Page 94 of The Killing Plains

“I bet it was an ugly surprise when she started counseling Denny Knox. You were scared of what he might tell her, right? Maybe scared enough to kill him?”

“I wasn’t even in town that day.”

“You might’ve hired a hitman.”

“Are you crazy? Think I wanted the Rangers crawling around, prying into our business? Besides, if I killed Denny, I sure as hell wouldn’t dump his body on my own land. How dumb do you think I am?”

Colly shrugged. “Dumb enough to embezzle.”

Lowell made a sound of disgust. “I can’t change that now.” He shoved the handkerchief into his pocket. “You arresting me?”

“I’m not a cop anymore.”

Lowell swallowed. “You gonna tell Momma and Brenda?”

It’s gone beyond that,Colly thought.Avery knows, and Jace, and God knows who else. There’s no un-ringing this bell.“You didn’t mention Russ,” she said aloud. “Is that because he already knows?”

A flicker of some strong emotion—fear, perhaps, or anger—crossed Lowell’s face. “Ask him yourself. I’m done talking.”

“I think I will. And if I get even a whisper of a hint that you’ve tipped him off, I’ll call the Rangers and report everything.”

But Lowell was already moving away. “I got work to do,” he said over his shoulder. “Find your own way out.”

Back at her car, Colly phoned Russ.

“Hey, what’s up?” His voice was cheerful.

“Where are you?”

“Heading to the ranch. Told Momma I’d look in on how the Rattlesnake Rodeo setup’s going.” He paused. “Everything okay?”

“Not exactly. I’ll meet you there.”

Chapter 25

Still tense and angry, Colly sped north along the Old Ranch Way. Damn Lowell. He’d cost her three days’ work on what increasingly appeared to be nothing more than a complicated red herring. But she had to be sure. Gripping the steering wheel, she worked to slow her breathing and relax her aching jaw muscles. When she arrived at the ranch house, Russ’s SUV was parked in front of the garage. The rear hatch stood open, and he was digging through a toolbox in the back.

As Colly climbed out of her car, he looked up, smiling. “Just got here, myself. How fast did you drive?”

“We need to talk.”

Russ pulled a pair of leather work gloves from the toolbox and closed the hatch. “What about?”

“I came from the turbine plant.” Colly glanced towards the house. Nadine the housekeeper was watching them from the dining room window. “Is there someplace more private?”

Russ stuffed the gloves in his back pocket. “I’m riding up to the north pasture—I want to get there before the setup crew breaks for lunch. Come along. We can talk on the way.”

Colly hesitated. “On horseback?”

“You can ride Maisie. She’s gentle.”

Colly, who’d spent most of her childhood in the urban sprawl of New Jersey, had rarely seen a horse before her first visit to the ranch with Randy. Even if she’d been a confident rider, conducting an interrogation on horseback wasn’t ideal. “Can’t we take the highway up to the access road?”

“Access road’s blocked with equipment. Come on, even Satchel rode Maisie.”

Colly sighed. She didn’t want to cool her heels at Mollison, making small talk with Iris until Russ returned. Pushing aside her misgivings, she followed him around the garden walk and along a path to the barn. It was a handsome fieldstone structure designed in the traditional western style with a breezeway down the center. One side was unpartitioned and served as a makeshift machine shop for the repairing of ranch equipment, while the other held a dozen stalls and a tack room.

As they entered, two barn cats darted for cover behind a tractor tire. The air smelled of hay and manure. Colly sneezed into the crook of her arm while Russ saddled a fidgety bay gelding and a pinto mare.

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