Twyla rushed out of the kitchen with a brown bag of food, grease stain already spreading. She shoved it at Earl. “Get the hell out of here.”
Computers in Meredith’s trash. A rock hit the floor of my stomach.
27
I joined Trey at the bar. He’d taken my favorite barstool, and I tried not to notice. Behind me, the door opened, and a group of cowboys entered. They found a table.
“What did the handsome Newt Johnson have to say?” Trey asked.
I walked around the back of the bar and refilled my Diet Coke to delay having to cough up the information. “They found the computers in the Dumpster at the Millses’ house.”
He mulled that over. “It’s got to be Meredith and Josh.”
I plopped back on the barstool that wasn’t mine. “Don’t you think it’s too easy? Like someone is trying to set Josh up.”
His jaw twitched. “That’s stuff for TV drama. The evidence points to Josh because he did it.”
More people came in and a few of the tables filled up. Trey glanced in the mirror at the new arrivals, always keeping track of his surroundings. “I need to get back to Ogallala soon. We’ll go out to Meredith’s and Josh’s tomorrow first thing.”
I sipped my soda, inhaling the carbonation to try to rid my nostrils of the Johnson brothers. “I’ll check it out now.”
He frowned. “Wait for me. We’ll go together.”
I set my glass down, feeling my spine stiffen. “It will be better if we don’t put it off.”
He pulled out his phone. “Then let me cancel my plans.”
I held my palm up. “I can do it without you holding my hand.”
He pointed at my stitches. “Like when you checked out the railroad car?”
I wrapped my hand around my sweating soda glass and looked directly into Trey’s angry eyes. “I don’t want to hear this.”
He fired back at me. “I get it. But you’re a woman, and the reality is that you aren’t as big or tough as most men.”
Twyla cackled. She was halfway down the bar, and I didn’t know she’d been listening. She might have thought Trey’s comment was funny, but it didn’t tickle me. At all.
He shifted toward the mirror above the bar, and my eyes caught his, mine still shooting ice crystals.
“Look, I want you to be safe.” His voice was so soft I strained to hear.
“Do you try to protect all the sheriffs or only the girls?” I struggled to keep my temper from drowning me.
His index finger rubbed at some ancient carved initials on the mahogany bar. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”
“If we’re going to work together, you have to trust me.”
My phone vibrated and I pulled it out. Glad to see Shorty Cally getting back to me, I answered and asked him about Josh working for him the day before. “He’s got a banged-up hand,” I said. “How did that happen?”
Trey’s eyes bored into mine.
Shorty paused. “Injured hand? I don’t know. I had to leave before they finished up so I guess it might have happened then. But nobody said anything to me about it.”
After a brief exchange about the cold weather and the prospects for the Hodgekiss basketball team, I signed off.
Trey vibrated with tension. “What about the hand?”
I shrugged. “Shorty didn’t know about it, but he wasn’t there the whole time.”
Unexpected anger spewed from Trey. “You’re being stupid.”
And that’s all I was going to listen to. I slammed my glass on the bar and stood.
He swiveled toward me. “You’re in denial. You need to arrest Josh Stevens for a murder. But you won’t because you’ve got a crush on him.”
Looking in the mirror above the bar, I saw the gash on my forehead fire up like Harry Potter’s lightning scar. Or if it didn’t, I was certainly mad enough it should have.
“If you don’t look at the facts and admit Josh is the murderer, with Meredith as accomplice, you’re going to get yourself hurt.” He gave a pointed look at my stitches. “Or worse.”
I prayed he wasn’t right. In my calmest voice I said, “Go to hell.”
I spun around as the outside door opened and Josh Stevens walked in.
Trey stiffened. He jumped off his barstool and strode over to Josh, a mask of thinly controlled fury on his face. “You injured your hand working cattle, huh?”
Josh pulled his head back in surprise. “Thought we’d already been over that.”
Quick as a rattlesnake strike, Trey latched onto Josh’s arm and twisted it behind Josh’s back. He reached for his handcuffs so fast the motion seemed to blur. He shoved Josh against the doorjamb.
In an instant, the chatter of the happy hour bar dropped to silence. The two tables of patrons jumped up and backed away, eyes wide. They acted like a herd of cattle when a coyote trots into the corral. Keeping a distance but not wanting to miss the action.
I threw myself across the room. “Hey! What…?”
Trey leaned against Josh, whose face smashed into the metal door frame. “Thought you got away with it, huh?”
Josh didn’t struggle. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
I tried to tug Trey away from Josh. “Wait a minute.”
Trey shrugged me off. “Tell her, Josh. You were at the railroad car last night. It was you, wasn’t it?”
Josh clenched his jaw and glared at Trey. “Yes. That was me.”
I lost my breath for a second. I’d been wrong. Again. Josh had knocked me from the railroad car onto the frozen ground, but this betrayal hurt way worse.
I’d felt this before, when I’d been stupid enough to trust another man who’d let me down. I pulled my hand off Trey.
Josh tried to twist his head to me. “I was trying to figure it out!”
I heard myself speak, but my mind didn’t seem to be participating. “Figure what out?”
“Who is framing me. Who threw the computers in Meredith’s trash.”
Trey growled. “Keep up the lies, cowboy.”
I couldn’t get my breath. Could only watch as Trey jerked Josh from the door frame.
God help me, he sounded sincere when he said, “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry.”
Trey wrenched Josh backward. “You mean you’re sorry you got caught. You probably don’t know anything about searching a wheel report or checking the BNSF lineups. We know you spent three and a half years in college studying mechanical engineering, but I’ll bet you don’t know the first thing about rigging a railroad tie to the underside of a bridge, either, do you?”
Josh didn’t struggle against Trey. “I’m telling you, someone is planting…”
With a fist full of Josh’s collar and a grip on Josh’s handcuffed hands, Trey rattled him twice, a growl slipping from his clenched teeth.
Unlike Trey’s rage that boiled over, making his face bloom with bright splotches on his cheeks and flashing eyes, Josh smoldered. His dark eyes hooded when his eyebrows drew together, as if fighting to keep his emotions cool. The only sure sign of anger was his jaw clamped so tight it seemed more like granite than flesh and bone.
Trey jerked him, as if resisting the urge to shake him again. “Why did you kill him? Did he find out about your stealing? Or was it to have his wife to yourself? Huh?”
Josh turned his lowered face toward me, his gaze pulling me in, as if no other person mattered. I felt my skin being peeled away so he could stare at my thoughts.
Trey pushed Josh toward the door. “Got nothing to say? Of course you don’t, you scumbag.”
Josh couldn’t have been the one to shove me from the rail car. He didn’t kill Chad. I didn’t even buy into him having an affair with Meredith.
But I couldn’t hide from the truth.
Trusting my instincts had been foolish. I needed to lump all the clues together: the smashed hand, the computers found in Meredith’s Dumpster, engineering degree, history with Meredith. Still, I fought against it.
I glanced at Twyla.
She stood behind the bar with a black look trained on Trey. She shifted her attention to me. “What’s wrong with that boy?”
Did she mean Trey or Josh? I couldn’t answer either way.
The folks in the bar stood like tin soldiers with shock pasted on their faces. This scene would be all over the county before Twyla could serve another round.
Trey shoved Josh toward the door. “Taking you to Ogallala and booking you.”
Josh allowed Trey to push him a few steps, always keeping eye contact with me. Trey removed a hand from Josh’s collar and planted it on the glass to open the door, and Josh squinted at me with intensity. “Is this what you think? You believe I killed Chad?”
His words were a serrated knife shoved deep and twisted to shred my flesh. No. I didn’t think so. Yes, I did. Who else but him? And Meredith?
How many times would I allow my gut to deceive me? And yet, my throat wouldn’t cough up the simple yes to Josh’s question.
Trey didn’t wait. He threw his weight against the door, and together he and Josh tumbled outside. Like a dummy, I trailed them, stepping into the freezing night, and stood as the door bumped closed behind me. A light dusting of snow had fallen while we’d been inside.
Hand now back on Josh’s collar, Trey manhandled him across the street and into the back seat of his cruiser, leaving the cuffs on.
It would be a long, uncomfortable ride for Josh.
I found myself outside the door, watching Josh tumble into the back. Trey straightened. “Goddamned piece of shit. I told you he was the one. Why didn’t you let me arrest him earlier?”
Josh paid no attention to Trey. He kept watching me. Trey grabbed the car door to swing it closed, and Josh finally opened his mouth. He leaned forward. “You’ve got to protect Meredith.”
Protect Meredith. He was going to jail, and that’s all he could think of? “From what?”
Josh shook his head. “We don’t know. Whoever killed Chad.”
Trey forced a mean laugh. “You killed Chad, asshole.”
Josh ignored Trey and pleaded with me. “I was set up. You know that. But Meredith is in danger.”
Trey rolled his eyes. “Only from you, cupcake.”
Trey took hold of the door, and Josh pleaded with me. “Dad’s alone. Take care of him, please.”
Trey growled and slammed the door. Josh flung himself back to keep from being hit.
Trey opened his door and panted from the exertion. “Get in. I can bring you back after we interrogate him.”
I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the cold. “I need to make sure Enoch is okay.”
Trey opened his mouth as if ready to bellow an order.
I jumped in. “Safety of the citizens comes first, and Enoch might hurt himself if he’s left alone too long. Then I’ll pick up Meredith.”
Trey’s grip on the door frame whitened. “Wait until I get back. Meredith might be desperate, especially if she finds out we’ve arrested Josh.”
Resisting the urge to clock Trey, I pointed to myself. “Sheriff, remember?”
With one last frown, Trey threw himself into his car and slammed the door.
28
Before I turned off County Road 67 toward Meredith’s house, I shut off my headlights and navigated by the quarter moon. Meredith’s yard light tossed a bright glow. I crept toward the house, nearly idling the cruiser in an effort to sneak by without her spotting my car. Like me, though, she rumbled instead of purred. It. Not she.
I worried Meredith would hear us. Meredith’s Volvo was parked out front, the hatchback open.
Meredith hadn’t pulled the shades, and soft light fell on the skiffs of snow outside her windows. She flitted from the kitchen to the living room with movements quick as a sparrow. If I didn’t know she was a recent widow, maybe a cheating wife, and possibly a murderer—and frankly, I’m not sure which of those counted worse for me—it would all look cozy and sweet.
As soon as I rounded the curve west of her house, I turned on my lights and sped up. I didn’t have a solid plan, but I hoped to convince Enoch to leave with me. After that, I’d stop at Meredith’s and surprise her. I felt confident I could slip some cuffs on her and toss her into the back seat.
Earl and Newt’s computer collection from her Dumpster would be enough evidence to pull her in. Add to that the incentive of Daddy’s inheritance, the draw of true love, and the fact she seemed ready to quit Grand County, and I figured I had good reason to detain her.
That’s where the sketchy details became even more blurry. Grand County’s one holding cell was currently storage. Maybe I could secure Meredith there while I figured out what to do with Enoch. I hated to haul him all the way to Ogallala while I booked Meredith and untangled the murder.
The lights of Josh’s house grew brighter as I approached.
I pulled up in front and hurried to the kitchen door, thumping on the window. I’d give Enoch twenty seconds to answer before I burst inside. Not because he might be in some kind of danger, but because I wanted to keep my ears from freezing off.
Enoch rounded the corner from the living room at a brisk, if wobbly, pace. He wore a heavy flannel coat, faded from many washings, and black rubber covers snapped tight on his cowboys boots. He reached beside the door and his hand came back holding a grease-stained buff cowboy hat that he rammed onto his head. He opened the door and shoved me back as he flipped off the kitchen light and slammed the door. “Let’s go.”
I stumbled and got my balance before toppling down the porch. “Where?” Were we heading down to Ogallala to stage a jail break?
He hobbled toward my car. “We can’t tarry.”
Tarry? I hurried after him. “Enoch? What’s going on?”
He wrenched open the passenger side. “I don’t suppose she’s intending to hang around long. Not with the way she spun her tires getting out of here.”
I slid behind the wheel, welcoming the warmth of the car. “She?”
He scowled at me. “You’re the sheriff? Seems like you ought to be brighter than this.”
There was a reason Enoch Stevens wasn’t a popular guy.
He banged on the dash. “She. Meredith. That harlot.”
I started the engine and backed out.
“You might think about using more gas, girly. We don’t have much time.”
I gunned it across the yard and over the AutoGate. “What happened?”
He leaned forward and stared out the windshield into the headlights like a border collie. “If you don’t know anything, why were you out at the ranch?”
Not the time to tell him Josh had been arrested. “I wanted to check on you.”
He frowned at that but didn’t take his eyes from the road. He probably thought I needed the help. “I’m not senile. I have bad days, but I get along fine. Me and Joshua.”
Right. “Tell me about Meredith.”
“She was just out to my place.”
“Why?”
He let out a huff of irritation. “I don’t suppose the voters of Grand County realize the feeble mind they voted in.”
I ground my teeth.
He continued, “I heard someone pull up and thought it might be Joshua. I figured to surprise him and see what mischief he’d been into, smell his breath for alcohol or maybe signs of perfume. Joshua has been known to find trouble.”
Not for a decade or so, I’d bet.
“But when I got downstairs, I see it was that woman. She’s out to the barn, got her fancy rig backed up.”
We sped around a curve, and the back wheels slipped on the loose gravel.
He gripped the dash and leaned closer as if his laser eyes could stabilize us. “I seen her dragging those boxes from the barn.”
I maneuvered down the gravel road as quickly as possible. “Trey searched the barn this afternoon. He didn’t see any boxes.”
Enoch let out a snort of derision. “Probably didn’t check the cellar.”
“You have a cellar in your barn?”
He snorted again. “For the end times. Joshua doesn’t believe in that, and I’m too old to care about living through it so we don’t keep it stocked anymore. Joshua and that woman loaded them boxes down there a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t think I knew about it. But nothing goes on out there what I don’t know.”
“What kind of boxes?”
“They’d be about four or five feet. But not deep.”
Boom. My breath caught. In the Saunders v. BNSF case they’d stolen flat screen TVs about that size.
Enoch tapped his fingers on his knees. “She worked on that for a spell. Had a devil of a time fighting with them. Then she loaded herself up and drove off.”
“Did she know you were watching?”
His lip turned up in a sneer. “I’m not quite as dim as you. Of course she didn’t know. I waited until she was gone.”
“So you could chase her?” This didn’t make sense.
His features became brittle and sharp. “She’s on the run and thieving what belongs to Joshua. If you don’t want to stop her, then let me out. I’ll go myself.”
“You’ll stay in the car.” I gave him that tone Louise often used with me.
It was as effective for me as it usually was for Louise. “The heck you say.” That would be as close to cursing as Enoch got.
“I can’t predict how Meredith will react. You stay put.” I parked on the road with the house in sight so I could sneak up on Meredith.
Enoch grabbed for the latch. “You’re all women’s lib, but that’s foolishness. If you would understand God’s natural law and be wives and mothers, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.”
Great. I needed another macho man like I needed a frozen daiquiri in a snowstorm. I checked to make sure the Smith and Wesson nested in my holster, as if I hadn’t felt it there every moment. “Listen, Enoch—”
“Mr. Stevens.”
Okay. “I’m an elected and trained officer of the law. I’ll take care of this and you will,” I leaned toward him and cut each word with a blade, “Stay. In. The. Car.”
His bony, long-fingered hands trembled on the door latch. He might have an iron will, but his aging body had limits. “This is what happens when youngsters aren’t raised with the rod of Christ.”
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