Cardwell Ranch Trespasser(23)

Stopping, she considered what to do. Dee had realized that she had her fingerprints and DNA. That was probably why she’d torn up the shop. Did that mean she’d realized whatever she’d been up to was about to come to a screeching halt? Or would the prints only prove that the woman really was Dee Anna Justice, a psychopath who would be able to keep fooling Dana unless Hilde and Colt could prove otherwise?

More to the immediate point, what was she doing here now? Hilde considered whether she should make a run for it. She didn’t have that many options. Calling the marshal’s office for help would be a waste of time.

“You don’t have to look so scared,” Dee called to her. “I came to give you some news that I think will make you happy.”

Hilde let the woman get within a few feet of her. “That’s close enough. What is it?”

“You win.”

“You’re the one who made it into a competition.”

Dee chuckled as she took another step closer. “I’ve known women like you my whole life. Everything comes so easy to you. You’ve never had to fight for anything. You wouldn’t have lasted two seconds in my world.”

“I’m sorry you had a rough life, Dee, if that is really your name. But that doesn’t give you the right to take someone else’s—literally.”

“You’re right,” Dee said, not even bothering to deny anything. “I’m leaving. I just wanted you to know. That, and I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t even understand why I’m like I am sometimes.” She put her head down, actually sounding as if she meant it.

Hilde wondered what kind of life this woman really had lived through. Dee was right that her own had been cushy. As much as she hated it, she felt some sympathy for the woman. “You should try to get some help.”

Dee slowly raised her head. It took Hilde an instant to realize Dee had stepped closer during all this. When she met her gaze, Hilde saw that something had changed in her eyes. It was an instant too long.

Before Hilde could react, Dee grabbed her right hand and raked Hilde’s nails down her own left cheek.

Hilde let out a cry of shock and jerked her hand back.

Dee was smiling as she touched the four angry scratches down her face. Laughing at Hilde’s reaction, she reached down and picked up a chunk of broken sidewalk at the edge of the street.

Hilde took a step back as Dee said, “You think I need help? Maybe I should see someone.” She hit herself in the face with the piece of concrete and for a moment, Hilde thought Dee would buckle under the savage blow. But she straightened, dropped the chunk of sidewalk and, in the next instant, began to tear at her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Hilde cried. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Isn’t this what you wish you were able to do to me?” Dee asked, smiling again. Her left eye was already swelling shut from where she’d hit herself. There was blood at the corner of her mouth and her lip was split and bleeding. The scratches down the left side of her face were bleeding now as well.

“No, I would never—” The rest of Hilde’s words died on her lips as she realized exactly what Dee was doing. “No one will believe I did that to you!”

“Won’t they?” Dee asked with a smirk. “Wanna bet?” With that she turned and ran screaming down the street.





Chapter Eleven

Hilde rushed back to Needles and Pins, fumbled the key in the lock and, once inside, relocked the door behind her. She was in shock, never having witnessed anything like that in her life.

Her hands shook as she took out her cell phone. She tried to call Colt but only got his voice mail. She left a message that it was urgent she talk to him. Only after she hung up did she remember he had to go back to West Yellowstone today.

She’d barely hung up when she saw Marshal Hud Savage pull up in his patrol pickup in front of the shop. Past him, across the street, she spotted her SUV with the flat tire. She hadn’t had a flat in years. Why hadn’t she realized it was a trap?

Because that wasn’t how her mind worked. She’d never had to read evil into everything—until Dee arrived in town.

Hilde felt like a fool. She’d played right into the woman’s hands, not once, but time and again. The more she protested, the worse it got. She knew that even if she hadn’t started to walk home, Dee would have found an opportunity to make this happen.

Lightning cut a zigzagged line across the sky behind Hud as he headed for her front door. Thunder followed on its heels. Large drops of rain pelted the sidewalk as she put her cell phone back in her purse and hurried to unlock the shop door. “Hud, I—”

“I need you to come with me down to the station,” he said, his voice hard as the sidewalk Dee had hit herself with.

“I didn’t do any of that to her,” Hilde cried. “Hud, you have to believe me.”

He grabbed her right hand, holding it up. “Hilde, her skin is still under your fingernails.”

“Hud, I know this sounds crazy, but that’s the problem. Dee, or whatever her name is, is crazy. She’s insane. She did all of that to herself.”

He shook his head looking as sad as she had ever seen him. “Are you telling me you didn’t attack her previously with a pair of scissors right here in your shop?”

Of course Dee would have told him about that, too. “No. I mean, yes, but—”

He began to read her rights to her. “Let’s go,” he said when he finished.

“You’re really arresting me?” She couldn’t believe any of this was happening. “You know me, Hud—”

“I thought I did. Dee Anna is pressing assault charges against you. Hilde, what is going on with you?”

She swallowed and shook her head. Even if she told him about the scissors incident, it wouldn’t help her. Nor help Colt. She just had to put her faith in Colt to find out the truth about the woman—and soon.

* * *

COLT TRIED TO reach Hilde the moment he got her message. Her phone went straight to voice mail. He called the shop, just in case she was working late. She did that a lot, especially since she’d recently taken over the space next to Needles and Pins and expanded the business.

She was buying a line of sewing machines and would be starting quilting lessons, now that she had the room. He loved her work ethic. Loved a lot of things about her, he thought, reminded of last night.

With growing concern when she didn’t answer at the shop, he realized he didn’t know whom else to call. Not that long ago, he could have called Dana. She would have known where Hilde was. Dana and Hilde had been that close.

But not now. Thanks to Dee.

He was holding his phone, trying to decide what to do, when it rang. It was one of the dispatchers, Annie Wagner, a cute twentysomething redhead who was dating a Bozeman police officer he knew.

“I thought you’d want to know,” Annie said in a hushed voice. “Hilde has been arrested.”

“What?” His mind whirled. Hilde?

“Dee Anna Justice came screaming into the office thirty minutes ago saying Hilde had attacked her.”

Colt groaned. He’d understood Hilde’s thinking with the scissors, but—

“Dee was a mess. She looked like she’d gotten into a cat fight. Black eye, scratched up, bleeding.”

He couldn’t imagine Hilde doing that to anyone even if she was provoked. But if she was defending herself— “Where is Hilde now?”

“Hud has her in his office. I just put through a call from Dee Anna Justice. Do you want me to call you if anything changes?”

“Thanks, Annie. I appreciate it. I’m on my way back from West Yellowstone. I should be there within the hour.”

What had happened? He couldn’t even imagine.

He’d told himself that Hud would see through Dee soon. Or Dee would give up once she realized Hud loved Dana and would never fall for her. He’d told himself that as long as Hilde stayed away from the ranch and Dee, this wouldn’t escalate.

He’d been wrong. He also realized that until that moment, he hadn’t really thought Dee had tried to kill Hilde. The scare at the falls had been just that. The incident under the raft? He thought Dee had probably pulled the same thing. Held Hilde under the raft then tried to save her, only this time Hilde had fought her off.

Now he was angry with himself for not truly believing what Hilde had known in her heart. Dee was capable of horrendous things. Even murder. Maybe she’d drugged Rick. What had she done to get Hilde arrested? Tried to kill her only to have Hilde fight back?

His heart was pounding as he switched on his lights and siren and raced toward Big Sky.

* * *

HILDE KNEW SHE was lucky that Hud hadn’t brought her into jail in handcuffs. She figured that might be Dana’s doing. Dana would go to bat for her even if she believed that her once best friend had attacked her cousin.