Cowboy Conspiracy Read online

  “Name the time and place and bring cash.”

  “Are you sure your phone is untraceable?”

  “Do you think I plan to go back to that hellhole prison?”

  “Then I’ll meet you at midnight on the cutoff road near Dowman-Lagoste Bridge.”

  “I know the spot well.” He’d dropped off a body there once. As far as he knew what was left of it was still sleeping with the fishes.

  He broke the connection. The deal was a go. The same deal he’d made to kill Helene Ledger almost twenty years ago. Only the victim had changed.

  And the payout.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The house in Plano was a single-level brick on a quiet cul-de-sac. The yard was meticulous with expertly trimmed hedges and weedless flower beds. Kelly had no doubt that they’d find the same classic style and understated perfection inside.

  Linda Ann lived a meticulous life, following inflexible schedules that left room for little spontaneity. Kelly had never doubted for a second that her mother loved her. Linda Ann just had trouble with warmth and expressing emotion.

  Yet, she’d obviously been provocative enough that Senator Foley had never forgotten her.

  Kelly pushed the doorbell. Seconds later, her mother appeared at the door, apparently already dressed for her early afternoon class. They exchanged a quick hug and then Kelly introduced Wyatt as Wyatt Alan, using his middle name for his last at Wyatt’s insistence.

  In case Linda Ann remembered his parents from her years in Mustang Run, Wyatt did not want to hijack Kelly’s concerns with talk of his mother’s murder and his father’s release from prison.

  “I’m delighted to meet you, Wyatt. I’m sorry Walter isn’t here to join us, but my husband is out of the country for a few weeks, teaching a seminar at the University of London.”

  “I’m sorry we missed him,” Kelly said. A white lie. She couldn’t have asked the questions she needed answered in front of him. This way she didn’t have to hurt his feelings by kicking him out of the room.

  They followed Linda Ann to the living room.

  “I wish Jaci could have come with you,” Linda Ann said. “It seems forever since I’ve seen her.”

  “I’ll bring her up soon. But like I told you on the phone, this is just a quick trip.”

  “Yes, you said you had something important to discuss with me. I worried all night. Does this concern your health? If there’s something wrong, I want you to level with me, Kelly.”

  “It’s not my health, Mom. I’m fine. I just have some things I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Thank goodness. You’ve kept so to yourself this past year, I feared you were hiding something from me.”

  Only a year in protective custody.

  “I have blueberry scones. Would you like to have them with coffee as we talk or would you rather wait until we’ve finished the discussion?”

  “Let’s talk first,” Kelly said, growing more nervous by the second.

  “I’m moving back to Mustang Run, Mom.”

  Linda Ann sat up even straighter, clasping her hands in her lap as if she needed something to hold on to. “Why would you move there?” she asked. “You’ll be limiting your opportunities. Why not Santa Fe, or Carmel or even Austin where creativity is nourished?”

  “I’m moving into Grams’s house. I’ll be able to work at home and spend more time with Jaci. I’ve contacted several jewelers in Austin and San Antonio and they’ve expressed an interest in carrying my work.”

  “It sounds as if you’ve made up your mind. I wish we could have discussed this first.”

  Kelly reached into her handbag and pulled out the brown envelope containing the engagement announcement. She leaned over and handed it to her mother.

  “I found this in a box of Grams’s photos.”

  Linda Ann pulled out the clipping and stared at the picture. “I can’t believe your grandmother saved this. Surely you didn’t come all the way to Plano to talk about a broken engagement in my distant past.”

  It did sound a bit foolish now that Kelly was here. She should never have let the nightmares get to her. But she was here now. She might as well ask her questions.

  “You never mentioned being engaged before you met my father.”

  “It wasn’t worth mentioning. It was a mistake that we righted before the wedding.”

  “The date is on the picture, Mom. That’s seven months before the date on my birth certificate.”

  Linda Ann closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her face was strained and she rubbed a spot on her hand as if she were trying to remove a stain.

  “Were you pregnant by the man you were engaged to…”

  “Or was I cheating on him with your father?” Linda Ann asked, finishing the question for her.

  “I’m not judging you, Mom. You know what a mess my marriage was. I just need to know if my biological father is still alive. I’m grown. There is no use for secrets between us.”

  Linda Ann stood and paced the room, the first time Kelly ever remembered seeing her when she wasn’t in complete control.

  “You’re right, Kelly. It’s time you know the truth and I’m tired of living with the lies. But you have to remember that we’re talking about a very short period of my life thirty years ago.”

  “I realize that.”

  “I was engaged to Riley Foley, big man on campus. Not the brainiest, not a varsity athlete, not even rich. But he had charisma.”

  As he still did, Kelly thought. It had taken him far in politics.

  “We started dating our senior year and he asked me to marry him at Christmas. Your grandmother was far from rich, but she wanted me to have a nice wedding so she spent a chunk of Dad’s insurance money on the wedding, money she should have kept to live on.”

  “That sounds like Grams. Generous to a fault.”

  “The wedding was all planned and for the most part paid for. Two weeks before the wedding, Riley broke off the engagement. He said he was in love with someone else.”

  “Ruthanne?”

  “None other. Daughter of one of Mustang Run’s richest citizens. Her father owned major interest in an oil company and one of the largest ranches in the area. I was furious with him, hurt for Grams who’d wasted so much money, and embarrassed for myself for being dumped practically at the altar.”

  Kelly’s stomach rolled as the truth became clear. “So Senator Foley is my father?”

  “Yes, but I never told him. I left town and started a new life. I had your grandmother spread the news that I’d met a marvelous man and then later that he’d died before we could get married. I told everyone that I was pregnant and thrilled to be carrying his baby. It sounds juvenile and stupid now, but it was my way of coping.”

  “Did Grams know the truth?”

  “Yes, but she never told a soul.”

  “In spite of all that, you went to work for Riley Foley ten years later?”

  “Yes, a decision I’ll regret for as long as I live. I ran into him at a hotel in Boston where we were attending different conventions. We had a few drinks. He told me how bad his marriage was and that he had never stopped loving me.”

  And her mother—whom Kelly had always thought of as being the most together person she knew—had been insecure enough to buy into that.

  “Riley persuaded me to give up my professorship in political science and run his campaign. We spent the rest of that week in Boston together, blowing off our respective conventions except for the one paper I had to present.”

  “Ruthanne must have loved hearing that you were working with her husband.”

  “She was livid and figured out quickly that we were having an affair. But it was Helene Ledger who actually caught us in the act.”

  At the mention of Helene’s name, Wyatt’s whole demeanor changed. He sat straighter and his gaze bored into Linda Ann.

  “Did you say that Helene Ledger discovered that you and Riley were having an affair?”

  “Yes. She’d stopped
by campaign headquarters to discuss volunteering. She saw Riley and I kiss outside the office building and then she followed us to a hotel.”

  “How long was this before she was murdered?” Wyatt asked.

  Linda Ann stared him down. “I’m getting to that.”

  But Wyatt was all detective now. Kelly saw the rugged determination in his eyes and in the set of his jaw. This new edginess made her nervous. This was her mother they were talking to, not one of his murder suspects.

  “Helene went to Riley and told him that if he didn’t tell Ruthanne the truth, she would.”

  “And did she?” Wyatt questioned.

  “I don’t know. I only know that Riley believed she would, but he said he didn’t care. He loved me and he was going to leave Ruthanne and marry me even if it cost him the race for representative. I’d decided it was time to tell him he had a daughter, but then I never got the chance.”

  Wyatt leaned forward, his gaze riveted to Linda Ann. “What stopped you?”

  “Before I saw him again, Helene was murdered. I went into hysteria. I called Riley and accused him of killing her. He swore to me he had nothing to do with the murder.”

  “Did you believe him?” Wyatt asked.

  “I did after I calmed down. Riley may not be a faithful husband or fiancé for that matter, but he’s not a killer.”

  “What happened next?” Wyatt asked. “Did you continue to see Foley?”

  “No. I finally came to my senses. I wanted nothing to do with Riley or his campaign. I resigned from his staff and moved back to Boston.”

  “Did you call the police after Helene’s death and explain her threat to expose your affair?”

  “No, I should have, I know, but that would have made them go after Riley and I knew he was innocent. It might have even ruined his chances of ever having a career in politics. And, I hate to admit this, but I was still in love with him.”

  “When was the next time you saw him?”

  “I haven’t to this day. I’ve seen him on television at times when something he does politically makes the national news. But I vowed then that I would never get involved with him again.”

  Kelly fought an onslaught of vertigo and nausea. She’d come here seeking the truth, but she’d never expected to hear anything this morbid and repulsive. Still, she felt for her mother having to live with the sordid secrets. No wonder she’d poured her energy into her work. Her personal life was such a horrid mess.

  “I cried with relief when Troy Ledger was arrested and again when he was convicted of the murder,” Linda Ann admitted. “I was thankful to know that Helene Ledger’s murder had nothing to do with her threatening to expose my affair with Riley. I’d like to think that if they hadn’t found Helene’s killer, I’d have spoken up. Sadly, I’m not sure that I would have.

  “It was the horrible end of a sickening chapter in my life. I decided then that I would never allow my daughter to become a pawn for Riley to play against me.”

  “So you decided to let me go on indefinitely believing my father was dead.”

  “I did. If I made a mistake, it was out of love and the fear that you’d pay for my sins.”

  Family sins can kill. Stay alive. Stay alive.

  The lullaby echoed through her mind again. It was as if the nightmare had been trying to warn her of this. The nightmare or Helene’s spirit. Only, Kelly didn’t believe in ghosts.

  Tears rolled down her mother’s face. “I’m so sorry that you had to find out about your father this way, Kelly. Can you ever forgive me for choosing to live a lie and to make you live it, as well?”

  Kelly walked over and gave her mother a hug. “I told you I’m not here to judge. You’re my mother and I love you. But I’m glad you finally told me the truth.”

  They didn’t stay for scones and coffee. Kelly was sure her stomach wouldn’t tolerate food.

  Five minutes later, they were in Wyatt’s truck and on their way back to Mustang Run. The full truth of what she’d learned began to sink in.

  Riley Foley was her father no matter that her mother was convinced otherwise, and there was a chance that he, and not Troy, was behind Helene’s murder. She understood better now why Wyatt was determined to find out the truth about his father.

  Only it was much worse for Wyatt than for her. He’d known and loved his father. The senator was a stranger who’d donated his sperm before breaking her mother’s heart.

  And the brutally murdered victim had been Wyatt’s mother.

  Kelly reached over and rested her hand on Wyatt’s thigh. “I’m afraid to even think about what comes next.”

  “Do you want to go and confront the senator?”

  “Maybe one day. Not yet.”

  “You do realize that if I discover that he murdered my mother, I’ll do everything I can to make sure he’s arrested and convicted?”

  “I assumed that you would.”

  Wyatt would be investigating her biological father as a primary suspect in the murder of his mother because of an affair he had with her mother. It couldn’t get much more complicated than this.

  How would they ever maintain a relationship with that hanging over them? And even if they made it through that, Wyatt had given no indication that he planned to stay in Mustang Run or take her with him when he left.

  They had only here and now.

  “There is one other thing I should tell you,” Wyatt said.

  She didn’t like the seriousness of his tone. “Is this something I want to hear?”

  “No, but I think it’s only fair I tell you that I’m convinced Jerome is a paid assassin hired by someone working on Emanuel Leaky’s behalf. And it isn’t a wild theory. I have solid reasons to back it up.”

  And if Emanuel Leaky knew she was behind his arrest, then her only option was going back into witness protection with Jaci.

  Would this never end?

  TWO DAYS LATER, things appeared to be at a standstill in the search for Jerome Hurley, though they were moving at a dizzying pace in every other area of Kelly’s life.

  First and foremost in Kelly’s mind, the tension between Wyatt and his father had greatly diminished now that Wyatt had an evidential reason to hold out hope of his father’s innocence. Armed with the information of the affair, he had a new focus for his investigation into Helene’s murder.

  Sheriff McGuire had deputized Wyatt on a temporary basis so that if he did find Jerome Hurley, he could arrest him. Wyatt was determined to do just that. He hit the streets every day and sometimes well into the night searching for him or any clue as to his whereabouts.

  When Kelly had voiced the possibility that Jerome had moved on, Wyatt had delivered a brusque reminder that thinking like that could get her killed. He was convinced that Leaky had put out a hit on her and Jerome had accepted the task. Now he was merely waiting for opportunity.

  Dylan, Dakota and Sean had torn out all the wet and damaged carpet, Sheetrock and wood in her house and had hired a roofing company to install a new roof the next week. She didn’t have the heart to tell them or face the reality herself that even when Jerome was arrested, she might never be able to move into her house.

  Not if Emanuel Leaky wanted her dead.

  Finally, she had her car back from the sheriff, though Wyatt had ordered her to never leave the ranch alone. She had certainly disrupted the Ledger household.

  She made herself a cup of hot tea and then went back to the family room where Jaci was playing dress up and clomping around the room in a pair of Kelly’s high heels and a skirt with an elastic waist that she wore as a dress. An old purse that Viviana had given her completed the ensemble.

  “I’m going to town to buy diapers for my babies,” Jaci said.

  “Babies need diapers,” Kelly agreed.

  “I’ll buy them some candy, too.”

  “I don’t think candy is good for babies.”

  “Uh-huh. My babies like it.”

  “So does mine.”

  The doorbell rang. Jaci ran to gree
t the company whoever it might be. “Let me get the door,” Kelly said.

  She put her eye to the peephole and then unlocked the dead bolt and swung it open to Collette and Dylan.

  “I didn’t know you already had company,” Dylan said, smiling at Jaci. “Who is this lovely lady?”

  “It’s me.” Jaci giggled and then dropped her handbag to hug them both.

  “We’re driving over to Sean’s and since we didn’t see Wyatt’s truck around, we thought you and Jaci might like to go with us,” Collette said.

  “Isn’t it late to be driving to Bandera?”

  “It’s only a few minutes after two,” Collette said. “We’ll be there by three-thirty, have dinner, visit and be home again before nine.”

  “Can we please, Momma? Please,” Jaci pleaded. “I want to play with Joey.”

  “And Collette is going stir crazy since she can’t take those afternoon rides to exercise the horses,” Dylan said.

  Kelly was growing a bit stir crazy herself. Jerome Hurley was making a prisoner of her. “We’d love to go,” Kelly said. “I’ll get our jackets and tell Troy we’re leaving. Shall I ask him if he wants to go?”

  “I asked him earlier this morning,” Dylan said. “He said no. I think he’s buried in those charts back in his bedroom again.”

  “You and Dylan can talk about the remodeling job on your house on the drive over,” Collette said. “He has a fabulous idea for tearing out that wall that separates your kitchen from the living room and making that one big open area.”

  “We can raise that ceiling, too,” Dylan said, “and put windows across the side so you get more natural light. I drew up some plans, but I left them in your house. Next time you’re there, take a look at them.”

  “You guys are amazing. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.”

  She’d started toward the back of the house when she heard the door open again. When she heard Wyatt’s voice, all thought of leaving with Dylan and Collette evaporated. Hopefully, they’d still take Jaci along. Time alone with Wyatt was at a premium.

  WYATT ATTACHED Jaci’s booster seat to the backseat of Dylan’s truck and then double-checked to make sure it was secure. He was still awkward with Jaci. He hadn’t spent much time around kids since he’d been one himself.