boy.
*
Cassie dressed in the same clothes she’d worn the previous day since her bag was still somewhere under the wreckage of her motel room. Then she made bad coffee in the hotel coffeemaker and opened her laptop on the small table.
She rarely looked at Facebook and never posted anything. Her account was under Dewell Investigations, not her own name. Occasionally, someone would try to contact her there and she had received a couple of pieces of business that way.
Since Jody Haak didn’t have a phone or internet, he likely didn’t have an account. He didn’t look like the type. And he didn’t, at least under his own name.
But Lindy Glode of Lolo, Montana, did. She was of the right age. Cassie sent her a friend request. Maybe she’d respond.
Then Cassie checked out Ben’s account. She always felt a little guilty when she did so, but not guilty enough to stay away.
She was curious about Erin Reese. She wanted to see a photo of the girl who had broken Ben’s heart. She scrolled through Ben’s friends and Cassie gasped when she found her.
Erin Reese looked just like Franny Porché. Cassie had seen photos of Franny in the case file. And she recalled Ben saying his new friend had just moved to Bozeman and was new at the school as well.
Erin Reese was Franny Porché.
Cassie shared the profile picture to her phone and attached it to an email to Rachel.
Cheyenne had created a new identity for her daughter and moved her to Bozeman. Whether it was to protect Franny by getting her away from Lochsa County and what had happened there, or away from the Kleinsasser family snake pit, Cassie didn’t know.
Perhaps, Cassie thought, the reason might be to hide Franny away from people like Cassie and Rachel.
*
Rachel called before Cassie left the room. “Is this photo who I
think it is?” she asked.
Cassie explained where she’d found it.
“She’s been right under our noses the whole time,” Rachel said with astonishment. “It does make some sense, though. Cheyenne’s stashing Franny away where she can go to school and live a normal life until she’s called to testify at trial. Either that, or she’s hiding Franny so no one can talk with her about her story.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Cassie said.
“Does Ben have any idea who she really is?”
“No, and I don’t look forward to telling him. He’s smitten with her, although he’s worried about her right now. He doesn’t understand how she’s acting or why. It’s possible she feels threatened and she’s trying to keep him out of it.”
Cassie relayed to Rachel what Ben had told her about nearly being mowed down by the semi-truck.
“Do you think it was the same one that went after you?” Rachel asked.
“Who else could it be? It’s too hard to conceive of more than one driver doing all this. I think Ben is a target because of me. He doesn’t know it yet. And Franny might think, given her situation,
that the near miss was about her instead of him.”
Rachel didn’t disagree.
“Where are you now?”
“I’m at the Holiday Inn Express in Lolo.”
“Does anyone know you’re there?”
“No.”
“What about your rental car?”
“I parked it in a safe place and walked,” Cassie said. “That’s not to say that it hasn’t been located by Sheriff Wagy’s thugs, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
“Good,” Rachel said. “Get packed up. Then go get in it and come back.”
“There’s really nothing to pack. All I’ve got are the clothes on my back.”
“Will you drive straight here?”
“Later today. I promised Ben.”
“Thank God you’ve finally come to your senses,” Rachel said. “Look, our firm has good connections with the administration of the school district. Jessica used to represent them and she’s personal friends with the superintendent and the principal of the high school. I think we can work through them to make Franny available for an interview.”
“ Really?”
“I’ll take Jessica along to be in the room with me when we talk with her,” Rachel said. “You should be there as well.”
Cassie said, “That might be a little awkward. Ben’s mom interviewing Franny, after all.”
“Good point. We don’t want to spook her.”
“Won’t you need permission from Cheyenne?” Cassie asked.
“Who knows? We don’t even know Franny’s situation here. She might be staying with relatives or friends of the Kleinsassers until she testifies at the trial. I’ll try to find out and I’ll keep you posted.”
*
Things were moving fast now. Cassie felt a sense of exhilaration that the end of the investigation was in sight. She also hoped that she could make it out of Lochsa County before they closed in on her.
She stepped out of the elevator and walked past the front desk on the way out. It felt odd not having a clothes bag of any kind.
A young woman behind the desk said, “Ma’am, were you in Room 827?”
Cassie looked at her key card because she couldn’t remember. The number 827 was written on the sleeve.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, but the night clerk didn’t check you in properly.”
“I paid cash.”
“Yes, but he didn’t get an ID.”
“That’s okay,” Cassie said as she walked out through the double glass doors.
*
The morning was warm and it was even smokier than it had been. It felt more like dusk than mid-morning as Cassie looked for oncoming cars before crossing the highway. She didn’t see any, and she was grateful. Cassie had the feeling there were lots of people looking for her, which is why she hadn’t presented her driver’s license at the front desk the night before. The extra twenty she’d given the night clerk helped him forget about that step.
There wasn’t a sidewalk on the other side of the highway and she followed a trail two blocks south to the used car lot where she’d parked her rental Ford. There had been an opening between two pickups for sale and she’d left it there, thinking that local law enforcement wouldn’t cruise a used car lot to look for her rental.
As she passed through a stand of pine trees toward the lot something crashed from within the brush. Cassie jumped back and dug into her handbag for her Glock, her heart whumping in her chest.
Something big and dark pushed through the tangle and she trained her weapon on it.
It was a lone cow elk and the creature’s left side was blackened by fire, the hide burned down to cracked black skin. The elk saw Cassie at the same time and froze, her nostrils enlarging and her eyes widening.
“Poor girl,” Cassie said, lowering her handgun.
The elk snorted and pivoted on her hind feet and smashed through the cover. Cassie could hear its hooves pounding through the timber until she could no longer see it.
The elk was singed, but still alive. Cassie felt a kinship with her.
*
Cassie walked through two rows of vehicles and used her key fob to unlock the Expedition from twenty feet away. A salesman in a short-sleeved dress shirt and tie appeared from a low-slung office.
“Is that your car?” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“You left it here?”
“I did.”
“Well, that solves the mystery of the morning,” he said.
“Thanks for not selling it to anyone.” She smiled as she climbed in and drove away.
*
From her car, she called the Lochsa County Assessor’s office.
Since her arrival, Cassie had played fair and followed the rules. That was over. Rules no longer applied when the people she was up against were venal and corrupt. She could hear the words of her mentor Cody Hoyt in her mind.
You’ll find, Cassie, that it’s us against the world….
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Sandra with UPS. We’re trying to deliver a package to a rural resident named Jody Haak. That’s spelled HA-A-K. Unfortunately, the address has only a post office box and we need his physical address for delivery. I’ve tried to reach Mr. Haak with no luck. Is there any way you can help me since he sends his property tax check to you?”
“Well, this is kind of an unusual request,” the woman on the other end said. She sounded matronly, Cassie thought.
“The problem is,” Cassie said, “I think it’s a food delivery of some kind and there’s an expiration date on it. We’d hate for it to spoil.”
There was a long pause, then a sigh. The woman said, “Just a second and I’ll look it up.”
“Thank you so much.”
Cassie wrote down the address on the back of her rental car folder.
*
Then she called the Lochsa County Sheriff’s Department. A man answered, and Cassie recalled the large jowly deputy she’d met running the evidence room and she thought the voice sounded like his.
She made her own tone high and breathy and she hoped he wouldn’t recognize her.
“I just heard that my friend Linda Murdock was involved in a horrible accident last night. I’ve called around and no one seems to know where her body was taken. Can you please help me out?”
“Hold on,” the man said.
He came back in less than a minute. “Ma’am, her body was taken to Hamilton Mortuary and Chapel.”
“That’s in Hamilton, then?”
“Yes, ma’am. We don’t have a funeral home here in Horston or anywhere in the county.”
“Thank you. That’s very good to know.”
She disconnected before he could ask her name.
Hamilton was twenty miles south, just beyond Corvallis on the highway. After trading her rental in for another make and model that wasn’t yet known to law enforcement, she’d drive straight through Lochsa County and out the other side.
Hamilton Mortuary and Chapel was a few miles farther south. Jody Haak lived somewhere farther up a mountain road. She had the address.
With luck, she could be on the road back home by late afternoon.
twenty-three
Cassie drove through Horston in her new car, a Honda CRV with Nevada plates, wearing sunglasses and a complimentary ball cap from the rental agency. She didn’t see any sheriff’s department vehicles and no one pulled her over. She didn’t begin to breathe easily until she drove past the Lochsa County line. She kept an eye out for the injured cow elk but didn’t see her again. The heavy smoke hung in the trees as if being pushed down from above by a giant hand. Her throat was raw from breathing it.
The Hamilton Mortuary was on Main Street a block west of the small downtown. It had a façade made of logs and a sign beneath that read, CARING FOR YOUR LOVED ONES SINCE 1978.
She turned off the engine and checked her face in the rearview mirror. The bags under her eyes were annoying but she no longer had her makeup kit so there was nothing she could do to fix
her look. She sighed and climbed out. There were four other cars in the parking lot, all with Montana plates.
The reception area was somber and hushed. Gentle Muzak played at very low volume, although she recognized the song as “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. She thought it was an inappropriate choice for a funeral home, but it was such an anodyne version that it probably didn’t draw much notice.
A plump woman in her sixties sat behind a desk. She had glasses with faux tortoiseshell frames and tight curls of silver hair. A kindly smile was part of her ensemble.
“May I help you?” she asked gently.
“I’m here to pay my respects to Linda Murdock. I understand she’s here.”
The woman nodded that she was. “Are you with the family?”
Cassie couldn’t make herself lie or come up with a ruse. The seriousness of the situation almost overwhelmed her, and she felt guilty for being there. After all, she’d thought that if there was any chance to finally meet face-to-face with Lindy Glode, her stepmother’s death might smoke her out. But Linda Murdock was a real human being and she deserved respect. She was a wife to a disabled husband and the stepmother of a likely grieving stepdaughter. And she’d died because she came to Cassie to offer information and help.
Cassie was exploiting the situation.
“I’m not with the family,” Cassie said. “I was with Linda when she was … killed.”
“It was a horrible accident,” the woman said. “It was a real tragedy what happened.”
It wasn’t an accident, Cassie wanted to say but didn’t.
“Have they found the driver?” the woman asked.
They aren’t even looking for him.
Instead, Cassie asked, “Is the family here?”
The woman nodded. “We have a grieving room. It’s a place for the family to gather and mourn the deceased before funeral arrangements are made.”
“Is it in the back?”
At that point Cassie envisioned entering a room as a stranger while Murdock’s loving family sought comfort from each other. It was as inappropriate as the song being piped through the facility. If the woman behind the desk asked Cassie to leave the premises, Cassie was okay with it.
“Lyle is back there with them in case they need anything,” the woman said. “Maybe you can check with him.”