Montana Refuge Read online

  “Because he collapsed and I fell over the top of him when the horses took off.”

  “And the someone who did this to Andy—that person is really after you?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “How do you know all this?”

  “It’s kind of what I do,” he said.

  “Which is?”

  “I’m former police, former bodyguard, former detective. I know when someone is in trouble. And you, Julie Hunt, are in trouble, aren’t you?”

  His past careers coupled with his current goal explained a lot about John Smyth, such as why he was always asking questions, why he was always around. Maybe it wasn’t wise, but she found herself trusting him. “Someone is trying to kill me,” she said. “Someone on this cattle drive, I think.”

  “Why?”

  “Good question.”

  “And you don’t know the answer?”

  “Well, I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s a certainty that I know something I shouldn’t. I’m just not sure what it is.”

  “Ah,” he said. “That makes perfect sense.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Tyler was relieved to see Julie’s tall, slender shape darting around the chuck wagon as he rode Yukon into camp. For a second, as he approached, he watched her, marveling at how energetic she appeared after the night they’d had to say nothing of her struggle in the river.

  Funny, but he’d always thought of her as being fragile and delicate. The hard-working dynamo she’d morphed into was a continual surprise and bore little resemblance to the woman she’d been two or three years ago when she last went on one of the cattle drives with him.

  She seemed to sense someone coming and looked up suddenly, her expression terrified for an instant until she apparently recognized him. He saw a flash of white teeth as he stopped the horse downwind of the wagon. “How’s Andy?” he asked as he dismounted and dipped his hands into a pail of water. He found a sliver of soap with which to wash, then splashed some on his face as well. She handed him a towel.

  “He’s stirring a little now. Two of your wranglers set up a tent for him and carried him over there. I go check on him every once and a while just to make sure he’s okay,” she added as she poured him a mug of coffee. He must have looked a little leery of the cup, for she assured him she’d scrubbed it clean before making another pot, just in case.

  He looked toward the bottom of the bluff where several tents had been taken from storage—apparently many of the guests had asked for tents tonight and Tyler wasn’t surprised. People who chose to sleep under the stars when they were camping on grassy shores often chose the coziness of a roof over their head for a stark ravine. It was one of the reasons he’d chosen it as a campsite. Besides having food and water for the livestock for a night, it was rugged, different than the shores of the river which they’d experienced the night before, enriching the whole experience.

  This camp also boasted a lean-to stocked with extra supplies. They’d found years before that spending a couple of days at the beginning and end of each season to stock the shacks with things like tents, some larger cooking gear and various sports equipment cut way back on the need to transport everything each and every time they made a trip. As out of the way as this camp was, it was also a favorite for ride-outs that didn’t include a cattle drive.

  “And how did it go with John Smyth?”

  “Fine. I told him what really happened today.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You did? That surprises me.”

  “Well, he mentioned a background in law enforcement and he was already figuring things out. Turns out he was a bodyguard at one time. I thought maybe we could use an extra set of eyes and ears.”

  He didn’t like this development. He wasn’t sure about Smyth. Looking around camp now, he saw very little movement. “Where is he?”

  “After helping me drag the firebox out of the shack, he joined some of the others for a hike to explore the stream that cuts through the bottom of the ravine. I think Nigel and Vincent convinced everyone there were fish in the stream.”

  “And those who didn’t go fishing?”

  “Dr. Marquis is taking a nap, and the Taylors are reading in their tent. Bobby Taylor went with the hikers.”

  He stared at her as she sliced onions. “So, we’re alone.”

  “Trust me, I am constantly on the lookout. We’re about as alone as you can get on a cattle drive.”

  He rested a hip against the wagon and pushed his hat back a little. “Tell me again what your boss said when you confessed you’d been spying on him.”

  She slid the pile of onions to one side of the cutting board and started cleaning green beans, one foot resting on an overturned crate. He grabbed a handful and helped her.

  “Let’s see. He was angry with me, which I expected—”

  “No, what did he say about Trill?”

  “That he didn’t know him.”

  “Did he offer any explanation about the picture of himself taken with Trill and the other two men?”

  “No. But, you know, he was at that conference to give a lecture and those are often followed by luncheons or dinners and many times, colleagues or even strangers eat a meal together without really knowing each other well, if at all. Trill might have been there investigating Professor Killigrew and arranged a picture.”

  “I know you’ve been busy trying to stay alive, but ask yourself this—why did your boss have a picture of strangers tucked into his private notebook?”

  “I don’t know. But he doodled and wrote in code. It was all pretty strange.”

  “Doodle?”

  “Just geometric shapes. Triangles and rectangles.”

  “Back to the photograph. It was the only one in there, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So if Killigrew didn’t know Trill, he must have known one of the other men. And you didn’t recognize either one?”

  As she pulled the string from a bean, she thought back to the photo. Killigrew with his mane of untamed white hair. Trill in a tan suit looking more like an insurance salesman than a cop. A third man of considerable weight with his back half-turned to the camera, and a smaller man, darker, round face, glasses, forty or so, in motion. “I don’t think I’d ever seen either one of them before, but now in some indefinable way, they both seem familiar to me, as though I’ve thought about that photograph so often I’ve gotten to know them. That sounds crazy. What does all this mean?”

  “I don’t know what it means. But you’ve described Killigrew as quite aggressive when you talked to him.”

  “Who could blame him after what I did?”

  “Hear me out,” he said, snapping a bean in two. “Trill, whoever he really is, accused him of racketeering, correct?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Was he specific about what they suspected him of doing?”

  “No. In fact he was very vague.”

  “As I understand it, racketeering is illegal business involving a group of people, like organized crime, for instance, rather than an individual. Did Trill mention any mob affiliations or anything like that?”

  “None.” She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. “He threw out a lot of words. Tax evasion and blackmail were mentioned. It was like they suspected the professor of being some horrible gangster. It didn’t make any sense to me. That’s why I was so sure they were barking up the wrong tree for the wrong man.”

  “And you said he was concerned about something that was going down this summer, too, right?”

  “Yes. In a few days the professor has another one of those conference lectures to deliver. Trill wanted me to gather information and listen in on phone calls. I can’t believe I went along with it. What kind of turncoat am I?”

  He stared into her eyes. “I know you feel bad about what you did, Julie,” he said. “But I want to suggest that there was some part of you that wondered about Killigrew, that maybe you harbored some suspicion that he isn’t on the up-and-up. That may have been why you allowed yourself
to get talked into this, so you could prove to yourself, and then to Trill, that Killigrew was as upstanding as you wanted him to be.”

  She looked angry for a moment and he thought maybe he’d stepped too close to the truth. Then she shook her head. “It was a dream job, Tyler. His assistant retired rather suddenly and he needed someone. It was the first job I interviewed for and he said I was perfect. At the time, I was desperate to have work and space—well, you know all about that. I jumped on it.”

  “Makes sense to me,” he said, hating her choice of words. She’d been desperate to escape him. Desperate to make an income because she’d refused to take money from him. And that space she’d craved? Space away from him. A shot of pure anger burned in his stomach and he had to concentrate to make it go away.

  “I’m going to try to get a hold of his former assistant when we get back to the ranch,” she said. “I know her name is Marti Keizer and she retired on the coast south of Seaside, Oregon. How many people with that name can possibly be roaming around a small town?”

  “That’s a good idea. Had she worked for him long?”

  “I guess just a couple of years. No one talked about her much, but that wasn’t too odd because there were so few people in the office and everyone was kind of uptight and private. There was someone else before her, but I don’t know who.”

  “Listen,” he said after taking a deep breath. “I’m riding up on the ridge where the reception is better to try to call the ranch and make sure my mother isn’t sicker than she let on. Come with me and call that friend of yours. See if anything is happening back in Portland you need to know about, including whether there’s a hunt of some kind going on for you.”

  “I can’t leave now. This is the last dinner I’ll be here to cook. I’m leaving in the morning—”

  “You’ve got a great start on dinner. I’ll help you stow this stuff. We’ll be gone only an hour or so. Leave a bowl of fruit out for anyone who’s hungry.”

  She agreed and they quickly put things away in the cooler, then they both got on Yukon, this time Julie riding behind. He toyed around with going to saddle up Andy’s horse for her, but in the end decided not to waste the time. The trail wasn’t a hard one and Yukon had had a pretty easy day.

  Also, it would be dishonest not to admit that he liked having Julie’s arms around his waist, her head resting against his shoulder. He knew she wasn’t asleep, but she was very quiet, and despite everything, the ride helped to dissipate his frustration.

  He knew from experience cell phone reception would be adequate on top of this ridge. They got off Yukon who wandered a few feet away to nibble on a patch of grass and Julie stretched out on a sun-baked flat rock. “You go first,” she called, closing her eyes, her face turned up to the sky.

  For a moment he stared at her. Tomorrow, she and Andy would head back to camp and she’d be gone before he got home from this trip. He turned his back on her beautiful face and placed his call.

  Heidi answered on the second ring and laughed when he asked to speak with his mother. “Rose is out on a ride with a group of bankers from Cincinnati,” she said. “They were a sudden booking and she’s sworn to make sure they have the time of their lives because she thinks they may come back again this fall.”

  “Is she feeling up to all that?”

  “Apparently. She’s been running around like crazy since you guys left.”

  “She was ill two days ago.”

  “I know.”

  “Did she go to the doctor?”

  “No. She whitewashed the gazebo.”

  He felt the oddest sense of disconnect. What the hell? Bottom line: If his mother was up to riding a horse and painting a gazebo, she couldn’t be on death’s doorstep. He said goodbye to Heidi, clicked off the phone and turned back to Julie.

  She was sitting up now, staring at him, those mysterious eyes of hers mesmerizing. “How is Rose?”

  “Apparently she’s fine,” he said.

  “Well, that’s good news. Why do you look confused?”

  “Because she’s lying to me about something,” he said.

  It was impossible not to pick up the way Julie’s gaze shifted and he had the sudden feeling she knew more than she was telling him and that it concerned Rose Hunt. “Do you know what’s going on with her?” he said, hitching his hands on his waist.

  She looked back at him. “I don’t.”

  “Truthfully?”

  “Truthfully.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll figure it out later. Your turn.” He handed her the phone and sat on the rock as she got to her feet and placed her call.

  After several seconds he heard her say something in a voice that sounded like she was leaving a message on a machine. “She’s still not answering,” Julie said. “I’m calling her brother.”

  She had to call information for his number, but was soon connected. He heard her ask a question or two, then she bent her head and listened as she walked in little circles. At one point her head popped up and she looked straight at Tyler. The expression in her eyes shot him like a bullet. He got to his feet and walked toward her because it struck him she was close to collapsing.

  She mumbled something into the phone and clicked it off, handing it back to him as though it might bite her.

  “What is it, Julie?”

  “Nora is dead,” she said, staring up at him, her eyes huge. “Oh, my God, she was murdered two nights ago. The police think she interrupted a burglary.”

  “Two nights ago? Is that the night you called her from the ranch?”

  “Yes. And Roger Trill was at my place when she got off the phone. She was going over there to pretend to see if she could tell if I took anything.” Her lips trembled and tears flooded her eyes. She stepped away, resuming the pacing, her steps clumsy through her tears. “She called George to tell him she was going to be late getting to his place, but he said her voice sounded funny and she was going on about a suitcase or something. He wasn’t sure what she was talking about. But she never showed up and he sent a friend to check on her and she’d been stabbed. What if she told Trill—”

  “What if she did?” he said, clutching her arms to keep her from spinning off into space. “Why would he hurt her just because she spoke with you? She didn’t even know exactly where you were.”

  “But if she mentioned the call, maybe he wanted her cell phone to try to trace me.”

  “He’s a cop, Julie. I think he could subpoena her cell phone records.”

  “But that would mean he was being open with his department and that seems unlikely.”

  “Then he could have probably talked her out of it. You told me she was worried about you and that he’d fed that worry by making it sound as if you were damn-near suicidal. I bet she would have done whatever he asked. There would be little cause to hurt her.”

  She pulled an arm away and mopped her eyes with a sleeve. He handed her a bandanna and she blew her nose.

  “Why did she tell her brother she was bringing a suitcase?” Tyler asked. “Was she going to stay with him?”

  “I doubt it. His place is really small and there’s a nurse who spends every night from around eleven o’clock until morning. There’d be nowhere for her to sleep. Besides, George sounded confused...” Julie’s voice trailed off as another thought struck her.

  “What is it?” Tyler demanded.

  “What if Nora found a suitcase and clothes missing from my apartment?”

  “But you said you didn’t take anything.”

  “I didn’t. But what if that’s why Trill wanted her to come over to my place? What if he’d secretly taken things the first time he was there and now he wanted Nora to confirm stuff was missing to establish that I was truly gone of my own will. Only she knew I hadn’t been home so she’d know he was trying to put something over on her. And what if he saw right through her pretense to believe whatever story he made up, so he killed her and made it look like a bad robbery?”

  “That is one hell of a lot of what
-ifs,” Tyler said.

  “I know.” Her tears had stopped for a few minutes, but now they began again. “Poor George. I don’t know what he’s going to do without Nora. And Tyler, it’s because of me, I just know it.”

  He reached out to hold and comfort her but he didn’t say anything. There was nothing he could say that would help, mainly because he thought she was probably right.

  * * *

  SOMEHOW, JULIE MANAGED to pull it together long enough to cook dinner. One of the calves had gotten itself stuck in a deep ditch, so two of the wranglers had to leave to rescue it and a couple of guests went along to help. Therefore, it was a smaller group who came through the chow line.

  Andy had finally staggered out of his tent earlier and asked for coffee. She’d served him up a big mug along with the leftover cobbler from the night before. He’d eaten, thanked her, suffered a once-over from Dr. Marquis and gone back to his tent where she suspected he’d spend the rest of the night. His eyes had only barely been half-open, but he’d listened attentively when she explained that she was probably the reason he had been drugged.

  Those who had gone after the calf returned in high spirits while Julie dished up hot peach crisp. It was her plan to get the dishes done as soon as possible so she could turn in early. Fatigue had come and gone and now she felt like one of the walking dead. If she was going to get Andy back to the ranch tomorrow and affect an escape from Montana for herself, she needed to be able to think clearly.

  What she purposely avoided thinking about was Nora’s death.

  Tyler seemed to be waiting until everyone had finished downing a cocktail or two. She imagined he hoped a little alcohol would make his revelations go over easier.

  He finally met Julie’s gaze as he stood and tapped a fork against his tin mug. When he spoke, his voice carried over the whole camp. “Folks, please, may I have your attention,” he began.

  Every head turned his direction. Julie had the feeling they’d all been waiting for an explanation of the day’s events that came from the source and not the rumor mill. “I want to tell you all that I’m sorry things were a little rough today and that there was so much hanging out by the river. You all deserve an explanation and to be made aware why there are going to be a few changes.”