Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene. B.J. Daniels
watch for anyone who seems a little too interested in you—or the ones who are trying hard not to pay you any mind,” he used to say.
She spotted the cowboy. He had moved from his spot against the wall and now stood as if waiting for his baggage to arrive. Except he hadn’t been on the flight.
“Do you need anything else before we head out?” Dana asked, drawing her attention again.
“No, I’m good,” DJ said and followed Dana toward the exit. She didn’t have to look back to know that the cowboy was watching her. But he wasn’t the only one.
* * *
BEAU WATCHED DJ LEAVE, curious if anyone else was watching her. Through the large window, he could see Dana’s SUV parked outside. DJ was standing next to it, the two seeming to hit it off.
No one seemed to pay her any attention that he could tell. A few people were by the window, several taking photographs. In the distance, the mountains that surrounded the valley were snowcapped against a robin’s-egg-blue sky.
He watched DJ climb into the SUV. As it pulled away, there was the clank of the baggage carousel. The people who’d been standing at the window all turned, pocketing their phones. One man took a moment to send a text before moving to the baggage claim area. Everyone looked suspicious, and no one did.
Beau realized he was flying blind. He had to know why Walter Justice had hired him. He had to know what kind of trouble DJ was in.
Pulling out his phone, he stepped outside into the cold December afternoon. The air smelled of snow. Even with the winter sun shining against the stone wall of the airport, it was still chilly outside.
Beau was glad when the emergency number he’d called was answered. It took a few minutes for Walter to come on the line. He wondered what kind of deal the inmate had made that allowed him such service. Con men always found a way, he thought, remembering his own father.
“Have you seen her?” Walter asked at once.
“I have. But you might recall, I’ve seen her before.”
“She was just a child then.”
“She’s not now,” he said, thinking of the striking woman who’d come down those stairs. “That’s just one reason I need to tell her the truth.”
“No. That would be a mistake. You don’t know her—she doesn’t trust anyone.”
“Whose fault is that?” Beau asked. “If you want me to get close to her, you have to let me do it my way. Tell me what kind of danger she’s in.”
“That’s just it. I don’t know.”
Beau swore under his breath. “You expect me to believe that? I have to know what I’m up against.” Walter knew enough that he’d “hired” Beau.
Silence filled the line for so long, he feared the inmate had hung up. “It could have something to do with her mother.”
“DJ’s mother?”
“Sorry, not DJ’s mother. Carlotta is dead. Her grandmother Marietta is still alive. Marietta might have found DJ.”
“Found her?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is. But if you expect me to keep your daughter safe, you’d better tell me.”
There was a sound of clanging doors. Then Walter said, “I have to go. Call me tomorrow.” And the man was gone.
Pocketing his phone with a curse, Beau headed for his pickup. He couldn’t wait until tomorrow. He would have to do this his way—no matter what Walter Justice had said. He thought of the woman he’d seen. Years ago he’d yearned to save that brown-eyed girl. He was getting a second chance, but he feared he wasn’t going to have any more luck than he’d had at ten.
What the hell had he gotten involved in?
* * *
DANA CARDWELL SAVAGE was a pleasant surprise. DJ saw at once the family resemblance in this cheerful young woman with the dark hair and eyes. She was so sweet that DJ felt herself relax a little.
“We are so happy to have you here,” her cousin was saying. “Your father said that he’s been wanting to get us together for years, but with your busy schedule...” Dana glanced over at her and smiled. “I’m glad you finally got the chance. This is the perfect time of year to visit Cardwell Ranch. We had a snow last night. Everything is pretty right now. Do you ski?”
DJ shook her head.
“That’s all right. If you want to take a lesson, we can certainly make that happen. But you ride, your father said.”
“Ride?”
“Horses. It might be too cold for you, but it’s always an option.”
The SUV slipped through an opening between the mountains, and DJ was suddenly in a wonderland of white. Massive pine branches bowed under the weight of the fresh white snow. Next to the highway, the river was a ribbon of frozen green.
DJ had never seen anything like it. Or had she? At the back of her mind, she thought she remembered snow. The cold, soft flakes melting in her child-sized hand. That sense of wonder.
Dana was telling her about the Gallatin Canyon and some of its history. “I’m sorry,” she said after a few minutes. “I talk too much when I’m excited.”
“No,” DJ said quickly. “I’m interested.”
Dana smiled at her. “You are so different from the last Dee Anna Justice who visited us. Sorry. You said you hadn’t heard about it.”
“What happened?”
DJ listened and shuddered to think that she’d lived in the same apartment with someone like that. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t really know her. We shared an apartment, but since my job is traveling, I was hardly there.”
Her cousin waved that off. “Not your fault. That’s why we’re excited finally to meet the real you.”
The real you? DJ almost laughed. She hadn’t gone by her real name in years. She wasn’t sure she even knew the real her.
Jimmy Ryan could hardly hold still, he was so excited. He couldn’t believe his luck as he saw the man come into the bar.
“You bring the up-front money?” he asked the moment the man took the stool next to him at the bar. The dive was almost completely empty this time of day. Still, he kept his voice down. This was serious business.
When the man had told him he was looking for someone with Jimmy’s...talents, he’d never dreamed how perfect he was for the job.
“Montana? Hell, I used to live up there, you know, near Big Sky,” Jimmy had bragged. He hadn’t been there since he’d flunked out of high school after knocking up his girlfriend and being forced into a shotgun marriage, but that was beside the point.
“I remember you mentioning that. That’s why I thought of you. So maybe you know the area?” the man had said.
“Like the back of my hand. I might even know the target.”
“Ever heard of the Cardwell Ranch?”
Jimmy had felt a chill as if someone had walked over his grave. This was too good to be true. “Are you kidding? I used to...date Stacy Cardwell.”
“Well, maybe you won’t want this one.”
As desperate as he was for money, he would have killed anyone they asked, even Stacy herself, though not before he’d spent some quality time with her for old times’ sake.
He’d