Montana Sky Justice by Debra Holland

Author:Debra Holland [Holland, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939813619
Publisher: No Publisher
Published: 2018-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

After choosing her posse, finishing the final instructions for them to collect their supplies and meet up, sending other men from the town to swap out with her deputies blocking the roads and sending the Harvest Festival goers home with warnings, and answering a dozen questions, K.C. strode down the aisle to leave the church, already thinking about what she needed to do before they could leave town.

Little Lizzy Carter—sitting at the end of a middle pew with her family—bounced to her feet, darted in front of K.C., and stopped, staring up at her. Determination sat oddly on her delicate face. “Sheriff,” she whispered.

Startled, K.C. halted before she could plow into the child. What is it with girls throwing themselves at me today? And this one, especially?

The youngest Carter girl had never spoken to her. When K.C. was around, the shy child usually hid behind her mother or father or clung to their hands. For her to work up the courage to approach me, Lizzy must believe whatever she has to say is important.

John Carter rose and moved next to his daughter, gazing down at the child with bunched eyebrows and a bewildered expression, as if his wren had just turned into a cuckoo bird.

The rest of the family and the Thompsons in the pew behind them all appeared surprised and interested.

“What is it, Lizzy?” K.C. tried to hide her impatience. If she frightened the girl, Lizzy might retreat to speechlessness, and there wasn’t time to coax her to speak.

“Sheriff,” Lizzy repeated in a tiny voice. “The girl who threw herself at you after the race? The one wearing the yellow dress?”

“I remember.”

“Her name is Ariadne. I saw her with her papa. They both had eyes the color of Mama’s topazes, and her papa carried a heavy suitcase. Something about them wasn’t right.”

K.C. cocked her head, looking at the girl with fresh eyes, struck by her perceptiveness. Gold eyes. Lizzy had probably seen Hieronymus Orloff. Interesting that he’d stuck around after she’d forced his donation and had a daughter. Had he used his child for another con?

Remembering Orloff’s shifty behavior in glancing at the bank safe, for a minute, she wondered if he could have taken part in the robbery. But from the witnesses she’d interviewed—Jonah Barrett having been the most sharp-eyed—K.C. had eked out descriptions of all the robbers, and none matched the soap salesman. Not that Barrett had seen all the men’s eyes.

She leaned closer to the little girl. “You’re correct, Lizzy, Ariadne’s father is a bad man. I caught him trying to cheat people earlier. Thank you for telling me.” She managed a smile. “You were brave to approach me with this information.” With a pat on the girl’s head, she continued on down the aisle.

As K.C. turned to leave, she heard Samantha Thompson say to the child, “I spoke with them Lizzy—the girl in the yellow dress and her father. Mr. Moriarty mentioned having a wife and sons, although I didn’t meet them. The two were very charming, almost too charming.

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