High-Calibre Christmas. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ she parked and got out, she noticed that her grandmother’s old Blue Heeler didn’t get up, didn’t even growl, as she walked to the door. The dog just watched her as if uninterested.

      Before she could knock, Enid opened the door. Her sour look was more accusing than usual.

      “It’s been hell here,” the old housekeeper snapped. Enid was one of those broomstick–thin, brittle old women with a nasty disposition.

      Everyone in the family wondered why Pepper Winchester kept her on. Most figured Enid had something she held over the matriarch’s head—and they didn’t want to know what it was.

      “Pepper and Virginia have been at each other’s throats,” Enid said as she led the way inside.

      Nothing new there, McCall thought. From down a long hallway, she heard the sound of her grandmother’s cane tapping on the old hardwood flooring.

      Pepper Winchester was a tall, regal-looking woman. What had struck McCall the first time she’d seen her was how much she resembled her grandmother. Since then she’d seen photographs of Pepper at her age. There had been little doubt that McCall was a Winchester.

      As usual, her grandmother had her salt-and-peppered dark hair pulled back in a braid that snaked over one shoulder. What was unusual was that her grandmother wasn’t wearing black.

      For the past twenty-seven years, Pepper had been a recluse, locked away in this big place with just Enid and Enid’s husband, Alfred. Her grandmother had worn black the entire time.

      Today, though, she wore jeans, a Western shirt and moccasins. She looked younger than her seventy-two years and actually smiled as she approached.

      “I’m sure Enid complained to you,” she said as she motioned toward the lodge parlor.

      A small fire burned there, taking the chill off the November day. McCall took one of the leather chairs and watched her grandmother lower herself into the other one in front of the fire.

      “How is Aunt Virginia?” McCall asked.

      Pepper made a face. “Angry, sad, bitter. Pretty much what you would expect.”

      McCall thought of Jace’s reaction to the news. “Jace Dennison is back in town for his mother’s and uncle’s funerals.”

      “You told him?”

      McCall nodded. “He didn’t take it well.”

      Pepper chuckled. “He wasn’t glad to be a Winchester?” she asked with a wry smile. “Imagine that.”

      “I doubt he’ll be in town long. Just long enough to get his business done, and then he’ll be gone, probably for good.”

      Pepper nodded. “I have no idea what Virginia is thinking. She’s still angry at me. All these years she suspected I had something to do with her baby dying.”

      “I’m sorry.”

      “You suspected that I had something to do with the babies being switched.”

      McCall didn’t deny it. “I can’t imagine what I would be feeling if I found out that the child I gave birth to didn’t die but is alive—and thirty years old.”

      “Marie will always be Jace’s mother,” Pepper said.

      “Don’t you think Virginia wants to see him? I could talk to her.”

      “Talk to me about what?” Virginia said from the doorway. She was tall like her mother, with the Winchester dark coloring, but lacked Pepper’s beauty at her age.

      “Jace Dennison is in town for the funerals,” Pepper said to her daughter.

      Virginia’s gaze settled on McCall. “You’ve seen him?”

      “He’s definitely a Winchester.”

      “Handsome?” she asked almost hopefully.

      “Very. Stubborn. Independent. And probably impatient just like all the Winchesters,” McCall said.

      Virginia smiled ruefully. “You’re trying to tell me that he isn’t going to want to see me.”

      “It isn’t up to him,” Pepper snapped. “Do what you want. Just don’t expect miracles.”

      “Thank you, Mother,” she said sarcastically.

      When McCall looked up, Virginia was gone. She got to her feet. “I should get back to town.”

      “I’m glad you took my advice and ran for sheriff.”

      McCall laughed. “No one else wanted the job.” She studied her grandmother. “Why does it matter so much to you?”

      “I told you. You’re good at what you do. The county needs someone like you.”

      McCall wasn’t so sure about that. “Does this desire you have for me to be sheriff have anything to do with my father’s death?”

      “We would have never known he was murdered if it wasn’t for you,” her grandmother said. “One of his killers is dead because of you.”

      McCall caught the “one of his killers.” “We don’t know that his killer didn’t act alone.”

      Her grandmother gave her an impatient look. “Don’t we?”

      McCall sighed. “What are you planning to do?”

      “Nothing. I know you will find out the truth. That’s why you make such a good sheriff.”

      McCall looked at her grandmother and saw there was no reason to waste her breath arguing with her. So she just picked up her hat, kissed her grandmother on her cheek and left.

      But as she drove away, she couldn’t help but glance back in her side mirror. Her grandmother stood at the door, watching her leave, an expression of determination etched into the woman’s weathered face.

      Pepper Winchester was a force to be reckoned with, and she was convinced that someone in her family had betrayed her—and was a coconspirator in her youngest son’s murder. Clearly, she wouldn’t rest until she found out the truth.

      McCall feared what that truth would do to her grandmother.

      JACE QUICKLY FORGOT about Ava Carris. Running into Kayley after all these years had him reeling. She’d been the love of his life.

      Back in high school he’d thought she always would be. All he’d wanted was to marry her. They’d already started their family—Kayley had been a couple of months pregnant.

      He had been so excited about being a father.

      Then tragedy had struck. His father died. Two weeks later, Kayley lost the baby. It shattered his picture of the future. Suddenly all that loss had changed everything. Jace knew he had been running from all that pain when he’d left Kayley, left Whitehorse.

      He’d hated himself for running СКАЧАТЬ