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Moe shook his head slowly. “Wait. Let me get this straight… You’re not Bea, the waitress?”
“Yes, and no.” She looked out at the stars. “Yes. I’m the waitress who served you and others at the tavern. I’m also the only living child of my parents, and when they’re gone, I’ll inherit a multi-billion-dollar global corporation I never wanted.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Moe muttered under his breath. “Who the hell are you?”
Bea sighed. “This is the part where I tell you, and things get all weird.”
“As long as I don’t get hit with kidnapping charges, I’m good. As far as I’m concerned, we all put our pants on the same way. How much money you have in your wallet doesn’t make you a better or worse person.”
Her lips twisted. “You say that now, but you’d be surprised how it changes how people look at you.”
His curiosity was piqued, but Moe didn’t pressure her to reveal her real name. She’d been through a lot that day. The last thing she needed was someone demanding to know her well-guarded secret.
“Can I just stay Bea Smith, the waitress at Tumbleweed Tavern?” she asked with a wistful sigh.
“You can be anyone you want. Unfortunately, your secret isn’t secret anymore. If you’re the only heir to a huge fortune, that would explain why someone would want to kidnap you.” He frowned. “It doesn’t explain why someone would trash your apartment. Did you have some proprietary documents or items that were worth stealing stored in your place?”
Bea shook her head. “No. I left it all behind. I still work for my father’s philanthropic foundation, but that’s all online. I carry my laptop with me in case I need to log in.” She patted the oversized purse she’d carried aboard.
Moe’s glance settled on the bag containing the laptop. “Could you have data on your laptop they might be after?”
She shook her head. “I only tap into the philanthropy database. Not the corporation’s information.”
“Trashing your apartment doesn’t make sense if they weren’t looking for something.” He tapped his thumb on the yoke. “Did you make someone mad? Someone who would want to harm or scare you?”
Bea shrugged. “There’s always those quick to blame my family or the corporation for everything wrong in their lives, real or imagined. It’s possible.”
“The thing is, your apartment was trashed. Not your parents’ place,” Moe pointed out.
“They have a state-of-the-art security system on the ranch,” Bea said. “No one can get in or out without triggering alarms or being captured on camera.”
“Can you think of anyone, in particular, you might have inadvertently snubbed? Rejected? Fired?”
“Not since I’ve been out on my own. There has been the occasional customer who can’t keep his hands to himself.” She smiled. “Stan takes care of them.”
“Why didn’t you tell the sheriff who you were? That kind of information will help them in the kidnapping investigation.”
Bea shrugged. “I didn’t want it to get back to my folks. They’ll flip out and insist I move back to the ranch.”
“Is that such a bad idea?” Moe asked.
Her face hardened. “I can’t live with them. They would cocoon me in bubble wrap and make me a prisoner in their home to keep from losing me.”
“Sounds like they love you,” Moe observed.
She snorted. “I could do with a lot less of that kind of love. I want to live, to feel and experience the world around me, more than the ranch near Kalispell.”
“That’s a beautiful part of Montana,” Moe observed.
Bea held up her hands. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the ranch. It was a great place to grow up. To me, there’s more to life than just staying alive. Not to my parents. After losing their only son, my older brother, to leukemia, they fixated on me. I couldn’t step outside without a helmet. Couldn’t breathe without them fearing I would catch some fatal virus.” She laughed without humor. “They insisted on homeschooling me and that I attend college online rather than going in person. I’m almost thirty, and I’ve barely been outside Montana. We went on vacation a couple of times, but my mother and father were so worried about me that they didn’t enjoy the time away from the ranch. I had to escape. I didn’t tell my parents where I’d gone. I escaped.” She lifted her chin and stared across at Moe. “I can’t go back.”
“They must love you a great deal,” Moe offered.
“They do,” she said, “and I love them, too. That’s why it took me so long to leave. I saw how brokenhearted they were when my brother Ryan died. I didn’t have the heart to rebel against them hovering over me.” She turned away to stare out the window to her right, unaware of how her sad expression reflected in the glass. “I’m twenty-eight years old, and I’ve never been on a date. I didn’t have any friends. I’ve never left Montana. I had to leave.”
“You didn’t get outside of Montana,” Moe pointed out.
Her crooked smile touched his heart. “One step at a time. I needed to prove that I could support myself. I didn’t want to tap into my bank account or use credit cards that could reveal my location. Thankfully, I had enough cash to tide me over for a few days until I found the job at the tavern. The tips were good enough to cover the rent on my apartment and groceries.
