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who it was from the moment she saw the handwriting.
    Throw it away. Don’t even open it.
    The last thing she needed was to get something from her sister Stacy today.
    The envelope wascard-shaped. Probably just a birthday card. But considering that she and Stacy hadn’t spoken to each other in five years…
    She started to toss the envelope in the trash but stopped. Why would her sister decide to contact her now? Certainly not because it was her birthday. No, Stacy was trying to butter her up. Kind of like good cop, bad cop with Jordan opting of course for the bad cop role. Her other brother Clay was more of the duck-for-cover type when there was conflict in the family.
    Dana couldn’t help herself. She ripped open the envelope, not surprised to find she’d been right. A birthday card.
    On the front was a garden full of flowers and the words, For My Sister. Dana opened the card.
    “Wishing you happiness on your birthday and always.”
    “Right. Your big concern has always been my happiness,” Dana muttered.
    The card was signed, Stacy. Then in small print under it were the words, “I am so sorry.”
    Dana balled up the card and hurled it across the room, remembering a time when she’d idolized her older sister. Stacy was everything Dana had once wanted to be. Beautiful, popular, the perfect older sister to emulate. She’d envied the way Stacy made everything look easy. On the other hand, Dana had been a tomboy, scuffed knees, unruly hair and not a clue when it came to boys.
    What Dana hadn’t realized once she grew up was how much Stacy had envied her . Or what lengths she would go to to hurt her.
    The phonerang. She let it ring twice more before she forced herself to pick up the receiver, not bothering to check Caller ID for the second time. “Yes?”
    “Dana?”
    “Lanny. I thought it…was someone else,” she said lamely.
    “Is everything all right?” he asked.
    She could picture him sitting in his office in his three-piece, pin-striped suit, leaning back in his leather chair, with that slight frown he got when he was in lawyer mode.
    “Fine. Just…busy.” She rolled her eyes at how stupid she sounded. But she could feel what wasn’t being said between them like a speech barrier. Lanny had to have heard that Hud was back in town. Wasn’t that why he’d called?
    “Well, then I won’t keep you. I just wanted to make sure we were still on for tonight,” he said.
    “Of course.” She’d completely forgotten about their date. The last thing she wanted to do was to go out tonight. But she’d made this birthday dinner date weeks ago.
    “Great, then I’ll see you at eight.” He seemed to hesitate, as if waiting for her to say something, then hung up.
    Why hadn’t she told him the truth? That she was exhausted, that there was a dead body in her well, that she just wanted to stay home and lick her wounds? Lanny would have understood.
    But she knew why she hadn’t. Because Lanny would think her canceling their date had something to do with Hud.
    O NCE THE TEAM of deputieson loan from the sheriff’s department in Bozeman arrived and began searching the old homestead, Hud drove back to his office at Big Sky.
    Big Sky didn’t really resemble a town. Condos had sprung up after construction on the famous resort began on the West Fork of the Gallatin River in the early 1970s. A few businesses had followed, along with other resort amenities such as a golf course in the lower meadow and ski area on the spectacular Lone Mountain peak.
    The marshal’s office was in the lower meadow in a nondescript small wooden building, manned with a marshal, two deputies and a dispatcher. After hours, all calls were routed to the sheriff’s office in Bozeman.
    Hud had inherited two green deputies and a dispatcher who was the cousin of the former sheriff and the worst gossip in the state. Not much to work with, especially now that he had a murder on his hands.
    He parked in the back and entered the rear door, so lost in