Desert Places

by Erica Abbott

  * * *

  Jean pushed back from the Hawkins’s dinner table, leaving half of her enormous T-bone untouched on her plate. “What I don’t understand,” she said, “is why every one of you doesn’t weigh four hundred pounds.”

  Linda Hawkins was busy stacking plates. She rescued the leftover steak from Jean’s platter and said, “Everything gets worked off on the ranch. I’ll save this for Loren’s lunch tomorrow.”

  “Loren?” Lou complained. “I eat lunch here too, you know.”

  Linda smiled sweetly and said, “Yes, I’m aware of that. I have some nice fresh tomato salad for you. I saw your last cholesterol numbers, remember dear?”

  Lea laughed at her father’s scowl and he pointed a finger at her. “Don’t you be so smart, young lady,” Lou said. “She’ll be starting in on you next.”

  “My cholesterol is just fine, thanks,” Lea retorted.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Lou grunted.

  “Uh-oh,” Lea muttered, rolling her eyes.

  Jean looked from Lou to Lea to a still-smiling Linda. “Shall I ask what’s going on or not?”

  “I’d say not,” Lou said. “What I want to hear about is what happened with Hayward Lyons. Did he confess?”

  Lea sat back in her chair and took a long drink of water. “Pretty much,” she began. “Although Del Franklin’s death gave him a chance to shift as much blame as possible.”

  Linda sat down again at the table, the plates forgotten. “What did he say, Lea?”

  “It all started when Lyons was still the department head over at county public works. He was doing free road grading with county equipment as a ‘favor’ to certain individuals, as he put it. Sadly, but maybe not surprisingly, Dad is the only one who ever called to complain about it. The district attorney is having kittens trying to decide if he has enough to go to a grand jury for half-a-dozen indictments against various county employees and elected officials.”

  “It would serve ’em right,” Lou declared.

  “Yep,” Lea agreed. “But it probably won’t happen. There’s no proof they asked for the grading, any more than you did, so it’ll be tough to prove a corrupt motive on their part. Lyons, on the other hand, was just doing everything he could to get elected as a county commissioner. And it worked.”

  “But what I don’t understand,” Linda interjected, “is why he had to murder two people. This all happened months and months ago, didn’t it?”

  Lea nodded. “The problem was Fred Lambert. He didn’t know about Lyons’s plan, he just did what he was told. When he got sideways with his boss and got fired, he sued the county and was using the lawsuit to threaten Lyons with his knowledge of the illegal work. Apparently Lyons tried threats and money to get Lambert to back off, but we think Lambert wanted more than Lyons was willing to pay. Lambert just had no idea how far Lyons would go to protect himself.”

  Jean shook her head. “I can never understand why people use murder to cover up lesser crimes. It makes no sense to me.”

  “It’s not logical,” Lea agreed, “but people do it a lot, believe me. They really convince themselves that they won’t get caught if they just kill a witness.”

  “So how was Franklin tied up in all this?” Lou asked.

  “He wanted to replace Jaime Fontana and he had been very busy getting in Carolyn Forsythe’s good graces. Flirting with Carolyn was working, but since flirting with Hayward Lyons wasn’t going to work, Del basically agreed to do Lyons’s dirty work. Lyons claims Franklin came to him, which I don’t believe for a minute.”

  Lou snorted. “Okay, I get how getting the two sitting commissioners on his side would help him get the party’s nomination, but honestly, how stupid can a man get? Lyons did all that for a job as a county commissioner? Christ, it doesn’t pay that much.”

  Lea shrugged. “Apparently after a lot of years as a county employee, Lyons wanted to run the show. He figured he’d be elected chair as soon as Jaime Fontana was termed out. But Del Franklin had higher ambitions, according to Lyons, anyway. Franklin wanted to be governor someday, but he figured he needed a track record as an elected official at the local level first. Lyons told us that Del planned next to run for the general assembly. Lambert was in his way, as was Todd Moorman once he figured out what was going on.”

  “Poor Todd,” Jean said sadly. “When he couldn’t get me on the phone that Friday evening, he apparently went to Del and told him what he’d found.”

  Lea nodded. “Lyons insists that Franklin killed Moorman on his own initiative and didn’t tell Lyons until after the fact. That may or may not be true. It’s hard to prove one way or another. But either way, Del pulled the trigger.”

  “But I keep wondering, if Carolyn Forsythe was innocent,” Jean said, “then why was she asking about Todd’s wife? She’s been acting jumpy as a cat the last few days.”

  “Interviewing her was interesting,” Lea replied. “In the end, she admitted she suspected that something was up. Franklin was acting squirrelly and he apparently kept mentioning Moorman to her.”

  “Maybe he felt guilty,” Linda said quietly.

  Lea lifted an eyebrow, the one with the faint scar over it. “If he did, it didn’t stop him from throwing Jean off the damn roof, now did it?” Her tone was acid.

  Jean reached over impulsively and took Lea’s hand. “Lea, it’s done. He certainly paid for it.”

  Lea took a deep breath and blew it out. “You’re right. Lyons is looking at counts of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact and conspiracy on the attempted murder charge, not to mention charges for corruption of a public official. He’ll be in prison for a long, long time, I imagine.”

  “Well,” Linda said. “He certainly should be. And now before someone changes the subject again,” she glared at her husband, “I would like to ask another question.”

  “Here it comes,” Lea murmured.

  Linda looked pointedly at Jean’s hand, still intertwined with Lea’s on the tabletop. “I was wondering if perhaps my daughter had some news for us.”

  “Gosh, Mother, whatever could you mean?” Lea asked in her best innocent tone.

  Jean couldn’t keep from laughing out loud. “Oh, my God. Is she always like this?”

  “Yes,” Lea and her father answered in unison.

  “I prefer to think of it,” Linda said with an air of dignity, “as a caring concern for my children’s lives. Now that Loren and Rita seem to be off to a good start on a new relationship, I thought perhaps Lea might have a similarly happy situation.”

  “You want to take the Fifth?” Jean asked Lea. “You can lawyer up now. I’m here.”

  “Nope, I’ll confess. Yes, Mother, Ms. McAllister and I have decided that we are officially going steady. Are you happy now?”

  To Jean’s surprise, Linda jumped up and came around the table to her, leaning down and hugging Lea, then her. “Oh, my dears, yes! Very happy.”

  Was this what it was like to have a family? Jean thought. It felt like nothing she’d ever had before, not with Charlotte or her own mother and brother.

  Lou Hawkins produced a bottle of champagne from the kitchen somewhere and even Jean drank half a glass. Finally Lea said to her parents, “With your permission, I would now like to drive my sweetheart home before it gets too late.”

  They escaped, but not without more hugs and a few happy tears from Linda. When they were in Lea’s truck, Jean said, “Good grief. What do they do when somebody gets engaged?”

  “Depends,” Lea answered, driving slowly down the gravel road. “If Mother approves, as she did with my older brother, you get a very large barbeque. If she does not, as in Loren’s first marriage, you get a tight-lipped ‘Congratulations.’”

  “I see. Do you think we’re in line for the barbeque someday?”

  “Honey, you got champagne for going steady. I clearly underestimated how much my mother wants me settled down. If her reaction tonight is any guide, we’ll probably get a weekend-long ranch party complete wit
h a side of beef and a rodeo.”

  Jean smiled at the thought. “Where are we going, by the way?”

  “I thought nine thirty was a little early for turning in. We’re going up to look at the moon, okay?”

  Part of Jean couldn’t believe that she was riding in a pickup truck across the dark desert with a woman who actually used the phrase “going steady” and wanted to watch the moon. Another part of her wondered if she would be waking up from the dream anytime soon.

  She made a mental note to update her Christmas card list. She wanted to be sure Maryke would have evidence that Jean had taken her advice to open herself to the possibilities with Lea.

  They parked on a small hill overlooking the ranch. Jean could see the Hawkins’s outside lights glowing yellow below them and in the far distance the faint pale shimmer of Lea’s porch light. The moon rose like a phantom, painting the nearby clouds with silver.

  Lea opened the door. “Come on, let’s get in the back. I’ve got a couple of blankets.”

  “Why,” Jean asked with amusement, “are we going to sit in the bed of the truck instead of these nice padded seats in the cab?”

  She saw Lea’s half smile in the moon glow. “Because it’s much harder to cuddle in the cab.”

  When Jean was comfortably settled against Lea in the back of the truck she said, “You know I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

  Lea kissed her. “I certainly hope not.”

  “No, I mean it. Sometimes I can’t believe you’re real. You really do remind me of one of those old western heroes, always doing the right thing and taking care of everybody around you.”

  Lea sat back to put some distance between them. “I’m real, Jean. I’ve got my faults like everybody else, my selfish moments, my doubts and insecurities. I’m a long way from perfect and if you’re looking for someone to rescue you, then—”

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Jean said quickly. “I just wonder if I’ll be a disappointment to you. I’m not like you.” She sighed. “There are still a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

  Lea drew her close again. “You’re right. I don’t know your favorite color or the name of the first horse you ever rode or your best subject at school. But those are just facts, Jean. What I do know is that you’re brave and tenacious and smart and kind because I’ve seen those things in you. You make me laugh and I like the way you see the world. I know you’re beautiful and I’ve seen all of you.”

  Jean smiled in the darkness. “Green,” she said. “Roscoe. American History.”

  “Um, what?”

  “Favorite color. First horse. Best subject at school.”

  Lea laughed. “I’ll make a note of that.”

  “My turn to find out something about you.”

  “Fire away, Counselor.”

  Jean reached up and traced the faint scar above Lea’s eyebrow. “How did you get this?”

  She felt Lea shake with laughter. “I’ll bet you were imagining some crazed knife-wielding suspect.”

  “Something like that,” Jean admitted.

  “When we were kids, I got in between Loren and my older brother Larry when they were having one of their famous fights. I was trying to stop them. Larry tried to push me out of the way to get to Loren and I fell. I cut my forehead on the edge of a rock.”

  “I’ll bet it bled like crazy.”

  “Oh, hell yes! I thought my mother was going to kill them both. When she heard me crying she charged out of the house, scooped up Loren to tuck him under one arm and then grabbed Larry by the shirt.”

  Jean laughed at the picture. “I can just see her.”

  “She threw one boy in each bedroom and told them to stay there on pain of death. She cleaned me up and if I remember correctly, I got ice cream out of the deal.”

  They sat in silence for a long time, watching the moon rise slowly. The clouds floated across the face, darkening the glow, then moved off again, their edges catching the light. Jean had always been amazed that the moon held no light of its own, that it only reflected the hidden sun’s glory, because tonight it looked like it was shining for them alone. Jean snuggled closer to Lea.

  “Are you cold?” Lea asked her softly.

  “No. Not with you holding me.”

  Lea made a contented noise deep in her throat.

  All the warmth, all the caring, all the contentment of a home and family seemed to surround Jean like the blanket pulled up to her shoulders.

  Jean said suddenly, “Lea, do you love me?”

  The silence stretched for so long that Jean began to worry. Finally Lea said, “I was afraid you’d run like a spooked horse if I said anything like that to you this soon.”

  “Not that long ago I would have run away,” Jean admitted. “But I’ve been rethinking my life quite a bit lately for a lot of reasons. So if you wanted to tell me that, I think you might risk it. If you wanted to.”

  “Okay, then. I do love you, Jean.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I was planning on falling in love with you sometime around tomorrow, I think,” Jean answered. “I just wanted to make sure we were in the same place.”

  “We are.” Lea kissed her.

  Jean leaned back into the comforting warmth of Lea’s body. She watched the silver moon shine down on the desert darkness.

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