Free CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH by B.J. Daniels Page B

on the fourth floor, stat.
    “I’m sorry. Did I catch you in the middle of something?”
    “I’m at the hospital. Someone ransacked my father’s cabin and beat him up.”
    “Is he all right?” She sounded as shocked as he felt right now.
    “The doctor thinks he’s going to recover. He’s unconscious. The marshal is here now.” He looked down the hall and saw that Hud was also on his cell phone. Tag wondered who was on the other end of the line. Uncle Angus?
    “Did he tell you that Mia Duncan’s condo was also ransacked?”
    It took Tag a moment to realize she was referring to the marshal—not Harlan or Angus. “No, he didn’t mention that.” Another reason not to trust Hud—as if he needed more.
    “That’s odd. First Mia’s condo is ransacked and she’s murdered, then your father’s cabin and he gets beaten up. This is Montana. Things like that just don’t happen.”
    Apparently they did. “That is odd,” he said. First Mia’s, now his father’s place? Had Harlan come home and surprised his intruders? Or had they torn up the place after they tried to kill him?
    “I’m sure there’s no connection.”
    “Yeah.” He didn’t want to see a connection to his father and the murdered woman, but the coincidences just kept stacking up. “So you say those letters are actually names?” He knew he sounded skeptical.
    “I have only started decoding them, but yes, they appear to be names. I can’t really explain it over the phone. But I thought you’d want to know right away.”
    He glanced down the hall. Hud was still on his cell phone, his back turned to Tag. What if Mia had put that computer thumb drive in his pocket last night?
    “I want to see what you’ve found.” More than she could know.
    “You’re welcome to come up to my place when you’re ready to leave the hospital.”
    “Give me your address. I’ll come over as soon as I can, if that’s all right.”
    She rattled off an address on Sky-High Road up on the mountain. “It’s at the end of the road.”
    As he disconnected, he saw the doctor coming down the hall. “Harlan is conscious,” he said to the marshal, then looked in Tag’s direction. “He’d like to see his son.”
    Hud started to say something, but the doctor cut him off. “He said he’ll talk to you after he talks to his son.”
    Tag walked down the hall and pushed open the door into his father’s hospital room. Harlan looked as if he’d been hit by a bus, but he was sitting up a little and his gaze was intent as he watched Tag enter.
    “You gave me a scare,” Tag said as he stopped at the end of his father’s bed.
    “Sorry about that.” Harlan’s voice was hoarse. He was clearly in pain, but he was doing his best to hide it. “The marshal will catch the little hoodlums. How times have changed. They’re targeting old people now for our prescription drugs.” He chuckled even though it clearly hurt him to do so.
    “Whoever beat you up, they weren’t after your arthritis medicine,” Tag said evenly. He couldn’t believe how angry he was at his father for continuing to lie to him. “What were they really looking for, Dad? ”
    His father’s expression hardened. “Stay out of this, son. That’s why I wanted to see you. I want—”
    “That woman who was at your cabin was Mia Duncan, wasn’t it?”
    Harlan sighed. “I told you. I don’t know anyone by that name.”
    Tag shook his head and tried to still his growing anger. “You just keep lying to me. What business is Uncle Angus away on?”
    “Why are you asking me that?”
    “Because the two of you are inseparable. You can finish each other’s sentences. You have to know where he’s gone and why.”
    “I guess what I should have asked is why is it any of your business?” Harlan said, an edge to his voice.
    Tag pulled off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair as he tried to control his temper. “I know something’s going on with the two of you, and it has to do with that woman who