At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(27)

So how was it that he was wanted for Jana’s murder? The question was on the tip of her tongue when she looked at the highway ahead.

“There it is!” she cried as they topped a hill and she spotted the back of the gray van in the distance.



CHAPTER ELEVEN


SHERIFF WILLY GARWOOD had always been a man who’d taken chances. The deck had been stacked against him from the day he was born. In order to quench his thirst for the finer things in life, he’d had to play a little fast and loose, sometimes risking everything to get where he was.

Hell, he’d been gambling on himself his whole life. Fortunately, he’d won more than he’d lost, and now he’d gambled his way into a pretty sweet deal as sheriff. He would have said that he was on his way to having everything he’d dreamed of.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday his house of cards had threatened to come tumbling down.

He’d made a name for himself playing football as a quarterback at Montana State University. A tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking kid with guts, he’d played as if his life depended on it. It had. Indomitable. At least that’s what the sports writer had called him in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. He was someone who got the job done.

Now at forty-seven, he still had his looks—and his good luck. His winning seasons on the gridiron had opened doors for him—just as his job now opened even more, he thought as he glanced around his office. Who would have known that being sheriff would turn out to be a gold mine, financially, politically and socially? He was invited to the best parties at the biggest houses by the wealthiest people.

And yet yesterday, it appeared all of that could come to a screeching halt.

It had been like any other day until he’d gotten the call. “Sheriff Garwood,” he’d answered like he usually did.

“Is it all right to talk on this line?”

A knot had formed in his chest the moment he’d heard the man’s voice. “I’ll call you right back.” When the other man answered his call back, the sheriff said, “What’s wrong?”

“We have a problem. Something else was taken during our recent burglary. Something my wife had left out by accident.” He described the necklace. Emeralds and diamonds. A gaudy piece of adornment worth over a half-million dollars.

Willy had sworn under his breath. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I certainly hope so. I don’t have to tell you what will happen if the necklace shows up in a pawnshop or worse.”

No, he didn’t, the sheriff had thought as he’d hung up. The burglaries up at Big Sky had been one of the top news stories for weeks. He’d known he had to catch the thieves and wrap it all up.

One of the thieves had gotten sloppy and provided him with the perfect way out by leaving behind DNA at one of the houses—and had then been picked up for a separate crime, shoplifting. Garwood had personally interrogated the thief, gotten a confession and the names of two accomplices. He’d played it perfectly.

The reporter at the newspaper had given him credit for solving the crimes, and now the wealthy gated communities at Big Sky were safe once more. Case solved. All he had to do was have his deputies pick up the two accomplices, since he’d made a deal with the one thief who’d turned on them, Jana Redfield Travis.

The problem was that Jana had failed to mention that she’d picked up an emerald and diamond necklace she shouldn’t have. He desperately needed that necklace back.

He’d quickly called Deputy Dick Furu. “I need you to go over to Jana’s apartment.” He’d explained the situation. “Get the necklace. I’ll deal with her later.” He’d described the piece of jewelry. “If she doesn’t hand it over or tell you who has it, convince her otherwise. Tear the place apart if you have to, but find that necklace. Take Cline with you.”

Two hours later, his deputies had returned with the bad news.

“What do you mean Jana’s gone?”

“When we got there, the place was a mess, there was blood everywhere and she was gone,” Deputy Terrance Cline had told him. “It appeared that there’d been a struggle.”

He’d looked at Furu who he trusted more than Terrance any day of the week. Terry did what he was told without asking questions, but he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

“What the hell?” he’d demanded of Furu.

“A neighbor came over and told us that there’d been a man by earlier and a loud argument had ensued,” Furu said. “From the description the neighbor gave us, Culhane Travis now knows that his wife is back in town. The neighbor heard breaking glass and screams.”

Willy hadn’t been able to believe his luck—and it had just dropped into his lap. He could use this apparent altercation to his advantage in a way that he hadn’t thought possible. He put a BOLO out on Culhane, saying he was armed and dangerous—both true—and that he was wanted for questioning in the murder of his wife, Jana Redfield Travis.

“And if she’s not really dead?” Furu had asked.

Willy had shrugged. “For all we know, she is. Or could be by the time Culhane is caught. You’re sure the necklace isn’t there?” Furu had nodded. “Okay, we’ll get a crime-scene team over there. But just in case Jana staged the whole thing—” he wouldn’t have put it past her, now that he knew about the necklace “—find her.”