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The heat, the quiet, the sickness in the pit of his stomach made him slump down on the edge of the creek bank. He put his head in his hands and fought back all the emotions warring inside him. “Please, just find her.”
HALLEY PULLED OUT HER CELL PHONE, all the while keeping an eye on Colton. He hadn’t moved from the creek bank. She got the number for Sid and Mildred Granger’s house. A woman picked up on the third ring.
“I’d like to speak with Jessica Granger,” Halley said and saw Colton lift his head. He frowned, the look he gave her appeared to question whether she’d lost her mind.
There was a beat of silence, then, “She isn’t here. She doesn’t live here anymore.”
“Can you tell me where I can reach her?”
Another beat of silence. “May I ask who’s calling?”
“Is this Mrs. Granger?”
“Yes.”
Halley heard the hesitation in the woman’s voice. “I’m Sheriff’s Deputy Halley Robinson. I know this is unusual, but can you tell me when you last heard from your daughter?”
“A week ago. We got a letter. Has something happened to her?” The woman sounded scared.
“No, I’m sorry to upset you. But I would like to stop by and ask you a few questions. Something of your daughter’s has been found. I’d like to return it.”
“Something of Jessica’s?”
“I’ll come by now if that’s all right. Is your husband home as well?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’ll see you shortly.” She snapped the phone shut and looked at Colton. “I talked to Jessica’s mother. She says she got a letter from Jessica just last week. I’m going over there now to—”
“I’m going with you,” Colton said, shooting to his feet. “She’s lying. Jessica couldn’t have written her last week.”
A shaft of ice ran up her spine, even though the heat at the edge of the cottonwoods was intense. Why was he was so adamant that Jessica was dead unless … he’d killed her? She suddenly felt the isolation of this secret place where he used to meet his girlfriend. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d stood face-to-face with a killer. But it would be the first time it was a killer she’d once loved.
“Why would her mother lie?” Halley managed to ask.
“I don’t know, but she’s lying. If Jessica was alive …” His voice trailed off, anguish twisted his handsome features into a mask of pain. “I want to see the letter she supposedly sent last week. I knew Jessica better than anyone.”
Was that so? She had no doubt that Colton had known Jessica intimately if this secret spot under the cottonwoods was any indication. But if he’d known her so well, then why didn’t he know what Jessica couldn’t wait to tell him that night?
One thing was clear. Colton was going to the Granger house. Better he go with her.
“Okay, you can come with me. But if you cause any trouble, you’ll be leaving their house in handcuffs, understood?”
He nodded and she couldn’t help but notice how pale he looked. She’d never seen Colton Chisholm this vulnerable. She’d thought it would give her some satisfaction. It didn’t.
EMMA FOUND HER HUSBAND IN THE BARN. He hadn’t gone to move cattle with all of his sons except for Colton, which wasn’t like him. She worried that he wasn’t feeling well. Or that something was bothering him. Probably her. Maybe he was regretting his impulsive rush to the altar.
She’d noticed that he’d been spending more time in the barn with his horses lately. Apparently, this is where he went when he was upset about something. She stopped just inside the door to watch him as he curried a palomino mare. Hoyt was in his late fifties, just a few years older than she was. He was a big, physically fit man with a thick head of blond hair that made the gray in it hardly noticeable. But what had stolen her heart like a thief was his penetrating blue eyes and self-deprecating charm.
She wondered about the other women who’d passed through his life and this curse her latest caller had mentioned. Had those women only known the Hoyt who laughed a lot and lived hard? Or had they stuck around long enough to know this Hoyt, the quiet, gentle rancher who Emma loved and worried about?
At breakfast she’d noticed that he was quieter than usual. Now she was sure something was eating at him and wondered how long it would take before he confided in her. Or if he would.
She was sure the other women who’d been in his life had been younger, slimmer and no doubt more beautiful than she was. She couldn’t help but wonder what had made him fall in love with her.
But whatever those other women had been like, Emma didn’t think Hoyt realized yet that he had a woman strong enough that he could lean on her.
He turned as if sensing her presence. His face lit up at the sight of her and sent her heart racing and her pulse drumming in her ears. It amazed her that this man had the ability to do that to her. She didn’t doubt that Hoyt Chisholm would be able to fill her with this same desire when she was ninety.
“Coming out here will only get you in trouble,” Hoyt said as he reached for her. He pulled her to him, nuzzled her neck, making her skin tingle. She felt his fingers slip under her Western shirt and skim across her bare midriff.
As he drew back, his gaze met hers, desire burning like a hot, blue flame.
“Have you ever made love in a hayloft?” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her.
“Never,” she whispered back when she was able to catch her breath. Clearly he had something else in mind other than talking about what was really bothering him. If he thought he could distract her … Well, he was right.
“But you’ve secretly wanted to, haven’t you?” He was grinning at her and she knew she would have given him anything.
“How is it you always seem to know my secret desires, Hoyt Chisholm?”
Without another word he took her hand and led her through the barn to the foot of the hayloft ladder. “Ladies first.”
She saw the dare in his gaze and had a feeling no other woman had been up this ladder with him. Emma kissed him and began to climb.
“WHAT THE HELL is he doing here?”
Halley studied the man standing framed in the Granger house doorway. She vaguely remembered Sid Granger. She’d seen him around town when she was a girl because he’d worked for the city and probably still did.
“I need to speak with you and your wife,” Halley said flashing her badge. It had little effect on Sid, though. He stood glaring at Colton, looking as if he wanted to kill him. “Mr. Granger, I have something of your daughter Jessica’s.”
She held up the purse, finally getting his attention.
“That’s not my daughter’s.”
“It has Jessica’s driver’s license in it. I believe it is her purse.” Behind him a small woman appeared in a housedress and long apron, the quintessential home-maker. Millie Granger? When the woman’s eyes lit on the purse, her expression changed instantly. Suddenly she looked worried.
“Why don’t you ask your wife if it’s Jessica’s purse,” Halley said.
“It’s Jessica’s,” Millie said in a small voice. “Let them come in.”
Sid seemed surprised, but stepped back.
Halley shot Colton a look and said under her breath, “What did you do to make him hate you so much?”
Colton shook his head. “The son of a bitch was crazy when it came to Jessica.”
They followed the Grangers inside the house.
The interior of the house came as a surprise. Given the way Millie Granger was dressed, Halley had expected a lot of doilies, ruffled curtains and crocheted pillows. Instead, the feel was more masculine, including the huge stretched and dried rattlesnake skin that hung over the fireplace. She shivered. She’d never liked snakes, but she shouldn’t have been that surprised that Sid Granger did.
Sid turned abruptly the moment they were inside. “I don’t want him in my hou—”
“Colton found your daughter’s purse,” Halley said, raising her voice over his. “As I said, her driver’s license is in it along with a bus ticket from fourteen years ago and $200 in cash.”
Sid shook his head. “How is that possible?”
“That’s what we’d like to know. Did your daughter mention losing her purse?” she asked the mother.
Millie was a petite woman who looked as if she might blow away in a strong wind. The word mousy came to mind and, Halley noticed, Millie Granger was also clearly nervous. She was wearing a faded print apron. She kneaded the hem of it in her fingers, worrying at a hole in the fabric as she looked at her husband, as if fearful of what he might do.
Halley was wondering the same thing. Sid Granger’s jaw was set, his body practically trembling with anger.
“There must be some mistake,” Millie said in a small voice, her gaze still on her husband.
“You say you heard from your daughter last week?” Halley asked. Neither answered. “Is there a problem?” Clearly, there was, since Millie seemed to be waiting for her husband to say something.
“It’s a family matter,” Sid said through clenched teeth. “We don’t discuss family matters with—”
“She ran away fourteen years ago,” Millie blurted out, finally dragging her gaze from her husband. Sid shot her a lethal look.
Halley already knew from the letter Colton had received that running away had been Jessica’s plan. “Was there an argument?”
Sid Granger had his lips clamped shut. He was still glaring at his wife.
“We didn’t hear from her for a while,” Millie said timidly. “But then we got a letter from her.”
“So you’ve been in contact with her?” Halley asked. Again the Grangers exchanged a look. “You’ve talked to her?”
“She writes every year on her birthday, but there is never a return address and she mails the letters from different places. She doesn’t want us to know where she is.” Millie’s voice broke.
“It’s not us she is trying to get away from,” Sid bellowed. “It’s him!” He thrust a finger at Colton. “We lost
our daughter because of him!” He took a menacing step toward him. “I want this man out of my house. Now.”
“Let’s all settle down,” Halley said, giving Colton a warning look as she stepped between the two men.
“Jessica got away from him and I won’t have him—”
“You’re the reason she was leaving,” Colton snapped. “She would have done anything to get out of this house and away from you.”
“Maybe it would be better if you left,” Halley said, turning to glare at Colton. He was only making the situation worse.
“I’m not going anywhere until I see the letter from Jessica.”
Halley would have liked to haul him out of the house in handcuffs just as she’d warned him. “If we could all just calm down.”
“Not until that bastard is out of my house!”
“Sid, let the deputy tell us why she’s here,” Millie Granger said loudly, then quickly lowered her voice. “Please.” She kneaded again at the tear in her apron, her voice again as tiny as she was.
The tension in the room dropped a notch.
“Could we all sit down?” Halley asked.
Sid grudgingly took a chair, scowling the whole time at Colton, who sat down on one end of the couch, Halley on the other. She wondered what he’d done to Jessica that warranted this much hatred from the girl’s father. Was Colton right and it was just a father’s love of his only daughter? Or something more sinister on either of the two men’s parts?
“We need to be sure that Jessica is all right,” Halley said. “Finding her purse raises questions, as I’m sure you realize. Could I see the letters from your daughter?”
This time Millie didn’t look to her husband for guidance. She rose and, avoiding his gaze, went to a bedroom off the living room. She returned a few moments later with a small bundle of letters tied with a red ribbon.
She handed them to the deputy. As Halley undid the ribbon, she noted that there were over a dozen letters.
Before she could react, Colton stood and leaned over to snatch the top envelope from the pile.
Sid Granger shot out of his chair. Halley quickly took the letter back. But not before Colton had let out a cry that sounded almost like a sob.
“That isn’t Jessica’s handwriting,” he said, his voice breaking, as he snatched another envelope from her hand, opened it and pulled out the short letter. He looked devastated. “These letters aren’t from Jessica.”
Chapter Three
Colton felt as if he’d been kicked in the chest by a mule. All these years her parents had believed she was alive because of letters that weren’t from her at all?
“How could you believe the letters were from Jessica?” he demanded.
Millie was crying and wringing her hands in the cloth of her apron. Her husband looked as if he was trying to restrain himself. Colton was glad he hadn’t opted to come here without the deputy because he was having the same problem not going for Sid Granger’s throat.
“A person’s handwriting can change,” Millie was saying through her tears.
“If she was alive, why wouldn’t she call?” Colton demanded. “Why was Jessica so afraid to let her own family know where she was unless she hated you so much—”
“You punk!” Sid Granger sprang to his feet. “It was you she was trying to get away from.”
“Why would Jessica send me a letter asking me to run away with her if I was the problem?” Colton demanded, not backing down as he, too, shot to his feet.
“Colton,” the deputy warned as she stepped between them again. “Mr. Granger, I need to know why you’re so angry at Mr. Chisholm.”
Colton narrowed his gaze at her. Clearly, she was looking for just one more reason to hang him, but he stepped back, raising his hands in surrender.
“What was it you thought Mr. Chisholm did to your daughter?” Halley asked again.
Sid Granger seemed to have trouble speaking. He swallowed several times, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Tears filled his eyes. He hastily brushed them away with his shirtsleeve. Anger reddened his face. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“He got her pregnant,” Millie said from the rocker where she’d been sitting crying.
Colton took the news like a blow. He lowered himself to the couch. Looking up, he saw the deputy’s face. She’d obviously been anticipating something like this. Was this the news Jessica had wanted to tell him that night?
“He knocked her up and refused to marry her,” Sid finally managed to get out.
