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

by Thelen, Marjorie

  After the service he loaded his instrument and amplifier back in the truck. He said, “How about breakfast at Fast Freddie’s truck stop? They have great steak and eggs.”

  “Fast Freddie’s sounds like my kind of place.”

  He smiled at her as they stood beside the truck. “Thanks for coming. I loved showing you off.”

  “Is that what you were doing?”

  “You bet.”

  They stood looking at each other. He wanted to kiss her but he thought that might be going a bit too far since they were standing in the church parking lot with people getting in their rigs and leaving.

  Darn, if she didn’t come up and brush her lips across his.

  “You’re a good man, Jake Manyhorses,” she said.

  Didn’t she understand the effect she had on him? Even one little kiss like that made his jeans get tight. She was a tease, and one of these days he was going to carry her cave man style to his bed and satisfy the lust he knew they both felt. Love might have to come later for her.

  Fast Freddy’s was hopping. The Sunday church crowd had descended. They found one small table in the middle of the crowded restaurant.

  Fiona studied the menu. “So you recommend steak and eggs?”

  “They’re the best.”

  “Then that is what I’ll have. I’m hungry, and it’s lunch time.”

  A group of three men stopped by the table to say hello. Three women acompanied them. Jake introduced Fiona.

  “Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” said one man with husky shoulders and a belly to match. He looked to Jake. “I heard about the trouble you’re having. Have you found who stole your cattle?”

  Jake shook his head and gave him the abbreviated version of the trouble. “The doctor called yesterday and said that Glory’s vital signs are improving. I’m going over to the hospital after we eat to check on him.”

  “What a run of bad luck. You aren’t the only one missing cattle though. I heard yesterday that the Simpson ranch has a few head missing.”

  The men talked on and one of the women asked Fiona how long she was staying.

  “I’m not sure.” She explained about losing the bunk house.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. And how is Opal? It is such a shame about her illness and all.”

  “She was feeling better yesterday. She started treatments, and they make her very tired.”

  “You tell her the Marys asked about her.” The woman laughed and indicated the three of them. “We’re all named Mary.”

  Coming out of Fast Freddie’s they ran into Lauren coming in the door with another gal, and Fiona stopped to talk.

  Jake was polite and said hello, but he told Fiona he’d get the rig. While he was waiting, he pulled up to a gas pump and had the attendant fill the tank. He wasn’t a great admirer of Lauren, the furniture and decorator whiz. She specialized too much in gossip for Jake’s liking, and he suspected her of spreading rumors about him. Fact was one thing. Rumor and gossip another.

  When Fiona got into the rig, she looked troubled. Jake suspected Lauren of spreading more gossip. He pulled out of Fast Freddie’s and drove toward the hospital.

  “Do you have anything else in town to do?” he said. “I thought we’d go by and check on Glory.”

  “Good idea. I don’t have anything to do that I can think of.”

  “What’s wrong? You look worried or something.”

  She was quiet for a few moments which increased Jake’s anxiety.

  Keeping her eyes straight ahead she finally said, “I think it is important to be honest with each other.”

  “I’ve always been honest with you.”

  She looked at him. “You never told me anything about your ex-wife and little girl.”

  “I don’t talk about it. The memories are painful for me.”

  She sighed and studied the back of her hands. “Lauren warned me about you.”

  “Warned you about what?”

  “She said to be careful. That you have a history of roughing women up.”

  “Me? A history? I can count on one hand the women I have dated in Rocky Point. All of them are well known, and I’ve never roughed up a woman in my life.”

  “What about your former wife?”

  Jake’s face turned to stone. He felt the hardness of it through his frown. “My ex-wife found someone more to her liking and left with my little girl. That was fifteen years ago if my memory serves me correctly. Lauren wasn’t around then.”

  “She said she heard that you drove your wife off with your raging temper, and she ended up in the women’s shelter.”

  Jake could feel anger squeeze his throat, and he struggled to keep his voice calm. “Where she gets those lies, I don’t know.” He pulled the truck over to an abandoned parking lot and turned to face Fiona. “I’ve never harmed a woman in my life. Lauren is lying.”

  Fiona looked him in the eyes. “I’m not saying you did. I’m repeating something that one woman has told me which might be the source of some unwanted rumors about you and your personal life that you might want to get straightened out. Like I said, I discover new things about you every day. But this is something I didn’t want to hear. Is treating your wife badly part of ordinary living?”

  Her look told him that the water had been poisoned. What was he going to do now? He said very slowly, “Lauren doesn’t like me, and it probably has something to do with a night in a bar when she came on to me. She isn’t my type but she seemed to think she was. She wouldn’t let up, and I walked out. She called me several times after that, wanting to know why I didn’t want to take her out. I can’t tell you why, but I have never liked her and don’t trust her. Now she has poisoned the water between us as a way of getting back. She has done a good job because I can see the distrust in your eyes.”

  He sat back in the seat and blew out a breath, feeling sick to his stomach he was so upset. He inhaled slowly, in and out, to calm down. He couldn’t believe Lauren would be that hateful, but then human beings had a way of doing things on a regular basis that he couldn’t believe.

  Fiona said, “I’ll consider the source. Lauren has always been nice to me.”

  “She sees money when you walk in the door.”

  “I’m not denying that. I try to keep a level head when it comes to my suppliers. If that is the case, I’m disappointed. Everyone is so nice here, and I’ve gotten used to trusting people. Maybe not everyone’s to be trusted.”

  “Maybe so,” said Jake. He started the truck. “You can ask anyone in town about me and my ex-wife. They’ll tell you the same. She was a wanderer, and the grass always looked better on the other side of the fence. She left for what looked like greener pasture and took my little girl with her. That was the saddest day of my life. They’ve disappeared, and I haven’t been able to find them anywhere.”

  Fifteen

  They drove to the hospital in icy silence after the argument over Lauren’s accusations. When they walked into Glory’s room, they found him sitting up in bed. Jake smiled in spite of his bad mood. It was a relief to see Glory alive and awake.

  Jake skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point. “Who did it?” he asked.

  Glory moved his battered, taped up head back and forth where it rested against the head of the bed. “I didn’t see him right. He came up behind me and whacked me something fierce and kept whacking me. That’s all I remember. Next thing I know I wake up in a hospital.”

  “Were you drinking?”

  “Not too much, just had a little nip is all I remember.”

  “An empty booze bottle was lying in the brush.”

  “I’m lucky he didn’t hit me with that.”

  “You’re lucky you’re still alive.”

  Glory’s face crumpled, and he got teary. He coughed and sputtered and finally got the words out. “I’m sorry Jake. I don’t know what gets into me. I know you want to kick me out, but please give me another chance. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  Jake
stood at the side of the man’s hospital bed, studying his face. Tears in a man always made him uncomfortable, and he shifted from one foot to the other at a loss for words. Fiona stood by the other side of the bed. She reached out and took Glory’s knotty hand in hers.

  “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be all right,” she told him.

  More tears spilled from his eyes. “I’m just an old, sorry wreck. I wished the guy would of finished me off and put me out of my misery.”

  Fiona looked at Jake.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry about a job. Worry about getting better. We’ll work something out. You know Opal never turns away a man down on his luck.”

  Glory snuffled and tried to wipe his nose with the back of his hand. Fiona handed him a tissue. He coughed and sputtered some more. “The Sheriff’s been to see me. I told him what I knew.” He hiccoughed and tried to speak some more, but no more words came out.

  Fiona said, “Did you hear, see, or smell anything that would give us an idea of who attacked you? What time of the day was it? Lead us back through what you remember before you were attacked.”

  Glory wiped his eyes and nose again. His battered face was turning redder, and Jake worried he might have a heart attack on top of everything.

  “I don’t know. Jake told me to go out to check, make sure the stock pond was full. The dog followed me, and I rode along easy. When I got there, there was no water in the tank so I got down and saw the switch was off so I turned it on. The water started coming. Then I rode the fence while I was out to make sure it was secure.”

  “And you had the bottle,” said Jake, “and you took a nip every now and again to keep your strength up.”

  Glory nodded. “How’d you know?”

  “Used to do the same thing myself, but I realized one day that I couldn’t keep drinking and be worth much to anyone, and I stopped.”

  “I know I got to kick the habit. It’s hard. My problems weigh me down at times.”

  “Is the guy who beat you up part of your problems or mine?”

  Glory looked sheepish. “Might be mine. I don’t know.”

  “Who’s your problem?”

  “I can’t be sure.” Glory’s look became cagey, visible even under all the bandages. Some things he might not share.

  But Jake had to know. It might mean saving Opal’s ranch. He sat down on the side of the bed.

  “Glory, someone is trying to run Opal off her ranch. Or warn her away. Someone burned the bunkhouse, someone whacked me over the head when I tried to track the rustlers, someone tried to burn down the hay shed on the night you disappeared.”

  Glory’s puffy eyes widened. “They did?”

  “Yes. Earl started barking late that night. I went out and found him in the hay shed, guarding an overturned can of gasoline. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

  Glory looked toward Fiona who stood beside the bed and had remained quietly studying him. He looked at Jake. “It wasn’t me.”

  Fiona spoke up. “Are you sure that someone came up and attacked you from behind?”

  Glory looked sharply her way and a look of terror spread over what could be seen of his face.

  She said, “The wounds are around the front of your face, Glory. You arms and hands show the lacerations of a frontal attack. I believe you know who attacked you.”

  Glory’s face crumpled again. He started to sob silently.

  Fiona patted his arm as if to reassure him. “Tell us who it was, Glory. You owe it to Opal and Jake.”

  Between sobs, he said, “I needed the money, and he said all I had to do was set a little fire at that old bunk house to scare you.” He tried to say more, but he was having trouble voicing the words. He hiccupped and struggled on. “I guess I had too much to drink, and I got too much gasoline on the old place, and I was just going to set a little fire and before I knew it the whole place was up in flames.”

  Fiona said, “And you had the old gun along with you that night and dropped it.”

  Glory looked at her. “If you found the gun, why did you leave it where I dropped it?”

  “Because I wanted the Sheriff to see it in place. You came back and got it before the Sheriff came back. But you let it lay in plain sight on the couch in the new bunkhouse.”

  Glory stopped snuffling. “I don’t remember where I put it. How’d you find it in the bunkhouse?”

  Fiona said, “I was looking for Olympia and thought she was visiting one of the buckaroos. I went to the house and saw the old gun on the couch.”

  Glory shook his head. “The gun is my good luck piece. I usually carry it with me. I couldn’t remember where I put it, and I didn’t have it when I rode out to the stock pond.”

  “Alcohol does that to one’s memory,” Fiona said softly. “It sort of takes it away a little at a time. Days get all muddled, and it is hard to keep track anymore.”

  Jake sat nodding his head. He said, “Who did it to you, Glory?”

  Glory sighed and looked down at his hands. “One of them fellers that used to work for you. Least ways that’s what he said. He knew a lot about the ranch and how you run it.”

  “What is his name?” said Jake.

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “He said he’d kill me the next time.”

  “Why did he beat you?”

  “Because I didn’t set the hay barn on fire like he wanted me to do. I said I wouldn’t do it, that I had already caused enough trouble for Opal.”

  “So he tried to set the hay barn on fire himself except the dog scared him off.”

  “I guess so.” Glory looked red-eyed at Jake. “Opal’s been good to me, and I didn’t want to cause her any more trouble because she already had enough. I thought if I just started a little fire and made a little extra money that would be the end of it. But it wasn’t. He wanted me to do more.”

  “What’s his name?” Jake asked. “We have to stop this, and the only way is if you tell me who is behind this.”

  “I don’t want to go to jail.”

  “I don’t know if I can prevent that. Opal will decide in the end if she is going to press charges. One thing she’ll demand is that you change your way of life and get clean and sober.”

  “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “Your choice, but you are going to tell me who is behind this.”

  Glory sighed and fumbled with the edge of the sheet. “Name’s Walt. I don’t know his last name. He approached me one day I was in town. He paid me the money after the bunkhouse burned down. Said I had done a good job and there was more he wanted help with. The money was easy but then I found out Opal was sick, and I felt bad about causing her problems when she was always so nice to me.”

  “Do you know why Walt wants to give Opal problems?”

  Glory shrugged. “He didn’t say. I didn’t ask. I needed the money and it seemed like an easy way to get some. But things got out of hand, like I said and I’m sorry about it.” He slumped forward and buried his face in his hands.

  Fiona spoke up. “Glory needs to rest. Thank you for telling us who did this to you. I’m as sorry about the bunkhouse as you, but maybe we can get this all sorted out.” She walked to the door and waited for Jake.

  Jake was reluctant to leave. He wanted more information, but Fiona was right. The man was overwrought and needed rest. But he had the uneasy feeling that Glory was not safe in the hospital.

  In the hall Fiona turned to him. “We need to take him home.”

  Jake said, “I’m afraid Walt will be back and finish the job. Glory hasn’t told us all he knows. I’ll call Hoover. Maybe he can send one of the deputies to watch him.”

  Fiona nodded. “I’m afraid for his life, too.”

  “Let’s find the doctor and see when he can be released.”

  * * * * *

  Jake got into the truck but didn’t start it. They sat in silence. It seemed to Fiona like they needed time to process not only the argum
ent over what Lauren had said, but also Glory’s disturbing revelation. She was sorry now that she had blurted out what Lauren had told her. Why hadn’t she made some discrete inquiries first? Here it was again. Another incident of someone swearing something bad had happened, and another person swearing it was lies. It might be the same with Glory. He could be lying to save his skin. But he might not be. Who did one believe?

  As far as Jake was concerned, she knew she wanted to believe him. If she didn’t, then everything she felt about the man was false. Her instinct told her Jake was a decent human being, not a wife beater. While she liked Lauren, she didn’t know her that well. Jake was right, she saw dollar signs when Fiona walked into her store. If she had set her sights on Jake, and he had rebuffed her, then the old adage was right. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

  She let go a big sigh.

  Jake reached over and took her hand.

  “I love you, Fiona. I’d never hurt you. I would never hurt any woman.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have confronted you with hearsay. I’m sorry.”

  “I can take you to the women’s shelter and let you talk to the director. She’s been there a long time. You can hear for yourself that my ex-wife was never there. I don’t want this hanging over us. I’m glad you brought it up so we can clear the air.”

  Fiona squeezed his hand. “There’s more I need to say. I must confess that I’m afraid to love you, Jake. I’m afraid of getting hurt again.” And she told him about Rob Calloway. When she finished, they were quiet for a time, processing another revelation.

  Jake said after a while, “We’ve both been hurt. I loved my wife, and I love my little girl though I haven’t seen her in years. But I learned that I couldn’t keep retreating into alcohol to keep the hurt away. I learned that I needed to live life with all its pain and sorrow, because there’s a lot about life that is good, and love is one. I wanted a woman to love again, even after all the hurt. You’re that woman. I know it in my bones. I know you don’t fit here. I know you think there’s more exciting things to do than be married to me. But I can give you something I think way down deep you need and that is love and stability and a home. You keep making homes for other folks, but what you need is a home of your own and a man to love you.”