She couldn’t help being touched by his concern. “While I appreciate you coming to my rescue, now you have to watch your back as well when it comes to him.”
“You could have taken him.” He was studying her as they walked.
Mo nodded. “I could have that time because I saw him coming. That’s the problem with men like Shane Danby. When he’s most dangerous is when you don’t see him coming. But he told me something disturbing.” Mo told him about the bounty. “It might be a lie. But it also might be true, in which case we have to find Natalie before anyone else does.”
“WELL, AT LEAST WE know what Natalie is driving,” Brick said as they left the bar. A deputy from the department was taking down the information on the stolen car. He and Mo hadn’t needed to hang around to listen to the description of the thief the woman from the car was giving the deputy. “There’s a BOLO out on the car. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s picked up within the hour.”
Mo snorted as she and Brick left. “Have you ever noticed how large Montana is?” She shook her head. “There isn’t enough law enforcement to cover it all. But more important, Natalie grew up here. She knows the state. She’ll know where to go.”
He glanced over at her. “You really have no faith at all in the law, do you?”
Mo was busy calling up a map on her phone. “If you wanted to go to the closest small town, which one would you chose?”
“West Yellowstone. Or cut across to Ennis. They’re both small. She’d be harder to find in Bozeman, though.”
“Ennis,” she said emphatically. “Let’s go.”
Ennis wouldn’t have been his choice, but he didn’t argue. Mo said she knew Natalie. He headed south down the canyon toward the cut-across to Madison Valley and Ennis. “I’m curious. How did your sister find Natalie?”
“Through the hospital. Natalie had left her information there. She had a great résumé. She seemed perfect since she specialized in patients with special needs and she’d worked as a nurse nanny.”
“Did your sister get references on her?”
Mo nodded. “She made a few calls, but once she met Natalie, she liked her so much she didn’t bother checking the rest of the references.”
Brick thought of the woman he’d seen on television and photographed in the newspaper. Slightly built, Natalie was a plain, nonthreatening young woman with what he would have thought of as an honest face.
“It was for such a short time since Tricia planned to stay home full-time, but had to tie up loose ends at her job. Also, Natalie didn’t mind the short-term employment. Mostly, Tricia was just so grateful to find someone so experienced. But I know a lot of it was that she liked Natalie right away. I did too when I met her. She had this way of making you feel at ease around her. It’s no wonder that she’s fooled so many people.”
“If she’s guilty,” he said, and she grunted.
As he drove past the turnoff to his family ranch, he glanced in that direction. A cold chill ran up his spine to lift the hair on the nape of his neck. He had the worst feeling that he might not ever see it again. It was a crazy premonition that something bad would happen and he’d never make it home again. He didn’t believe in premonitions. He wondered what the shrink he saw would make of it. But it still shook him.
“You know anything about her background?” he asked to clear his own thoughts.
“Trying to profile her? Good luck with that. It’s pretty boring. She was raised on a ranch in eastern Montana, two hardworking parents, an only child. She was valedictorian and president of her senior class. Got top grades in nursing school and excelled at the two hospitals where she worked before going into in-home care.”
“Was she ever arrested before?” he asked as he drove down the canyon. The sun dropped behind the mountains and twilight began to cast long shadows in the canyon.
“No. Not even for a parking ticket. But who knows about her other nursing jobs? Apparently the patients all had life-threatening medical problems. Most of them weren’t expected to live, so when they died...”
“But she was never a suspect before, right?”
“That doesn’t mean that she’s not guilty,” Mo said defensively. “Maybe this time she wasn’t as careful. Or the medical examiner was more qualified.”
He glanced over at her. “But now any deaths where she was the nurse are in question.” He drove in silence as he thought about the woman he’d seen in his headlights not even twenty-four hours before. “I’m sorry, but I keep thinking, what if she really is innocent? We hear about babies dying of SIDS or doctors being unable to pinpoint what caused a death. Maybe she wasn’t responsible for any of them. Maybe it’s just bad luck on her part. And if what she told you is true...”
“If it’s true, why didn’t she tell the police?”
“Maybe she did. I doubt they were apt to believe her. You’re still not sure you do.”
She shot him a look before she said, “Let me know when we reach Ennis or if you need me to drive.” Then she turned away from him and a few minutes later, he heard her slow, rhythmic breathing and realized she’d fallen asleep.
MO CAME OUT of the nightmare fighting.
“Whoa! Take it easy,” Brick cried as he held up a hand to ward off her blows while keeping the pickup on the road with the other.
She sat up blinking as she fought off the remnants of her bad dream. She could feel Brick’s questioning gaze on her. She ignored him. No doubt he’d seen and heard enough as she was coming awake to know it had been a nightmare. She didn’t want to talk about it and hoped he wouldn’t ask.
Through the pickup’s windshield she could see lights ahead illuminating
