Which meant with luck, he was facing the other direction. She knew he could come back into the living room at any moment. She had to move.

  She eased out from behind the chair, trying hard not to make a sound. She couldn’t hear what he was doing in the bedroom. She listened for the telltale creak of the bedsprings should he rise. Hearing nothing, she took careful steps toward the door, fighting the urge to run, fling open the door and keep running.

  Instead, she practically tiptoed, willing the old wood floor under her feet not to make a sound. As she passed in front of the bedroom doorway, she finally dared look. Just as she’d thought, he was sitting on the bed facing the opposite direction.

  She took the last few steps to the door, grabbed the knob and opened it just wide enough to slip through. Carefully, she closed it behind her, fearing that he would feel the spring night air rush in. Then she ran. She didn’t stop until she turned the corner through an opening between the buildings out of sight of the cabin. She stopped just long enough to catch her breath, then raced through the dark, sprinting toward the highway.

  She’d done it. She grinned as she reached the two-lane blacktop. No traffic. She jogged across to the other side before she looked back. There was no sign of Leviathan Nash. No sign of anyone. She’d gotten away with it.

  Back at her office, she ducked in, locked the door and hurried upstairs to her studio apartment. She pulled out the bags with the hair and the coffee cup. Then checked her phone. She was half afraid that the photo wouldn’t be there, but there it was. She made it larger, but none of the faces looked familiar to her. She studied it for a moment before she knew what she had to do. Pocketing everything, she headed out the door again.

  * * *

  JASPER STARTED AT the sound of a vehicle coming up the road to the ranch house this late at night. He’d been jumpy and on edge all day—since waking up this morning to find another small white bag hanging on his front door. Like before, it held only one thing: another invitation. This one for Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. since he’d missed Monday’s.

  He had crumpled the card in his fist and looked around, wondering why neither he nor Ruby had heard someone come up on the porch in the wee hours the night before to leave it. The bastard had trespassed on his property. Jasper wished he’d caught him. He would have loved to have scared the shit out of the little schemer. He hoped that was all he’d do.

  That he didn’t trust himself scared him. All this time, he’d been trying to learn to control his anger. The only things that had kept that boiling rage from bubbling over was being back here in Montana on this ranch, and Ruby, he thought with a smile. While realizing how much the damned dog had added to his life, he wasn’t about to admit it to Bessie. She probably knew anyway since he was seldom without the dog.

  As he watched the lights of the vehicle approaching the house, he told himself that if Leviathan Nash had the nerve to come back out here again...

  But as the car pulled up in his yard, he saw that it was Darby Fulton. When it came to unwanted guests, she wasn’t at the top of the list—but pretty darned close.

  He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the porch railing. Whatever she wanted, it wouldn’t take long to send her on her way. Even as he thought it, a part of him was actually glad to see her. What was it about this woman? She annoyed the devil out of him and yet he often found himself smiling in spite of himself.

  The car door opened. He watched her step out and wished that just seeing her in his yard didn’t make his heart beat a little faster. Ignoring her wasn’t working. The woman got to him in a way he told himself he didn’t want or need. Not that it stopped his body from reacting even at the sight of her. He tried to ignore it as she came hurrying up the steps toward him.

  “I found something you need to see,” she said without preamble.

  “Good evening to you too, Ms. Fulton. A little late for a visit, though, don’t you think?”

  She ignored him as she stepped past and walked right into his house. Shaking his head, he followed her to find her petting his dog.

  “Please make yourself at home,” he said and saw that his sarcasm was wasted on her. “Oh, and thanks for sending the marshal out here to see me.”

  She waved a hand through the air, ignoring both comments. “I found this in Leviathan Nash’s cabin,” she said and thrust her phone at him.

  He frowned. “You found a phone in his cabin? Wait, what were you doing in his cabin?”

  “Just look at the photo, Jasper,” she said impatiently and squatted down to talk to Ruby. The worst part was that Ruby was eating up the attention. Definitely not a watchdog. Traitor, he thought.

  He glanced at the photo on the screen, frowned and then looked at Darby. “What is this?”

  “It’s an old photograph of a family,” she said, her attention on the dog. “It was tucked in a book in Leviathan’s cabin—the only personal thing in the entire place.”

  He didn’t bother to glance at the photograph again. “Well, as fascinating as this is, I have no idea why you drove all the way out here to show me this.” He handed the phone back.

  “You don’t recognize any of the people?” she asked with obvious disappointment as she rose.

  “Why would I?” He didn’t like letting her down, but then again he had no idea why she would think he would know those people.

  “You’re from here. I knew it was a long shot, but I thought maybe if Leviathan had family here...”

  “I left here when I was five, came back after losing both my grandmother and my parents, and left right after high school. The photo is in black-and-white. I’m old, but not that old.”

  She shook her head, clearly exasperated with him, but not half as much as he was with her.

  “I thought I warned you about this. What were you doing in his cabin?”

  Darby met his gaze with a steely one of her own. “Someone needs to find out who this man is. We know he’s dangerous. What we don’t know is how dangerous. Nancy Green is dead. She shot herself after going to Gossip. I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg. And since you weren’t going to help me, I had to do something.”

  “Tell me you didn’t break in.”

  “I didn’t. The door was open.”

  “So he doesn’t know that you were there,” Jasper said with a wave of relief.

  “Not that I know of. Like I said, the door was open.”

  “Kind of like my door was open,” he said.

  “He left in his truck so I had a look around his cabin.”

  “Where did he go?”

  She mugged a face at him. “I have no idea, but he wasn’t gone very long. He keeps all his clothes in a trunk on the floor by his bed as if he isn’t planning on staying long.”

  “Probably leaving when his lease is up in a couple of weeks.” He could see her frustration.

  “Someone needs to find out the truth about this man before he goes on to the next town.”

  He didn’t think the man would be going on to another town to cause trouble. Just a gut feeling that this was all about Buckhorn. All about the residents who lived here, including Jasper’s family. “We don’t know that Leviathan Nash is planning—”

  “That’s just it,” she interrupted. “We don’t know what he’s planning. Look what happened to Nancy Green.”

  He argued that those left behind seldom knew why a person died by suicide and that there were often other factors.

  Darby scoffed. “She goes to Gossip in the morning and shoots herself in the afternoon.”

  “Still, you don’t know—”

  “Yes, I do,” she snapped, cutting him off. “I talked to Vi Mullen. She told me exactly how she learned about the broken vase. He told her. He told her that Karla Parson broke it and let her take the blame. He incited this violence. But come on, don’t you wonder how he knew? Or why he’s doing this? What he hopes to accomplish? And when does it end?”

  “Wait, Vivian Mullen told you that Leviathan Nash was the one who—”

  “He wrote her a note on his card in the bag with the vase she bought.”

  He thought of his own invitations he’d received and the too-neat handwriting in black ink. “And she believed it.” He shook his head. “Why would she?”

  Darby shrugged. “She said she knew it was true because of the vase. Leviathan had the exact same vase that had gotten broken. If he knew that, then she believed he knew who had broken it. And he was right! Karla admitted it. And apparently he’s been right about the others he’s broken bad news to. Or at least they had reason to believe it.”

  “Even if he caused some of these incidents, as far as I know there’s no law against telling people things they don’t want to hear.”

  She rolled her eyes. “So you keep saying. Tell me you really don’t want to find out who this man is and why he’s doing this, because I don’t believe you.” She reached into her coat pocket and withdrew a plastic bag that appeared to hold a cup and from the other pocket a bag with something gray in it.

  “What is that?” he asked with concern as she thrust the bags at him. He took a step back. “Is that hair?”

  “It’s Leviathan Nash’s hair from his brush. I need you to get the prints off the mug and his DNA from the hair. One or the other is bound to tell us who he is.”

  Jasper held up his hands as he shook his head without touching either bag. “I already told you—”

  “I risked getting caught to get this and now you’re telling me that you won’t help find out who this man really is?” she demanded, settling those honey-brown eyes on him. Her look would have melted even the darkest of hearts, and that it was doing a number on his really pissed him off. How many times did he have to tell her he didn’t want to get involved? He couldn’t.

  “I didn’t tell you to risk anything,” he snapped. “In fact, I told you not to because it could be dangerous. I would suggest giving your ill-gotten evidence to Marshal Baggins except he can’t do anything with it because it was illegally obtained. He’d probably throw you in jail.”

  She waved off his logic as if it was of no consequence. “Surely you know someone who would help behind the scenes.”

  He studied her for a moment. Had he really thought she’d take any advice from him? Or that she would give up on this? He groaned. What was it about a strong, determined woman that attracted him, especially this one? He considered for a moment what she would do if he didn’t help her and swore under his breath. “You seem to think that I have more power than I do. I’m not a cop anymore. I’m a rancher.” Another eye roll. He swore under his breath. “I might know someone, but I’m not making any promises.”

  Her grin was like a shaft of sunshine on a rainy day, all rainbows and pots of gold. It made him all the more irritated with her. She thrust the bags at him. This time, he took them, though shaking his head even as he did. “I’ll have to get back to you.” He put the bags aside.

  “Okay,” she said and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. She looked relieved. She also looked as if she wasn’t anxious to go. “Once we find out who he really is...”

  “I’m sure you realize that neither his fingerprints nor his DNA might be in any of the databases. Unless there is something to compare his fingerprints or DNA to...”

  “He has to have been arrested for something.”

  “We don’t know that. Like I said, what he’s doing isn’t illegal. You need to accept the real probability that you’ll never know who he is or why he came here.” Darby gave him a smile that argued differently. He could see that it was inconceivable to her that she might never know. She wouldn’t rest until she got to the bottom of it. She was certainly in the right profession, it seemed.

  She gave a determined shake of her head. A lock of hair fell over her forehead. He fought the urge to reach out and guide it back into her pixie cut.

  “You know I’m not wrong about him,” she said. “He’s in a database somewhere. He’s going to pop up because this man has had a brush with the law.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m sending you the photo so maybe later you’ll take a better look at it. Or show it to the person you give the hair and cup to.” Glancing up, she asked, “What’s your number?”

  He could see that arguing with her was a waste of breath. He gave her his mobile number with a silent groan.

  “If you still don’t recognize anyone in the photo, maybe you could show it to Bessie or one of your other friends. You do have friends, don’t you?” He ignored that. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Every day that man dispenses his poison—”

  “I’ll do what I can. No promises, remember?”

  She shifted on her feet as if there was more she wanted to say before she seemed to realize that she’d said enough and headed for the door. “I’ll see myself out.”

  “You saw yourself in, so I’m sure you can find the way,” he said.

  Darby shot an amused look over her shoulder. “Good to see you too, Jasper.” And she was gone.

  He waited until he heard her drive away before he picked up the phone and made the call.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  EARL RAY CAULFIELD considered the bags with the gray hair and the dirty coffee cup before looking at the man sitting at his kitchen table. He’d been busy for months with the house. He and Bessie had bought an older house in Buckhorn that desperately needed remodeling. He was overseeing the remodel, doing a lot of the work himself.

  He’d waited until Bessie had gone to the café before he’d told Jasper to come over. After a tour of the house, he’d gotten them both a cup of coffee and they’d settled at the kitchen table he used as a desk. Jasper had said on the phone that he had a favor to ask. Earl Ray had heard the tension in the man’s voice. Whatever it was, he’d had no doubt that it was something important.

  But he hadn’t expected to be handed a bag of gray hair and a dirty coffee cup first thing in the morning.

  “I figured if anyone could help...” Jasper said. “It would be you.”

  That made him smile. It also made him wonder how much Jasper knew about him to think that. Earl Ray kept a low profile. People in town thought he was a war hero. He’d never considered himself a hero of any kind. But he’d done what needed to be done in the military and still did that for the town of Buckhorn.

  He was pretty sure his military service was under top security protection—just like Jasper’s record with the big-city police department where he’d worked as a homicide detective. Earl Ray hadn’t had any trouble finding out what he needed to know about the man when Jasper had moved back to Buckhorn. He’d taken on the job of protecting the town. That meant knowing the people who came and went. What he learned he kept to himself—as long as there were no problems that needed to be dealt with.

  “Like I told you, I hate to ask,” Jasper continued. “But our new publisher, editor, reporter in town isn’t going to stop until she finds out who Leviathan Nash really is.”

  Earl Ray smiled. “Nice of you to help her.”

  The former lawman shook his head. “It wasn’t at gunpoint, but damned close. That woman... Trust me, you’ve never seen such dogged, stubborn, pigheaded determination.”

  He laughed. “Did you forget that I’m married to Bessie?” They both laughed. “Why did Darby come to you with this?”

  Jasper looked embarrassed. “She thinks I’m more...capable than I am.”

  Earl Ray would question that, but he let it go.

  “Also, she got a copy of a photograph she found.” He watched Jasper pull out his phone, find the photo and pass it over. “She thought maybe someone might recognize the people in it.”

  He took the phone and studied the old photograph for a few minutes before shaking his head. “You might show it to Bessie. She’s better with faces than I am. I guess it’s all those years running a café.” He handed the phone back.

  “I’m sure you’ve been following the incidents in town. Vi Mullen told Darby that they’re tied to the new shop owner.”

  Earl Ray had expected as much. It was no coincidence that the trouble had started when Leviathan Nash came to town. “I won’t ask how Darby got these...personal items.”

  “Best not to,” Jasper agreed. “I told her that his DNA might not be in any of the databanks. But if it doesn’t get a hit, I’m afraid she’ll go back to find more evidence.”

  Earl Ray had met Darby. He thought Jasper was right. “I’ll see what I can do.” He hesitated. “Have you gotten an invitation to Gossip?”

  “Two so far. I threw both away. How about you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m surprised you didn’t go. You aren’t curious?”

  Jasper shook his head. “Not at all.”

  Laughing, Earl Ray studied him. “I don’t even think you believe that, but I don’t blame you. I would be hesitant as well. But you have to wonder what information the man has and how he got it—and what he has on us, if anything.”

  Jasper laughed. “You sound like Darby.” Their gazes locked for a moment, both of them men of secrets—and regrets. Regrets were just part of it. He finished his coffee and stood to go. “I should get going. Ruby’s waiting.”

  Earl Ray smiled, remembering his wife’s plot to get Jasper the puppy for companionship. He’d advised against it. One of the many times he’d been wrong, he thought. Thinking of Bessie... “You happen to notice all the crows lately?” he asked, looking toward the window and the now-empty phone lines. “Fascinating birds. Wicked smart. Proportionally, some crows have bigger brains than we do.”

  “I feel like you’re getting at something here,” Jasper said.

  He smiled and nodded. “Do you know why crows gather like they have been?”

  “My grandmother would say because something bad is coming.”

  Earl Ray laughed. “Crows gather to fight off their predators, safety in numbers, or to share facts like where there is abundant food—or where there is danger. Mass gatherings can also be for a funeral of one of their own to let others know this is not a safe place for them.”