Every Breath She Takes (36 page)

Snap out of it
, she scolded herself.
You need to keep your wits about you.

That’s when she heard the rider approaching. For a wild moment she thought it might be Cal. Maybe he’d changed his mind and ridden after her. But when she craned her neck to peer around the foliage, she saw it was indeed Harvey McLeod. And he was riding the palomino, and it was definitely not lame. How had he pulled off fooling Cal’s cowhand?

Her nerves thrummed as the rider drew closer to Marlena, the cadence of the hoofbeats slowing. Then they stopped a few dozen feet from Marlena.

Marlena looked very calm when she turned to face him. Quite a feat when Lauren’s own heart was trying to pound its way out of her chest. Beneath her Buck twitched and shook his head. She knew she was communicating her agitation down the reins, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She watched Harvey swing out of the saddle.

She heard the rumble of his deep, well-modulated voice, but was too far away to hear what he said. Marlena said something in reply, followed by a laugh.

Then Harvey stepped forward and gripped Marlena’s arms. On his hands were the work gloves.

Lauren didn’t wait to see anything more. She spurred Buck out of the trees and urged him toward the couple. And oh God, he had his hands around Marlena’s neck now and was choking her! Jesus, it was happening. She dug her heels into Buck’s flanks, bent low over his neck, and urged him faster.

Where was the knife? Why hadn’t Marlena used the knife?

Then Harvey reeled back. “You bitch!” he screamed, holding a gloved hand to his side.

Marlena brandished the knife, which looked impossibly small.

Harvey took off his Stetson and used it to slap the knife out of Marlena’s hand with one powerful swipe. Marlena screamed for help and stepped backward. She didn’t move fast enough, though, to escape Harvey’s blow. His roundhouse connected with her face and she went down heavily. When Marlena didn’t pop up again, Lauren screamed, “No!”

Harvey turned, his dark eyebrows soaring up beneath his white hair at the sight of horse and rider bearing down on him. When it became obvious that Lauren wasn’t going to haul up, he started running, but Lauren corrected the sure-footed quarter
horse’s course. Buck’s shoulder struck Harvey and sent him sprawling. Lauren pulled Buck up and wheeled him around. Harvey lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving. Good.

She dropped the reins and leapt off of Buck.

“Marlena?” she called.

No answer.

Keeping an eye on Harvey, she took the half-dozen strides necessary to carry her to Marlena. A quick check proved she was still alive, but unconscious. Carefully—damn, she hoped Marlena didn’t have a neck injury—Lauren rolled her onto her side and arranged her limbs in the recovery position. There. That would have to do for now. She had to deal with Harvey. She needed to tie him up quickly, before he recovered consciousness.

But with what? If Cal were here, he’d have rope. He always carried rope.

Her belt! She whipped her leather belt off and approached Harvey, who still lay there unmoving. A few more steps and she was at his side. Looking down at him, she bit her lip. What if he came to as she was doing it? He was a big man. He could probably overpower her, even groggy from having been knocked out.

Man, she could have really used Marlena’s help right now.

Or Cal’s.

Dammit, if only Marlena were conscious! They could mount up, grab the palomino’s reins and ride away, stranding the bastard out here for the police to retrieve. She thought briefly about slinging Marlena’s unconscious body across her mount and transporting her that way. Except given the way Harvey had snapped her neck back with that punch and the uncontrolled fall—she could easily have a spinal cord injury. No way could Marlena be transported like that. Not without risking paralysis or death.

So it was back to tying Harvey up.

What she needed was a weapon. The knife had gone flying Lord knows where, but she could improvise. A rock or a stout stick…

She glanced around. There! Someone had gathered up rocks and built a fire pit. She hurried over to it, selecting a rock that was sort of oblong in shape and relatively easy to grip. It was light enough to wield but heavy enough to crack a skull. Perfect.

She turned to see Harvey on his feet now. And in his gloved hand, a pistol.

Shit! He must have had the gun on him. She should have searched him. But if he’d been that close to recovering consciousness, he could have grabbed her. Or maybe he hadn’t been unconscious at all.

“Miss Townsend. I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I’m sure.” Lauren wet her suddenly dry lips. “I’m not surprised to see
you
here though.”

His eyebrows shot up. “No?”

“I knew you were coming to kill Marlena. I told her as much.”

“So that’s how the bitch knew what was coming!” Harvey’s face darkened with rage. “I knew her avaricious little heart would never have let her see beyond the prize I dangled.”

Lauren noticed he pressed one hand to his side where Marlena had stuck him with the jackknife. He was losing blood. If he lost enough, maybe he’d grow weak, dizzy, disoriented. She had to keep him talking.

“What I want to know,” he said, “is how you knew.”

She almost smiled. All the times she’d told this story, or one like it, and no one had believed her. Harvey would believe her. “I saw it.”

He snorted. “Obviously you saw it. You had to have been close by to have come riding in like that. But how did you know I was going to kill the bitch?”

She did smile this time. “No, I saw it in a vision.”

His brows came together in a scowl. “A
vision
?”

“Yup. Quite a few times, actually. Marlena didn’t want to believe me, but I told her what you’d be wearing. About the gloves. How you’d still be wearing them when you grasped her
arms, when you glided them up to her shoulders, then seized her neck.”

“Nice try.” He lifted his hand from his side, cursed when fresh blood trickled down, then went back to applying pressure. “But you literally saw all of that.”

Keep him talking, Lauren. Keep him bleeding.
“True. But did I see you pull out a book of matches bearing the Foothills Ranch logo, light a cigarette, and toss the book of matches to the ground?”

He let out a low whistle. “Well, by God, I do believe we have the genuine article. A psychic.”

Thank God!
She’d been praying there was a purpose, a deliberation, to that action, the dropping of the matches near the body. Apparently there was. “I thought you’d believe me.”

“Well, ma’am, you must be a very good actress, because you certainly didn’t give yourself away.”

“That’s because I only recently figured out that you were the killer.”

Up went the eyebrows again. “I thought you said you saw me do it in this vision of yours.”

“I saw what you would have seen, right out of your eyes.” Maybe she could freak him out with that. “You see, I was in your head, Harvey. In there looking out.”

He didn’t take the bait. “Who else knows about this vision of yours?”

“Cal knows. He’s called the police.”

Harvey’s posture relaxed noticeably. “No, he doesn’t know. If he did, he’d be here. He wouldn’t let you come out alone.”

Her heart pounded faster. “He’s right behind me. He’ll be here any minute with reinforcements.”

“I don’t think so.” Harvey smiled, displaying those perfect politician veneers. “I think he’s riding in a more northerly direction, toward those coulees where young Brady disappeared with Marlena. Now could you kindly put that rock down.”

She hesitated.

“Come on, Miss Townsend.” He waggled the gun at her. “Gun beats rock every time.”

When she still hesitated, he lifted the pistol and sighted it on her head.

She dropped the rock.

“That’s better.”

A wave of nausea and dizziness washed over her. The adrenaline. Her system was swimming in it. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Well, you’ve put me in a tough situation, Miss Townsend. I’m going to have to kill you both now.” He transferred the gun to his bloody hand, then stepped forward and grabbed her shirt with his clean glove.

Good. That was good. If he didn’t keep pressure on that wound, it would bleed freely.

“You know, this is almost better,” Harvey said conversationally. “Kill you, frame Cal.”

Frame
Cal
? Another wave of nausea washed over her with the fresh adrenaline surge. Oh God, that’s why he’d switched hands. He didn’t want to get his own blood on her. The forensics would mess up his frame job.

Keep talking, girl. Whatever happens, keep him talking. The more he talks, the more he’ll bleed.
“Frame Cal?” She managed to get the words out around her nausea.

“Yeah, that’s the new plan. And because you’re responsible for screwing up my old plan, I’m going to tell you all about it so you can die knowing he’ll spend the next couple of decades behind bars for your murder.”

“No!”

“Yes.” He waggled the gun. “His gloves will leave distinct ligature marks when I choke you, I think, not to mention reek with your DNA on the outside and his on the inside. I’ll just drop one in my hurry to flee the scene.”

“But
your
DNA will be in them too.”

He smiled. “I took the precaution of wearing latex gloves.”

She was going to die and Cal would take the fall for it.

Keep him talking.
“But why? Why set Cal up?”

He scowled. “Because he’s in the way.”

“What do you mean?”

“It didn’t have to be like this, you know. If he had just accepted my offer. It was very reasonable. Generous, even. I couldn’t offer anything too extravagant. That would have made him suspicious. And I almost had him too, when that pitiful guest ranch business went belly-up. If his father hadn’t come riding into town to rescue him, he’d have been knocking on my door, ready to ink a deal within weeks. A month or two at most.”

“You
did
poison that steer.”

“Of course I did. But it wasn’t enough to get Cal out of the way.”

Oh God, she wanted to hurl. Adrenaline wasn’t much good when you couldn’t use it. “What was he in the way of?”

“Progress.” Harvey’s teeth glinted. “Look around, Miss Townsend. From horizon to horizon, as far as you can see, I own it all. Or rather, my agents do. Wouldn’t have done to tip my hand.”

“All but this piece?”

“All but this piece,” he acknowledged.

“But it’s so small…Why do you need it?”

“I don’t. I just need Cal Taggart
off
it. I’m about to launch a development project, and I couldn’t afford to have him squawking about environmental concerns. Stubborn sonofabitch would have mobilized the ranchers. Then the politicians, who are already antsy, would start talking tougher legislation.” He smiled. “It’s nothing personal, Miss Townsend. I just couldn’t let the window of opportunity close on a billion dollars.”

He still held her head tilted at a difficult angle. Her throat ached, but with the relentless pressure on her scalp, she couldn’t shift to ease it. “What kind of development?”

“The lucrative kind. Do you have any idea how much a Hollywood actor or a Fortune 500 CEO would pay for a mini-ranch of his own right here in the shadow of the foothills? This is one of the most beautiful spots on earth.”

“You’d carve it up.”

“That’s the idea.”

“But you’re a rancher. How can you do that?”

He laughed. “A rancher? My dear, I’ve never been a rancher. That dirty, bloody operation will close its doors as soon as this deal is done.”

Cal had been wrong. Harvey wasn’t crazy, just greedy. Murder had been done for a lot less than a billion dollars.

Keep talking. But what more could she ask him?
“The horse! I mean, what about your horse? Trey said it pulled up lame. How’d you accomplish that?”

“I wedged a rock in the frog of its hoof. Soon as Cal’s man rode off, I pried it out.”

Her heart sank. “So everyone would know exactly where you were, miles from the scene with no means of transportation.”

“Precisely. I’ll put the rock back in, of course, so everyone sees us come limping in.”

He seemed to relish his own cleverness. Could she feed that to keep him talking? “But the story about Brady abducting Marlena? Why did you make that up?”

“I wasn’t sure anyone would give a damn if that slut Marlena disappeared, besides the fool kid, of course. And I didn’t want them to assume she’d run back to the city. I needed someone to look for her, find her body while the evidence was fresh.”

“But Brady will contradict your story.”

“He’ll do nothing of the sort. He got an anonymous telephone call that’ll take him out to that old cabin Cal uses, where he’ll expect to surprise me and Marlena. When he fails to find either of us, he’ll ride back. Unfortunately, he’ll meet with an accident on the trail.”

“But he’s your son!”

Something flickered in Harvey’s eyes. “Well, if you know that much local gossip, then I’m sure you also know that he’s not my flesh and blood.”

“But you raised him,” Lauren said. “Cal told me you used to go to his practices and—”

Pain exploded in Lauren’s head. It took her a few seconds to process what had happened. He’d struck her with the pistol! She lifted a hand to her temple. It came away bloody.

“Couldn’t be helped,” he said gruffly. “He’s also the man banging Marlena regularly and therefore the only one I could manipulate.”

Dear Lord, that sweet boy, Brady, was going to die too. So many people…Maybe Harvey
was
crazy after all. “You’ll set Cal up for that murder too, I suppose?”

Harvey smiled. “You catch on quickly. Man kills his ex-wife and her current lover turns up dead? I think they’ll draw some conclusions. Of course, we’ll have to add you to the body count Cal is racking up. I’m not sure how they’ll explain that. I guess he just snapped.”

Lauren’s mind wanted to shut down in the face of all this horror, but she couldn’t let it.
Think. Keep him talking.