Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch - B.J. Daniels [78]
"You ask her to marry you yet?" Brick asked after he hung up and they were sitting down to eat lunch.
"I'm going to tonight," Hud said.
Without a word, his dad got up from the table and returned a few minutes later with a small velvet box. He set it beside Hud's plate and sat. "I know you bought her an engagement ring before. I couldn't afford an engagement ring for your mother so she never had one. But I was wondering if you'd like to have your grandmother's?"
Hud frowned. He'd never known either of his grandparents. His father's parents were dead before he was born and from what he'd heard, his mother's family had disowned his mother when she'd married Brick. "My grandmother…?"
"Christensen. Your grandmother on your mother's side," he said, and handed the small velvet box to Hud. "She left it to me in her will. I guess it was her way of saying she was sorry for making it so hard on your mother for marrying me." He shrugged. "Anyway, I know your mother would want you to have it."
Hud opened the small velvet box and pulled back in surprise. "It's beautiful."
Brick helped himself to the trout. "Just like Dana."
Hud studied his father. "Thank you."
"There's some money, too," Brick said. "Probably not near enough to pay off Dana's brothers and sister and keep the ranch though."
"I doubt there is enough money in the world for that," Hud said. "Jordan won't be happy until the ranch is sold, but I'm sure he'll be disappointed when he realizes how small his share is. He would have been much better off if his mother's new will had been found. He would have gotten money for years from the ranch instead of a lump sum, and in the end come out way ahead."
"But he wants it all now," Brick said. "You think he found the new will and destroyed it?"
"Probably."
Brick handed him the plate of trout.
"I got a call from Stacy Cardwell this morning. She's in Las Vegas. She said Kitty threatened to kill her when she stopped by the woman's place the night before she left. I guess Stacy thought she could get some traveling money out of Kitty as if blackmail went both ways," Hud said, shaking his head.
"It's a wonder Kitty didn't shoot her on the spot."
Hud remembered Dana's story about finding Kitty on her hands and knees digging in the closet. "Probably would have but she'd forgotten she still had the .38. There was a struggle though. Dana said Kitty had a bruise on her cheek."
Brick nodded. "You could bring Stacy back to face charges."
Hud shook his head. Both Lanny and Kitty were dead. It was over.
He and Brick ate in silence for a while, then Hud said, "I saw you with Ginger that night."
His father paused, then took a bite of fish. "I remembered after you were gone. I pulled her over that night. She'd been drinking. I thought about taking her in, made her get out of the car and go through the sobriety tests."
Hud recalled the sound of Ginger's laughter. As Hud had driven past, she'd been flirting with Brick, spinning around in that red dress and those bright red high-heeled shoes.
"I saw all her stuff in the back of her car," Brick said.
Hud wondered if the judge or Kitty had gotten rid of Ginger's belongings and her car. No one would have ever known about her death, if Warren hadn't seen her skull at the bottom of the Cardwell Ranch well.
"She told me she was leaving town," Brick was saying. "I told her to be careful. If I'd locked her up that night, she might still be alive."
* * *
DANA STOOD in the kitchen after Hud's call, looking up the hillside. There was no old chimney or foundation anymore. It was as if there'd never been an old homestead up there. Or an old well. A backhoe operator had filled in the well. Soon after the land was cleared, it had begun to snow again, covering up the scarred earth.
Dana thought she could get used to the new view, but it would take time. She frowned at the thought, realizing she didn't have time. After everything that had happened, she had given up her fight to save