Chapter Thirty-One

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

T HE SHERIFF HAD been floored when Charlotte Stafford had walked into his office and confessed to murdering Dixon Malone. Not that he hadn't suspected she'd done it. But why confess now?

It definitely seemed out of character. But then again, she'd been doing things lately that had everyone raising their eyebrows. No one had ever expected she would turn her house over to Holden and family after he got out of the hospital.

Stuart had had her sign a confession, questioning why she didn't want her lawyer present. He still couldn't believe she was sitting down in one of his cells right now after she waived her rights. Her attorney, Ian Drake, had shown up, but she'd refused to see him. At her bail hearing, she'd been given a young defender out of Billings, but refused bail.

Stuart couldn't help questioning all of it. He'd known Charlotte Stafford for years. She hadn't been the kind of woman anyone seemed to get close to—except for Holden McKenna, if the rumors were true. Which they seemed to be, given Brand's DNA results, he reminded himself.

Arrangements were being made to send Charlotte to Billings to await trial because Powder Crossing wasn't set up to house a long-term prisoner, and that was where the trial would be held. The judge had moved the venue, afraid that Charlotte couldn't get a fair trial in her hometown.

He'd accepted that she was guilty—until Elaine walked into his office.

"Charlotte didn't kill Dixon," she said. "I did."

He stared at her. "Let me get this straight. You killed Dixon."

"Yes."

"Why would Charlotte lie about it?"

Elaine sighed. "I'm not sure, but you know that Birdie Malone is in town looking for her father's killer. Birdie saved Charlotte from Boyle. Maybe she thought by confessing to the murder, she was paying Birdie back. I don't know. Who knows what makes Charlotte do what she does?"

She had him there.

"Maybe she also lied to protect me," Elaine said.

"Protect you? Why would she do that? I didn't even realize that the two of you were...acquainted, really."

"We're friends," she said with a lift of her chin. "I've been trying to get her and Holden back together for years."

The sheriff shook his head in surprise. "Maybe you'd better sit down and tell me how it is that you killed Dixon. Did Charlotte hire you to do it?"

"No," she said, frowning. "I just told you. We're friends." She took a seat. "Don't you want to record this?"

"Sure," he said and turned on the video recorder.

Elaine cleared her throat and began. The sheriff had heard this confession already from Charlotte, only in her story, Charlotte had done what Elaine was now confessing to. What the hell was going on?

"I was at the ranch alone that night when Dixon Malone came by. He wanted to see Holden. I told him he was out of town. He was very agitated, said he had to see him, that he needed money, he was leaving town."

Stuart waited while she took a breath, reminding him that Elaine would have been in her early twenties when this happened. Her mother, newly widowed, had taken the McKenna Ranch housekeeper job when Elaine was a baby, with Holden providing a home for both of them. Elaine had grown up on the McKenna Ranch and gone away to college, returning to the ranch when her mother got sick and taking over the housekeeping job. She'd been at the ranch ever since.

"Dixon had been drinking." She hesitated, tears pooling in her eyes. "He said he knew things that Holden would pay to keep quiet. He demanded I give him money, said he needed it to start over, just him and his daughter. When I tried to throw him out..." She looked away. "He got rough. Said he wasn't leaving without something. He grabbed me. I told him he was hurting me. He backed me into the wall by the fireplace. I picked up the poker and hit him. The first time only stunned him. I hit him harder. He went down hard, striking his head on the hearth, and didn't get up." She wiped her tears. "That's it."

"Not hardly," the sheriff said. "What did you do with the body? And how is it that Charlotte told this same story with just a few minor changes? Not to mention your statement that she might have lied to protect you. How about the whole truth here?"

Elaine swallowed. "I panicked when I realized I'd killed him. I...I called Charlotte to tell her what happened and ask for her help. We'd become friends when I tried to get her to forgive Holden and Margie. She and Margie had been such good friends before..." Elaine shrugged.

He knew where this story was going. "She helped you get rid of the body and cover up the crime."

"Yes."

"The two of you kept this secret all these years," the sheriff said. "So what changed?"

"I didn't know Dixon had a daughter who would someday come looking for the truth."

"Also, Birdie Malone saved Charlotte the other day," Stuart said. "I suspect that's why Charlotte confessed."

Elaine nodded. "And forced us both to finally face the past."

"Here's what I want to know," the sheriff said. "After you struck Dixon the second time, did you stay there in the room?"

"No, I went outside to make the call to Charlotte. I didn't want to go back inside by myself, so I walked down the road to meet her. Then we both went back to take care of him."

"Take care of him?"

"You know, wrap him up and dispose of his body. She'd brought a pickup. He was very heavy."

"Did either of you have a gun?"

Her expression was his answer, and yet he needed it on the video.

"A gun. No."

"You didn't shoot him to make sure he was good and dead? Charlotte didn't?"

"No." She looked horrified. "Why would we do that? He was dead. There was so much blood..." She swallowed.

He read Elaine her rights, then turned off the video and had a deputy take her down to a cell.

Then he sat mulling over everything he'd heard from the two women before calling the county prosecutor and telling him that they had a problem.

B RAND CALLED B IRDIE the moment he heard that Elaine had turned herself in for Dixon Malone's murder.

He'd wanted to believe Charlotte hadn't done it, even knowing that she could have. He realized that he'd been waiting for the other boot to drop from the moment Dixon's body had been found in the well so close to Stafford Ranch property.

The coroner had said the body had been in the well for years—probably since the night Dixon had stormed out of the ranch house and was never seen again. At least, that had been his mother's story—that Dixon had stormed out, and that was the last she saw of him.

Right now, he was more concerned about what this meant for Birdie. She'd come here to get justice. It had appeared that she was finally getting it. But now her reason for coming to Powder Crossing was over. There would be nothing keeping her here.

He didn't want her to go, but he wasn't sure he could make her stay. When he mentioned it to Ryder, his brother laughed.

"Seriously? How long have you known her? A week?" Ryder shook his head. "Don't you dare tell me that you've fallen in love with her."

When Brand said nothing, his brother swore and said, "Wait until our mother hears about this. You could have any woman you want in the Powder River Basin. Enough of them have thrown themselves at you, and yet you want Birdie Malone?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat. His brother was right, but it didn't change anything. "I do. I want her." He'd never wanted anyone more in his life.

Ryder shook his head. "Why her?"

"There's just something about her," Brand said. "She's quirky, exciting, fun. I never know what she's going to do." He laughed. "And neither does she. She's impulsive, daring, and cares deeply about things that are important to her, like finding her father's killer. Being around her makes me feel happy and free and...I don't know...alive." He could feel his brother studying him.

"Oh, you have it bad. But if her reason for being in Powder Crossing was to find her father's killer, now that she has, exactly where does that leave you?"

Up a creek without a paddle , he thought, unless he did something to try to make her stay. He avoided his brother's gaze until Ryder swore.

"You love her, right? You've told her. No? So you're going to tell her that you love her in hopes that she'll stay? And if that doesn't do the trick?" Ryder demanded.

Brand found himself grinning. "I'm going to ask her to marry me."

His brother shook his head. "You're that sure she's the one?"

He met Ryder's gaze. "I know it seems improbable, the two of us, but yeah, I'm that sure. I can't imagine life without her."

T REYTON M C K ENNA DIDN ' T want to take the call from the Billings detention center, let alone pay for the charges. He had a pretty good idea of why CJ Stafford would be calling him now. But he also knew that if he didn't take the call, he might be getting a midnight wake-up visit from one of CJ's criminal friends.

"Yeah, I'll accept charges," he said in a growl.

"You don't sound happy to hear from me."

"What do you want, CJ?" he demanded, even though he already knew. He'd been expecting this call. But that didn't mean that he liked it.

"It's time to get back into business."

Treyton rolled his eyes. "We would have been in business for months if it wasn't for you getting yourself arrested."

"You have the property. How soon can my associates start bringing in product?"

"The sheriff is suspicious that I might have already been in business with you in the past. He's threatened a couple of times to get a warrant and come search the premises."

CJ laughed. "Can't get a warrant without some kind of proof. Your job is to make sure he doesn't get it."

"I already know my job. I'm the one sticking my neck out. It's my property. The new split is eighty-twenty."

His former partner swore. "I'm the one who introduced you to the business, remember? You begged to be let in. Now you think you're running the show? Have you met me?"

Treyton fell silent for a moment, warning himself about the man he was dealing with. "Seventy-thirty or I sell the land. It's worth more now than I paid for it. I've been thinking about going to Texas. Buy me a place on the beach."

"Bullpuck!" CJ laughed. "Sand between your toes? You're too much of a wuss. Sixty-forty, but only because I need money for a decent lawyer. When I get out of here, we'll renegotiate."

He just bet they would.

"You'll be hearing from my friends."

The call ended. Treyton swore. If CJ ever got out, he'd take over and have him killed. The best Treyton could hope for was that it would be quick, and they'd at least bury him six feet deep on his own property.

It would be just like CJ to hire an attorney who found a way to get him out scot-free. If that happened, Treyton wanted to be ready, which meant socking away as much money as he could.

If CJ Stafford was ever free, Treyton promised himself he'd head to some tropical island and see how he felt about sand between his toes.

"T WO WOMEN HAVE confessed to the murder?" the prosecutor demanded.

"I have both of their confessions," Stuart told him. "As for the original confrontation, it appears to be self-defense."

"Then they decided to get rid of the body," the prosecutor said.

"They both told the same story. I believe them. A jury would believe them. So, what are we looking at here as far as charges?"

After he disconnected, he called down to have both women brought up from their cells. Their lawyers were cooling their heels outside his office.

After he had Elaine's confession down and signed, he had Charlotte brought up to his office. "Ladies, would one of you like to explain how you both killed Dixon Malone?"

Charlotte shot Elaine an impatient look. "I have this taken care of."

"She's covering for me," Elaine said. "I killed Dixon. You have my confession."

"I have two confessions," he snapped. "Both basically the same story. What I want is the truth. How about one of you tell me what I want to hear?"

The two women exchanged a look that made him swear. "Did you check for a pulse?" he asked.

Elaine started to speak, but Charlotte cut her off. "I checked when I got there. He was clearly dead."

"So you didn't check for a pulse before you called Charlotte," he said to Elaine.

"I panicked and called Charlotte and begged her to help me."

Her friend groaned. "Why didn't you just leave it alone?"

"Because I'm not letting you take the fall for something I did," Elaine said.

"You made the call from outside and went down the road to meet Charlotte," the sheriff said. "You didn't go back inside to check to make sure he was actually dead."

"He was dead," Elaine said. "There was blood on the floor under his head. He wasn't moving. He looked...dead."

The sheriff nodded. "So, which one of you had the gun?"

"We didn't have a gun," Charlotte snapped. "Why would you even ask that?"

"Because the coroner believes one of two bullets fired from a .22 to the brain is what killed Dixon Malone," Stuart said and saw their shocked expressions. "One of the slugs was lodged in the man's skull."

"I didn't kill him?" Elaine said in a whisper and began to cry. "He was alive when I called Charlotte?"

The sheriff looked to Charlotte. "Did you bring a gun to finish the job Elaine started?"

"No, I did check for a pulse. He was dead," Charlotte said.

"I was with her the entire time," Elaine said. "Neither of us shot him."

"He must have regained consciousness after his fall," the sheriff said. "Elaine, you're sure no one else was in the house that night?"

She shook her head, looking as mystified by all this as he was.

He turned to Charlotte. "You didn't see anyone on the way into the ranch?"

"No. We didn't see anyone," she said.

Studying the two women, he would have bet his career that they were telling the truth—which was what he was doing. "But you did get rid of his body," he said. He pulled out their confessions, tore them up and dropped them into the trash.

Then he got out two new sheets of paper. He shoved one toward each of the women and tossed them each a pen. "Let's start over, but this time write down the truth, because you could both be facing prison time if the judge doesn't believe your story."