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Since they would be searching a nonworking ranch, the body could be anywhere—even in an outbuilding. “Let me know the minute you find anything.”
He disconnected and leaned back in his chair, feeling the weight of his job pin him down. If the case was reopened, Cooper McKenna would look more like the jealous lover who killed both the girlfriend and her new man. And with Eastwood’s pickup being found in the reservoir, there would be no stopping Murdock, who now had the bit between his teeth when it came to both the McKennas and the Staffords, and he was running with it.
Just when Stu thought his day couldn’t get worse, he looked up to find nurse Abigail Creed standing in his office doorway.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
NEWSOFTHEpickup dragged from the ranch reservoir spread like all juicy gossip in the basin. When Duffy heard the pickup was registered to a former employee of CH4 gas exploration named Rory Eastwood, he felt a chill run the length of his spine. The PI had just been talking about Rory at the café.
Duffy had warned his brother when they talked earlier. But now that Rory Eastwood’s pickup had been found... He hated to upset Cooper when maybe there wasn’t a problem.
He reminded himself that PI Jason Murdock had no proof that the man Leann was allegedly leaving town with was Rory Eastwood. Or that Cooper McKenna had stopped both Leann and Rory from leaving.
Almost back to the ranch, he saw the school bus stop to let Holly Jo out. As the bus went on down the road, he pulled up and opened his passenger-side door. “Wanna ride?”
She climbed in without a word, hoisting her backpack in ahead of her.
“How are you doing?” he asked, really wanting to know. He hated that she might be getting lost in the shuffle with his dad involved in ranch business and trying to buy the Turner place and the rest of the family just as busy.
“Okay.” She didn’t look at him when she answered. Bare-limbed cottonwood trees blurred past on both sides of the pickup as he drove. Snow from the last storm was thick under the trees. The only bare spots were on the south-facing slopes. Sunlight poured in through the windshield, making the cab almost too warm.
“You can tell me.” For a few minutes he thought she wouldn’t.
“There’s this boy at school.”
“I see.” He thought she might, but he wanted to be sure as he turned down the lane to the ranch. “You like him?”
She turned to him with a look of horror. “Gus?I can’t stand him. He teases me all the time. I want to punch him in the face.”
Duffy realized he was out of his league. He knew nothing about kids. But he did know about boys. “Is Gus cute?”
Again, she gave him a stricken look. “No, he is not cute. He’s...” She mugged a face and then sighed as if there was no describing this boy.
“Have you asked him to stop?” He read her look just fine. “But he won’t, right? Okay. Do you want me to go to school and beat him up?”
She stared at him a moment to see if he was being serious, then slowly shook her head. “You’d make it worse.”
“Maybe he’s got a crush on you and he doesn’t know how to express his feelings,” he said as he pulled into the ranch yard and parked.
“That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” With another look that said she wouldn’t be talking to him about it again, she was out of the pickup and headed for the house.
Duffy watched her go, wondering if he should mention this to his father. He really doubted Holden would have handled it better. But he did consider stopping by the school one of these days and having a little talk with this Gus kid.
PICKETTLEFTHISpickup at the airport in Billings and flew to New York. There was a car waiting for him at the airport. He climbed into the back of the town car and closed his eyes. The entire flight he’d tried to tell himself that nothing could change his mind about this life he’d made for himself.
He knew it wasn’t just being a ranch hand, though he really did enjoy the work. It was being a part of the McKenna Ranch, being a part of a real family. But if he was being honest with himself, it was Oakley.
There would be only one thing that could get him to leave the ranch and the life he’d made for himself. If Oakley chose another man—especially Duffy instead of him, he’d have no choice but to leave. He couldn’t bear the thought of staying and watching her make a life with another man.
She was the reason he was going to New York to see his father, he told himself as the car slowed and turned. He had to deal with his past if he hoped for the future he wanted on McKenna Ranch.
He opened his eyes. Tall trees—both taller and thicker than he remembered—hid the house. At the electronic gate, the driver touched the pad but before he could speak into the intercom, the gate opened. He pulled through, the gate closing behind them. Of course, Sarah knew exactly when he would be arriving. A plane ticket had been waiting for him at the airport in Billings.
Pickett had seen that it was round trip or he would have purchased his own. He didn’t mind having a little more room for his legs in first class. It had been years since he’d been on a plane, not since he was a boy traveling with his father. The planes and first class had gotten smaller, the seating more compact—at least on the flights out of Montana.
The road twisted and turned through the dense trees until the house came into view. It seemed larger than he remembered with all its impressive towering stone walls and winged wooden gables, but maybe it was because he’d been living in a tiny cabin off the bunkhouse for so long.
That he’d grown up here, once lived in this massive place, surprised him. He now felt more at home on the ranch than here. Holden had added the small cabin for Pickett some years ago. It was all he needed, all he wanted. Except for Oakley.
