AS HARP DROVE into Clawson Creek, he spotted the bar and the café. Both had vehicles parked out front. Noting the time, he pulled into the café for a late breakfast.
A waitress in her late teens with the name tag Crissy came over with a menu and a glass of water as he sat down. As she fumbled out her order pad from her apron pocket, he got the impression she was new at this. But definitely eager.
“Just passing through?” she asked, curiosity shining in her dark eyes.
Harp opened the menu and chose the Prairie Wagon Special, which came with bacon, two eggs, hash browns and a side of flapjacks. He closed the menu and smiled up at her. “Coffee. Sugar and cream and advice.”
Crissy had been scribbling but looked up, her painted eyebrows arching. “Advice?”
“If you wanted the dirt on a family from here, who would you ask in this town?”
The girl giggled and looked back toward the kitchen to make sure the cook wasn’t paying any attention. “Depends on who you’re asking about,” she said, lowering her voice.
“Why don’t you put that order in and then come back?” he suggested.
Grinning, she swept off to the back, returning a few minutes later. She looked excited. “So who do you want to know about?”
“The Dunns.”
“Oh, them.” She sounded disappointed. “No one cares about them anymore. They left town a long time ago.”
“But your parents would have known them.”
Crissy nodded. “My mother said they were scary weird.”
He could hear the cook back in the kitchen scraping something with a spatula and grease popping, but he could also tell that the girl was worried about getting caught.
“Why did your mother say that?” he asked.
She looked toward the kitchen. “The one that killed herself?”
“Misty?”
The girl nodded. “I heard one of the sisters pushed her down the stairs.”
“So she didn’t kill herself.”
The girl shrugged.
“Did your mother go to the funeral?”
“Wasn’t one. The Dunns were in league with the devil. They didn’t believe in funerals.” The bell tinkled in the back and Crissy took off to get his food.
Harp turned to watch the cook questioning her before she returned with his food.
“You get in trouble with the cook?”
She shook her head, but it was clear she had. “Not supposed to visit with customers,” she said quietly and headed to the back.
As he ate, he thought about what he’d learned. Nothing yet. Just idle gossip.
* * *
AS TUCKER SAT down next to Kate at the bar, he put a hand over hers—and the gun she was holding inside her purse. He started to say something but noticed that at least she was keeping the gun out of sight of the men who’d resumed their game at the pool table.
“Two beers.” He looked to Kate. It was early for tequila, but with her, he never knew. All she did was nod. “Whatever you have on tap.”
“You got it,” K.O. Dunn said and tossed down two napkins before turning to walk down the bar to draw the drafts.
“Be cool,” Tucker whispered.
“You know me.”
“That’s what has me worried. I don’t want you killing an innocent man.”
She scoffed at that as K.O. came back down the bar and placed a full glass of beer on each of the napkins.
“Anything else I can get you?” he asked.
“Actually, there is,” Tucker said. “I was wondering if you’ve been back to Clawson Creek recently.”
Instantly wary, K.O. asked, “Do I know you?”
“I knew your sister Madeline.”
The man started to step away.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Kate said. “I have a gun in my lap and I swear I will shoot you before you can reach that weapon you have behind the bar. I am one hell of a shot.”
K.O. froze. Fear registered in his blue eyes as he turned to look at them. He swept his gaze to Kate and back to Tucker. “You’re not the law,” he said, studying them. “What do you want?”
“Answers, that’s all,” Tucker said. “And then we’re out of here.”
“Who was Madeline working with?” Kate asked.
K.O. looked toward the men playing pool and the crowd of others cheering them on. “You have a lot of guts coming in here like this.”
“You don’t want the kind of trouble we can bring down on this place,” Tucker said. “This woman sitting next to me, along with being a great shot, is Clayton Rothschild’s daughter.”
The name registered on K.O.’s face.
“She’s also an investigative journalist for a New York City paper.”
“He left out the important part,” Kate said. “Madeline was a...friend of my brother’s. My brother, who killed himself because of her.” K.O. looked as if he might try to run. “I wouldn’t,” she said, shifting on her bar stool. “You’d never reach the door.”
“Look,” the man said, lowering his voice as he moved closer to them. “That was Madeline’s deal. I had nothing to do with it.”
Kate shook her head. “I don’t believe you. Someone helped her. I think it was you.”
“No! You think I would pimp out my own sisters?” the man demanded.
“What about your father?” Tucker asked.
K.O. let out a bark of a laugh that made several men at the pool table turn. He leaned toward them, lowering his voice. “My father would have killed her if he’d known what she was doing, let alone that she’d involved Misty and Melody.”
“Did he?”
The man frowned at Tucker. “Did he what?”
“Kill her. A young woman’s skeletal remains were found in a creek over by Gilt Edge. We think they’re Madeline’s,” he said. “Are you telling me you haven’t heard?”
K.O. swore. “Are they sure it’s Madeline?” He seemed genuinely taken aback by all this.
“The sheriff in Gilt Edge has been trying to reach her next of kin,” Tucker said. “You’re a hard man to find.”
Shrugging, K.O. said, “If your family was as cursed as mine—”
“She was murdered,” Tucker said.
“Wait, what? Murdered?” Again some men took interest in them as K.O. blurted out the last word. He lowered his voice and leaned toward them again. “I thought she drowned.”
“We know she was working with someone who was waiting for her downstream,” Kate said. “She was shot and buried under a pile of driftwood.”
K.O. grasped the bar as if in shock. “You’re sure she’s dead? All this time?” He let out a laugh.
“There something funny about that?” Kate asked.
“Why do you think I’ve been hiding out all these years?” the man snapped. “You don’t have any idea what Madeline is like.”
“Where can we find Melody?” Kate asked.
The man looked wary again. “How should I know?”
Kate shifted to remind him no doubt of the pistol in her lap. “Tammy Holden thought you and Melody were...together.”
K.O. didn’t like the implication. “Watch what you say about Melody. She’s had it worse than anyone in the family.” He looked up and met Tucker’s gaze. “If you’re looking to get even for what Madeline did, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Melody had nothing to do with it.”
When the front door of the bar opened letting in a shaft of sunlight and a gust of wind, everyone turned to see who was coming in. Silhouetted in the doorway was a woman with long blond hair. As she started to step in, Tucker saw her face and gasped. Madeline.
* * *
AFTER HARP WALKED around town, talking to anyone who would give him the time of day, he finally ended up at the bar. It was relatively quiet with only a couple of old-timers at one end of the bar and a wino-looking man at the other end.
He took the bar stool next to the wino, ordered a beer and struck up a conversation. The man looked at him bleary-eyed until Harp offered to buy him a drink. He and Ray became best buddies after that.
“So what’s the deal with the Dunn family?” he asked.
“Kell Dunn was a prick,” the man said without hesitation.
Harp laughed, glad to have someone finally telling him what he really thought. “And the son?”
“K.O.?” Ray shrugged. “Not a bad kid.”
“Okay, what about the girls?”
“There was something wrong there, spooky to see three of ’em looking like carbon copies.” Ray shook his head. “Kell and his crazy wife dressed them alike for years. Those girls were his pride and joy.” The man chuckled. “His downfall, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“They scattered like rain the moment they were old enough. Broke him. Add to that his financial ruin.”
“What about Misty Dunn? I heard she killed herself.”
“Did she?” The man laughed and took a long pull on his drink.
Harp blinked. “What are you saying?”
“Half the people in town think Kell killed her. She apparently was his favorite.”
“And the other half of town?”
Ray rubbed his grizzled chin for a moment, studying himself in the mirror behind the bar. “That it was one of the sister’s done it. Never seen a body put into the ground that quickly. Buried her in the old cemetery before she was even cold.”
Harp frowned. “I heard they didn’t have a funeral.”
“One of the girls came into town for wood for the casket. That’s how cheap Kell was. If you get them in the ground soon enough, you don’t have to have the body embalmed.”
Harp thought about that for a moment. “You know where I can find a shovel?” Ray just happened to have one in the back of his truck.
“I’ll get your shovel back to you.” Harp handed him a ten.
“No hurry.” Ray started back into the bar after giving him instructions to the old cemetery. “I should warn you. People say that piece of land is haunted.” The old wino looked toward the sinking sun. “I’d dig fast if I was you.”
Once at the cemetery, Harp almost changed his mind. The sun seemed to be disappearing fast, casting long shadows through the gravestones and the trees that bordered the cemetery.
But still he got out, grabbed the shovel and headed in through the weed-choked path. As he did, he noticed that he wasn’t the only one who’d been here recently.
On a hunch, Harp followed the fresh tracks in the dust right to Misty Dunn’s grave. He took in the graves and markers. The mother was buried here and apparently the grandmother. So where was the old man buried? Or was he still alive? Ray had said the family cleared out right after Misty went into the ground.
No wonder people thought it was suspicious. No one had seen any of them since, from what he’d been able to find out. Very odd.
With the day cooling down from the waning sun, he went to work and hadn’t dug far when the shovel hit something solid that made a loud thump and sent a shudder up his arms. That alone spooked him. Weren’t bodies supposed to be buried six feet deep?
He began to dig faster. Harp felt his excitement increasing. Everyone in town had told a different story. But what they’d all been saying was that something was wrong about Misty’s death—and burial. He needed to know if Misty Dunn was in this wooden box. Pushing away all his fears of the dead, he shoveled faster.
His shovel struck the wood again. It had rotted over the years. That’s why he should have known better than to jump down onto it. The wood held for a moment, then collapsed under his weight. He grabbed for earth, repelled by the thought of falling onto the body.
Bracing himself for the worst given the odor rising up out of that coffin, Harp managed to balance on one edge. He peeled back a piece of the rotten wood top. Hot, sweaty and filthy with the fine dirt, he tried not to think about haunted cemeteries or the dead all watching him dig up a body.
As he peeled the wood back and looked down at the mummified face, a cry of revulsion escaped his lips. He stared into the dark holes where the eyes used to be, a chill running the length of him just moments before he heard a sound behind him and the scrape of the shovel being picked up off the ground.
His cell phone rang. Vicki. He pulled it out. Saw the text. Vicki was having the baby.
The flat of the shovel blade caught him in the side of the head. Harp fell face-first onto the rotten coffin. He felt his legs drop down onto the body inside. He tried to get up, but as he did, he was knocked down as a shovelful of dirt struck him in the back. Struck by another shovelful of dirt, then another, he couldn’t breathe from the weight of it. A shovelful of dirt landed on his neck. His face slammed into the edge of the coffin, and just before the lights went out, he thought he heard the sound of a vehicle.
* * *
KATE SAW THE blonde’s gaze lock with K.O.’s an instant before the woman spun around and tore out of the bar. Tucker seemed too shocked to move. Kate grabbed her purse, slid off her bar stool and went after the woman.
She caught up with her before Melody Dunn reached the street. “Melody?” She grabbed her arm and spun her around to face her.
Shock made her let go of the woman’s arm. She stared into Melody’s blank blue eyes, her heart pounding. Behind her, she heard the bar door bang open. Tucker and K.O. joined them. Several other men came out, as well.
“Go back inside,” K.O. ordered the men. “I have this under control. Now!” He dropped his menacing tone at once as he saw how upset his sister was. He reached for her hand. “It’s all right, Melody. No one is going to hurt you.”
“I wanted a cola.” She choked out the words like sobs in a little-girl voice. “You said I could come in and have a cola as long as I was careful and didn’t go out into the street.”
“You did great. I’m sorry you got scared. Come on back inside. I’ll get you a cola. You can sit in your favorite booth and drink it while I talk to these people.”
Melody turned empty blue eyes on them for a moment. “A big cola with lots of ice and a cherry. Don’t forget the cherry.”
“I won’t. I’ll make it just the way you like it.” He looked at Kate. “I’ll be out in a minute.” With that, he ushered his sister into the bar.
Kate’s gaze shifted to Tucker. He looked as if he’d been hit by a truck. Melody Dunn was beautiful and clearly damaged. Kate had seen that the moment she’d looked into the woman’s eyes.
K.O. came back out looking like a whipped dog. “I hope you have what you came for. You know now why I’m protective of Melody.”
“What happened to her?” Tucker asked.
“A car accident shortly after we left Clawson Creek. The doctor says she has the mind of a five-year-old.” K.O. looked up, grief in his eyes. “Like I said, my family is cursed.”
“Why did you leave Clawson Creek the way you did?” Kate asked.
“I had to get Melody away from Madeline.” His voice broke. “I didn’t know what happened to Madeline and Misty. My father had made some bad investments and lost everything. I would imagine he left because creditors were chasing him. I didn’t know what happened to Madeline and Misty.”
“Inside the bar, when you heard that the woman we believe was Madeline had been murdered, I got the feeling that you suspected who might have done it,” Kate said.
“I told you. I wasn’t involved in my sister’s...business.”
“But you knew about it,” Tucker said.
“I knew she conned men out of trinkets, yes.”
“You also knew about the water trick she pulled,” Kate said.
“Madeline was like a fish when she was little. She loved water and climbing trees and doing crazy things. Nothing scared her. We were the ones who were afraid of her. Our father said she’d been chosen by the devil. He tried to exorcise the evil out of her.” K.O. shook his head. “If anything, it only made her worse.”
“What about Misty?” Tucker asked.
K.O. shook his head. “I hadn’t seen her before I left with Melody, but I knew she would do whatever Madeline told her to do. I couldn’t save her, but I thought I could save Melody.” He looked like he might cry. “Instead, I almost got her killed.”
“So Misty could have helped Madeline with her cons?” Kate prodded.
“I suppose so,” he said. “Look, Madeline was very persuasive. Who knows what she talked anyone into.”
Kate looked over at Tucker, wondering at how persuasive Madeline had been.
The door of the bar opened. Melody stuck her head out tentatively. “I ate the cherry. It’s all gone.” She sounded close to tears.
“I have to go,” K.O. said. “I’m coming,” he called to his sister. “Go wait for me and I’ll bring you two cherries.”
Melody broke into a huge smile, making the years vanish and giving Kate a glimpse of what Madeline had looked like when Tucker had loved her. Beautiful but also damaged. She wondered if that was a combination that her brother had also found irresistible.
The door closed. The wind picked up some trash along the front of the building and sent it whirling into the air.
But Kate hardly noticed. She’d seen Tucker’s expression when he’d looked at Melody as if he was seeing Madeline. She felt her heart break for him and for herself.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. The bruised sky had darkened ominously. “Just one more thing,” Tucker said. “We were at your old house outside Clawson Creek yesterday. Someone took potshots at us.”
“It wasn’t me. I was here all day. You can ask around. Why would you go there?” K.O. asked, sounding horrified. “I haven’t been back to that house in almost twenty years. You couldn’t get me to go back there, even at gunpoint.”
“Did Madeline ever break her leg? Her left leg?”
K.O. frowned. “No, that was Misty. Madeline pushed her down the stairs. Why are you asking me this?”
Tucker swore under his breath. The body in the creek wasn’t Madeline’s. It was Misty’s. Was it possible? Was Madeline still alive? “If Misty was the one who broke her leg, then the body in the creek is hers—not Madeline’s.”
Kate couldn’t miss K.O.’s shock. All the color drained from his face. He took a step toward the bar, then another. He looked as if he wanted to take off running and never stop. But he had Melody waiting for him.
He hesitated at the bar door, looking back at them for a moment. From inside came Melody’s plaintive call to him. He seemed to take a deep breath and entered, the door closing behind him.
Kate looked at Tucker. “It wasn’t Madeline in the creek?”
“My brother told me that one of the leg bones had an old fracture. I think there is a good chance it was Misty on the bridge that night, not Madeline.”
She shook her head, reeling from the implications. Tucker looked as if he’d been coldcocked with a bat. “But we saw Misty’s grave at the old cemetery outside Clawson Creek. If the woman in the creek was Misty, then who is in that grave?”