KATE WALKED AROUND the lower floor of the house, the gun in her hand. There wasn’t much to see. The only tracks led back to the kitchen. She followed them straight to the gas stove. There was something thick and red spilled next to one of the burners and it looked fresh.
She tried a burner. At the sound of spewing gas, she quickly turned it off and noticed a matchbook. Picking it up, she saw that only a couple of matches were left. As she started to put it back, she saw that the matchbook looked fairly new. There was the name of a bar on one side, but it was difficult to read in the dim light. On the other side someone had written K.O.
Glancing out the window, she saw a propane tank. Well, that explained the stove working, she thought. But that spilled red blob caught her attention again. Sticking the tip of her finger into it, she brought it to her nose and sniffed.
Spaghetti sauce?
Smiling, she wiped her hand clean with a napkin on the counter as she heard Tucker come back down the stairs. He headed straight for the front door. She pocketed the matchbook and followed him.
One look at his face and she knew something had happened in the house that had shaken him. “Want to talk about it?” she finally asked as they walked toward her SUV parked down the hill.
He looked over at her as if he’d been lost in thought. “I found a duffel bag in the house with money and women’s clothing in it. Some of the items were in Madeline’s favorite color and they smelled of her perfume. Did I mention that the notes I’ve been getting left on my truck also smell of her perfume?”
Kate didn’t know what to say. Worse, his words made her feel sick inside. No, he hadn’t mentioned that. But she could tell that it upset him. This was just another reminder that Madeline was still part of Tucker’s life even after all these years. The man had been snakebit, as her father would have said. Nothing could ever get Madeline out of his thoughts or his heart. No woman certainly could ever best Madeline—alive or dead.
But she was dead and Kate felt as if she needed to remind him of that. “Everyone knows how close identical twins tend to be—they wear matching clothes, have the same hairstyle, marry the same kind of men—even when they weren’t raised together. So triplets must be the same way.”
He nodded but she could tell he was having his doubts.
“She’s dead. But it seems someone wants you to believe she’s still alive,” Kate said. “They’re just fooling with you.”
The sound of a rifle shot pierced the quiet spring air. The bullet whizzed past to kick up dust from the road bank next to them. Tucker grabbed her, throwing them both off the side of the road into the thick foliage beneath the cottonwoods along the creek. Another bullet smacked into the trunk of a tree just inches from them.
Tucker dragged her deeper into the underbrush next to the creek. He put out his hand. Without a word, Kate handed him her gun. They stayed crouched down in the shelter of the trees and waited.
She listened, terrified that whoever had taken the potshots at them would be descending the hill after them at any moment. The breeze stirred the new leaves. Sunlight flickered down. Tucker seemed just as intent on the hillside above them—and keeping her tucked down out of the line of fire.
At the sound of a vehicle engine starting up, she held her breath. Her fear was that whoever had shot at them would be coming down the road. But after a few moments, she realized the sound was dying away in the distance.
Still, they waited as the sun moved across Montana’s big blue sky. Until it began to get cold down by the creek. Until Tucker finally rose and reached for her hand.
* * *
TUCKER WAS STILL shaken hours later. He looked at the mug shot his brother handed him and felt a jolt of surprise. The man looked nothing like he’d pictured him. But he’d been a good-looking twenty-two-year-old when he’d been arrested, apparently the one and only time.
“This is K.O. Dunn?” he asked his brother.
“Kevin Oyler ‘K.O.’ Dunn,” Flint said. “He’d be more than twenty years older now.”
Tucker handed the photo to his brother Hawk. His brothers had gathered at the ranch after he and Kate had come back from Clawson Creek. It had been Flint’s idea after hearing what had happened up at the Dunn place.
Flint hadn’t wanted to talk about this at the sheriff’s office, hoping that no more people knew about it than necessary since Tucker wasn’t supposed to even leave town—let alone continue investigating.
Kate was upstairs. Tucker had insisted she stay at the ranch. When they’d reached the house, she’d gone up to get a shower while he talked to his brothers.
He’d filled his brothers in on what had happened at the old Dunn house up by Clawson Creek.
“This guy doesn’t look like a killer,” Hawk said as Cyrus took the mug shot and made the same observation his brother had.
“Killers often don’t look like killers,” Flint said, taking the mug shot back. “But you also don’t know it was K.O. who took those potshots at you and Kate.”
“Maybe it was his underwear you found in the duffel bag,” Cyrus said and laughed.
Tucker shot him a withering look, but before he could protest Hawk said, “Do you think whoever it was shooting was trying to hit you? Or were they after Kate?”
He’d asked himself the same thing. “The shots were close enough he could have been trying to kill us both. Or warn us off.”
“You’re assuming it was a man,” Flint said as Tucker rose to walk over to the window. He was having trouble sitting still. That had been too close of a call today. “Is it possible that the driver of the first vehicle you heard didn’t go far and walked back?”
“It’s possible,” he agreed as he looked out over the ranch and the lights of Gilt Edge in the distance. He’d always loved this view. Darkness had turned the pines to ebony. Behind them, the lights of Gilt Edge tinted the night sky with faint gold.
“It’s why I brought Kate here kicking and screaming,” Tucker said, turning back to his brothers. “She’s so damned independent.” Flint and Darby nodded, no doubt thinking of their own wives.
“Maybe now you’ll stay out of the investigation and let me do my job,” Flint said.
“I wish it were that easy. You don’t know Kate. She’s even more determined to find these people.”
“I’m going to have to arrest you both, I guess.”
“On what grounds?” Tucker said. “You can’t stop Kate from looking for the Dunns. And as long as she is determined to find them, I can’t let her go alone.”
“She’s going to get herself killed and you locked back up in jail,” Flint said. “I doubt her father will bail you out again if that happens. You want her death on your conscience?”
He couldn’t bear the thought of losing this woman. That he’d gotten that involved with her in such a short time scared him almost as much as flying bullets.
“The only way I can stop her is to hog-tie her in the barn, and even then, it would take some mighty tough rope.”
“Then talk her out of it. Surely she realizes now how dangerous it is.”
“You really think the Dunns took a shot at you?” Cyrus asked.
“I won’t know until K.O. and his sister Melody are found,” Tucker said.
“You still think her brother was forcing her to get money from men?” Flint asked.
Tucker had been more sure before he’d seen the mug shot. “Or maybe the father, I don’t know. The fact that there were three identical sisters...”
Hawk shook his head. “If it was the brother, he had the perfect setup. Three sisters he could manipulate to do whatever he wanted and no one would know for sure which one they were dealing with.”
“So you can’t even be sure you were always with Madeline? Is that what you’re saying?” Cyrus asked. “That is...creepy.”
Tucker hated to admit that it could be true. It would explain why Madeline was often...different toward him. “We won’t know until we find the one that is still alive.”
Something in his tone made Flint’s head jerk up. “Do not tell me that you’re thinking it might be Madeline.”
“They all share the same DNA, right?” Hawk said. “So there is no way of knowing who you found in the creek.”
“Do you know if Madeline ever broke her leg?” Flint asked Tucker.
“No, why?”
“Sonny said that the left leg bone down at the morgue had an old fracture.”
“So there might be a way to tell which of the Dunn sisters was found in the creek,” Hawk said.
“And which one is still alive,” Cyrus added.
Tucker swore. He’d convinced himself that Madeline was dead and he wanted to leave her that way. He felt Flint watching him.
“I have a BOLO out on Kevin Oyler Dunn,” the sheriff said. “We will find him and clear this all up once and for all.”
“I hope you’re right,” Tucker said and glanced toward the stairs as if he expected Kate to be standing there, listening.
* * *
FROM HER HIDING PLACE, Kate had listened to the discussion going on downstairs. She didn’t even feel remotely guilty for eavesdropping—especially since she had often been part of the topic of conversation.
She’d taken a quick shower, wrapped her hair in a towel and, pulling on the sweats Tucker had given her, sneaked to a spot where she could hear what was going on downstairs.
Earlier, as she was stripping down to shower, she’d felt the matchbook in her jeans pocket. In the bathroom light, she could easily read the name of the establishment printed on it. Hell Creek Bar, Garfield, Montana. The matchbook wasn’t dusty like the rest of the house, making her believe that it had been brought into the house recently.
She’d thought about showing it to Tucker, but she’d instinctively known he would turn it over to his brother the sheriff. She was so close to finding the rest of the Dunn family, so close to finding the Madeline look-alike, that she didn’t want anyone to stand in her way. If the Gilt Edge sheriff called the sheriff in Garfield County or, worse, showed up in Hell Creek—wherever that was—he could spook the Dunns off.
No, Kate couldn’t let that happen.
After they’d been shot at, Tucker had insisted they go back up to the house. She knew what he was looking for. In the room upstairs, the duffel bag was gone along with any sign of the woman who’d been staying there.
While Tucker had gone out to see if the shooter had left any tracks, Kate had looked around the room. A mattress on the floor. The dust was disturbed where someone had settled in for a while. On the run? Or had they come back for something?
As she started to leave the room, she saw that the mattress had been moved during the person’s abrupt departure. The dust on the floor was smeared. And at the edge of the mattress was a small white piece of paper.
Squatting down, Kate had pulled out a receipt from the Hell Creek Bar. The bill had included two burgers, one beer and a cherry cola. So who’d enjoyed this meal?
She’d noticed more handwriting on the back of the receipt like she had on the matchbook.
I think these two might be who you’re looking for.
Was whoever was staying here looking for K.O. and Melody, too? It certainly appeared that way.
Intrigued, she’d realized that Garfield County wasn’t that far from Gilt Edge. But first she had to make Tucker believe that she’d gone to bed after her shower, so exhausted from today’s near-death experience that nothing could keep her awake. She was tired but also energized. She would find the last remaining Dunns.
She suspected one of them had been staying at the former house near Clawson Creek and had taken the shots at them earlier. Whoever it was had cleared out. Headed for Hell Creek? That would be her guess.
As she heard the sheriff leave and the brothers say their good-nights, she tiptoed back to the bedroom where Tucker had insisted she spend the night. It was right down the hall from his, he’d pointed out—as if that was necessary. She’d already gone into his room and found her gun, but she hadn’t taken it. That would be too much of a tip-off.
She climbed into bed, sweats and all, and pulled the quilt over her. In the darkness she waited, knowing Tucker would check on her. A few minutes later, the door opened a crack. She kept her eyes closed and concentrated on her breathing. The door closed again.
Kate lay perfectly still, waiting. She hated to do this to Tucker, especially after she’d told him she wouldn’t do anything without him. But after hearing what the sheriff said about locking him up if he left town again, she had no choice. Once she found the Dunns and cleared him...
The ranch house grew quiet. Still, she waited as the moon peeked out from the clouds and millions of stars glittered outside her window. Soon.
* * *
TUCKER COULDN’T SLEEP. He lay on the bed fully clothed, listening. Earlier he’d peeked into the room where Kate was apparently sleeping. If he hadn’t seen her head of dark hair splayed across the white pillowcase, he would have suspected she’d already sneaked out. The woman was impossible. He’d practically had to throw her over his shoulder and haul her into the house tonight to keep her from going back to her hotel room.
“You can’t really believe that one of the Dunns is going to abduct me from my hotel room,” she’d argued.
“No, I suspect they will grab you when you leave it, because we both know a near-death experience isn’t going to stop you.”
She’d met his gaze with a steely one of her own. “I’ve told you from the beginning what I planned to do. Nothing has changed.”
But everything had changed. Madeline had been murdered, he’d been framed for murder and someone had shot at them. Whoever it had been was willing to chance killing them both. Or kill Kate and somehow make Tucker look responsible for another young woman’s death?
He heard a floorboard creak. Then another. “I knew it,” he said under his breath. He got up and moved quietly to his door to listen.
Sure enough, he could hear someone sneaking out. He really doubted it was one of his brothers. They were old enough that they no longer had to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night.
Swearing under his breath, Tucker eased open his door and peered out into the dim light of the hallway.
* * *
KATE TOOK ANOTHER STEP. The floorboards groaned under her feet. That was the problem with old houses, she thought an instant before she was grabbed from behind.
An arm came around her waist, picking her up off the floor. At the same time, a large hand clamped down over her mouth to stifle the scream fighting to get out.
“Going somewhere?” Tucker ground out next to her ear.
Apparently he didn’t expect an answer since his hand was covering her mouth. He half carried her back to his room, finally removing his hand from her mouth when the door closed behind them.
“Are you crazy?” he demanded, keeping his voice down. “Sneaking out of here in the middle of the night, knowing someone who wants to kill you is out there?”
“We don’t know that for a fact,” she said indignantly. “We were trespassing yesterday. Anyone could have taken those warning shots at us.”
“Warning shots? That’s what you’ve now convinced yourself they were?”
“They missed us.”
He cursed and turned away for a moment as if trying to get his temper in check. “Where were you going?” he demanded when he turned back to her. She could see him gritting his teeth, his jaw muscles bunching. Even angry he was unbearably handsome.
“I know you think there is something wrong with me for continuing to look for the Dunns.” He gave her a look that confirmed it. “I’ve never been this close before in finding out who was behind the con that resulted in my brother’s suicide. I can’t stop now no matter what. I owe it to my brother.”
He shook his head. “You owe it to your brother to stay alive. Where were you going?” he asked again.
“Garfied County, Montana.”
“Garfield?”
“I found two things at the Dunn house. I would have told you sooner,” she said quickly. “But I was afraid you would tell your brother the sheriff.”
“Damn straight.”
He raked a hand through his thick dark hair, making her wish those were her fingers. She shook off the thought, blaming it on lack of sleep.
“You can’t leave again or you’ll be arrested.”
“What did you find?” His voice was low, intimate.
She looked around, seeing that she was in his childhood bedroom. There was a cowboy bedspread on the twin bed next to the window and an indentation in the spread where he’d been lying minutes before he’d grabbed her out in the hallway.
“A matchbook and a receipt for two burgers, one beer and a cherry cola at a bar.” She told him what was handwritten on the back of each.
“So from that you’re convinced that K.O. and Melody are in Garfield County?”
“At the Hell Creek Bar.”
“Talk about a leap.” He raked his hand through his hair again. “So you were going to drive there tonight?”
“I wanted to be there first thing in the morning when the bar opened,” she said. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought this out and she said as much.
Tucker let out a bark of a laugh. “You consider this thought-out? What if they just ate there on their way somewhere? Forget that. Garfield County isn’t a place most people drive through on their way somewhere else. Okay. Why not? Let’s go.”
“You can’t go with me.”
“Well, you’re sure as hell not going alone.”
“Tucker.” She stepped closer and reached up to cup his cheek in her hand as she looked into his gray eyes. “I’m so sorry I got you involved in this.”
“I was already involved, remember.”
“But you wanted to stop. You have to stop now. I don’t want you thrown back in jail. You aren’t responsible for me. You can stay here and I can—”
He took her hand from his face, but he didn’t let go of it. He dragged it over to his mouth and pressed his lips to the palm for a moment. She felt her blood fire. Had he pulled her over to his childhood bed...
“I’m going with you,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. “You’ll probably get us both killed before I get locked up again, but it’s better than worrying about what trouble you’ve gotten yourself into. Anyway,” he said, his gaze lifting to hers. “We’re a team, right?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “That’s us, one of the great detective couples. Like Nick and Nora.”
He mugged a face. “More like Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Emma Peel and John Steed.”
Tucker laughed. “Shaggy and Scooby Doo.”
Kate laughed, too. He let go of her hand and suddenly the air around them grew heavy. Her pulse jumped as their gazes locked, and for just an instant, she thought he might take her in his arms and kiss her again.
Instead, he took a step back, saying, “If we’re going to make it there by morning, then we’d better get going. I’ll leave a note for my brothers.”
“We’re going to find the last of the Dunns and end this,” she said.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” He looked up from where he was writing the note at the small desk next to the bed. “And then what, Kate? If they don’t kill us, of course. You going to kill them?”
She said nothing as she retrieved her gun and he went back to his note.