Stripped Bare Page 7

  He wrinkled his forehead in concentration. “I can’t remember being in Eldon’s house.”

  I spoke as calmly as possible. “Going to the Bar J. You got there quickly. Who called?”

  He blinked again. “Why don’t you ask Eldon who shot us?”

  I took hold of his hand and lowered my voice even more. “Because Eldon is dead.”

  His mouth dropped open. “No. That can’t be.”

  Several moments of silence followed, and Ted sniffed and wiped at his eyes. The wind slammed against the window and sent a tumbleweed scurrying from the wheat field. Clouds scuttled across the sky, making the light grow and fade.

  A clack of heels and the rapid staccato of a female voice warned us of Dahlia’s approach. I took the opportunity for one more kiss before she invaded. Ted’s eyes remained open, and they took on a wild gleam, so I pulled back before we connected. “What’s wrong?”

  Then I recognized another set of clacks on the floor and another female voice answering Dahlia. Roxy was still here?

  “Honey, I’m home.” Roxy sailed around the corner, and her wide, glossy-lipped smile dropped from her face.

  Dahlia bumped into her. They both froze.

  I turned to Ted, who stared at me, his mouth and eyes wide.

  My blood felt like fresh cement hardening, as certain thoughts I didn’t want to think crowded into my brain. “Milo said Roxy found you and Eldon.”

  He didn’t move.

  “Did Eldon call you to the Bar J or were you already there?” I asked, even though I figured Ted wouldn’t answer.

  He didn’t.

  My brain was a runaway, and no matter how hard I yanked at the reins, it galloped onward. “I didn’t see your squad car at the Bar J.”

  Ted’s mouth opened and closed in perfect imitation of a bass.

  I might not have put it all together if Ted hadn’t been on pain meds and therefore not up to his peak cover-up performance.

  No one moved for several seconds, as if waiting to see whether something or someone would explode. Finally, I shook my head. “My guess is that your squad car is hidden out back of Roxy’s house, and if there was any delay in you responding to an emergency at Eldon’s, it was only as long as it took you to put your pants on.”

  Ted’s gravelly voice pulled up the least original phrase in the world: “I’m sorry.”

  With all the dignity I could muster, I skirted the two women and marched out the door.

  I wasn’t more than a few feet from his room when the cold hatchet of Dahlia’s voice landed between my shoulder blades. “Where are you going?”

  7

  “I need to talk to you,” Dahlia said. General Patton couldn’t issue a firmer command.

  I kept walking. Ted and Roxy. I knew it. I goddamned knew it. Or I should have figured out May Keller wasn’t as addled as I’d thought. The world around me seemed squishy, sounds warped. My skin felt split open, leaving my insides free to spill onto the floor.

  I slumped against the corridor wall and squeezed my eyes closed. I collected my guts, zipped them back into my skin, and took several deep breaths. When I opened my eyes, Dahlia advanced on me.

  Her long legs unfolded and contracted like a tarantula. Why did I always go to the dark side where Dahlia was concerned? She had a fierce love for her only child. What was so evil about that? Her lying, cheating, no-good bastard of an only child.

  One manicured hand, nails painted cherry red, brushed through her hair. “You need to pull yourself together. I have something to say.” She took me by the arm and marched us into the minuscule chapel. Her sweet perfume swirled up my nose and into my gut, threating to make me upchuck.

  Two six-foot pews faced a raised platform. Muted lighting, immaculate furniture, and subdued colors didn’t come close to soothing my devastated soul.

  Dahlia released my arm. “Did Ted talk to you about the sheriff’s debate?”

  “The? What? No. What?” I couldn’t unhitch my mind from the whole Roxy/Ted revelation. My husband, who was just shot and might not walk again, the one accused of murder, the one I’d been determined to prove innocent, had been sleeping with his old girlfriend. My husb—

  She looked down her nose at me. I don’t mean in the clichéd kind of way. She stood close to me, with her chin raised, and sighted down her pointy nose until her eyes nailed mine. “You need to take his place at the debate and then schmooze.”

  Hysterical? Probably. But her suggestion was so ludicrous I cracked up. “Schmooze?”

  That broke her stare, and she stepped back. She looked as if she considered using me for target practice. Close-range target practice. “You have to. Ted needs you to step up for him. Support him.”

  “Seriously? Not two minutes ago I found out he was having an affair.” That’s not the vernacular I wanted to use, but I spared Dahlia the four-letter description. “I thought not shooting him would be pretty awesome of me.”

  She looked like she had slapped the cylinder and cocked the hammer. “Awesome. Sure. As if there’s nothing in this for you.”

  Wait. Milo had said I didn’t know Ted. May had talked about “that tramp.” Even Dad had acted weird when Milo mentioned Ted. They knew. Everyone knew … except me. “How does total humiliation translate into anything good for me?”

  She sighted down the barrel. “It’s your obligation.”

  I nearly choked. “For the amazingly wonderful way Ted treated me?”

  She seemed truly perplexed. “You don’t think you owe Ted anything? After eight years of living off of him and never having a job?”

  Was she delusional? Who did she think ran Frog Creek? Who brought in a more than 98 percent calf crop every year? Who managed the hay crew and put up record yields? “I’ve worked Frog Creek every day of those eight years.” And for this, Ted rips the rug out from under my life. Crumbling foundation, broken heart, crushed—every cliché I’d ever heard, revealed its truth.

  She waved that off. “You told me more than once that you’ve always wanted to be a rancher. Ted gave you the opportunity you could never afford without him.”

  I needed to get the hell away from this woman. “Good-bye.”

  She glared. “After all this family has done for you, you’re going to walk away?”

  I stepped around her, heading for the door.

  Her aim narrowed. “That’s fine. But know that if this is the way you’re going to be, we’re going to quit doing for you, too.”

  Fine. I kept walking.

  She fired a shot. “If you don’t help Ted, your marriage is over.”

  I stopped to count to ten. I only got to five. I turned back to her, wanting to slap her smug grin. “What makes you think I want it to survive?”

  She raised one eyebrow. “Do you think you’re the first wife to have a wandering husband? Tell me: Until yesterday, were you satisfied with your life?”

  I held my hand up as if it could stop her.

  She got off a second round. “You had a good relationship with Ted, and you loved being at the ranch.”

  Until Roxy’s phone call, yesterday had been pretty nice. But I couldn’t unring any Roxy bells.

  She sported her superior smile. Her third shot nicked my flesh. “You can stay on the ranch if you help Ted get reelected.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to stay.” And maybe I didn’t want to keep breathing.

  Dahlia sighed. “No games here. The only thing Ted ever wanted was to be sheriff. Even as a kid. He looked cute with his cowboy boots and little six-shooter.”

  Somehow, I couldn’t give a sparrow’s fart what Ted wanted.

  “We were so proud of him when he won the election. Daddy nearly burst his buttons.” “Daddy” being the exacting father of the three Flower girls—Dahlia and her sisters, Rose and Violet.

  I desperately wanted to stay on Frog Creek, but I couldn’t live there without Ted. And I didn’t know how I felt about Ted. I hated him. I loved him. He’d betrayed me. He’d been my best friend. Was it over
? Was this a terrible time we’d look back on while we sat on our front porch and watched our great-grandkids search for Easter eggs? Or was this when I cut my losses?

  I’d had enough of Dahlia’s insanity. The door opened and closed while she still spouted nonsense.

  I escaped from the hospital. I beelined to Elvis, fighting tears and hoping my shredded heart would keep beating. Dusk dropped a thick curtain, and wind tugged my hair. I held back the flying strands with one hand while my other hand fished in my pocket for keys.

  “Well, howdy, Kate.” Milo’s heavy footsteps and wheezing sounded behind me.

  Not now. I needed to dive into Elvis and slam the world out before the dam burst and I flooded everything with my pain. I braced myself, hoping I had enough steel to talk to Milo without falling apart. I opened Elvis’s door, though, ready for a quick retreat. “Milo.”

  “Been in to see Ted?” He held a Mountain Dew can, which he brought to his lips and spit tobacco into. A nauseating wintergreen smell floated to me.

  The wind bit at my hands as I clutched the Ranchero’s door. “I just came from there.”

  “How’s he doing?” Milo spit into the can.

  Whatever jumble of noxious emotions churned inside me, it was anger that rose to the top. “Why not see for yourself? The day’s nearly over and you’re finally getting around to hearing Ted’s story before you throw cuffs on him and drag him from his hospital bed.”

  Milo cocked his head back as if I’d slapped him. “I’m not fixing to haul him to jail. And I’m sorry if it offends you I hit the rack for a few hours. And it happens I had cause to do a little investigating.”

  I didn’t want to have this discussion. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about anything. “Don’t bother. Go ahead and throw his carcass behind bars and let him rot. I’ll testify that the lying SOB wasn’t with me.”

  “Oh.” Milo only had the one word.

  Darn bless it. I tried to pull everything in close, tighten down the cinch, and keep the reins steady. But a piece deep inside me loosened and caused everything to fall apart. Without warning, tears gushed, and I let out a sound as if I’d been punched in the belly.

  Milo stepped back and gulped.

  I spewed like a geyser. “You knew. You knew all about Ted and Roxy and you didn’t say anything.” I gasped in a sob and the tears rained down.

  He must have thought that if he moved I’d start in again. I don’t think he even breathed. I felt bad about putting Milo in this awkward place, but I felt a lot worse for what Ted had done to me.

  I leaned my forehead on my arm, letting Elvis take my weight, and I sucked in two giant gulps of icy air. I sniffed, wiped my eyes on my coat sleeve, and looked up at Milo. “I don’t think Ted shot Eldon, but I’m not going to do anything about finding out who did.”

  He spit into the Mountain Dew can. “I’m on my way in to talk to him about that.” Before I could throw myself into Elvis, Milo stopped me. “Have you got hold of Carly?”

  I shook my head.

  He spit. “Think she knew about Ted and Roxy?”

  I glared at him.

  “Think that might chap her, Ted messing around behind your back?”

  The wind yanked at my hair. “Carly isn’t involved in this.”

  He rocked back on the heels of his cowboy boots. “Maybe.”

  My head throbbed with everything pent up inside. “If you’ve got something on Carly, just tell me.”

  Deep shadows of sunset hid his face. “Seems Eldon kept a mountain of cash in his office.”

  I rubbed my forehead with frozen fingers. “What’s that got to do with Carly?”

  “The money’s gone missing.”

  He seemed full of information. “How would you know about this?”

  He lifted the pop can and spit. “I got a glimpse at Eldon’s will. He intended Carly to have that cash, and specified the sum. It’s a goodly amount. He allowed as how only him and her had the combination to the safe.”

  Of course Milo had seen the will. Eldon’s lawyer was probably Niles Ferguson, Milo’s brother. “So how do you know the money is missing?”

  “Eldon’s attorney turned over the combination to me and I checked. Safe is dry as the Sahara.”

  My skin heated from the inside out. “So now Ted’s off the suspect list and you think Carly killed Eldon, shot Ted, and stole the money?”

  “I’ve seen murders committed for less.”

  8

  By the time I got back to the ranch, night had swallowed the day. A blanket of clouds coated the sky, making it feel as dense and heavy as my heart. The radio weatherman predicted no precipitation, so the cloud cover would provide insulation, keeping the killing cold from my baby calves. In the same way, a sort of numbness padded my thoughts of Ted and Roxy. Contrary to how I had felt an hour ago, I decided news of their affair probably wouldn’t kill me.

  It was too early to think spring had arrived for good, but she was inching toward us. Likewise, I knew I’d eventually come out the other end of this sorrow, but it was too soon to really believe it.

  After a check on the cows—no new calves—I made my way to the house and into the kitchen. The tub of cookies and the clean dishes neatly stacked in the strainer were the only indication that Louise had been there again.

  No sign of Carly. Even though I wanted to be alone to process the shock of Ted and Roxy, Carly needed me. We’d have to get in touch with Milo soon. But more than that, I wanted to touch her, to see that she would get through this latest grief.

  When I was a junior in high school, Steve Misner had run his car into an oncoming semi after a party. When we heard the news, all of his classmates gathered at the shallow lake north of town. We stayed out there for two days, drawing comfort from one another that we’d never be able to get from our families. It hurt that Carly could get more help from her tribe of peers than from me, but I understood it.

  Acid swirled in my belly like something that bubbled and popped in a Yellowstone caldera. I hadn’t eaten since noon the day before, and even though I hated the thought, I heated a can of soup and forced it down, sitting at the old table in the kitchen. My own frazzled reflection in the window kept me company.

  I rinsed my bowl and reached for the phone just as the cat shrieked. Damn, I had to change that ringtone. Another reason I needed to find Carly.

  Susan’s name appeared in the ID window. When I answered, she said, “Carly is here.”

  Oh. I let out a pent-up breath. Safe, but so far away. “Let me talk to her.”

  Susan hesitated. “She said to tell you she’s fine. She doesn’t want to talk to anyone. She’ll call later.”

  “That’s not okay.” Maybe she didn’t want to talk to me, but I needed to talk to her. “Give her the phone.”

  I knew better than to tell Susan what to do. If you grow up with eight older brothers and sisters, you either become compliant or contrary. Susan chose rebellion. She and Carly were a lot alike that way.

  Her tone toughened. “She asked to be left alone. I’m going to respect that.”

  I backed up a few paces. “Eldon’s passing is a big blow, but she can’t run from it.”

  “Just give her a little time, okay?”

  I didn’t want to alarm Susan by telling her Milo might suspect Carly of the shooting. “Family is the best thing for Carly right now.” Oh God, I sounded like Louise.

  “Look, it’s really not up to you. Carly’s been through enough shit. Back off.”

  The thought of Carly’s pain serrated my heart. What harm would it do to let her alone for tonight? Milo could go hang for another few hours. “Okay. Only for a little while.”

  Susan’s silence was the equivalent of a disdainful stare. She was still a teen and knew everything. I sighed. “Then tell her I love her. That we all love her.”

  Susan sounded sad. “I already told her that. I’m not sure it helped.”

  Carly might be in the best hands right now. At any rate, she’d chosen, and I’d give
her peace. For one day. Then she’d either talk to me or I’d drive to Lincoln and haul her home myself.

  I leaned on the kitchen counter, tired of the battering thoughts of Ted and Roxy. I forced my mind to Carly. When had Carly started acting strange? There was one night a few weeks ago.

  Carly had whirled into the kitchen like a tornado as I sealed foil over the dinner plate I’d filled for Ted. He’d said he would be home later, because he had to finish some paperwork at the courthouse. I’d stopped myself from questioning why he had to work past eight o’clock.

  Breathless, she stood in her gym shorts and hoodie. “Shit. I forgot. I have to bring six pictures of me, growing up, to school tomorrow.”

  I imitated her, hoping to point out her constant cursing without nagging. “Shit. Okay.”

  As I expected, she rolled her eyes. “It’s for the graduation program. Ms. Parker jumped my ass today. They were supposed to be in last week.”

  I guess hinting about cleaning up her vocabulary wasn’t working. I slipped the plate into the fridge. “There’s a box of your parents’ stuff in the office closet. There’s got to be pictures in that.”

  We dug out a lidded cardboard orange crate from behind Ted’s old shotgun and three years of tax records and plopped it on the living room floor. Carly yanked off the lid and sat back as if a snake might jump out.

  Tentatively, she reached to the top and pulled out an envelope of snapshots. “This is so old-school.”

  “We had a whole different way of doing things before smartphones. Even when we had digital cameras we still made prints.” I took out another envelope and flipped through the dozen or so prints. “Look! This is you with Susan and Ruth. I’m guessing you’re about four years old.” The three little girls sat in the sandbox in back of Mom’s house. There was a whole series of them in their matching pink-and-yellow bikinis, pouring sand on each other, racing in the green grass, holding Kool-Aid cups, and sporting red-stained grins.

  Bittersweet memories brightened in my mind. “Ruthie was staying with Mom because Louise was in labor with Esther. Your mother brought you in to play, and you three girls ran like wild animals.”