Page 1 of Fatal Deception
Chapter One
Audra Young didn’t mind having the whole ranch to herself, even if it meant working from sunup to sundown. She didn’t mind the quiet, the solitude. She didn’t even mind making her own meals.
If her neighbor, Natalie Kirk, didn’t send over leftovers, Audra baked herself silly and subsisted off brownies and breads. Either worked for her.
Which was good because she was losing roommates left and right. First, her second cousin, Vi, had gotten married and moved into town with her daughter and new husband. Then, just last week, her sister, Rosalie, had gone and married Duncan Kirk and jetted off on a long and well-deserved honeymoon.
Which just left Audra’sothercousin, Franny Perkins. But Franny was at a writer’s conference that would culminate in spending a few weeks in Washington with her folks.
Audra was well and truly on her own for at least three more weeks. The first few days had been fun. She got to do everything her way, which included none of Rosalie’s messiness or Franny’s distracting conversations.
Moving into week two ofjust her, it felt a bit lonely. She walked up to the mailbox, her usual post-workday but pre-dinner routine, thinking some company would be nice. Maybe a dog or two to trek around with her. But Franny was terribly allergic to dogs, so it didn’t seem right to get one.
Maybe she could hire on a hand. No doubt she could find a woman who wanted a little work in exchange for room and board.
But that was the problem. Audra couldn’t offer much more than that. She was still digging out of the hole her parents had left her four years ago, and keeping the ranch just breaking even meant not hiring anyone on.
She paused when she opened the door to the mailbox, surprised to find a package inside. She wasn’t expecting anything. Probably Rosalie sending something from Italy just because she knew it would give Audra a thrill.
Smiling at the thought of that, and her sister happily married to her absolute perfect match, Audra pulled everything out, then took the long walk back to the house.
Nothing much had changed there in the last thirty years. Her parents had never been ones forimprovements.
Audra patched up what she could when necessary, doing everything in her power to avoid the expense of hiring someone to fix things. But that porch was starting to sag, and come spring, she’d need someone to check on the crooked gutter.
And she’d have to figure out a way to afford it because if things didn’t get donenow, Rosalie would start trying to pay for things because her new husband was loaded.
Franny claimed it was pointless Wyoming stubbornness that kept Audra refusing Duncan’s overtures, and maybe she was right, but Audra wanted to know that she… Well, that she was better than her parents.
And sure, that was probably worthy of some therapy in and of itself, but she couldn’t afford that either.
Back home, she scraped off her muddy boots on the outside mat, then immediately toed them off in the entry. She carefully lined them up where they belonged before making her way intothe kitchen, where she flipped through the mail, then retrieved scissors to open the package.
She studied it more carefully now. It was addressed to “the family of Audra Young.” Which was…weird and definitely not from Rosalie. Weirder still was the bright orange sticker on the bottom corner that read Cremated Remains.
Audra paused. Her father had been cremated, but that was four years ago, and the remains had been given to his other family. Audra was quite fine with that.
Had they changed their minds? Divvied some up? Did Audra want to know?
Not wanting to dive into those questions, she dealt with the rest of the mail first. She threw away the junk, put the bill in the to-pay pile and then turned back to the counter, where she’d left…the remains.
She sighed. She had to dosomethingabout them. She couldn’t just leave a box labeled Cremated Remains lying around. Unless Audra hid it away in her room, Franny was likely to come across it and neither of those options suited.
Gripping the scissors, Audra grimaced and cut through the tape keeping the box closed. Maybe if the ashes were in a smaller container she would be able to find somewhere to hide it away. Maybe Rosalie would…want this.
Though Audra doubted it. Rosalie used to worship their dad, but Audra had ruined that when she confessed last year that Audra had been the one to do or make Dad do all the things Rosalie had given him credit for over the years.
Audra still regretted coming clean, except Rosalie had needed to know that in order to get over her reservations about Duncan. And he was perfect for her. Now they were married and happy and…
Audra blew out a long breath. “Okay, Audra. Be a grown-up.” She pulled the flaps of the box back to reveal a bunch of bubblewrap. Trying not to think, just act, she pulled out the contents, then slowly began to unwrap them.
Eventually, a fancy black urn came into view. It had to be Dad. It had to be.
There was a little engraved plaque on the side, so Audra turned it over and read…
Audra Gail Young.
For a long moment, she stood perfectly still, having absolutely no thoughts in her head as she stared at her name engraved on this container.