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been apart. When they’d gotten back together six years ago, Dana had opened the cookbook planning to surprise him with the brownies, only to be surprised herself.
    Two of her siblings were back in the canyon? That had him worried even before the call from his deputy marshal that there’d been a murder. And oh, yeah, Liza had told him, Jordan Cardwell was somehow involved.
    Now as he hiked into the falls, he tried to keep his temper in check. If Dana’s family thought they were going to come back here and upset her—
    Ahead he saw the crowd gathered at the top of the falls. He headed for the coroner.
    Coroner Rupert Milligan was hugging seventy, but you’d never know it the way he acted. Six years ago, Hud had thought the man older than God and more powerful in this county. Tall, white-haired, with a head like a buffalo, he had a gruff voice and little patience for stupidity. He’d retired as a country doctor to work as a coroner.
    None of that had changed in the past six years. Just as Rupert’s love for murder mysteries and forensics hadn’t.
    “So what do we have?” Hud asked over the roar of the falls as he joined him.
    Rupert answered without even bothering to look up. “Single gunshot through the heart. Another through the lungs. High-powered rifle.”
    “Distance?”
    “I’d say fifty yards.”
    “That far,” he said, surprised. The killer would have needed the victim to be out in the open with no trees in the way to make such a shot. Like at the top of a waterfall. “Any idea where the shot came from?”
    Rupert had been crouched beside the body. Now he finally looked up. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s dark out. Once it gets daylight you can look for tracks and possibly a shell casing. And once I get the body to Bozeman for an autopsy I might be able to tell you more about the trajectory of the bullet. Offhand, I’d say the shot came from the other side of the creek, probably on the side of the mountain.”
    “So either it was a lucky shot or the killer had been set up and waiting,” Liza said, joining them. “The killer either picked the meeting spot or was told where the victim would be.”
    Rupert shifted his gaze to her and frowned. Being from the old school, the coroner made no secret of the fact that he didn’t hold much appreciation for women law enforcement. If he’d had his way, he would have put them all behind a desk.
    Hud liked that Liza didn’t seem to let him bother her. His deputy marshal’s good looks could be deceiving. Small in stature, too cute for her own good and easygoing, Liza often gave criminals the idea that she was a pushover. They, however, quickly learned differently. He wondered if Jordan Cardwell thought the same thing about the deputy marshal. If so, he was in for a surprise.
    “Which could mean either that the victim was expecting to meet not only Jordan Cardwell up here, but also someone he trusted,” she continued. “Or—”
    “Or Jordan told the killer about the meeting,” Hud interjected.
    Liza nodded and glanced over to the stump where Jordan was waiting. “That is always another possibility.”
    “One I suggest you don’t forget,” Hud said under his breath. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll take our suspect down to the office.”
    She nodded. “I want to wait for the crime scene techs to arrive.”
    Hud hadn’t seen Jordan for six years. As he walked toward him, he was thinking he could have easily gone another six and not been in the least bit sorry.
    “You just happen to come back to the canyon and a man dies,” he said.
    “Good to see you again, too, brother-in-law. I guess my invitation to the wedding must have gotten lost in the mail, huh?”
    “What are you doing here, Jordan?”
    “I already told your deputy marshal.”
    “Well, you’re going to have to tell me, too. Let’s get out of the woods and go to my office. You have a rifle you need to pick up before we go?”
    Jordan gave him a grim, disappointed look.