Chapter Fifteen
C.J. found herself smiling as she drove. She listened to Boone’s breathing as he slept. He looked so content, not anxious like he did when he was awake. She felt she’d gotten to glimpse something few people had seen. A peaceful Boone McGraw.
The highway took them from Great Falls up to the Hi-Line and across the top part of the state. They were just outside of Whitehorse when Boone stirred.
He sat up, looking surprised that he’d let himself fall asleep. All semblances of peace and serenity left his handsome face as he glanced out the window and saw where they were.
“You need to turn up here at the next road,” he said. “You okay driving? If you pull over I can—”
“I’m fine. Nice nap?”
He looked embarrassed. “I didn’t realize that I’d fallen sleep, let alone that I was conked out that long. Thanks for driving. I guess I was more tired than I thought.”
She merely smiled and seeing the turnoff ahead, slowed. “We aren’t going into town?”
“I thought we’d go straight to the ranch.”
“I’d feel better staying at a motel—”
“Not a chance. Since I’m not letting you out of my sight, you’ll be much safer on the ranch than in a motel in town.” He glanced in his side mirror as if, like her, he wondered if whoever was after her might be somewhere behind them.
“I don’t think we’ve been followed,” she said. “I’ve been watching.”
He leveled his gaze at her as she turned onto the dirt road. “I keep forgetting you do this for a living.”
She said nothing for a half mile. “What will your family think, me showing up on their doorstep with my suitcase in hand?”
“I’ll carry your suitcase,” he said.
“You know what I mean.”
“They’ll think...” For a moment he seemed to consider what they would think. He swore under his breath. “My brothers will give you a hard time. They’ll think you and I have more than a professional relationship.”
“But you’ll make it clear that’s all it is, right?”
“Of course. You need to turn up here. See that sign reading No Buffalo? Hang a right there.” He glanced straight ahead. “This was all too complicated to explain on the phone. But don’t worry. The new house is large with numerous guest rooms. While I’ve been gone, a designer has been putting the finishing touches on it. My father will be delighted to have you.”
“So you all live in the main house?”
“I have a place on the ranch, a cabin, where I usually stay. But until this is over, I’ll be sleeping at the house in a room next to yours.”
If he thought that made her feel safe, he was sadly mistaken.
Ahead, the house came into view. She stared, a little awestruck. It was beautiful. Boone had mentioned it was new. She’d read about the explosion and fire that had burned down the original house.
She felt anxious about meeting his family and braced herself. So much felt like it was on the line right now. She thought about the thumb drive in her pocket, feeling guilty for keeping it from Boone, from his family.
But only until tomorrow, she told herself. Whatever happened at the train, she would show it to Boone.
* * *
AS THEY PULLED into the ranch yard, Cull and Ledger were coming up from the barn. Boone saw their interest in who was driving his pickup and swore again under his breath. The last think he needed was them giving him a hard time about C.J.
Also he’d hoped to talk to his father first. Even better would be to tell everyone at the same time to save repeating himself. But he could tell by the inquisitive looks on his brothers’ faces that they were more than curious about the woman behind the wheel of his pickup.
“Looks like you’re going to get to meet my brothers right away,” he said as she handed him the keys. He opened his door, hopped out and called a hello to them. Not that his brothers noticed him. They were staring at C.J.
Cull lifted a brow as he and Ledger joined them. “Hired yourself a chauffeur?”
“This is C.J. West. She’s a private investigator.”
Cull shook her hand. “I’m his older smarter, more handsome brother, Cull.”
“And this is Ledger,” Boone said, wishing his brothers could behave for once.
As C.J. shook his younger brother’s hand, Cull said, “I hope you’ve brought good news.”
Just then their father came out on the porch.
“Can we take this inside? I’ll tell you everything I know,” Boone said with a sigh. “But C.J. and I will be staying at least overnight.”
“I’ll help you with your bags,” Ledger said. “Go on in. I know Dad is anxious to hear what you found out.”
“So am I,” Cull said.
Boone led C.J. up to the house, introduced her to his father and the three of them entered the new house.
The old one had been huge and quite opulent. This one was more practical. It had a nice big eat-in kitchen, a large dining room and living room, a master suite for their father and a ranch office. The other bedrooms were divided between two wings off the north and south ends of the house on the same level to provide privacy for anyone staying in them.
His father had gotten it into his head that his sons and their wives would be staying over a lot so he would be able to spend even more time with his future grandchildren.
The interior designer his father had hired had been given only one requirement. Marianne loves sunny colors, Travers had told her. We need this house to feel like sunshine.
Boone had to admit, as he stepped into the house, the designer had done her job well. She’d been finishing when he’d left for Butte. The house looked inviting and at the same time homey. It never had with Patty in command. He was anxious to ask his father what had been going on while he’d been gone, with Patty’s upcoming trial, her threat to write a tell-all book and a rumor that more arrests would be made in his father’s poisoning case.
“Do you mind if I freshen up while you bring your father up to speed?” C.J. asked as Ledger brought in their bags. He could tell she wanted to give him and his father and brothers time alone and he appreciated that.
“Take the last room on the south wing,” his father told her. “And please let us know if there is anything you need or want. Boone—”
“You can put my bag in the room next to hers,” Boone said, making his brothers as well as his father lift a brow.
C.J. didn’t seem to notice as Ledger steered her toward one of the bedroom wings, leaving the three of them alone.
“Why don’t we step into the office?” his father suggested.
They’d barely gotten seated when Ledger joined them. Like the old office, there was a rock fireplace with a blaze going in it and comfortable chairs around it along with a large oak desk.
Boone told them what had happened since he’d last seen them.
“Hank Knight is dead?” Cull said. “And you say C.J. was his partner in the investigation business?”
“She’s a licensed private investigator and worked with him. But they were much closer than that. Hank helped her single mother raise her. C.J. and Hank were very close. It’s one reason she is determined to find his killer.”
Cull was shaking his head.
“What does the C.J. stand for?” Ledger asked.
“Calamity Jane. She said her father was a huge fan of Westerns.”
“And he’s deceased?”
Boone nodded. “Died when she was two.”
“So you think this person who’s made attempts on her life—and yours—is somehow connected to the kidnapping and Jesse Rose?” his father asked.
“It seems that way. All we know is that Hank Knight didn’t share any of it with C.J., something highly unusual, according to her. And he’d flown to Seattle, also something unusual since he apparently hated to fly. He appeared to be planning another trip before he was killed. That, I believe, was to Whitehorse. We think he planned to meet the train from Seattle tomorrow in Whitehorse at 2:45 p.m.”
“Who is coming in on the train?” Travers asked.
Boone shook his head. “We have no idea. But we plan to be there.”
“What if no one gets off from Seattle?” Cull asked.
“Then my theory is wrong and then I don’t know.” Boone raked a hand through his thick dark hair, his Stetson resting on his knee. “It’s possible that none of this has to do with Jesse Rose.”
“Then what?” Ledger asked.
He shrugged. “But someone wants to keep C.J. from finding out the truth about her partner’s murder. If his inquiries about Jesse Rose and the kidnapping are what got him killed...”
“I want to meet the train with you tomorrow,” his father said.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I think it would be better if C.J. and I go alone. Whoever is getting off that train is expecting to meet Hank Knight. If there’s a crowd,” he said, looking pointedly at his brothers, “it might scare them away.”
“You’re hoping Jesse Rose gets off the train,” Cull said. “Would you recognize her?”
“I think so.”
“And if it is someone else, someone...dangerous?” Travers asked.
“I can handle myself, and don’t forget—I will have a card-carrying, gun-toting private investigator with me.”
* * *
C.J. PUT HER suitcase on a bench in the last room at the end of the hall where Ledger had led her. The room was lovely, bright and airy with a large sliding glass door that looked out on the mountainside beyond. She could see where it appeared a swimming pool was going in to the right. To the left were corrals and several large barns.
Opening the doors, she stepped out on the patio. Three horses watched her from a nearby corral. She smiled and walked over to them.
She was stroking one of the horse’s neck when she heard someone come up behind her. She didn’t turn around, didn’t need to. She knew it was Boone. That connection that had been growing between them felt stronger than ever.
“You like horses.” He sounded surprised. “We could go for a ride. It’s a beautiful afternoon and tomorrow it’s supposed to snow. We should take advantage of this weather.”
She could tell that he wanted to go for a ride. “Why not?”
“I’ll saddle us up a couple of horses. Come on.” She followed him into the cool of the barn and watched while he expertly saddled the horses. “I gave you a very gentle one.”
“I appreciate that.” She smiled as he offered her a foot up. She placed her shoe in his cupped hands and let him lift her. Swinging her leg over, she settled in the saddle. It had been a while since she’d ridden a horse, but it felt good. She took the reins and watched Boone. He looked completely at home in the saddle.
They rode out into the afternoon sunlight. It was so much warmer here than it had been in Butte. She breathed in the fresh air as they rode slowly across a pasture.
“Those are the Little Rockies,” Boone said, pointing to the dark line of mountains in the distance. “The story goes that Lewis and Clark originally thought they were the Rocky Mountains. When they realized their mistake, they renamed them the Little Rockies.”
C.J. saw some cabins back in a stand of trees. “Is that where you usually stay?”
He nodded. “But see that land on the hillside over there? That’s my section. Someday I’m going to build a house on it with a view of the mountains.”
“When you get married. Is that what your brothers are doing, building on their land?” She pointed to a spot where some land had been excavated.
“That’s my brother Cull’s. He and Nikki will start their house in the spring. Ledger and Abby will be building about a half mile farther from there. We all wanted to be close—but not too close.”
“So you’ll always stay on the ranch,” she said, not looking at him.
“That’s what I’ve always planned.”
She looked over at him because of something she heard in his tone. “Unless?”
“Unless I fall in love with someone who doesn’t want this life.”
“You’d go where she wanted?” It surprised her that he thought a woman could get this cowboy off the ranch.
“For the right woman, I would.”
They rode in silence as the sun slid farther to the west before they turned back.
* * *
BACK AT THE RANCH, Cull came out to say that their father wanted to talk to C.J.
“You go ahead,” Boone told her. “I’ll take care of the horses and join you in a minute.”
“You told them that I don’t know anything, right?” she said to him.
He nodded. “But you knew Hank Knight.”
“I thought I did.”
“It’s all right,” Boone said. “My father understands.”
She followed Cull back into the house. Travers McGraw was waiting for her in his office. He rose to his feet when she entered and she saw that he wasn’t alone.
“This is Nikki St. James, the true crime writer who is doing the book on the kidnapping.”
C.J. shook hands with Nikki, recalling what Boone had told her about the woman. She’d thought at the time that she would probably like the writer. The woman was pretty with long dark hair and wide blue eyes.
Travers asked C.J. to tell them more about her and her relationship with Hank. She told them about growing up in Butte and the impact Hank had on her life.
“I wish I could tell you more,” C.J. said after she’d told them what she knew about Hank’s inquiry about Jesse Rose and the kidnapping.
“You said Hank always shared his other cases?” Nikki asked. “Had he ever been involved with adoptions?”
“No.”
“Do you know if he knew a woman named Pearl Cavanaugh? She was a member of the Whitehorse Sewing Circle.”
She shook her head. She’d thought she’d known everything about Hank. That he could have lived a secret life, or worse, that he was involved in the McGraw kidnapping, seemed inconceivable.
Boone came into the room and took a seat. He gave her a reassuring smile.
“How old are you?” Cull asked. He’d been sitting quietly in a corner, listening. She had almost forgotten he was there. Unlike Boone. Her nerve endings had tingled as he’d walked into the room. She’d never been more aware of a man.
“Twenty-eight,” she said, wondering why he was asking.
“So you would have been three at the time of the kidnapping,” Boone said and looked at his father. “She would have been too young to know if Hank was involved back then.”
“He couldn’t have been involved in the kidnapping,” C.J. argued. “You didn’t know him. He wouldn’t...” She felt her eyes burn with tears. “He spent his life helping people. He didn’t steal babies from their beds.”
“I wasn’t implying that,” Nikki said quickly. “One of the kidnappers who was involved was told that the babies weren’t safe. We think that’s what gave Harold Cline the idea of kidnapping them. It could also be the reason that someone in that house helped him. At least one of them could have thought they were saving the twins.”
C.J. felt her stomach roil. If Hank had thought he was saving the babies... “If he was involved, why would he call your lawyer and ask questions about Jesse Rose and the stuffed toy horse that was taken with her?”
She saw Travers and Boone share a look before Nikki said, “He could have been worried about this new information that was released regarding the kidnapping. If Jesse Rose still had the stuffed toy horse and she heard about it or her adoptive parents did...”
“Wouldn’t they have contacted you?” C.J. asked.
“The parents might be afraid of losing their daughter, getting into trouble with the law... There are a lot of reasons they wouldn’t want to come forward, especially if they knew who she was when they received her,” Travers said.
“As for Jesse Rose, she might not even know that she was adopted,” Nikki said. “Even if she saw the digitally enhanced photos in the newspaper, she might not think anything of it.”
“But if she had a toy horse with a pink ribbon tied around its neck, she might start asking questions,” Boone said. “If the horse gave the six-month-old baby comfort, the adoptive parents might have kept it.”
“Or they might not have known that the stuffed toy horse came from the McGraw house,” Nikki said. “They could have thought it was a gift from whoever had taken the baby to save her.”
“Once it hit the news, though...” Boone looked to C.J.
She felt sick at the thought of all this. That Hank might have been involved twenty-five years ago... She revolted at the idea. Not the Hank she thought she’d known. She reminded herself that he’d kept whatever was going on from her. Because of shame? Or to protect her because he knew it was dangerous?
That thought gave her a little hope. While it looked bad, there was still the chance that Hank was innocent. After all, he was a PI. He could be working for someone who was neck deep in this and was looking for a way out.
“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, depending on who gets off that train at the Whitehorse depot,” Boone said. “Until then all we can do is speculate. You must have seen the digitally enhanced photos in the newspaper and on television. Or looked them up on the internet. Did you ever see anyone who resembled Jesse Rose with Hank?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head and suppressed a shudder at the thought of the thumb drive with the young woman’s photo on it. She hated lying and promised herself that after tomorrow, she would show it to Boone and his family. She hated keeping secrets from him. But she also couldn’t betray Hank.
If Jesse Rose got off that train, she’d recognize her.