Great, My Heart May Be Broken but My Hair Still Looks Great

by Dixie Cash

  “If he goes beyond the set perimeter,” Debbie Sue explained, “it sends a voice message to my phone. I sure as hell don’t believe he’s run away from home, so that message you heard means somebody’s got my Rocket Man.”

  Her voice broke, and she looked to be on the verge of tears again. “It’s my own damn fault. If I hadn’t been so stubborn I would’ve been home tonight. I would’ve caught the sonofabitch red-handed.”

  “Let me drive,” Paige said in a commanding voice she didn’t know she had. “You’re in no condition to get behind the wheel. Friends don’t let friends drive when…when their horse has been stolen.”

  “But the keys—”

  “Are in the ignition, Debbie Sue.”

  Without a word, Debbie Sue slid from behind the steering wheel, rounded the front of the pickup, and climbed onto the passenger seat.

  “Now, tell me where to go,” Paige said, adjusting the position of the driver’s seat to accommodate her long legs.

  “Ed’s house. Vic can pull up the signal’s location on the Internet.”

  Paige followed Debbie Sue’s directions. “What about Buddy? Shouldn’t we call him?”

  “He’s at work. This isn’t a state cop issue, but he’d drop everything and come running anyway, which would be a risk to his job. He’s spent his whole life working toward a career as a Texas Ranger. I can’t cost him that again.”

  “What about the sheriff?”

  Debbie Sue gave Paige an arch look. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Paige thought about the morning she had been locked in the walk-in cooler and the county official who had come to her rescue. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  As she brought the Silverado to a stop in front of a neat cream-colored mobile home with blue shutters, Debbie Sue opened her door and sprang out, calling out Vic’s name as her feet hit the ground. In a few steps she had breached the wooden platform that served as a porch and was at the front door, pounding and yelling. “Vic! Vic! Ed! Y’all let me in. I got a call. Rocket Man’s gone.”

  The porch light came on. Edwina opened the door. “What the hell’s going on? What’s happened?”

  “It’s Rocket Man, Ed. Somebody’s got him. We’ve got to get on the computer.” She rushed past her friend, heading up a hall that led out of the living room. Debbie Sue did have a determined way about her. She disappeared through a doorway on the left.

  Vic emerged from a back area, naked from the waist up. “What’s going on?”

  Debbie Sue grabbed his arm and urged him into the computer room. In the midst of the confusion Paige stood out of the way unnoticed. It was just as well, because she was preoccupied with two things. She had never been inside a mobile home and was amazed by the coziness of the surroundings. Second, she had never seen a man, other than pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a physique like Vic’s. She was almost embarrassed to find herself gawking, sneaking glances like a child seeing something he shouldn’t. No wonder Edwina talked about sex all the time.

  In the bedroom, Debbie Sue shrieked. “Ozona!…That’s a hundred and fifteen freakin’ miles from here. How the fuck did he get that far already?”

  Paige walked to the bedroom doorway and watched the three people huddled at the computer screen.

  “He’s not quite in Ozona,” Vic said. “He’s about twenty-five miles north of there. What time did your call come through?”

  Debbie Sue dug her phone from her purse and looked at the tiny screen. Her shoulders sagged. “Over two hours ago. Rocket Man’s been gone for over two hours.” She slumped into a nearby chair and covered her face with her hands. “We have to do something. This is my baby we’re talking about. He needs me.”

  “Vic, she’s right,” Edwina said and turned to Debbie Sue. “You. Get your head out of your hands and your ass out of that chair. We’ve wasted too much time already.”

  “Where’re we going?” Paige dared to ask.

  “Debbie Sue’s place to pick up a horse trailer. Then we’re going to Ozo-fuckin’-ona.”

  She turned to Vic. “You stay here and watch in case he moves again.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you three leave here without me. You don’t know what you’re walking into.”

  “But, baby cakes,” Edwina said, moving closer to him and talking sweet. “You’re the only one who knows how to use all that computer stuff. What if the guy that’s got him starts moving again? We might never find him.”

  “Paige, don’t you know how to use a computer?” Vic asked.

  Paige looked down at the floor, embarrassed at the years of opportunities she had wasted. “No. I never, uh, I just didn’t—”

  “See, sweetums? You’re the only one. Please?” Edwina slipped her arms around Vic’s torso.

  “She’s right, Vic,” Debbie Sue said, tears brimming in her eyes and her chin quivering. “I promise we’ll call Buddy from the road and have him meet us.”

  “Damn it all to hell! Shit!” Vic paced, his fists planted on his hips. “Promise me you’ll call Buddy. Promise me you won’t do anything risky. Ed, look me in the eye and promise.”

  “If Debbie Sue says we’ll call Buddy then we will. We have to go.” She rose on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

  Before Paige could gather her thoughts she found herself herded into the backseat of Debbie Sue’s pickup and on her way to the Overstreets’ home.

  Debbie Sue drove directly to the barn. With exceptional ease and accuracy, she backed up the pickup to a four-horse trailer. She jumped from the driver’s seat, jogged back, and attached the trailer to a hitch on the back bumper. In no time she was back in the cab, shifting the gears before the door was closed. Then they were spewing dirt and gravel in a cloud as they departed.

  No wonder Debbie Sue had been a rodeo champion as well as successful at solving a murder mystery. When she wanted to get something done, nothing, but nothing, stood in her way.

  AT THE KWIK STOP, Spur filled his gas tank, his thoughts tumbling faster than the counter on the pump gauge. How could he have been so wrong about Paige? He might not have the scalps of relationships past hanging from his belt, but he wasn’t exactly a total greenhorn either.

  Simmering below the anger he had shown was the well of hurt he felt. Dammit, he had told her his most protected feelings. And she had told him what…lies? Yep, lies. Poor little rich girl stories. She had even acted like their passion was a new experience for her. Acted. That was the key word. The emotional and erotic episode that had occurred between them had been a scripted play in her life. And he had been the intermission.

  He topped off his gas tank and paid inside the Kwik Stop. As he returned to his truck and opened the door he heard the roar of a high-powered vehicle moving fast and the rattle and clatter of an empty horse trailer. He looked toward the highway and saw a red Silverado with a four-horse trailer attached barreling up the highway. It passed the Kwik Stop in an almost-blur, but he recognized it as Debbie Sue’s. She was driving, and her friend Edwina was on the passenger side. A blonde was in the backseat and it appeared to be…Paige? What was that about? And where was Lester? Spur stared after the truck.

  Oh, well, what difference did it make where Lester was? He had heard about some of Debbie Sue’s and Edwina’s antics. No doubt, being bored, Paige had joined up with them and was on to some new quest that clearly didn’t include him. He didn’t know why, but that very thought caused a deep ache in his chest.

  As the truck grew smaller against the horizon, he climbed into his own truck and forced Paige McBride and Lester from his mind. All it took was a little discipline.

  PAIGE CLENCHED her teeth and didn’t say a word from her backseat spot as Debbie Sue pushed the Silverado up the highway. She didn’t look at the speedometer, either, didn’t want to know how fast she was driving. Paige wished and rewished she had found some way to take the driving away from Debbie Sue.

  Finally she dared to ask the determined driver
a question. “What made you change your mind about calling Buddy?”

  “I didn’t change my mind. I’m not calling him.”

  “What?” Edwina cried. “You made me lie to Vic. We never lie to each other.”

  “I didn’t make you lie. I lied. I knew he’d never let us go alone, Ed. I’ll apologize to him later.”

  “But he’s right, Debbie Sue. We don’t know what we’re walking into. There might be half a dozen bad guys. I love you like you’re my own kid, sweetie, but sometimes you think like a man. All action with no thought-out plan.”

  “I’ve never been thinking more clearly in my life. I’ll call Buddy if the situation warrants it. No sense doing it now. Fuck, who I wish I could call in is Vic’s SEAL buddies.”

  Debbie Sue’s conversation switched gears faster than Paige could keep up.

  “Now listen, y’all,” she went on, “the main thing is to get to Rocket Man and make sure he doesn’t get away from us. I couldn’t care less about confronting or capturing the thief tonight. We can do that later. Tonight, I just want my horse back.”

  With that, the cab of the pickup fell silent. At this rate of speed, they would be at their destination in a little more than an hour. Even so, Paige made a small prayer of thanks that the weight of the horse trailer slowed the pickup a little.

  As the Silverado’s headlights pierced the black night, only occasionally could other lights be seen in the distance, far from the road, like stars in the galaxy. Paige had a surreal feeling they were traveling in outer space. Once you left town, even a small town, West Texas was indeed an empty place.

  Everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours seemed surreal at this point. The passionate evening with Spur, his unexpected visit, his angry reaction at running into Lester. He had been angry, hadn’t he? God, she needed to talk to him. His words had been bad enough, but it was the look in his eyes that had crushed her. Her heart felt as heavy as the horse trailer behind the pickup.

  She thought about Lester’s announcement of a budding singing career. Who knew?

  And now this. Careening along the highway at Mach speed with two crazy women in pursuit of a horse thief!

  And she had thought moving to Salt Lick was going to be too boring to be endured.

  In truth, she had never felt more alive in her life. Going back to the plasticlike existence of exploring shopping malls, one store after another, was over for her. Partying to the wee hours with people whose names she couldn’t remember the next day was over. Her job might be in jeopardy at the Carruthers ranch, her relationship with Spur in tatters, but West Texas was where she belonged.

  The UT fight song playing from Debbie Sue’s cell phone made everyone jump. Edwina left the phone in the cradle attached to the dashboard and pushed the hands-free button. “Speak up.”

  “Ed? Honey, where are you?” It was Vic’s voice.

  “We just blew through Sterling City and we’re headed south on one-sixty-three.”

  “Jesus Christ. You’re flying. Is Debbie Sue driving?”

  “Is a pig’s ass pork?”

  “Nothing’s changed on this end. The horse is still in the same spot. You’re fewer than sixty miles away. I read his location to be just off the highway, about two miles east on farm-to-market number four-sixty-six. Did you get that? West on four-six-six. Is Buddy meeting you there?”

  Debbie Sue and Edwina exchanged glances. No one answered.

  “Did I lose you?…Is Buddy meeting you?”

  “He hasn’t moved, huh?” Edwina said. “That’s good news. West on four-six-six. Yeah, we’re flyin’ all right. What is it you truckers say, putting the pedal to the metal?”

  “Edwina—”

  “Now don’t be mad, shug. Buddy—”

  Before she could finish, Debbie Sue grabbed the receiver and pushed it against her ear. “Vic, we haven’t called Buddy yet. Don’t be mad at Ed. It’s my fault. I decided we’ll wait until we get there and see if there’s any need to drag him away from his job.”

  The speakerphone on the dash wasn’t even activated, but from the backseat, Paige heard Vic’s voice booming expletives, some of which she had never heard, even from cowboys. Well, after all, Vic was a sailor. Debbie Sue held the receiver away from her ear, only returning it a couple of times to answer yes or no. Finally she disconnected and exhaled in obvious relief.

  “Well? What did he say?” Edwina asked.

  “Looks like I got part of my wish,” Debbie Sue answered. “At least one SEAL’s on his way.”

  twenty-nine

  Precisely at the mile marker Vic had told them about, Debbie Sue pulled the Silverado and trailer over to the highway shoulder and killed the engine. To their left nothing but black night loomed. To their right, a gate closed off a straight caliche road that eventually disappeared into the darkness.

  “Where are we?” Paige asked from the backseat.

  “I promised Vic we’d wait here,” Debbie Sue said dully. “Damn, Ed. He has a way of making you promise things you don’t want to, doesn’t he?”

  “He can be a force to be reckoned with, he surely can.” Edwina scootched down in her seat. “If we’re waiting for him, I think I’ll try to catch a little shut-eye. It’s going to be a while.”

  Paige kept silent. Ten minutes passed. Ten minutes during which she thought she would go crazy in the dark silence of the West Texas night. After another five, she leaned forward and addressed the front-seat occupants. “Could we listen to the radio while we wait?”

  “Oh, sure,” Debbie Sue said. “Sorry. I was busy thinking, I guess. Sorry.” Debbie Sue turned the key, allowing the radio to light up and buzz with static. “We can’t pick up much out here unless we can get a signal from Odessa.” She twisted the knob through static and Tejano music. Suddenly the clear singing voice of Tim McGraw filled the space. “There. How’s that?”

  “Much better. Thanks,” Paige told her.

  Before the song finished the disc jockey broke in. “Listen up, all you Sterling City folks. We’ve got word a cattle truck has turned over going south on highway one-sixty-three. Nobody hurt, but there’s a couple a dozen cows loose. DPS has shut down the highway, and they’re asking anyone in the area who’s got a horse and a rope to come out and help the locals round up these critters. In case y’all are asleep, here’s a tune that’ll wake you up.”

  “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” pounded from the radio.

  Debbie Sue turned the volume down, but the drumbeat still filled the cab. “Fuck. Vic might be delayed by a bunch of cows.”

  “But he’ll get here,” Edwina said. “Not even a stampede can stop my honey. Just be patient.”

  Paige stared out the window, wishing for her cell phone. She had definitely arrived on the moon or at the very least been kidnapped by aliens.

  “To hell with that, Ed,” Debbie Sue said. “What if the jerk who horsenapped Rocket Man decides to get his horse and join the roundup? What if he drives out here or comes through that gate and catches us sitting here. What then?”

  Yeah, what then? Paige wondered.

  “Nope,” Debbie Sue said with iron-jawed ferocity. “I’m going to get my horse now. Paige, would you please open that gate?”

  “Sure,” Paige answered, her heartbeat kicking up. What were they up to now?

  Being involved in a crime investigation had her adrenaline surging. She slid from her seat and stamped over to the iron frame that spanned the opening in the barbed-wire fence. She attempted to slide the iron bar that freed the gate but found it snugged tight and locked. She called back to the pickup, “It’s got a padlock on it, Debbie Sue.”

  Debbie Sue leaned out the window. “Okay, fine. Get on back in here.”

  Paige obediently returned to the backseat.

  “Damn it all to hell,” Debbie Sue said. “I hate to crash through the gate and ruin it if this isn’t the right place.”

  “Good thinking,” Edwina put in.

  “Oh, to hell with it. We’ll just w
alk in.”

  “We’ll what? Vic said it was a couple of miles.”

  “But it could be less.”

  “And it could be more. Look at my shoes.” Edwina hoisted her right foot against the dashboard.

  Paige leaned over the seat back and looked at Edwina’s shoes. Pink three-inch platform shoes that had a cluster of tiny purple-sequined grapes spreading from the strap between the toes. Paige couldn’t keep from squealing with delight. “Ooohh, those are sooo cute, Edwina. Where’d you get them?”

  Edwina moved her foot right, then left, admiring her shoes. “They are cute, aren’t they? I picked them up at—”

  “Excuse me, you two fashion junkies,” Debbie Sue said, “but we’ve got important business to take care of. Ed, I’m not leaving you here alone. I don’t care what you’re wearing, you’re coming with us.”

  “Just a minute.” Edwina began searching inside her purse.

  “What are you looking for?” Debbie Sue said, impatience resounding in the question.

  Suddenly the cab was illuminated with a soft glow from a cigarette lighter as Edwina lit the end of a mile-long cigarette.

  “Ed, you’ve quit! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Edwina, you’re smoking,” Paige added, her eyes bugging.

  Edwina blew a long stream of smoke, coughed a couple of times, then closed her eyes. “Oh, sweet Jesus, how I’ve missed these. I’ve always said that Vic’s lips were the last things I wanted to cross my own before I die. Since he’s not around I’ll have to settle for one of these puppies.”

  “You’re not going to die,” Debbie Sue said with conviction. “I won’t let you. I don’t want to face Vic if you do.”

  Debbie Sue pressed the emergency brake in place, yanked the keys from the ignition, and got out. Wearing boots, Paige had no trouble following her across the gravelly shoulder between the highway and the barbed-wire fence, but Edwina gingerly picked her way along in mincing steps.

  “Are there snakes out here?” the poorly shod brunette asked. “I know there’s snakes out here.”

  “It’s fall. They’re hibernating by now.” Debbie Sue returned to Edwina and offered a supporting hand. “You and your crazy shoes, Ed.”