Josey seemed surprised at the sudden turn in conversation. “I like lemon.”
Pepper graced her with a rare smile that actually reached the older woman’s eyes. “I don’t believe you told me how you and my grandson met.”
“I was hitchhiking and he picked me up,” Josey said.
Jack laughed, as he saw Josey flush at her own honesty. “It was love at first sight.” He shot her a look that could have melted the icing on her cake.
Her flush deepened.
“She climbed into my car and, as they say, the rest is history,” Jack said.
Pepper was studying Josey with an intensity that worried him. The elderly woman seemed to see more than he had originally given her credit for. Did his grandmother suspect the marriage was a ruse?
“Well, how fortunate,” Pepper said, shifting her gaze to Jack. “You’re a lucky man.” Her smile for him had a little more bite in it. “You have definitely proven that you’re a Winchester.”
Jack chuckled, afraid that was no compliment. It didn’t matter. He could tell that his grandmother liked Josey and he would use that to his advantage. But it wouldn’t change the way he felt about his grandmother.
He’d spent most of dinner secretly studying his beautiful “wife.” Josey continued to surprise him. Her manners and the way she carried herself made him realize she must have come from money—probably attended a boarding school, then some Ivy League college. She seemed to fit in here in a way that made her seem more like a Winchester than he ever could. So how did she end up on the side of the road with nothing more than a backpack? And more importantly, why would a woman with her obvious pedigree be sitting here now, pretending to be his wife?
“You’ve hardly touched your food.”
Jack dragged his gaze away from Josey as he realized his grandmother was talking to him. “I guess I’m not really hungry.”
Pepper nodded. “You probably have other things on your mind.”
“Yes. I should apologize for making this trip into a honeymoon. It wasn’t my intention when I answered your letter.”
“No, I’m sure it wasn’t,” his grandmother said with a wry smile. “But what better place than the family ranch? I assume you remember growing up here. You loved to ride horses. Surely you’ll want to ride while you’re here and show Josey the ranch. You were old enough to remember your uncle Trace, weren’t you?”
Virginia didn’t bother to stifle a groan.
Her mother ignored her. “You must have been—”
“Six,” Jack said, and felt all eyes at the table on him. Beside him, he sensed that even Josey had tensed.
“Then you remember the birthday party I threw for him?”
Jack nodded slowly. It wasn’t likely he would forget that day. His mother told him years later that Pepper had been making plans for weeks. Everything had to be perfect.
“I think she really thought that if she threw him an amazing birthday party, Trace would come back to the ranch,” his mother had told him. “Of course the only way he was welcome back was without the woman he’d eloped with, the woman who was carrying his child. Or at least he thought was carrying his child. Pepper didn’t believe it for a moment. Or didn’t want to.”
“I had a cake flown in,” Pepper said, her eyes bright with memory. “I wanted it to be a birthday he would never forget.” Her voice trailed off, now thick with emotion.
Instead it had been a birthday that none of the rest of them had ever forgotten. His grandmother, hysterical with grief and disappointment when Trace hadn’t shown for the party, had thrown everyone off the ranch, except for Enid and Alfred Hoagland.
“I bought all the children little party hats,” she was saying. “Do you remember?”
From the moment he’d received the letter from his grandmother’s attorney, Jack had known she wanted something from him. He just hadn’t been sure what. But he had an inkling he was about to find out.
“I recall sending all of you upstairs so you wouldn’t be underfoot,” Pepper said. “I believe you were playing with my other grandchildren at the time.” Her gaze locked with his, and he felt an icy chill climb up his spine and settle around his neck. “Whose idea was it to go up to the room on the third floor? The one you were all forbidden to enter?”
THIS FAR NORTH it was still light out, but it would be getting dark soon. Deputy Sheriff McCall Winchester listened to the whine of the tow truck cable, her focus on the dark green water of the Missouri River.
Déjà vu. Just last month, she’d watched another vehicle being pulled from deep water. Like now she’d feared they’d find a body inside it.
A car bumper broke the surface. The moment the windshield came into view, McCall felt a wave of relief not to see a face behind the glass. Which didn’t mean there still wasn’t someone in the car, but she was hoping that bizarre as this case was so far, it wouldn’t get any worse.
The tow truck pulled the newer-model luxury car from the water to the riverbank, then shut off the cable motor and truck engine. Silence swept in. Fortunately they were far enough upriver on a stretch of private ranch land away from the highway, so they hadn’t attracted any attention.
McCall stepped over to the car as water continued to run out from the cracks around the doors. She peered in, again thankful to find the car empty of bodies. Snapping on latex gloves, she opened the driver side door and let the rest of the water rush out.
Along with river water, there were numerous fast food containers, pop cans, empty potato chip bags.
“Looks like they were living in the car,” a deputy said.
McCall noticed something lodged under the brake pedal.
“Get me an evidence bag,” she ordered, and reached in to pull out a brand-new, expensive-looking loafer size 10½.
“The driver got
