Official Duty

by Doreen Roberts

  Ginny nodded. “She must be upset, too, about the Corbetts’ death.”

  “I reckon she is. Most of the townsfolk were at the funeral. Jim and Mabel were pretty well known in Gold Peak.”

  “Well, they’d lived here most of their lives.” She sighed. “I still can’t believe they’re gone. They’re the only real family I’ve known.”

  “What happened to your family? You never talked about them when you were growing up.”

  For a moment she hesitated. He’d told her about his past. She owed him that much. “It isn’t a pretty story,” she said at last. “My mother was unmarried and very young when she had me and her parents didn’t want to take care of me, so I ended up in foster homes. I’d been through a lot of them before I got to the Corbetts. They were the only ones who really made me feel they cared about me, even though I had to share them with so many others.”

  “I know what you mean.” His smile chased away the bad memories, making her feel warm inside. “The Corbetts had that knack for making every kid feel special. I just wish I could get my hands on the bastard who killed them. I’ll never rest easy until I have him under lock and key.”

  “You found no clues at all when you searched the house? Fingerprints? What about DNA? Isn’t that supposed to be the big new technology for catching crooks?”

  “It is, but you have to have something to match it up with. There were fingerprints all over the house but none of them matched up with any known criminals. The crime lab from Rapid City went over the place pretty thoroughly. They’re still working on the evidence, but they don’t have a whole lot to go on.”

  He paused and set the bottle down on the table. “I don’t suppose you saw anything today that might help?”

  At his words, she was reminded of the terror she’d felt standing on the steps to the basement. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about it. On the other hand, she’d promised herself she would confront her fears and the best way to do that was to bring them out in the open. Maybe if she talked about it, she would see how irrational she was being.

  Maybe if she told Cully about it, she wouldn’t have this irrational fear that she was slowly and inevitably losing her mind. She only hoped he would understand. She couldn’t bear it if she saw the disbelief in his face that would prove her fears were justified.

  Chapter Six

  “When I went back to the house this afternoon,” Ginny said slowly, “I was going to collect all the items that the Corbetts had willed to other people and take them to Paul Bellman’s office.”

  She paused remembering her fright at the sound of footsteps in the forest. “Just as I got out of the car Old Man Wetherby came out of the woods. He scared me half to death.”

  Cully wrinkled his brow. “I’m not surprised. That old buzzard spooks a lot of people. What the heck was he doing at the Corbetts’ house?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think to ask him.” Quickly she recounted her conversation with the old man.

  Cully was frowning when she finished. “Sounds as if he was on a vengeance kick.”

  “I can’t believe Jim killed his dog.” She leaned forward to put her glass down on the table. “Jim loved animals.”

  “Jim didn’t kill anything. Wetherby’s dog got into Jim’s chickens. Killed three of them before Jim got him out of there. He called me. The law says if a dog kills, it has to be put down. Once they kill they’re likely to do it again. We had no choice.”

  Ginny felt a tug of sympathy for the old man. “He must miss him,” she said soberly.

  “I guess he does. I think I’d better have a word with him, though. No one thought to question him about the murders. He might be a little weird in the head, but he’s always been harmless enough.”

  Ginny caught her breath. “You don’t think he shot the Corbetts, do you? I know he had a shotgun, but then he’s always carried one. That’s why we were all so scared of him when we were kids.”

  “I’m not ruling anything out right now.” He reached for his beer again. “When a man’s mind has gone, there’s no telling what he’s capable of.”

  Her stomach turned at his words. She had to force the next words out, striving to keep a light note. “Speaking of going out of your mind, I thought I heard strange noises coming from the basement this afternoon.”

  Cully’s expression changed at once. A sharp gleam appeared in his narrowed eyes. “What kind of noises?”

  Talking about it brought back the fear after all. She reached for her glass, swallowed a mouthful of wine and set it down with a hand that shook. “I don’t know. Small thumps, a scraping sound, as if someone was moving a heavy box or something.”

  “Did you take a look?”

  “I started to.” She swallowed, striving to steady her racing pulse. “I know it’s silly, but I’ve been imagining all sorts of things lately. There’s a minivan parked at the motel and I keep seeing it on the road, as if it’s following me. Last night when I went to the graveyard, I could have sworn someone was chasing me. And then, the noises in the basement. I think my mind is going.” She tried to laugh but only succeeded in sounding hysterical. Quickly she picked up her glass and took another gulp of wine.

  “Whoa, take it easy.” Cully leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his face creased in concern. “I’m not surprised you’re imagining things. You’ve been through a lot lately. What with losing your husband, and now Jim and Mabel being murdered, it’s no surprise that you’re jumpy.”

  She nodded, fighting the ridiculous tears that were on the verge of spilling over. “I keep telling myself it’s all in my mind, and that I’m being stupid.”

  “Come on, Ginny, you’re not stupid. This is a small town. You see the same car buzzing around and in your state of mind it’s easy to imagine it’s following you.”

  She made a small sound of distress. “My state of mind?”

  “Aw, crap. I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t. I only meant that anyone who’s been through what you have is likely to imagine all kinds of weird things.”

  “But they seem so real.”

  “Well, you could have heard real noises. There’s probably a rat or something down in that basement.”

  Eagerly she grasped the vindication. “That’s what I thought. And the scraping sound could have been a branch against the window. After all, there’s trees all around the house and the wind was getting up.”

  “You got spooked because you were there alone, that’s all. Rattling around by yourself in a big old house like that would make anyone feel creepy. Did you finish up there or do you have to go back?”

  “I have to go back. I haven’t finished collecting up the legacies in Mabel’s will, and there are a couple of things I’d like to take back with me to Philadelphia.”

  A shadow seemed to cross his face. “Right. Well, I’ll go back with you next time. I don’t like the idea of you being there alone. And first thing in the morning we’ll get the power put back on. Neil’s going to need it anyway when he shows the house.”

  “Thanks.” She managed a grateful smile. “I could have used you this afternoon. I had to stand on my toes to reach the key to the basement, and even then I had to stretch to get it.”

  He gave her a puzzled look. “What happened to the key in the door?”

  Now it was her turn to look baffled. “There wasn’t one. Mabel always kept the key on the ledge above the door. That’s where I found it.”

  “Then she must have had more than one key. When I searched the house, there was one already in the lock of the basement door. I used it to open it, and left it in there.”

  A pulse began throbbing in her temple. “Maybe someone from the crime lab took it out.”

  He shook his head. “I was the last one to leave. I locked up the house behind me. Nobody had access to that house until Paul gave the keys to you.”

  The throbbing spread all over her head. “Then what happened to the basement key?”

  Cully looked grim. “That�
�s what I’d like to know. I’d better take another look at that cellar. I could be jumping to conclusions, but I’m pretty sure a rat wouldn’t use a key to get in there.”

  Her heart had started its tattoo on her ribs again. “But if you locked the house, how would anyone get in?”

  “Good question.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Guess I’ll have to check out the house more thoroughly. There could be a window unlocked somewhere. Or broken. Then again, I guess, if it was the killer come back, he could have taken a house key with him when he left.”

  Ginny shuddered. “I’ll have the locks changed on all the doors, just in case.”

  “Good idea. And first thing in the morning I’ll go over the house again. There’s not much point in going tonight. I wouldn’t see much without power in the house.”

  Feeling somewhat reassured, Ginny did her best to relax. Cully was right. There wasn’t much they could do about it until the morning. Until then, she would just have to try and keep it all out of her mind.

  AFTER TAKING Ginny on a tour of the house and the stables to see his beloved horses, Cully escorted her to the dining room, where they enjoyed the tasty meal Lyla had served up for them.

  The shrimp salad was followed by roast pork and apple sauce and now Cully sat across the table from Ginny, sharing a pot of steaming, fragrant coffee.

  Both dogs lay on the rug near his feet, Rags snoring with his head on his paws, while Puddles lay on his side, twitching every now and again in his dream-filled sleep.

  It was a warm, peaceful feeling to sit there and watch Ginny’s changing expressions in the glow of candlelight—another of Lyla’s special touches. He could get used to this, Cully thought. He could get used to seeing her at his table, in his living room, riding his land, lying in his bed. Especially lying in his bed.

  There’d been a moment earlier, when he’d been so tempted to touch her face, to lean in and kiss that inviting mouth, to take the fleeting moment and stretch it into whatever she was willing to share.

  In that moment the memories had pounded his mind—hot, searing memories that tormented his body and stirred his hunger. What they’d had back then had been so damn good. The need to find out if it was still like that between them was like an instrument of torture and just as unbearable.

  Aware that he was slipping into a treacherous frame of mind, he clamped down on the tantalizing thoughts. He’d been down that road before. He’d learned a hard lesson and he couldn’t afford to forget it. The pain of saying goodbye wasn’t worth a few days of passion, even if she were willing to go along with it. He knew full well that she would never be happy trapped in a small town like Gold Peak and he would be miserable living in the city. Either way, in time, after the first excitement of being together had faded, they’d be at each other’s throats. Just like the last time.

  He’d seen what that could do to people—what it had done to him—and it just wasn’t worth the heartache. Not again. Never again.

  He made an effort to focus on what she was saying. She was talking about her job and it all sounded too complicated for him to follow.

  “It’s very difficult to judge what clothes women are going to buy ahead of time.” Ginny said, reaching for the coffeepot. “By the time they’re picking out their fall clothes we’re already ordering for spring. We have to be constantly one step ahead of them, and with fashions and preferences changing all the time, it makes the decisions pretty tough to call.”

  “Mostly guesswork, then.”

  She smiled. “Pretty much.”

  For a moment he was held by the way her lips parted to show a row of even white teeth. With a struggle he forced his mind back to more mundane matters. “So, how did you meet your husband?”

  The smile vanished at once. At first he thought she wasn’t going to answer then she said quietly, “I was a receptionist in his company. We met at a company picnic when we were paired in a scavenger hunt.”

  He hadn’t meant to ask. The question had been on his mind ever since she’d walked into the Red Steer but he hadn’t meant to ask. He forced interest into his voice. “Did you win?”

  Now he could see pain in her eyes. Her voice was barely above a whisper when she answered. “No. We got…distracted. We didn’t even finish.”

  He felt as if one of his horses had kicked him in the gut. He didn’t want to know any more, yet he couldn’t seem to quit asking the questions. “So how did he die? What happened to him?”

  She played with her coffee cup for several long seconds then a shudder shook her body. It was no more than a slight tremor but he noticed it.

  “He was piloting his private plane,” she said, just when he was about to break the tense silence. “No one knows quite what happened. Engine failure, electrical problems, whatever it was, it was too sudden for him to make contact with anyone. He went down in the mountains, somewhere in Idaho, I think. The plane crashed and burned. The search parties didn’t find him until two weeks later. By then he was unrecognizable.”

  Shaken, Cully let out his breath. “I’m sorry. It must have been a heck of a shock for you. So that’s why you moved to the east coast, to get away from the memories?”

  “Not exactly.” The flame from the candle flickered, sending shadows chasing across her face. She sat back, as if to escape the revealing glow. “I might as well tell you. I left Brandon six months before he died.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t know what to say next. Conflicting thoughts chased through his mind. Regret that she’d been that miserable, and grim satisfaction that another man hadn’t made her happy after all. “I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “It was the right thing to do. We…weren’t happy and…” Her voice trailed off and again his instincts nudged him. She wasn’t telling him all of it. Part of his mind warned him that it was none of his business and if he probed, she’d probably tell him that. He was reluctant to lose the cozy, intimate atmosphere that he was enjoying, maybe a little too much. On the other hand, curiosity had always been one of his less desirable traits and he burned to know what had gone wrong with the marriage.

  Carefully, he poured himself another cup of coffee. “It must have been pretty bad for you to take off on your own and go clear across country. Why didn’t you come back to Gold Peak? At least for a while. I’m sure Mabel would have loved to take care of you.”

  Again that odd silence before she answered. When she did, her words seemed to drop like ice chips, chilling the warmth of the room. “I didn’t come back here because I was afraid my husband would find me.”

  Now it all made sense. That look in her eyes he’d noticed last night. The reluctance to talk about what had happened to her since she’d left. The way she’d avoided talking about the man she’d married. “He beat you,” he said, unable to keep the fury out of his voice.

  “If I didn’t do everything he said…yes. He beat me.”

  She’d spoken so calmly, with such indifference, she could have been talking about the weather. His fists curled on the table. “Then the bastard deserved to die.”

  She didn’t answer and he struggled to contain his anger. “Why did you marry him? Didn’t you have any idea—”

  “No!” Her voice rang out across the table, startling him. “Do you think I’d have married him if I’d known? Of course I didn’t. When we first met he was so charming, so kind, so considerate.” She paused, as if she were struggling for the words to explain. “You have to understand. All my life people had treated me like a leper. My own family wanted nothing to do with me. Every foster home I was sent to found fault with me. They said I didn’t fit in, I was hard to handle…any excuse to be rid of me. Until I went to the Corbetts, anyway.”

  “That doesn’t mean you’re a bad person—”

  “Maybe not. But I was sure treated like one.”

  And he had let her down, too. She hadn’t said it but the words were there, hovering between them like angry bees waiting to attack. He tried to think of something to say, anything to tak
e that look off her face but before he could find the words she went on talking, in that low, fierce voice that echoed her bitterness.

  “I wanted people to look up to me. I wanted to be someone people admired and respected. Brandon had money, respect from everyone who knew him. He was an important man, and he was in love with me. At least, he told me he was. For the first time I felt important, too. It wasn’t until after I married him that I realized what a terrible price I was paying for all that prestige.”

  Again the anger gripped him. “What happened?”

  She shrugged. “He was possessive, jealous, controlling. Everything had to be done his way and in his time. I had to have his permission to do anything or go anywhere. I had to account for every single second of my time, and if he wasn’t satisfied with my answers he beat the right ones out of me. When I threatened to leave him, he swore he’d kill me first before anyone else had a chance with me. So I left in the middle of the night, got as far as I could go and I changed my name. My whole identity.”

  Cully’s throat was too tight to form words. Seconds ticked by while the only sound in the room was Rags’s quiet snoring.

  Then Ginny added softly, “When I got the news of his death, it was as if I’d been let out of prison. For the first time in more than ten years, I was free. I didn’t have to be afraid anymore.”

  Finally Cully found his voice. “You never had kids?”

  “No.” The pain was etched on her face now and his heart ached for her. “Thank God. Brandon didn’t want anything to take my attention away from him.”

  “How did you find out he’d died?”

  “Jim told me. I didn’t tell them where I was, but I called them often from my cell phone. Jim said that an investigator with the FAA called him. He told Jim that Brandon was dead. Apparently he had filed a flight plan before he left. He was alone in the plane, on his way to discuss plans for a new bridge in Idaho. Had I still been with him, I would have died, too. He never went anywhere without taking me along. The investigator told Jim that all that was left of Brandon’s belongings were his wedding ring and the watch I’d given him for an anniversary gift. My name was on the back of it. He thought I would want them.”