Page 40 of Setup In Montana

“She’s a universal donor. O positive.”

Max shook his head. “You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” the nurse said, clearly offended.

“Sorry, it’s just that I was told she was O negative.”

“Well, whoever told you that was wrong,” the nurse said and turned away.

He stepped into a waiting room and called Dr. Frazer. “You told me that the Shady Rest cook had O negative blood type. She’s in the hospital. I just talked to the nurse. She’s O positive. How could this have happened?”

“I can’t imagine how, unless the vials were mixed up in the confusion after Sarah Brooks fainted.”

“What are you telling me? That it’s Sarah Brooks whose blood type is O negative?”

“I don’t know what else it could have been. I told you about the confusion when Sarah arrived late. Vernon was still recovering, and my nurse had just finished taking Diana’s blood sample when Sarah saw the vial of blood and fainted,” Dr. Frazer said. “Still, if they were switched… Then Sarah must have faked fainting, and in the confusion, swapped the vials.”

* * *

AS SARAH DROPPED the pendant on the table and turned to face her, Clancy saw the change in her friend. “I knew you had the bag of jewelry, but now I wonder who else does. You need to give me the key, and we need to get out of here.”

Clancy took a step back. She stared at Sarah. “You always knew about the key?”

“Of course, I knew. I never believed the pendant was worth anything. I found the secret compartment but didn’t dare take the key before Mildred died, though I’m not sure she even remembered the key at that point in her disease. She seemed to think the fortune was the pendant. But she’d already left the pendant to me in her will when she was lucid. Her sons got the land and house. It was already settled.”

Clancy took another step back as she looked around for something she could use as a weapon. She spotted the knife rack, but knew she couldn’t get to it before Sarah stopped her. Could she really stab her friend even if she was a killer?

“You aren’t going to stab me with a knife.” Sarah sounded amused as she followed her gaze to the block of knives. “I can imagine what you’re thinking right now, but you’re wrong. You have to listen to me. We need to get out of here now. You have no idea how much danger we are both in. Tell me you have the key. It isn’t in the pendant.”

Clancy couldn’t stop herself from touching the key under her sweater as if afraid it wouldn’t be there.

“Give me the key, Clancy.”

Max wasn’t going to get here in time. Who knew if Dub was even coming back? Clancy, as usual, was on her own. She’d thought when Dub had gotten her away from the ranch, that things would be different. But of course she was wrong. She’d been let down her whole life.

Sarah took a step toward her. Realizing that Dub had left her alone hurt more than she wanted to admit, but it was nothing like being betrayed by the woman she’d considered a friend.

“Don’t do it. I know you want to run, but that’s the worst thing you can do right now.” Sarah took another step toward her, reaching out as she moved closer. “You have to trust me.”

There was no way she could do that, Clancy thought. No way she should. She started to turn when Sarah pulled the gun from her pocket and pointed it at her heart.

“Clancy, we don’t have time for this. Give me the key. I know you have it. If I had to guess it’s on the chain you always wear with the little silver bear on it. I’m not clairvoyant. You keep touching it beneath your sweater.”

She felt her heart break as she looked from Sarah to the gun she was holding. “You must think I’m an idiot for trusting you. You were so nice to me when I started work at Shady Rest.”

“Oh, please,” Sarah said with a groan. “We both know you think I only befriended you because I might need your help to get the pendant and the key.” She shrugged. “As it turned out, I did. You were a great help.” She sighed. “Now give me the key. The pendant and key are mine. Esther should never have taken them, and she should never have tried to get you killed by passing them off to you. If you had thrown them away or handed them over to the sheriff… Well, you would have made things much harder for me, so thank you.”

Clancy couldn’t help being angry at Esther, but she was furious with Sarah. She’d known who Esther was. But Sarah? She’d never been such a poor judge of character. Or lack of character in Sarah’s case. “After everything you’ve done, I can’t imagine the money—if there really is any—will make you happy.”

Sarah laughed. “Okay, fine, your feelings are hurt. Now quit stalling and give me my key.”

It was the last thing Clancy wanted to do. Once Sarah had the key she would kill her, wouldn’t she? The woman had already killed two people for the key. What was one more?

“You don’t even know what the key opens or if there is any money,” she said, stubbornly hoping that whatever the key opened, it would be empty and Sarah would have done all this for nothing. “I heard Mildred had Alzheimer’s. What if she made it all up?”

“That’s my problem,” Sarah said, taking another step toward her as Clancy took one back. “You thought your life was waiting for you down that highway to Billings? Mine is waiting for me once I get into Mildred’s safety deposit box at her bank in Lewistown. Now give me the damned key!”

The message was clear. The woman wasn’t bluffing and Dub wasn’t coming back. Because he couldn’t? Or because he’d come to his senses last night and wanted nothing to do with her? It terrified her to think that he might have been harmed because of her and this mess she found herself in.