Seething with bitterness, Chase focused on the casket once again, concentrating on breathing in and out with slow, measured inhales and exhales. He’d learned the method from a tough, no-nonsense guard at the correctional facility a week after he’d arrived at the institution. Defending himself in a brawl in the exercise yard had resulted in a six-inch knife wound and the guard had taken him to the infirmary to have the deep cut stitched. Following the guard’s advice, he’d signed up for meditation classes. Combined with long hours spent weight lifting and working out, after two months he’d become strong enough to enforce his desire for solitude. As a result, the other inmates now left him alone.
Alone was just fine; being left alone was what he wanted. He planned to do his time and get out.
He drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs with cold air and the scent of sagebrush. Freedom. He craved it.
But first, he had to survive the next few years locked away for a crime he hadn’t committed.
Raine and Trey Harper lay flat on their bellies, peering around the sagebrush. From their vantage point atop the low hill, the twelve-year-olds had an unobstructed view of the Wolf Creek Cemetery and the cluster of people around the open grave.
“He looks different,” Raine said. “Don’t you think Chase looks different, Trey?”
Her brother stared hard at the McClouds. “He looks sad. And older. Maybe thinner. I wonder if he gets good food in jail.”
“I hope so.” Raine fell silent. “I miss Mike. And I miss Chase, too. I wish this year never happened.”
“Well, it did.” Trey didn’t face her but she knew he was fighting back tears, just as she was. She always knew when her twin was upset, just as he knew things about her without asking. Their mother said twins were connected in some weird way. Raine didn’t think of it as strange; for her it was normal.
“I don’t believe Chase hurt Mike on purpose, do you?” she asked.
“People say he did. Mom believes he did.”
“But Dad said Chase says he didn’t. Do you think he did?”
“No.” Trey looked at her, his gray eyes fierce. “I don’t.”
“Me, either.” She looked away from him, back down the hill. “But he’s still gone away and we never get to see him—just like Mike, only Mike’s dead and Chase isn’t. Do you think Chase will ever come back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe someday, when I find out what really happened.”
“Do you think Mom will believe you?” Raine didn’t understand her mother since Mike was killed. She stayed in her bedroom, crying day and night. Sometimes it felt like she no longer even remembered Raine and Trey were in the house. It was scary and so sad it made Raine feel like crying, too.
“Probably not.” Trey’s voice was bleak.
Below them, the service seemed to be finished. The mourners started walking toward their cars.
Trey scooted backward. “Come on, Raine. We don’t want anyone to see us. We’ll be in trouble with Dad for sure if he knows we came out here.”
Raine inched backward, rocks and twigs scratching her ankles where her jeans rode up above her socks. When the slope of the hill hid them from view, they stood, racing to their bikes and pedaling furiously down the little-used dirt road back to town, hurrying to get home before they were missed.
Fifteen years later
Late August
Gravel crunched under her car’s wheels as Raine Harper braked, slowing to read the name printed on the mailbox atop its sturdy black metal post.
“C. McCloud,” she said aloud, stopping her car and letting the engine idle.
Chase McCloud’s home lay thirty miles southeast of Wolf Creek, at the farthest boundary of McCloud Enterprises land amid towering buttes and deep coulees. No fertile fields of wheat or oats softened the landscape here. Instead, barbed wire fences marched for miles along the sharply curved road, dividing the gravel highway from untamed land. Outcroppings of shale and cliffs of clay dropped precipitously to create miniature canyons where swift-running creeks sparkled in the sunlight.
Raine knew that farther south, the land grew even wilder in the Missouri Breaks. But here, blocky red-and-white Hereford cattle, horses and the occasional pair of pronghorn antelope grazed on clumps of tough grass scattered amid gray-green sagebrush.
Rumor had it that Chase McCloud had purposely chosen to live on this outer section of his family’s property because he wanted to get as far away from Wolf Creek residents as possible. Raine had no idea whether the gossip was true and she couldn’t afford to care.
The reclusive bounty hunter might not want visitors. He probably wouldn’t welcome a Harper knocking on his door. But she needed him. She was desperate and he was the only man in the county who had experience in locating missing persons.
He owes me, she thought. He owes my family. She shifted the car into gear and turned off the highway onto the graveled lane.
The well-maintained road followed the bulge of a towering rocky butte. Raine rounded a curve and caught her breath, staring at the house and outbuildings tucked against the foot of a butte across the broad valley stretching in front of her. The house was a weathered A-frame with glass across the entire front. Built of peeled logs, it was surrounded by green lawn and tall maple trees. The barn, corrals and other outbuildings were all constructed of logs with the same aged, silvery look.
The road cut straight across the valley. Raine drove over a sturdy log bridge spanning a clear-running creek then onto the graveled drive that led to the ranch yard. She parked in front of the house and got out, pausing to survey the cluster of buildings.
Very impressive, she thought, grudgingly acknowledging the care and prosperity evident in the well kept headquarters.
A wrought iron fence surrounded the house and yard. The gate’s latch gave easily under her hand and she pushed it wide, turning to fasten it behind her. Her footsteps echoed on the wooden decking as she approached the screened door and rapped briskly. No one answered. The house was silent except for the musical tinkling of a wind chime as it swayed in the slight breeze.
The delicate wind chime and the scrolls of the iron fence were the only colorful touches, no pots of flowers graced the deck and the doormat was a serviceable thick brown straw.
Walking over to the edge of the deck, Raine shaded her eyes with her hand, searching the ranch yard.
All seemed quiet, the buildings and corrals drowsing in the hot sun. Her heart sank with disappointment.
He’s not here.
Chase McCloud was elusive. According to rumor, he often disappeared for stretches of time, traveling back to Seattle where he’d worked as a bounty hunter for so long. He was said to still take cases for the company on occasion and to be a silent partner in the exclusive investigative agency.
Raine didn’t know what she’d do if he’d left town again. Increasingly frustrated and impatient, she’d been waiting for days already. Finally Chase had returned to Wolf Creek.
She needed to see him now. She couldn’t afford to wait until tomorrow or next week.
She rapped on the door again, listening for movement inside while rubbing her knuckles.
Discouraged, she went back to her car, pausing with the door open while her gaze swept the ranch yard and buildings one last time. Just as she’d given up, the sound of a hammer ringing on metal reached her ears.
She turned, looking all around the buildings. The ring of hammer against iron sounded again, not a single blow this time but a rhythmic tapping.
As Raine headed toward the sound, she caught sight of a trace of smoke coming from the chimney atop an outbuilding beyond the barn.
She