“Perfect,” Kate said. “I’ll see you all then.”
Now, an hour later, Jenny was more than halfway to San Antonio and enjoying the solitude of the drive. She needed to think. Ever since Mandy shared the news with them that she was pregnant, Jenny had felt an odd tugging of her own biological clock. She hadn't said anything to Kate, and certainly not to Josh, but she had to admit the feeling was both troubling and oddly exciting.
Never in her life had she even entertained the idea of having a child, but then she’d never expected to be in this place. She was with someone who truly loved her. She had a home. She was with her sisters and the family was growing. And then there was the single fact that perhaps should not have been the most important factor of all, but probably was just the same. She was painting again.
In the year and a half that she’d been back in Texas, Jenny’s newly awakened understanding of her family wasn’t all negative nor was it all directed outward. While she still harbored deep anger toward Langston Lockwood, she could not deny that her father had an incredible capacity to love.
True, he withheld his affections from his wife and daughters, but in his artwork Jenny saw real passion for Alice Browning. Obsessive passion, but passion all the same. And she could not help but wonder what kind of man Langston would have been, had he been able to actually live the life he created in his mind up there alone in Baxter’s Draw.
She also understood his all-consuming need to put what he was feeling into the images he created with his pencils and brushes. She had that same drive, and it performed the same function in her life; it kept her stormy emotions in balance. Looking back at her life in New York, Jenny now realized she had been so vulnerable to Robert Marino's advances in part because in those days she denied herself her art.
Yes, she created images every day on the screen of her computer. Occasionally she'd even take her iPad into Central Park and use a stylus and drawing application to "sketch." But none of that was the same as disappearing into the perception of life passing from charcoal-smudged or ink-stained fingers onto paper and canvas.
The potter in Mason had described her work with clay as a tactile experience. Jenny understood that because she herself craved the feel of a pencil or a brush in her hand. And even though she now used spike lavender as her thinning agent, Jenny secretly liked the smell of toxic turpentine; to her it was the heady aroma of the studio and of all the things that were possible only in that space.
From the moment she first held Langston Lockwood's sketches in her hand, Jenny had begun to feel the stirrings of compassion for her father, an emotion she instinctively tried to clamp down. Even though he was dead, allowing herself to feel something for Langston left Jenny with an uncomfortable sense of dangerous exposure. It was an emotional tendency in her that Josh recognized and addressed head on.
“Stop it,” he’d tell her gently.
“Stop what?” she would demand angrily.
“Thinking you’re out there on a ledge by yourself.”
That was it, exactly. To be Langston Lockwood’s daughter was to forever be standing on the brink of free fall. Or at least it had been before Jenny had any insight into who her father really was as a human being — tortured, brilliant, and conflicted. Could she really hate a man with whom she shared so much? And really, was there any point in hating a dead man at all?
So when Mandy announced that she was carrying a child, all Jenny could think about was the future that now lay before the Lockwood family. True, this child would carry the Mason name, but it would be raised on the same land where Jenny herself grew up and it would be surrounded by the love and security she herself had never known.
Kate was already talking about buying a horse the baby could "grow into." Josh was searching for the perfect location for a tree house. Joe Bob came home every day with a new toy. And just the other night she heard Jake ask Mandy, with serious concern, “But can't little girls play with toy dinosaurs, too?”
Mandy’s unborn child was already loved, as would be a child of Jenny’s if she chose to make that life-changing decision. The very thought of it filled her with a kind of uncharacteristic hope. Could there really be a future where a herd of cousins happily ranged over the Rocking L with the adults calling out admonitions from the porch?
The thought of it made her laugh out loud. She could actually hear Kate ordering an unruly gang of children to, "Stop running with those sticks! You'll poke out an eye!"
But no sooner had that image flashed in her mind than her hands tightened on the wheel. It all sounded wonderful except for one overriding factor. Robert Marino was still out there. Intellectually, Jenny knew that she had not knowingly exposed her family to danger, but that didn't change the truth. The consequences of her twisted liaison with Marino were undeniable; Langston Lockwood was dead, Katie was crippled for life, and once again the people Jenny loved were in danger.
She should have put a bullet in Marino's head when she had a chance. Even if Katie had been right that shooting an injured, unarmed man was murder, it was hard for Jenny to get Langston Lockwood's brutal instruction out of her mind, "Be a bleeding heart all you want, little gal, but some sons of bitches need killing." Langston would have pulled the trigger that night, and Jenny half wished she'd been enough of his daughter in that moment to do the same.
As the traffic around her began to get heavier, Jenny turned the bulk of her attention back to her driving, but with a new awareness of just how many precious things in her life she wanted to protect — including the possibility of a child of her own.
That night, over a heaping plate of barbecue, Josh studied first Jenny and then Kate before pronouncing, “You two look better.”
“I don’t know about Katie,” Jenny said, “but I feel better. I needed a day by myself.”
“Me, too,” Kate said. “I just could not take one more of Cousin Jessica’s sage observations about ranch life.”
Jake washed down a mouthful of brisket with ice tea and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who could make the word ‘rustic’ sound so insulting.”
“Or ‘quaint’,” Jenny said.
“Or ‘interesting’,” Kate grumbled.
Josh picked up a rib and bit into it with hearty pleasure. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “I had fun with Cousin Jessica today.”
Jenny cocked an eyebrow in his direction. “You care to define ‘fun’?”
Still chewing rhythmically, Josh said, “I explained the local wildlife to her.”
“Oh,” Kate said, leaning back in her chair. “This ought to be good. Do tell.”
“I just told her I wanted to make sure she was safe,” Josh said, reaching for the container of beans. “So I explained about the mountain lions.”
“Josh Baxter,” Kate said, “you know damn good and well there hasn’t been a mountain lion in these parts since the 1930s.”
“I know it,” he said, spooning beans onto his plate, “but Cousin Jessica doesn’t know it. And she doesn’t know that there’s no such thing as Mexican Lime Fever.”
Jake choked on his food laughing. Jenny slapped him on the back and said to her very self-satisfied fiancé, “Josh, dear, enlighten us about this Mexican Lime Fever. How does one come down with this dreaded disease?”
“Why, honey,” Josh said, “you should know about it, being a rustic country gal and all. You get it from the ticks.”
Kate eyed him suspiciously. “What kind of ticks did you show Jessica?” she asked.
“Some big ole horse ticks.”
Kate and Jenny burst out laughing, causing Jake to ask in confusion, “What?”
“How big were they?” Kate asked.
“About the size of a nickel,” Josh grinned.
Jake paled. “Oh my God, those don’t get on . . .”
“Nope,” Jake said. “But Cousin Jessica doesn’t know that either. And then I took her down to the creek.”
“You didn’t!” Jenny said.
“I did,” Jo
sh said.
Jake shook his head. “Clearly this is some country rite-of-passage-hazing thing I don’t understand. What’s at the creek?”
“Hellgrammites,” Kate and Jenny said together.
Jake furrowed his brow. “Hellgrammites?”
Jake wiped his hands on his napkin and fished his smartphone out of the back pocket of his jeans. He thumbed around until he found a picture and then held the phone out to Jake.
“Oh my God,” Jake said. “That’s a Dobsonfly. How big were his wings?”
“About five inches,” Josh said. “And that bad boy had a wicked set of pinchers on him. I told Jessica sometimes they get so big we have to shoot’em. But just with a .22, not a shotgun.”
“And she believed you?” Jenny asked incredulously
“From the way she high-tailed it back down to Mandy’s and ran into the house,” Josh said, “I reckon she did.”
Kate, who was laughing so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes, said, “I would have paid good money to see that.”
“I just figured I’d soften her up a little bit before tonight,” Josh said. “She has to walk to the command center in the dark with ole Brad. What with that mountain lion prowling around out there, I’d say Cousin Jessica is gonna be good and nervous before we get the proof to nail her conniving ass.”
85
Nervous was an understatement. McManus was wearing a wire, so the group assembled in Jake’s quarters at the Institute could hear everything he and Jessica said to one another as they approached the command center a little before 3 a.m.
Every sound from the underbrush elicited a panicked reaction from Jessica until McManus finally said, with thinly veiled exasperation, “Is there something wrong?”
“The mountain lions,” Jessica said. Her voice came across the connection as a breathy whisper. “Aren’t you afraid they’ll hear us and attack?”
“Mountain lions?” McManus asked, so clearly perplexed that even Miles Riley laughed.
Turning to Josh, Miles said, “You did a real number on her.”
“Who? Me?” Josh asked with a grin.
On the portable monitor Miles had set up in the center of Jake’s kitchen table, they saw McManus and Jessica enter the deserted command center.
“How is he going to explain the place being empty?” Kate asked.
“Listen,” Miles said.
Over the speaker, they heard Jessica say, “Why isn’t anyone here?”
McManus puffed out his chest in an exaggerated show and said, “I arranged for a little equipment malfunction. We have at least an hour before the rest of the shift gets back down here from the upper end of the pasture. I told them I’d watch the shop, I just didn’t explain that I’d have company while I did it.”
Jessica let out a simpering giggle and gushed, “Oh, Brad, that was so clever of you.”
As the group in the kitchen continued to watch, McManus showed Jessica all the video feeds from the cave in Baxter’s Draw and answered her questions about what she was seeing. It didn’t take her long to get to the real point of her interest. Sidling up to Brad and snaking her arm through his, she said, “So is there still treasure up there?”
“I don’t know about treasure,” Brad said, “but there’s a lot of big locked boxes. And, well, they did hire us. I don’t think we would be here if there wasn’t something to guard.”
Even over the grainy video, the triumphant look on Jessica’s face was unmistakable. Without missing a beat, she pretended to catch sight of the clock on the wall. Feigning unhappy realization, her features melted into a disappointed pout. “Oh, Brad,” she whined, “look at the time. You have to take me back to Mandy’s.”
McManus looked at the clock, too, and swore as if he had the worst luck of any man in the world. “I guess I do have to take you back,” he said, “but I was hoping we could spend more time together.”
“Oh, we will, Brad,” Jessica assured him. “But we have to be careful. I don’t want you to get in trouble with your boss over me.”
With a little more gushing and petting from Jessica, the two exited the command center. Miles keyed his mic and spoke to another of his men, “Wait for them to get clear and get back to your positions.”
Flipping another switch, Miles spoke to the remote outpost in Baxter’s Draw, “Normalize the camera feeds.” Then he turned to Kate, “Okay. Now we should be able to find out what your cousin is really up to,” he said. “If she is working with Marino, she should call him as soon as she gets back to her bedroom.”
“You don’t think she’d wait until the morning?” Jenny asked.
“No,” Miles said, “we pulled her cell phone records. She’s been making calls to the same number every night, usually after midnight. The number is to a burner phone, so we can’t trace it, but if Jessica holds true to form, she’ll make a call as soon as she’s alone.”
The audio from the wire McManus was wearing crackled to life. He and Jessica had reached the patio at Mandy’s and were exchanging their goodnights, which were accompanied by the sound of a rather wet kiss.
McManus didn’t report in until he was well away from the house. “Package delivered,” he said crisply. He then added, “Request 10 minutes of personal time, sir.”
“Sure,” Miles said. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, sir,” McManus replied. “I just need to brush my teeth.”
Smothering a laugh, Miles said, “Understood. In fact, take the rest of the shift off. You’ve done your work for one night.”
Just then, Jessica’s voice came out of the second speaker on the table. “I saw the command center,” she whispered.
“Okay,” Miles said urgently. “This is it. We’ll only be able to hear her side of the conversation.”
“No, I didn’t see any men actually in the cave,” she said. “I think they just watch on the monitors.”
After a pause. “Yes, there’s a lower level. It’s full of big, locked chests.”
Then, “He said they can’t use the drones. Something about interference.”
And then, Cousin Jessica took her own kill shot. “Trust me, Robert,” she said. “I can get that idiot McManus to tell me anything. I’ll find out everything you need. But, yes, I think you should be able to get inside and get what you need before they can get on scene. It takes them almost two hours to get up there. They’re not very bright.”
In Jake’s kitchen, Miles turned to Kate. “Heard enough?” he asked.
Kate’s mouth was set in a grim line. “I have,” she said. “Go get Cousin Jessica.”
Ten minutes later, two burly security men ushered a very nervous-looking Jessica Northrup into Jake’s office at the Institute. Jenny and Kate were the only ones in the room.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Jessica demanded haughtily.
Kate pointed to the chair in front of Jake’s desk and said, “Sit down, Jessica. We know you’re working with Robert Marino.”
“Now see here,” Jessica huffed. “I have just been kidnapped from my bedroom . . .”
Jenny laughed harshly. “Really, Jessica?” she said. “Kidnapped? Why did you answer when these men tapped at your window?”
Jessica opened her mouth, shut it, then stammered. “I, I have been having a pleasant liaison with one of the security men, Brad McManus. I thought he’d come back so we could have more time together.”
“McManus was wearing a wire,” Kate said flatly. “And your room is bugged. Don’t even try to talk your way out of this one.”
At that news, Jessica sat down woodenly in the chair and said nothing. Kate motioned to the two security men. “Close the door,” she ordered.
The men stepped out as they were told, leaving the three women alone in the room. “This is your one chance to talk your way out of this whole mess,” Kate told Jessica. “Make it good.”
Jessica looked from one sister to the other, and all her bravado disappeared. “I didn’t think you were smart enough to catch me,” she admitte
d. “Robert told me not to underestimate you.”
“Robert was right,” Jenny said tightly. “How did you get mixed up with him in the first place?”
“Do I really have to tell you that?” Jessica asked bitterly. “If he couldn’t get on this ranch one way, he was determined to do it another.”
“How did he find you?” Jenny asked.
Jessica slumped in her chair. “I made it easy for him,” she said sullenly. “I was maxed out on all my charge cards — again. I didn’t want my father to find out, so I borrowed some objets d'art from the family home.”
“Short translation,” Kate said. “You stole from your own family and, what, sold the stuff?”
“I thought Robert was a legitimate art dealer,” she said. “I met him in New York. We saw each other a few times. He got me to talk about my money problems and offered to give me a loan. I said no, and he said if my conscience was bothered by the idea of accepting money from a man, I could supply him with ‘collateral pieces to hold’ until my ‘fortunes righted themselves.’”
Jenny swore under her breath. “Jesus,” she muttered. “That sounds just like him.”
Jessica looked at her and said, “I didn’t know about you then. Robert didn’t tell me until I tried to get the pieces back. You see . . .” she faltered. “I . . . if I don’t get the items back in place by the 15th of next month, I will be found out. Daddy has already threatened to write me out of the will, and this will be the kiss of death for me.”
“What happens on the 15th of next month?” Kate asked.
“Grandfather is having all the items in his collection appraised for insurance purposes, including the pieces he believes to be in storage in the attic,” Jessica said.
“So Robert is holding the items ransom?” Jenny asked.
Jessica nodded. “Yes,” she said. “He sent me down here to ingratiate myself with the three of you and to help him get access to the cave in Baxter’s Draw. If I succeeded, he’d let me have the artwork.”
Kate frowned. “He wants to get into the cave in person?”
The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories Page 53