Читать книгу Atonement - B.J. Daniels, B.J. Daniels - Страница 13

CHAPTER SIX

DILLON GLANCED AT the young pregnant woman in his passenger seat. Not for the first time, he saw her turn to look behind them.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

She seemed startled by the question and reticent to answer. “You’ll think I’m silly, but I’ve had the strangest feeling I was being followed.”

“All the way from California?”

“Crazy, huh?”

Maybe. Maybe not. Who knew what kind of people his brother had gotten involved with? It scared him, though, to think that the trouble might have followed her.

“You said on the phone earlier that you recognized the name Halbrook,” he said.

She nodded. “A man stopped by a day or two before Ethan left. Ethan went outside to talk to him, but I overheard them arguing. Ethan mentioned the name Halbrook. It’s unusual enough, I remembered it.”

“Did you ask Ethan what the argument was about?”

“He told me he owed the man money. I asked how much and suggested he use the money I had in savings to pay the man. I hadn’t liked the look of the man and didn’t want him coming back around.”

“Ethan didn’t jump at that?”

“He said he didn’t want my money, that it was for our house.” She scoffed at that now. “He knew I’d put the money in both our names. Talk about trusting.”

“Tell me about you,” Dillon said, and glanced over at her. “If you don’t mind.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Whatever you’d like to share with me.”

* * *

TESSA THOUGHT ABOUT that for a moment. More to the point, what did she really know about Dillon? He wasn’t his brother—that much was clear. He was a man who worked both as an undersheriff and at his own ranch. He was kind and generous and compassionate, and he’d taken an entirely different route in life than his brother had.

What scared her was that in Dillon she glimpsed what she had wanted to see in his twin. She knew it was crazy, but Ethan had been just enough like his brother that she felt she already knew Dillon. She trusted him, and trust didn’t come easily to her. Ethan’s betrayal had only made her less trusting.

“I was born and raised in California. My parents were killed in a car wreck when I was two. I was in the car, but I miraculously survived. A neighbor lady took me in and raised me until her death, when I was sixteen. After that, I was on my own.” She’d purposely left out the part about the foster homes the county had put her in. She’d barely survived those with her life. That had been the real miracle.

Dillon studied her for a moment before turning back to his driving. He seemed to sense the parts she’d left out and was kind enough not to ask.

“You want more for your daughter,” he said after a moment.

“Of course I do,” she said. “I suppose that is the real reason I came all this way looking for Ethan. I wanted to give him another chance to be a father to our daughter.”

“What about another chance with you?”

She shook her head. “He used up his last chance when he left the way he did.”

* * *

DILLON COULD SEE what his brother had seen in Tessa. Ethan would have liked her independence, the fire in her, not to mention her beauty both inside and out. Ethan had chosen well. So why had he burned his bridges when he’d left?

Because he’d known he wouldn’t be back?

“I’m sorry my brother hurt you,” Dillon said as the Montana countryside blurred past, a tableau of shades of green from the new bright grasses to the deeper, richer shades of the cool pines. The mountains rose around them, most still snowcapped.

“It was my own fault.” She turned as if to gaze out at the passing landscape.

“You must have seen something good in him. Isn’t it possible he really did want to change? Really did want everything he said he did?”

She let out a sound that made him hurt inside. “Better to think that than I’m a fool who was taken in by a handsome cowboy, right?”

He could see that Tessa had thought herself smarter. She’d let herself be fooled by a man. She hadn’t yet learned that love was a heart thing, often with no brain involved.

He glanced in the rearview mirror. He hadn’t thought to check for a tail. Then again, he hadn’t thought he needed to. There were cars and pickups and a couple semis behind them. If they were being followed, he couldn’t tell.

“There was no warning?” he asked, hoping to get her talking about Ethan.

“The signs were there. I just chose not to see them.”

“Signs?”

“He’d been more moody in the days right before he left. Antsy and uncharacteristically impatient. More secretive, too. If I asked him where he’d been or what he was looking at on the computer—”

“He had a computer?” This surprised Dillon. Ethan had ranted about the new technologies on his visit two years ago. He’d said that was why he worked on ranches. He didn’t have to learn how to use a computer, let alone a smartphone.

Tessa’s chuckle had a bitter edge to it. “No, he didn’t own a computer. Other than his old pickup and his saddle, had he ever owned anything?”

“So he used yours. Do you still have it?” He could see that she understood at once.

“I checked it after he left. I thought...” She looked away.

He knew exactly what she’d thought. An online romance with another woman.

“He had said he was looking for a new saddle. I showed him how to use a search engine. He wasn’t dumb. He didn’t ask for my help after that.”

Dillon knew his brother wasn’t shopping on the internet for a saddle. So what had he been looking for? “Did he find a saddle?”

Another short laugh. “He wasn’t looking for a saddle. He was looking for a gun.”

“A gun?” Dillon asked.

“He had guns—a .357 he kept rolled up in its holster beside the bed, and a hunting rifle, a .30 Winchester, that hung on the rack in his pickup. Both were old. I suspect they meant something to him?”

“Our uncle Jack gave him the .357 before Jack died. The Winchester was our grandfather’s.” Dillon was a little surprised, given his brother’s lifestyle, that he’d somehow managed to hang on to them.

He’d never thought of Ethan as being sentimental. Nor had he seemed like someone who cared about possessions. More and more Dillon was realizing how little he knew his twin.

He cracked his window, needing air. The more he learned about his brother, the more sick at heart he became. The lush spring Montana landscape was a tapestry of contrasts, from the new bright green grass to the dark pines of the mountains, from the blinding white snow capping the peaks to the cloudless blue of the sky. The sweet scents reminded him of springs when they were boys.

The one thing he knew now without a doubt was that Tessa had known his brother. When and for how long? Well, that was still the question, wasn’t it? But he wouldn’t be looking for his brother unless part of him believed her, believed Ethan was alive.

“So what kind of gun was he looking for online?” He couldn’t fathom that, even if Ethan had wanted another gun, why he would look for it on the internet. Not when he could pick one up at a local gun show. Again, it didn’t sound like his brother.

“He’d deleted the sites he went to. But I hadn’t told him about how the computer kept a history of the sites visited.” She shrugged, giving away more than she probably meant to. Even back when they’d been talking marriage, she hadn’t completely trusted the man she’d fallen in love with.

“Why would he feel the need to lie about what he was looking for?” Dillon asked after a moment.

Tessa seemed to pull herself out of the past. She came out of it angry again, but he suspected it was more with herself than Ethan. “Why would he lie about everything? I have no idea. I just know that he was looking at antique rifles. I saw on one site that a similar rifle to the one he was viewing went for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

“So he was just looking.”

“I guess so. He’d been saving his money. I thought for a house for us, but he could have been saving it to buy a rifle, for all I know.”

Odd. Again not like his brother. Dillon couldn’t see him wanting an antique rifle even if he could afford it. So what was that about?

“Did you ever ask him?”

She nodded. “He got defensive, said it didn’t have anything to do with me and that I should stay out of his business. It was the same day the man had stopped by whom he said he owed money to.”

“The day you heard Ethan mention the name Halbrook?”

She nodded. “Ethan stormed out, but came back later and apologized. He was gone the next morning with my money.”

“But he left the photo,” Dillon said.

“Only because he dropped it, he was in such a hurry to clear out.”

“Maybe. The thing is, if he was in trouble, which I think we can assume, then maybe he dropped it on purpose, knowing you would find me.”

* * *

TESSA SCOFFED AT that. “Why didn’t he just contact you himself if he wanted your help?”

“Because he’s too stubborn. Ethan likes to believe he can take care of himself. He wouldn’t ask for my help ever.” He looked over at her, something soft and tender in his gaze. “But he would want you to find me because he’d know I’d take care of you and the baby if anything hap—”

“You think he sent me to you?” She couldn’t help but laugh. “Ethan didn’t exactly seem worried about what was going to happen to me and our baby when he took my money and left.”

“I think you’re wrong about that.”

“Wouldn’t it have been a whole lot easier if he’d just left me your name and address?”

He turned his attention back to the road. She saw his jaw work. “Would you have come all the way to Montana to see his brother?”

She studied him for a moment. “No.”

“I didn’t think so. You strike me as an independent woman with a lot of pride. Ethan obviously knew you. He knew you’d track down the ranch from the photograph.” He glanced over at her. “He knew you were smart and resourceful. He knew you’d find me.”

Tessa let that sink in as she watched the countryside blur past.

She had never seen such beautiful, remote country. They had traveled along Interstate 90 through pine-studded mountains past Paradise Valley and over the Bozeman Pass. From there they drove along clear rivers, winding through more mountains to reach Butte, home of the huge open-pit mine, before leaving behind civilization again.

She hated reliving those last few weeks with Ethan. Worse, she hated to admit even to herself how badly he’d hurt her. How badly she’d let him.

Could Dillon be right? Had Ethan cared about her and the baby? He had an odd way of showing it. But if he was in trouble... She reminded herself that Ethan had apparently faked his own death and changed his name—pretty drastic behavior even for him. Which, according to his brother, indicated that he’d been in serious trouble.

And then he’d met her.

So why hadn’t he kept running? Surely a wife and baby hadn’t been in his plans.

As much as Tessa hated doing it, she stewed over the days before Ethan left. He’d been angry about her questioning his time on the computer. He hadn’t wanted her to know that he was looking for a rifle. That made no sense.

“Had Ethan gotten angry with you before?” Dillon asked, as if he’d noticed her chewing at her lower lip and glowering out the window.

“He was just looking for an excuse to cut and run,” she said.

“My brother has always been...complicated.”

She chuckled at that as she glanced over at Dillon. She couldn’t help remembering what he’d said about her being strong and smart, what he’d figured out about her after meeting her twice. She suspected he was a good undersheriff, good at dealing with most people. But not his brother, apparently. He’d said he hadn’t seen Ethan in two years, hadn’t even known where he was.

She couldn’t help being curious. The brothers were identical twins and yet one had become a lawman and the other an outlaw. “I take it you and Ethan weren’t close?”

He shook his head. “It’s a long story.” And clearly one he didn’t want to get into.

Ahead, a town appeared on the horizon. Tessa was relieved for a change in scenery as well as subject. At the edge of town, the sign read Welcome to Wisdom And the Big Hole Valley, Land of Ten Thousand Haystacks.

“Those are the Bitterroots,” Dillon said, pointing to the snowcapped mountains.

The whole scene was breathtaking. The Big Hole River wound through the valley, with the Bitterroot Mountains as a backdrop. There was a lushness to the country, a new-spring green that was almost blinding.

They followed the Big Hole River out of town, rolling along a gravel road, a jackleg fence on each side. In a field next to them a half dozen horses took off running through the tall grass, the wind blowing back their manes. Overhead, cumulus clouds floated on a sea of blue.

Not far down the road, she noticed the Posted signs. They were orange and stamped with the Double T-Bar-Diamond Ranch name.

“Is this ranch as large as it seems?” she asked, after they’d gone for miles with the Posted signs on both sides of the road.

“Montana has some huge ones,” Dillon said, and slowed as a massive log arch appeared on the right-hand side of the road ahead. The arch was made of log and metal. An ornate design of a huge elk had been cut into the metal.

Suddenly Tessa sat up straighter. “I think Ethan told me about this place.”

Dillon glanced over at her. “The Double T-Bar-Diamond Ranch?”

“Not by name. But if I’m right, there’s a large rock fireplace in the living room of the lodge with a huge elk mount over it. Ethan said the owner of the ranch was so proud of the elk because it was the first one he’d ever killed. Apparently he liked to brag about it and his other possessions. I could tell Ethan didn’t like the man. But when I showed an interest by asking about the ranch and when he worked there, Ethan said he didn’t want to talk about it. He said it wasn’t a place he wanted to remember and then he changed the subject.”

* * *

DILLON COULD HAVE told her that Ethan probably hadn’t wanted to talk about most ranches he’d worked, because more than likely he’d left under unpleasant—if not downright criminal—circumstances. Dillon thought of the one over on the Powder River and the two hundred bucks it had cost him. He wondered what it would cost him at this ranch.

He checked his mirror. Dust boiled up behind the pickup, obscuring anyone who might be following them. “What makes you think this is the ranch?”

“Its size,” she said. “I got the impression the man was very wealthy. But also that arch we just drove under? Did you see the elk artwork in the metal part?”

He already suspected Ethan had worked here. Now he was afraid of what they would find out about his brother as they came over a rise and a sprawling house came into view. Dillon hoped it hadn’t been a mistake bringing Tessa with him.

The house was a single story made of stone and log with a green metal roof. The roof and the house seemed to run forever along the river’s edge.

Dillon parked in front, bracing himself for more bad news as they got out and approached the gigantic carved wooden door.

A woman answered a few minutes after he’d pushed the doorbell. A military march song echoed through the house as she asked, “Yes?” She was dressed in a maid’s uniform.

“We’re here to see Mr. Truman.”

She nodded and led them into a massive living room. Dillon spotted the fireplace, a towering stone masterpiece, and the elk mount dwarfing the room. It looked like something out of Boone and Crockett. He and Tessa shared a look. It appeared he’d been right about his brother following Luke Blackwell here.

At the sound of boot heels on the stone floor, they both turned. One look at the man and Dillon knew this had to be Halbrook Truman, the ranch owner. He carried himself like a man in a hurry to get whatever he wanted with no doubt in his mind that he would succeed.

The fiftysomething rancher appeared distracted, so it took a moment before he looked up and actually saw them. His gaze went from Tessa to Dillon before he stumbled to a stop. “Ethan?” He started to laugh, shaking his head as if nothing surprised him anymore. “You’re the last person I expected to see—especially wearing a damned sheriff’s department uniform. Did you make Luke one of your deputies?” The man guffawed at his own joke.

For the second time in two days, someone had thought Dillon was Ethan. He’d lived so long separately from his brother that he’d forgotten what that was like.

“I’m Undersheriff Dillon Lawson. Ethan was my brother.” He couldn’t help using was. Part of him still wouldn’t let himself believe that Ethan really was alive. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing his brother all over again if not.

Halbrook let out a grunt. “Yeah, right. Call yourself whatever you please, since we both know that the rumors of your demise were greatly exaggerated. But you’d better be here to return my property.” The rancher glanced at Tessa. “All of it, including the ring I gave my fiancée. I hope to hell you didn’t knock up Ashley, too.”

So Halbrook had heard about Ethan’s death, but unlike Dillon, he hadn’t been fooled by it. “What property might that be?”

The rancher narrowed his gaze. “What the hell is this?” He laughed again but there was no humor in it. “You foolin’ with me, son? You should know better than that.”

“As I told you, I’m not Ethan. I’m his twin brother. I take it he never mentioned he had an identical twin.” Dillon tried not to let that hurt him. He remembered Ethan saying once that he felt like a carbon copy, not the real thing.

“You have some credentials on you?” Halbrook Truman asked.

Dillon produced his driver’s license, along with his badge and one of the photographs he’d shown Tessa, of him and his brother. For years he hadn’t had to explain about his twin because Ethan hadn’t been part of his life. It felt strange now.

The rancher’s eyes widened as he took in the photo. His gaze swept up to meet Dillon’s and narrowed. “He never said anything about having a twin.” Suspicion laced his tone. “If you’re not Ethan, then what are you doing here?”

“I wasn’t sure Ethan had worked for you. Now that I know he did, I’m hoping you might know where he is.”

Halbrook fidgeted with the coins in his jeans pocket for a moment before moving to a cabinet along the wall. A door swung open, exposing a built-in bar.

Before, the man apparently hadn’t thought he was really dealing with law enforcement. Now he seemed worried. Why was that, if Ethan had taken his property from him? Wouldn’t he be glad to have the law involved?

“You didn’t say what my brother took that you were hoping I was bringing back, along with your fiancée’s ring,” Dillon said to the man’s back as Halbrook poured himself a drink and took a gulp from the crystal glass. The alcohol seemed to fortify him.

“And you didn’t say why you’re really here, if you weren’t even sure your brother worked here or not,” the rancher said without turning around.

“Luke Blackwell.”

Halbrook turned slowly and raised a brow. “I didn’t know we were talking about Luke.”

“You offered Luke a job when he got out of prison,” Dillon said. “You were instrumental in getting him out.”

“I like to help a man who wants to change.” The rancher shrugged and poured himself another drink. “He also apparently lied when he vouched for your brother.” Dillon noticed that the man’s hands were shaking, but not from fear or nervousness. Halbrook Truman was furious.

“Luke doesn’t still work for you?”

Halbrook laughed in answer.

“When did my brother and Luke leave your employ?”

The rancher pretended to give that some thought. “Let’s see. I’d say it was in the middle of the night the first part of February a year ago, as I recall. I found my safe open and empty the next morning and my fiancée, Ashley, gone, along with some of my hired hands.”

“You called the sheriff?”

The man’s expression darkened. “It was a personal matter.”

Dillon didn’t like the sound of that, given that Ethan had allegedly died in a car accident a month after leaving this ranch. The wreck had been ruled an accident, since alcohol was involved. Dillon had had no reason to suspect anything. Until Tessa showed up. So who had been in that car? Who had really died that night?

He pulled out his notebook and pen. “If you could give me the name of the ranch hands who left with my brother...”

“I don’t see the point.”

“I need to find Ethan. One of the others might know where he is. Or I could talk to your current employees—”

“Luke Blackwell, Tom Grady and Buck Morgan. You want the name of my fiancée, too?” The alcohol seemed to have loosened his tongue. Or maybe he didn’t want Dillon talking to his employees. “Ashley Rene Clarkson.”

Dillon wrote down the names and asked, “Do you know where they went after they left here?”

The rancher cocked his head. “If I knew, I wouldn’t still be looking for them, now, would I?”

“You’re looking for them?”

Halbrook seemed to regret his words. He waved off the question with a dismissive sweep of his hand. “It’s no big deal. They took some money. I’d forgotten all about it until I saw you.”

He was lying. Dillon had seen the man’s fury. Halbrook Truman wasn’t a forgiving man. He thought of what Tessa had told him about the conversation she’d overheard with Ethan and some stranger. Had Halbrook hired a man to get back whatever the bunch of them had stolen?

“It would help if I knew what they’d taken,” he said. “If my brother owes you money—”

“I don’t need your money.” The rancher downed his second drink. He seemed calmer as he put down the glass. “I’m sorry, I would have offered you a drink but I’m assuming you’re on duty,” he said to Dillon. “And—” he turned to look at Tessa “—you’re—”

“I’m fine,” she said, her tone crisp. “But would you mind if I used your bathroom?”

“There’s one down the hall on the right. Help yourself,” Halbrook said, and watched Tessa until she disappeared around the corner. “That your doing?” His eyes narrowed. “Let me guess, she’s the one interested in finding your brother.” He laughed. “Ethan has been busy. Looks like you’d better hurry and find him.”

Dillon changed the subject, asking some general questions about the ranch while they waited. Halbrook was happy to talk about his “spread.” Apparently he hadn’t bragged about what he had to only Ethan. He was ready to brag to anyone who would listen.

“My great-grandfather made his fortune in the gold fields and started this ranch,” Halbrook boasted. “It has grown with each generation.”

“That’s a nice elk,” Dillon said, nodding to the mount over the fireplace.

“I killed him when I was twelve. One shot to the heart. Gutted him myself. Had to quarter him to get him back to the ranch. Scored four hundred on Boone and Crockett.” The man swelled with pride as he looked at the elk.

Dillon saw Tessa coming down the hallway. She looked pale. He feared coming here had been a mistake. Bringing her definitely had been. She didn’t need to hear more bad things about the father of her baby. He hated to even think how many ranchers his brother had ripped off or how many of them had a score to settle with Ethan.

At least now he had an inkling of why his brother might be on the run. Even on a good day, he suspected Halbrook Truman was a force to be reckoned with. What had Ethan stolen? Clearly something the rancher wanted back. Could it be the reason Ethan had faked his own death, if indeed that was what had happened?

Dillon had a bad feeling that he’d better find his brother before the rancher did.