The Bitterroots (Cassie Dewell #4) - C.J. Box Page 0,54
looking for friendlies in hostile territory and he’d be happy with anyone who didn’t hate his guts. Why do you ask?”
“I’m just tying up loose ends,” Cassie said. “One of the things that kind of puzzles me was the fact that Blake picked her up at the church. That suggests a closer relationship than I would have guessed.”
Cheyenne nodded. She said, “What you have to understand is that everything is a long way from everything else here. The ranch is twenty-five minutes from Horston, so nearly an hour round-trip. I was meeting with my lawyer at my house about some changes I wanted to make in my divorce settlement and I knew Blake was somewhere in town. I texted him and asked that he pick her up. Of course, I really regret that now.”
Cassie sat back. “That you asked him to pick her up wasn’t in any of my documents. Even Blake didn’t tell us that.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “He probably doesn’t remember. From what I understood later, he was in the midst of a blackout drunk at the time. He claims not to remember anything from that night.”
“That’s true.” Cassie glanced at Cheyenne’s bag on the bar. “Do you still have that text exchange with Blake on your phone?”
Something passed behind Cheyenne’s eyes, and Cassie took it for a second of panic. Then it was gone just as quickly.
“I’ve replaced my phone since this summer,” Cheyenne said. “Not all of the data got moved over to the new one, including my texts. Sorry about that.”
“That’s okay. Just asking.”
“I dropped my old phone in the toilet and it didn’t work after that,” Cheyenne explained. Cassie wasn’t sure why she’d provided the detail.
“Do you mind if I take some notes?” Cassie asked. She wanted to remind herself to do a check on Blake’s phone to confirm the text. As far as she knew it hadn’t been done.
“Please don’t,” Cheyenne replied. “If you start to take notes like this is some kind of interrogation I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again. People in here will notice that you’re interviewing me. This is just talk as far as I’m concerned. Woman-to-woman.”
“Woman-to-woman,” Cassie repeated. She didn’t dare reach for her notebook or the digital recorder in her bag.
“Along those same lines,” Cassie asked, “did Franny ever get her phone back?”
“Her phone?”
“She said Blake took it and put it in the console of his rental car so she couldn’t call for help.”
Cheyenne nodded her head. “She’s got her phone with her. I guess they gave it back to her. I didn’t know it was an issue.”
“It isn’t. It’s just one of the items I had on my list to account for.”
Cheyenne looked at her suspiciously, and Cassie knew she needed to soften her line of questioning.
“If you don’t mind,” Cassie said while taking a sip of wine, “I think I understand the relationship between Blake and the rest of the family to some degree. There’s a lot of hate and resentment toward him.”
“Envy is a word you might throw in there as well,” Cheyenne said. “But don’t ever tell my younger brothers or my father I said it.”
“They envy Blake?” Cassie asked, surprised.
“They’d never admit to it but they do. At least John Wayne does. He absolutely hates the fact that his brother went out into the world and made something of himself. It’s an irrational hatred. John Wayne thinks anyone who leaves the ranch and the family is despicable. Especially if they do well.”
She chuckled and said, “Unfortunately, I reinforce his view on that. Every time I leave I end up coming back with my tail between my legs.”
“You said Franny and Blake’s relationship was cordial,” Cassie said. “What about Franny and her other uncles?”
“This is getting very personal,” Cheyenne said.
“I’m sorry. I just want to understand the family better.”
“You’ll never understand this family,” she said. “I’ve never understood this family. An army of psychologists would never understand this family. Suffice it to say that it’s rotten to the core. Lawyers use a term called the fruit of the poisonous tree. Maybe that describes the Kleinsassers.”
Blake said a similar thing, she recalled. But she didn’t bring that up.
“Franny’s relationship with Rand is the same as mine— nonexistent,” Cheyenne offered. “I see him strut around town from time to time, but he’s usually gone from the ranch. John Wayne uses him to deliver things around the state or pick them up. What Rand actually does is a mystery to me, and I don’t ask.”
“What