Branded

The interior of the house came as a surprise. Given the way Millie Granger was dressed, Halley had expected a lot of doilies, ruffled curtains and crocheted pillows. Instead, the feel was more masculine, including the huge stretched and dried rattlesnake skin that hung over the fireplace. She shivered. She’d never liked snakes, but she shouldn’t have been that surprised that Sid Granger did.

Sid turned abruptly the moment they were inside. “I don’t want him in my hou—”

“Colton found your daughter’s purse,” Halley said, raising her voice over his. “As I said, her driver’s license is in it along with a bus ticket from fourteen years ago and $200 in cash.”

Sid shook his head. “How is that possible?”

“That’s what we’d like to know. Did your daughter mention losing her purse?” she asked the mother.

Millie was a petite woman who looked as if she might blow away in a strong wind. The word mousy came to mind and, Halley noticed, Millie Granger was also clearly nervous. She was wearing a faded print apron. She kneaded the hem of it in her fingers, worrying at a hole in the fabric as she looked at her husband, as if fearful of what he might do.

Halley was wondering the same thing. Sid Granger’s jaw was set, his body practically trembling with anger.

“There must be some mistake,” Millie said in a small voice, her gaze still on her husband.

“You say you heard from your daughter last week?” Halley asked. Neither answered. “Is there a problem?” Clearly, there was, since Millie seemed to be waiting for her husband to say something.

“It’s a family matter,” Sid said through clenched teeth. “We don’t discuss family matters with—”

“She ran away fourteen years ago,” Millie blurted out, finally dragging her gaze from her husband. Sid shot her a lethal look.

Halley already knew from the letter Colton had received that running away had been Jessica’s plan. “Was there an argument?”

Sid Granger had his lips clamped shut. He was still glaring at his wife.

“We didn’t hear from her for a while,” Millie said timidly. “But then we got a letter from her.”

“So you’ve been in contact with her?” Halley asked. Again the Grangers exchanged a look. “You’ve talked to her?”

“She writes every year on her birthday, but there is never a return address and she mails the letters from different places. She doesn’t want us to know where she is.” Millie’s voice broke.

“It’s not us she is trying to get away from,” Sid bellowed. “It’s him!” He thrust a finger at Colton. “We lost

our daughter because of him!” He took a menacing step toward him. “I want this man out of my house. Now.”

“Let’s all settle down,” Halley said, giving Colton a warning look as she stepped between the two men.

“Jessica got away from him and I won’t have him—”

“You’re the reason she was leaving,” Colton snapped. “She would have done anything to get out of this house and away from you.”

“Maybe it would be better if you left,” Halley said, turning to glare at Colton. He was only making the situation worse.

“I’m not going anywhere until I see the letter from Jessica.”

Halley would have liked to haul him out of the house in handcuffs just as she’d warned him. “If we could all just calm down.”

“Not until that bastard is out of my house!”

“Sid, let the deputy tell us why she’s here,” Millie Granger said loudly, then quickly lowered her voice. “Please.” She kneaded again at the tear in her apron, her voice again as tiny as she was.

The tension in the room dropped a notch.

“Could we all sit down?” Halley asked.

Sid grudgingly took a chair, scowling the whole time at Colton, who sat down on one end of the couch, Halley on the other. She wondered what he’d done to Jessica that warranted this much hatred from the girl’s father. Was Colton right and it was just a father’s love of his only daughter? Or something more sinister on either of the two men’s parts?

“We need to be sure that Jessica is all right,” Halley said. “Finding her purse raises questions, as I’m sure you realize. Could I see the letters from your daughter?”

This time Millie didn’t look to her husband for guidance. She rose and, avoiding his gaze, went to a bedroom off the living room. She returned a few moments later with a small bundle of letters tied with a red ribbon.

She handed them to the deputy. As Halley undid the ribbon, she noted that there were over a dozen letters.

Before she could react, Colton stood and leaned over to snatch the top envelope from the pile.

Sid Granger shot out of his chair. Halley quickly took the letter back. But not before Colton had let out a cry that sounded almost like a sob.

“That isn’t Jessica’s handwriting,” he said, his voice breaking, as he snatched another envelope from her hand, opened it and pulled out the short letter. He looked devastated. “These letters aren’t from Jessica.”

Chapter Three

Colton felt as if he’d been kicked in the chest by a mule. All these years her parents had believed she was alive because of letters that weren’t from her at all?

“How could you believe the letters were from Jessica?” he demanded.

Millie was crying and wringing her hands in the cloth of her apron. Her husband looked as if he was trying to restrain himself. Colton was glad he hadn’t opted to come here without the deputy because he was having the same problem not going for Sid Granger’s throat.

“A person’s handwriting can change,” Millie was saying through her tears.

“If she was alive, why wouldn’t she call?” Colton demanded. “Why was Jessica so afraid to let her own family know where she was unless she hated you so much—”

“You punk!” Sid Granger sprang to his feet. “It was you she was trying to get away from.”

“Why would Jessica send me a letter asking me to run away with her if I was the problem?” Colton demanded, not backing down as he, too, shot to his feet.

“Colton,” the deputy warned as she stepped between them again. “Mr. Granger, I need to know why you’re so angry at Mr. Chisholm.”

Colton narrowed his gaze at her. Clearly, she was looking for just one more reason to hang him, but he stepped back, raising his hands in surrender.

“What was it you thought Mr. Chisholm did to your daughter?” Halley asked again.

Sid Granger seemed to have trouble speaking. He swallowed several times, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Tears filled his eyes. He hastily brushed them away with his shirtsleeve. Anger reddened his face. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“He got her pregnant,” Millie said from the rocker where she’d been sitting crying.

Colton took the news like a blow. He lowered himself to the couch. Looking up, he saw the deputy’s face. She’d obviously been anticipating something like this. Was this the news Jessica had wanted to tell him that night?

“He knocked her up and refused to marry her,” Sid finally managed to get out.