Page 44 of Setup In Montana

And Clancy would have left a note to let him know where she’d gone.

He felt sick with worry and anger, the pain in his head a constant reminder of what his brother had done. Looking around the kitchen, he desperately needed to think. Clancy was gone. How was he going to find her? What if the killer had taken her? He didn’t want to go down that dark trail.

As he started to call the sheriff, he realized it wasn’t just Clancy that was missing. He stepped over to the table, searched the top, then under it.

The ugly pendant he’d dropped and broken.

It was gone.

* * *

AS ABEL PUSHED her into the cabin, Clancy heard Sarah’s car start up and roar away as if she was in a hurry. Did her cousins have any idea where she was going? Once Sarah reached the bank and opened that safety deposit box, what if it really was full of money?

She wouldn’t be back.

What had she told her cousins to do with her so-called friend if she didn’t return? Luther now had the gun, but from the looks of him and his brother, they had their own weapons in their truck—if not on them.

Luther came through the door, right behind her. As he closed the door and locked it, she looked around the small cabin for a weapon. “Sit down,” he said, frowning at her.

She saw nothing she could use as a weapon and there were two of them, at least one of them armed. What she did see gave her pause. Someone had painted a small bouquet of tiny forget-me-nots on the inside of the worn door. That little scene so carefully executed touched her. Maybe whoever owned this cabin cared about it, had dreams for it, came by occasionally to check on it. Today would certainly be a good day to do that, she told herself.

“Do you know who owns this place?” Clancy asked.

“It’s Sarah’s,” Luther murmured under his breath.

“Sarah owns it?” There went that hope of the owner stopping by. She looked around in surprise. Someone had been fixing it up. She smelled cleaning products, paint and floor wax. The colorful rugs that covered parts of the polished old wood floor looked new. There were a few stray pieces of furniture, an upholstered chair done in a bright floral pattern, next to it a small end table painted a matching blue like the flowers on the chair—and the painting on the door.

She frowned, trying to make sense of this. Sarah had never mentioned that she owned a cabin not far from town. She lived in a small trailer like Clancy had, only hers was in a little trailer court on the edge of town. Maybe she chose to live in town because it was handier. Or because the cabin didn’t have electricity or water.

As Luther turned on a light, that answered one of the questions. “Sit,” Abel said, shoving her toward the floral chair. She sat, running her hands along the upholstered arms as she took in the rest of the cabin. There was a small, neat kitchen, everything in miniature like a dollhouse. A set of stairs off to her left appeared to go up to a loft area. The bedroom? Toward the back of the cabin there were two doors, a regular-size one and a smaller one.

“Bathroom?” she asked, almost hoping she would have to go outside to an outhouse.

“In there.” Luther pointed to the small door. So there was an inside toilet. So much for thinking she might be able to get away if she could get outside. At least there weren’t three of them anymore.

“Mind if I use it?” She didn’t get up, waiting to see if she was allowed. Luther stood leaning against the kitchen counter, a scowl on his face. His brother had pulled up a straight-backed chair not far from him. Neither looked friendly. But neither looked like killers either. As if she knew what a killer looked like, she reminded herself. They seemed to be waiting either for Sarah to return and give them orders to kill her, or for Sarah to kill her herself.

When neither man said anything, she rose and headed for the small door into the bathroom. She hoped she’d find something she could use as a weapon. But a quick look inside disappointed her.

The room was tiny, with a sink, toilet and a claw-foot tub. She closed the door and leaned against it. As she did, she felt her phone in her sweater pocket. Clancy had forgotten she had it and Sarah hadn’t seen it, so she hadn’t taken it from her.

She quickly pulled it out. She’d call Max and tell him where she was and why she needed his help. She blinked. No signal? She moved the phone around the small bathroom, but couldn’t even get one bar. Maybe she’d have better luck outside.

But she’d have to figure out how to get away from Sarah’s cousins first.

Discouraged, she decided she’d better use the toilet. She couldn’t help but notice again how clean and neat and decorated everything was. As she did her business, she tried to get her head around this place. If true that Sarah owned it and was fixing it up, this was a side of Sarah she’d never seen, a side she’d actually never suspected.

Like Clancy, Sarah’s trailer in town was small and old. The one time Clancy had gone over there was when Sarah’s car hadn’t started and Clancy had offered to give her a ride to work. The time she and Sarah had spent together was almost always at work. Except for that trip to Billings.

That day, she’d only gotten a glimpse inside the trailer, but it was clear that Sarah hadn’t done any more with her trailer to make it feel like home than Clancy had. Clancy had known she was leaving by her upcoming birthday, so she hadn’t bothered, telling herself it was temporary.

But Sarah, as far as Clancy had known, had no intention of quitting Shady Rest and leaving her trailer. Maybe she’d been waiting for the windfall from her aunt.

Sarah had been counting on that money, so she’d known she wouldn’t be staying there long. Clancy wondered what her plan had been for the cabin after she got rich.

As she finished and washed her hands at the tiny sink, she wondered if the cabin was a backup plan in case there was no Mildred money. Maybe, but it didn’t feel that way. Sarah had already put too much love into this cabin.

Clancy flinched at a loud knock on the door.