But then Hoyts cell phone had vibrated on the blanket beside him and hed snatched it up, checked to see who was calling, then hed seemed to hesitate as if wanting to take the call and yet
Go ahead, Emma had said, sitting up to stretch. She knew how he was about business. Running this ranch was what kept him young.
I really need to take this. He rose stark naked and walked down to the end of the hayloft.
Any other time Emma wouldnt have paid any attention, but something in the way Hoyt was standing, his back to her, his shoulders slumped over slightly, his voice low
Her heart suddenly took off at a gallop as she noticed something that hadnt fully registered before. This wasnt the first time hed checked to see who was calling and said, I need to take this, and hurried out of the room. Or taken the call out on the porch. Or rushed downstairs. Or, like now, moved to the other end of the hayloft. These calls werent about ranch business.
Ice-cold fear moved through her. She couldnt hear what he was saying but she could read his body language. There was secrecy in the way he spoke into the phone.
Emma tried to fight the terror that clutched her heart like a fist. She told herself that she was being foolish. Hoyt loved her. Only her. She had no reason to question his love.
He snapped the phone shut, turned toward her and she saw his face and knew. Her husband looked guilty as hell.
Emma had never thought shed be one of those women who didnt want to know the truth. But right now, she felt too vulnerable, lying naked on a horse blanket in a hayloft after making love to the man she loved.
Quickly she hid her own face so he couldnt see her fear as she reached for her clothes.
HALLEY CALLED SHERIFF MCCALL CRAWFORD, who was in Great Falls tied up on a federal case, to update her on the Granger case.
Sheriff Winchester, I mean, Crawford, McCall said with a small laugh.
The sheriff wasnt the only one who was having trouble getting used to her married name. Most everyone in town still referred to her as Sheriff Winchester. When Halley filled the sheriff in, McCall told her to let the state crime investigators take the case from here
on outand to wait for their arrival.
When the team arrived by small plane that afternoon, she drove them to the crime scene, which a deputy had cordoned off, and waited to make sure nothing was disturbed.
Earlier, shed told Colton to go home, warning him not to leave town.
Hed actually pulled himself together enough to chuckle at that on the drive back to his pickup from the Granger house.
You must think Im an idiot. You probably already suspect Im a murderer. But do you really think Im going to make a run for it?
I dont know, are you? Hed given her an impatient look and shed had to ask, So tell me about Jessica.
What do you want to know? Hed sounded despondent.
What was she like? Halley remembered Jessica Granger, the girl Colton had started chasing at the end of junior high. Shortly after that Halley had talked her father into moving away from Whitehorse. You were in love with her, right? There must have been a reason.
He had looked out the side window for so long shed thought he wasnt going to answer. Youre not going to understand because she wasnt like you.
Shed shot him a look, not sure how to take that, but taking it badly, just the same.
Jessica wasnt strong. She needed me.
That was the appeal? Halley asked in surprise.
He had finally looked in her direction. Jessica needed someone to take care of her, to protect her from her old man. But I failed her.
She needed protection from her father? Halley couldnt help thinking about how she herself had needed someone to protect her from Colton Chisholm. Shed had to learn to fight her own battles. No one had come to her rescue. The thought drove the arrow even deeper in her heart and made her all the more angry that Colton, when hed finally fallen for a girl, had fallen for one who he said himself was nothing like her.
You met Sid, was all he said before climbing out of the patrol car.
Shed watched him go, seeing the toll this was taking on him, telling herself that a murderer might act the same way, especially if he couldnt take the guilt anymore.
Now, as Halley watched the crime techs begin the search for a body, she told herself her suspicions about Colton had nothing to do with how she felt about him today or all those years ago when hed broken her tender heart.
The breeze stirred the cottonwoods as the creek whispered past. It seemed too beautiful a spot for the crime techs to be looking for a young womans remains, but there was little doubt in her mind now that Jessica Granger was dead, that shed died here.
Whether or not they would find Jessica, though, was another story. Halley suspected it would have been a shallow grave somewhere along this creek bottom. Which meant animals could have dug up the grave and carried away the bones years ago.
I MIGHT NEED A LAWYER.
Emma had been picking at her supper but looked up now as everyone else at the table turned toward Colton. Like her, hed hardly touched his food and hed passed on apple pie. That wasnt like him. Hoyt hadnt eaten much, either. There was almost a full piece of pie on his plate.