“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