If Catfish Had Nine Lives (Country Cooking School Mystery)

by Paige Shelton

  Joe’s face twitched and then softened more.

  “All right, but just as soon as Miz is taken care of, we’ll come back.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I still said, “Yes.”

  “Go. I’ll follow.”

  I hurried back to the car.

  “Jerome, can you get to Gram?” I said.

  “I need to stay with you, Isabelle. I’m sorry.”

  I nodded. “Jake, call everyone—Cliff, Jim, Jenny. Don’t call Teddy. Don’t call Opie. But call everyone else. Get them to the campsite.”

  The car started with the first turn of the key. I straightened the tires and sped my way toward the campsite. Joe and the horse followed behind, looking like what I imagined most Express riders looked like when they’d delivered letters. I’d seen it a little when we’d gone to visit Opie, but the visual was even stronger now. He was bent over the horse as the front flap on his hat flew back from the effort, and his eyes were focused straight ahead, forward on the path that would take them to their next stop, their one and only destination in mind. I was cooling off from my scorching anger, and I managed to take a moment to wish Jake could get a glimpse. Because, no matter how many pictures one sees, no matter how many reenactments one might participate in, there is nothing like the real thing. And seeing the real thing in my rearview mirror suddenly made me understand and appreciate it on a level I’d never been able to reach before. The riders had given their all, and it seems that in some cases, their all had included their lives. The horses had given their all, too. I’d seen something in the eyes of Joe’s horse, something that had made me wonder just how highly intelligent the creatures were. Though it was too light outside and the horse was moving too fast for me to see his eyes, I knew he was just as intent and focused on the ride as Joe was. History books would never be able to do the Pony Express justice.

  We were a few minutes later than I thought we would be. Joe’s barricade hadn’t diverted us for long, but I hoped that Gram had waited for us before looking for Orly.

  I parked in the same spot I had earlier and bolted out of the car toward Orly’s tent. I yanked the flap open.

  “Betts?” he said as he sat on a stool and held a pair of underwear over an open bag. “Everything all right?” He noticed the underwear and placed them in the bag before he stood up.

  “Gram? Has my gram been here?” I said.

  “Not yet. I called her, though. I think she’s on her way. She said she’d be here.” Orly stepped forward.

  I backed out of the tent and into Jake. Behind him were Jerome and Joe and the horse.

  “I called the police, too. I remembered the people I thought had access to my truck. I had to leave a message with someone named Jenny, though. I’m sure I’ll be able to talk to Officer Morrison or Sebastian, your boyfriend, soon though.”

  “Okay, so why did you call Gram?” I said.

  Orly blushed. “I hoped to spend a little more time with her. I thought Miz and I could chat over coffee and maybe she’d want breakfast or something. It’s a quiet morning, but I’m not sure the afternoon will be the same. She’d mentioned that she was an early riser. I took a chance that that was so and called her.”

  “She said that you said you wanted to show her something,” I said.

  “Oh, yes. Hang on, I’ll grab it.” Orly disappeared back into the tent.

  I looked at Jake and then at the ghosts behind me. At the moment, we were a rather pitiful group of heroes.

  “I wanted to give this to her.” Orly said as he emerged with the item he wanted to show Gram.

  “It’s a Dutch oven,” I said.

  “Yes,” Orly said, “it is. It’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had. I wanted her to have it for all her trouble over these last few days.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” I said.

  Between Joe’s trick in the middle of the road and my concern over Gram, my heart was still beating too fast, and I suddenly noticed that I could hear its pounding rhythm. I took a deep breath.

  “Can we go back to Astin now?” Joe asked.

  I shook my head, but not so much that Orly would wonder what I was doing. I wanted to see Gram arrive safely for myself before I left again.

  “I’ll be right back. I’m going to find Esther,” Jake said as he patted my arm. He stepped through the horse as he set out.

  “I’m sorry I barged into your tent,” I said to Orly.

  “It’s fine,” Orly said. “Can I round up some more grub for you?”

  “No thanks,” I said.

  The engine of Gram’s Volvo purred down the side road. We all turned to watch her park behind the Nova. She didn’t have her stereo turned up, so neither of her two favorite country singers, Toby Keith nor Tim McGraw, accompanied her arrival. Today, she wore a University of Utah long-sleeved T-shirt. The bright red of the shirt looked great with her gray hair.

  “Excuse me,” I said to Orly. “Give us a second.”

  “Of course,” he said.

  I greeted her halfway.

  “Hi, Gram.”

  “Betts. Everything okay?”

  “I think I’m a little on edge this morning. I’m sorry if I sounded crazy.”

  “No problem.” Gram smiled and waved at Orly and the ghosts. They all waved back. “After I spend some time with Orly, I would like to go out and see where Astin’s remains are. Sounds kind of interesting, actually.”

  I glanced back at the crowd watching us.

  “It is interesting. In fact, we think we found his mochila. It’s in the Nova’s trunk. I’ll show it to you when you’re done.”

  “Oh! Wonderful. Let’s have a quick look now.” Gram sent the one-minute signal to Orly, who nodded and then busied himself with straightening up the camping equipment outside his tent.

  “Sure.”

  We ventured back to the Nova and I opened the trunk.

  “Oh, Betts, that’s extraordinary,” Gram said.

  “I think it’s cool, but you think it’s that big a deal?”

  “Absolutely.” She reached in to touch it, but she moved carefully. “In the first place, these are rare finds, but that’s more the reason Jake will appreciate it. To me, well, it represents so much of my time with Joe, the other rider. I’m thrilled to touch a real one and know what it feels like.”

  I didn’t mention to her that Jake had one in his archives, because I didn’t want to lessen her excitement.

  “We’re guessing it was the one Astin was carrying when he died. We didn’t see any remains, but we think we found the spot where they’ll be found.”

  “What did Joe say?”

  “He wasn’t there at the time. We saw him afterward, and he’s anxious for us to show him the spot.”

  “That’s a shame he wasn’t there. Where was he?”

  “I didn’t ask. Go ahead, hold it. Jake’s not around, so he can’t cringe or chastise.”

  I lifted the mochila out of the trunk and handed it to Gram. She was gentle and more curious than I would have predicted she’d be. She opened two flaps on one side and looked inside. When she turned it to look into the other two, something fell out and to the ground.

  “Oh, no. Sorry,” Gram said.

  “A letter? Jake and I looked though it thoroughly, Gram; there was no letter.”

  “You must have missed it. Let’s see what it is. Be careful. It will probably be very delicate.”

  “Should we call Joe over? I mean, it’s a letter from a mochila; maybe he should see it too?” I said as I crouched to pick up the weathered envelope. Time had made it look like someone had spilled coffee on it and wadded it up before straightening it again.

  “Makes sense to me,” Gram said.

  I held the letter as I stood up with the intention to signal Joe to join us. But as I glanced over at the group, I was stopped by the look on Jake’s face as he talked to Orly. Something was wrong.

  With letter in hand, and with Gram and the mochila behind me, I made my way back to Orly’s tent.r />
  “What’s going on?” I asked Jake.

  “I couldn’t find Esther. I told Orly, and he said that he saw her with Vivienne earlier, walking along the back of the campsite.”

  “I told them to stay out of the woods,” Orly said as if to somehow appease Jake.

  “And then he mentioned that Esther and Vivienne were two people who had access to his truck,” Jake continued, worry now pinching his voice.

  “Well, yes, but they’re on a list of about six people, Jake. I’m sure those two are fine. I didn’t mean anything by it. Sorry.”

  I wasn’t sure they were fine. And I wasn’t totally aware of what I was doing as I stuffed the letter into my pocket. I wanted to find Esther and Vivienne before I did anything else.

  “We’ll find them,” I said to Jake. “Come on.”

  Those who were paying attention would have seen me, Gram, Jake, and Orly tromping toward the thick woods. But Gram and I both saw that Jerome and Joe and a horse were part of the pack of explorers, too, though they were mostly silent. I sensed that Jerome was somehow out of sorts, but he stayed close by.

  “Orly, how far away are we from the spot where Teddy was found?” I said.

  Orly shrugged. “I didn’t find him.”

  He had mentioned that, and he’d mentioned that one of the cowgirls had found him, but I’d never asked for a name. I remembered that I had been so worried about Teddy’s state that I’d missed that important question. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t, but I didn’t hesitate to ask it now. “Who found him? Which cowgirl?”

  “Vivienne,” he said. “She helped him back to the tents.”

  I looked into the copse of trees and felt small and unsure. I’d been in the woods plenty of times, and I could easily find my way out, but there were so many options as to which path Vivienne and Esther might have taken if they had, in fact, gone into them.

  “Should we split up?” I said. “Orly, you go with me or Jake. We know our way around in there. We won’t get lost.”

  “Wait a minute, Betts,” Joe said at the same time Orly said, “I’ll go with Miz.”

  “Let me look first. I can ride much more quickly than the rest of you can walk. I can do this, I can find them,” Joe said with such emotion that Gram, Jerome, and I looked up at him. Was he going to cry?

  I nodded and then turned my attention back to the others. Orly and Jake, of course, hadn’t heard Joe, so I responded to Orly’s comment about going with Gram. “Okay, but Jake, you go with them, too. Hang on a second, though. Gram, how about you take the short path around to the south end and then back up again?”

  “Will do,” she said, knowing that trail was easy and wouldn’t take them long.

  Once she and Orly set off, I held on to Jake’s arm to keep him back a moment. I quickly turned my attention to Joe. “Go, I guess. Find them and yell for us. Hopefully Jerome or I or Gram will hear you.”

  Joe’s mouth formed a straight intense line before he said, “I will find them. I was supposed to find Astin, Betts. I was supposed to find him. I won’t fail again.”

  He nudged the horse with his heels before I could ask any questions.

  “He said it had been his job to find Astin,” I said to Jake. “Maybe Joe was a law enforcement officer from that time and it was his job to find the downed rider. He said he wouldn’t fail again.”

  “I haven’t researched that aspect. I can, but right at the moment I’d like to find Esther,” Jake said.

  “I understand. Go on. Catch up to Gram and Orly.” I nodded.

  But a scream cut through the trees and stopped us in our tracks.

  The scream came from the direction I’d sent Gram and Orly. It had only been less than a minute; they couldn’t have gone far, but I didn’t see them.

  “Gram!” I said before I set off into the trees. Jerome and Jake probably followed behind, but I didn’t take the time to look.

  Chapter 27

  Even though I knew the woods, the worn paths weren’t all that well-marked and I had to jump and dodge through and around nature’s obstacle course.

  “Gram!” I yelled as I ran.

  It was as if they appeared out of nowhere, but in fact, Gram and Orly simply stepped out from a turn in the path. Orly grabbed me just as I was about to run over Gram.

  “Betts, I’m okay. It wasn’t me,” Gram said. “But we need to find who it was. Come on. This way.”

  She turned and stepped away before I could even catch my breath. She wasn’t running, but she was moving at a good clip.

  “You all right?” Orly still had his hand around my arm.

  “I’m fine. I thought . . .”

  “I know, and I understand, but I need to go catch up to Miz. You sure you’re okay?”

  I nodded.

  Jake stepped around me. “She’s fine, Orly. Let’s go.”

  Jerome and I followed behind them.

  “Do you have any idea what’s going on?” I said to him.

  “No, I don’t, and I don’t mind saying that I’m more than a bit uncomfortable about it. I tried to go find who was screaming, but I can’t seem to leave your side, Isabelle.”

  “Which means I’m in danger,” I said.

  “That’s my only guess.”

  The sound of rhythmic horse hooves from up ahead caught Gram’s and my attention.

  Joe brought the horse to a halt in front of Gram and said, “They’re in the Express station. The two women.”

  Gram turned and said, “I think they’re in the Express station. We need to hurry.”

  If Orly wondered why Gram thought what she thought, he didn’t ask the question.

  If we hadn’t stepped into the woods in the first place, we could have gotten to the station quickly and easily. But now we had to decide if we wanted to continue through the woods and take a roundabout way to the station, or backtrack and go the other way. Time-wise it was probably sixes. Gram chose to keep moving forward, so we followed behind.

  Though we moved quickly, it felt like our feet were having to be pulled from thick mud. It was only a minute or two later when we reached an edge to the dense woods. We stepped out into the clearing and hurried to the Express station. When we reached it, Orly stepped in front of Gram and put his hand on the door.

  “Why don’t you all just cross back over to the campsite. I’ll go in and see if they’re in there and what’s happening. You all try to get ahold of the police again.”

  “Excuse me, Orly, but I’m not waiting for anyone,” Jake said as he gently pushed Orly aside and opened the door. He was in a second later. Orly followed him. Gram and I looked at each other and the ghosts. We weren’t waiting either. Another second later, Gram and I and the ghosts, the horse included, joined the others.

  Unfortunately, we walked into a situation that was much more dire than any of us had predicted. If we would have taken at least a moment to hoist ourselves up to a window so we could see that a gun was being held to one of our visitors’ heads, we might have all chosen to stay outside instead and make that extra call to the police. And even more unfortunately, it became quickly clear that we weren’t going to be allowed to escape.

  “Stay back, Isabelle,” Jerome said as he put himself in front of me. I quickly put my hand through his arm.

  “How many more are out there?” Vivienne said. One of her arms was tight around Esther’s neck. The other hand held the gun, and currently it was aimed at me.

  “The police are on their way,” I said.

  Esther’s fair skin was even paler than normal, and she was bleeding profusely from her arm. I assumed she’d been shot. I didn’t think I’d heard gunfire, so I wondered if she had been shot before we’d returned to the campsite.

  “Then we have only a few minutes. Here’s what’s going to happen: You are going to let me and Esther get out of this building, and then I’m going to leave. I’ll leave her where you all can find her and get her to a doctor.”

  “Fine, Vivienne,” I said. I hoped it would actually pla
y out that way and no one else would get hurt. The space was too small for us all, and gunfire could be extra deadly.

  “What’s going on, Vivienne?” Orly asked. “What’s the paper on the floor?”

  I truly hadn’t noticed the piece of paper, and I wished Orly hadn’t either. If only we could just get out of there.

  Vivienne laughed. “Ask her.” She squeezed her arm a little tighter around Esther’s neck. Vivienne nodded to the piece of paper close to her left foot.

  “Esther?” Orly said.

  Esther shook her head. She either didn’t want to tell what the letter was, or she couldn’t because she was in shock or in pain—or both.

  “It’s what brought her here,” Vivienne said as she kicked the letter away.

  It floated in the air a second and then it landed at Jake’s feet.

  “Go ahead, pick it up,” Vivienne said.

  Jake did as she instructed. He read over the letter silently and then said, “It’s a letter that tells her she’s a descendant of Astin Reagal, a Pony Express rider who was lost on the trail,” Jake said. I thought he was angry that Esther was hurt, that she was being held, that he couldn’t figure out what to do to help her. Tension straightened his back and tightened his voice.

  “So?” I said.

  “Really?” Orly said. “I’m a descendant of Astin Reagal, too. It’s part of the reason I came to town last summer. Do you remember me asking you about him?” Orly looked at Jake.

  “I don’t, Orly, but I get a lot of visitors and a lot of questions.”

  Vivienne forced a chuckle this time. “Of course you are, Orly. And let me introduce you to your daughter. Esther, say hi to dear old dad.”

  “What?” Orly said.

  Esther blinked, and a tear fell from the corner of one of her eyes.

  “That’s right. That’s why I got her and Norman here. They’re yours, Orly. Twins, of all things, parted at birth and given away for adoption. My mother was their biological mother.”