High Desert Detective, A Fiona Marlowe Mystery (Fiona Marlowe Mysteries)

by Thelen, Marjorie

  “I’ll take one of those. I feel on edge tonight myself. You were awfully quiet over dinner. You didn’t laugh at Olympia’s jokes.”

  “I’m sorry. I was shaken up after talking to Jake. That list he’s putting together will include some of my relations, but it can’t be helped. The economic loss of the cows will put us back at a time we need the money. I’m upset that Jake got hurt. And I lost prime cows from a bloodline that has taken years to develop. Ranching is a hard business in a good year. In this day and age you have to keep up with what’s happening in the global market because it affects prices we get for beef and hay. Heck, some of our alfalfa hay goes to feed dairy cows in Japan.” She shook her head. “I feel like I’m falling way behind.”

  She handed a fresh drink to Fiona, and they sat down across from each other at the kitchen table. A cool breeze came through the screen door with the setting sun. Fiona liked that. No need for air conditioning. Close the house up in the hot weather during the day. Open it up at night. There was a lot she liked about this country.

  She was sad for Opal who looked all of her eighty-odd years tonight. Her pert pixie haircut drooped, and the spidery lines in her face seemed deeper. This next year was going to be hard on her, and Fiona hoped she’d make it through okay. If there was anything she could do for Opal, she would.

  She put her hand over Opal’s lying on the table. “I want to help. What can I do to help you?”

  Opal looked at Fiona’s hand on hers then looked away. She smoothed her eyes with her fingertips. “Just look at me, getting all teary. I feel pretty alone right now. I got the family, but I can’t ever confide in them. They’d be at each other throats thinking I was playing favorites. Of course, if it wasn’t for this ranch, I don’t know that they’d be so interested in me. It’s been helpful having you here to talk to.”

  Fiona smiled, but it was a sad one. “You know, we haven’t known each other a year, and you’ve been through a lot in that year. Your brother Albert dying, you having to deal with his relations and the estate, and Cody serving time now for illegal gun dealing. I know you were counting on him, and he didn’t turn out so good. You’re not young, Opal. This would be hard for a younger person.”

  Opal’s smile was bittersweet. “To tell you the truth, Fiona, I know I’m slowing down. I look around at all there is to do on this place, and I feel overwhelmed. I didn’t used to feel like that. I’ve been feeling really tired lately. My energy has gone off somewhere and left me. I used to glory in making this a prime cattle production ranch. Henry would have been so proud.”

  “I know him only from the photos you’ve showed me, but he looked like a man who would want his wife to enjoy her golden years.”

  Opal laughed at that one. “Hay farmers and cattle ranchers never retire.” At that she launched into a rich cowgirl tenor of the old cowboy song, I Ride an Old Paint. “When I die, take my saddle from the wall, put it on my pony, and lead him from the stall. Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west, and we’ll ride the prairies we love the best.”

  Fiona laughed and clapped. “You have a beautiful voice, Opal.”

  She laughed, too. “Music has helped keep me sane all these years. I always enjoyed playing guitar with the Old Time Fiddlers in town when I could get to their jam sessions. The older I get the more I seem to have to do, the less time there is for fun. Having to deal with Albert’s estate has put me on tilt this past year, I swear.” She looked around like she’d find help for all her problems coming through the door at any minute.

  “Listen,” said Fiona, “I know something about computers. I could help with that.”

  Opal got up to fix another drink. “Jake’s pretty good keeping our records on the computer. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but he’s real good with numbers. He’s been keeping the books for this place for a long time. I look them over, and he tells me what he’s been doing. But he does the bulk of the computer work, and he’s good.”

  “I’ll ask him if he needs help. There must be something I can do.”

  Opal smiled. “You do that. He likes your kind of help.”

  She put another drink in front of Fiona, who hadn’t finished her first yet, and sat down. “Gracious, I’m tired. I just can’t seem to get my strength back. It’s all this worrying. It’s worse than calving and branding.”

  Fiona slid her drink glass in circles on the table then looked up when Opal didn’t say anymore. She sat looking out the screen door into the descending night. Cows were mooing in the distance, and one brayed in an other-worldly bellow.

  “What’s that noise? It sounds like something from the living dead,” asked Fiona.

  “That braying? That’s a bull telling the cows what a stud he is. Fortunately for us the cattle thieves didn’t get any of our bulls.” She paused. “Yet.”

  “Those bulls look mean and dangerous. Wouldn’t they be hard to handle?”

  “You bet, if you don’t know what you’re doing. We lease them out, and we have a pretty good line. They bring good money. I may have to sell off some to cover the loss on the cows.” She heaved a mighty sigh. “Another thing to worry about.”

  A flock of birds buzzed the door and set up an angry chatter. Opal rose to let in one of the ranch cats. “Those King birds devil the life out of the cats. Of course, the cats deserve it because they kill the birds’ young.”

  A big black fluffy cat meowed its way into the kitchen and promptly jumped up on the table to investigate.

  “Off of there, Midnight,” said Opal, swatting the cat from the table. She reached down to rub Midnight’s head, and the cat yeowed her contentment. She bumped and rubbed against Opal’s leg.

  “I like it here,” said Fiona, watching the antics of the cat.

  “It grows on you, the high desert does. What about Jake?” asked Opal, sitting down again. The cat had moved on, probably to see if there were any mice that needed catching.

  That question caught Fiona off guard. She reflected and then said, “I like Jake, too.”

  “He wants to marry you, you know.”

  “He hasn’t said anything to me.”

  “I know him. He hasn’t said it outright, but I know he wants a wife even though his first one was a disaster.”

  “Jake’s been married before?” said Fiona. “I didn’t take Jake as the marrying kind.”

  “Yes, he was married. It didn’t last long. She left him for a carnival operator.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “I’m not. She got in with one of those fly-by-night boys that come through with the fair and just up and left. Took the little girl with her. Jake has tried to find the girl, but they seemed to have evaporated into thin air.”

  “How sad. He never said anything about his family or having a family for that matter.”

  “What relations he has are back in Oklahoma. They don’t bother with him. Jake was pretty wild and unruly before he came here to work. I think the family disowned him. He had another gal he liked a while back, but that one didn’t last long either. She was from the city and couldn’t adjust to life in the country. You remind me of her. That’s why I said I didn’t want you breaking his heart.”

  Fiona finished the first drink and started on the second. This might be a drinking evening for both of them. She could hear the faint noise of the TV in the background and every once in a while a loud laugh from Olympia.

  “Opal, I can’t give him a family and a happily-ever-after kind of life.”

  Opal smiled and picked up the cat that had come back for more attention. “I don’t think he’s looking for that anymore. It’s just that, well, rural life can be lonely, and Jake isn’t the recluse type you often see out here. He genuinely likes people. He likes ranch life, and he’s a hard worker. He’s come a long way from the cowhand with a chip on his shoulder like he was when he arrived here. He’s my biggest success story. He has turned his life around and made something of it.” She paused, scratching the cat’s ears then lowered her voice. “I�
��ll tell you a little secret. He’s saved up enough money to put a nice down payment on a place of his own. He’s good with money, not extravagant. You could get a lot worse.”

  “I’m not looking for better or worse.”

  “What are you looking for?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that same question for a while now. I must be having a mid-life crisis or something.” She looked into her drink to see if the answer was in a bunch of ice cubes and a little whiskey.

  “I can tell you one thing,” Opal said. “Ranch life can be lonely, and it’s nice to have a partner. There isn’t anything better than sitting on that porch in the evening and gazing out over land that you own and a place that you have worked and nourished and made grow. There’s something tremendously fulfilling in that. You aren’t going to find that in the city.”

  “I’m getting a sense of that. I’m beginning to see what a place like this means to someone like you. And Jake. I just don’t know if I could take it for the rest of my life. I mean there are places to see, people to meet, new projects to design. I love to travel. I love the excitement.”

  Opal smiled. “You know I remember telling my Henry the same thing.”

  “You? I thought you were from a ranching family.”

  “No, I married into it. I was a school teacher in Portland. I grew up there. I met Henry at a rodeo, and that’s how it started. I adapted. I loved Henry so much I would have followed him to the end of the Earth. And then some.”

  “Didn’t you want to marry again?”

  “No, it took me years to get over losing Henry, and then it was too late to have kids, and I never found that kind of love again.” She smiled impishly. “Not that I didn’t have offers. So you and Jake might have a future together.”

  Opal finished her drink and went to bed. While Fiona finished her drink, she thought over their conversation. Maybe she did have a future here. Maybe she could be a settling down kind of woman like Opal.

  * * * * *

  Jake was up at first light which at that time of the year in Harney Valley was before four in the morning. He made coffee and took a mug to the office to start his computer work. He had a good idea who had worked for them, but he wanted to look at the list he had kept on who they employed and when. He set up a spreadsheet, a column for relatives and a column for outsiders.. He had a hunch that it was Walt and Ralph back to their old tricks. He hoped Hoover would find something on them. He had a feeling they might be in cahoots with one of the family. Walt and Ralph had gotten to Cody. They could have done the same with another of Opal’s relations.

  He had had his own problems with the family. Some had the old prejudice against Native Americans. He was part Native and looked it. That brought it out in them. He guessed they didn’t think an old half breed could run a ranch.

  The other complicating factor was that Opal had a reputation for taking in wayward cowhands and making something of them. He was one. There were probably at least half a dozen in the list that may have reverted back to their old ways. You could never tell what was going to turn a man one way or another.

  He sighed, looked at his empty coffee mug, got up and went to the kitchen for a refill. The stuff was going to hit the fan, but Opal and he had agreed that the paperwork would all be finished on his buying the ranch before anyone knew. It was sneaky, but they couldn’t figure any other way.

  The sun peeked over the eastern ridge as he poured another mug. The breeze coming in the open windows was cool, but he could tell by the dry feel to the air that it was going to be hot, hot, hot. And they needed rain, rain, rain. He turned at the sound of footsteps. Fiona stood in the doorway to the kitchen in her Beavers sweat suit. Did the woman ever not look good? It was probably his eyesight. He should have his eyes checked. Maybe he needed glasses.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  He smiled. “Isn’t this the middle of the night for you?”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been awake since two. I heard someone in the kitchen and thought maybe I could get a cup of coffee.”

  He smiled, poured her a mug, and handed it over. He went about making a fresh pot. Her presence put a brighter shine on his day. He hoped he wasn’t too obvious. He couldn’t help he liked everything about her.

  She sat at the kitchen table. He leaned against the counter while the pot of coffee brewed. He was afraid to get any closer. He wanted to touch her so bad.

  “Opal and I had a good talk last night,” she said.

  He felt his heart seize up. Fiona was going to leave. He watched as she played with her coffee cup, drawing slow circles on the old worn table top with it. He couldn’t stand the tension but he waited, fearing the worse.

  “She’s going to give me a formal deed to the place on the knoll. I’m going to rebuild. “

  Jake couldn’t help the big grin that spread across his face. He felt like a boiler about to explode he was so happy to hear that. Letting out a big sigh to take off some of the steam, he said, “I’m glad.”

  Fiona smiled. “I’m glad you’re glad. I like it here. I don’t know if I’ll stay all year round, but at least I can have my little getaway place up there on the knoll overlooking your ranch.”

  If that was all he could have, he was happy for now. “Please keep the thing about my ranch to yourself until we settle, and I have the title.”

  “I will. Opal said that things will get touchy with the relatives when they find out.”

  Jake shrugged. “Maybe. We can hope for the best. She’s trying to work out some kind of a trust. The difficulty is where she draws the line of who is included. It’s like trying to decide who gets the wedding invitation. There are probably forty or so relations, and the cash divided that many ways won’t be as much.”

  “Why does Opal want to accommodate them?”

  “I guess she loves them, bickering lot that they are, and it has to do with the way she wants her will drawn up. I’m not sure she’ll be able to anticipate everything. A few want the ranch. Her niece, Tillie, comes to mind. But most will be happy with the cash. It would all go to Henry’s relations. Nothing goes to her side because the ranch was Henry’s. His relations would have a fit if they had to share it with even more people.”

  Fiona rose and poured another cup of coffee. She was so close, Jake could smell her sleepy self but he restrained himself from pulling her against him.

  He said, “I better get back to the computer. Then I have to get to the impossible task of inventorying cows.”

  “I could help.”

  He smiled. “You sure could. I’d like that. Go get your buckaroo outfit on while I finish up with my paperwork. Are you ready to get back up on a horse?”

  Fiona smiled. “I’ll give it a try.”

  Jake couldn’t stop smiling as he bent over the computer. He hurried to finish the list and email it to Hoover, who was supposed to go up in a plane today to get a better lay of the land and see where the road went that the rustlers used. Hoover had been at his job for a long time, but he told Jake that nothing much changed. He had started out in the early days chasing cattle rustlers, and he was still at it.

  Jake hustled out to the corral to find Sweet and have him saddle up Harriet. He caught Blitzen and saddled him. Both horses were standing ready at the corral gate when Fiona came out. She sure filled out clothes nicely.

  Sweet went with them, and they rode back and forth across the 160 acre fenced pasture where they had moved the cows and calves, checking ear tags as they went. They needed an accurate count on which cows and calves were missing.

  “Stay close to me,” Jake told her. “I’ll call out the ear tag numbers, and you check off the number on the list.”

  “I think I can do that.” She took the clip board he handed over.

  The job went faster with the three of them, and they were done in time to ride back to the house for lunch. Jake was impressed with Fiona’s calmness around the animals for a woman from the city. Maybe she could fit into life here. With him.r />
  Nine

  Opal replaced the phone on the receiver and stared out the window. It was the call from her doctor she had not wanted. The tests had come back. She had leukemia. That was why she had felt so tired and so exhausted these last few months. She had thought it was only from having to deal with Albert’s death and his estate. No, it was because weird little cells in her blood weren’t working right. The doctor wanted her to come to see him that afternoon. She was not to drive by herself.

  She could call Tillie or one of the nieces to take her in, but then they would know, and she didn’t want that yet. Jake and Fiona were busy with the cows. Olympia was still in bed. She could call Rosemary or Esme, but they were probably busy. She didn’t know what time Fiona would return. She would be the best. It amazed her how much she was coming to rely on the girl. There was something steady about her.

  She sank into a chair at the kitchen table and covered her face with her hands. It was hard coming to terms with the fact that her days were numbered. There was so much she wanted to do. She was running out of time. Well, she wouldn’t worry about that right now. She would do what she could. She picked up the phone and called her lawyer, Wade Stewart.

  “Wade, it’s Opal,” she said when they connected. “How are we coming on the settlement papers for the ranch and that deed? Good. I’ll be in this afternoon to pick them up.”

  No sense mooning around here with so much to be done. She busied herself at the stove fixing the noonday meal for Jake and the buckaroos. She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to do this. They said chemotherapy would sap her strength and make her sick. She was an old woman. She wondered if she really wanted to go through all this.

  Dear Heaven, what next?

  * * * * *

  By the time they rode in for lunch, Fiona was glad to dismount. She had enjoyed the work, surprisingly enough, but her legs were wobbly. She almost buckled when she finally slid off Harriet. Jake caught her around the waist.