The first thing he saw was what was left of a boot. He suddenly felt weak as he stared at what lay beyond the boot—a mummified body. Call Winchester.
Jack sat back on his haunches, surprised at the range of emotions that rushed through him like a wildfire. He’d dreamed of the day he would fulfill his promise to his mother. He’d expected revenge to taste sweet. Finally Pepper Winchester would get what she deserved.
But there was no sweetness, only a deep sorrow in him as he looked at what he knew were his grandfather’s remains. He’d spent his adult life working hard to succeed in business, waiting for the opportunity to break down this wall and show the world who Pepper Winchester really was. It was going to make it all that much sweeter that she was still alive and would know who uncovered her deadly secret.
Jack waited for the relief, the elation, the smug satisfaction. He finally had proof that his grandmother had killed her husband and hidden his body behind this rock wall, just as his mother had heard.
He’d gotten what he’d come for. He didn’t give a damn about any inheritance. Now all he had to do was call his cousin the sheriff and let her take it from here. He could wash his hands of this place that had haunted him all these years.
But what he hadn’t expected was to feel a connection to this ranch or this family. He hadn’t expected to meet Josey or fall in love. Or feel anything for his grandmother, let alone a dead grandfather he’d never known.
Jack heard a sound behind him. Josey, he thought. Of course she wouldn’t be able to stay in the room. She would be worried about him. She would—He turned and saw the figure framed in the doorway.
PEPPER WINCHESTER had been coming out of the parlor when she’d seen Josey racing down the stairs as if the devil himself were after her.
“Call the sheriff,” Josey had cried. “I have to get to Jack.”
She’d tried to stop the girl to make sense of what was happening, but Josey had rushed out without answering. The fear in the young woman’s face had sent an arrow of panic through Pepper’s own heart.
“What is wrong with that girl?” Virginia demanded, coming out from her room at the back wing.
“Stay here. Call the sheriff. Tell McCall there’s some kind of trouble.”
Her daughter’s eyes widened in alarm. “You’re not going out there.”
But Pepper was already following Josey. She couldn’t move as quickly, and once outside it took her a few minutes for her old eyes to adjust to the dark. She caught a glimpse of Josey running toward the closed wing of the lodge.
That building was actually the first homestead. Call had workers add on to it, the lodge expanding, as his grandiose plans developed, into what it was today. But Pepper remembered his stories about his parents living in what people would call an old shotgun house. Long and narrow, the hall ran straight through every room to the back door. Only this one didn’t have a back door. The house ended in an old root cellar tucked into the hillside.
She saw Josey stop, heard the old dog growling even from here. As she worked her way in that direction, Pepper realized it had been years since she’d ventured out of the house. She wasn’t used to walking on uneven ground, even with her cane. She felt exposed out here and suddenly afraid as she saw Josey give the dog a wide berth before slipping past the dog and disappearing into the door of the wing Pepper had Alfred close off years ago.
She quickened her pace, gasping for breath, as she realized that what she had feared for more than forty years was about to come true.
RJ WAS MOVING down the hallway toward a scratching sound and a sliver of light under one of the doors, when he heard someone come into the house behind him. He quickly stepped into one of the darkened rooms, pressing his back against the wall.
He’d heard the dog growling, heard someone trying to soothe it. He’d expected whoever it was to run back to the house screaming after seeing the old man’s body with the ax buried in it.
Rubbing his wounded shoulder, RJ swore under his breath at the pain. He hadn’t seen the old man until it was too late. He’d sensed someone behind him in time to avoid the brunt of the ax. But the wooden handle had hit his shoulder.
The ax had stuck in the side of the log house. As the old fool had tried to wrestle it free, RJ had hit him, knocking him backward. Then, close to blacking out from the pain of the blow on his already injured shoulder, RJ had furiously jerked the ax from the wall and swung it as hard as he could. It stuck with a suctioning sound.
RJ had looked around, but he hadn’t seen anyone else. One down, he’d thought. Then he’d heard an odd noise coming from within the building. He’d looked for a way into this wing and found an old door where someone had removed the boards that had been tacked over it.
Someone was in there working at this hour? There was a chipping sound, then a scraping sound, as if something large was being moved across the floor.
He’d opened the door, listened, then stepped through, and was partway down the hall when he’d heard someone come in behind him.
Now he held his breath, wondering what was going on and why everyone was headed for this particular part of the strangely built house. The only light was a faint glow coming from under a door farther down the hallway. Where he stood there was total darkness. But he could feel a draft and realized that the window across from him, although partially boarded
