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Back The Last Goodnight Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Also by
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. EPILOGUE
  50. Teaser Chapter

“Looks like a piece of red flannel.” She plucked it off the single strand of barbed wire that ran along the top of the fence. “He must have caught it as he was arriving or leaving.”

“Could belong to anyone.”

Ellie studied the direct line between the knoll and the road. “It could be, but I’m betting it doesn’t.”

Kade took the small red square out of her palm. His fingers clenched around it. “I’m going to find him. And when I do, he’s going to wish he had never trespassed on my land.”

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

WITH THEIR TRIP TO TOWN CANCELED, ELLIE RETURNED TO THE kitchen while Kade phoned Eagle County Sheriff Glen Carver. He showed up an hour later, a broad-shouldered man in his late-thirties with thinning brown hair cut short. Ellie wandered out as Kade talked to him about the shooting. Carver asked all the right questions, said he’d take a ride out to look at the second steer, but there was something in his eyes when he looked at Kade that made her wonder about him.

She went back inside and worked with Maria to put supper on the table, a meal of ham and lima beans with cornbread and honey butter, apple cobbler for dessert.

When supper was over, Ellie went to her room to check her email. Her laptop sat on the pretty Victorian writing desk in the sitting area. She sat down in the small, ornately carved chair in front of the screen and pulled up her mail. Conn had sent her a copy of the police report, which dated to the time Heather’s body had been found, but there wasn’t much in it.

At the time, Sheriff Carver had interviewed some of the locals, but by then the case was cold. Two years earlier, everyone, including Kade, had assumed Heather had taken off for parts unknown and simply disappeared.

Needing a little fresh air, Ellie wandered outside, crossing the yard toward the barn, a big two-story, metal-roofed, wooden structure painted brown. Darkness had settled in. In the quiet, she could hear the soft sound of branches rustling in the breeze and horses moving around in the pasture.

Smoke trotted up beside her, and she scratched behind his ears as she walked through the open sliding double doors. The familiar smell of hay and horses greeted her, along with the shuffle of hooves in one of the stalls.

A dainty little bay mare nickered and stuck her head over the top of her enclosure. Ellie rubbed the velvety nose and straightened the horse’s topknot. “Aren’t you a pretty girl?” The mare nickered softly.

“Her name’s Buttercup.” Kade’s deep voice came out of the shadows. “The vet gave her a tetanus shot for a cut on her hock, but she’s almost healed. She’ll be fine in a couple of days. Maybe you’d like to ride her sometime.”