Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,28
guests were looking out to see what was going on. “You were going to pay him ten thousand dollars?”
She nodded. “I was asleep when he called. I dressed as quickly as I could.”
He had to smile. Only Hilde would grab a matching outfit to come pay off a con man. She’d even taken the time to pull up her long hair into a do that made her look like a model on a runway.
“Stay here, okay?” he said, holding her at arm’s length to look into her face. She’d been crying, but she still looked great. As he stepped to the door of the motel, he heard Hud’s patrol pickup siren in the distance.
Several more guests stuck their heads out to see what was going on.
“Please go back inside,” Colt told them. Inside the motel room he found Rick Cameron sprawled on the bed. There was an empty bottle of whiskey on the floor and an empty bottle of prescription pills under the edge of the bedspread.
He checked for a pulse. Hilde was right. The man was dead. Still when the EMTs arrived seconds later, they attempted to revive him without any luck.
“Looks like an overdose,” one of the EMTs told Hud as he came in the door.
Colt stepped out to Hilde, but she’d already heard. “No,” she cried, trying to get past him to talk to Hud. “This wasn’t an accident. He knew I was on my way over.”
The EMTs brought out the body and loaded it into the ambulance. Hud came out after them and walked over to Hilde, clearly unhappy to see her there.
“Dee killed him,” Hilde said before the marshal could speak.
Hud raised a brow but didn’t respond to the accusation. “I’m going to have to ask you a few questions. Why don’t we go down to the office?” He turned to Colt. “Stay here and talk to the motel owner when he gets here.”
Colt nodded and didn’t look at Hilde as she and the marshal left. The lines had been clearly drawn now. Hud had made that point by telling him to stay there and wait for the motel owner.
He and Hilde were alone on their side of that line, and from Hud’s disappointed look as he left, they were on the wrong side.
* * *
HILDE FOLLOWED HUD in her SUV the few blocks to the marshal’s office, her mind racing.
Rick had been ready to tell her the truth about Dee. Surely Hud would realize it was too much of a coincidence for him to overdose right before she got there. She said as much as she followed him into his office.
“I’ve seen enough of these where the victim mixed alcohol and heavy-duty pain pills. It looks to me like an accidental drug overdose,” Hud told her.
“Well, you’re wrong.” She hated the way her voice broke. Even to her own ears, she sounded close to hysteria. Why wouldn’t he believe her?
“Hilde, you’re upset. You’ve been under a lot of strain lately—”
Of course Dana would have told him about her breakdown on the river. “Are you telling me you can’t see that people have a lot of accidents around Dee?” she snapped.
“Why don’t you tell me how it is that you’re the one who found the victim,” Hud said, as he settled into his chair behind his desk.
She’d known Hud for years, ever since she’d moved to Big Sky and met Dana. He was like a brother to her. But when he’d sat down behind his desk just then, she saw him become the marshal, all business. She felt the wall come up between them and had to fight tears of frustration and regret.
Taking a breath, she tried to calm down. But she was at war with herself. She knew he wasn’t going to believe her, but at the same time she had to try to make him see the truth.
“I was asleep. Rick called me.” She told him about the conversation, recalling as much as she could of it.
Hud nodded when she finished. “You said he sounded as if he’d been drinking. He said he would give you ‘the scoop’ on Dee. His words?”
“Yes and the way he said ‘Dee,’ I got the impression she might not really be Dee Anna Justice.” She instantly saw skepticism in Hud’s expression. No doubt Dana had also told him that she thought Hilde was jealous of her cousin. “There is something wrong with Dee. I feel it.”
She quickly regretted blurting it out when Hud said “Hilde” in a