“You fall off a horse?” her father asked curiously as he watched her limp about the kitchen while making breakfast. She’d been too preoccupied to hide her injuries from him.
“I wish,” she sighed.
Gib energetically cut his fried egg into tiny bits, then stabbed at them with a corner of toast. Jodie didn’t feel the least like eating. Her toast was more prop than food. She sipped her coffee mechanically.
Gib captured her tender left hand. “This doesn’t look too good, either. Wanna tell me about it?”
“I can’t, Dad, not right now. I wish I could, but...”
“Tell me what you want, when you want, if you want. I never was a believer in making people talk. That could be one of my great failings, though. Sometimes people need to talk and don’t know how to start. So...just so you know I’m here.”
“I know,” she said tightly.
He went back to his egg. “I’ve made up my mind,” he said after a moment. “About the exhibition. I’m gonna do it! I only hope people don’t end up laughin’ at me.”
“They won’t!”
His smile was like a little boy’s. “Somethin’ like this has been a dream of mine for years, but I never thought it’d actually happen.”
“Can I come?” Jodie asked.
“You’ll be my most important guest.”
That bit of good news brightened the rest of the meal. Jodie even managed to eat her toast. But when her father left to take Mae and Delores back to town for a nursery visit, her sense of doom returned.
She hadn’t told Tate about the deadline. Should she have? Was it now too late?
She stared at the telephone and debated whether to call. She thought of yesterday—of what had almost happened at his house and later did in the patrol car. Something was definitely brewing between them. But could she count on whatever it was to be strong enough to see her through the trying times ahead? She had to. Otherwise she didn’t want to think about what would happen when Rio left and she’d be forced to admit the full truth.
She called the station and was greeted by an unfamiliar voice.
“May I speak to Tate, please?” she requested.
“I’m sorry, Sheriff Connelly isn’t in. Would you like to leave a message?”
“He isn’t in?” Jodie echoed, her voice rising.
“No. He’s away on county business.”
“For how long?” Jodie asked.
The other woman responded negatively to her pressure. “For as long as it takes. If you have a problem, ma’am, we can report it to a deputy in your area. Do you have a problem?”
Jodie hung up. Did she have a problem? She had a huge problem! She’d never thought she’d be unable to talk to Tate. Where was he? What was he doing? Should she demand to be put through to him?
Maybe she could talk to his mother, get her to—She groaned. No, not after yesterday.
She took several deep breaths, struggling for composure. Tate was sheriff of the whole county. He had a lot of responsibilities. It wasn’t unreasonable that he’d be away from the station from time to time. She’d call again in a little while and this time leave a message. And if necessary do it again and again. If nothing else, he might call in for his messages and be told she desperately needed to talk to him. And then...
And then the real trouble could begin.
TATE RETURNED to the station and went straight to his office, shutting the door behind him. He had some important calls to make. The first was to the Daniels brothers, who worked on the same ranch outside Clayborne County. The second was to “Little Hat” McGraw, currently working on a ranch in New Mexico. He wanted to see if they’d confirm Joe-Bob Tucker’s story. If they did—and he expected they would—it would blow the lid off Sheriff Preston’s case against Rio Walsh.
He saw the flurry of messages from Jodie and his first instinct was to call her, to tell her what he’d learned, but he wanted to be sure. Just in case.
It took an hour to get confirmation, and this from only two of the three men. One brother was out riding fence and wouldn’t be back until nightfall. His brother swore, though, to the truth of his own statement and vowed that his younger brother would say the same thing.
Tate was convinced.
He made one more call before dialing Jodie—to Sheriff Preston in Clayborne County. His news didn’t go over very well. The sheriff didn’t enjoy being shown up. But he did agree to talk with the brothers and get their statements, as well as contact “Little Hat” McGraw to hear what he had to say.
“Rufus sure as hell ain’t gonna like it,” Bill Preston said.
“Rufus Hammond and his boys are already skatin’ on thin ice with me. They’ve come real close to havin’ charges filed against ’em. If I had my way, they would have. Best thing they can do is head back home.”
“He’s still not gonna like it,” the other sheriff warned. “He hates that Rio guy. Thinks he was after Crystal’s inheritance. She wasn’t Rufus’s daughter by birth, but he loved her like she was.”
Jodie answered his call on the first ring. “Tate!” she cried. “I’d just about given up!”
Apprehension flooded through him. “Has something happened?” He’d been so intent on verifying Rio’s alibi he hadn’t taken into account anything else. “Have the Hammonds—”
“No, no. Nothing like that! It’s... Tate, I have to tell you something.”
When she hesitated, he stepped in. “I’ve got some good news for you. It’s why I called.”
“What is it?” she asked quickly.
“Looks like your friend is off the hook. Got all kinds of backup witnesses who’re willing to swear he was playin’ cards with them on the night that girl was beaten. So good job, Jodie. You’ve helped keep an innocent man out of jail.”
His words were met with silence.
“Jodie?” he said.
He could hear the overwhelming relief in her voice when at last she choked out, “Oh, Tate, I just I can’t tell you how happy I am. How relieved! I knew he couldn’t have done it. But then—” Her words stopped. “Oh, God! What I wanted to say, Tate, I kept something back! Rio was only willing to wait around for so long. We agreed—I made him agree!—to wait three days before he started running again. Today is the third day! Wednesday, at sunset. And it’s what now?” He knew she looked at her watch, just as he automatically glanced at his. “It’s already two o’clock,” she groaned.
“There was a time limit?” he asked flatly.
“I know I should have told you! But I was afraid you’d refuse to help...or try again to make me tell you where he was.”
“And what would’ve happened if things hadn’t worked out so conveniently?” he asked stiffly. “What if it had taken another day? Another week to find Joe-Bob? Were you ever gonna let me know?”
“I was trying to tell you earlier...before you interrupt—”
“Enough!” he broke in tightly as anger roiled through him. Again she’d taken sides against him. And all for the sake of the cowboy she’d once loved. Maybe still loved! He was fooling himself thinking that there could be anything between them. Jodie Parker had picked the man she wanted to be loyal to a long time ago, and it wasn’t him! “This is still serious business, Jodie. The Hammonds are on the loose. They’ve been lying low since they accosted you, didn’t spend the night in their motel room. No one’s seen ’em. So that means they could be anywhere. And they don’t know the truth like we do. As far as they’re concerned, Rio’s still the killer, and given half a chance—less than half a chance—they’ll kill him. So, what I want you to do is stay put. I’ll be there in forty-five minutes. Then we can go get him and place him in protective custody, if we have to, to keep him safe. At least until we can convince the Hammonds he’s innocent.”
“No!” she surprised him by saying. “That’s wasting too much time. Where he is, it’ll take hours to get to him. And if he sees me with you, he won’t come. He’ll think I’ve turned him in. I have to go on my own.”
“No, Jodie.”
“Goodbye, Tate.”
“Jodie! Okay, okay! But if not me, then take someone else—Morgan, because of his training. The Hammonds have already tried to grab you once. They’re crazed. There’s no telling what they’ll do.”
“I told you, I can’t take anyone. Rio won’t show himself if I do.”
“Let Morgan come partway, then. He can wait while you make the final push. Talk to Rio, let him know it’s safe to come in, then Morgan can be sure you get back to the ranch without trouble. By that time I’ll be there and I can talk to him, too.”
“Morgan’s with Christine and the new baby. I’m hanging up now, Tate.”
“Jodie, don’t!”
The line disconnected, and Tate fumbled through his index until he found the number for the ranch’s main office.
All the while he cursed himself for his bad handling of the situation. It was a textbook example of why a lawman shouldn’t let his emotions rule. He had to stay calm, cool and in complete control of his faculties. Not let anything rattle him.
A sentiment he had to repeat to himself yet again when he clumsily misdialed.
JODIE HURRIED down the path to the corrals, paying little heed to her sore knee and hip. As she passed the business office, she saw Rafe inside sitting at his desk. Then she heard the phone ring. Undoubtedly it was Tate, calling to warn him, trying to ensure she did as he directed.
Only, doing things the way he wanted would entail detailed explanations. As far as her family was concerned, she knew nothing about Rio’s whereabouts, much less being neck-deep in helping him.
Let Tate handle that particular bit of dirty work for her if he wanted, she thought irritably as she hurried on. It might help defuse the erupting volcano she would face later, but most important, it would give her time now to get away.
As luck would have it, she found a horse already saddled and waiting. She mounted him, thumped her heels against his sides and took off at a gallop. She didn’t plan to push the animal hard for long in the heat, just until they were out of sight. Rafe would have no idea where she was going—that she was riding out to the rough country of Big Spur division—and neither did Tate, so he couldn’t tell him.
By the time she’d gone a couple of miles, she was grateful for the full water bag that hung on the saddle. She hadn’t thought to herself how badly she would need it.
Her hip was throbbing again, her knee protesting, but still she pressed on. Tate had done what she’d promised Rio he would. He’d learned the truth. And she couldn’t let Rio leave thinking he was still being pursued. At one time she’d hated him enough to let that happen, but not now.
Her primary concern at the moment was that he’d jump the gun and leave early. That he wouldn’t wait until sunset.
The last portion of the journey was the most difficult. The brush was thicker, the ground craggier. Jodie had to pick her way around and through large rock out-croppings and small ravines. Then up and up, into the foothills.
Finally she spotted the trapper’s shack. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d miss it. Tucked into the canyon, it was almost fully surrounded by grasses and overgrown bushes, its weathered boards bleached to the same color as the soil. She encouraged the tired horse to move forward, keeping an eye out for Rio.
She didn’t see him, though, until she was upon him. He stepped out in front of her, causing the horse to start. Causing her to start.
He looked far rougher than when she’d last seen him. His clothes were filthy, his dark blond stubble had turned into a short beard, but it was his eyes that had changed the most. She knew for a fact that Rio was only twenty-nine, yet he had the look of a man twice that age.
He had suffered these past three days, and not merely because of the harsh conditions. It had been proved he’d told her the truth about Joe-Bob. It only stood to reason he’d also been truthful about his love for Crystal. And Crystal was now lost to him, as was their child.
“Since you’re here,” he said gruffly, “I suppose that means you’ve got good news?”
Jodie nodded.
“Well, that’s somethin’.”
Jodie slid out of the saddle, keeping the horse’s reins in her uninjured hand. The blisters had popped shortly after leaving ranch headquarters, but she’d done her best to ignore them.
“Tate found Joe-Bob,” she announced simply. “He confirmed your story. So did the others. Just like you said.”
Rio’s body jerked when she said Tate’s name. He hadn’t wanted her to confide in him. Still, he repeated, “Just like I said.”
“So you can come back with me. You don’t have to hide out anymore. Everything’s cleared with the authorities.”
“Who told you all this?” he asked suspiciously.
“Tate.”
“Tate, the sheriff.”
Jodie gave an impatient sigh. She’d put herself through hell for this guy. Taken a lot of risks. “Yes, Tate, the sheriff. It took his connections to find Joe-Bob. I couldn’t do it myself. I tried, but it didn’t work. I told you that.”
“How do we know we can trust him?” he demanded.
“There’s no we to it. I trust him!”
“Sure you do—and a lot more.”
His answer made Jodie so angry she kicked dirt on him. And she kept kicking it until he howled in protest and jumped away.
“That is about the most ungrateful thing I’ve ever heard anyone say!” she reproached him. “You come here, ask for my help. Me! The woman you duped! And now that Tate and I have saved your scrawny butt, you’re being nasty about it? You make me wish I’d turned you in the first second I saw you! You make me wish I’d—”
Rio raised a hand from a safe distance. “Hey! Hey! It’s okay. I apologize. I’m sorry. I—”
“You know what you can do with your apology!” she shot back.
He continued trying to placate her, “I truly am sorry, Jodie. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. Not against you. I know you’ve helped me. Lots! It’s—I’m just not used to a sheriff goin’ out of his way to do somethin’ good for someone like me. That’s all.”
“So,” she said, not particularly mollified, “are you willing to come back? Because there’s something else you should know before you go off on your own. The Hammonds are still looking for you. They don’t know what Tate’s found out, because no one can find them.”
He instinctively looked around. “The Hammonds?”
She nodded. “Tate says he’ll meet us at headquarters and the two of you can talk.”
Rio thought for a moment, then nodded. “All right. Seems I still don’t have much of a choice.”
Jodie gazed at him intently, unaware of the new maturity that had strengthened her features. “Rio?” she said. “When this is all over, I want you to get the heck out of my life and stay out of it.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TATE ARRIVED at the Parker Ranch approximately forty-five minutes after talking to Rafe.
He’d had to reveal a good deal of Jodie’s situation to get Rafe to understand the danger she was facing. She shouldn’t be going anywhere unaccompanied, on or off the ranch, as long as the Hammonds were on the loose. Especially not to meet Rio.
Rafe, though bowled over by all he’d been told, had reacted immediately, telling a cowboy in the ranch office with him, “Cecil, I’m gonna need your help,” then he’d quickly hung up.
Tate didn’t hold out much hope that they’d be successful in intercepting her. Between his fumbled dialing and the time it had taken him to fill Rafe in, she’d probably made a break for it. She’d been bound and determined to do it her way. And she’d known he would immediately contact Rafe. She wouldn’t have wasted any time.
Rafe was waiting for him on Mae’s front porch, and Tate knew instantly by the set of Rafe’s face that Jodie had eluded them.
“We musta just missed her,” Rafe said in disgust. “Cecil’s horse was all saddled and waitin’ for him out at the corral, and when we got ther
e, he was gone. We saddled up some other mounts, but by the time we started a search, we couldn’t find hide nor hair of her. You sure she didn’t give any hints about where she was goin’?”
“Not a one.”
Rafe shook his dark head. “It could be too many places for us to go ridin’ off half-cocked. Not enough men to cover it. I’ve given word for the boys to keep a close eye out, though.”
“And I’ve told the deputies watching the roads around here the same thing.”
Rafe shot him a hard look. “So what else can we do?”
Tate shrugged, tension eating away at his insides. They’d reached the worst point of any crisis—the sit-and-stew stage, where nothing was left to do but wait.
The housekeeper brought them something cold to drink, but neither man did more than look at it.
“Where’s Mae?” Tate asked.
“In town, thank the Lord.”
“Jodie thought what she was doing was right,” Tate said in her defense. “And as it turned out, it was.”
“But it could’ve been different.”
“Sure could.”
“Girl always was headstrong. Now she’s gone and done this. Mae’ll be fit to be tied!”
“She kept an innocent man from being charged with murder.”
A flash of anger tightened Rafe’s lips. “I just wish she was a little more careful in who she chooses to help.” Then, looking curiously at Tate, he asked, “Don’t you?”
Tate knew all about catching a suspect off guard—surprise him with an unexpected statement or question and watch the way he reacts. “Sure,” he said easily, not letting his emotions show. “She can get into a lot of trouble if she isn’t.”
“Like she did this time,” Rafe agreed.
“Yeah,” Tate said, and let the moment fade. If Rafe had suspicions about his feelings for Jodie..well, he could just have them. Tate wasn’t going to confirm or deny anything.
The next hour and a half passed with the speed of a glacier. Other Parkers joined them on the porch—LeRoy, Harriet, then Shannon. They came and went as their regular tasks allowed. Once or twice Rafe had to leave to take care of ranch business, and occasionally the children and a puppy ran over to see what they were doing. The more Tate was around them, the more he liked what he saw. They were the Parkers of the Parker Ranch, but they were also very nice people. Each had a hard time believing the depth of Jodie’s involvement in protecting Rio. Or that because of it, his name had been cleared. Tate told no one about Jodie’s run-in with the Hammonds. He felt he’d already said enough.
Texas Lawman Page 16
