Cardwell Ranch Trespasser(33)

Like Rick, she had three different identities ready. She’d just been smart enough not to get caught with them on her, though.

She’d missed the flight to Vegas by only minutes. Finishing up her business at the ranch had taken longer than she’d hoped.

Not that it mattered now. Within minutes she would be on her way to Seattle. No one was looking for Amy Matthews.

She figured Hud must have come home sooner than expected. Or that deputy, Colt Dawson, had showed up. Either way, it would be too late.

It wasn’t as if she’d thought for a moment they wouldn’t suspect her given everything that had happened. But they had no proof.

Anyway, she would be long gone before they could get to the airport. Even if they should somehow track her down, they still couldn’t do anything except get her for using an alias. Or yes, and pretending to be Dee Anna Justice.

She’d cried her way out of more of those situations than she could remember. If tears didn’t work, then her life story definitely did. Of course she was messed up. Imagine living your life with such suspicions hanging over you.

It had worked every other time. It would now, too, because without proof, they couldn’t touch her. With Dana, Hilde and the kids gone...

She left the restroom and walked to her gate. The woman taking her boarding pass told her to hurry, her flight was about to leave.

She hurried down the ramp and into the plane just moments before the flight attendant was about to shut the door. She’d timed it close, but she hadn’t wanted to risk sitting at the gate in case anyone she knew was looking for her.

As she slipped into her first-class seat next to a businessman in a nice suit, she told herself her luck might be changing.

“Hello,” she said and extended her hand. “I’m Amy Matthews.”

“Clark Evans.”

The flight attendant asked her what she would like to drink.

“I’d love a vodka Collins,” she said. “I’m celebrating. Today’s my birthday. Join me?” she asked the business executive, taking in his gold cuff links, the cut of his suit and the expensive wristwatch.

“How can I say no?” he said, already flirting with her.

“Yes, how can you?” she asked, flirting back. “I have a feeling that this could be a very interesting flight.”

* * *

COLT RAN INTO the airport. The head of security met him the moment he came through the door.

“Dee Anna Justice hasn’t checked in for her flight. It was supposed to leave ten minutes ago,” the man told him. “We’ve held it as long as we can. So far, she’s a no-show.”

“Dee Anna Justice definitely isn’t on the flight? You checked all the passengers?”

“No one matching her description is on the flight, and everyone is accounted for,” he assured Colt.

Colt had been so sure she would make her flight. As gutsy as the woman was and as bulletproof as she’d been, she would think she had nothing to fear.

She’d already gone through security, so she’d been here. But that didn’t mean she didn’t change her mind and leave.

Maybe she was running scared, though he highly doubted it. Camilla had an arrogance born of getting away with murder.

“What other flights have left in the last hour?” he asked.

“Only one, but it’s to Seattle. The plane is taxiing down the runway right now.”

“Stop that plane.”

“I’m not sure—”

“This woman just tried to kill six people, four of them children, by burning them alive. Stop the plane. Now.”

* * *

CAMILLA WAS SIPPING her drink, smiling at her companion, when the pilot announced they would be returning to the terminal because of an instrument malfunction.

She looked past the man next to her out his window. Sunlight ricocheted off the windows of the terminal, reminding her of the day she’d flown in here. If she’d gone fishing on the Yellowstone River with Lance...

Still, even though she knew there was nothing wrong with the instruments, she wasn’t worried. The barn had been burning so quickly, the boards locking the doors would be ashes—all evidence gone.

Even the spilled fuel oil she’d used to get the barn burning fast would look like nothing more than an accident—at first. She’d started the fire with several candles she’d found in the back of Hilde’s sewing shop, complete with the cute little quilted mats that went with them.

Everyone knew that Hilde had been losing her mind lately. But to do something this horrible because Dana turned against her? It was almost unthinkable—unless her behavior had been so out of character lately that everyone feared she was having a nervous breakdown. But taking her own life and her friend’s along with Dana’s four children? This story would make headlines across the country.

The plane taxied back to the small terminal. It wasn’t but a few minutes after she’d heard the door being opened that Deputy Colt Dawson appeared.

She turned to the man next to her and asked him a question. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Colt start to move through the plane. He was almost past her when he stopped and took a step back until he was right at her elbow. “Camilla,” he said.

She looked up at him, frowned and said, “I’m sorry. You’re mistaken. My name is Amy Matthews.”

“Miss...Matthews. I’d like you to come with me. Now,” he said when she hesitated. “You won’t be taking this flight today.”

She sighed and, picking up her bag, got to her feet. “We’ll have to celebrate another time,” she told the businessman. Colt took her bag from her and quickly frisked her, which made her smile as if she was amused.

“I never noticed how cute you are,” she said, as he escorted her off the plane to four waiting security guards. He insisted on cuffing her once she was out of sight of the passengers.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked. “What is this about, anyway? So I didn’t use my real name. I have an old boyfriend who I don’t want to find me. So sue me.”

“This is about the attempted murder of six individuals, four of them children.” Colt appeared to be fighting to keep his emotions in check.

Camilla was silent for a moment, then she frowned and said, “Attempted?”

“That’s right. They’re all alive. Hilde and Dana will be testifying against you in court.”

Camilla let out a little laugh. “I suppose you’re the one I should thank for this?”

“Be my guest,” Colt said, as he led her up the ramp. They were almost to the boarding area when Marshal Hud Savage appeared.

Colt felt Camilla tense. They all did at the look in the marshal’s eyes. Colt knew exactly how he felt. In the old West she would have been strung up from the nearest tree.

But this wasn’t the old West, and he and Hud didn’t mete out justice. All they could do was hope and pray that this woman never saw the outside of a cell for the rest of her life.

* * *

ONCE AT THE law enforcement center, Camilla Northland’s story was that she’d left the ranch right after Hilde arrived. Dana was with the kids on the front porch as she drove away and had asked Hilde if she wanted to go on a walk with them. That was the last she said that she saw of them.

She’d seemed surprised that Dana and Hilde had told another story. “I don’t know why they would lie, except that Hilde has been telling lies about me ever since I came to Montana, and Dana must be confused.”

“It’s over, Camilla,” Colt said, as they all sat in the interrogation room. He tossed the photo of her as a teenager on the table. “Your aunt told me everything. She said she would fly up here if need be.”

She stared at the photo of herself and her brother. When she looked up, she suddenly looked tired—and almost relieved.

“It would appear I’m going to need a lawyer,” she said.

“Just tell me this. How was it that you ended up here pretending to be Dee Anna Justice?”

For a moment, she didn’t look as if she would answer. “Dee Anna was my roommate in New York City for a while,” she said with a shrug. “The letter came after she’d moved out.”

“And you decided to take her identity?”

“I’d never been to Montana,” she said. “I liked the idea of having a cousin I’d never met.” She looked unapologetic as her gaze locked with Hud’s. “And I’d never met a real cowboy.”

“Where is Dee Anna Justice?” Hud demanded, clearly not amused by her flirting with him.

She looked away for a moment, and Colt felt his heart drop. He now knew what extremes this woman would go to and feared for the real Dee Anna Justice.

“She’s in Spain visiting some friend of hers. Her mother, Marietta, probably knows how to contact her.”

“Marietta’s family is from Spain?”