Hard Rain (23 page)

“Why not?” she asked.

“I couldn’t leave, Sarah. Because you’re going to need me.”

She’d called to tell him that she was moving back in with Buck, that it would soon be all over the news. “Russell—”

“Dr. Venable is back in the States. He could even be back in Montana.”

His words came as a shock. She wanted to argue that she didn’t know any Dr. Venable, that he had nothing to do with her, but she saved her breath. Russell was convinced that Buck had worked with the doctor to steal her memories of the time before she’d tried to kill herself. Worse, according to what the sheriff had been able to learn about her, she’d spent the missing twenty-two years with a man named Dr. Venable in Brazil—apparently willingly, even though she swore she didn’t know the man.

“How do you know that he’s back?” she asked quietly.

“It doesn’t matter. I know. I’ve given the information to the sheriff. He might be contacting you.”

“What makes you think this doctor will come here?” she asked, praying he was wrong about everything, and yet she knew Russell was only doing all this because he cared.

“Sarah.” She heard the frustration in his voice. “The sheriff told me that they now know where you were during those missing years. With Dr. Venable.”

“He had no right to tell you that.”

“I was the one who told him about my brain-wiping theory, Sarah. I’m the one who helped him track down this doctor. Anyway, there is no official investigation on the sheriff’s part.”

But that wasn’t stopping the sheriff and everyone else from digging into her past. She resented the fact that other people knew more about her than she knew about herself. “He shouldn’t have bothered you with any of this.”

Russell let out a low chuckle. “He knows I love you.”

She gripped the phone, pressing it against her cheek, and tried not to cry. Just hearing Russell’s caring voice... “I love you, too.” The admission was out before she could stop herself.

“I know, but you love Buckmaster Hamilton more.”

A long silence followed since there was nothing she could say.

“I’m not leaving town, Sarah. I can’t. You
are
going to need me.”

“Russell, you can’t—”

“That’s just it. I can and I will wait. Who knows—you could be right, and you might never see Dr. Venable again. If so, then you and your husband will soon be living the dream in the White House.” His tone said he didn’t believe that for a moment. “But if
I’m
right... You have my number. When Dr. Venable shows up, call me. You can’t trust him. But you know you can trust me, don’t you.”

“Yes.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

G
RACE
SAW
HER
husband come home looking like a whipped dog. She watched him walk up from the barn after putting his horse and tack away. His footsteps were plodding, his head down and, for a moment, her heart went out to him.

He’d been ashamed of himself since that episode with Flannigan McTavish. She’d watched the two of them fighting in the dirt like fools. It had been bittersweet, since now her son knew while she’d known all along.

Maybe now her son would realize she’d been telling the truth about a lot of things. Not that she expected Buckmaster to come to his senses. What was it about men and the women they fell for?

“No fish today?” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice as her husband walked in.

He didn’t answer as he stuck his head into the refrigerator and dug around, coming out with a beer. He opened it and drained half of the bottle before he stepped into the living room, where she was waiting.

She wanted to demand to know what had happened. She could only guess. His cute little cowgirl had dumped him. Good. Grace wanted to clap and cheer and tell him what a fool he was. But even she couldn’t beat a dead dog.

“Buckmaster dropped by earlier,” she said. “The new house is coming along well. He’s already adding on more rooms.”

JD looked up.

“That’s right. She’s pregnant again. She’s really rubbing it in, isn’t she?”

Her husband groaned. “She isn’t having children to spite you.”

“Isn’t she?” Grace smiled at that. Her husband wasn’t just a fool. He was a blind fool. He’d fallen for Sarah’s lies as easily as he must have fallen for that wild girl from next door.

The phone rang and he answered it. Another person wanting to give him money to run for president. She gritted her teeth as he thanked the caller and hung up. When he turned to her, she saw the future as if looking into a crystal ball. He’d lost that tramp from next door and now he was going to throw himself into the presidential race with Sarah and Buckmaster cheering him on.

The worst part was that he could win. People liked JD. Even if this scandal with the neighborhood tramp came out, JD would be able to convince the voting public that basically he was a good guy, because he was.

And she would lose him to politics again.

Over her dead body, she thought darkly.

* * *

B
ACK
AT
HIS
office the next morning, Frank thumbed through the photographs from Claudia’s high school years. She was a year younger than Maggie. Through the yearbook, he could track who was dating whom fairly easily. The school was small, the senior class even smaller.

His own class had had seven seniors so he knew everyone in the school.

He wasn’t sure why he’d taken the albums. There were few photos of Maggie. Apparently she hadn’t attended any of the school dances where Claudia had taken the most photos. But there were photos of boys Maggie had dated—and written in her diary about. Ty Jenkins, Kyle Parker, Bobby Barnes, Will Sanders, Collin Wilson.

All his instincts told him that these photo albums contained not just the key players in the two murders he had on his hands but, ultimately, the answers. Because it was such a small school, most of them had dated each other. Maggie had dated Ty, Bobby, Will, Collin and Kyle. When she’d broken up with them, they’d dated the other girls.

That was the problem with a small town. Not only did everyone know everyone else’s business, but also there were a lot of tangled relationships because of the small pool to draw from. If only he could unravel the relationships to get to the truth. Wasn’t that exactly what Harper and Brody had been trying to do with the yearbooks?

Somewhere in this mess was a killer. He just hoped he found the murderer before he killed again.

“I ran that DNA through the system like you asked,” his undersheriff said from the doorway of his office. “We got a hit,” Dillon said as he handed him the information.

Frank hadn’t known what to expect when he’d asked to have Kyle Parker’s DNA run. He suspected Kyle was one of the men who’d raped Maggie. Is that why Kyle hadn’t wanted to give his DNA?

But he was surprised now to learn that it matched evidence taken at an old burglary case more than twenty years before. One of the burglars had cut himself getting out a window and left both blood and skin behind.

The statute of limitation had run out on that particular case. Wouldn’t Kyle know that? Now Frank wondered if there was something else Kyle had to hide?

“Also, I talked to the coroner who handled both JD and Grace Hamilton’s deaths,” Dillon said. “He was suspicious that Grace had been on the second floor given that she’d been in a wheelchair for months. He said her daughter-in-law was the one who’d found her at the bottom of the stairs.”

Frank looked up. “I thought JD found her.”

“That’s just it. I dug through notes taken after the accident. In the sheriff’s report, JD said he found her. But he originally told the coroner that Sarah had gotten there just moments before him.”

Frank rubbed the back of his neck. “Did either say why she was upstairs?”

Dillon shook his head. “Evidently no one asked them that.”

“Well, we suspect she was able to walk. What about JD’s accident?”

“It seems he lost control of the car and went into the river. It wasn’t a suspected suicide, if that’s what you’re thinking, according to the coroner. There were brake marks in the gravel where he tried to get control. The coroner brought up the question of whether or not there might have been another car involved but was never able to prove it.”

“Another car? Wife dies in a fall, husband dies shortly afterward in a car wreck.”

“It happens when people are upset, not paying attention.”

Dillon had turned his attention back to the DNA test results. “You think the old burglary is why Kyle didn’t want to provide the DNA?”

“Maybe. I’m going to talk to his wife. Now that I have Maggie’s diary, I know the night she was raped. I have a timeline that brings up some interesting...coincidences. There was a big dance that night at the school. According to the yearbook, Parker was dating his soon-to-be wife back then. She should remember if he was with her that night.”

“All those years ago?” Dillon asked skeptically.

Frank laughed. “It was
high school.
Something about those years imprints itself on us more vividly than any other years in our lives. We were young, full of illusions, believed we were immortal and were so easily hurt. I suspect Maggie hurt someone and might not have realized just how badly until she found herself facing her killer.”

After Dillon left, Frank went back to the photos. He was staring at photos of the senior dance, not realizing at first what he was seeing, when it finally registered.

He felt his heart do a little skip before he quickly pulled the photos from the album and headed for his patrol SUV.

* * *

H
ARPER
PICKED
UP
the phone, hoping it was Brody. She hadn’t heard from him and wondered if he’d met with his father about the ranch yet. She felt responsible first for bullying Brody into helping her look for Maggie’s killer and, secondly, for putting him in an untenable situation with his family.

But the caller wasn’t Brody. She didn’t recognize the male voice.

“I have a delivery for Sarah Hamilton,” the man said.

“Yes.”

“I can’t read the address. If I could speak with her.”

“She doesn’t live here. That is, not at the main ranch address, but you can deliver it here. I’ll see that she gets it.”

“I’m sorry but she needs to sign for it.”

“Who is it was from?” Harper asked.

“Buckmaster Hamilton.”

Her father had sent something to their mother that required a signature to deliver? Must be expensive, she thought as she told him the address of the house on the ranch where her mother was staying.

The driver asked for directions, which she gave him. “Thank you. The package needs to be delivered in the next twenty-four hours and it is already almost late.”

Harper had reservations about giving out her mother’s address after she hung up. What if it had been a reporter just wanting to find out where Sarah Hamilton was staying? Harper thought about calling her mother and warning her that a reporter might be showing up at her door. But Sarah had dealt with her share of reporters. She’d deal with this one. And maybe there really was a package and her father had just foolishly put down an address the carrier didn’t recognize.

* * *

K
AREN
P
ARKER
LOOKED
up as Frank walked into the city library. It was early so the place was near empty. She’d been working diligently at her desk when he’d walked in, but when she saw him, she rose, pushing the papers aside. He reminded her of one of her strict teachers from high school—the scowl, the expectant look that said he knew she was about to break some rule.

“Good morning, Sheriff. Is there a book I can help you find?”

“Not this morning. I was hoping we could talk somewhere private.”

She glanced toward the librarian’s office, which was dark and empty. “I really shouldn’t leave my desk.”

“It won’t take long and we’ll be able to see if anyone needs your help.”

With obvious reluctance she led him into the office. He closed the door and pulled out his notebook. She hovered behind the desk for a moment before sitting down. Her gaze kept going to her own desk as if willing someone to appear.

“I suppose you heard that Collin Wilson was killed.”

She nodded, and for a moment he thought she might break down.

“I understand the two of you were good friends.”

Karen quickly shook her head. “Not really. We just knew each other from high school.”

“He was in your grade, right?”

“I guess so. What is this about?”

“Just trying to put some names together. Who were you dating your senior year?”

“My husband, Kyle. We got married shortly after graduation.”

He nodded. “Wasn’t there a graduation dance the first part of June that year?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

“You went with Kyle.”

“I suppose so.”

“You don’t remember?”

“I’m sure I did. Yes, I recall now.”

“Who else was there?”

She fiddled with a pen on the desk for a moment. “The usual crowd.”

“Bobby Barnes?” He ticked off his suspects and she nodded to each. “Some of them left early, right?”

Again she frowned. “I don’t understand why you’re asking me about this.”

“I’ve spoken to several other people who recall a few of the boys leaving the dance early.” It was a small white lie.

She settled back into the chair, now looking as if she felt trapped.

“This was the last dance of your high school year. I’m sure you remember whether or not it was just you girls standing around talking or if you danced the last dance with your soon-to-be husband.”

When she shook her head, he pulled out the photos he’d taken from Claudia’s album and spread them across the desk. “You can see that these taken from later in the night show you girls standing around, only a few people on the dance floor. Some of your dates were conspicuously missing.”

Karen swallowed, appearing uncomfortable. She smelled a trap but she didn’t seem to know why let alone how to get out of it. “I guess some of the boys did leave.”

“Kyle?”

She nodded.

“Who went with him?” She started to shrug, but he quickly said, “They would have left their dates. Small school, it would be hard not to know whether or not they were gone. Plus, I already have a pretty good idea who they were.”

“Will Sanders and Ty Jenkins.”

“Bobby Barnes wasn’t with them?”

“No, he and Claudia got into a fight. He left alone as far as I know. Later, Claudia went after him and I didn’t see either of them again.”

“Why did your date leave?” he asked.

She hesitated. “They said they were going to get a friend of theirs to buy them some beer for later and they’d be back.”

“Did they come back?”

Karen looked away. “No.”

“You and Kyle argue about it?”

“Really, Sheriff, I can’t see how this—”

“Did he know you were pregnant?”

That took her by surprise. “No, I told him later that night after I found him.”

“Was he still with Ty and Will?”

“No, he was back at his place.”

“Didn’t you find that strange?”

“He’d had too much to drink and was sick, so no, I didn’t.”

Frank didn’t take his gaze from her face. “Did he tell you what he’d been up to—besides drinking?”

“No and I didn’t care. I had more important things on my mind.”

Frank studied her. Did Kyle, drunk and sick, confess what he and the others had done? Or was she telling the truth and she really didn’t know what her future husband and his friends had done that night?