Ginny nodded. At least it was better than Got that? “I’ll have some lunch while I’m here. What about you? When will you eat?”
“I’ll grab something later.” He studied her, his gaze so intent her heart skipped a beat. “Take care of yourself, Ginny. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Before she could answer, he slammed the door and roared off.
She shook her head at the retreating Jeep, then headed for the swing doors of the tavern.
The clamor of voices striving to be heard above the jangling music of dueling guitars threatened to deafen her as she made her way to the long bar at the end of the room. Apparently business at the Red Steer was still as brisk as ever at lunchtime.
Curious stares followed her as she threaded her way through the tables and now and then a familiar face greeted her, warily, as if the owner wasn’t sure how she’d respond.
She recognized Neil Baumann, who lifted a hand to wave at her. The man with him gave her a hard stare as she waved back and she guessed they’d be talking about her as soon as she was out of earshot. No doubt discussing her relationship with the sheriff of McKewen County, she thought wryly. She just hoped Cully knew what he was doing, inviting her to stay at the ranch. The town gossips would have a field day with that.
Reaching the bar, she shouldered her way between two burly workmen, who immediately gave her plenty of space. A nervous glance in both directions reassured her. Luke was nowhere to be seen.
The blond woman behind the bar sent her a brief glance, then demanded, “So what’ll it be?”
Ginny managed a weak smile. Raising her wispy voice to be heard above the racket behind her, she said, “We used to share a beer together in the old days, but that was before I worried about my waist-line. I think I’ll take a diet soda instead.”
The woman’s chin shot up, blue eyes stared at her for a second or two, then a huge grin split her mouth wide open. “Ginny Matthews! I heard you were back in town!”
The men on either side of Ginny stared at her as if she’d sprouted horns.
Ignoring them, Ginny said hoarsely, “What time is your break?”
Sally Irwin sent a longing glance at the clock. “Not for another hour. Can you stay that long?”
She’d been pretty much ordered to, Ginny thought wryly. “Sure, I’ll take a chicken sandwich and a salad. That will keep me busy for a while.”
“Go find a table.” Sally waved a hand at the crowded room. “I’ll bring it over to you.” She grinned again. “It’s sure good to see you, Ginny. We’ve got a heck of a lot of catching up to do.”
Ginny nodded in response and picked up her soda. It was hard to believe she’d been so much a part of this place all those years ago. She’d spent practically every Saturday night here and countless lunch hours, too.
Everything in the place was as familiar to her as her own apartment, from the wagon wheel chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling to the wooden menu holders on the burn-scarred tables.
That’s what was different, she realized, as she seated herself at a midget-size table for one near the fireplace. No stink or haze of cigarette smoke. She wondered what it had taken to persuade the owners to go non-smoking.
Sally brought Ginny her lunch, promising to be back as soon as she could get off. “Luke’s not here,” she said, when Ginny casually asked about him. “He doesn’t come in here for lunch. At least I’ve never seen him. He works here on my night off, and comes in occasionally for a beer.” She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t know you two knew each other.”
“Oh, we don’t,” Ginny assured her hastily. “I met him the other night when I was in here with Cully.”
“Yeah, I heard about that.” Sally gave her a lusty wink. “I gotta run, but get ready to spill the beans when I get back.” She hurried off, leaving Ginny to wonder exactly what it was Sally had heard.
Having long finished her lunch, Ginny was glancing through a copy of the local newspaper she’d found lying at a nearby table when Sally finally joined her.
She’d brought two glasses of Chablis with her, and set one down in front of Ginny. “We can’t celebrate a reunion without a drink,” she said, drawing a chair up to the minuscule table. “Here’s to old times.”
Ginny touched glasses with her and took a sip of her wine. The room had just about emptied out and the noise level was appreciatively lower.
Before she could speak, Sally leaned toward her, asking eagerly, “So tell me. Everything. I heard you were caught in the Sagebrush fire last night. Didn’t you have to spend the night in the hospital?”
Ginny nodded. “I’m all right now, though. Except for a sore throat.”
“Yeah, sounds like it really made a mess of your voice. Sounds good, though.” She leaned forward and nudged Ginny’s arm. “It’s all husky and mysterious. Sounds sexy. You should keep it like that. By the way, someone said you were married, and someone else said you’re a widow.” Her face creased in concern. “I hope they were wrong.”
Ginny set her glass down carefully on the table. “Actually I am a widow. My husband died three months ago.”
Sally uttered a cry of dismay. “Aw, geez, I’m sorry. What a bummer. Was he sick for long?”
“It was an accident,” Ginny said hurriedly. “So tell me about you. You look great, by the way.”
Sally’s round face broke into a grin. “Yeah, fat and sassy, that’s me. Never could keep the weight off.” Her gaze flicked over Ginny. “Not like you. Skinny as a telephone pole. Don’t know how you do it.” She reached for her glass. “So, what’s with you and Cully?”
Ginny avoided the other woman’s gaze. Only Sally had known the true depths of her feelings for Cully and how hard it had been to leave town without him. “We had some business to discuss,” she said, trying to sound indifferent. “The Corbetts left me the house, you know.”
“Yeah, I heard.” Sally’s grin vanished. “Terrible what happened to them. I still can’t believe it. No one can. We’ve never had a killing in Gold Peak before. Shook us all up real bad. Then the fire at the motel last night…” She peered at Ginny. “You are okay, right?”
Ginny smiled. “I think so. Just shaken up, that’s all.” She glanced at Sally’s ringless left hand. “You’re not married?”
“Divorced.” Sally shook her frizzy bangs out of her eyes. “Who isn’t these days?” She glanced around the room, then leaned forward and in a loud whisper announced, “I’ve got a boyfriend, though.”
“Really?” Ginny coughed and took a sip of wine to soothe her throat. “So what’s he like? What’s his name? What does he do?”
Sally’s wide grin reappeared. “His name is Dave. David Petersen, and he’s a sales rep. He goes around recruiting people to sell stuff in their homes.”
“What sort of stuff?”
“Fitness stuff. You know, bicycles, rowing machines, weight machines, all kinds of stuff. There’s this one machine he has that’s supposed to take inches off your thighs….” She launched into a complicated explanation of the machine, while Ginny did her best to stay interested.
“He’s a great guy,” Sally said, when she’d finished describing the new marvel. “We’ve only just met, but he’s so attentive. All the time asking where I’ll be and what I’m doing. Wants to know every little detail. Says he worries about me.” She let out her hearty laugh. “Nobody ever worried about me before.”
“He sounds very nice.”
She laughed. “He’s a sweetheart. The other night I went into Rapid City to see a movie with my neighbor and Dave wanted to know where we’d gone, who we saw, how long it took us to get there. I haven’t had a man that interested in what I’m doing since Jim waited for me at the front door when I was coming home from a date. I like it. Makes me feel protected, you know?”
“That’s nice,” Ginny murmured. Although she didn’t say so, Sally’s words had disturbed her. Listening to her friend talk about her boyfriend had reminded her of Brandon. Like Sally, at first she had taken
his interest in her activities as concern for her welfare, until she’d married him and found out just how cruel and manipulative that interest could be. She could only hope that this David person wasn’t the jealous, possessive kind. If so, Sally was in for a lot of heartache.
“I thought I’d lost him last night,” Sally said, grabbing Ginny’s attention again. “He was staying at the Sagebrush, like you. Luckily it was the first floor. Got out with everything, thank God. He spent the rest of the night with us. I told him he could stay with me and the kids tonight, too, but he’s got a schedule he has to keep to, so he took off early this morning.”
Ginny stared at her in delight. “You’ve got kids? How old?”
“Gary’s seven, and Lisa’s nine, going on thirty.” Sally wrinkled her nose. “I don’t blame Dave for not wanting to spend the night with us. The kids can be a bit of a handful. I get the feeling he’s not used to being around kids.”
“You must not see much of him,” Ginny said carefully, “if he’s traveling around all the time. Where does he live?”
“I’m not sure. Somewhere in Nevada, I think. He doesn’t talk much about himself. Say,” she grabbed Ginny’s hand, “why don’t you and Cully join Dave and me for dinner next week? I’m meeting him in Rapid City. We’re going to that new restaurant. Harrington’s or something. Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t know it, but I hear it’s real grand, lots of good food and soft music.” She flung her hand at the speaker above her head. “Nothing like this lousy stuff.”
Ginny looked at her in surprise. “I thought you loved country music.”
“That’s when I was young and stupid. You might not think it to look at me, but my tastes are a lot more sophisticated now.” She sat back and beamed at Ginny. “I watch ballet and travel movies on TV, and I’m learning yoga.”
Wondering who she was trying to impress, Ginny smiled. “Well, thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be here next week. I’m flying back to the east coast in a couple of days.”
Sally raised an eyebrow at her. “What are you doing there?”
“I live there.”
“I thought Mabel said you lived in Phoenix.”
“I did.” Ginny cleared her throat. “I moved to the east coast…when my husband died.” It wasn’t the truth, of course but easier than having to explain exactly why she’d moved across country.
“That’s too bad.” Sally’s blue eyes filled with sympathy. “You must be lonely.” She paused, then added slyly, “You know Cully’s never married.”
Ginny dropped her gaze and reached for her wineglass. “So I heard.”
“Don’t suppose there’s any chance of you two hitching up together again?”
Aware that her laugh sounded forced, Ginny cleared her throat again. “Can you see Cully living in a city as big as Philadelphia?”
“No,” Sally said firmly, “I can’t. Cully loves his job and his horses and his ranch too much to leave. But what’s to stop you from living here?”
Ginny shook her head. “I’m not the same Ginny who left Gold Peak twelve years ago. I’ve changed. Too much to live in a town like this again.”
“Well, you ain’t changed that much. You always did want to get out of here.” Sally drained her glass. “Guess some people just can’t stomach small-town living. Shame. I always thought that you and Cully belonged together.”
The ache in Ginny’s heart was so acute she couldn’t look at her old friend. “Well, that just goes to show,” she murmured, “you can’t judge people by appearances.”
She changed the subject then, steering the conversation back to Sally’s children. But the ache stayed with her and she had the feeling that it would linger for a long, long time.
CULLY SAT BEHIND his desk, listening to the ceiling fan whirring gently above his head. One hand held the phone to his ear, while the fingers of his other hand drummed impatiently on the desk. Nothing irritated him quite as much as being put on hold, especially when he was conducting an investigation.
Finally the line clicked in his ear. “Sheriff Black,” he said, when a harsh male voice announced he was Fred Owens. “Did Luke Sorensen come into work today?”
Fred verified that Luke worked at the quarry.
“Is he still there?”
Cully frowned at the answer. Luke Sorensen had been in the quarry since seven that morning. “You’re sure?”
“Quite sure,” Fred assured him. “I saw him arrive and I saw him again when I took some supplies out there a little while ago.”
“Do you know what he’s driving?”
“He comes in on a mountain bike.” The voice paused. “Did he do something wrong? The bike’s his. He’s had it a long time.”
“Yeah, I know. I just thought he might have been driving something else today.”
“Nope. The bike’s right here. I can see it from this window.”
“Well, thanks.” Cully was about to put the phone down when Fred asked, “You want me to get him?”
“No, forget it. It’s nothing. Don’t even tell him I called.” He dropped the receiver in its cradle, then sat staring at it for minute. No, dammit. Luke had been at the house when he had no business to be.
Cully pushed his chair back and grabbed his hat. There was only one way to find out why. He had to go up to the quarry and talk to him.
Twenty minutes later he pulled into the stony trail that led to the quarry. Battered pickups and dusty sports vehicles littered the space in front of the scruffy trailer where Cully assumed he’d find Fred Owens.
The foreman turned out to be a bear of a man with a full beard and a belly that hung over his belt. He looked up when Cully stuck his head in the doorway of the makeshift office. The place stunk of cigarette smoke, stale beer and sweaty bodies. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could stomach that all day.
“Sheriff Black,” he said, fixing the big guy with a stare. “I’d like a word with Luke Sorensen.”
Fred shoved himself up from his chair, tilting it back against the wall. “What’s he done? I don’t allow no lawbreakers on my jobs. If he’s broken the law he’s out.”
“As far as I know he hasn’t done anything.” Cully backed away as Fred’s huge body filled the doorway. “I just want to ask him some questions, that’s all.”
Fred looked as if he would argue but then apparently changed his mind. Waving his hand at the area behind him he said, “You’ll find him back there. Ask one of the guys to give him a shout.”
Cully nodded his thanks, then made his way across the sun-baked ground to where the massive crater scarred the hillside. In earlier days the land had been mined for gold but now the quarry provided much of the material used on construction sites in the area. Cully had always had mixed feelings about the work done there. The materials were badly needed for a growing town but he hated what it was doing to the countryside.
Catching sight of two men deep in conversation, he asked for Luke. A few minutes later the young man climbed up to where Cully waited. He seemed uneasy and kept sending glances over to his workmates as he approached.
Cully reached into his pocket and withdrew the envelope. “Recognize this?”
Luke’s hand moved to his left ear. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “What is it?”
Cully reached out and touched the earring in Luke’s right ear. “I’d say it was the twin to this one.”
Luke’s face reddened and his gaze shifted to the ground. “Yeah, well, maybe it’s mine.”
“Yeah? Well, guess where I found it.”
Luke scraped the ground with the toe of his boot. “I dunno. I lost it somewhere.”
“You lost it in the Corbetts’ house.” Cully dangled the envelope in front of him. “I’d say I’ve got a pretty good case of breaking and entering, probably burglary, and possibly murder.”
Luke’s chin shot up, his eyes blazing with fear. “I didn’t kill no one. I swear I didn’t. And I didn’t take nothing that wasn’t promised me. And that’s the truth.”
Cully tucke
d the envelope back in his pocket. “So what did you take?”
Luke stared down at the ground again. “I took Jim’s old guitar. Weren’t worth nothing anyway. He promised me I could have it soon as I learned to play properly. Then he went and got himself killed, and I figured the guitar was mine.”
“So you decided to break in and steal it.”
“I didn’t break in. The door was unlocked. I went in, got the guitar from the basement and left. I didn’t take nothing else. I carried it up on my shoulder. It must have caught against my earring somehow and broke it.”
“And you didn’t see anyone else while you were there?”
Luke looked surprised by the question. “No, no one was there. The house was empty.”
“What about outside? See a car? A van?”
“I told you, there was no one there. Just me.”
“When was this?”
“I dunno.” He lifted his face to the sky and squeezed his eyes shut. “Sunday morning. Three days ago. Yeah, that was it.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yeah, it was Sunday morning.”
Cully frowned. The day before Ginny arrived in town. If she’d heard a voice in the basement, it wasn’t Luke’s. Neither did it seem that Luke could have been driving the minivan that morning. “All right.” Cully gave him a stern look. “You and I are going to have a long chat about this guitar business. Later.”
He spun around to leave and Luke called out after him, “I didn’t steal it. It was promised me.”
Ignoring him, Cully kept going. The sense of urgency that had plagued him ever since that morning was now a clanging warning in his head. He needed to get back to Ginny. And from now on, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
Chapter Eleven
Cully arrived at the Red Steer just as Sally was getting ready to leave. Ginny saw him push through the doors and immediately forgot everything else. Like a thirsty traveler finding water, she couldn’t seem to stop gulping in the sight of him.
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