The Sheriff of Sage Bend

by Brenda Mott

“Read it. Call me back if you have any questions, but I doubt I’ll be much more help to you.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Carrie.” Curious, he hung up and rolled his desk chair to the computer. After logging on, he searched his in-box. There.

  Lucas clicked on the e-mail, read it and felt his stomach turn over.

  Tori, thanks for helping me. You can’t know how much I appreciate it. You’re a good friend. TTYL—Shannon.

  The e-mail was dated the twenty-first of June, just a couple of days before Shannon had disappeared.

  Picking up the phone, Lucas dialed the diner.

  “Truck Inn, Mae speaking.”

  “Mae, it’s Lucas. Is Tori there?”

  “Nope. She’s off today. Would you like her cell number?”

  “Please.” He scrawled it on his desk blotter, thanked Mae, then hung up before she could start asking questions.

  Tori sounded half-asleep when she answered the phone, even though it was nearly noon. He supposed she worked odd hours, dividing her time between the diner and the Spur. “Tori, it’s Lucas. Can you come down to my office?”

  “Now?” she mumbled.

  “If you don’t mind.”

  He heard her yawn heartily. “Sorry. Sure, Lucas. Is it Shannon? Did you find something?” Now she sounded worried.

  “I’d rather wait and talk about this when you get here.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right there.”

  Lucas hung up and poured himself a cup of coffee. His umpteenth since he’d woken up that morning. And for the umpteenth time, his thoughts turned to making love with Miranda. She’d felt so soft and warm beneath him. And she’d been such a hellion…Just thinking about it turned him on. Yet she hadn’t called him, hadn’t come by. Instead, she checked in for news with Garrett every day.

  And when most of the rescue workers had pretty much given up, she’d continued the search…with Kyle Miller. It was none of Lucas’s business. He and Miranda had made love, but that didn’t mean they were back together. On the contrary, when Miranda had dismissed him that night, it had felt more like “Goodbye, Johnny” than a new step in their relationship.

  Who was he kidding? There was no relationship. Not anymore.

  While he waited for Tori, he busied himself with looking over a topographical map of the area where Shannon had disappeared. Where could she be? So many hills and valleys…

  Minutes later, Tori knocked on the open door of his office. She was dressed in jeans and a bright yellow shirt, her hair sprayed big as usual.

  “Come on in.” He gestured. “You want some coffee?”

  “Are you kidding? I get so much of that stuff at the diner, I’m pretty sure I’m blood related to Juan Valdez.” She took a seat. “So, what’s up?”

  He slid the printout of the e-mail in front of her and watched her face go white, then red. She looked up, meeting his gaze. “I can explain.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Well, um, Shannon met a guy online a few months ago. She tried to break it off with him, but…I had to go online and help her out. Tell him to let it go.”

  Lucas felt his temper go from zero to fifty in the span of seconds. “You—Tori, why didn’t you say something about this sooner?”

  “I didn’t think it was important.”

  “Didn’t think it was important?” His voice rose, and he struggled to bring it to a professional level, to rein in the old Blaylock temper that always seemed to be lurking in the wings. “Tori, how could it not be important when Shannon is missing?”

  “I—”

  “Who is this guy? Do you have his name? His e-mail address?”

  “I don’t know his full name,” Tori said. “His first name is Alex. And I don’t remember his e-mail address. I used Shannon’s computer to write to him, and it was just the one time. But it worked. He finally left her alone.”

  Lucas slapped a hand to his forehead, knocking his hat askew. “It worked? It worked?” His voice rose again. “Tori, are you kidding me? Shannon is missing.”

  “I know that!”

  “Well, you’re not acting like you know it. Damn it, Shannon could’ve given this guy her address for all you know. He could be the one who took her. And why in the world would he listen to you telling him to get lost when he didn’t listen to Shannon?”

  Lowering her eyes, Tori shrugged.

  “Tell me everything you know about him…about his relationship with her.”

  She burst into tears. “Lucas, stop yelling at me. If I’d thought of it, I would’ve told you. He was just some guy on the Internet. I don’t know anything about him, or his relationship—if that’s what you can even call it—with Shannon. It’s cyberspace. Alex could be anyone.”

  “Exactly.” Lucas barely restrained himself from slamming his fist on his desk. He rose, pacing the floor, hands shoved in his hip pockets. “Did she visit any chat rooms with him? Talk to him on the phone?”

  “I don’t know,” Tori said, still crying. “If I did, I’d tell you. You know I’d do anything to help Shannon and Miranda and Paige.”

  Lucas took a deep breath. “I know you would, Tori. But try to see this from my point of view. Damn!” He paced some more. He’d have to get Carrie to look into things more closely. See if she could come up with anything…maybe a chat room Shannon had visited or something.

  “How serious was she with this guy?” he asked, sitting on the edge of his desk.

  Tori sniffed and wiped her eyes with a tissue. “I don’t know,” she snapped. “She’s not really all that close with me. She just didn’t want Miranda to find out, because she was embarrassed it had happened. So she asked me to help her instead. Really, Lucas, it’s not like Shannon and I hang out together. Miranda’s my best friend, not her.”

  Tori had a point. Still, Lucas couldn’t let go of it. He kept worrying the information like a dog with a ham bone, taking down detailed notes. When he finally let Tori go, he picked up the phone and dialed Carrie. She was out, so he left her a voice mail.

  An online romance. With God knows who.

  He had to find Shannon.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MIRANDA STOPPED AT THE grocery store on her way home from her mom’s on Thursday. In the three days since she’d made love to Lucas, she’d lived in a cloud of confusion.

  Made love. That wasn’t really even an apt description of what had taken place between them. Hot sex was more like it. There’d been nothing tender about it, and she’d tried to avoid Lucas until she could clear her head.

  She was surprised to see him approaching her in the produce aisle. She’d never expected to find him here. He strode toward her with purpose, looking solemn. Miranda braced herself for whatever he had to say.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  She shrugged. “Sure. What’s up?”

  He lowered his voice. “We found something odd on Shannon’s computer. Can we meet someplace more private?”

  Miranda swallowed, her mind still on the other night. “Of course. Do I need to leave these?” She indicated her groceries.

  He shook his head. “Go ahead and check out. I’ll meet you at my place.”

  “Your place? You mean your office?”

  “No. I’d like to keep this quiet for now. I need to run home anyway. I’ve—uh—got a sick cat,” he added sheepishly. “It’s an upper respiratory thing. I need to give him a dose of antibiotics.”

  “Sure. Okay.” Again, she swallowed hard. She knew where it was, but she’d never been there. Not to his ranch, anyway. He’d lived in a smaller house on the edge of town when they’d been engaged.

  “See you in a while, then.” He turned and started to walk away, only to pull up short as he passed Kyle Miller.

  “Hey, Lucas,” Kyle said. “Hi, Miranda.”

  “Hello, Kyle. How’s it going?” Small talk. The last thing she wanted at the moment.

  “Actually, I was on my way to your place. I thought I’d stop in here and get some doughnuts first, and I saw your truck.
” As Lucas must have. “What’s your favorite?”

  “Actually,” Lucas said, “Miranda was on her way to my house.” He stared the guy down, and Miranda fought the urge to kick him.

  “Thank you anyway, Kyle,” she said. “Maybe another time?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said, giving Lucas a dirty look. “Guess I’ll see you later, then.”

  “Sure, Kyle.” She waited until he was out of earshot. “Lucas, was that necessary?”

  “What?”

  She crossed her arms. “You remember what we talked about before?”

  He grimaced. “I know. It’s just…”

  She waited. “Just what?”

  “I don’t like him looking at you like a piece of meat.”

  Miranda’s jaw dropped, but Lucas was already leaving. “See you in a few.”

  A piece of meat? He had to be kidding. As if he had anything to say about who she did or didn’t see, anyway.

  One thing was for sure. She planned to have a talk with Lucas once she found out what he wanted.

  MIRANDA PULLED HER TRUCK to a halt at the edge of Lucas’s property, all shaky inside. She felt like a kid on a first date. Only this wasn’t a date, this was serious. Taking a deep breath, she turned into the driveway.

  The ranch house was beautiful. Pine logs had been carefully overlapped, making it look like something out of a home builder’s magazine. The roof was shingled in a warm shade of red and the porch wrapped around the front and one side, the log railing varnished to a shine. A huge serviceberry shrub stood centered in front, and along the nearby board fence, dividing the yard from the pasture, grew a row of ponderosa pines.

  Two rocking chairs sat invitingly on the porch, a pair of mud-encrusted cowboy boots between them. One boot was tipped over, and a snow-white kitten poked its head out from inside. Nearby, on a cushioned bench, lay a huge gray tomcat, and on the steps sat an orange tabby. Miranda knew Lucas had liked cats when they were kids, but was surprised he owned more than one.

  “Hey, kitties,” she said as she climbed the steps. For a moment, the cats distracted her from the reason for her visit. But the minute Lucas opened the front door, her trepidation was back tenfold.

  “Come on in,” he said, motioning her into the living room. The white kitten took advantage of the opportunity to dart inside and disappear up a flight of oak stairs.

  Miranda couldn’t help checking out the room. Like the outside, the house inside was neat, well organized. It was built loft-style, with exposed wooden beams on the twelve-foot ceiling. A sectional sofa upholstered in dark leather took up most of the far corner. It bore the marks of cat claws, and was covered with a couple of matching afghans in a Navaho pattern. Plants hung everywhere, and Miranda wondered how Lucas kept the cats from getting into them.

  “Have a seat.” He indicated the sofa as he sat on one section of it.

  Miranda settled a few cushions away…safety in distance. “So, what’s up?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t bad news.

  “I didn’t really want anyone at the county hearing about this right now,” Lucas said. “Only Garrett knows.” He hesitated. “Carrie Hopkins, over at the DA’s office, took a closer look at Shannon’s computer for me.”

  “And?” Miranda held her breath.

  “There was an e-mail from Tori on it.” He handed Miranda a piece of paper. She quickly scanned it, then felt as if she’d fallen down the rabbit hole. “I don’t understand. Why would Shannon turn to Tori?”

  “That’s what I’d like you to find out, if you can. I talked to Tori this morning and she was pretty evasive. I thought maybe you could meet with her, then get back to me.”

  “Of course.”

  “Keep this under your hat for now, will you? If you tell your mom, she’ll tell Fae and Mae, and the whole town will know about it. We always like to hold something back in a criminal investigation that only the perpetrator would know about. The guy Shannon’s been communicating with could be anyone.”

  “Oh, man,” Miranda said, feeling light-headed, thinking of the motorcycle in Silver Creek. “This is so not like her. What in thunder was she thinking?” Then something occurred to her. “Do you think one of those phone numbers on her cell bill could be to him?”

  “I’m checking it out, believe me. Will you talk to Tori as soon as possible?”

  “Of course. Right away.” Miranda stood. “I’m not sure what her work schedule is today, but I’ll stop by the diner, and if she’s not there, I’ll call her.”

  “Good enough.”

  She turned to leave, but he stopped her. “Miranda.” She waited. “About the other night…”

  “Forget it,” she said. “We did something in the heat of the moment. That’s all.”

  He nodded. “All right. Just as long as you’re okay with it.”

  “No problem. See you later.”

  In her truck, she began to tremble as her thoughts and emotions whirled. No problem…hardly. Sleeping with Lucas had been the biggest mistake she’d made, next to getting engaged to him. He’d broken her heart once.

  She wasn’t about to let him do it again.

  At the Truck Inn, Miranda pulled into the parking lot, but didn’t see Tori’s car. She dialed her cell number, and her friend answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”

  “I need to talk to you about something,” Miranda said. “Have you got time?”

  “Yeah, I don’t have to work until my shift at the Spur tonight. Is something wrong?”

  “I’m not sure yet. You at home?”

  “Yeah. I think I know what this is about. Come on over.”

  Miranda flipped the phone shut, and drove to Tori’s house. Her friend lived in a cute mint-green house at the edge of town. She’d bought it from a musician whose band often played at the Silver Spur. He’d sold it when he’d gotten married.

  She was waiting on the porch in a patio chair. “Want a Coke?” she asked.

  Miranda shook her head. She sat in the chair next to Tori’s. “I talked to Lucas today. He told me about the e-mail.”

  Her friend worked hard to keep her expression blank. “What e-mail?”

  “The one Shannon wrote to you, thanking you for helping her dump her supposed Internet boyfriend. Tori, you and I both know Shannon would never date some guy she ‘met’ online. That’s just not like her.”

  “Well, she did,” Tori insisted. But she looked away and shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

  “Why would she confide in you and not me?”

  Tori shrugged. “Didn’t Lucas tell you? I think she was embarrassed.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Like I told Lucas, she made a big mistake in hooking up with this guy. He turned out to be a real jerk.”

  But Tori still wouldn’t meet her gaze, and Miranda had known her long enough to be sure her friend was lying. Why, she had no idea.

  “Why didn’t you tell Lucas about this first thing? If what you’re saying is true, then how do we know this creep doesn’t have something to do with Shannon’s disappearance?”

  “I doubt that.”

  Miranda laughed without humor. “You doubt it? What—suddenly you’re a cop?”

  “No,” Tori said defensively. “But I’m sure if anything seriously threatening was going on, Shannon would’ve told me. Trust me.”

  “I want to,” Miranda said. “But how can I when you held this information back? Tori, you had no right.”

  Her friend’s face screwed up into a grimace of sorrow and regret. “I’m sorry, Miranda. I already apologized to Lucas. It’s just that I really don’t know much of anything about it.”

  “What exactly did you do to get rid of this guy?”

  “I told him to back off—Lucas already knows all this.”

  “Yeah, well, I want to hear it. What would make this guy scared enough of you to leave Shannon alone, when he wasn’t listening to her?”

  “I threatened him,” Tori said. “I told him Fae and
Mae and I would throw him into a mud hole and then stomp it dry if he didn’t stop bothering Shannon. That’s it, Miranda, I swear.”

  Miranda studied her friend’s expression. “You’d better not be lying to me, Tori. Shannon’s life could be on the line.”

  Tori huffed a breath out between her pursed lips. “As if I don’t know that? Miranda, do you honestly think I would ever do anything to harm your sister?”

  Miranda sighed. “No, of course not.”

  “All right then. Like I said, you’ll just have to trust me on this one.”

  Silence stretched between them. She supposed Tori was right. At any rate, it seemed she had little choice. “Fine.”

  Tori stood and gave her a hug. “Now what say we order a pizza?”

  Miranda wasn’t really hungry, but she didn’t have the heart to say no. She could see by her friend’s redrimmed eyes that she’d been crying. Miranda could just imagine how Lucas must’ve raked her over the coals.

  After all, he did have the Blaylock temper. But he knew when enough was enough. Miranda wished she could say the same for his brother. Or his father, who was in prison for manslaughter after killing a man in a bar fight.

  “Supersupreme with extra cheese?” Miranda asked.

  Tori grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  KYLE SHOWED UP AT Miranda’s the next morning. He had Blackhawk with him, and was dressed sharply in Wrangler jeans, boots and a dark blue T-shirt that read CSI: Las Vegas.

  “Hey, Kyle,” Miranda said in greeting. “People are bound to believe that shirt is genuine with that big ole dog tagging along.” She smiled, and he chuckled.

  “Good point. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Any news?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to mention the e-mail. “Nothing solid. But I’m not giving up.”

  “That’s the spirit. I thought I’d come by and see if you want to go out this morning.” He held up a paper sack. “I brought those doughnuts.”

  “How sweet. Thanks, Kyle.”

  After a doughnut and a cup of coffee, they set out on horseback, with Kyle dismounting every so often to search on foot with Blackhawk while the horses took a breather. As she watched him work the dog, Miranda thought back to the couple of times they’d gone out in high school, and she realized something. Ever since Lucas had humiliated her, she’d pretty much kept to herself, avoiding men. Was that what she really wanted? To be alone for the rest of her life?