Cardwell Ranch Trespasser

chapter Twelve

Hilde knew things hadn’t gone well at the marshal’s office the moment she opened the door and saw Colt’s face.

“What happened?” she asked, as she let him in.

“Nothing to worry about.”

“He found out that you sent Dee’s fingerprints to the crime lab.”

“I knew there was a chance that might happen.”

“Tell me he didn’t fire you,” she cried.

“He didn’t. Suspended for two weeks. As it turns out, the suspension couldn’t come at a better time. I’ve got some news.”

They moved into the kitchen, where Hilde got him a beer and poured a glass of wine for herself. She had a feeling she was going to need it. “I hate getting you into trouble.”

“You didn’t. I’m in this just as deep as you are,” he said, and kissed her as he took the cold bottle of beer she offered him. He took a sip. She watched him, desire making her legs weak as water.

She dropped into a chair in front of the fireplace, curling her legs under her and taking a drink of her wine. She’d built a small fire since he’d said he would be back. She’d tried not to count the minutes.

Colt didn’t sit but stood in front of the fire. She could tell he was worked up, too antsy to sit.

“You have news?” she asked, afraid what he was about to tell her.

“Rick Cameron’s real name was Richard Northland. Cameron was apparently one of a number of aliases he has used. He was a small-time con artist, been arrested a couple of times, but nothing that got him more than a little jail time. The person he cheated tended to drop the charges.”

Hilde felt her eyes widen. “So he and Dee had a lot in common.”

“I’m sure Dee was shocked by the news when Hud told her.”

Hilde let out a humorless laugh. “I’m sure she was.”

“There’s more. Her fingerprints weren’t on file. But when I did some digging online, I found a story about Richard and his sister, Camilla Northland.”

“His sister?”

Colt nodded. “The two of them were the only survivors of a fire at their home in Tuttle, Oklahoma. Both parents were killed. Apparently there was some suspicion that one or both might have purposely started the fire. Richard was fourteen at the time, Camilla sixteen.”

“Are you saying what I think you are?” Hilde asked.

“I’m trying hard not to jump to any conclusions. All we know for sure is that the man lying in the morgue is Richard Northland from Tuttle, Oklahoma. I’ll know more once I get there.”

“Get there?”

“I’m flying to Oklahoma tomorrow on the first flight out.”

Hilde got up from her chair and moved to the fire as a sudden chill skittered across her skin like spider legs. “You think there’s a possibility that Dee is his sister?”

“A possibility based on nothing more than a feeling that the two of them knew each other longer than Dee said.”

She recalled how Rick had turned around when the naked Dee had gotten out of the lake. “Dana thought Rick was Dee’s boyfriend.”

“Probably because that’s what she told her. I haven’t been able to find out much of anything about Camilla because she dropped off radar right after the fire. According to a newspaper account, the two were going to live with an aunt since their parents were the only family they had.”

“She dropped off the radar because she’s not using her real name?”

“That would be my guess. While I’m gone I want you to stay clear of Dee.”

“If she finds out where you’ve gone...”

“She won’t. I’ll tell someone at the station that I’m going to Denver to see my brother. I’m sure by now they all know I’ve been suspended.”

“Colt,” she said, touching his strong shoulder. “I don’t want to see you lose your job.”

“I won’t. I think whatever I find out in Oklahoma will change things drastically.”

Hilde couldn’t help being nervous. “Be careful. I’m just afraid what Dee might do if she thinks you’re onto her. So far it’s just me she’s after.”

“Yeah, that’s what worries me. Look what happened to Rick,” Colt said.

Hilde shivered and he took her in his arms. “I just don’t want her moving up her plan, whatever it is.”

“I’m more worried about you. I wish you were going with me.”

“If we both went, it would look even more suspicious. Anyway, she’s accomplished what she set out to do. Dana and I are hardly speaking.”

“I hate seeing you like this,” he said, and kissed her. “It’s going to be all right. I know you’re worried about Dana. But we’re going to get this resolved.”

She nodded. “Hopefully before something horrible happens.”

“Hilde, I don’t think Dee is through with you, so be careful.”

“I will.”

“Promise?”

She smiled and leaned up to kiss him. “I’ll be careful.”

“I’ll call you from Oklahoma as soon as I know something. I won’t be gone any longer than I have to. I’m going home to pack, but first...” He swung her up in his arms. “I don’t want you to forget about me while I’m gone.”

“Like that could happen,” she said with a laugh, as he carried her into the bedroom.

* * *

COLT TRIED TO get on standby, but the earliest flight he could get on was that afternoon. He hated leaving Hilde. Last night he’d managed to talk her into letting Ronnie open the shop and man it until he got back. It had taken some talking, though. Hilde was one determined woman.

He tried not to speculate on what Dee might do. When he’d called Annie at the office, he’d told her he was flying to Denver to visit his brother. Of course, she knew he’d been suspended.

“Mrs. Savage was in earlier,” Annie told him in a hushed whisper. “She and the boss had a row over your suspension. Seems her cousin has booked a flight to New York City for Saturday.”

That had been news. Saturday was only two days away. If Dee was telling the truth. “I suppose there is no way to find out if she really did book that flight,” he said to Annie.

She chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

After he hung up, he wondered if this meant Dee was giving up. Maybe she’d realized that Hilde had her fingerprints and DNA, so it wouldn’t be long before they knew who she really was. Best to leave town before that happened, huh, Dee?

His plane landed in Salt Lake City with a short layover before he flew into Oklahoma City, where he rented a car. It was too late to drive to Tuttle, so he got a motel. When he called Hilde, she sounded fine, anxious, but staying in the house. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Try to get some sleep,” he told her. “I won’t know anything until tomorrow at the soonest.” He didn’t sleep well at all and early the next morning set off for Tuttle.

The town had once been a tiny suburb. Now the buildings along the former main street were boarded up. It was one of many small, dying towns across the country.

Colt stopped at the combination grocery and gas station and wandered inside. A fan whirred in the window near the counter behind an elderly woman who sat thumbing through a movie magazine.

“Can you believe all the divorces they have out in Hollywood?” She looked up at him over her glasses as if actually expecting an answer.

“No, I can’t.”

She closed the magazine, studying him. “You aren’t from around here.”

He shook his head. “But I’m looking for someone from around here.”

Her eyes widened a little. “I figured you were just lost. Who are you looking for? I know most everyone since I was born and raised right here.”

That had been his hope. “Maybe you know them, then. Richard and Camilla Northland?

The woman’s expression soured in a heartbeat. She leaned back as if trying to distance herself from his words. “Well, you won’t find them around here.”

“Actually, I’m looking for their aunt, the one who raised them after their parents died.”

“Didn’t die. Were murdered.” She shook her head. “What do you want with Thelma?”

“I have some news about her nephew.”

“There isn’t any news she’d want to hear except that he’s six feet under,” the woman snapped.

“Then I guess I have some good news for her.”

* * *

HILDE TRIED NOT to go down to the shop the next day, but Ronnie called to say there was a problem with the new sewing machine invoice and the deliveryman wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do.

“I’ll be right there.” She was thankful for the call. Sitting around waiting to hear from Colt was making her all the more anxious. She was also thankful that the sewing machines hadn’t arrived before Dee vandalized the shop.

Once at the shop after taking care of the problem, Hilde showed Ronnie some of the ideas she had for quilting classes, and they began to work on a wall hanging for the sewing room.

Hilde loved the way the shop was coming together. She’d long dreamed of a place where anyone who wanted to learn to quilt could come and sew with others of like mind. Quilting was a restful and yet creative hobby at any age. She had great plans for the future and was so excited about them that she’d almost picked up the phone and called Dana to tell her.

Dana still had money invested in Needles and Pins. Hilde realized that might change now. She should consider buying her out if their friendship went any further south. The thought made her sad. If only they could prove that Dee wasn’t her cousin.

She was mentally kicking herself for not thinking to take Dana’s toothbrush as well as Dee’s, when the bell over the door jangled and she turned to see Dana walk into the shop.

Hilde felt her face light up—until she saw Dana’s expression. Her stomach fell with the memory of what had happened yesterday. Dana must be horrified. But how could her once best friend not realize that Hilde could never beat up anyone?

She felt a spark of anger, which she quickly tamped down as Dana stepped into the shop. Letting her temper flare was a surefire way to make herself look more guilty.

“Could we talk alone?” Dana asked quietly.

“Ronnie, would you mind watching the counter for a few minutes?” Hilde called. Ronnie said she’d be happy to. Hilde led Dana into the break room and closed the door. She didn’t want Ronnie hearing this. But the news was probably all over town anyway. The shop had been unusually slow today.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” Dana said.

Hilde stepped to the coffeepot, fingers trembling as she took two clean glass cups and filled each with coffee. She handed one to Dana, then sat down, ready for a lecture.

Dana seemed to hesitate before she sat down. Hilde didn’t help her by denying anything. Instead she waited, relieved when Dana finally took a drink of the coffee and seemed to calm down some.

“How long have we known each other?” Hilde asked.

Dana looked up from her cup in surprise. “Since you came to town about...six years ago. But you know that.”

“So for six years we’ve been close friends. Some might even have said best friends.”

Dana’s eyes suddenly shone with tears.

“Would you have said you knew me well?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Remember that spider in my kitchen that time? I couldn’t squish it. You had to do it.”

“You can’t compare killing a spider to—”

“Dana, what if Dee wasn’t your cousin?”

“That’s ridiculous because she is my cousin.”

Hilde wasn’t going to argue that. Not right now anyway. “What if she was just some stranger who ended up on your doorstep and things began happening and the next thing you knew you and I were...” She couldn’t bring herself to say where they were. “Would you take a stranger’s word over mine?”

Dana put down her cup. “She said you would say you didn’t attack her.”

Hilde sighed and put down her own cup. “That you came here today makes me believe that there is some doubt in your mind. I hope that’s true, because it might save your life.”

“It’s talk like that, Hilde, that makes me think you’ve lost your mind,” Dana said, getting to her feet. “Why would Dee want to hurt me?”

“So she could have Hud.”

Dana shook her head. “Hud loves me.”

“But if you were gone...”

Dana reached into her jeans pocket and took out a piece of paper. Hilde recognized it as a sheet from the notepad Dana kept by the phone. “I called around. This is the name of a doctor everyone said was very good.” When Hilde didn’t reach for the note, Dana laid it on the table. “I think you need help, Hilde.” Her voice broke with emotion.

“She doesn’t just want you out of the way, Dana. Your children will have to go, too.”

Dana’s gaze came up to meet hers.

Hilde saw fear. “Trust me. Trust the friendship we had. You’re in trouble. So are your babies.”

A tear trailed down Dana’s cheek. She brushed at it. “I have to go.” She hurried out, leaving Hilde alone in the break room.

The moment she heard the bell jangle, Hilde got up, took a plastic bag from the drawer and carefully bagged Dana’s coffee cup.

“What are you doing?”

She turned in surprise to find Dana standing in the doorway. She must have started to leave, but then changed her mind.

“I asked you what you were doing.”

Hilde knew there was no reason to lie even if she could have thought of one Dana might believe. “I need your DNA to check it against Dee’s.”

The shocked look on Dana’s face said it all. That and what she said before turning and really leaving this time: “Oh, Hilde.”

* * *

COLT DROVE OUT of Tuttle, took the third right and pulled down a narrow two-track toward a stand of live oak. He hadn’t been in the South in years. Oklahoma wasn’t considered the South to people from Georgia or Alabama, but anywhere that cotton grew along the road was the South to him.

He followed the directions the woman at the grocery and gas station had given him until the road played out, ending in front of a weathered, stooped old house that was much like the elderly woman who came out on the porch.

He parked and climbed out. Thelma Peters was Richard and Camilla Northland’s aunt on their mother’s side of the family, PJ Harris had told him.

“Everyone’s called me PJ since I was a girl,” the elderly woman at the store had told him. “Not because it has anything to do with my name, which by the way is Charlotte Elizabeth. No, I got PJ because that’s what I was usually wearing when I would come down here, to this very store, in the morning so my father could make me breakfast. My mother had died when I was a baby, you see. He’d pour me a bowl of cereal, ask me if I wanted berries. I always said no, then he’d pour on some thick cream.” Her eyes had lit at the memory. “I can still taste that cream. Can’t buy anything like it anymore.”

He’d finally managed to turn her back to Richard and Camilla’s aunt.

“Thelma Peters. She’s an old maid. I can see where having those two in her house turned her against ever having any of her own children.” PJ had studied him again then. “Don’t be surprised if she comes out on her porch with a shotgun. Don’t take it personally. Just make sure she knows you aren’t that no-count nephew of hers. I’d hate to see you get shot.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he’d promised.

“I’m here with some good news,” Colt called out now to the elderly old maid holding the shotgun.

“If you’re preaching the Gospel, I’ve already found the Lord. You wasted your gas coming out here,” she called back.

“I’m a deputy marshal from Montana,” he called to her. A slight exaggeration at the moment. He saw the change in her as if she was bracing herself for whatever bad news he was bringing. “Your nephew Richard has been killed.”

Thelma Peters nodded, then took a step back and sat down hard in an old wooden chair on her porch. The barrel end of the shotgun banged against the worn wood flooring at her feet, but she held on to the gun as she motioned him to come closer.

Colt walked up to the house, shielding his eyes against the sun. The yard was a dust bowl. The weeds that had survived were baked dead. “I’m sorry to bring you the news.”

She looked up then and, from rheumy but intelligent blue eyes, considered him for a long moment. “You certainly came a long way to give it to me.”

“I need to ask you about Camilla.”

Thelma let out a cough of a laugh. “You cross her path, too? Best say your prayers.”

“I don’t know if I’ve crossed her path or not. Do you happen to have a picture of her?”

The woman looked at him as if he was crazy. “Not one I keep out, I can tell you that.”

“I sure would appreciate it if you could find one for me. I’m worried about a family in Montana that this woman has moved in with.”

She grunted and pushed herself to her feet, using the shotgun like a crutch. “Better step inside. This could take a while.”

* * *

WHEN DANA CAME back from town, she was clearly upset.

“You didn’t go see Hilde,” Dee said, wanting to wring her neck. She’d begged her to stay away from her former friend. “Dana, what were you thinking?”

Hud, who’d come home to watch the kids while she ran to the store, seconded Dee’s concern.

“I had to see her,” Dana cried, then shook her head.

Dee had been so excited when Dana had told her that Hud was coming home to help her watch the children. She knew that neither of them wanted to leave the little darlings with her. She’d made it clear she knew nothing about kids, especially babies.

But all the time Hud had been home, he’d been so involved with the children that he wasn’t even aware Dee was in the room.

“I hope you didn’t listen to Hilde’s crazy talk,” Dee said, worried that that was exactly what Dana had done. She’d felt Dana pulling away from her. Worse, Hud was doing the same thing, she feared.

If only Hilde had just drowned that day under the raft.

Dee touched her sore black eye. “You’re just lucky you didn’t end up like me.”

Dana glanced at her, wincing at the sight. Dee had to admit she looked like she’d been run over by a truck. But she’d wanted to make a statement and she had. Dana had been so thankful when she’d dropped the charges against Hilde. Even Hud had seemed relieved when he’d come home that night.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Dana said and looked at Hud. “I sat down and had a cup of coffee with her at the shop...”

Dee gritted her teeth in anger. How could Dana do that after seeing what Hilde had done to her cousin?

“She seemed calm, even rational...” Dana glanced at Dee then back at Hud.

Dee felt her heart begin to race. Hilde had gotten to Dana. She’d started believing her.

“Then I got ready to leave, made it as far as the door, thought of something and went back.” She stopped and took a breath. “Hud, she was bagging my coffee cup.”

Dee let out a silent curse that was like a roar in her ears.

“I demanded to know what she was doing,” Dana continued now in tears. “She told me she was going to check my DNA against Dee’s. I’m sorry, Dee,” Dana said, turning to her again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. Clearly Hilde has had some sort of psychotic episode. How can she think I’m not your cousin? We look so much alike.”

Dana nodded, still obviously upset.

“I’d ask who she thought she was going to get to run the tests, but I’m sure Colt is helping her,” Hud said. “I can’t imagine what he’s thinking.”

“I thought you said he went to Denver to see his brother?” Dee asked.

“That’s what I heard, but I have my doubts. I can’t see him leaving Hilde alone now. He must be as worried about her as we are.”

* * *

THELMA PETERS’S HOUSE was small and cramped. She left him in a threadbare chair in the living room and disappeared into a room at the back. Periodically he would hear a bump or bang.

He looked around, noticing a picture of Jesus on one wall and a cross on another. A Bible lay open on the table next to his chair. He picked it up, curious what part she’d been reading. She had a passage underlined—Acts 3:19. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.

“Here is the only one I could find.” Thelma came back into the room with a snapshot clutched in her fingers. “I haven’t seen Camilla in years, so I don’t know what she looks like now. But this is what she looked like at sixteen.”