My Ranch My Way

by Misty Malone

  Sheriff Miller continued his investigation. He contacted the company that made the bracelet again and told them they needed the name and address of everyone who bought a bracelet like the one Cece found in the creek. After getting a search warrant for the information, he was told there were none sold to anyone in the state of Wyoming or the surrounding states, other than one on the far edge of Texas.

  Questioning Cindy further didn't help him any, either. She stuck with her story, and no matter how many times he asked her questions in different ways, her story was always the same. That generally was a good indication that she was telling the truth, but he still had nothing else to go on. He'd like to have one piece of evidence to prove her case.

  Joe and Chase talked to Ralph again the following day, but went back to Chase's house just as confused as when they left to talk to Ralph. Ralph still claimed total ignorance to all that had happened, and neither one of them had been able to find a single reason to doubt what he said. They pretty much threw in the towel, resigned to letting the sheriff do his job. Hard as it would be, they'd just have to wait and see what the sheriff found, even though he was becoming frustrated, as well.

  Joe hated to leave with things so up in the air, but there wasn't anything else he could do if he stayed, and he had a ranch to run. He left the next morning, and Chase and Cece promised they'd keep him informed.

  The sheriff finally got a break when they questioned Helen McDermott Kantel one more time. Ralph had been staying with his widowed sister since leaving the ranch. The sheriff had questioned her about Ralph and his whereabouts, but he stopped by her house to ask her a few more questions just to be sure he hadn't missed something.

  She was visibly nervous, so he sat down with her to share a cup of coffee while they talked. He really didn't want to get her upset or nervous. To his way of thinking she was already caught in the middle of this family situation. They talked about the weather as he tried to calm her down before he finally got down to business. "Does Ralph have a cell phone?"

  "Yes, of course he does. I think everyone has a cell phone these days."

  "Yeah, I think you're probably right. What I meant was does he have one cell phone he uses all the time, or does he have a burner phone?"

  She looked at him curiously. "You asked me that before. I guess the answer is no, he doesn't, but I have to admit I don't know what a burner phone is."

  "I'm sorry, I should have explained better. Some people have a cell phone they use all the time. They pay a monthly bill for that phone. Other people buy a phone at one of the dollar stores or a quick mart type place. That's good for so many minutes, and when those minutes are used up you throw the phone away and buy another one. Which kind does Ralph have?"

  "So which one of those is the burner phone?"

  Sheriff Miller chuckled. "The phone you throw away. Some people call it a burner phone. Does he have one of those?"

  "He has one of each."

  Sheriff Miller's eyebrows rose. "When I asked you before if he had a burner phone you said no, but now that you know what a burner phone is, he does have one?"

  "Yes. He has both."

  "Do you know any of the phone numbers for his burner phones?"

  "Oh, heavens no. I've never known any of them. I have the number on his phone he keeps and if I need to get hold of him I call him on that one."

  "Do you happen to know why he has a burner phone?"

  "Not really. He said it was for the times you want to be able to talk to someone without it showing up anywhere. I don't know what that means at all, but I'm not very up on all these newfangled things. My kids bought me a cell phone and showed me how to make calls on it, and that's all I do with mine."

  "I know what you mean," Sheriff Miller said. "Some kids can do all kinds of things with their phone. Not me."

  "Nope. Me, neither."

  "So he told you he uses it when he doesn't want it showing up anywhere?"

  "That's what he said. Have you ever heard tell of such a thing?"

  "I'm like you, I don't know what he means by that. Without it showing up anywhere? Where does it show up?"

  "I don't even have a guess."

  They talked a few more minutes while Sheriff Miller finished his coffee. He thanked Helen and went back to his office, where he checked his copy of Cindy's cell phone records. She'd said she only met with Ralph one time, and no one else was there. She insisted all her contacts with him were via their cell phones. He had already checked her bill for Ralph's cell phone number, but she had never called that.

  He pulled out all the numbers that appeared more than once over the three-month period in question. He and one of his deputies identified each of those numbers, and found one number that indeed was a burner phone.

  He called the prosecutor and talked to him, and Ralph was arrested two hours later.

  Joe, Chase, Cece and Ben all felt like they were watching a movie play out in front of them. Joe and Chase both visited Ralph, who was furious, as was Helen. She'd become upset with Joe and Chase, assuming they had pushed for Ralph's arrest. Ralph was insisting to Helen, as well as everyone else that visited him, that he was not behind any of this, and had not talked to Cindy on a cell phone.

  Joe and Chase tried to tell Helen they hadn't pushed for his arrest, and that in fact the opposite was true. They said they didn't want him arrested until and unless they had solid evidence. But Ralph and now Helen believed he was only arrested because of Joe and Chase. The family was at odds, and Joe and Chase didn't know what to do to fix it.

  Chase and Cece were sitting on his couch, talking about the family problems one day. She knew he was upset and felt like he was in the center of it. She slid over to sit on his lap, a place she knew they both enjoyed. "You know, I've been thinking about this," she told him. "If Ralph insists he's innocent, and your Aunt Helen believes him, maybe we need to, too."

  He looked at her incredulously. "What? We should believe him, too, just like that? What good will that do?"

  "What I'm saying is maybe we need to be committed one way or another, and then prove it. What do you really think; is he innocent or guilty?"

  "From all we've been told I'd have to say he's our culprit."

  "So let's prove it."

  "How is that going to help the family feud, if they know we're trying to prove he's guilty?

  "So we tell them we're out to prove he's innocent."

  "But what if he's not being honest and we can't prove it?"

  "In trying to prove he's innocent it's possible we'll find something to prove he's guilty. But either way, we have the proof."

  "But we've been trying to figure out who to believe this whole time. What are you saying we should do differently?"

  "We concentrate only on proving him innocent. Forget all the other what ifs, and work only on proving him innocent."

  He studied her so long she thought he was going to tell her she was crazy. Instead, he said, "You may be onto something. The way I see it we don't have anything to lose, so why not? Where do we start?"

  "Well, I think first you need to go talk to him. Tell him we're going to prove his innocence, and ask him some questions. We'll write out a list of things to talk to him about, and then we'll try to prove whatever he says. Meanwhile, I'll go talk to Cindy and tell her the same thing. Maybe we can find something in what the two of them tell us that doesn't match and we can zero in on it."

  "We can try it, Honey. It's better than doing nothing, but don't get your hopes up. That's exactly what Sheriff Miller's been trying to do—find some discrepancies in either story. So far he's found nothing."

  "I know, and I know we might come up with nothing, but remember, we'll be talking to them as friends and family, not asking questions as the law."

  His head tilted to the side and he thought a moment. "Good point. So we tell them we're going to prove their case beyond any doubt, and then try to get them to talk to us as a friend."

  "Exactly."

  "It's worth a try. Toda
y's Tuesday and visiting day's Thursday, so we have to come up with some kind of plan and write down anything we want to talk to them about. Do you have any ideas?"

  "I think we need to tell them we're going to try to prove their case once and for all so we can get all this behind us. Have them explain everything that happened, right from the start, every little detail. Ask Ralph if he knows her at all, any times he may have met her, and ask about the phone. Him having that burner phone is what got him arrested. Ask him what the number was or how many he's had, and most importantly, why he had them. If he has some reason for having the phones we'll follow up on that and see if we can prove he's had several and why. Find out where he bought them, and if anyone can prove he had one and why. We can start there."

  "Okay. What are you going to ask Cindy?"

  "When she met Ralph and where, and if the ideas were all his or if she helped come up with any of them. I'll ask when she called him, and if he ever called her, or how she knew when he had something else for her to do. If he called her it should show up on her phone bill."

  "Okay, let's make some notes so they know we're serious. Then they won't question it when we take good notes so we don't forget anything."

  The rest of that evening and the next they went over all the facts they knew and anything they could think of they should ask about, and by Thursday they were ready for the visits. They spent as much time visiting and going over every last detail as the jail would allow. Afterwards they spent the rest of that evening and late into the night going over and comparing everything they'd both been told.

  The next two weeks they were busy checking out everything they'd been told, but came up empty. They were both getting frustrated. Cece was so determined to get to the truth she hadn't been able to write anything for the last several days. She'd write a couple paragraphs, read it over and delete it. Finally she decided to take a day off and not even try to write anything. She went to her favorite spot, what had become their swimming hole now since they both looked forward to the times they'd swim there together.

  She climbed up on the big stone overlooking the creek, laid back and closed her eyes, soaking up the sun. Smiling, she thought of the big plans she had for today – she planned to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. She'd been so consumed lately with solving this problem, getting to the bottom of what really happened, that she was wound up tight and felt like she was ready to burst. What she needed was to relax and let go of some of the tension that was consuming her body and mind.

  Enjoying the sun on her, she could almost feel herself relaxing, letting go of the way-too-much anxiety she'd been feeling. She smiled to herself as she thought of something Chase had told her once. He tried to get her to believe that at times she let herself get so worked up over things that she got herself in trouble for her attitude. He insisted that all she really needed was a spanking to calm her down and relieve the stress, and she wouldn't have that problem with her attitude. She chuckled out loud thinking of how absurd that thought was.

  But the more she lay there and the more relaxed she became, the more sense that insane concept was beginning to make. She thought back to the times he'd spanked her for her attitude. She really had been stressed out at the time. And thinking it through even further, she had to admit that after the spanking she was fine again, and in fact felt much better. Could he actually be right about that? She chuckled again as she remembered his final words on that subject. He'd told her hopefully some day she'd be able to recognize that and go to him and ask for his help when she needed it. Ha! As if she'd ever go to him and ask for a spanking! Like that would ever happen!

  The more she thought about it, though, the more she realized he might be right. Not that she could ever see herself going to him and asking for a spanking, but he might be right about some of it. It seemed that she did let herself get so worked up she was in a bad mood, and his spankings, and the lecture that always went along with it, got her to see that she'd let it happen again. At those times he not only rid her of the stress, but she realized that once she'd calmed down and the stress was gone, she could see things a lot clearer and often was able to solve her problem.

  She thought about Chase and how lucky she was to have him in her life. He was a very smart man and always seemed to know what was best for her. He was very good at thinking about something until he figured out a solution, and she found herself wondering how he managed to become so wise. She grinned as she thought about him. He got a degree in business management, and although she knew that helped him in managing the ranch, she couldn't help but think maybe he should have majored in psychology. He seemed to have a natural ability to figure her out and know what she needed.

  She suddenly stopped short and sat straight up. That's it! That's what she'd been missing this whole time! She'd been trying so hard to figure out if Ralph was telling the truth or if Cindy was telling the truth that she'd missed the piece of the puzzle that was right under her nose! She quickly got back on Ginger and hurried back to her house. At the barn she asked one of their hands to take care of Ginger for her. He agreed, but watched her run into the house, concerned. She always brushed Ginger after a ride herself. Something was amiss, he was sure.

  She went straight to her room and her computer and started doing some research. She got so involved that she lost track of time and was surprised when Pete knocked on her door to tell her supper was on the table.

  "Go ahead and eat without me, Dad."

  "Cece, are you okay?"

  "I'm fine, Dad, just not hungry."

  "Should I call the doctor?"

  "No, I'm fine, really. I'm just busy."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Dad, for crying out loud. I said I'm fine and I am. I'm just busy!" She was so preoccupied in her work that she didn't realize how harsh her words had been.

  She continued her research, so totally involved in what she was reading that she jumped when there was a louder knock on her door and a deeper voice said, "Cece, what's going on in there? Are you okay?"

  She immediately looked up at Chase's voice. Why did he sound upset? "Of course I'm okay. Why would you ask that?"

  "May I come in?"

  "Sure. The door's not locked."

  Chase walked in, a stern, but concerned look on his face. "What's going on in here? Your father was so concerned he called me to see if I know what you're doing."

  "Dad called you? Why?"

  "He said you came back to the barn on Ginger in a big hurry and asked someone else to take care of her, and ran into the house. He said you've been buried in here all evening, and didn't eat any supper."

  "I was busy," she said, still studying the screen.

  Before she could comprehend what was happening she was being lifted into the air. Chase sat down on her chair and seated her on his lap. "Busy doing what?" He looked at her computer screen and started scanning what she was reading as he added, "We've talked about you skipping meals, Sugar. What is so important that you thought it was okay to skip supper?"

  Hearing the implied warning in his voice, she tried to calm him down. "Chase, I think I may have come across something that will help us."

  "The Ralph versus Cindy saga?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "I'll be interested to hear why you think that's important enough that it warrants you skipping supper, but we'll get to that in a few minutes. What is it you've come across?"

  "I remembered Cindy said she had a degree in psychology, so I checked to see what kind of psychology."

  "What do you mean what kind of psychology?"

  "Well, you know, there's clinical psychology, research psychology, child psychology, lots of areas you can go into. She went into criminal psychology."

  "I'm not familiar with that. What is it?"

  "I wasn't, either, so that's what I've been researching. They study how a criminal's mind works."

  Chase's eyes furrowed together as he skeptically said, "And?"

  She looked incensed. "What do you mean and? An
d she's been lying to us! She's got the training and knows how to do that and get away with it!"

  "Calm down, Cece and take it slow."

  "No, I can't go slow. Don't you see? We can prove this now!"

  "Cece, calm down."

  His stern voice got her attention, but she didn't catch the obvious warning. "Come on, don't just stand there, we've got to go talk to Sheriff Miller."

  Chase took her by her shoulders and caught her eyes with his and held them. "Cecelia Louise, I won't warn you again. Calm down, watch your attitude, and tell me what you're talking about."

  "Chase, you're a smart man. Don't act so dumb now. We've got to go talk to Sheriff Miller. We don't have time for you to sit around with your thumb up your ass. I'll explain it on our way over there."

  She reached over to pull him out the door, but found herself being airborne again. When she landed it was over his knee. He'd put his foot up on the rung of the chair they'd been sitting on, and she found herself draped precariously over his knee. He gave her six hard swats on her blue-jean covered bottom, and set her back on her feet in front of him.

  Her hands immediately went back to rub her freshly-assaulted behind. His hands quickly found hers and pulled them back around in front of her. "No rubbing or I'll redo that little reminder you just got. You know better than to rub it away."

  "But what was that for?"

  Her adorable little pout had him wanting to chuckle, but he controlled it. "I told you to watch your attitude and calm down. Now, in a calm voice explain what it is you found, or you'll be getting more than a little reminder over your jeans."

  She scowled at him, but seeing the stern warning on his face she eased her expression and took a deep, relaxing breath. "Much better, Sugar," he praised her. She couldn't help but smile every time he did that. It always helped break the tension so she could calm down, too.

  When she felt more in control she explained. "According to my research, criminal psychologists study how the best, or the most successful criminals think and act. The hard to catch criminals are the ones they try to help catch, so they're the ones they study, including how they often have built-in alibis in case they're caught later. They also often times have a fall guy built into their scheme, where they set someone up to make it look like they did it, even if they had nothing at all to do with it. Another thing they often do is set someone up so that if the actual criminal is caught they'll look like simply an accomplice, letting the fall guy take the brunt of the blame and the much larger sentence."