smile on his lips, and then he kissed her. She melted against him—until she heard a sound from the hallway.
Chapter Thirteen
“I told you Aggie had been in our house,” Emma said to Sheriff McCall Crawford when she stopped by the ranch that evening. “Isn’t that right, Hoyt?”
The three of them were sitting at the kitchen table over a cup of coffee and some warm banana bread.
“Yes, you did,” McCall said. “I should have listened to you. I’m just glad you sent me that letter about the listening devices.”
Hoyt smiled over at his wife. “Emma is something, isn’t she?”
The sheriff smiled. “Yes, she is.”
“That first time in the house, Aggie took Hoyt’s bolo tie clasp and put it in Krystal’s grave to frame him, just as she left her car nearby so you’d find Krystal’s remains and think Hoyt had done something to her, as well,” Emma said in one breath.
“That is the theory,” McCall admitted.
“Surely the county attorney hasn’t changed his mind about taking Hoyt to trial,” Emma said, suddenly worried.
“No. The charges have been dropped.”
“Unless new evidence turns up,” Hoyt said, sounding skeptical that this could be over.
Emma shook her head. “Stop thinking like that, Hoyt Chisholm. It’s over.” She turned to the sheriff. “How is Aggie?”
“I’m surprised you’d ask, given what she’s put you through,” McCall said.
“I can’t help it—I liked her. She was misguided, I’ll admit.”
“I’m afraid she might be more than that,” the sheriff said. “Based on some of the statements she’s made, the county attorney has decided that a psychiatric evaluation is needed. We are going to be sending her to the state mental hospital soon for testing.”
Emma nodded. “I suppose she told you that she tried to become Laura Chisholm to get inside her head to find out what had happened to her, including acting like her, wearing the kind of clothes she wore and even wearing the same perfume.”
McCall nodded. “She swears that she was only in your house twice. That the other time it was…” the sheriff glanced toward Hoyt before saying “…your first wife, Laura. She swears that Laura didn’t drown and that she is responsible for the deaths of your second wife and third wife and that she will be coming for Emma.”
Hoyt had gone white as a sheet.
Emma felt her heart jump at his reaction. He seemed too frightened by the ramblings of a deranged woman. “You don’t really believe—”
But it was the sheriff who answered. “No, I don’t, but Aggie seems to. She said that was what she was trying to prove when she put the listening devices in your house.”
“How does she explain knowing where Krystal’s body was buried?” Emma asked.
“According to Aggie, she got a message from you to meet at that spot on the river where her car was found. It was dark when she arrived. She said she was sitting in the rental car waiting when someone attacked her and tried to kill her. She didn’t see her attacker. At first she said she thought it was Hoyt. She managed to escape.”
“Escape? But her car—”
“She left it because she doubted she would be believed. She said she thought that once her car was found, I would start looking into the case again. Her injuries were minor, a nosebleed, which explains the blood on the car seat. She swears she didn’t know anything about Krystal’s body being buried beside the river near there and only realized who her attacker had been after you, Emma, had said something about smelling her perfume three times when Aggie swears she was only in your house twice.”
“That all sounds…unbelievable,” Emma said. “First she blames Hoyt, then a woman who drowned more than thirty years ago?”
McCall nodded.
Hoyt still looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Emma felt her stomach knot.
“That is apparently when she put in the listening devices, hoping to catch Laura in your house,” the sheriff finished. “She’d wanted ones that also supplied video, but couldn’t find any that small.”
“Hoyt took them all down,” Emma said, getting to her feet. “We kept them as you requested in case you ever need them for evidence. But I can tell you now, I won’t press charges against Aggie.”
That seemed to bring Hoyt out of his shocked state. “Emma—”
“No, I liked her. Clearly she’s sick. But prison isn’t the place for her. She needs help.”
McCall nodded and got to her feet. “Thank you for the coffee and banana bread, but I need to get going. By the way, did you get