He’d realized that as well and that was one reason he was so upset with her. He knew she was keeping things from him. But explaining what had happened between her and the rainmaker before Russell had burst in was impossible.

She still didn’t understand it herself.

After he’d left, she’d thought about going upstairs to do more digging. She’d already found one photograph. There had to be more since nothing seemed to have been taken but the child’s clothing. Wasn’t it possible there were old letters? Something that could provide the answers she so desperately needed, especially now?

She had started back up the stairs, her legs still weak, her heart still racing from their lovemaking, but the sound of the rainmaker’s hammer clanging against the pipes reverberated inside her skull and sent her rushing from the house. That and the memory of the rainmaker’s face.

Dulcie brushed the thought away as she waited for the schoolteacher. Jolene had been investigating Laura Beaumont’s murder and apparently didn’t want anyone to know. Dulcie couldn’t wait to ask the schoolteacher why.

Jolene came out of the school and double-checked the door to make sure it was locked. Dulcie thought of how she’d done the same thing at the farmhouse. Was Jolene worried that someone had been getting in—just as Dulcie was? What else did they have in common? she wondered, as she followed the teacher to her house.

“I have some iced tea,” Jolene said as she parked her bike against the side of the house and opened the front door.

“I’d love some.”

Fans whirred in the windows, circulating the hot air. “Sorry, I don’t have air-conditioning. Just have a seat anywhere,” Jolene called from the kitchen.

Dulcie remained standing until Jolene returned. She took the tall, sweating glass offered her and sipped the tea. “This is wonderful. Thank you.”

Jolene nodded, looking nervous. “I really don’t know anything—”

“Let’s sit down,” Dulcie said, taking a seat across from her. “Why are you researching Laura Beaumont’s death?”

“I was just curious.”

“Why would you be interested in her murder? I know you aren’t from around here. All I can assume is that you learned something about her death that made you curious.”

“If you inherited the house then you know more about—”

“I never heard of Laura Beaumont until after my parents died and I was told I’d inherited property in Montana,” Dulcie said. “I didn’t even know there was a house on the land, let alone that the woman who’d left it to me had been murdered—or that she’d had a little girl.”

Jolene took a sip of her tea.

Dulcie saw that her hands were trembling. “Jolene, some very strange things have been happening from the first time I laid eyes on that house. If you know something, please, help me.”