Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,43

couldn’t tell a lie. Maybe it was a talent you were born with.

Or maybe you had to learn it at your daddy’s knee, she thought bitterly.

“I checked this morning about a flight,” she said with equal effortlessness. “I’m booked for Saturday on a nonstop flight to LaGuardia.” She knew Dana and Hud wouldn’t check to see if it was true or not. But Colt might.

Dana didn’t try to get her to change her mind. Yep, it’s time. She just said, “Well, I hate to see you cut your trip short, but you know best.”

“This isn’t my only trip to Cardwell Ranch,” Dee said.

“Well, I insist on paying for your flight.” Dana held up her hand even though Dee hadn’t protested. “No arguments. I want this trip to be my treat.”

“That is so sweet of you. I’m going to pay you back, though, and then some.” By booking the nonstop flight that was available only on Saturday, she had bought herself a little more time. It wasn’t perfect timing, but she’d have to make it work, especially after finding her toothbrush and makeup missing. She’d already put the wheels in motion. Hang on, she thought, because she knew what was about to hit the fan.

Dana looked visibly relaxed now that she knew her guest was leaving. Dee hated Hilde at that moment. The woman had been a thorn in her side from the beginning. If she had just backed off... But it was too late for regrets, she thought, and checked her watch.

Any minute poor Hilde would be crying on the marshal’s shoulder and no doubt blaming her.

* * *

MARSHAL HUD SAVAGE stopped in the doorway of Needles and Pins and demanded, “What are you doing?”

“I’m cleaning up my shop,” Hilde said, as she placed another bolt of fabric back where it went. She was thankful that most of the fabrics hadn’t gotten soiled or ruined. Dee could have torn up the place much worse. Hilde knew she should be thankful for that.

She’d started cleaning up the moment she’d realized who’d done this. At that same moment, she’d known there was no reason to wait for the marshal. Hud wasn’t going to believe Dee had done this. And the only way to try to change his mind would be to show him the scissors and explain why they were a message from Dee.

Hilde couldn’t do that without telling what she’d done to get Dee’s fingerprints and Colt’s involvement. She wasn’t about to drag him into this any more than he already was.

“You shouldn’t have touched anything until I got here,” Hud said behind her. “Hilde—”

She stopped working to look at him. Fueled by anger, she’d accomplished a lot in a short time. “The person broke in through the back. I haven’t touched anything back there.”

He looked toward the back of the shop, where she had a small kitchen she and her staff used as a break and storage room. She’d found a chair moved over against the wall under the open window. There appeared to be marks on the window frame where someone had pried it open.

When she’d stepped outside in the alley, she’d discovered the large trash container pulled over under the window.

Hud went back in the break room, then outside. “Is anything missing?” he asked when he came back in.

“I don’t believe so. I don’t leave money down here. I think it was just a malicious act of vandalism.”

“Looks like it might have been kids, then,” Hud said.

Hilde had stopped to look at him, after restoring almost all of the bolts of fabric to their correct places. She saw him staring at the countertop where the half-dozen new scissors had been stuck in the wood.

“Kids resort to this sort of thing just for something to do, I guess,” he said.

“It wasn’t kids.” She crossed her arms because she was trembling and she didn’t want him to see it. She thought that if she kept calm and didn’t get upset or cry, he might believe her.

“Don’t tell me Dee did this.” He looked as resolute as she felt.

“Okay, I won’t. You don’t want to hear the truth, fine. Kids did it.”

“Hilde,” Hud said in that tone she was getting used to. “Dee went to bed last night before we did. If she had driven into town, I would have known it.”

“Maybe she walked.”

“It’s a couple of miles. She can barely walk around the yard without twisting an ankle. You think she climbed up into that window back there?” He was