“Miss Roberts.” The mayor oozed charm once more, extending his hand to her. “Funny we should meet here again. Are you working here now?”
“Mayor…Rawlins, isn’t it?” Bobby shook his hand and had to pry her fingers loose from his when he held them a little longer than necessary. “The sheriff asked me to help with the filing for today.” File something was sort of a request, wasn’t it?
“Please call me Tobias and this is Richard Davis,” the mayor nodded for the other man to step forward. “He owns the local newspaper.”
“Hello, ma’am,” the newspaperman gave her a weak handshake.
Ick. It was like shaking hands with a cold, wet fish. Bobby suppressed a shudder and plastered a smile on her face. “Was there something I could help you gentlemen with?” she asked, looking from Mr. Davis to the mayor once more.
“We had hoped to talk with Gage about yesterday’s fire.”
“He’s not here right now…” Bobby started to explain.
“The sheriff’s out on rounds right now, Mayor,” Cleetus interrupted, coming around the desk to stand next to Bobby. He’d sucked in his stomach, puffed out his chest and for the first time resembled an imposing law enforcement officer. “I’m sure he’d be real happy to give you a call when he gets back in the office.”
“Now Cleetus, you just go back to what you were doing. We’ll just talk with Ms. Roberts.” Mayor Rawlins smiled at the deputy and patted his arm as if he were talking to a child.
Tension radiated off the usually easygoing giant next to her. He’d crossed his arms over his ample chest and set his jaw in a show of stubbornness. Whether or not he was putting on this show of male prowess to keep the mayor’s nose out of the sheriff’s department’s business or to protect her, she wasn’t sure. The last thing she wanted was for Cleetus to get into trouble because of some misplaced sense of chivalry on his part.
Time to defuse the situation.
She stepped between the two men and used her most sanguine smile—the one she’d honed on belligerent parents over the years—on the small-town politician and his minion. “I’m not really sure how I can be of help, gentlemen. I’m simply helping revamp the sheriff’s department’s filing system while Ruby is in the hospital.”
She lay the fire file facedown on the desk to hide the title. Stepping around the computer, she opened the table of information she’d compiled the previous day. “We’ve been working on the traffic violations for the past year. As you can see, Cleetus and I have a great deal of menial work to do, what with tickets and fines to list, as well as the number of stray dogs picked up by the deputies for the county animal control people.” She leaned to the side and picked up a pile of yellowed paper. “Speaking of which, we’ve unearthed a fascinating report from the nineteen thirties on the local skunk population. Would any of that information be helpful?”
For a moment both men appeared stunned by her prattle. She almost laughed at their expressions, but her years as a teacher kept her from even cracking a grin.
Mayor Rawlins recovered first. Plastering his politician’s smile on his face once more, he backed up a step as if she actually held a skunk in her hands. “No, we wouldn’t want to stop you from your work. We’ll just catch Gage when he’s back in the office.”
The two men couldn’t get out fast enough, bumping into each other trying to get through the door first.
Bobby glanced at Cleetus, who looked at her. They both cracked up.
“I’m glad you two have something to laugh about,” Gage said as he entered from the back hallway. The tense set of his jaw suggested he hadn’t liked what he’d learned at the fire scene.
“Tobias was just here,” Cleetus said, sobering quickly.
“What did that leech want?” Gage asked. He tossed his sunglasses onto the desk and sat in his chair, turning his head to one side then the other as if to relieve the tension there.
“My guess is he wanted to have the newspaper do an article with him grilling you about yesterday’s fire.” Bobby swallowed as she watched the thick muscles of his neck and shoulders. Right now she’d give anything to walk around behind him and knead his shoulders beneath her hands.
She clenched her fingers into tight fists to keep from doing just that. What was it with her?
“Great. Just what I need today, on top of everything else—a photo-op with the mayor and a politically slanted article for his re-election campaign.”
“What did Deke have to say out at the fire?” Cleetus had resumed his seat at the computer, but didn’t pay attention to the screen.
“That it wasn’t an accident. Someone torched the place on purpose.”
“Why? Ain’t been anyone living out there for years. Not since Old Man MacPherson went into the nursing home.”
“That’s what Mike, Deke and I can’t figure out. There’s no profit from torching the place. And if that’s the case, we have a bigger problem on our hands.”
Cleetus looked at the computer screen with a puzzled look.
Bobby reached over, pointed to the button to close the screen for him and smiled as he followed her directions. She looked back at Gage. “What kind of problem?”
“A firebug.”
That got her attention. “Someone who sets fires just for the fun of it?”
“Yeah. The kind that likes to light a match just to see it burn as a kid, then decides seeing whole buildings go up is more fun as an adult.”
Bobby leaned her hip against the computer desk once more, an icy feeling creeping over her skin. “That can’t be good.”
“Nope. And given the amount of foreclosed or abandoned acreage with dead underbrush in this county, it’s even worse that anyone might think.” He leaned his elbows on his desk, dropped his face into his hands and rubbed it up and down for a moment as if he was trying to rub away the weariness in his eyes.
His cell phone rang. Muttering a curse, he read the caller ID, hit a button and cut the caller off. He looked around the office. “What have you two been doing?”
“Just what you said. Filing.” Bobby replied, wondering whom it was he’d just hung up on. Not that it really was any of her business.
“It looks like the mess is worse than when I left.”
She followed his gaze around the room. Folders still lay piled all about. Only now there were even more open drawers and manila folders lay open on every square inch of furniture, except his desk. She chuckled and shrugged. “Sometimes you have to lay out all the pieces in a puzzle before the solution becomes visible.”
Gage drew his brows together. “Really?”
“Sure, Sheriff.” Cleetus poked his head around the monitor. “Bobby is teaching me to use the computer. We’re de…de…”
“Deciphering,” Bobby supplied the word.
“Deciphering Ruby’s system and getting all the department’s records on the computer.”
Nodding at his deputy, Gage focused his attention back on Bobby. “You’re teaching Cleetus how to use the computer?”
“Actually, he’s a very good student.”
Gage pushed his chair back and stood. He moved around the desk to stand no more than an inch from her. She had to tilt her head to look up at him. Their gazes held and sparks seemed to snap through the very air about them.
“You know all about students, don’t you? I’m thinking I could teach you a few things,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. His warm breath fanned her suddenly hot cheeks.
Bobby narrowed her eyes at him. Before she could decide whether to kiss him or smack him, he turned and sauntered over to the computer desk.
“Show me what you’ve done so far, Cleetus.”
“We’ve been putting together statistics in these tables so they’re easy to find when we have to do the monthly reports. We just click a button or two and the information is ready to print.” Cleetus clicked on a button. “Some of this stuff goes back near ninety years, Sheriff.”
“Looks like you’re finding your way around here prett
y good, Cleetus.”
Cleetus grinned at his boss. “Bobby made it real simple to learn. She’s a whiz at this computer. She taught middle school kids how to use computers every day. She’s a real good teacher. I bet she could teach you some things, too.”
“Really?” He glanced over at her and winked.
Bobby tried not to gape at the hidden message in that look. She was having trouble enough keeping her mind on what she was doing.
Standing next to the deputy, Gage leaned over to view the screen better. With one hip out, his jeans stretched and accentuated the tight muscles of his butt and thighs. The sudden urge to reach over and caress them shocked Bobby. She hadn’t been this hormonal since her first year in college.
Giving herself a mental shake, she grabbed the file she’d been holding before the mayor had interrupted them. She sat in Gage’s chair to study the file’s contents. The reports were in neither alphabetical nor chronological order. Organizational filing was another thing she’d discovered Ruby didn’t believe in. She laid them out, earliest date to the latest so they would be easier to file in the computer.
As she worked, she glanced over to see that Gage had pulled a chair up beside Cleetus and was actively discussing the computer programs with his deputy. He seemed genuinely interested in what Cleetus had to show him. The fact that he treated Cleetus with such respect and patience almost negated his overbearing behavior toward her. Almost, but not quite.
Time to get back to work. She focused on the papers in front of her. The file dated back to the mid-seventies.
“That’s odd,” she muttered to herself.
“What’s odd?” Gage asked from the other desk.
“I found this file on fires. And the timing is odd.”
“Fires?” He shoved back his chair and came to read over her shoulder.
“See?” She pointed to the top right corner of the square she’d made with the papers. “The first fire reported took place in 1976.”
“That was the year we moved here and Dad took over as sheriff. No one had really kept records on fires much back then. I remember him saying the sheriff before him only worked two days a week. We had a huge storm that year. Lightning torched a dry field that burned two barns before any fire crews could get to it.”
“Not another one was reported for almost two years. After that a fire is listed once every year or two, no pattern to them whatsoever, until about two years ago. All the early ones were weather related.”
“Then they started with more frequency.” Gage leaned closer. “Last year when Dad was diagnosed with cancer there were two fires, six months apart. Somehow we both missed this.”
“I would imagine you both had more important things on your minds.”
Their gazes met. A deep sadness filled his green eyes. The pain of losing his father still hurt. It was hard to imagine a man this hard hurting so deeply for someone he loved. Her heart softened a bit more for him.
Bobby blinked. She focused on the papers once more. “Of course, Ruby’s super-secret filing system didn’t help matters either. I swear she could give the CIA lessons on hiding secret data.”
“That she could.”
Gage’s deep chuckle rumbled next to Bobby’s ear and sent shivers over her once more. Oh, she really was in over her head right now. The more time she spent with this man, the closer she came to losing what sense she still had.
“So if I read this information correctly,” he said, picking up the five latest reports, “our ratio of fires has nearly tripled in the last two years. Damn.”
“Does that mean you do have a firebug operating in the area?”
“It’s not a conclusion, but it sure seems possible, which isn’t good. Someone who lights fires for fun acts randomly, or can commit a crime of opportunity.”
“Where an arson-for-profit crime is planned and more predictable?”
“Right.” He gave her a brief nod, his face growing serious again. He picked up the pages in the order she’d laid them out. “I’ll have to call Mike, the county arson investigator, and give him the news. He’s not going to like it any more than me.”
“Why don’t you…” She stood and almost slammed into his chest as he turned back around.
“Whoa,” he said as he caught her against him with one arm, the other hand clenching the sheaf of papers. He held her there for a moment, her body pressed close to his. “You okay?”
Sure, if not breathing was okay. If wanting to crawl all over his body was okay then she was just zip-a-dee-doo-da-dandy okay. “I’m…I’m fine.”
“What were you going to say?” He asked as he eased his grasp on her.
“Um.” She took a step back to get some much-needed air between them and collect her thoughts. “Oh, yeah, why don’t you let Cleetus or me add those reports to the login file we started, before you call your friend.”
“Sounds like a plan. Cleetus,” he called over his shoulder, “you want to add these to the program while I take Ms. Roberts to lunch?”
“Lunch?” The man shifted gears faster than a formula-one racer.
“You thought I forgot about our deal, didn’t you?”
Before she could answer, the strains of her ringtone sounded from her purse. She grabbed the purse and fished out her phone.
“Wild Thing?” Gage grinned at her.
She shrugged and pressed her phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, sis. Any news for me?”
Great. Chloe. And she really couldn’t talk to her with Gage standing less than a foot away studying her like some hungry wolf. “Can I get back with you on that in a little bit?”
Gage grasped her elbow and moved her around the desk toward the door. She couldn’t fight him and Chloe at the same time, so she followed his lead.
“I’ll be in court all afternoon and I have a dinner meeting with our client. I really wanted to give him some information.”
“Let me call you later and we can talk about it.”
“Okay, but if I don’t hear something soon, I’ll just file the subpoena for the information.” Her sister sighed into the phone. “I’m thinking this wasn’t a smart idea in the first place.”
“Chloe. I said we could talk about it later. I’m still your older sister and I don’t intend to discuss my decisions with you out in public.” She hated taking the I’m-the-big-sister-and-you’ll-do-what-I-say tone with Chloe, but she had tolerated her attitude long enough. “In fact I’m having a luncheon meeting right now.”
“Oh. If you’re working on the case, I guess that’s something I can tell Mr. Byrd. Can you call me around five?”
“That should work.” She was relieved her sister had given up so easily. One of the reasons Chloe was such a good lawyer was her tenacity when it came to arguing.
“Okay. Talk to you then.”
She closed her phone and realized Gage had led her down the street to the little café. She read the hand-painted print on the front window. “Peaches ‘N Cream, Café?”
“Yeah,” he grinned as he opened the door. “Lorna’s husband named it after her. Said she had a peaches-n-cream complexion just like on the old TV commercials.”
“And I still do,” a short, stout lady with hair as yellow as a crayon piled high on her head said from the other side of the counter. Her voice was loud enough to carry over the din of the lunchtime crowd’s conversation and several old-timers laughed. “Bring that girl right over here and introduce us, Gage.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He grasped Bobby’s elbow and maneuvered her to the counter. “Bobby Roberts, Lorna Doone, maker of the best blue-plate specials this side of the Mississippi.”
“Lorna Doone?” Bobby held out her hand.
Lorna shook it and grinned. “Yep, just like the cookie. My husband Earl wanted me to take his name Smith, but I said, ain’t no one gonna remember Lorna Smith. But Lorna Doone? No one’s gonna ever forget that.”
Bobby instantly liked the jovial woman. “I can see your point.”
“You can have that seat back there, Gage.” Lorna pointed to the corner booth and winked at Bobby. “Now you don’t let that boy con you into buying him lunch. He hasn’t brought a pretty girl in here to eat since he was in high school. And make him buy you dessert, too. My pies are to die for. Aren’t they?” she asked the dining room in general.
“Yes, ma’am,” came the chorus of replies as Gage maneuvered Bobby to the appointed booth. He motioned for her to sit, sliding into the opposite seat with his back against the corner wall of the restaurant.
“So, you have a sister?” he asked once they were seated.
Bobby looked up from her menu. “Two, actually.”
“Younger, I assume?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“The way you told her to mind her own business. Oh yeah, and you reminded her you were the older sister. Sort of hard to miss.” He grinned over his menu at her.
She ignored the little extra beat his grin caused in her pulse. “It’s a habit. I’ve been responsible for them both for a long time. Now that they’re on their own I have a hard time not being their bossy older sister. Especially when they take an attitude with me.”
“What do they do?”
“Chloe’s a lawyer. She’s been in practice almost three years now. Dylan is graduating from OSU’s med school at the end of this month.”
“Your parents must be real proud of you all.”
“I’m sure they would be. They died nineteen years ago.”
There was a pause and she lifted her gaze from the plastic menu to meet his. Tenderness creased the lines at the corners of his eyes, the grin completely gone.
“I’m sorry to hear that. How old were you?”
“Nineteen. I’d just finished my second year of college, but I had enough credits to get my teaching certificate.” She shrugged. She wasn’t looking for sympathy. Never once in all the years since had she felt sorry for herself. Some things in life you just had to deal with. “So I went to work, applied to get custody of my sisters and the rest is history.”
The young waitress came to take their order, saving Bobby any more prying questions. She didn’t talk about her parents’ death and her subsequent responsibility with anyone, not even her sisters. Doing so with Gage dug at emotions better left buried.
Close To The Edge (Westen #2) Page 9