Page 7 of Rawhide and Ransom

“How dare you,” Annalee gasped. “Whatever twisted game you’re playing, you’ll never get away with it!” Who was this woman, and what was her game?

“Too late,” the woman mocked. “Your husband is dead, your farm was foreclosed on while you were in a coma, and your daughter is missing.”

Annalee’s knees buckled over the way the nasty woman had tied all three events together — like they were related or something. Her hand shot out to brace herself against the wall of the dry cleaning building.

“Who are you?” she rasped.Why are you doing this?

“I’m you, of course,” the strange woman assured with another one of her strange, humorless laughs. “As far as the rest of the world is concerned, you no longer exist, my dear. Your life has been taken as a ransom.”

I’m not your dear, you freak!“A ransom for what?” Annalee was beginning to doubt the sanity of the person she was speaking to.

The line went dead.

“No, no, no, no, no!” She frenziedly redialed the number, but it went straight to voicemail. Again and again and again.

“Annie,” Maggie called from inside the store.

“Coming,” Annalee called back. She frantically dialed her daughter’s cell phone one last time but got the same result. By the time she stepped back into the dry cleaning facility, she was battling tears. The fact that her daughter appeared to be missing was news to her.

I have to find her!Preferably before the crazy woman on the phone found her.

As she re-entered the shop, she found Maggie staring wide-eyed at a television screen mounted to the wall. A news station anchor was blabbing about a woman who’d stolen another woman’s identity.

Wait. What?

Annalee blinked at the sketch that flashed across the screen. It was a sketch ofher. She felt the color leave her face.

Maggie’s head swiveled her way, and her startled gaze clashed with Annalee’s. “Is that you? Is your real name Annalee?”

Annalee shook her head helplessly. “I can explain.”

“I’m sure you can.” Maggie darted around the front desk and snatched her cell phone from Annalee. “I’m so sorry, but they said we should report any sighting of you to the police.”

Annalee gaped at her. “Do I look dangerous to you?” She was armed with nothing more than a granola bar!

Maggie doggedly started dialing. “I’m so sorry,” she said again, lifting the phone to her ear.

“That makes two of us!” Wondering what the world was coming to, Annalee reached for the second bottle of water Maggie had laid on the cabinet for her and moved to the door.

“Wait,” Maggie called after her.

“Not a chance.” Annalee waved her bottle of water in the air without turning around. “Thanks for the water,” she called. She’d made it too far to turn back now. Sheer determination gave her the strength to walk across the parking lot and wobble onto the shoulder of the highway. She stuck out her thumb, shuffling backwards. “Please, God,” she begged, “help me find my daughter!” She also needed to get out of Clarendon before she got hauled to the sheriff’s office for questioning.

She walked for a few minutes, surprised by how long it was taking the police to arrive. The dry cleaning place soon dropped out of sight.

A rusty green pickup truck sped past her without making any attempt to slow down.

She sighed and wearily dropped her arm.

Then a cattle trailer rolled her way and squawked its brakes as it slowed down. The passenger door popped open, and an old cowboy leaned her way. “Where ya headin’?”

She waved vaguely in the same direction he was going.

He beckoned her closer. “Hop in. I’m on my way to Heart Lake. If you need to stop sooner, just give a holler.”

Heart Lake.It sounded familiar. She wondered why, and then she remembered.

Heart Lake was located next to the Comanche reservation where her late husband’s father had grown up — the same place Miley had always insisted she wanted to visit someday to get in touch with her stepdad’s roots, whatever that meant. If Miley was truly missing, like the whack job over the phone had claimed, it was possible she’d found her way there.

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