Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch - B.J. Daniels [68]
"I'm sorry if I frightened you," Dana said, afraid she would give the elderly woman a heart attack. "I rang the bell, then tried the door when I heard a sound…" She noticed the bruise on Kitty's cheek.
The older woman's hand went to it. "I am so clumsy." She looked from Dana to the floor covered with shoes.
Dana followed her gaze. The bedroom carpet was littered with every color and kind of shoe imaginable from shoes the judge had worn sole-bare to out-of-date sandals and pumps covered with dust.
"I was just cleaning out the closet," Kitty said awkwardly, trying to get to her feet. She had a shoe box clutched under one arm. "My husband was a pack rat. Saved everything. And I'm just as bad."
Dana reached a hand out to help her, but the older woman waved it away.
As Kitty rose, Dana saw the woman pick up a high-heeled shoe from the floor, looking at it as if surprised to see it.
She tossed it back into the closet and turned her attention to Dana. "I see you brought my fabric."
Dana had forgotten all about it. Embarrassed by frightening the woman, she thrust the bag at her.
Kitty took it, studying Dana as she put the shoe box she held onto the clean surface of the vanity. "How foolish of me to leave my package at your shop. You really shouldn't have gone out of your way to bring it to me."
"It was no trouble. I wanted to see you anyway to ask you if my sister stopped by to see you last night."
The older woman frowned. "What would give you that idea?"
"Nancy Harper said she saw Stacy drive down the road toward your house."
"That woman must have no time to do anything but look out the window," Kitty Randolph said irritably. "If your sister drove down here, I didn't see her." She turned to place the fabric package next to the shoe box on the vanity. She fiddled with the lid of the shoe box for a moment. "Why would Stacy come to see me?"
"I have no idea. I'd hoped you might." A lot of people drove cars like her sister's and it had been dark out. "Nancy Harper must have been mistaken," Dana said, glancing again at the shoes on the floor. "Can I help you with these?"
"No, you have better things to do, I'm sure," Kitty said as she stepped over the shoes and took Dana's arm, turning her toward the door. "Thank you again for bringing my fabric. You really shouldn't have."
It wasn't until Dana was driving away that she remembered the high heel Kitty Randolph had thrown back into the closet. She couldn't imagine the woman wearing anything with a heel that high. Or that color, either.
But then, who knew what Kitty Randolph had been like when she was young.
At the turn back onto Highway 191, Dana dialed her friend. "Hilde?"
"Is everything all right?"
"Fine. Listen, I was just thinking. I'm so close to Bozeman I thought I'd drive down and see my dad. I called and he's doing better. They said I could see him. Unless it's so busy there that you need me?"
"Go see your dad," Hilde said without hesitation. "I can handle things here. Anyway, it's slowed down this afternoon. I was thinking that if it doesn't pick up, I might close early."
"Do," Dana said. "We've made more than our quota for the month in the past few days."
"Tell your dad hello for me."
Dana hung up. She did want to see her father, but she also hoped that Stacy had been by to see him.
But when she reached the hospital, her father was still groggy, just as he'd been that morning. She didn't bring up anything that might upset him and only stayed for a few minutes as per the nurse's instructions.
As Dana was leaving, she stopped at the nurses' station to inquire about her father's visitors.
"Your brother was here," the nurse said. "That's the only visitor he's had today."
"My brother?"
"The skinny one."
Clay. That meant that neither Jordan nor Stacy had been here.
"But there have been a lot of calls checking on his condition," the nurse added.
Dana thanked her and headed back toward the ranch. She wanted to get a change of clothing if she was going to be staying at Hud's again tonight.
She knew she was being silly, wanting to slow things down.