One Last Chance

by Sherryl Woods

  Grady paused, thinking about that. “See anyone you recognized?”

  “The place was packed. It’s Saturday night, payday for most of the men around here,” Dooley said.

  “Think,” Grady said. “Was there anybody in there you knew?”

  For a long time neither man responded. Then Dooley glanced at Hank. “Didn’t I see you talking to Joe Keeley?”

  “Who’s that?” Grady asked.

  “He works for the Oldhams,” Hank said.

  So, Grady thought, the Oldhams could have known that Karen was here at the ranch unprotected. One glance at Dooley and he saw that the old man had reached the same conclusion.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Dooley asked.

  “We should tell the sheriff and let him deal with this,” Grady said, though he was itching to take on the task himself. The image of Karen’s tear-filled eyes and heartbroken expression was the deciding factor.

  “Let’s go,” he said grimly. He faced Hank. “Karen’s in my truck. You go over there and sit with her. This time I don’t care if she tries to bribe you with a million bucks, you don’t let her out of your sight until we’re back. Is that clear?”

  Hank nodded. “I’m sorry about what happened,” he said, casting a devastated look toward the house. “It’s been so peaceful around here lately, I thought it would be okay.”

  “I know,” Grady said.

  “If she asks where you’ve gone, what do I tell her?” Hank asked.

  Grady smiled ruefully. “I suppose telling her not to worry her pretty little head about it is a bad idea.”

  “Real bad,” Dooley concurred. “At least if you expect her to be talking to you again.”

  Grady nodded. “Then tell her we’ve gone to visit a neighbor and that we hope to come back with some answers about what happened tonight.”

  “That’s going to bring her running right after us,” Dooley pointed out.

  “Not if Hank does his job,” Grady said grimly.

  “Yeah, well, sometimes the boss has a way of sneaking around the best intentions,” Dooley said.

  Grady exchanged a look with Hank. Satisfied, he said, “Not this time.”

  He was counting on her staying put, just where he’d left her. Later they could argue about how macho and chauvinistic his behavior was. In fact, he’d be happy to discuss it with her for hours on end, once they were both safely tucked in his bed.

  * * *

  “He went where?” Karen’s shout echoed in the cab of Grady’s truck. It had gotten too hot some time ago, so she’d turned off the engine. The temperature had climbed another ten degrees just since Hank had made his announcement about Grady taking off to do a little informal investigating.

  Hank winced under her accusing scowl. “To see a neighbor.”

  “Without discussing it with me,” she muttered, mostly to herself.

  “He was in kind of a hurry,” Hank said, defending Grady’s sneaky departure. “Dooley’s with him. He’ll be okay.”

  “I’m not worried about his safety. In fact, I’m considering strangling him myself. Didn’t he think for one single second that I might have a right to be in on this little visit?”

  “Actually that did come up,” Hank said. “He thought you’d be better off here.”

  Fury had her seeing red. “Oh, he did, did he?”

  “I think he knew you might not like that,” Hank said, clearly trying to help by pointing out Grady’s deep understanding of her psyche.

  “But he didn’t stop for one minute to reconsider, did he?” she snapped.

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Okay, then,” she murmured. She would just have to take matters into her own hands. “Hank, start the truck.”

  “Ma’am?” He looked as if he’d rather climb on the back of a horse straight out of the wild.

  “Which part of ‘start the truck’ did you not understand?” She reached for the key and gave it a twist. The truck sputtered, but didn’t start. “Get the picture?”

  “Yes, ma’am, but I think it’s a really bad idea.”

  She frowned at him. “Why is that?”

  “Because Grady’s counting on you staying right here.”

  “I’m sure he’ll learn to live with his mistake,” she snapped. “Start the car, Hank, or get out of my way.”

  With painfully obvious reluctance, Hank started the truck, then put it in gear. “Where are we going?”

  She frowned at the question. Hank had been very careful not to indicate which neighbor Grady suspected of involvement in the fire. She was reasonably certain he didn’t intend to share that piece of information now, which explained the deliberately vague expression on his face.

  “If you don’t take me wherever those two men have gone, I swear to you I will not only fire you, but I will destroy any chance of your getting a job on any other ranch in Wyoming. Hell, I’ll make sure you don’t work anywhere in the whole damned country.”

  Hank regarded her with an injured look. “I’m just trying to do my job, ma’am, the way Grady told me to.”

  “You don’t work for Grady,” she reminded him, clinging to her patience by a thread.

  “Maybe not, but the last time I ignored one of his orders, look what happened.” He stared miserably toward the smoldering remains of the house.

  Karen sighed. “Turn off the engine.”

  Hank nodded, looking relieved. “Good decision, ma’am.” His expression brightened. “And just in the nick of time, too. Here comes the sheriff.”

  Karen glanced outside and saw Michael approaching the truck, his step weary.

  “You okay?” he asked, when she stepped outside to greet him, still swaddled in the blanket.

  “I’ve been better,” she said honestly. She nodded toward the house. “What’s the verdict?”

  “Arson,” he said succinctly. “Not much doubt about it. There was evidence of gasoline about thirty yards from the living room window, along with some scraps of rags. Whoever did this probably tossed a firebomb into the house. I’m surprised you didn’t hear glass breaking.”

  “I was taking a shower when it started.”

  “Lucky for you you were upstairs. It gave you time to get out before the fire spread. Looks as if it moved pretty quick through the downstairs.” He glanced into the truck and spotted Hank. It seemed to take him by surprise. “I thought Grady was with you.”

  “He was here until a little while ago.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He and Dooley are checking into something,” she said evasively.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Of course,” she said, ignoring that brief flicker of doubt she’d felt earlier. This was no time to be discussing coincidences with the sheriff.

  “You don’t think maybe he got nervous watching me poke around out here?” Michael asked.

  “He’s the one who called you,” she reminded him.

  Michael nodded, though he didn’t look completely satisfied. “So he did. Where did he go to do this checking?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said truthfully.

  “Well, I’m going over to have another word with the fire chief.” His somber gaze locked with hers. “I’d suggest you track down your friend and get him back here, because if I have to go hunting for him, he’s going to pop right back to the top of my list of suspects.”

  She watched as Michael walked away, then turned back to Hank. “You heard?”

  He nodded.

  “We have to warn him, Hank.”

  The young hand sighed heavily and started the truck. “Let’s go.”

  Karen climbed back in and patted his knee. “Don’t worry. You’re doing the right thing.”

  “If you say so.”


  “I do. It’ll be so much better if I wring his neck, instead of waiting for the sheriff to do it.”

  CHAPTER 15

  The minute Grady saw Jesse Oldham’s car parked behind his barn, instinct told him that it was the same car he’d spotted earlier leaving Karen’s. Even though it was cold enough to cool an engine quickly, he touched the hood. Was there a lingering trace of heat? Or was that merely wishful thinking after all this time?

  “What do you think?” Dooley asked.

  “Nothing yet. I’m keeping an open mind,” Grady insisted as he opened the unlocked car and sniffed the air. This time he knew it wasn’t his imagination playing tricks when he caught a whiff of gasoline. Just in case, he called Dooley closer, then stepped aside. “Lean in there. What do you smell?”

  “Gasoline, plain as day,” Dooley said, his blue eyes snapping with indignation. “I’m gonna murder that man with my bare hands.”

  “Not without my help,” Grady said grimly.

  They stalked across the yard. When Dooley would have politely knocked on the fancy oak door, Grady shouldered it open, shouting for Jesse as he entered the dimly lit foyer.

  “What the hell’s the ruckus?” Jesse demanded sleepily, all but stumbling from a room on the left where the flickering of pale light suggested he’d been comfortably watching TV. For just an instant, alarm flared in his eyes when he spotted Grady.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Can’t a neighbor pay a friendly visit?” Grady asked.

  “You just about broke my front door down. What’s friendly about that? Besides, you’re not my neighbor. If there’s any justice in this world, you never will be.”

  Grady regarded him silently for a full minute, watching his nervousness increase. “Oh?” he said finally. “Why is that? Surely you don’t think I care whether there’s a burned-out house on the land I’ve had my eye on.”

  Just as Grady had expected, Jesse didn’t show so much as a hint of surprise at the announcement. “You don’t seem shocked,” Grady noted.

  “About the fire?” Jesse said with a shrug. “Why would I be? The police scanner’s been blaring the news for the past couple of hours now. Never heard such a commotion.”

  That was one explanation, Grady thought, impressed by the man’s quick thinking. “I imagine it has,” he agreed. “But I’m thinking there might be another reason you know all about Karen losing her home tonight.”

  Jesse regarded him defiantly. “Such as?”

  “Being there when it started,” Grady suggested. “That was you who almost ran me off the road tonight, wasn’t it?”

  Jesse’s expression faltered just a bit at the accusation. “I wasn’t anywhere near the place. I’ve been in there right smack in front of the TV all night long.”

  “And your wife can vouch for that?”

  “She went to bed early. Had one of her migraines. Started round about supper time.”

  “What about Kenny?” Dooley asked. “Where’s he been tonight?”

  “I don’t keep track of my son’s comings and goings. He’s a teenager. They roam all over the place. I know for certain that he’s in his room right now. Heard him come in.”

  “When was that?” Grady asked. If Kenny Oldham had returned at any time in the past two hours, that would leave him wide-open as a suspect. Jesse seemed to be struggling to do the math.

  “Beats me,” he said at last. “I fell asleep.” His smile suggested he was proud of his ingenuity.

  “Really? Yet you heard all about the fire on your scanner?”

  Jesse nodded, that smile fading into feigned sympathy. “Felt real bad about it, too.”

  “But not bad enough to get your son and go over there to help out. You are a volunteer firefighter, aren’t you?” Grady guessed, knowing that most of the men around here were. At the very least, they pitched in to help save a neighbor’s property when a tragedy like this struck.

  “Nope,” Jesse said, tapping his chest. “Bad ticker. Used to help out, but no more.”

  Grady was about to demand that Jesse call his son down to be questioned, when the front door burst open again and Karen came in, trailed by an apologetic-looking Hank.

  “Sorry,” Hank said. “There’s a real good reason we’re here.”

  Grady scowled at the pair of them, but his gaze rested longest on Karen. There were dark smudges under her too-bright eyes and her complexion was still very pale.

  “What might that be?” he asked.

  Karen looked from him to Jesse and back again. Whatever had brought her running over here seemed to have been forgotten. She faced her longtime neighbor.

  “Did you do it?” she asked bluntly.

  Jesse returned her gaze uneasily. “Like I told your friends here, I haven’t left the house all night.”

  “Unfortunately, he’s not quite as capable of accounting for his son’s whereabouts,” Grady said.

  Karen looked shocked. “Kenny? He used to sit in my kitchen and eat cookies while I visited with his mother. Surely he wouldn’t set my house on fire.”

  “He would if he was real anxious to get his daddy’s approval,” Dooley said, speaking up for the first time since Grady’s interrogation had begun in earnest. “That boy’s always been crying out for some man to look at him like he’s worth something. Jesse here’s been too busy to give him the time of day, since he’s not big enough or strong enough to play football, isn’t that right, Jesse?”

  Even as Dooley made the accusation, Grady thought he saw movement on the stairs. He glanced up and caught sight of Kenny, hovering on the landing. Given what Dooley had just said about the teen’s relationship with his father, he felt a stirring of pity for him.

  “Come on down here, son,” Grady said.

  Kenny crept down the stairs, his terrified gaze locked on his father. As Dooley had said, he was slight for sixteen, his body not yet filled out. At the foot of the steps, he instinctively edged closer to Karen. She reached out and took his hand, then gave it a squeeze.

  “Kenny, did you start that fire?” she asked, her voice filled with hurt.

  Tears welled up in the boy’s eyes, but he nodded, his gaze never leaving her face. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know it would be so bad. I swear I didn’t. I just thought it would scare you, the way Daddy said. He said we had to have that land or we’d never be certain whether our herd would have water. Mama argued with him. She told him you would never cut us off, but he said you’d be selling out soon enough and the new owner might not be nearly so concerned with an old piece of paper drawn up between friends. It wasn’t even notarized.”

  Even as she held the boy’s hand, Karen scowled at his father. “You coward,” she accused. “You didn’t even have the guts to do the job yourself. You counted on Kenny’s need to please you. What kind of father are you? You’re not even a man. You’re scum. And if you were worried about those water rights before, you’d better be on your knees praying now, because I’ll see you in hell before I ever let your herd near that creek again, paper or no paper. I’ll find some way to see that it’s voided.”

  When she swayed on her feet, Grady stepped closer, but she steadied herself, then took one last, scathing look at Jesse Oldham and turned to leave.

  “Let’s get out of here before I’m sick to my stomach,” she said. She touched Kenny’s tearstained cheek. “Thank you for having the courage to tell us what really happened tonight.”

  “Hank, how about sticking around here till we can get the sheriff over here?” Grady asked. “Somebody ought to keep an eye on things.” He lowered his voice. “Make sure Oldham doesn’t do anything to that boy, all right?”

  “I’ll stay with him,” Dooley said. “He’ll need a way home.”

  Grady nodded. “I’ll call the sheriff. Then I’m
taking Karen home with me.” He glanced at her for a reaction, but her face was expressionless. He took that for agreement, or maybe she was simply too wiped out to object.

  “We’ll see you in the morning,” he told the two men. “And, Dooley, thanks for helping me out tonight. You be sure and tell the sheriff how helpful Kenny was.”

  “No problem. I just hope a court can distinguish between a mixed-up boy who set that fire and the man who put the notion into his head.”

  Grady nodded. “We’ll see that they do.”

  He led Karen to the car and settled her inside, then felt his heart clutch at the despair on her face. He couldn’t help feeling he’d set all of this into motion by making it so plain to one and all that he intended to buy her ranch. Maybe that was what had set off Jesse Oldham’s paranoia about those water rights.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She glanced up, clearly startled. “Why? You didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  “Jesse might not have tried anything if he’d thought his water rights were safe,” he said.

  She shook her head. “This started long before you came into the picture. He didn’t trust Caleb to honor them either, remember?”

  That was true enough, Grady supposed, but it didn’t seem to lessen his own sense of guilt. He was silent for the entire drive to his ranch, though he couldn’t help sneaking a glance at Karen from time to time. He’d never seen her looking quite so lost.

  At his house, he led her inside, then pointed out the master bathroom. “Take a warm bath, why don’t you? I’ll call your friends and let them know what happened and that you’ll be staying here for a bit. There’s a robe on the back of the door. It’ll be too big, but it’ll keep you warm enough.”

  She nodded, then retreated into the bathroom and closed the door. Feeling unbearably tired, he stood there listening to the sound of water running. Only when it had cut off and he heard the subtle splash suggesting that she’d climbed into the deep tub did he go back to the kitchen and put a pan of milk on the stove. Maybe a cup of warm milk would help both of them get some sleep.