Page 32 of Setup In Montana

Chapter Fourteen

Clancy retrieved her phone from where she’d left it charging. It was fully charged now, and she checked her messages. There were a half dozen from the sheriff, worried about her, asking her to contact him or Goldie.

She moved past them to see that she’d heard from Sarah again.

Where RU? Worried. Text me. Need to talk.

Clancy couldn’t help feeling guilty for not answering the sheriff’s calls sooner. She dialed his cell phone number. It went straight to voice mail. She hadn’t expected that. Startled, she disconnected, not wanting to even try to explain everything in a message.

But then she quickly called back. “It’s Clancy. I’m fine. I’ll explain everything when I see you. Also, I have something for you.”

She looked at the time. Maybe the sheriff would call soon. Dub wasn’t the only one anxious to get rid of the pendant and the rest of the jewelry. Once she turned it over and told Max everything she knew, there would be nothing keeping her in Grass Range—especially with the killer more than likely still here.

Once the sheriff had the key, maybe he’d have his killer and it would be all over. She looked around and realized how hard it would be to leave this guesthouse—let alone Dub. But there would be no reason not to get her car fixed and head down the road to Billings with her birthday approaching so quickly.

Until Max had the perp behind bars for the murders, Clancy wouldn’t know the killer or the danger she was in until it was too late.

She re-plugged her phone in so it could continue charging and headed for the kitchen as she heard Dub come back in from the front deck. “I’d ask if everything is all right but—”

Pocketing his phone, he quickly stepped to her. “Have you looked outside?”

She glanced toward the window. The sky had turned black beyond it. This time of year, it got dark quickly and would continue to come earlier until spring.

“Come on,” he said. “Grab a jacket and I’ll meet you out on the deck over the creek. We can talk out there.”

* * *

MAX WAS BREATHING hard by the time he and Larry sprinted up a rise and spotted the two men they were chasing climb into an old pickup parked at the edge of the field. The truck engine struggled to turn over, but then caught. In a cloud of dark smoke, the pickup and the two men roared off and disappeared from view.

“It’s almost like they’ve done this before,” Larry said as he put his hands on his thighs to breathe. Max realized he hadn’t had to chase anyone in a really long time, as he tried to catch his breath as well.

“Why run if they’re innocent?” the sheriff asked between gasps.

“Oh, I’m sure they’re guilty of something,” the patrolman said. “Then again, I’ve found that some people just run when the cops arrive.” He shrugged. “Even if one of them isn’t your killer, I’m sure they’ve been up to no good somewhere.”

Maybe the Wilson brothers had left the area. Or maybe they hadn’t gone far. Max reminded himself that it could turn out that neither of them had type O negative blood or know anything about the murders at Shady Rest.

Still until he knew, he couldn’t scratch them off his suspect list. “Any idea where we might be able to find them?” he asked Larry on the way back to his patrol SUV parked at the Wilson house.

Larry shook his head. “They have relatives all over this state. Lots of cousins and next of kin. Quite frankly, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Worse, the family is pretty close-knit, so they aren’t going to help a cop.”

Max wasn’t surprised the brothers had lots of kin. He often felt that in Montana everyone was related, because of the generations who’d never left. “They ran like they’re guilty, but it might turn out that neither of them could have killed Jane. Esther is another story.”

The sun had set on another day, he noticed with regret. He wasn’t getting anywhere with this case. “I think I’m going to try another way to find out their blood types before I put any more effort into trying to track them down. Birth certificates are government records. But I’ll need a court order.”

“Unfortunately, the brothers aren’t identical twins. If they were, then you would only need one. But fraternal twins might have different blood types,” Larry said. Max shot him a surprised look, and the highway patrolman laughed. “My brother and I are twins. Fraternal. We look nothing alike, while the Wilson brothers look like they might be identical, but aren’t.”

“They share the same attitudes apparently, but maybe not the same blood type. While I’m at it, I’ll see if I can get the judge to require blood samples from the staff at Shady Rest and people closely associated with the place. Do you know a helpful judge?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

By that afternoon, Max had presented the judge with a written affidavit detailing the facts and evidence he hoped established the justification to require a blood test from the staff at Shady Rest Retirement Home. With the warrant, he called Dr. Frazer, who agreed to begin the process right away.

Max was so anxious for the outcome that he felt as if he were holding his breath. One of them had to be the killer.

* * *

DUB HAD SPREAD a large quilt on the deck. He motioned for her to join him. As she sat down, he lay back. “The night is so clear. Wait until you see all the stars.”