Justice at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels

case.”
    “Are you sure it’s all right if I stay?” Stacy asked. “Hud doesn’t seem—”
    “He’s just being territorial,” she said. “He can’t stand the idea that anyone might think he can’t take care of his family.” Dana reached for her sister’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m glad you and Ella are here.”
    * * *
    L IZA FIGURED J ORDAN C ARDWELL had lied to her at least twice during breakfast.
    “I need to know everything you can remember that led up to Tanner’s death,” she said when they’d finished their breakfast and the waitress had cleared away their plates and refilled their coffee cups.
    The scent of pine blew down on the breeze from the mountain peaks. She breathed in the fall day and pulled out her notebook. They still had the café deck to themselves and the sun felt heavenly after so little sleep last night.
    “We were seniors.” Jordan shrugged. “Not much was going on.”
    “Who did Tanner date after his breakup with Shelby?”
    “A couple of different girls.”
    “Who was he dating in the weeks or days before he died?” she asked.
    “Brittany Cooke.” The way he said it gave him away.
    “You liked her?” she asked with interest.
    His shrug didn’t fool her.
    “You used to date her?”
    He laughed, meeting her gaze. “You got all that out of a shrug?”
    “Who were you dating at the time?” she asked.
    “I don’t see what—”
    “Humor me.”
    “I can’t remember.”
    She laughed and leaned back in her chair to eye him. “You don’t remember who you were dating the spring of your senior year? Give me a break.”
    “I wasn’t dating anyone, really. It’s a small community, cliques. There weren’t a lot of options unless you dated someone from Bozeman. I was just anxious to graduate and get out of here.”
    “Shelby and Brittany were in one of these cliques?”
    “Not Brittany. Brittany and Shelby got along, but she was never really one of them. But Shelby, yeah. She was the leader of the mean girls—you know the type. Too much money, too much everything.”
    Liza knew the type only too well. “So what happened when Brittany went out with Tanner?”
    “I’m sure Shelby would deny it, but her and her group of friends closed Brittany out.”
    “What did Tanner think about that?”
    “He thought it was funny. Believe me, that wasn’t why he killed himself. Don’t get me wrong, Tanner liked Shelby. He went with her a lot longer than any other girl. But once he found out she’d been trying to get pregnant to trap him, it was all over. He wasn’t ready to settle down. He’d worked two jobs all through high school while getting good grades so he could do some of the things he’d always wanted to do. Both of us couldn’t wait to travel.”
    “And get out of the canyon,” Liza said.
    “Tanner not as much as me. He would have come back to the family ranch. He was a cowboy.”
    “He wasn’t from Big Sky resort money?”
    “Naw, his folks have a ranch down the canyon. They do okay, just like everyone else who still ranches around here. As my sister is fond of saying, it’s a lifestyle more than a paying career. Tanner loved that lifestyle, was happiest in a saddle and not afraid of hard work.”
    “He sounds like a nice, sensible young man.”
    “He was.” Jordan looked away toward the mountains for a long moment. “He worked a lot of odd jobs throughout high school. That’s how he ended up at that cabin on the mountain. He talked his folks into letting him stay there because it was closer to school. He traded watching the landowner’s construction equipment for the small cabin where he lived that spring.”
    “He didn’t want to live at home?”
    Jordan grinned. “Not his senior year. His parents were strict, like all parents when you’re that age. Tanner wanted to be on his own and his folks were okay with it.”
    “So who were the mean girls?”
    “Shelby, the leader. Tessa, her closest ally. Whitney. Ashley. They were the inner