“This looks like a good place for our picnic.” Jake pointed to a large flat rock with patches of moss growing over the top. “What do you think?”
“I’m not going to be picky. I’m too hungry,” she said, and immediately dismounted, looping the reins of her horse to a slender sapling.
Jake followed her lead and then reaching into his saddlebags, he took out tin foil wrapped packages. Kate stood watching in anticipation. She hadn’t realized she had worked up such an appetite.
When Jake had everything set out on the rock, including a Thermos, he motioned to her.
“Pull up a rock and sit down.” He grinned.
“What’s in the Thermos?” she asked as she seated herself on a small log.
“Chocolate milk for milady.” He bowed. “Hank said you loved chocolate milk.”
He walked over to the saddlebags and found a can of beer for himself as she began to unwrap the packages of food. Soon sandwiches of ham and cheese, chips, olives, pickles, and slices of apples were displayed on the rock.
Kate laughed when she opened the last package. “I should have known,” she said as she held it up for Jake’s inspection.
Two pieces of apple pie in separate plastic containers with plastic forks were inside the tinfoil.
“Give me one of those,” he said. “I’m going to eat that first.”
“You can’t do that. It’s for dessert.”
“Who says I can’t?” he asked, reaching for it.
She stepped away from him and when he followed her, she turned and ran.
“Why, you . . .” he exploded, and she could hear him crashing through the aspens right on her heels.
She stopped suddenly, causing Jake to bump into her. She would have been knocked to the ground, but he threw his arms around her, holding her tightly against him to keep her from falling.
“What is it?” he asked, peering over the top of her head through the trees.
A man and woman stood by the side of the waterfall, the roar of the water covering the sound of Kate and Jake running through the woods.
“What’s the problem?” Jake whispered in her ear.
His warm breath on her neck, the whisper in her ear, and his arms around her did strange things to her body and Kate knew she should pull away, but she hesitated for a minute before she did so, which gave him enough time to press his lips to her neck.
At that moment, the man raised his head and met Kate’s stare.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said.
Pushing herself out of Jake’s arms, Kate turned and headed back to their picnic on the rock. When she reached it, she sat down the containers of pie and picked up a sandwich. Dropping down on the small log she had recently vacated, she bit off a bite of bread. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen.
“I can have my pie now?” Jake teased as he walked up and saw the two containers sitting on the rock.
She didn’t answer him, but stared off into the woods with a strange look on her face.
“What is it, Kate?” he asked. “Did you know those people?”
“I knew the man. Dave Wilson, the realtor from Lava Cove who handled the sale of the lodge for me.”
“So . . .?”
“That was not his wife he had his arms wrapped around.”
“How could you tell? Her back was to us.”
“His wife, Stephanie, happens to have red hair, not black. I doubt she has changed the color of it recently.”
“Actually the woman was Asian,” Jake said slowly.
“How do you know?” she asked in surprise.
“After you walked away, she turned around as though to see what Dave was looking at and I had a good look at her.”
“I must talk to Stephanie,” she said abruptly, laying down her unfinished sandwich.
“Not right this minute, I hope,” Jake objected. “I would like to finish my lunch. After all, I did as you wanted me to and saved my pie for dessert.”
Kate smiled slightly at his words. She couldn’t help but remember how betrayed and angry she had felt when she had found out about Walt and the black jack dealer from Vegas.
“What are you going to say to her anyway?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts. “She probably doesn’t even know he is screwing around on her.”
“That’s why I must tell her before she finds out some other way.”
“What kind of friend will you be if you do tell her? She’ll hate you for it.”
Kate stared up at him. “Hate me? Why would she hate me? I would be doing her a favor.”
“Stop and think about it, Kate. How would you feel if someone told you your husband was screwing around on you?”
“I hate the way you keep saying that word,” she burst out, not answering his question.
“What word? Screwing?”
“Yes.”
“That’s probably what is going on,” he said in an emphatic tone of voice.
“Maybe so, but you don’t have to keep saying it,” she said crossly. “And for your information, I wish someone had warned me about my husband. Then it wouldn’t have been such a shock when I finally did find out. It was absolutely devastating. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”
“I doubt that Dave has any plans for killing the woman.”
Kate knew by the look of sympathy on Jake’s face that he knew about Walt. Who had told him? But on second thought, probably everyone in Mountain Springs knew. They were just being kind to her by not mentioning it.
“You know about Walt?”
He nodded. She didn’t ask him how he knew.
“When I found out about him and that blackjack dealer from Las Vegas, I was totally devastated. And you have no idea what it was like for my daughter. If someone had told me, I could have done something to protect her. I really don’t know Stephanie all that well, but I would think she would want to know. She and Dave do have a couple of children. I would think she would want to know because of them. It would allow her to protect them from the cruel gossip.”
She eyed the food on the rock. She had lost her appetite even for Hank’s delicious apple pie and she began to wrap up the remaining food.
“I could have sent my daughter to my mother’s in Colorado before the news broke. I could have protected her from the embarrassment of all the gossip. At least I did do that, after the fact. She is spending the summer with her grandmother, but unfortunately she talks constantly about seeing her dad when she returns.”
She breathed a deep sigh.
“I never want to see him again. It hasn’t seemed to make a big difference to people that I went to court and took my maiden name back, but at least I feel differently. I probably should have left the state and started all over again instead of coming to Mountain Springs, but Utah has been my home for all my life. What few friends I do have left are in Lava Cove.”
“How did you meet Walt?”
“I went to college in Lava Cove and I met him through some friends. He was out of college and worked for a building construction company. He asked me to marry him, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. When I graduated and went home to Colorado where my parents were living at the time, he flew out in the company jet to see me.”
She stopped to place the leftover lunch back into Jake’s saddlebags.
“And . . .” Jake prompted.
“When my father met him and realized he was building million-dollar homes, he thought he would provide a good living for me and he insisted I marry him. Even though my father is now dead, I have never forgiven him for pushing me into that marriage.”
“You could have said ‘no’,” Jake said.
The look she gave him was more eloquent than words. “You didn’t know my father.”
“Did you
r mother want you to marry Walt?”
“She always went along with whatever my father said. I would like to go back now,” she said abruptly.
By this time, Jake had finished his pie and he nodded in agreement.
“Kate,” he said, touching her arm as she walked past him.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t sure what he was sorry about and she didn’t want to ask. Taking the reins of her horse from where they were looped around the small tree she quickly mounted.
For her, the pleasure had gone out of the day and she only wanted to get back to the lodge.
Jake was surprised when he came into the kitchen the next morning to find Kate was not there. He had become use to the ritual of sharing breakfast with her while they listened to the latest gossip from Hank.
“Where’s Kate?” he asked.
“Not feeling well,” Hank said.
Jake’s heart sank. After their conversation yesterday about Walt, he wondered if she had sunk into a depression like his sister used to do, spending several days at a time in bed.
“Looks terrible,” Hank continued. “Both her nose and eyes are pourin’. Later I’m goin’ to run down to the General Store and see if I can find somethin’ for her to take.”
“I’ll go. I know you need to be getting breakfast for the other campers. How’s their fishing going?”
“Fishin’s great. They’re happy campers,” Hank said, turning back to his cooking. “Eat your breakfast and then you can take a tray up to Kate. If she’s goin’ to be takin’ strong medicine, she needs somethin’ on her stomach.”
After Jake finished his breakfast, he picked up the tray Hank had prepared and headed for the stairway that led to Kate’s apartment.
Tapping on the door, he called her name.
“Kate. I have your breakfast.”
Not waiting for an answer, he opened the door and stepped inside.
“In here,” she called in a muffled voice.
He crossed the living room and entered her bedroom. Several soiled tissues were stacked on the lamp table that sat beside her bed.
“I can’t believe you’re sick,” he said, as she struggled into a sitting position. “You seemed fine yesterday.”
“I’ve been fighting a sore throat for a few days,” she said, looking at him out of red-rimmed eyes. “I thought I could beat it by taking extra Vitamin C, but this morning I woke up and my eyes and nose were streaming.”
“Eat your breakfast while I run down to the General Store and get you something to dry it up.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she protested, taking a spoonful of the hot cereal that was on the tray.
“No need of you suffering if I can find something that will relieve it.”
“I haven’t had a cold for years. I don’t know where this came from.”
“Maybe you’ve been working too hard and your body is run down.”
She smiled weakly and took a bite of toast, which she washed down with a drink of orange juice.
“I had better get down to the General Store. Do you need anything else?”
“Not that I can think of, but Hank might need something.”
Jake turned at the door. “Now don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll clean the cabins this morning. You stay in bed and get over that cold.”
She stared at him in surprise. “That’s not necessary. I’ll get up in a while and take care of them.”
“Do as you’re told.” His smile took the sting out of the words.
Jake stopped by the kitchen to see if Hank needed anything and then headed down to the General Store. Howard recommended something that he said his wife swore by and Jake was soon back at the lodge.
He gave the medicine to Hank, and grabbing up Kate’s cleaning box, he headed for the cabins. He worked quickly and was soon finished. Taking the soiled towels to the laundry room in the lodge, he threw them into the machine and searched for detergent to add.
Kate took the pills Hank brought up to her and fell asleep shortly afterward. When she woke up, she felt much better and she got up, showered, and dressed.
“Where’s Jake?” she asked Hank, walking into the kitchen.
“Cleaned the cabins, did the laundry, and then went up to his cabin. A good man, Kate.”
“Seems like it,” she said noncommittally. “Since all my work is done, I think I’ll go back to bed for a nap. The pills really seem to be working and hopefully I’ll be able to resume my chores tomorrow.”
“Well . . . if Jake gives his okay.”
“What do you mean, if Jake gives his okay? I don’t need his okay to clean the cabins. I don’t need his okay for anything.”
Irritated, she turned to find Jake’s dark eyes staring at her. He was leaning against the kitchen doorway with an unlit cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth.
In an attempt to avert a disagreement between the two, Hank said, “With Kate missin’ our usual breakfast this mornin’, I forgot to tell the both of you the latest.”
His ploy worked and they turned and looked expectantly at him.
“When the two of ya were out ridin’ yesterday, the white limousine from Salt Lake stopped at the lodge. Sure enough the driver asked for coffee and a piece of pie.” He emphasized the word ‘and’. “Said my pie was the talk of the town.”
He glanced over at them, a smug expression on his face.
“Did he say when he would be back?” Jake asked as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it back into a crumpled package he had taken out of his shirt pocket.
“Nope, but he did ask me what kind of pie I would be bakin’ on Friday. Do ya think that means he’s comin’ Friday?”
“Sounds like it,” Jake said. “What time was he here yesterday?”
“In the mornin’, around ten.”
“We have a little gossip, too,” Kate said.
“Mean to tell me ya heard some gossip yesterday on your ride?
Was it somethin’ the Reynold’s told you?”
“No, guess again.”
“No good at guessin’. Just spit it out.”
Kate laughed and started out like she had often heard Hank begin a story.
“Well . . . after we left the stables, we rode into the national forest. We followed the creek path up to the waterfall. When we got to the waterfall, Jake pointed out a large flat rock and said we could have lunch. When I asked him what lunch, he said he had packed a lunch for us. With your help, of course. That was sweet of you, Hank.”
“Yeah, yeah, get on with the story.”
“So he got all the tinfoil packages out of his saddlebags and I unwrapped them and set them out on the rock. When he saw your apple pie he said he was going to eat it first. I couldn’t let him have dessert before his lunch so I grabbed it.”
“I don’t call this much in the way of gossip,” Hank interrupted her, a disgusted look on his face.
“Just wait. It gets better. Anyway, as I was saying, I grabbed the pie and ran off through the trees. And there, right in front of me was a man and a woman in a passionate embrace.” She stopped and stared at him triumphantly.
“Probably just a coupla of tourists.”
“You’re wrong. It was Dave Wilson and the woman he was kissing wasn’t Stephanie. Jake said he got a good look at her and it was an Asian lady.”
“What did I tell you? There is a Geisha House here in Mountain Springs.”
“That’s not the point, Hank,” she said impatiently. “Dave Wilson was kissing some woman who was not his wife.” She pronounced each word distinctly as she gave him a hard look.
“That’s a real shame. Hope his wife don’t hear about it.”
“What’s
with you men?” Kate asked in disgust. “Doesn’t it occur to you that she might want to know?”
“Knowin’ Stephanie, don’t think so. What would happen to that grand lifestyle of hers if they split?”
“There are more important things in life than a grand lifestyle.”
“Don’t think Stephanie would agree with you.”
“Are you telling me you don’t think self-respect is more important than material things?”
“Not sayin’ that’s the way I feel,” Hank said. “I’m tellin’ you how I think Stephanie would feel.”
“I wish someone had told me about Walt. And I’m going to tell her.”
Jake spoke up. “I think that would be a real mistake.”
“What do you know about it?” Kate turned to him and gave him an angry glare. “How can you possibly know how a woman would feel?”
“I might. I’ve known quite a few.”
“I just bet you have,” she threw at him. “I don’t care what the two of you say, the next time I’m in Lava Cove, I’m going to see Stephanie and I’m going to tell her.”
Turning, she left the kitchen and pushed her way past Jake who still leaned in the doorway, disapproval on his face.
Exhausted, she climbed the stairs to her apartment and went into her bedroom deciding to follow through with her original plan to have a nap.
As she settled her head on the pillow, she thought, I’m not going to let those two tell me what to do.
Chapter 4
“There goes one stubborn lady,” Hank commented as Kate left the kitchen.
“You’ve got that right,” Jake said, shaking his head. “I wonder if it would do any good to try and stop her. She’s only going to cause trouble for the Wilson’s. I can’t believe she would want to do that.”
Murder in Mountain Springs Page 4
