Читать книгу Her Texas Ranger - Stella Bagwell - Страница 10

A few minutes later, Seth swallowed the remainder of his drink and rose to his feet. He wasn’t really getting any useful information from Rube. And to be honest, the old man was not someone he cared to sit and reminisce with. He was slovenly and represented a side of life that Seth had seen all too often when dealing with criminals. Not that he thought Rube was a criminal. The only thing he figured the old man was guilty of was laziness.

“Well, thanks for your time, Rube. I’d better be going.”

“Sure thing, Seth. Anytime,” the old rancher replied, then squinted his eyes as another thought struck him. “Say, did Ross ever find that stallion of his?”

Seth paused at the door to look back at the old man. “You know about Snip going missing?”

“Ross called me when it first happened. He thought I might have seen the horse. But I don’t get out that much—just drive into town now and then. I told him I hadn’t seen the horse.”

“Well, Ross still hasn’t found him,” Seth said.

Rube shook his head. “That’s too bad,” he said regretfully. “He’s probably dead by now.”

Seth wondered why the old man would be thinking in that direction, when there were all sorts of scenarios that could have happened with Snip. However, he didn’t question Rube. For one thing, he didn’t want to appear as though he’d come over here to interrogate anyone.

“Ross isn’t giving up on finding him yet,” Seth told him, and then with a final word of farewell, he left Rube and entered the kitchen.

Immediately, he spotted Corrina working at the counter. He carried his empty glass to where she was standing, drying a large metal roasting pan.

“Thanks for the tea,” he said. “Where would you like me to put this?”

She cut him a brief, sidelong glance. And he got the sense that his presence was making her nervous. Why, he didn’t know, but the fact did intrigue him.

“Just drop it into the dishwater there in the sink.”

He did as she suggested, then casually leaned a hip against the counter. “I—uh—I was very surprised to see you here, Corrina. I thought you’d left San Juan County years ago.”

Corrina placed the dried pot to one side of the countertop before she turned to face him. “I was gone for a while. But when Dad started…going downhill I came back to take care of him.”

Her blue eyes were shadowed with fatigue—or was it sadness? Either way, it bothered the heck out of Seth to see this beautiful woman unsmiling, her eyes dead.

“I’m sorry Rube’s health is poor,” he said.

Her eyes darted away from his and her hands twisted the dishcloth into a tight rope. “Well, at least he’s alive. That’s more than you have.” She turned her gaze back on him and this time there was compassion in the blue depths. “It’s still hard for me to believe that your father is gone. I’m very sorry about that, Seth. He was…quite a character around here. I think everyone misses him.”

A wry smile touched Seth’s lips. “I don’t know that I’d go so far to say that everyone misses Tucker. He could be a real…difficult man at times. But you are right…. I miss my father and so do my siblings.”

She nodded, then realizing she had a death hold on the dishcloth, she tossed it onto the cabinet and wiped her hands down the front of her jeans. All the while, she was thinking how strong and masculine this man looked.

Long years had passed since she and Seth had attended the same high school. Back then he’d been a handsome boy with a quiet maturity that had impressed her. Now he was a striking man with lines of character etching his chiseled lips and hazel eyes.

Even though he was dressed in jeans, boots and hat as most of the ranchers in this area, Seth’s appearance would stand out from theirs, she realized. Not just because he had a long, muscled body that oozed sexuality. There was an air of authority about him that was only multiplied by the knowledge that he was a Texas Ranger.

“I…uh…never expected to see you again, Seth. You’ve been gone a long time.”

He was surprised she’d even noticed. Or had she simply meant the term “long time” in a general way? he wondered. “Eighteen years,” he answered. “But I’ve come home off and on throughout that time. You would have thought we’d have run into each other.”

A wan smile touched her lips in a way that said his being in San Juan County was hardly enough proximity for them to meet. “Well…we don’t exactly move in the same circles.”

He’d never been a social creature, but perhaps she believed he was. People around here had always been quick to put labels on the Ketchum family. Most of them wrong. And he supposed that hadn’t changed since he’d moved away.

“I didn’t know you lived here,” he admitted. “I’d heard that you married and moved away.”

Turning back to the counter, Corrina picked up the lid to the pot she’d just finished drying. As she swiped a dish towel over it, she said, “Matthew’s father and I are divorced. We were living in Colorado at the time and it was easier just to stay there than to make a major move. But then a couple of years ago, Dad began begging me to come back home and I…couldn’t refuse him.” She shot him a quick glance. “What about you, Seth? Do you have a family down in Texas?”

His eyes widened, as though just someone’s asking him such a question was a shock. “Me, a family? No. I’m not a husband or a father. Just a Texas Ranger.”

She wasn’t surprised. Although, looking at him, it made her wonder how he’d managed to avoid the women, who no doubt gave him second and third looks. Yet she sensed that he was a man who lived his job and anything else was put on the back burner.

Realizing she’d been holding her breath, she let it out and reached up to push back the swath of hair that had dipped onto her cheekbone. “Well, having a family isn’t always what you might expect it to be. The main thing is that you’re happy.”

There was a sadness in her voice that struck Seth right in the middle of his chest. Corrina Dawson had been a soft, sweet young girl. He didn’t like to think she’d already been scarred by a man. Especially one who hadn’t appreciated her.

“I don’t have any complaints,” he said. Then, deciding he’d dallied in the kitchen long enough, he added, “Well, I’d better be going, Corrina. It was nice seeing you again.”

She lifted her head and gave him a little smile. “Yes, it was nice to see you, too. Take care, Seth.”

He nodded, then quickly found his way back to the living room, where he let himself out onto the front porch.

“Hey, Mr. Ketchum, want to see my horse?”

Seth looked around to see Corrina’s young son sitting on top of a wooden doghouse just to the right of the front porch. The boy was staring at him expectantly, almost hopefully, and Seth realized there was no way he could turn down the invitation.

“Sure,” Seth told him. “Just show the way.”

Matthew leaped off the doghouse and motioned for Seth to follow him around the house to a beaten path that led to a nearby barn. The white dog trotted at their heels.

At the rickety corral, Matthew climbed upon the top rail of the fence, then jammed two fingers into his mouth and let out a piercing whistle.

Immediately, the black horse Seth had spotted earlier came trotting out of the building and straight up to Matthew.

“This is Blackjack. He’s nice, huh?”

The gelding was a quality animal, Seth realized as he eyed the heavily built quarter horse. No doubt someone had paid a fistful of money for him.

“Very nice,” Seth agreed. “You must be proud of him.”

For the first time since Seth had arrived at the Dawson place, Matthew shot him a smile. “Sure am! I ride him all the time!” he exclaimed. Then just as quickly the smile faded and he ducked his head and mumbled, “That’s about all there is to do around this old place.”

Folding his arms against his chest, Seth rested a shoulder against the corral fence. “You don’t like living here with your grandfather?”

With his head still bent, Matthew shrugged one shoulder. “Pa’s all right. But he don’t do nothin’. Except sit around and drink beer. That’s not somethin’ I want to do.”

Thank God for that, Seth thought with relief. But when would that change? he wondered. How long would it be before Rube’s bad habits began to influence the boy?

“It’s not something you should do, either,” Seth told him.

“Well, Pa says it helps the pain in his joints. Guess that makes it all right,” he muttered.

Seth was trying to decide how to respond to that when Matthew was distracted by a nudge from Blackjack’s nose.

The boy affectionately scratched the horse between the ears, then stroked the blaze down his face.

“Have you had Blackjack long?” Seth asked.

“Pa gave him to me last year for my tenth birthday. But I’m eleven now,” he tacked on with importance. “We used to have another horse, too. A gray mare. But Pa sold her. Said she was more trouble than she was worth.”

So Rube had bought the black gelding for his grandson, Seth mused. A generous gift from a man who apparently lived on little more than a social security check. But then Rube had sold off all his cattle, he quickly reminded himself. Perhaps he’d put a bundle in the bank and was now drawing a respectable amount of interest. However, if that was the case, he certainly wasn’t using any of the money around the homestead.

“That’s quite a gift,” Seth commented. “Do you ever have friends over to ride with you?”

Matthew’s head swung back and forth. “I can’t have friends over. Mom says it would get on Pa’s nerves.”

A nice way of saying the boy couldn’t have friends over who would see his alcoholic grandfather. What in the world was Corrina thinking? Why was she living here, subjecting her son to this type of environment?

“Well, how would you like to come over to the T Bar K and ride with me sometime soon?”

Matthew’s blue eyes suddenly grew wide with wonder. “You mean it?”

Seth didn’t know a whole lot about children, except that he loved them and tried to help with as many children’s programs as his busy schedule would allow. It made him feel good to think he’d lifted this boy’s spirits.

“Sure, I mean it. I’ll call your mother in a day or two and talk to her about it. Is that okay with you?”

“Okay!”

From her window in the kitchen, Corrina watched the interplay between Seth and her son.

Matthew must have intercepted Seth before he reached his truck and talked him into going down to the barn to see Blackjack. The idea surprised her. Matt normally didn’t take to strangers. Especially adults. But he’d seemed duly impressed with the fact that Seth was a Texas Ranger.

She sighed as a bittersweet feeling wound its way around her heart. When Matthew had been born, she’d wanted so much for him. Mainly two loving parents, a nice home and financial security. Yet try as she might, none of those things had come to pass.

Her son was hungry for companionship. Not just from her, but male companionship. The sort he should have been getting from his father. But Dale had walked out of their lives when Matthew had been only two years old. Her son didn’t remember his father. Nor did he understand why his father hadn’t wanted to be a family with them then or now.

Corrina had given up trying to understand years ago. Dale had been a dreamer and he hadn’t wanted any responsibilities holding him down for any reason. He’d moved on to another life and never bothered to contact the family he’d left behind. In a way, Corrina was glad she never had to see him or deal with him over parental rights to Matthew. Yet she wasn’t blind. She knew how much Matthew ached for a father and that filled her with a guilt she dealt with every day. And her father wasn’t the best role model.

“Corrina, are you in there, honey?”

The sound of her father’s loud call pulled her wistful gaze away from the window.

“Yes, Dad. I’m here.”

“Would you bring me another pack of cigarettes? My old bones just don’t want to move today.”

Since Corrina’s suggestions fell on deaf ears, she’d long ago stopped encouraging her father to change his habits to better his health. Yet it hurt her to see the things he was doing to himself. When Corrina had been in elementary school, her mother, June, had died suddenly and unexpectedly from a hidden heart problem. The tragedy had narrowed her already small family down to just her and Rube.

When she’d married Dale, she’d done so with the hope that his family would become hers, too. But his parents had been cold, distant people who preferred to keep to themselves. Which was just as well, she supposed. They’d never cared for her and Matthew any more than their son had.

The lack of family was the main reason Corrina had decided to come back to San Juan County and live with her father. She realized people thought she was crazy for putting up with a cantankerous old man. But he was her father. And he loved and needed her. That was more than she could say about some people’s family relationships.

She opened a cabinet and pulled down a pack of her father’s cigarettes. “I’ll be right there, Dad.”

Later that evening, as Seth and Ross walked from the cattle barn to the house, Seth used the time to toss a few questions at his younger brother. “Ross, why in hell didn’t you tell me that Rube Dawson had turned into a drunkard?”

“Didn’t know he had. The few times I’ve run into him in town, he seemed perfectly sober.”

Seth snorted. “All I can say is you must not have been looking at the man.”

“Well, I didn’t give him a Breathalyzer test or make him walk a straight line, if that’s what you mean.”

Ignoring his brother’s sarcasm, Seth said, “And you could have warned me that Corrina was living out there now.”

Ross stopped in his tracks to stare at Seth. “Didn’t know that either. But why does that matter—” He broke off, his eyebrows arched with wry speculation. “Well, well, this is something new. My brother, the Ranger, actually noticing a woman.”

Seth shot him a withering look. “How could I not notice with her living there?”

Ross could see from the tight set of Seth’s jaw that his brother wasn’t in any mood for joking, so he quickly sobered his own amused expression. “I honestly didn’t know Corrina lived there,” he said, then added with a thoughtful frown, “If I remember right, she was around my age, wasn’t she?”

Seth nodded. “I was a senior when you two were freshmen.”

“I always got the impression that she had a chip on her shoulder,” Ross commented.

“She had reason,” Seth countered gruffly. “The Dawsons were always one of the poorest families around here. I’m sure it was a struggle for her to hold her head up with pride.”

“I wonder what she’s doing there now. With Rube, I mean. Isn’t she married?” Ross asked.

Seth turned and continued walking in the direction of the house. Ross automatically moved into step beside him.

“Divorced. She has an eleven-year-old son, Matthew.”

Ross took his time digesting this news before he asked, “Well, did Rube give you any helpful information about Noah?”

“Unfortunately no. Said he hadn’t seen the man in several years.”

“Do you believe him?”

Seth sighed. “I have no reason not to believe him. Yet.” He looked at his brother. “He seems to think your stallion is dead.”

Ross snorted. “Hell, that old codger doesn’t know anything about Snip! Dad always said Rube knew a whole lot of nothing about a whole lot of subjects. You wasted your time going over there, brother.”

Where the murder case was concerned, he probably had wasted time, Seth thought. But he’d seen Corrina again. A young woman he’d never quite been able to forget. He couldn’t count that as wasted time.

The next morning, Jess called bright and early to warn Seth to get a horse saddled. The undersheriff was coming out to the ranch so that the two men could ride to the scene where the T Bar K hands had originally discovered Noah Rider’s remains.

Since Jess was on duty and would be coming to the ranch in the capacity of undersheriff rather than as his brother-in-law, Seth couldn’t help but be a little concerned about throwing their investigative efforts together. He didn’t want Sheriff Perez to think he was trying to horn in on his business. And when Jess pulled up thirty minutes later to unload his own personal mount from a two-horse trailer, Seth was quick to convey his worries.

“Jess, I told Victoria last night that I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Does Sheriff Perez know you’re out here?”

Jess led his big gray gelding to a nearby hitching post and loosely tied the reins. While he tossed the left stirrup upon the seat of the saddle and tightened the girth, he answered Seth’s question, “Of course. I told him.”

“And you told him what we’re going to do?”

Jess jerked the stirrup back in place before he looped a water canteen around the saddle horn. “He’s aware that you’ve come home to look into the matter of Noah Rider.” The undersheriff looked at Seth. “And frankly, he welcomes your help, Seth. We’re not exactly bogged down with homicides around here. In fact, they rarely occur. A few manslaughter cases from time to time, but nothing this cryptic. He understands you have years of experience with this type of thing and he also knows you won’t do anything that might compromise the case.”

Seth felt both flattered and relieved. The last thing he wanted to do was push his nose into a place where he wasn’t welcome. “I’m relieved, and I’ll try not to make a nuisance of myself.”

Chuckling, Jess shook his head. “If you only knew. Seth, the whole department is buzzing about having a Texas Ranger in the area. They see you as some mystical hero and they’d all like to meet you, they’re just too afraid to invite you to the office.”

Seth laughed with disbelief as he propped his boot on the hitching rail and strapped on a gal-leg spur. “Jess, believe me, there’s nothing special about me. I’m just a lawman, that’s all. Just a Texas Ranger.”

“Yeah,” Jess countered with mocking admiration. “You’re just a member of the oldest, most elite organization of lawmen in the United States. Hell, the Texas Rangers are even older than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. You originated back in 1823, there’s only a hundred of you, and it’s damn hard to become one of those hundred. You have to be smart, strong and morally upright, among a lot of other things.”

Seth lowered his boot to replace it with the other one. As he strapped on the opposite spur, he said, “That’s all true. But you’ve got to remember that we’re only men. We make mistakes. And we don’t solve every case that comes our way.”

“Hmm. You can play modest, Seth, because that’s your nature. But you can’t fool me. You not only got into the Rangers, you’ve also moved up the ladder. That’s bound to make you feel good.”

Seth did feel good about his job. Becoming a Ranger had been a dream he’d been fortunate enough to fulfill. Yet there were times when he was struck by the fact that his job was all he had in life. Like yesterday, when he’d seen Corrina standing with her son on Rube’s front porch. The woman was far from rich and he didn’t even know if she had a regular job, but she had someone who needed and loved her. She had someone to come home to.

He glanced at the long, lean sheriff and gave him a wry smile. “No better than you must feel about being married to one of the most beautiful women in San Juan County.”

Jess chuckled. “See, I knew you were a smart man.”

The two men finished readying their mounts. Five minutes later they headed away from the ranch in a westerly direction through a flat mesa dotted with yucca, prickly pear and sage.

For three miles, the landscape went unchanged until the mesa narrowed down to overlapping foothills shaded sparsely with piñon and ponderosa pine and a few stunted cottonwoods.

Another mile passed as they began to climb to a higher elevation. As the trail grew steep and rough, the horses began to sweat and blow. Eventually they entered a dry wash with a graveled, rock-strewn bottom. Clear pools of water had collected in dished-out spots of the arroyo. Jess and Seth stopped their horses and allowed the animals to drink their fill.

“What a hell of a place to commit murder,” Jess remarked as the two men looked around them.

“Is this the place?” Seth asked.

“Not far. Maybe a hundred more yards on up the arroyo. I’ll show you.”

Once the horses finished drinking, Seth followed his brother-in-law through the steep, winding gorge. On either side, the tall walls were speckled with huge boulders, clumps of sage and ragged piñon. Here and there a twisted limb of juniper grew tenaciously between slabs of shale.

Seth figured he’d been through this wash before. There wasn’t any part of the hundred-thousand-acre ranch that he hadn’t seen at least once in his young life. Yet he didn’t remember this particular area. Which wasn’t all that surprising, considering it had been years since he’d ridden on Ketchum land.

In a matter of minutes, Jess pulled his gray horse to a stop and pointed to a spot in the bed of the wash where two flat rocks formed a vee at the base of a crooked tree trunk.

“This is it,” Jess said. “Noah was on those rocks. Facedown. And, as you already know, there was one gunshot wound to his head.”

As always when Seth looked at a crime scene, a grim resolution settled over him. “That’s a hell of a way to die,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “And I can tell you one thing, Jess, whoever committed the deed is going to pay and pay dearly.”

“I hope you’re right, Seth. This murder thing has gotten everybody in the whole county jumpy. And after I was shot—well, we had all kinds of calls coming in to the department from people who were worried about their own safety.”

“Where were you and Victoria when that happened?” Seth asked.

Jess pointed to the ledge of ground far above their head. “Up there. After the bullet hit me, I fell all the way down here. I was unconscious. If Victoria hadn’t been with me, I would have quickly bled to death. But with her being a doctor, she knew what to do. And, thank God, she was brave enough to stick around and do it.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Seth replied, then shook his head with dismay. “I can’t believe one of the T Bar K hands nearly killed you.”

“Steve actually believed he was shooting at Ross, not me. He’d been holding a grudge because Ross wouldn’t give him their cousin Linc’s job. And then there was that woman, Angela Bowers. Steve wanted her, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with him because of Ross.”

Seth’s lips twisted ruefully. “Ross always did like the women. In that way he was just like Tucker used to be. And look what it caused. You were nearly killed.”

“Well, to be fair,” Jess said, “Ross wasn’t having any sort of relationship with Angela. Steve just believed something was going on between them. And that was enough to make him take a potshot at Ross.”

“Thank God Ross quit his playboy ways and married Bella before anyone else got shot around here,” Seth exclaimed.

Jess grinned as though the idea of Ross being married still amused him. “Yeah. Ross is a truly converted man now. I never thought I’d see the day.” He turned a keen eye on Seth. “So when are we going to hear wedding bells for you, Seth? Haven’t you found some Texas beauty you can’t live without?”

Seth let out an easy laugh. “Hardly. I’m a busy man. Besides, I’m too set in my ways for any woman to put up with me.” And even if he did find one that would be willing to put up with his crazy work schedule, Seth thought, that didn’t mean that he would love her or that she would love him.

Love. Seth wasn’t even sure he believed in the emotion. Oh, he loved his siblings all right. But that was a different kind of love. He wasn’t at all sure that the connection between men and women was anything more than physical lust. As a young boy he’d grown up believing his parents loved each other. That they were married and had children because there was love between them. Later, as a teenager, Seth had realized his father wasn’t a devoted husband and his mother was only living a sham of married bliss. The discovery had devastated Seth and opened his eyes to relationships between men and women. And through the years he’d continually vowed to live alone than to live a lie as his parents had done.

“You might be surprised about that,” Jess said.

Seth merely smiled at his brother-in-law’s response, then motioned for the other man to join him at the vee-shaped rocks.

“Come on, Jess, we’ve got a little speculating to do.”

For the next half hour the two men studied the spot where Noah had been found and discussed the ways in and out of the ranch that the killer might have taken, plus the possible reasons why any of it had happened on the T Bar K.

Eventually, they climbed back on their horses and rode to the ranch. Once there, Jess lingered only a few more minutes before he loaded his big gray gelding and drove away.

With his brother-in-law gone and Ross busy with the cattle, Seth decided he’d use the remainder of the morning to drive into town and make a visit to one of the names on his list.

Montgomery Feed and Grain was located in the older, original part of town and had served the ranchers around Aztec for as long as Seth could remember. The front of the building was made of corrugated iron painted a pale green. Large double doors made of heavy wood stood open to a dark, cavernous interior stacked with tons of feed ranging from wild birdseed to high-protein horse grain. To the right side of the double doors was a high wooden porch connected to the front of the store itself.

As Seth opened a pane-glass door and stepped inside, a cowbell clanged over his head, announcing to the proprietor that a customer had entered the store.

He walked between dusty rows of leather tack, nylon lariats and veterinary supplies until he reached a pine counter rubbed smooth by years of use. Behind it, a gray-haired man with hooded eyes and crinkled, leathery skin rose from a rocking chair and stood to one side of a cash register.

He peered curiously at Seth. “Could I help you?”

Seth leaned against the counter. “Hello, Cal. I’m Seth Ketchum. One of Tucker’s sons.”

The man planted both hands on the countertop and leaned forward for a closer inspection of Seth. After a moment, a grin split his face. “Why, it sure is you, Seth. Haven’t seen you in years, boy. If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known you. What are you doing in Aztec? Come up from Texas to investigate the murder?”

At least Cal wasn’t going to be evasive, Seth thought wryly. “Not really. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Department is handling the case. But if I stumble across any information that might help, I wouldn’t turn a deaf ear.”

The older man folded his arms across his chest. As he did, Seth couldn’t help but notice that the flesh on his arms was flaccid and his shoulders stooped. Cal was somewhat older than what his father would have been if he’d lived, yet it jarred Seth to think Tucker would be as Cal and Rube were now, riddled with arthritis and other geriatric maladies. Up until his heart had given out, Tucker had been so big and vibrant it had been hard to imagine him old or even sick. And even after he’d begun to ail, his presence had remained strong enough to grab everyone’s attention.

“I don’t blame you,” Cal replied. “That was a hell of a thing—Noah getting killed like he did. Tell me, Seth, what kind of lowlife would do such a thing?”

“Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, Cal. If we can figure out the motive, we’ll probably find our man. I was wondering if you’d seen Noah recently or talked to him?”

Cal pulled off his John Deere cap and scratched his head. “I guess I haven’t seen Noah in—oh, I’d say twenty years or more. He came by here once—that was shortly after he’d quit the T Bar K. Said he was just passing through and wanted to say hello. I didn’t know where the man had gotten off to.”

“Can you remember Noah having any enemies around here?”

Cal’s forehead wrinkled even more. “Enemies? Hell no! Everybody liked Noah. Now, your papa was a different matter. Me and Tucker had a few rounds between us. But Noah was a quiet, gentle man who never bothered nobody.”

Seth nodded briefly. “That’s how I remember him, too. And I remember you and Dad having a big row over some feed. Whatever happened about that?”

A grimace twisted the old man’s lips. “I’ll tell you what happened. Tucker accused me of selling him moldy horse feed. I didn’t. I told him he’d let it get wet then blamed it on me. We went round and round about it. But I finally gave in and shipped three more tons out to the ranch. At no cost. Took me months to make up that loss,” he added with a huff.

“I can understand you being mad at Dad. But what about Noah? Was he in on any of this argument?”

The old man looked totally surprised by Seth’s question. “Oh, no! It weren’t any of Noah’s fault. Tucker’s the one who let the load get wet.” He shrugged one shoulder. “But I forgave your old man for that. He was a good customer over the years. And Ross still buys a lot of feed from me. I’m not offended to take Ketchum money,” the older man said with a smile.

Seth let out a long breath. “Well, I’m glad to know you’re not harboring any grudge toward Tucker. But I wish you could tell me a little more about Noah,” Seth admitted.

“I wish I could, too,” Cal replied. “You know, it’s downright scary to think there might be a killer around here. Most of my customers say they’re watchin’ their backs. And all of them say they don’t ride fence alone. Makes a man wonder what the world is comin’ to.”

Seth talked a few more minutes with Cal and tried to reassure the older man he believed the killing was an isolated incident and that he shouldn’t worry. When he left the feed store, he noticed traffic had picked up on nearby Main Street. Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was approaching the lunch hour.

On sudden impulse, he made a left-hand turn and drove down to the Wagon Wheel Café. If he was lucky, he could get something good to eat and perhaps pick up anything that might be said by the locals about the T Bar K murder. Even though the murder had happened four months ago in early April, he realized the incident was still a source of gossip for the locals.

Moments later, Seth walked into the old diner and instantly felt as though he’d been jetted back in time. Some things never changed, he mused as he looked around at the vinyl booths and long Formica bar with swiveling red stools.

Behind the counter, a waitress was pouring coffee into the cups of the customers lining the bar. Her head was tilted forward, causing a tumble of chestnut curls to hide her face.

Seth took a step toward one of the stools, and then stopped in his tracks as recognition struck him.

Corrina.

Her name shot through his brain at the same time she lifted her head. She spotted him immediately and as their gazes clashed, Seth watched her lips part with surprise, her eyes widen. Something warm and mushy hit him in the stomach.

As he slung a leg over the nearest stool, the feeling spread upward, and by the time she came to stand across from him, he’d figured out the warmth pumping through him was pleasure. And the reason for it was Corrina.