Mo looked up as she came out of the local grocery store. From the expression on Brick’s handsome face, he’d thought she’d left him for good. She could see that he was upset and trying to hide it—now that he’d found her. She felt almost guilty for giving him a scare. Also for giving him a hard time last night. She had seen firsthand that the man definitely had a way with women. But then, she’d known that the moment she’d laid eyes on him.
He was too good-looking, too cocky, too full of himself, she’d told herself. And yet since they’d hooked up, so to speak, she’d seen another, more vulnerable side of him. Not that she was going to let that fact weaken her resolve to keep everything between them professional.
“You could have left a note,” he said, walking up to her.
She laughed. “You sound like we’re a thing. If you must know, I went out to get us some doughnuts and coffee,” she said, indicating the bag she was holding in one hand and the to-go tray with two coffees in the other. She handed him the bag, then took one of the coffee cups from the tray and handed it to him. “Also, I looked for an apartment.” He blinked. “Not for us, sweetie. For Natalie.”
The morning was sunny and just starting to warm up. She could smell pine and river scents drifting on the breeze. There was a picnic table on the lawn in front of the small motel. She walked to it and sat down. To anyone watching, they might look like a married couple on vacation.
She opened the bag of doughnuts and offered one to Brick as he joined her.
He took a glazed one and said, “An apartment for Natalie?”
“If you were her, what would you do? She can’t keep running. We know she has limited funds. She has to look for a job. Why not a small tourist town where people with money have built huge summer homes and would love a nanny? Most are probably from out of state and have never heard of Natalie Berkshire—not that she will use her real name, I would imagine. It would only be for the summer or maybe just a few weeks. Exactly what she’s looking for.”
He shook his head. “I’m still surprised she’d stop so close to where she was caught.”
“Because she knows that we expect her to run farther,” Mo said and took a sip of her coffee. “She needs to find a job, and if I’m right, disappear into a family with her next victim. She’s getting desperate. I believe that’s why she made the mistake she did.”
“What mistake was that?” he asked and took a bite of his doughnut, chasing it with a sip of coffee. He frowned at the cup in his hand.
“You do take your coffee with sugar and cream, right?” she asked.
He looked up in surprise. “How did you—”
“It’s no mystery. You had an old cup in your pickup. It was written on the side along with your name and the logo of your favorite coffee shop.” She grinned.
“Okay, you’re observant. I’ll give you that. What mistake did Natalie make?”
“She let her guard down and got caught. She’ll want to do what comes naturally to her, which isn’t running. She’s here in this town. I feel it.” Mo saw his skepticism and reached into her pocket to take out a scrap of paper. She handed it to him. “The apartment comes with a garage where she can hide the stolen car—if she hasn’t had a chance to get rid of it already.”
“Where did you get this?” he asked as he turned the strip of paper over in his fingers. He had nice hands, she noticed. Long fingers. Strong, tanned hands. A man’s hands. She felt a shiver at even the thought of those hands exploring her body.
“You want my jacket?” Brick asked, thinking she was chilly. He was already starting to take off his jean jacket.
She shook her head. “It was on a bulletin board in the only grocery store in town advertising a studio apartment cheap with the telephone number on the slips of paper on the bottom. Only one other slip of paper had been pulled off so I figured the ad hasn’t been posted for long.”
“That doesn’t mean Natalie took the other one.”
She nodded in agreement. “But there is one way to find out.” She pulled out her phone and called the number. No answer. She left a message saying that she was looking for a long-term rental and hoped the apartment was still available.
When she looked up at Brick, she expected to see disapproval in his expression because of how easily the lie had come to her lips. Instead, he was rising to his feet, his eyes fixed on his pickup parked in front of their motel unit. She watched him walk over to the truck and pull what appeared to be a folded sheet of paper from under the passenger-side windshield wiper.
As he unfolded the paper and read what was written there, his gaze shot to her. Mo felt her heart begin to pound.
BRICK HANDED MO the note he’d found on his pickup’s windshield. He watched her quickly unfolded it and read the words neatly printed there.
Chasing me won’t give you the answers you want. You should be looking for the man Tricia had been seeing. I don’t know his name. I only saw him once. Blond with blue eyes, about six-two or six-three. I swear I didn’t hurt the baby. But if Joey was her lover’s baby... By the way, someone is following you.
He watched her refold the note and put it into her pocket without a word. He could tell that she was upset, but what was written on the note didn’t seem to come as a shock compared to what Natalie had already told her at the hospital. Was it why she hadn’t let Natalie tell her that day at the house before Joey died? She hadn’t wanted to hear it, still didn’t want to believe it.
“We going to discuss this?” he asked when she still said nothing.
Mo opened her mouth, but closed it as her cell phone rang. She checked the phone and then took the call, listening for a few moments before she said, “That’s too bad. I’m one of the new teacher aides at the elementary school.” Brick’s eyebrows shot up. The woman was a born liar. “Do you have any other units?” If Mo were right, Natalie would have only taken the apartment short-term, apparently now making the landlord regret renting it. “I’m moving here soon and anxious to get settled into a place.” Again she listened before she smiled. “I’d love to see it.” If Natalie had rented the apartment, she would have already been moved in, he thought.
Mo gave the man her number again and disconnected. “He’s going to call the new renter to see if she’s home and he can show the apartment. She only rented it for a few weeks.” When the phone rang, he started and saw Mo take a breath before she picked up. “Hello? Yes? Oh, that’s too bad. But could you at least tell me where it is? I could drive by. If I like the area, I’ll get something temporary until it opens up.”
He saw her nod before she disconnected. “Let’s go,” she said and started for her side of the pickup. “She’s at the apartment. But the call from her landlord will probably spook her.”
“You’re that sure the woman who rented the apartment is Natalie?” he said, wondering if Mo was ever wrong about anything. She didn’t bother to answer, her gaze on the street ahead as she repeated the directions to the apartment that the landlord had given her.
Brick felt his pulse jump. This could be it. They could be about to confront Natalie. Ennis was already busy, the traffic slow and congested until they got away from the main street in town. He tried to remain calm, uncertain how this would go down. He could see Mo tapping the edge of her side window with her fingertips, clearly impatient. Clearly anxious. He was glad he was driving instead of her. She wore an expression that told him she would have plowed through the cars and pedestrians, horn blaring.
The apartment was in an older area of town. He drove down the street slowly, looking for the stolen silver SUV in a state that had hundreds of silver SUVs.
“The apartment is on the third floor, a small one-bedroom with stairs off the back,” Mo said. “That’s it.” She pointed at a tall white building with navy trim that had clearly once been a single dwelling, now made into three apartments. Two bikes were chained to the front porch. A small pickup was parked out front along with a smaller compact car next to the two-car garage.
He pulled over. “I don’t see a silver SUV, but I suppose it could be in the garage.”
“She probably ditched it and picked up something else.” Mo opened her door, climbed out and started across the street.
“We’re taking her back to Big Sky for questioning,” he reminded Mo.
“You wouldn’t have found her if it hadn’t been for me,” she said under her breath as they approached the apartment house. “You’d be looking as far away as Spokane.”
“Mo—”
“I just need to talk to her, so let’s find her before we debate what to do with her.”
He knew she was right. It felt as if they were chasing a ghost. He glanced behind them, thinking about the note. Was someone really following them? Look how easily Natalie had found them. He remembered Mo thinking she saw someone last night. Natalie? If so, the woman had seen them and could have followed them to the motel.
“I’ll take the back stairs,” Mo said now. “You go in the front door. Bleeding heart or not, try to remember that this woman is dangerous.” She took off at a run around the back.
He headed for the front door, determined to get to the woman before Mo did—if Natalie was in this building. Brick tried the front door, not surprised when it opened into a small foyer. There were two doors and stairs.
He took the stairs two at a time, no longer worrying about making too much noise. If Natalie had rented this apartment, if she was still up there...he had to get to her and fast.
At the top of the stairs, he found a door and quickly stepped to it to knock. He thought he heard a sound on the other side of the door and for a moment, he thought about drawing his weapon. Mo had warned him that Natalie was dangerous. But he remembered the terrified woman he’d seen in his headlights. The woman lying in the hospital bed. He still wanted to believe that she was a victim, an innocent victim. He left his gun holstered and tried the door.
It opened, startling him.
“Come in,” Mo said on the other side of the doorstep. “She’s gone.”
“Natalie?” Mo didn’t answer as she turned back into the apartment. He followed, a little stunned. Had she been right about Natalie renting this place? “How do you know for certain it was her?”
She shoved a copy of a local shopper at him. It was folded so that the want ads were on top. Several positions had been circled. His heart slammed against his ribs as he saw they were for nanny positions. One of them for an infant that needed special care.
Mo had moved into the bedroom, where she was standing at the end of the unmade bed.
“Are you all right?” he asked her. She wasn’t moving, hardly appeared to be breathing. He realized that his heart was still thundering in his chest. Mo hadn’t just been right about the apartment. She’d been right about Natalie looking for another job. A possible new victim.
“Maybe she’ll come back,” he said.
Mo shook her head. “She’s gone. I found something interesting in her trash in the bathroom. She’s changed her appearance, cut her hair and colored it red.” He could hear regret in her voice. They’d come so close. They couldn’t have missed her by more than a few minutes.
Her gaze met his, but only for an instant as she pushed past him and left.
He stood for a moment looking at the room. From what he could see, it appeared that the renter had left in a hurry. One of the drawers in the bureau stood open and empty. The door to the small closet was open, the metal hangers bare. That was if Natalie had even had time to pick up more clothing. He suspected she was traveling light.
They’d gotten close. Just not close enough.
He found Mo outside, leaning against the side of his pickup. She appeared to be looking up at the snowcapped mountains. But as he drew closer, he saw that her eyes were closed, her chest heaving as if she was having trouble breathing.
As he approached her, her eyes opened. A lock of blond hair fell over one blue eye as she turned to him abruptly. “You still think she’s innocent?” She sounded angry and upset and disappointed, he realized. Disappointed not just because they hadn’t caught up to Natalie. He had a feeling she was even more disappointed in herself for not wanting to hear what Natalie had tried to tell her that day at the house.
“You can’t second-guess yourself,” he said quietly. “You can’t change what happened.”
She shook her head and looked away. “No, but I can find out what happened to my sister. I can make sure Natalie doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
Did he still think Natalie was innocent? Did he think the circled job openings were about her needing to get back to work because she needed money? Or as Mo said, a woman looking for her next victim?
He squinted toward the mountains. “I want to find her as much as you do.”
Mo shook her head. “You don’t. Which is why you need to go back to Big Sky and your job before you lose it. Don’t throw your career away like I did. This isn’t about you.”
“It’s about justice. Without it, we’re nothing but outlaws. And if I went back, I’d have to take you with me. I’m not sure I can trust you to appear at your hearing.”
She met his gaze and held it. “Fine, stay. Just remember, I warned you.”
Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen before she stepped away to take the call.
MO HEARD THE anger in Thomas’s voice and groaned inwardly. “That man you were with the other day,” her brother-in-law said without preamble. “Deputy Marshal Brick Savage? He’s the one who found Natalie—and lost her again. Maureen, what are you doing?”
She realized it always bothered her that he’d never called her by her nickname. It had always been Maureen. “Thomas, why have you never called me Mo?”
“What?”
“I just realized that you’ve never called me by my nickname.”
“Are you drunk? Or have you just completely lost your mind?”
“Thomas—”
“What are you doing, Mo?” He sounded more pained than angry now. “I begged you at the funeral to let it go. Joey is gone. Tricia is gone. Why are you destroying your life, too? I called the police station. They said you’ve been suspended. Please, Maureen, Mo, whatever. Stop.” His voice broke.
She felt a painful tug at her heart. She’d met Thomas at college when her only eighteen months older sister had started dating him. They’d hung out with the same crowd. He was like a brother to her. She’d been maid of honor at their wedding.
“I can’t talk to you about this,” she said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“How can you say that?” he asked, raising his voice. “Joey was my son, Tricia was my wife. Natalie was like a member of our family. This has been a nightmare. One I just want to put behind me.”
“I wish I could, but I can’t.”
“So, what are you going to do?” he demanded.
She looked back at Brick leaning against his pickup, waiting for her. They needed go after Natalie. She was getting away. Again. She thought about telling Thomas about the note, about Natalie saying that Tricia hadn’t taken her own life, but didn’t. Like he said, he was trying to put it all behind him. Until she had even a shred of proof that it was true, she needed to keep it to herself. She didn’t want to hurt him any more than she already had. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” She could almost see him shaking his head.
“The cops let her go, Maureen.”
“That doesn’t mean she was innocent.”
“But it could, couldn’t it?” He sounded as if he was pleading. “Isn’t it possible Joey just died? The doctor had said he might die. If he’d lived, he was going to have to have all those surgeries and even then, the doctor said he might never...” His voice broke again. She could hear him crying.
She’d done this. “I’m so sorry. This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Then don’t do this. Go back to work. It’s the only thing I’ve found that helps. I’m sure you can get back on at your old job if you leave all of this behind. You know you being obsessed over this is the last thing Tricia would want.”
She didn’t know what to say because she knew it was true. But then again, she questioned if she’d ever known her sister at all. Tricia was having an affair? It seemed impossible. She still didn’t believe it, but knew she had to find out the truth no matter where it led her.
“You and I shouldn’t have any secrets, Maureen. We’re...” His voice broke again. “Family.”
Her heart clinched. The worst thing about this was lying to Thomas. His losses were so much greater than hers. And now she had him worrying about her.
“I need you to be all right,” he’d told her at Tricia’s funeral. “I can’t bear losing anyone else.”
The anguish in his voice now broke her heart all over again. “I’ll be okay,” she said, wondering if it would ever be true. She’d told herself that she would be fine as soon as she got the justice her sister and Thomas deserved. But she wasn’t even sure of that anymore.
“I know I can’t stop you, but promise me this. That you’ll call every few days, Maureen. I need to hear your voice. I need to know that you’re okay.”
“I’ll call,” she said. “Thomas?” She searched for something to say that would help them both. “It’s going to get better.” At least she hoped so.