Page 12 of River Justice

“What? Brand?” It was inconceivable. CJ, yes. Even Oakley. But Brand? This was the last thing she’d expected.

“I understand you’re not at home. But if you know where he is, I need to speak with him. It’s urgent.”

“Urgent? About what?” she demanded.

“I’m going to need to question you as well. Where are you right now?”

“None of your business,” she snapped. “Tell me what’s going on, Stuart.”

“Holly Jo, Holden McKenna’s ward, is missing.”

She couldn’t imagine what one had to do with the other. “Why would you have any reason to question Brand—let alone me?”

“Charlotte, if you know anything about Holly Jo—”

“Obviously, I don’t. I’m on my way home now. I’ll come by your office with my lawyer.”

“Good—that will save me a trip out to your ranch,” the sheriff said.

The laugh rose up from deep inside her and burst forth of its own volition. “If you think I would take Holden’s ward—”

“I’ll see you when you get here. I appreciate you coming to my office instead of making me find you.”

She stared at her phone as she realized that he’d disconnected. “What in the world?” Her heart began to pound, the summer day forgotten as she headed for her vehicle.

CHAPTER SIX

AFTERHEDISCONNECTED, the sheriff studied the list of names Holden had given him. He and the rancher had stepped outside, away from the man’s family. Elaine had not found Holly Jo’s computer password or a handwritten diary. The computer would have to be turned over to the FBI. Duffy had written down everything he could remember about his argument with Joe Gardner.

Stuart was anxious to talk to Brand Stafford, but in the meantime, he would follow up with Gus Gardner. Even though he suspected the kidnapper was on the list Holden had given him, he couldn’t discount the one person who probably knew more about Holly Jo’s life than anyone—her nemesis, Gus Gardner, the boy Duffy suspected had been bullying her.

As he started to fold and pocket Holden’s list, he had a bad feeling the names already on it were only the tip of the iceberg. With a jolt, he realized that one name in particular was missing. “Why isn’t Holly Jo’s father on here? I’d think he would be a prime suspect.” It was a question he hadn’t wanted to ask in front of the others because his friend Cooper had told him he didn’t even know what his father’s relationship to Holly Jo was or wasn’t.

“He’s dead. So is her mother,” the rancher said.

“Dead?” Stuart had warned Holden that this was going to dig up dirt from every dark hole in his life. It especially would expose everything concerning his ward. “How was it that Holly Jo’s mother asked you to take her?” He saw the rancher instantly begin to clam up. “Didn’t she or Holly Jo’s father have relatives that would have taken the girl?”

“No.”

Stuart swore. “I know you’re holding out on me, thinking it’s none of my business, but you’re wrong. If you want to get her back, then you must tell meeverything. What is your relationship to Holly Jo?”

“I’m not her father, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Holden—”

The rancher cursed and stepped away a few yards to look toward the river. The Powder River, the lifeblood of those who lived here, passed right through the heart of the McKenna Ranch.

Many still claimed that the river was a mile wide and an inch deep and ran uphill. The joke was that it was too thick to drink and too thin to plow. Captain Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition had named it Redstone River. But the Native Americans called it Powder River because the black shores reminded them of gunpowder, and that was the name that had stuck.

While Montana had prettier, deeper, wider and flashier rivers, the Powder seemed stubborn and steady as it began in Wyoming and traveled more than one hundred fifty miles to empty into the Yellowstone. In that way, the river had always reminded him of Holden McKenna.

“I rodeoed with her mother’s husband,” the rancher said finally. “I felt responsible for his death. Holly Jo’s mother was pregnant with Holly Jo at the time. I owed her more than the money I sent each month to help them get by. It isn’t something I’m proud of.”

“How well did you know him?”

“Not well. Like I said, we both rodeoed. Can we just leave it at that?”

“No, I’m going to need his name.”

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