The man scowled and shoved the ticket in the console between the seats. Without saying another word, he rolled up his window, and then he sped off down the road. He’d taken off faster than what Caleb knew the speed limit to be. But it was clear this joker didn’t care about a school bus or a speed limit.
Caleb let the man go. They were close enough to the county line to let him get another ticket from an officer in the next town. He walked back to his cruiser and climbed inside, and then waited for warmth to replace the chill that had settled in standing by the side of the road in the open wind. When it didn’t happen after a minute, he blasted the heat. He’d only do it for a few minutes or he’d end up sweating under his jacket.
As soon as the blast of heat pumped through the car, Caleb called into the station and let Harper, the dispatcher on duty, know he was done with his call.
Harper Madison’s voice came over the radio. “We got a call about a car stuck in the snow down at the old chapel on Lookout Ridge. The person calling in copied the license plate number down.”
Caleb’s shoulder’s sagged. “Let me guess. It came up as Katie Dobbs.”
“How do you know?”
“Lucky guess. I’ll head out there now.”
“Copy that.”
What the hell was Katie doing? Caleb drove the short distance down Lookout Ridge past the open fields that were now filled with layers of snow that had fallen since Christmas. Snow wouldn’t be gone fully until May, even at this elevation, unlike other places in the country where the roads became bare in March. Sweet wouldn’t see green grass or new wildflowers until June. That’s just the way it was here in Montana.
The old chapel came into view and there was Katie Dobbs’ car stuck in one of the ruts she’d made trying to get out of the parking lot. The small space where she’d parked the other night when he’d caught her trespassing was covered over with fresh snow from last night’s storm. As soon as he pulled into the chapel parking lot with his four-wheel-drive cruiser, he saw Katie poke her head up from behind the car as if she’d been shoveling and hadn’t heard him come until just now. Her shoulders sagged as soon as she saw him.
He took his time getting out of the cruiser, and then walked over to her slowly.
Using her fingers to shield the sunlight glaring off the snow, she asked, “Do they teach you how to walk like that in the police academy? Just wondering.”
That hadn’t been what he had expected her to say, and it threw him off guard for a few seconds, making him want to laugh. But he held himself back.
“Haven’t we been through this already, Katie?”
“Your schooling or my being here?”
“My schooling is none of your business.”
She picked up her cell phone and showed it to him, as if that meant anything or changed the situation.
“Katie,” he said, suddenly annoyed with her antics. “Don’t make me arrest you.”
“I got stuck on the side of the road, well, a little in the parking lot, but I was not in the chapel. I’m sure this old fart real estate investor won’t mind if I wait here for a tow.”
“What old fart…? Are you trying to call the owner of the property?”
She dialed a number on her phone and then waited for the call to go through.
“Why not?”
“You’re crazy.”
“If that’s true then it’s the best thing I’ve been called all day. You have no idea how hoity-toity some of these out of town people get when you can’t cash an out of state check for them. You should have seen the guy who’d come into the bank today. His suit probably cost more than my—oh, hello? I’d like to speak with Henry Callahan.”
Caleb thought about the out-of-towner in the Porsche and knew Katie was talking about the same person. He’d made it a point to know who the residents of Sweet were, especially the new people who’d moved into town. This guy was definitely not from Sweet.
Katie covered the phone as if shielding her voice from the person on the other end of the line. “It’s the secretary,” she mouthed. “He’s in a meeting.”
“Let’s go, Katie,” he said, forcing himself to see Katie as a nuisance who was trespassing, not a sweet girl who was his old friend’s baby sister who just happened to be incredibly pretty standing out in the cold with her red nose and cheeks.
He glanced around. Katie’s car was only ten feet into the parking lot. She could have easily slid off the road ended up there if she’d hit a patch of ice.
Caleb shook his head as frustration flared through him. He couldn’t believe he was making excuses for Katie being here when he knew damned well this was no accident.
“When will he be out?” She was silent for a few seconds while she listened. “Well, he has a property over in Sweet, Montana that is abandoned. I’m here with a police officer and we wanted to look at it. Oh, he has many properties? This one is empty. It’s very run down. Do you think he’ll mind if we take a look?”
“Katie, let’s go,” Caleb mouthed. If it were anyone else, he would have called a tow truck and insisted she call the owner when she got home. He didn’t know why he hadn’t already. But this was Katie Dobbs, a friend of his sister’s from long ago.
She pressed the button on the cell phone to disconnect the call. “He’s expected to be out in an hour, but the secretary said we could take a look around and call back later seeing as it’s abandoned and I’m—”
“Crazy?”
She chuckled as if giddy with excitement. “—with a police officer.”
He sighed. “Let’s just see if we can get your car out of this
