Читать книгу Hard Rain - B.J. Daniels - Страница 10

CHAPTER THREE

THE SHERIFF SWORE, pulled off his hat and raked a hand through his graying blond hair. “Maggie?” he repeated. It appeared that he hadn’t jumped that far after all to the conclusion that had his stomach roiling.

“Do you know who she is?” Charlie asked. He was new to the area. The undersheriff was also looking at him quizzically. Dillon, too, wasn’t from around here so neither of them would know.

“A teenager went missing, hell, it must have been almost thirty-five years ago now,” Frank said. “She just up and disappeared. A lot of people thought that she’d run away. It wouldn’t have been unheard-of, especially this girl. Her name was Margaret Ann McTavish or Maggie as everyone called her.”

“McTavish?” Dillon said. “A relative of Brody’s?”

“His cousin. I was in my midtwenties when she vanished. Maggie was eighteen.” He shook his head at the memory of her and avoided looking at the remains lying in the mud. It broke his heart to see her like this.

“She was a beauty. Green eyes, long red hair, with a wild streak. So it was no wonder that everyone figured that she’d taken off. Rumor was that she’d headed out to Hollywood to become a movie star or to New York to become a model.”

Frank called up an image of her from one hot summer day. He’d been driving along the dirt road near her ranch when he’d spotted her. She’d been on a horse, tearing across the pasture like the devil himself was after her. Her long red hair was blowing out behind her. She’d been wearing a white T-shirt, cutoff jeans and cowboy boots. He remembered the sheen of the sun on her bare browned limbs. She’d had a body that should have been illegal, at least that’s what all the young men around here said. But it had been the look on her face that he thought of now.

“I’ve never seen anyone who lived life to the fullest as much as she did,” he said, overwhelmed for a moment by the deep sorrow he felt as he finally looked down again at her mummified corpse. “We all thought we’d see her on television or maybe in some late-night movie.” He shook his head. “But we never heard anything about her again.”

“No one suspected she’d met with foul play?” the coroner asked.

Frank had had a couple of theories of his own. “I thought there might have been more to the story of her disappearing like the way she did. I hadn’t been a deputy with the sheriff’s department long at that point. Maggie’s father, Flannigan McTavish, filed a missing persons report. The sheriff at the time looked into it.”

Now he could admit to himself that he’d thought the sheriff hadn’t really investigated the case and Frank knew why. “I was worried something had happened to her, but there apparently wasn’t any evidence of foul play.”

“Didn’t her father suspect she hadn’t run off?” Dillon asked.

Frank put his Stetson back on his head and sighed. “Maggie McTavish was like a wild horse that had to run free. There was no corralling her. That’s why I think everyone thought she’d taken off for greener pastures or had gotten herself into trouble and had to leave. She’d apparently packed a few clothes, because they were missing along with a duffel bag,” he recalled the sheriff telling him. “That was the end of it. I think even Flannigan finally believed she’d run off.”

“Why do I get the feeling there’s more to the story?” Dillon said, studying him.

“There were more rumors.” He thought about those now and swore under his breath. “There was talk that Maggie had been seen with Senator John David ‘JD’ Hamilton.”

“Senator Buckmaster Hamilton’s father?” Dillon asked in surprise.

“The one who is now running for president,” Charlie said, nodding as if seeing where this was going.

“The Hamilton and McTavish ranches had access to each other,” Dillon was saying. “But wasn’t JD a whole lot older—and married?”

Frank nodded. “He would have been about forty-two. She was eighteen. His son, Buckmaster, was older than Maggie. His wife, Grace, was confined to a wheelchair by then.”

The undersheriff let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a scandal waiting to happen, especially with JD running for president just like his son is now. So if the rumors were true about him and this teenaged girl...”

“He might have had to do something about it,” Charlie said, and looked down at the corpse. “While JD Hamilton’s presidential race is obviously history, Maggie turning up now seems like the worst possible time for his son, Senator Buckmaster Hamilton.”

Frank nodded. “On top of that, I’m worried about what Flannigan McTavish will do when he finds out. There was no love lost between him and the Hamiltons even before the rumors started about Maggie and JD.”

* * *

“HARPER, YOU SHOULD go home,” Brody said, needing her to leave so he could get back to the ranch. It wouldn’t take long before everyone in the county had heard about the woman’s body being found. He needed to reach his family before that happened and yet he was hesitant to leave Harper.

The two had led their horses back to the spot where he’d been mending the fence. Neither had said much on the walk.

Brody felt sick to his stomach. Had he not known whose body it was the moment he saw it... He struggled now with the implications and what this was going to do to his own family.

Harper pocketed her cell phone after making a call. Standing next to her horse, reins in hand, she still didn’t move.

He could see how hard this had been on her and she didn’t have a clue how much worse it was going to get. He swore under his breath thinking of the kiss earlier, back when he thought the two of them had a chance.

Harper’s wide blue eyes shimmered. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Her voice broke. This had been a shock for her. But it was going to be more of a shock when she found out who’s remains they’d found.

“Did you reach your father?” he asked, wondering how the senator was going to take the news.

“It went to voice mail. He’s really busy right now. He’s in DC so there isn’t anything he could do anyway.” Her eyes welled with tears. “My morning started off so good, and then you scared the life out of me jerking me off my horse like that, and then my horse ran away and then—”

“You do realize that if I hadn’t mistakenly rescued you, you would have ridden right past me—until your horse caught a whiff of that back there and bucked you off onto your perfect little...backside. Now, please let’s just go home.”

“I wasn’t blaming you.” He saw her swallow and fight tears as she swung up into her saddle. She looked so beautiful sitting up there, chin up, head thrown back so her mane of windblown blond hair tumbled down her slim back. The sun kissed her face, making him ache inside at the memory of his mouth on hers.

As desperate as he was to get to the ranch, Brody couldn’t help but see the vulnerable young woman under the Hamilton girl facade. He thought it must be hell being one of the Hamilton Girls, as they were called. And now, with her father running for president, it had to be even worse. The pressure was really on the Hamilton sisters to be perfect.

When he thought of the girl she’d been, it always made him smile. He’d fallen in love with that girl. He had surprised himself when he’d told the adult Harper Hamilton that he had been waiting for her to grow up. That was exactly what he’d been doing, he realized. It had always been Harper he’d wanted. And now this.

“I called the ranch. There’s no one there,” she said, her voice breaking again. “The staff must be off or running errands.”

He understood now her hesitation. She didn’t want to go home, because there was no one there for her. He felt a piece of his heart break. He’d always thought she had everything and right now she didn’t have the one thing she needed most. He had both his father and uncle. He’d known all his life he could depend on them when he needed them. Now they would need him.

“There must be someone you can call. One of your sisters? Or your mother.” He hated that he couldn’t stay with her, but right now, he had to get to his father and uncle.

Harper pulled out her phone again. Brody tried not to listen to the phone call to her mother as he gathered up his tools and loaded them into his saddlebags. He felt badly since her mother hadn’t been her first choice. But then, the woman was almost a stranger to Harper.

As Harper finished her call and pocketed her phone again, he saw her expression. Like him, she was having second thoughts about her going to her mother. As much as he needed to get home... “Look, if you don’t want to—”

“No, it’s fine. She’s staying at one of the houses on the ranch. I can go by horseback.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to call one of your sisters?” he asked. “Not that I’m butting in or bossing you.”

She smiled at that. “I think it just comes naturally to you. Just as it comes naturally to me to rebel when someone treats me like a child.”

“We’ve both agreed you’re a grown woman,” he said. Their gazes met, the attraction flashing like ground lightning between them. “You should get to your mother’s, then.” His head and heart ached with even the thought of what this was going to do to his family. He couldn’t think about what it would do to Harper and her family. Not right now.

As if she hadn’t heard him, she looked back at the hillside where they’d found the body. “I know it’s silly since I’ve lived on this ranch from the time I was born and I’ve never been afraid of anything, but I feel...”

“Spooked,” he said, and nodded as he glanced back toward the hillside in the distance before turning to her. That was only one of the emotions ripping through him right now.

“I’ve always thought I was pretty strong and could handle most anything.”

“You are.” He’d never seen her this vulnerable. A part of him wanted to protect her, but there was no protecting her from this.

“I’m sorry how this day turned out for you,” he added, remembering that she’d said the reason she was screaming was because she had been in such a great mood. It was that free spirit in her that he’d seen when she was a kid that had endeared her to him.

Now he wanted to wrap her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be all right. That he would help her get through this. But it would have been a lie. This was going to tear them apart before they even got the chance to be together.

“If you want, I could ride—”

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m fine. My mother’s isn’t far from here.” She started to rein her horse around to leave but stopped. “You know you did rescue me, Brody. Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here.”

He said nothing around the lump in his throat as he tipped his hat and watched her ride west. Just let her go. But it was the last thing he wanted to do. Unfortunately, he had no choice now. He looked back at the pine-covered hillside where the authorities were now loading the remains, and quickly turned away.

* * *

“WHO WAS THAT you were with?” Sarah Johnson Hamilton asked her daughter as she glanced out the window. On the phone, Harper hadn’t told her mother about what had happened earlier. She’d just asked if Sarah was going to be home and could she stop by.

Harper frowned. “I rode here alone.” Stepping to the window, she looked out to see Brody riding away. He’d followed her? With a pang, she realized that he’d been more worried about her than he’d wanted her to know.

“Then who was that?”

“Brody McTavish. We...ran into each other earlier.” Harper was surprised to see her mother’s disapproval and challenged her. “Why, what’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing,” Sarah said, and turned away from the window. Her smile never met her eyes. “What was he doing on the ranch?”

“He was mending fence on that lease property next to ours. If there is some reason you disapprove of him... But then, why would you? You don’t even know him. He was just a boy when you left.” She hadn’t said it to hurt her mother. She’d just been thinking out loud.

Her mother looked as if she’d been slapped. “I didn’t mean to find fault with him. I’m sure he’s nice.”

“He is.” Well, most of the time, she thought. She still couldn’t understand why he’d wanted to get rid of her so quickly after they’d found the body.

Her mother moved to her to brush dust off the shoulder of her shirt. “I’m so glad you didn’t get caught in that thunderstorm. You’re not even wet.”

“It went to the north,” Harper said distractedly.

“Let’s go into town and get lunch. A girl day, what do you say?”

Harper stepped back. She couldn’t help being annoyed. “Why don’t you want me seeing Brody?”

Sarah looked frustrated. Harper could tell that she wished she hadn’t brought it up. “I would hate to see you get interested in a boy so soon since returning home. I want to spend more time with you.”

She really doubted that was the reason. “Brody isn’t a boy.”

“No, he’s a grown man and quite a bit older than you,” Sarah said.

“Eight years. He used to come to parties that my sisters threw at the house. He seemed...nice.”

“These parties happened when your father was gone,” her mother guessed. “I don’t think he would have approved.”

“Approved of Brody or the parties?”

“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean—”

Harper waved away their disagreement. This wasn’t why she’d come here. “Don’t you want to know why I asked if I could come see you? When Brody and I were riding earlier, we discovered a body.”

“What?”

“That’s why I’m here. I didn’t want to go to the house with only staff there at best. I was upset—”

“What do you mean you discovered a body?”

“It had been buried on a hillside. I guess the rain washed it down.” She shuddered. “It was the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Harper looked to her mother for comfort, but there was none coming.

“What hillside?” Sarah demanded.

Harper waved a hand in the direction of the other end of the ranch. “Next to the McTavish land. That’s where I ran into Brody.”

“Whose body?” Her mother had gone pale.

“The sheriff doesn’t know yet. I don’t want to talk about it. It was...gruesome.” She shuddered again. “I’m going to have nightmares.”

“That’s horrible,” her mother said as she moved to the window again.

Harper looked past her mother. Brody was a dot on the horizon, his horse kicking up a small cloud of dust that settled behind him. She couldn’t help but think of the kiss and the thrill of finally being in his arms. It had turned out to be the only good thing that had happened today.

“I suppose I should call Dad before he hears about it from the sheriff,” Harper said.

“Let me tell him,” her mother said, turning from the window.

She still couldn’t get over her mother’s reaction not only to Brody, but also to the news about the body. “Why is there bad blood between the Hamiltons and the McTavishes?”

“I didn’t say—”

“It’s clear from your reaction to Brody and the news about the body being found on our land.” Harper was just beginning to realize what a sheltered life she’d led so far. She would have laughed if anyone had told her that her family had secrets—until today. “Why do I get the feeling that you know who the woman was?”