Chasing Trouble in Texas
Page 34
Hadley had begged her mother and the producer not to air it. But they had anyway. And when he’d found out that it was all going to be on TV, Leyton had broken up with her. She couldn’t blame him, not then, not now. Leyton had always had to walk a line because he’s Marty Jameson’s illegitimate son, and that had made him a “like father, like son” joke around town.
She put all of that aside to focus on the present. Specifically, focus on the questioning look that Leyton was giving her. He was obviously waiting for her to explain that Because I was twelve, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Thankfully, she got a change of subject when Leyton popped open the 8-track. She saw the spool of tape with the recorded music and a little plastic wheel to feed the tape through the playing surface. What she didn’t see was a note or message from Em.
“Anything about this that’ll help us?” Leyton asked, tapping the pressed flower in the plastic bag. “Why is it in there?”
Because I was twelve would be the truthful answer, but like the picture, it would require too much explaining. Hadley just settled for shaking her head, and she started back to Em’s bedroom.
She got another gut punch when she took a second look at the disorder there. Before today, Hadley couldn’t remember ever seeing anything out of place in here, and it only confirmed that something was indeed wrong.
“This might sound a little like a Hardy Boys mystery, but maybe there’s some kind of secret code in the recipe,” Leyton said from the doorway. He had the baggie with the recipe card and was studying it.
Since that was as good a theory as any, Hadley went to him to take it and examine it again. While she did that, Leyton began to look around the room.
The ingredients for the recipe all looked legit. So did the baking instructions, but Hadley found herself trying to analyze each word, even the little smiley face that Em had put at the bottom of the index card. But Hadley doubted that meant anything other than Em was happy when she doodled it. Any real clues had to be in the letter.
“Can a crime lab analyze the letter?” she asked.
“Since there’s no evidence of a crime, no. But I know of some private labs that can do it.”
She glanced up at him to say they should get right on that, but Hadley saw what he was holding. Or rather what he was reading. It was a trashy tabloid, Tattle Tale, and it had her picture on the cover with the headline “Badly Hadley Strikes Again.”
“Where’d you find that?” she blurted out.
“On the nightstand next to Em’s bed. It was open to the story about Tit-gate,” he said, skimming the page.
Considering that Leyton didn’t hesitate over the stupid Tit-gate headline, that meant he likely knew all about the wardrobe malfunction of a costume that Hadley had designed for an aging pop star legend, Myla Livingston. Myla hadn’t reacted well to the incident, which was a serious understatement, and then she’d done her best to smear Hadley’s business. It turned out that Myla’s “best” was plenty good enough because Hadley had been fired from her contracts.
All of them.
And other than a very low budget movie that would never see any real distribution, she didn’t have any future prospects of work. As much as that stung, and it stung bad, Hadley had to push that bad down deep inside her and focus on figuring out what was going on with her grandmother.
Leyton flipped through the tabloid and came to a page where the top corner had been folded down. Hadley went to him, hoping that maybe Em had written something on the page. But no. It was just an ad of a hot guy in snug boxer briefs that framed his superior junk.
“I don’t think that’s a clue to her whereabouts,” Leyton commented.
Hadley made a sound of agreement and kept looking, not at the hot guy’s junk, but around the rest of the room. There was a notepad on the nightstand, and Em had written Waterstone Productions with a phone number.
Her stomach sank a little.
“‘Waterstone Productions’?” Leyton read aloud when he looked over her shoulder. “That’s the company that wants to do a reunion special for Little Cowgirls.”
“You knew about that?” Hadley asked.
“Em and Sunny mentioned it. Apparently, some guy’s been calling them and trying to convince them to do it. Sunny and McCall aren’t interested.”
Neither was Hadley. In fact, she had no intentions of going down that road again. Especially when she had to find out what had happened to Em.
Considering the best way to approach this, she took out her phone and composed a text.
I’ve been in a car accident.
Hadley showed the text to Leyton before she sent it to Em. And Hadley waited, already second-guessing herself. She didn’t want Em to worry about her, but she didn’t want her own worry to continue, either.
Even though she’d been hoping for the sound of a text response, the sound of her phone ringing was even better. She nearly pulled a muscle hitting the answer button when she saw Em’s name on the screen. Relief washed over her. But so did the questions.
“Are you all right?” Em blurted out at the same moment Hadley asked her the same.
“I’m fine,” Hadley assured her. “It was little more than a fender bender.” Okay, that was a lie, but she hadn’t been hurt. “Where are you?”
“I’m fine, too,” Em said, even though that didn’t answer Hadley’s question. “Did you dig up the box?”
“I did. Where are you—”
“Did you read the letter and look at the 8-track?” Em interrupted.
Hadley gave a frustrated huff. She didn’t want to talk about this. She wanted to know where her grandmother was and why she’d left. She decided to put the call on speaker so Leyton could hear the conversation. “The letter has a lot of water damage so I couldn’t make out what it said. What did you mean that you had another life?”
“I mean, I used to be someone else. But that’s not important right now,” Em continued, rolling right over Hadley’s repeated where are you? “I just need a little time to myself. Time to work out a few things. But I promise I’m fine and that I’ll be back home soon. You’re sure you looked at the 8-track?” Em added.
Leyton added his own frustrated huff to the conversation. “Em, where are you?” he pressed.
“Leyton. Oh, good. You’re there with Hadley. I’d hoped you would be. Make sure she doesn’t worry too much.”
“I am worried too much!” Hadley snapped. “Why’d you leave? What’s going on? Where are you?”
“I’ll be able to tell you that soon. But for now, please keep an eye on the house until I get back. Oh, and you might want to keep your distance from Sunny’s pet duck, Slackers. She left him there when she went on her trip, and he’s been in a sour mood. His food’s in the barn.”
Hadley sighed loud enough to drain every ounce of breath from her body. She didn’t want to talk about a sour-mood duck.
“Where are you? When are you coming back?” Leyton’s demands were more like the interrogation of a suspect.
But he was talking to the air because Em had already hung up.
* * *
Don’t miss Wild Nights in Texas by Delores Fossen, available October 2020 wherever HQN Books and ebooks are sold.
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Copyright © 2020 by Delores Fossen
ISBN: 9781488055973
Chasing Trouble in Texas
Copyright © 2020 by Delores Fossen
That Night in Texas
Copyright © 2020 by Delores Fossen
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