by Jodi Thomas
“Aunt Lori Anne. I remember ’cause she has the same middle name as Momma and that’s funny. My momma says she ain’t seen her in years but she remembered her writing from Harmony and telling her to come visit anytime she wanted to. They got different mothers, but the same daddy, but Momma says he’s dead.”
Alex put her arm around the boy as she slid the gun away. “We’ll find your aunt.” She lifted the bony body and carried Jamie to a couch. “How about I wrap you up now that it’s getting colder outside.” She lifted the blanket he must have been using for covers at night.
Jamie’s fear slipped away with the tears. “All right.”
Alex hit her radio. “Phil, tell the neighbors to go home. The show’s over. Grab a couple of candy bars from my car and come on in.”
“Will do.”
Alex sat beside Jamie. While the little boy cried, she looked around the room. The trailer didn’t look lived in. It seemed more like an old used trailer rented by the week than a home. No pictures. No books or magazines. Several of the cabinets were open and empty. In the corner of the bar she saw a soda bottle with several branches of a honeysuckle vine growing out of it. Strange, the tiny flowers looked so out of place in the colorless room.
“How long has your mom been asleep?”
“I don’t know. She told me I could watch TV and she’d be awake before the cereal and milk ran out, but I drank the milk too fast and it’s been a long time since I’ve had any. Some men came to visit her last night, but they didn’t see me. I disappeared into the boards beneath the table, just like she told me to if I heard them. But it’s dark now and I don’t like it in there.”
“Have you seen her moving around today, or did she come out to go to the bathroom?”
Jamie shook his head, sending earth-brown hair flying.
Alex put her arm around Jamie and was silent for a few minutes. She didn’t want to ask questions too rapidly and frighten the child.
Phil brought in a few candy bars, a bag of chips, and an orange drink. “I had these in my cruiser. I thought they might help.”
“Thanks.”
He offered the kid the drink, but Jamie didn’t reach for it.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Officer Gentry is a good guy. He’s got kids, so he knows what they like. I’ll tell your mom that I said it was all right, and I’ll ask her if you can have supper with me.”
Gentry knelt in front of the kid. “I thought I’d get hungry tonight, but turns out I didn’t have time. You’re welcome to them if you’ll tell me your full name.”
“Jamie,” the boy whispered as he reached for the drink. “Jamie Noble.”
Phil opened the chips and passed them to him. “Noble. That’s a fine name. I used to know a Lori Anne Noble. She married a farmer out on Timber Line Road about ten years ago. They were nothing more than two kids at the time.”
“That must be his aunt,” Alex smiled. “You see, Jamie, I told you she wouldn’t be hard to find.”
Phil shook his head. “I’m real sorry to tell you, boy, but if Lori Anne Noble was your aunt, she passed away three years ago.” The deputy looked at Alex. “I guess her husband would be this boy’s uncle. He’s still out on the place.”
Alex nodded at Phil. “You remember who he was?”
“Sure. It was probably while you were away at college, but Lori Anne Noble married Tinch Turner. They were the talk of the town for a few months. No one thought they were old enough to marry, but neither had any folks around to stop them.”
“Jamie, we’re going to go check on your mom. If she’s still sick, we may have to take her to the hospital, but I’ll talk to her and see if you could stay with your uncle until your mom is better. Would that be all right?”
“Does he have horses?”
Gentry smiled. “He sure does. I saw him riding a beauty the last time I passed his place. Prettiest paint I’ve ever seen, with a long mane flying in the wind.”
Alex motioned for Gentry to stay with the boy as she backed down the hallway to the only closed door. After knocking lightly, she tried the knob.
It was locked.
Alex leaned her shoulder against the wall and shoved hard, popping the lock on the aluminum door. The smell that greeted her almost knocked her down.
A woman, her body across the bed, a needle still in her arm, lay dead. In the warm room the body had already started to decay.
Alex took it in all at once. The marks on her thin arms. The dried blood on her mouth. The blank eyes staring up at nothing. A tiny bag of pills in the palm of her gray hand.
Looking away from the bed, Alex saw the contents of a purse spilled out across a cluttered dresser. She picked up the ID. Sadie Ann Noble, age twenty-four; address, Kansas City, Kansas. There was fifty dollars in the billfold and another ten scattered out in ones on the floor. A tattered white legal envelope was crumpled near the trash as if she’d been about to toss it aside along with flyers addressed to occupant. It had what looked like a hurried note scribbled in the corner. Turner Farm. Timber Line Road.
Alex tugged the seal free and pulled out what looked like an official document. The last will and testament of Sadie Ann Noble, sole parent of Jamie Noble.
She read down until she saw that Sadie must have come here to give custody of her son to her half sister. Maybe she knew she was dying, or maybe she couldn’t stay off the drugs.
“Sheriff?” Phil called from the other end of the hallway. “Everything all right?”
Alex straightened as she moved so that she could see Phil. She kept her voice low as she pulled her phone from her belt. “I’m taking the boy for a meal. Can you wait here for the coroner and Tyler Wright? I’m calling them now.”
Phil looked at her, knowing what she’d found in the bedroom. “I will. Once they’re here, I’ll find you.”
“Fair enough.” She walked out of the bedroom and closed the door. When she reached the living area, she smiled at the boy. “Jamie, I think it will be fine if you come with me to eat something. There’s a diner downtown that serves real good hamburgers.”
“Are you sure my momma won’t mind?”
“I’m sure.”
Alex took his hand. As they moved to the porch, she looked back at Gentry. “Call Turner and tell him we’ll be delivering his nephew.”
Alex lifted the boy, blanket and all, into her arms as she walked toward her car. He didn’t say a word, but she had a feeling he knew something was wrong. His thin body was shaking beneath the covers, and she wondered if he offered no protest because wherever he was going couldn’t be as bad as where he’d been.
An hour later the sheriff listened as her deputy gave her a full report. The coroner said Sadie’s death looked like an accident, though it might have been a suicide. The body would have to be taken to Amarillo for an autopsy, so it would be a few days before the ruling was final. Dispatch had contacted the Kansas City police and found that Sadie Noble was a known drug addict with several arrests for everything from petty theft to prostitution. Her last address listed had been her mother’s house four months ago. The car in front of the trailer was registered to her mother, who’d been dead for more than a year.
“What’s the bad news?” Alex asked sarcastically.
“Tinch Turner doesn’t have a phone,” Phil answered. “If the boy is his late wife’s nephew, we’ll have to drive up and wake him up to find out.”
Alex watched the bony little boy eating his second order of chili fries as she paced a few feet away from the table. “Can you meet me out there, Phil? I’d like you to wait with the boy until I talk to him. We don’t want to make this any harder on Jamie than we have to.”
“Will do. Meet you at the entrance of the Turner farm in fifteen.”
Chapter 14
TURNER RANCH
TINCH SAT ON HIS PORCH SWING, HIS LONG LEGS CROSSED and propped on the railing as he watched the two police cars meet at the entrance to his farm. He’d been sitting there since before dark and hadn’t gotten up to
turn on a light, so he knew they couldn’t see him.
When they turned onto his property, he wondered what he’d done wrong, but he couldn’t think of anything lately. In fact, he had barely been off the property since he drove home from Buffalo’s after dancing with the doc more than a week ago. Still, the urge to run from trouble tempted him, even though he’d learned a long time ago that was impossible.
Slowly, silently, he stood and watched them moving toward him. Until he noticed them, he’d been enjoying the night. He liked this time of year, the stillness of late summer just before it turns to fall. It had taken him a long time, but he’d finally taught himself not to think or worry about anything, but just be.
The sheriff stopped twenty feet from the house, and the deputy behind her climbed out of his car and into the front seat of hers. No one else seemed to be in either car, but still the deputy waited behind.
Alex Matheson moved toward him in the low glow of parking lights. She was a few years older than he was, but Tinch remembered her from school. Everyone always liked Alexandra McAllen, now Matheson. They said she had her mother’s beauty and her father’s bravery. Tinch had managed to stay out of her way most of the time, and the few times their paths had crossed it had been nothing but business between them.
He grinned, remembering something else he’d heard about the sheriff. Folks said she was Hank Matheson’s girl years before either of them figured it out. Tinch had seen Hank drag her out of Buffalo’s one night with her fighting and screaming, and not one person in the bar seemed to think anything was wrong with the picture.
If Tinch had decided to pick sides, he would have probably stood with Hank, since Hank was his second cousin on his mother’s side, and family. He guessed that since she’d married Hank, the sheriff was family now too, but they’d never been more than nodding friends when they saw one another.
“Evening, Sheriff,” he said as she neared the porch.
Alex looked up. “Got any lights, Mr. Turner?”
Tinch reached around the screen door and flipped on the light in his wide living room that ran the front of the house. A soft yellow glow flooded the porch. “Just drive out to check on the electricity, Sheriff?”
Alex almost smiled at him. “No. I’m afraid I’m here on business. Very sad business.”
Tinch shrugged. Every person he cared much about was dead, so how bad could bad news be? He owned his land outright and the taxes were paid. The night was clear of clouds. Nothing was blowing in, and the last time he checked he had enough money in the bank to make it through the winter even if he didn’t earn another dime. So whatever the business was, he doubted it would affect him one way or the other.
“Mind if I sit down?” She moved onto the porch and took one of the chairs.
He waited. This wasn’t a social call. He didn’t have to offer her a drink or make small talk. He’d just as soon hear whatever she had to say outright.
“Do you remember your wife having a sister?”
Tinch relaxed. If that was all this was all about, it wouldn’t be anything that might knock him off his feet again. “Her dad had a second wife after he left Lori Anne’s mother. Lori Anne only visited them a few times when she was growing up. I think they lived in Kansas City. As far as my wife knew, she only had one half sister, who was several years younger. Sadie, I think was her name. They traded Christmas cards for a few years after we married, but I don’t know where Sadie is or if Lori Anne’s stepmother is even still alive.” He noticed the sheriff wasn’t taking notes. “Is that of any help, Sheriff? That’s about all I know. We lost touch maybe six or eight years ago.”
“A great deal of help,” Alex answered. “We found a woman in a trailer tonight who had overdosed on drugs. Right now we don’t know if it was an accident or suicide, but according to her driver’s license her name was Sadie Ann Noble. You know anyone who could ID her for sure?”
“No.” Tinch shook his head. “I never met her, and even if Lori Anne was alive, I don’t think she could. The last time my wife saw her, the girl couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve.” A sadness settled in his thoughts. Lori Anne had always thought of her sister as a chubby cherub. He remembered Lori Anne saying once that from the minute she saw Sadie, she wanted to hug her. “After my wife’s dad died, she lost track of his second wife and kid. I tried to find them to let them know Lori Anne died three years ago, but I had no luck.
“If this woman was Sadie, she’d be about twenty-three or four by now.” He looked straight at the sheriff. “What makes you think it might be a suicide?”
“There was a last will and testament in her bag, all signed and notarized. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Tinch Turner, General Delivery, Harmony, Texas. According to the will she didn’t have much, but what she had Sadie Noble left to you and Lori Anne.”
Tinch shook his head. “I didn’t know her. Lori Anne hadn’t heard from her in years. I don’t want anything she may have left. Give it to some charity in town, would you, Sheriff?”
“I can’t do that, Tinch.” For the first time Sheriff Matheson didn’t look too sure of herself. “At least until we get all this straightened out, I’d like you to keep him.”
“Him?” Tinch groaned. The last thing he wanted was a pet left to him by his dead wife’s half sister. He already had a barn full of horses no one wanted, and every stray that was dropped out on the road seemed to end up at his place.
“We don’t have any paperwork on him. Don’t even know how old he is for sure, but I think he’d be better off here with you for the time being.” She waved toward the deputy. “Just for a few days.”
Tinch was compiling reasons he didn’t want to take in a pet when the back door of the cruiser opened and a little boy stepped out. He took one look around and darted out of the light’s glow and into the total blackness of night.
Tinch raised his eyebrow. “A kid,” he whispered, then turned to the sheriff. “I’m guessing you didn’t bother asking him if he wanted to come stay with a total stranger before you tossed him in your car and drove him all the way out here. Hell, this place must look like the end of the world to a kid.”
“I would have talked it over with him,” Alex yelled as she tugged her flashlight off her belt. “Only he fell asleep as soon as I fed him. He knows about you. Told me his uncle Tinch had horses. I just didn’t plan on the sight of you scaring him away.”
The deputy swung his car around and pointed his bright lights in the direction the boy had gone. Nothing. In a plowed field they’d be lucky to find a footprint before dawn.
Tinch shifted and flipped on the yard lights.
Nothing. The kid was faster than a jackrabbit.
He sat back in the swing and crossed his legs over the railing.
“Aren’t you going to help us find him?” Alex snapped.
“No. There’s a hundred places he could already be curled into by now. If he doesn’t want to be found, you’re not finding him tonight.” Tinch stared at her, making it plain that he considered his logic sound. “Wherever he is, he can see my lights. If he wants to come in, or gets cold or hungry, I’ll be waiting. If not, you’ll have better luck finding him after dawn.”
“You’re really not going to help, are you?”
Tinch shook his head. “If he wants to stay with me, he can, but I’m not forcing him, and I’m guessing neither can you, no matter how hard you try, Sheriff.”
“Officer Gentry,” she yelled in her most professional tone. “Grab your light. We’ll start circling, widening ten feet with every lap. No use calling in backup. They’ve got their hands full with the suicide.”
She turned to Tinch. “When I find him, I’ll call Child Protective Services and get him into the system.”
Tinch didn’t say a word, but he knew he’d never let the sheriff take the boy if he wanted to stay. The kid was Lori Anne’s blood and he’d always have shelter here.
Chapter 15
TRUCK STOP
A LITTLE AFTER NINE, BEAU
YATES DROVE OUT TO THE truck stop and picked up Willow. He smiled when he saw her waiting outside for him. Maybe she was as excited about their date as he was. They’d talked several times in the truck stop during her breaks, and once he’d waited two hours and driven her home, but until tonight they’d been just friends.
Tonight, they had a real date … well, almost a real date. With her working most nights and him playing weekends and trying to keep up with his classes at the community college in Clifton Creek, they had little time and no money to date. But tonight Big and Border’s neighbor had invited them over to eat some new Italian dishes she was trying out. Beau knew there would be lots of food and laughs. With luck, he wouldn’t have to talk much and could still have a date.
Willow climbed in his car. “I’m starving.” She laughed. “And for once I don’t have to eat the truck stop food.”
Beau backed out of the drive. “T-that the reason you agreed to go out with me?”
“Of course.” She laughed, and he hoped she was kidding.
“Tell me about this lady who cooks for the likes of you and Border Biggs. She crazy or just like to feed the wild things?”
“S-she’s a nice woman. Maybe ten years older than us, but not old. Her friend, a guy in a wheelchair, lived next door to the Biggs brothers for a while. When he moved out, she moved in. I-I think she’s waiting for him to come back, but Border’s brother doesn’t think he ever will.”
Willow wiggled out of her uniform top and Beau tried to keep his eyes on the road. After a few deep breaths he remembered what he’d been talking about. “S-she w-works at the post office, h-has for years.” Concentrate, he screamed inside his mind and tried to forget about the woman changing clothes beside him. “N-now she’s learning to cook and w-we’re the judges.”
“Or the guinea pigs,” Willow said as she leaned forward and pulled a blouse out of her huge purse. “I thought I’d dress up a little. It didn’t seem right to come to a dinner party in my uniform.”