Cardwell Ranch Trespasser(17)

“Did you get some sleep?”

“Yes. The wine and you stopping by helped,” she admitted.

“Good, I’m glad to hear that. I wanted you to know that I have to go up to West Yellowstone today on a burglary case.”

She could hear the smile in his voice and laughed. “And you thought you’d better remind me that I’m not to go near Dee?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Too subtle?”

“I appreciate you thinking of me.”

He was silent for a moment before he said, “I’ve been thinking of you for a long while.”

She didn’t know what to say, especially since a lump had formed in her throat.

“I wish that kiss hadn’t gotten interrupted.”

“Me, too.”

“How did things go with Dana, or shouldn’t I ask?”

“Not well. I know I should have kept my mouth shut, but Colt, I had to warn her. If I put even a little doubt in her mind...”

“You did what you had to. Listen, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. Hell, I know I shouldn’t. I meant to tell you last night. When we searched Rick, we found three different forms of identification in three different names. We sent his fingerprints to the crime lab in Missoula and we’re waiting to see if we get a hit. Right now, we don’t know who the guy is.”

Hilde felt her heart take off at a gallop. “So there is more to the story. Just like there has got to be with Dee.”

“It sure looks that way.”

“We have to get her fingerprints.”

“Hilde, promise me you won’t do anything while I’m in West. You know how dangerous she is. Also...”

She heard him hesitate. “What?”

“She’s gone into Bozeman today to do some shopping. She stopped by the office to ask Hud where there was a good place to have lunch. When she heard he’s going to be testifying in a trial down there this afternoon, she talked him into having lunch with her.”

Hilde never swore so she was as shocked as anyone when a cuss word escaped her mouth. “Even after I told Hud she was after him?”

“You had to be there,” Colt said. “She’s playing Rick’s death to the hilt. She said she needs someone to talk to and has questions that only Hud can answer.... You get the idea.”

Unfortunately she did. “We have to get her fingerprints soon.”

“I promise you we will. Just be patient. I’ll be back tonight. I was wondering if we could have dinner?”

Was he asking her on a date? Or was he just worried about her? “I’d like that.”

He sounded relieved. “Good. I could pick you up by seven. I thought we’d go up to Mountain Village, get away for a while.”

She felt a shiver of excitement race through her. “I look forward to it.” She hung up feeling like a schoolgirl. It was all she could do not to dance around the shop.

Hilde might have let herself go and danced, but the bell over the door jangled and she turned to see Dana’s cousin step inside. As Dee entered, she flipped the sign from Open to Closed and locked the door before turning to face Hilde.

* * *

“DON’T MAKE A fool of yourself,” Dee snapped, as she saw Hilde fumble for her cell phone. Hilde looked so much like a deer in the headlights that Dee had to laugh. “What are you going to tell the marshal? That I came into your shop to try to kill you again? Really, Hilde. You must realize how tiresome you’ve become.”

“Don’t come any closer,” Hilde said, holding up the phone.

“You’re wasting your time. Hud is in Bozeman, Colt is on his way to West Yellowstone—and what’s that other deputy’s name?”

“Liza.”

“Right. She just got a call and is headed up the mountain. By the time any of them get here, I will have unlocked the door and left you safe and as sound as you can be under the circumstances and you’ll only look all the more foolish.”

“What do you want?” Hilde demanded. But she lowered the cell phone as she stepped behind the counter.

Dee couldn’t help being amused as Hilde snatched up a pair of deadly-looking scissors from behind the counter. “You aren’t going to use those. Even if you had it in you, everyone would just assume you went off the deep end. You’ve been teetering on the brink for several days now.”

“What. Do. You. Want?” Hilde repeated.

Dee had to hand it to the woman. She was tougher than she looked. “I want you to leave me alone.”

“Don’t you mean you want me to leave Dana alone?”

“Just let me enjoy this vacation with my family.”

“Are they really your family? Rick didn’t seem to think so.”

Finally. She’d known Rick had shot off his mouth on the phone with Hilde. She’d just needed to know what he’d told her, and apparently Hilde was more than ready to tell anyone who’d listen.

“Rick was on drugs.”

“How convenient,” Hilde snapped. “He was going to tell me all about you and I have a feeling he knew plenty.”

“But ten thousand dollars’ worth?” Dee shook her head as she moved closer to the counter and Hilde.

“Dana told you about that?” Hilde didn’t sound so sure of herself suddenly.

“She told me everything—how you were convinced that I’d killed Rick—and right before you were finally going to learn all my deep, dark secrets. How frustrating that must have been for you.”

Hilde brandished the scissors. “You really don’t want to come any closer.”

Dee smiled, but stopped moving. “So if I’m not Dee Anna Justice, then who did Rick say I was?” She saw the answer at once on Hilde’s face. The woman wasn’t good at hiding her emotions. She would never survive in Dee’s world. “So he didn’t say. You just got the feeling I wasn’t Dee?” She shook her head. “Yep, you’re teetering on the brink. One little push and I’m afraid you’re going over the edge. It’s going to break Dana’s heart. She really does care for you, her best friend.”

“But you’ll be there to pick up the pieces, right?”

“That’s what I came here today to tell you,” Dee said. “I’m not going anywhere. Accept it. If you don’t, I’m afraid of what it will do to you mentally. You seem so fragile as it is.”

“You’re wrong,” Hilde said. “I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

Dee didn’t expect Hilde to lunge at her with the scissors. It wasn’t much of a lunge. Her reaction was to grab Hilde’s arm and twist it. The scissors clattered to the floor to the sound of Hilde crying out in pain.

As the shop owner stumbled back, rubbing her wrist and looking scared, Dee bent down and picked up the scissors from the floor by the blades.

“If you’re going to try to kill someone, it works better if they don’t see you coming at them,” Dee said in disgust. As she placed the scissors on the counter, she studied Hilde, realizing she was much closer to the edge of insanity than she’d thought. It wouldn’t take hardly anything to push her over.

“I need to get to Bozeman,” Dee said. “I have a lunch date with Hud. I suggest you close up shop and get some rest. You might want to see someone about that wrist. I hope it’s not sprained. How will you ever explain what happened?” She laughed as she turned toward the door. She almost wished that Hilde would grab up the scissors and come for her again.

At the door, she flipped the sign to Open, unlocked the door and let herself out. When she looked back, Hilde was still standing with her back against the wall, rubbing her wrist. The look in her eyes, though, wasn’t one of fear. It was...triumph.

Dee stopped to look again, surprised and worried by what she’d glimpsed in Hilde’s eyes just then. Was it just a trick of the light through the window? She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something she was missing. Hilde kept throwing her off balance. The woman was impossible. Anyone else would have taken the hint long before now.

But when she glanced into the shop again, she saw Hilde rush to the door to lock it and put up the Closed sign. Apparently the woman had taken her advice and was going to get some rest.

* * *

HILDE WAITED UNTIL she saw Dee drive away before she carefully slid the scissors into a clean plastic bag. She was positive she’d gotten the woman’s fingerprints because Dee had picked up the scissors by the blades, holding them out as if she wanted to seem nonthreatening.

What a joke. Everything about Dee was threatening.

Once she had the scissors put away, it was all she could do not to call Colt and tell him, but he was working. She would have to wait until dinner tonight since in order for him to run Dee’s prints, he would have to do it under Hud’s radar. Hilde realized what a chance he would be taking.