At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(63)

Atwater’s estate wasn’t as grand as some. But it was massive compared to a normal home. He drove up the heated driveway to the stone edifice, parked and climbed out. As he walked to an entrance wide enough to let a tank through, he wondered how long it had taken Atwater to call the sheriff—and how much time he had before the first cruiser got here.

As he went to push the intercom button, half of the double front door swung open, and he saw inside the house to a water feature he remembered too well. This was the house where he’d met Jana. The house where he’d attended the party almost seven years ago.

For a moment, he was too stunned to speak, but then all the pieces began to fall into place as the door was opened—not by Atwater but a boy of six or seven. It took Culhane a moment to get over his second shock of the night.

The boy looked up at him, his blue eyes and that shock of wheat-blond hair too familiar. Jana must have worked in this house as a nanny seven years ago. It was the oldest story of all. But how could Atwater’s wife not notice the resemblance? How had Jana not seen it?

With a start, he realized she had. She’d stolen the necklace from this house. Or was this one of the houses Jana cleaned here in Big Sky? Was this why she’d returned to Big Sky, to be near her son?

“Hello,” Culhane said to the boy, his voice rough with emotion.

The sandy-haired child glanced over his shoulder, but only for a moment, before turning wide, innocent blue eyes back on Culhane. In the background he could hear someone calling the name Joshua. “If you’re here to see my father—” But that was all he managed to get out before a large dark-haired man appeared behind him.

“Son,” Atwater said, placing a firm hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Your mother’s calling you. She has a treat for you before bedtime.”

Without another look at Culhane, the boy turned and ran back inside.

“You have something for me?” Atwater said, his tone no longer cordial. Clearly this exchange was going to take place on the doorstep. He saw the man look past him. But no one was watching because there wasn’t another house around even if anyone could see through the falling snow.

“You told the guard you had something for me,” Atwater repeated.

“I do,” Culhane said. “A message for the sheriff.”

The man frowned. “I assumed you had brought something of value, or I wouldn’t have told the guard to let you in.”

“Oh, it’s valuable. Tell Garwood to release Alexis Brand, or I will take the necklace to the FBI and expose not just your insurance fraud but everything else that has to do with Jana Redfield. I suspect you fired her, and that’s why she took the necklace. Did she figure it out? Or had she always known where her son was?”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“A simple DNA test would prove—”

“Don’t you dare threaten me or my family,” Atwater said from between clenched teeth as if trying hard to remain under control. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

“Oh, but I think I do. You and Garwood think you’re above the law. But you’re going down. I’ll see to it,” he told the man. “Just in case you try to have the guards stop me on my way out, I didn’t bring the necklace. It’s somewhere safe. If anything happens to Alexis or me, it goes straight to the FBI with everything Jana told me.”

With that, he turned and walked back to his pickup. To his surprise, he had no trouble getting out of the gate. He was back on the main highway headed toward Bozeman when he got the call from Garwood. He sounded scared even as he threatened him. Culhane had figured that Atwater would put even more pressure on the sheriff. The man sounded as if the stress was taking its toll.

“Let me talk to Alexis. Now,” Culhane said and waited with his heart in his throat.

“She’s not here. You can talk to her in the morning. Unless you do something stupid like you just did.” The line went dead.

It was going to be the longest night of his life.

GARWOOD MADE THE call as soon as he hung up from Culhane. Deputy Furu’s phone rang four times before he finally picked up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was in the john, and I left my phone in the other room,” Furu said, sounding testy. “Are we making the exchange?”

“In the morning. Culhane wants to hear Alexis’s voice first to make sure she’s all right. She is all right, isn’t she?”

“She’s fine. Terry just checked on her. She’s sleeping. I don’t understand, though, why it is taking so long.”

Garwood thought about telling the deputy about Culhane’s visit to see Atwater and the subsequent furious phone call to him. But he didn’t want the deputy to think he wasn’t on top of this. He could hear something in Furu’s voice that worried him.

“This whole mess will be over soon. It’s Culhane’s word against mine.”

Furu didn’t say anything as if he didn’t believe him. Because he knew it wouldn’t be that simple to clean up this mess. Did he also know that Willy had no intention of letting either Culhane or Alexis live? They’d put him through too much already. He’d take care of them himself. Furu was too squeamish to do the job, and Willy couldn’t depend on Cline to do it right.

“You just get me the new people we need for the operation,” he said. “Try to find someone better than the last ones.” He was still upset over what Atwater had told him tonight. Jana had been working for a Big Sky housekeeping company so she would be able to see her son when she cleaned the Atwater house.