As she neared the house, the first drops of rain began to fall. The Cadillac sat out front where they’d left it yesterday, the top down. She noticed the keys were in the ignition, opened the driver-side door and slid behind the wheel. She whirred the top up, snapping it into place, then put up the windows and sat for a moment in the warm quiet, listening to the rain patter on the canvas roof.
She looked toward the house and thought of Jack. Through the parlor window, she could see shadows moving around inside. Jack and his grandmother?
Feeling almost guilty, she reached over and opened the glove box and dug around inside until she found the car registration.
The car was registered to Galaxy Corporation. The address was a post office box in Ten Sleep, Wyoming.
What was the Galaxy Corporation? And did this car even belong to Jack Winchester?
Josey hurriedly put the registration back in the glove box along with the Montana map, then changed her mind and opened the map.
Just as she had suspected. The town of Whitehorse had been circled. She struggled to read what had been written off to the east of it. Winchester Ranch.
A sliver of worry burrowed under Josey’s skin as she stuffed everything back into the glove box and closed it.
She sat in the car, listening to the patter of the rain, staring at the old Western ranch lodge and wondering who she was pretending to be married to.
JACK HADN’T WANTED to let Josey out of his sight, but he’d been cornered by his grandmother after dinner and had no choice.
A fire burned in the small rock fireplace. It crackled softly as Pepper Winchester motioned for him to sit opposite her in the matching leather chairs.
“I’m sorry I ambushed you the other day,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Pepper Winchester apologizing?
“I had hoped you might have remembered something from the day of Trace’s birthday party.”
What was it she wanted him to remember? he wondered. Or was it something she wanted to make sure he didn’t remember?
Suddenly, the room felt cold as a chill ran the length of his spine.
“I foolishly thought that if I just asked you right out, you would tell me the truth,” she was saying.
Jack smiled to himself. Now this was more like his grandmother. He said nothing, waiting for the barrage he knew would follow. What he wasn’t ready for was the tears as his grandmother began to cry.
She quickly stopped herself, getting up awkwardly and leaning heavily on her cane as she moved to the fireplace, her back to him.
“Why don’t you tell me what this is really about?” he suggested, determined not to be swayed by her tears.
“You’re right, of course.” She didn’t turn around as she brushed at the tears, her back ramrod straight. “I have reason to believe that one of you saw something from the window up there. I thought if you had that you’d tell me. After all these years I’d assumed there would be no reason for any of you to keep the secret any longer. I foolishly assumed that one of you would want the truth to come out.”
Her candor surprised him as much as her apology and her tears had. He didn’t know what to say.
“I know it’s possible that I’m wrong,” she said, making it sound as if she didn’t believe it. “Maybe none of you saw Trace being murdered.” She turned to face him. “You see now why it is so important that I find out the truth. I don’t believe the killer acted alone. I’m basing that assumption on where Trace was killed—within sight of the ranch. The killer got him to that spot, I believe, for a good reason. Because someone else was watching from the ranch that day. I believe that person didn’t know that you children were in that third-floor room with a pair of binoculars.”
Jack was stunned. “You’re saying you think someone from the family was involved in Trace’s murder?”
“Yes, I do.”
So that was what this was about. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and yet even as a small child he was aware of the jealousy among the siblings.
“I intend to find out who that person is if it takes my last dying breath.”
Jack stared at her. “That’s why you invited us all back.”
She nodded. “I would be a foolish old woman to think that I could make up for the past at this late date.” She shook her head. “I won’t rest until I find out the truth. Will you help me?” Her voice broke and he felt something break in him, as well.
He reached inside himself for all the hatred he’d carried for this woman the past twenty-seven years, but that fire that had consumed him for so long had burned down to only a handful of red-hot embers.
His words surprised him, since he didn’t feel he owed this woman anything given the hell she’d put his parents through. “We were in the room that morning.”
His grandmother slumped down onto the hearth.
“We’d heard stories about the room and wanted to see it.”
“Whose idea was it to go up there?” she asked in a voice fraught with emotion.
“I don’t recall. All the adults were busy with Trace’s birthday preparations for that afternoon.”
Pepper’s eyes shone brightly in the firelight as if remembering.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t see anything.” He’d been busy reading what had been scratched into the walls.
Her disappointment was palpable. “Did one of your cousins have a pair of small binoculars?”
He felt a start as he remembered the binoculars.
“Which cousin?” she asked, witnessing his reaction.
“I... I really don’t recall.” He’d been distracted. By the writing on the walls.
