“When’s the bail hearing?” he asked, knowing what it would take to get his uncle out on a murder charge. Luke would have to put up his property, that’s if the judge allowed bail at all.
“The hearing’s this morning. Make sure I don’t spend another night in jail, you hear? You owe me that.”
Luke looked at the man who’d raised him, reminded himself of the sacrifices Buzz had made over the years and bit back a reply he knew he would regret.
“Just a minute,” Buzz said as Luke started to leave. “The other day on the phone on my way to Billings... Why were you asking about my old pickup?”
“Someone’s been using it for poaching deer along the Milk.”
Buzz swore, but it didn’t have his usual intensity. Nor did he seem as shocked and angry by the news as Luke had thought he would be.
He felt dread settle deeper in his gut. “Is there anything you want to tell me before I see about getting you out of here?”
“Are you asking me if I’m poaching deer or if I killed Trace Winchester?” Buzz demanded, then slammed his palms against the bars, before turning his back to Luke. “Just get me out of here.”
MCCALL SHOWERED AND dressed after Luke left, feeling bereft and edgy. She thought of their lovemaking and ached to be back in his arms. She’d once thought she couldn’t live without him. She’d been seventeen then. The ten years apart had been hell.
But this was worse. Last night proved how they felt about each other. They were in love, had been for years. They’d come together again in the most intimate of ways, the passion blinding, the aching need to be together almost more than either of them could stand. Nothing should have been able to drive them apart.
But it had.
She’d seen how torn Luke had been between his loyalty to the uncle who’d raised him and the woman he loved. Before, his cousin had come between them. Now it was his uncle.
Whatever the old feud between the two families, it was still going strong. Why couldn’t Luke see that his uncle was guilty? Because he was too close to it.
Or was she the one who was too close to see the truth?
McCall shook her head. All the evidence pointed to Buzz. He was the one who’d caught Trace poaching, and yet as much as he’d harassed her father, Buzz had sworn he hadn’t taken the rifle. A red flag.
Then finding the pickup in the Crawford stock pond. Buzz would have known that the place was vacant, no one around for miles to see him get rid of the truck and hike back to the ridge. The walk back to his own vehicle wouldn’t have been that tough for a man who walked hundreds of miles a year as a game warden.
Finding the rifle at his house was just the icing on the cake. The only other evidence that could put the nail in Buzz Crawford’s coffin was the pages from his daily log for the days in question.
Would the sheriff have thought to check them?
She couldn’t depend on Luke to help her now, she realized. When it came to loyalties, blood was always thicker than water. Luke would stand by his uncle.
When her cell phone rang, McCall hoped it was Luke. It wasn’t. Nor was it her mother, who would have been her second guess. Ruby would be furious that McCall hadn’t called to give her the news before everyone else in town heard about Buzz’s arrest.
To McCall’s surprise, it was her grandmother.
“I need to see you,” Pepper Winchester said. “Can you come out here now?”
“Only if you promise not to call the sheriff this time.”
A slight hesitation, then, “I apologize for that. I would appreciate it if you would drive out to the ranch. It’s important or I wouldn’t ask. I will have Enid make us lunch.”
“You sure she won’t try to poison me?” McCall asked, only half joking.
“We could make her taste it, if you like.” Pepper sounded serious.
She tried not to take this invitation for more than it was. Her mother was right: she would be a fool to think that anything had changed with her grandmother. Pepper wanted something from her. The only question was what?
But going out to her grandmother’s for lunch was better than sitting around hoping Luke would come back.
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
McCall couldn’t help being anxious though as she drove out to the Winchester Ranch. Another spring thunderstorm had blown in and she had to shift into four-wheel drive to get down the muddy road.
She worried about ending up in a ditch again, only this time no Luke to save her since she hadn’t thought to tell anyone where she’d gone.
Just the thought of Luke made her want to cry. She felt strung too tight and knew she couldn’t trust her emotions.
She was tired, drained emotionally, physically and mentally. Of course she would feel this way after finding out that her father had been murdered.
That was what made her feel vulnerable and scared. Not falling for Luke all over again. She hated feeling this way. Why had she opened herself up to this again?
She knew that since finding her father’s grave and realizing he’d been murdered, it hadn’t really sunk in. She’d put the pieces together, found the pickup, and everything had quickly—too quickly—fallen into place after that because of the rifle. Because Buzz didn’t have the sense to dump it.
Criminals were notoriously stupid. It was why so many of them got caught. Why crime didn’t pay.
She realized what was bothering her. She didn’t know why Buzz had killed her father. Blackmail? Blackmailers tended to get killed for obvious reasons—death being the only way to keep the bloodsucking leeches off you permanently.
What had Buzz done that Trace Winchester had found out about?
Or maybe it hadn’t been blackmail. Maybe Buzz had just lost his temper with Trace. Clearly, from all the
