He felt awful, and not even the miles he put behind him made him feel better. He wished he’d never left Montana, but at the time, leaving seemed the only thing to do. He’d worked his way south, taking carpenter jobs, having no idea where he was headed.
When he’d gotten the call from his mother to say she was dying and that she’d needed to see him, he’d quit his job, packed up and headed for Quartsite, Arizona, in hopes that his mother would finally give him the name.
Chase had never known who his father was. It was a secret his mother refused to reveal for reasons of her own. Once in Arizona, though, he’d realized that she planned to take that secret to her grave. On her death bed, she’d begged him to do one thing for her. Would he take her ashes back to Montana and scatter them in the Gallatin Canyon near Big Sky?
“That’s where I met your father,” she said, her voice weak. “He was the love of my life.”
She hadn’t given him a name, but at least he knew now that the man had lived in Big Sky at the time of Chase’s conception. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
* * *
HE WAS IN the middle of nowhere just outside of Searchlight, Nevada, when smoke began to boil out from under the pickup’s hood. He started to pull over when the engine made a loud sound and stopped dead. As he rolled to stop, his first thought was: could Fiona have done something to his pickup before he left?
Anger filled him to overflowing. But it was another emotion that scared him. He had a sudden awful feeling that something terrible was going to happen to Mary if he didn’t get to Montana. Soon. The feeling was so strong that he thought about leaving his pickup beside the road and thumbing a ride the rest of the way.
Chase tried to tamp down the feeling, telling himself that it was because of Fiona and what she’d done before he’d left when she’d tried to kill him, not to mention what she’d done to his pickup. The engine was shot. He’d have to get a new one and that was going to take a while.
That bad feeling though wouldn’t go away. After he called for a tow truck, he dialed the Jensen Ranch, the closest ranch to Mary’s. He figured if anyone would know how Mary was doing, it would be Beth Anne Jensen. She answered on the third ring. “It’s Chase.” He heard the immediate change in her voice and realized she was probably the wrong person to call, but it was too late. Beth Anne had liked him a little too much when he’d worked for her family and it had caused a problem between him and Mary.
“Hey Chase. Are you back in town?”
“No, I was just calling to check on Mary. I was worried about her. I figured you’d know how she’s doing. Is everything all right with her?”
Beth Anne’s tone changed from sugar to vinegar. “As far as I know everything is just great with her. Is that all you wanted to know?”
This was definitely a mistake. “How are you?”
“I opened my own flower shop. I’ve been dating a rodeo cowboy. I’m just fine, as if you care.” She sighed. “So if you’re still hung up on Mary, why haven’t you come back?”
Stubbornness. Stupidity. Pride. A combination of all three. “I just had a sudden bad feeling that she might be in trouble.”
Beth Anne laughed. “Could be, now that you mention it. My brother saw her earlier out with some young deputy. Apparently, she’s dating him.”
“Sounds like she’s doing fine then. Thanks. You take care.” He swore as he disconnected and put his worry about Mary out of his mind. She should be plenty safe dating a deputy, right? He gave his front tire a kick, then paced as he waited for the tow truck.
* * *
IT HAD TAKEN hours before the tow truck had arrived. By then the auto shop was closed. He’d registered at a motel, taken a hot shower and sprawled on the bed, furious with Fiona, but even more so with himself.
He’d known he had a serious problem when he’d seen the smoke roiling out from under the hood. When the engine seized up, he’d known it was blown before he’d climbed out and lifted the hood.
At first, he couldn’t understand what had happened. The pickup wasn’t brand-new, but it had been in good shape. The first thing he’d checked was the oil. That’s when he’d smelled it. Bleach.
The realization had come in a flash. He’d thrown a container of bleach away in his garbage just that morning, along with some other household cleaners that he didn’t want to carry all the way back to Montana. He’d seen the bleach bottle when he’d tossed Fiona’s knife into one of the trash cans at the curb.
Now, lying on the bed in the motel, Chase swore. He’d left Fiona out there alone with his pickup. He’d thought the only mischief she’d gotten up to was writing on his pickup window with lipstick. He’d underestimated her, and now it was going to cost him dearly. He’d have to have a new engine put in the truck, and that was going to take both money and time.
* * *
THREE DAYS LATER, while waiting in Henderson, Nevada for his new engine to be installed, he called Rick.
“Hey, Chase, great to hear from you. How far did you make it? I thought you might have decided to drive straight through all night.”
“I broke down near Searchlight.”
“Really? Is it serious?”
“I’m afraid so. The engine blew. I suspect Fiona put bleach in the oil.”
Rick let out a curse. “That would seize up the engine.”
“That’s exactly what it did.”
“Oh, man I am so sorry. Listen, I am beginning to feel like this is all my fault. Is there anything I can do? Where are you now? I could drive up there, maybe bring one of the big trailers. We could haul your pickup back down here. I know a mechanic—”
“I appreciate it, but I’m getting it fixed here in Henderson. That’s not why I called.”
“It’s funny you should call,” Rick said. “I was about to call you, but I kept putting it off hoping to have better news.”
His heart began to pound. “What’s wrong?”
His former boss let out a dry chuckle. “We’re still friends, right?”
“Right. I forgave you for Fiona if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“You might change your mind after you hear what I have to tell you,” Rick said. “I didn’t want you to hear this on the news.” He felt his stomach drop as he waited for the bad news. “Fiona apparently hasn’t been at work since before you left. Patty went over to her place. Her car was gone and there was no sign of her. But she’d called Patty the night you left from a bar and was pretty wasted and incoherent. When Patty wasn’t able to reach her in the days that followed, she finally went over to her condo. It appeared she hadn’t been back for a few days.” Chase swore. She wouldn’t hurt herself, would she? She’d said he would regret it. He felt a sliver of fear race up his spine. As delusional as the woman was—
Rick cleared his voice. “This morning a fisherman found her car in the Colorado River.”
His breath caught in his throat. “Is she...?”
“They’re dragging the river for her body, but it’s hard to say how far her body might have gone downstream. The river was running pretty high after the big thunderstorm they had up in the mountains a few days ago.”
Chase raked a hand through his hair as he paced the floor of his motel room as he’d been doing for days now. “She threatened to do all kinds of things, but I never thought she’d do something like this.”
“Before you jump to conclusions, the police think it could have been an accident.