Zeph Undercover

by Jenny Andersen

  “Talk to her or pat her if she gets nervous.” Allie smiled at him. “I’m going to inspect her leg. She might try to jerk away. Just keep hold of the halter. And relax.”

  Seldon spat in Zeph’s direction and snickered. “I remember you. Damn city boy that got m’brother sent up.”

  “I took down his buddy. Not him.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Seldon shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. He had it comin’. Always beatin’ up on people and actin’ like he was some big shot.”

  A little sibling rivalry? “Not such a big shot now.”

  Seldon tossed the cigarette away. The glowing end arced toward a pile of hay. It landed in a puddle and went out with a sodden hiss. “You ever been around a horse before?” Seldon sneered. “That one ain’t gonna bite you.”

  Promise? “This is on-the-job training, you might say. And the last one did.” Zeph grinned at him, trying for a we’re-buddies-you-can-tell-me-anything vibe.

  Seldon snorted and rolled another cigarette.

  The horse hadn’t moved even though Allie was poking at its leg. Zeph gulped when he saw the tear in the skin and turned back to Seldon. “Must get lonesome—”

  Allie’s voice overrode his. “Pay attention, Zeph. This might hurt. I have to give her a local for a few stitches.”

  As if she understood, the mare jerked her head up.

  “Say something nice to her,” Allie ordered. “Pretend she’s a girl.”

  She is a girl, he almost said, tightening his grip on the halter, but she settled, resting her chin on his arm.

  “Almost done here,” Allie said finally. “I need something from the truck. Just hold her for a few more minutes.” She stood and left the corral.

  No problem. The horse hadn’t budged the whole time. He brushed a hand down its neck. The hair felt a little stiff but the horse didn’t object to his touch. He did it again.

  Allie came back with a syringe. “I’m going to give her an antibiotic shot. Just a minute more.”

  The horse didn’t even flinch when Allie gave the injection. She nodded at Zeph. “That’s it. You can let go now. And thanks.”

  He wished his doctor had such a smooth touch. Allie had slipped the elephant-sized needle in like silk. He let go of the halter and stepped back. The horse still didn’t move, just stood uncomplainingly, and looked at him. That funny clutch somewhere in his chest came again. He’d seen the same look in his grandmother’s eyes just before she died.

  “Come on, Zeph,” Allie called.

  He touched the horse’s neck again. Patted. That hadn’t been so bad. It—she—was kind of nice. Just a horse, he reminded himself and turned away to join Allie. Instead of the dirty ramshackle corral, he had an image of a rat deserting a sinking ship.

  When they reached Allie’s truck, Wend leaned against the fender while Allie wrote out a receipt.

  She handed it to him and accepted a couple of crumpled bills in return. “You call me if that doesn’t clear up right away. Or if it starts swelling or getting hot,” she told him. “If it abscesses…”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure,” he grumbled.

  “I mean it, Wend. If we don’t stay on top of this, that mare’s not going to make it. I think you ought to bring her in to the clinic so I can keep an eye on her.”

  “And pay boarding fees?” Seldon spat at a clump of grass. “Not likely.”

  She shrugged. “Your choice. What’s wrong with that dog? He’s limping.”

  “Dunno.”

  “Okay if I take a look?”

  “Sure. Not gonna pay more though.”

  “Consider it a neighborly gesture.” Allie got a dog treat and a muzzle out of the truck and crossed the yard to where the mangy dog lay in the shade.

  Seldon turned his gaze on Zeph. “So you’re a detective. Who’re you after this time?”

  Damn. “On vacation, pal.”

  “Just a little private hunting, huh?” Seldon’s expression tensed as Allie bent over the dog. “That’s a prime target,” he said, and snickered.

  Zeph tamped down his first, furious response. “Yeah,” he said. “Prime. My prime.” After a pause to be sure the message had been received, he went on. “How the hell do you make a living out here? Money must be a little tight.”

  Seldon lifted one shoulder defensively. “Always is. What’s it to you?”

  “Nothing,” Zeph lied. He had a lot of interest in Seldon’s finances at this point. “Just making conversation.”

  “I do okay. Not that it’s anything to do with you.”

  “True enough. But I figure you for a smart guy.” Someday he’d go to hell for the lies he told during an investigation. But not today. He gave Seldon a friendly grin. “You’ve probably got a lot of ways of coming up with a little extra cash. I might learn something.”

  “I sell horses.” Seldon relaxed and leaned against the truck, taking a deep drag on his cigarette. “That’s about it.” His smirk said that was far from all of it.

  Zeph looked around. What horses?

  “And I got me that trailer, so sometimes folks pay me to haul horses around.”

  Zeph repressed a snort. Who would let this jerk near their horses? He wouldn’t, and he didn’t even like them. “Doesn’t seem like that would bring in much.”

  “You’re almighty nosy, Granger.”

  “Occupational hazard, I guess. Bet it gets lonesome out here. Especially now that your brother’s gone.”

  “It’s okay. I got friends.” Seldon preened a little. The thin shoulders straightened and he gestured expansively. “And there’s always a little action here and there.”

  “That sheriff give you much trouble? I’m thinking he’s smarter than he looks.”

  Seldon spat again. “He’s a damn junkyard dog if you get on his wrong side.”

  “You mean you never let him catch you.” Zeph grinned, a slightly evil, I-do-bad-things-too smile designed to put Seldon at his ease.

  “You want to be careful of him,” Seldon warned. “I don’t never do nothin’ in town where he can see.”

  “Thanks for the tip.”

  “I get me a little bit o’ stuff over the line in Card County, but I don’t do nothin’ here. Nuthin’. Lan and me, we learned the hard way about Rollins. I think he can read minds or sumthin’. Look at the way he got Lan sent up.”

  Half an hour ago, Zeph had been the one to send Lan up. It figured that this guy blamed everyone but his brother. “Well, yeah. But didn’t Lan kill that woman? And leave fingerprints?”

  Seldon stared blankly at him. “So? Who would ever figure that Rollins would find that stuff? Lan shouldn’t never have been caught on that.”

  This guy must have the I. Q. of a turnip. Taking him down before leaving Stone’s Crossing would be a public service. On the other hand, a criminal this dumb…hardly worth his time. Whoever ran the building scam was more his speed. Especially if it turned out to be Wentworth. His gaze cut to Allie, and his heart stumbled. Looking at her made his stomach jitter. Just like taking an express elevator. And if he proved her father was guilty…that would be it. She’d never speak to him again.

  “I guess Allie’s ready to go,” he said. “I’ll see you around, Seldon. Stay careful.”

  Seldon gave him a big we’re-buddies-now grin. “Yeah. Maybe I kin sell you a horse sometime.”

  “I don’t think so.” Zeph’s gaze cut back to that poor damned mare...

  When Allie had eased the truck back onto the road, Zeph turned to her. “Is that horse going to die?”

  She shrugged.

  “How can you stand to leave it there?”

  “The hardest lesson, Zeph, is that you can’t save them all. The only thing I could do would be buy her. I don’t have the spare cash, Seldon would hold out for ten times what she’s worth, and I can’t step in every time I think someone’s mistreating an animal. It’s the down side, the way down side, of being a vet. Or of caring about animals.”

  Of course she was right. He recognized that. Still�
��he couldn’t forget the look in that poor horse’s eyes.

  “So,” Allie said after a few miles had passed. “Do you think he’s involved?”

  “Nope.”

  “How can you be so sure after only a few minutes of conversation? You’ve talked to Dad a lot longer than that and you won’t…” She bit her lip and stared at the road.

  “I can’t be positive, but it’s unlikely. He’s all over the place, no focus. He didn’t exhibit any of the usual tells, body language, smiles, gaze, gestures. I don’t think he’s hiding anything. Also, he’s so damned dumb I can’t believe he’s masterminding a state-wide con.”

  “There is that. So where does that leave us? What are you going to do next?”

  Something you’re not going to like.

  ****

  Zeph didn’t say much on the way back to town, which suited Allie fine. A visit to Seldon’s always depressed her. And angered her beyond endurance. If she were a violent woman, she’d smack Wend senseless and just take all his horses. And dogs. She wondered if those two could ever be rehabbed. Not that she’d ever get the chance. She spun the steering wheel and sent the truck into its parking place behind the clinic with a skid and a jerk of brakes. “Damn that man,” she muttered. “He ought to be shot.”

  “I’m with you on that.”

  “The only good thing about the afternoon was watching you with Wend. I think you’ve made a new friend,” she teased, ignoring Zeph’s shudder.

  “Just doin’ my job, ma’am.” Zeph jumped out of the truck.

  Allie followed more slowly and saw Luke and Hannah in the stable doorway. “Hey, guys.”

  “You don’t look happy,” Hannah said. “What happened?”

  “Seldon’s,” Allie said tersely. “Those damned barbed wire fences of his. And he never calls me until—oh, never mind. I’m not decent company after that place. Come on in.” She led the way to the back door of the clinic.

  “I need to get some more glucosamine for Zoey,” Hannah said. “She’s a new dog since you suggested it.”

  “Excellent. I thought it would do the trick.”

  “Any chance you can nail Seldon for something?” Luke asked Zeph. “Anything? The guy’s a blight on the town.”

  “I wish.” Zeph thumped one fist into the other hand. “He needs to be taken out of circulation. Kept away from animals.” He paced the room, radiating anger. “Prosecuted for animal cruelty. Removed from the gene pool.”

  Hannah laughed. “Removed from the gene pool? Are you going a tiny tad overboard, Zeph?”

  Remembering Zeph with that poor, sick mare gave Allie a warm glow. “You should have seen him,” she said. “I had him holding the mare while I worked on her, and he did a good job.”

  “Zeph and a horse?” Luke guffawed. “Allie, if you’d seen him when he first arrived at the ranch… I don’t think he’d ever been within a hundred feet of a horse. Or a dog. He’d come a long way in the few days before you met him.”

  Allie patted Zeph’s shoulder. “Yeah, well, he came a lot farther today. I’ll swear they bonded.” In the silence that followed, she looked from Luke to Hannah to Zeph. “What? What did I say?”

  “Zeph and a horse?” Hannah said.

  “Zeph bonded with a horse?” Luke said at the same time.

  “I did not bond with a horse.”

  Allie winked at Hannah and swallowed a smile. Zeph had bonded.

  “Um. So if you can’t pin anything on Seldon, who are you looking at now?” Luke asked, apparently taking pity on his friend.

  Zeph stopped pacing and looked at Luke. “Geez. Geez, what does it take to do an undercover investigation in this place?”

  “A miracle?” Allie said sweetly. “What he’s doing, Luke, is trying to prove my father is the evil criminal mastermind he’s hunting.”

  Luke’s jaw dropped. “Zeph? Tell me she’s kidding.”

  “Allie, what part of confidential didn’t you understand?” Temper flared in Zeph’s eyes.

  She didn’t care. “I didn’t take out an ad in the paper. I didn’t tell Betty.”

  “Redundant,” Hannah interrupted.

  Allie ignored her. “And I didn’t tell my father. That’s all you get.”

  Zeph groaned. “My God. This place.”

  “Look. Zeph.” Luke grabbed Zeph’s arm. “You can’t be serious. Lincoln Wentworth is—”

  “Yeah, honest as the day is long, pillar of the community, yada yada yada. You can’t seriously be telling me you believe that means anything.”

  “No. Of course not. But he—” Luke stopped with his mouth open. “He’s not your man. And no, I can’t prove it. But if you really think he’s guilty of anything, I’m damned disappointed in you.”

  “Me, too. Let’s go home, Luke.” Hannah shot Zeph a look, one that Allie figured should have struck him dead, and stalked out the door.

  “You know I have to—” Zeph began.

  Luke turned on his heel and left right behind her, leaving a pool of strained silence in the room.

  They agreed with her. Having Luke and Hannah on her side relieved her anxiety. A little bit. “I think you just pissed off your best friends in Stone’s Crossing,” she said.

  ****

  Zeph stood on the veranda with an unaccustomed churning in his gut as his friends—his ex-friends?—drove away. People liked him. He had lots of friends. Lots. Just not as special as Luke and Hannah. He turned back into the clinic. “Allie, I—”

  “Brought it on yourself.” She stamped into the treatment room and began sorting bandages. After a few minutes of banging boxes around, she leaned back against the counter. “Are you a good detective?”

  “Yes. In fact, honey, I am the best. I won’t quit on this until I know who is guilty. And just as important, who is innocent.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I never thought of detective work that way.”

  “In a lot of ways it’s the most important thing I do. If your father’s innocent, I’ll prove it, Allie. Trust me to find the truth. Trust me.”

  Conflicting emotions warred on her expressive face while she held his gaze. Finally she held out a hand.

  He took it and pulled her against him. “You’re important to me, Allie.” Too important for his comfort level. He’d have to deal with that later.

  After a moment of surprised stiffness, she melted against him, and all that softness made him dizzy. No matter how this case turned out, he’d never be sorry to have another chance with Allie.

  The phone jolted him out of the testosterone haze the feel of her always produced.

  After a few minutes of conversation, Allie hooked the phone between her ear and shoulder to rummage in a drawer. “Yeah, I’ve got some samples of that,” she said. “I’ll bring them by, Mabel…no, no problem.” She hung up the phone and turned to him. “Want to go for a drive?”

  “Not only stable calls. Now you’re a delivery service?”

  “The library cat needs some flea control and librarians have answers. I deliver, you ask questions?”

  He needed to get a grip. While he wallowed in lust, Allie had sucked up her hurt and fear and thought about the case. “Right.” After a pause, he added, “Library cat? They let a cat in the library?”

  “People like it.” She drove in silence for a few minutes before she said, “So. About Mabel.”

  “If she’s the usual small town librarian, she’s been on the job since God was a pup and she knows everything about everyone.”

  Allie grinned.

  “What?”

  “For one thing, Stone’s Crossing is rubbing off on you. ‘Since God was a pup’?”

  Shit, she was right. “I’ve been listening to Monty. What else?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He followed Allie into the library, trying to convince himself that the impish gleam in her eye didn’t bode ill.

  Mabel hadn’t been on the job forever. If she was a day over thirty, Zeph would eat the Encyclopedia Britannica. And if she kne
w everything about anything, it would be men.

  “Hi, Allie. And this must be Zeph.” Mabel undulated out from behind the counter and Zeph caught his breath.

  He’d been right about the librarian stereotype: dull brown suit, hair in a messy bun with a pencil stuck in it, dark-rimmed glasses. He’d been wrong about the centerfold body filling the suit, the fuck-me stilettos, and the kiss-me mouth. A lock of hair had come loose and his gaze followed it down across her shoulder to—he swallowed hard—the cleavage. That dull brown suit clearly didn’t have anything under it except Mabel.

  Allie jabbed him in the ribs. “Shut your mouth. You look like a half-wit.”

  “That’s Mabel?”

  “You sound like you’re being strangled. Yes, that’s Mabel.”

  Zeph took a deep breath and prepared to force himself to ignore the lushness. It didn’t take much effort, which surprised the hell out of him. Back in L.A... He glanced at Allie and his heart did that little jump. Huh.

  He looked back at Mabel. Once he got past her body, he noticed the intelligence and humor gleaming in her eyes. “Hello, Mabel.”

  She shook his hand briskly. “Glad to meet you. Allie’s spoken of you. I’ve been wondering how you’d deal with a place like Stone’s Crossing.” A sincere smile went with her no-nonsense voice and grip.

  “It’s different, all right,” he said. “But it’s where Allie is. And she never said a word about you. You the boyfriend test?”

  Mabel cocked her head and inspected him. She nodded. “He’s a keeper, Al. Go for it.”

  Allie’s smile faded and she choked. “Thanks, Mabel,” she said when she’d caught her breath.

  Her serious face wiped all the amusement out of Zeph. “What? You can’t be with someone unless she approves? We need to talk.”

  “Not in the library,” Mabel ordered. “Business first. Fluffy’s in my office.”

  “Fluffy’s a mountain lion, right?” Zeph murmured to Allie. “After seeing Mabel, I figure it’s not some long-haired, white puffball.”

  “You’ll see.” Allie’s grin did nothing to allay his suspicions.