Read Whispers on the Wind Online

Authors: Brenda Jernigan

Tags: #romance, #love, #adventure, #murder, #mystery, #historical, #danger, #sweet, #cowboy, #sensual, #brenda jernigan

Whispers on the Wind (8 page)

BOOK: Whispers on the Wind
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After the men had gone,
Mary glanced at Judith. “I don’t think your son likes me very
much.”

“He doesn’t know you.” The
expression in Judith’s eyes said something else
entirely.

“I guess you’re right It’s
just—”

Judith placed her hand on
Mary’s arm. “Carter doesn’t like things he can’t figure out He also
has a demon driving him that I wish would go away.” Judith rose
from the table. “Come with me. I want to show you
something.”

Mary followed the woman
through the sprawling house. She liked the feeling of spaciousness
that surrounded her as they entered the main living area. There was
a large fireplace in the center of the wall and three couches, two
that faced each other and one that faced the fireplace. Above the
mantel hung a large portrait of a very beautiful girl.

Mary thought she looked
very much like Carter and his mother. They had the same dark hair
and eyes. “This must be your daughter?”

“Yes, that’s my Lisa. The
portrait was painted six months before she was killed.” Judith
patted the seat next to her on the couch. “Come and sit beside
me,”

After Mary sat down, she
said, “I am so sorry. I hope they caught and punished the person
who did it”

“No.” Judith shook her
head. “I’m afraid they didn’t” Her voice was very soft and sadness
washed over her face. “This isn’t a pretty tale, but one you should
know if you’re going to understand my son.” She took a deep
breath.

“Lisa and Carter had gone
to town for supplies. Unknown to them, a bank robbery was taking
place at the same time. Lisa had been waiting in the wagon while
Carter carried their purchases. He came out of the dry goods store,
his arms full of packages.

“He told me that
everything else from that point on seemed to happen as if time had
slowed. The wagon wasn’t directly in front of the store, but
several stores down. When Carter realized what was happening, he
ran toward the wagon, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“The robbers spotted Lisa
and swept her from the wagon, then continued on out of
town.

“Carter heard her
screaming all the way out of town, but he could do nothing. By the
time he’d dropped the packages and pulled out his gun, it was too
late. And he couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting his
sister.”

Judith’s voice broke and
Mary looked at the tension in Judith’s usually calm face. Mary
waited a minute before asking, “Did Carter go after
them?”

“Carter was young then, he
did the only thing he knew, he went to the local sheriff, who was
slow pulling a posse together. It was five days before they found
my little girl. "Judith looked off into nowhere. “Or what was left
of her.” Judith’s words hung in her throat, and it took a moment
before she could continue. “They had used her badly, then beaten
her until we could barely recognize her face.” Judith
sobbed.

By the time Judith had
finished her story, Mary was crying, too. She reached over and took
the woman’s hand. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” Mary finally
managed to get out as Judith clung to her hand.

“I’ve never told anyone
the whole story. And I don’t know what made me open up just now.”
Judith wiped the tears from her cheeks. Talking about Lisa’s death
always dredged up feelings that Judith thought she had gotten over,
but for some reason she’d wanted to confide in Mary. There was
something about this child that reminded her of her daughter.
“Carter wouldn’t let me see her. That’s when I knew my baby must
have suffered.”

“Did they ever get the
men?”

“No. Perhaps if they had,
Carter would be different. Instead, he took the whole thing as if
he believed it were his fault”

“But it wasn’t” Mary said,
taking up for a man she hardly knew.

“Of course it wasn’t He
could have been killed, too, and I would have lost both my
children. I wouldn’t have been able to bear that "Judith choked
back another sob. “Sometimes I feel as if I have lost Carter
anyway.”

“How so?” Mary asked
gently.

“Where once he’d been
content to take over the ranch, now his only goal is revenge. After
his sister’s murder he became a lawman, determined to track down
the men who killed his sister. He’d gotten a good look at the
men.”

“Has he caught any of
them?”

“He’s killed two. There
are two more to go.”

“Killed?”

“I would like to think
that he would have brought them in for trial if he could have, but
they are dangerous men.”

“Carter seems like a man
who takes his job very seriously.” Mary shivered. “I’m sure he is
very good at what he does.”

Judith smiled. “Yes, he is
the best. I’m very proud of him
but...
Carter needs a life, a home,
and a family. He can’t be driven by the past. He needs something in
his future. Something to look forward to.”

“Instead of the past.”
Mary sighed. “Maybe one day he will find that
something.”

Judith turned and looked at
her with a sad smile. “Maybe.”

 

 

Marshal Forester was
hitting dead ends everywhere he turned. Nobody had seen Mark
Costner, and it seemed that nobody knew much about him. So Forester
looked for the address on the deed, maybe some of the boy’s kin,
people who could shed some light on why he would murder anyone.
Forester shook his head. Something wasn’t right with the whole
situation, but he was going to keep digging until he found his
answers. Big Jim deserved that.

So Forester left his deputy
in charge of Gregory Gulch and mounted his horse. He was going to
Denver to a ranch called the Wagon Wheel.

Maybe he’d get some answers
there.

 

 

Brandy couldn’t imagine
where any of the children were as she walked through the house.
Couldn’t somebody besides herself answer the door? It wasn’t as
though they had visitors every day.

When she reached the door,
she opened it to a man she didn’t know, but she knew he had to be a
lawman by the star on his chest. He was an older man with a
leathery, wrinkled face, but his eyes were clear and
sharp.

“Something’s happened,”
Brandy blurted out, forgetting the hello-how-are-you greeting she
should have politely greeted him with.

“Yes, ma’am, I’m afraid it
has,” Forester replied. “I need to speak with you.”

Suddenly Brandy felt
light-headed as she opened the screen door for the man and motioned
him toward the sofa.

The back door slammed, and
Brandy knew who it was before her brothers dashed into the parlor.
They sounded like a herd of horses stampeding through the
house.

“Who’s the company?” Scott
asked as he entered the doorway, followed by Willie.

“Name’s Marshal Forester,”
the stranger said.

“These are my brothers.”
Brandy made the introductions before addressing Scott. “Go get
Thunder. And Willie, you fetch Ellen from upstairs.”

Once the boys had
disappeared, she looked at the stranger. “If you will give us a
moment, we do everything as a family, so I want them here before
you start talking,” she explained. It also put off the bad news for
a few moments longer. Of course, the man hadn’t said it was bad
news, but she knew. The law had never brought good news to
her.

Thunder strode into the
room, commanding everyone’s attention. Brandy felt better the
moment she saw him. He’d always had that effect of her, except, of
course, when she was hopping mad at him. Thunder was her tower of
strength whether he wanted to be or not

His piercing silver eyes
went to her immediately. “What’s wrong?”

Scott, Willie, and Ellen
entered the room and sat down.

“I don’t know,” Brandy
said, and turned her attention back to the marshal.

Forester cleared his
throat. “I’ve come to ask you some questions about
Mark.”

Brandy gave him a funny
look. “I don’t know a Mark.” She looked at Thunder. “Do
you?”

“Could you have made a
mistake?” Thunder asked, his deep voice filling the
room.

“Don’t think so.”
Forrester pulled out the deed. “It says right here for his address,
the Wagon Wheel. That’s this place, right?”

They all nodded.

“Good. It says right here,
Mark Costner.” Thunder smiled. “You mean Mary Costner.”

Immediately, Brandy asked,
“What’s happened to Mary?”

Now it was the marshal’s
turn to look confused. “Wait a minute. I’m looking for a young
boy.”

“I’m young,” Willie
said.

“A mite too young,”
Forester told him, still frowning. “I’m looking for a young boy
about her age.” He pointed to Ellen.

“You’re from Gregory
Gulch?” Thunder asked.

“Yep. But I’m telling you
that for months I’ve been seeing a boy. Don’t think my eyesight has
gotten that bad. He was a boy.”

Brandy laughed. “Mary was
dressing as a boy. She hid her hair up under a cap so she could
work her claim without the men bothering her.”

Forester scratched his
head. “Sure fooled me.” Brandy scooted to the edge of the couch and
looked at the marshal. “How is my sister? Nothing has happened to
her?”

“Don’t know.”

Brandy shot to her feet
“You don’t know?”

“Perhaps you’d better
explain,” Thunder said as he reached out for his wife’s
arm.

“She’s disappeared. Been
gone a good week.”

“Disappeared?” Ellen said
as she moved closer to the conversation. “Someone has taken
Mary?”

“I bet she’s real scared,”
Willie added.

“Don’t know.” The marshal
shook his head. “A week ago her partner was found dead, and there
was no sign of Mark—I mean Mary. We put out wanted posters for Mark
Costner, but there hasn’t been one lead that has turned
up.”

Brandy grabbed her chest
Thunder steadied her. “You don’t think she is dead,
too?”

“Don’t know.” The marshal
repeated the same answer, and Brandy realized that seemed to be the
only answer the man had. “If they killed her, why didn’t they leave
her behind with Big Jim?”

Thunder folded his arms
across his chest “Makes sense. So you think that Mary killed Big
Jim since you didn’t find her there?”

“Mary wouldn’t do anything
like that,” Scott insisted. “She threatened to kill me a bunch of
times, but she was just fooling around.”

Forester smiled. “I hope
she didn’t do it. And if she did, why? Was she threatened? But I
can’t find any of those answers until I find the girl. I was hoping
she’d come back home.”

Brandy turned to Thunder.
“What are we going to do?”

His silver gaze met
hers.
“We are
not
going to do anything. But
I’m
going to pack my gear and return with the marshal
and see what I can find out Mary is probably very scared and not
thinking straight.”

“Do you want me to go with
you?” Scott asked; at fifteen he was starting to get
tall.

Brandy smiled at Scott. It
didn’t seem like he was fifteen. Every time she looked at him, she
saw a seven-year-old who never stopped talking.

“No,” Thunder replied.
“You’re the oldest man here, you need to take care of the place
while I’m gone.”

Scott beamed with the
praise. But Willie tugged on Thunder’s hand. “What about
me?”

“You need to help just
like you have with the cows. Scott will have his hands full while
I’m gone. You’re a member of our family,” Thunder said.

Brandy remembered when the
scared five-year-old had come to live with them. When her brother
Billy told them that Willie had been living on the streets of New
York City by himself, Brandy immediately adopted Willie into the
family.

“We’ll take care of the
ranch,” Brandy assured Thunder as she gave him a shove toward the
bedroom.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine as
long as Brandy don’t do no cooking,” Scott said, and started
giggling.

Brandy cut her eyes at him,
but followed her husband into the bedroom. She was glad Thunder had
been raised by the Cheyenne. If anybody could find Mary, he
could.

She watched him gather a
few of his things, shoving them into his saddlebags. “What do you
think?”

“I think Mary is in a lot
of trouble.”

“I bet she’s frightened,”
Brandy said. “And it’s hard to scare Mary.”

“I’m sure she is
frightened, but we’re talking about our Mary. She isn’t the typical
helpless woman—kinda like you.”

Brandy laughed. “I needed
that, thank you. Mary will use her head. I just hope no one hurts
her before we can find out what really happened.”

Thunder turned to his wife
and put his hands on Brandy’s arms. “Somebody killed Big Jim. Did
Mary do it? I don’t think so, unless she was threatened some way.
But if she didn’t, somebody else did, and that somebody knows Mary
is a witness. Now give me a hug.”

BOOK: Whispers on the Wind
10.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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