Cowboy Deputy

by Carla Cassidy

  “Only thing I heard was Marylou’s snores. The woman sounded like a freight train with brake problems last night, not that I’d like you to mention it to her.” He gave Benjamin a pained smile.

  “Why have you been keeping an extra eye out here?” Benjamin asked.

  “A few times over the past couple weeks I thought I saw lights. I figured it was probably kids fooling around. There was never any damage or any sign that they were there in the mornings so I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination.”

  “The next time you think you see something, you call the sheriff’s office,” Benjamin said.

  “Is Walt okay?” Josh asked.

  Benjamin nodded. “Banged up, but he’ll survive.”

  “He wasn’t able to tell you who attacked him?”

  “Don’t ask,” Benjamin said darkly.

  A slow grin swept over Josh’s broad face. “Let me guess, it was a space invader.”

  Benjamin nodded. “I’m headed over to the hospital from here to see if he can give me more details this morning than he was able to last night.”

  “Good luck with that,” Josh said. “I’m going back home. Just call if you need anything else from me.”

  Benjamin watched as the big man lumbered back in the direction of his house, then Benjamin walked toward his parents’ graves.

  He didn’t visit here often. In truth Benjamin had been closer to his siblings than he had been to his mother and father. His parents had loved to travel and once their kids all got old enough to fend for themselves, they were often away on one adventure or another.

  He stood at the foot of their graves and wondered if they were both whirling around in spiritual unrest with Brittany’s disappearance and Jacob’s isolation from life.

  Brittany’s case had come to a painful standstill due to a lack of leads. As far as Jacob, Benjamin held out hope that eventually Jacob would tell him why he’d quit his job with the FBI and closed himself off from the world.

  It was just after noon when he left the cemetery and decided to stop for lunch before going to the hospital. As he walked into the café he spied his brothers Tom and Caleb in one of the booths.

  As he walked toward where they were seated, he nodded to Larry Norwood, the town’s newest vet, and raised a hand to Billy Jefferson, a neighboring rancher.

  “We were just sitting here wondering if our resident alien buster had been successful in his hunt,” Caleb teased as Benjamin slid in next to him. “Any sight of the little green men?”

  “I’ll have you know that Walt specifically said that the alien wasn’t a cartoon Martian. He wasn’t sure what planet the aliens are from.”

  “It was somebody from this planet who beat him up,” Tom said, his features stern. “And I want that person found and charged. I don’t like things like that happening in my town.”

  Benjamin knew how personally Tom took the safety of the residents of Black Rock. It was what made him a respected and beloved sheriff. “I spoke to Josh,” Benjamin said. “He mentioned that he thinks maybe kids have been hanging out at the cemetery after hours.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Caleb said. “Halloween is only weeks away. There’s nothing better than taking a girl to the cemetery and scaring her with ghost stories that make her squeal in fear and jump right into your arms.”

  “Does Portia know you hang out in the cemetery and scare girls?” Benjamin asked with a wry grin.

  Caleb smiled. “She was the girl I was scaring in the cemetery.”

  Portia Perez and Caleb had been high-school sweethearts who had broken up when Portia had gone to college. Recently the two had gotten back together again and seemed more in love with each other than ever.

  “What about Walt’s granddaughter? What’s her name?” Tom asked.

  To Benjamin’s surprise he felt his cheeks warm. “Edie. Edie Burnett.”

  “What’s she like?” Caleb asked curiously.

  Benjamin shrugged. “Attractive. Overwhelmed. She’s pretty much alone in the world other than having Walt.”

  “Uh-oh,” Caleb said. “Sounds like a perfect candidate for the Benjamin-to-the-rescue club.”

  Tom grinned as Benjamin shot his younger brother a look of irritation. “It’s not like that at all,” he protested. “She’s only in town for a few days and she doesn’t seem like the type who would want a man to run to her rescue. Is there anything new on the Jennifer Hightower disappearance?” he asked in an effort to change the subject.

  “Not a damn thing,” Tom replied.

  As the three brothers ate their lunch, they discussed the latest disappearance of a young woman. Jennifer Hightower had gone to work at the convenience store on the edge of town as usual and had been scheduled to work until closing time at midnight. Her car had been left in the parking lot at the store, but she was nowhere to be found.

  “The interviews with her friends have yielded nothing. We got nothing from her car. The surveillance tape from the store showed that she was alive and well at midnight when she closed up the place.” Tom listed the facts one after another, his voice deep with frustration.

  “She doesn’t have a current boyfriend and her ex has a solid alibi,” Caleb added. “It’s like she vanished into thin air.”

  “Or somebody was waiting just outside for her,” Tom said. “Too bad the convenience store doesn’t have cameras outside.”

  “Have we decided that this case is connected to Brittany’s?” Benjamin asked. It was the question that they’d all danced around for the past couple weeks.

  Tom frowned, as if in pain. “There’s no real evidence that they’re connected. Jennifer doesn’t look anything like Brittany. But the fact is we have two missing women. I don’t want to believe they’re connected, but I guess we have to consider the possibility.”

  His words caused a knot of anxiety to form in Benjamin’s chest. If the disappearances were connected, then that meant there was a possibility that somebody in town was kidnapping pretty young women. What he was doing to them was anybody’s guess. Until a body was found it was impossible to speculate about what had become of the victims.

  All he knew was that there was a new pretty young woman in town and the fear of an unknown darkness walking the streets of Black Rock.

  Edie cursed beneath her breath as the lawn mower died for the fifth time in the past hour. She was exhausted, but wanted to get the lawn finished before calling it a day.

  She’d been working at it for the past two hours. The problem was twofold: the lawn mower was an antique and the grass was so tall it kept gumming up the motor and conking it out.

  Deciding to take a break, she eased down on the top stoop of the porch, thirsty but too tired to walk inside and get anything to drink.

  She’d spoken with Poppy several times during the day. He wasn’t a happy camper. “The nurse isn’t pretty and I think she might be a vampire,” he had groused. “Every time I turn around she’s taking blood from me.”

  Edie had soothed him, grateful that the doctor had agreed to run a battery of tests to see if Poppy’s delusion was somehow a medical issue.

  And if it wasn’t? A little voice nagged in the back of her head. What did you do with somebody who thought they were seeing space aliens? Send them to therapy? Somehow she doubted that Black Rock had a resident therapist who might specialize in alien delusions.

  All she could hope for was that Dr. Drake would find something with his tests that would account for the delusions and that whatever it was could be fixed with a pill.

  All thoughts of her grandfather fled from her head as a familiar black pickup pulled into the driveway. Instantly her heart did an unexpected tap dance as Benjamin got out of the driver’s seat.

  Surely it was just because she’d been alone all day, she told herself. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was clad in a pair of killer jeans that hugged the length of his long legs and emphasized his lean abdomen. It had nothing to do with the glint in his eyes that perfectly matched the sexy, la
zy grin that stretched his lips at the sight of her.

  “Who’s winning? You or the grass?” he asked as he drew closer.

  “Definitely the grass,” she replied as she got to her feet.

  “It’s too tall and the lawn mower is too old and I’m exhausted,” she admitted. “What’s going on? Did you find the person responsible for beating up Poppy?”

  “I wish, unfortunately I don’t have much to report.” He stepped closer to her, close enough that she could smell his cologne. “I went out by the cemetery and looked around. The only thing I found was what looks like a part of a key ring bob. It’s engraved with the letter A, but I can’t know if it had anything to do with the attack on Walt or not.”

  “Don’t tell him what you found. He’ll swear that the A stands for alien,” she said drily. Benjamin laughed.

  He had a nice laugh, deep and robust, like a man who enjoyed laughing.

  “Actually, I just came from a visit with Walt.”

  “I spoke to him a couple hours ago and he wasn’t too happy.” She was overly conscious that the knees of her jeans were grass stained from weeding and she was wearing one of Poppy’s oversize flannel shirts over her T-shirt. She didn’t have on a stitch of makeup and the fact that it bothered her, bothered her.

  “He’s still not happy. He wanted me to stop by and pick up a pair of sleep pants that he says is more civilized than the ones at the hospital. He said they’re in his top dresser drawer.”

  “Come on in and I’ll get them for you.” He walked too close behind her, not stopping in the living room but rather following her into Poppy’s bedroom.

  She hadn’t been in this room for years and it was nothing like she remembered. When her grandmother had been alive the room had been a typical bedroom with the bed covered in a floral print spread and matching curtains at the window. The nightstands had held dainty little lamps and a trunk at the foot of the bed had contained a variety of sofa blankets that her grandmother had crocheted.

  Now the bed was shoved against one wall and the nightstands and trunk were gone. A large desk took up much of the room. The top of the desk was cluttered with maps of the galaxy and of the town, notes jotted in Poppy’s nearly illegible hand and an instant camera.

  “It looks like headquarters for an alien hunter,” Benjamin said as he picked up one of the maps of the stars.

  “I’m really hoping the doctor will be able to find a medical reason for this craziness.” Edie pulled open the top dresser drawer and found the pair of plaid sleep pants Walt had requested. She leaned her back against the dresser, every muscle in her body sore from her fight with the lawn mower.

  “Too bad Walt didn’t have this camera with him when the attack happened. He could have taken a picture of his assailant.” Benjamin looked up from the desk. “You look tired. Why don’t you let me finish up the lawn in the morning and you go take a shower and come with me for dinner at the café?”

  “The grass isn’t your responsibility. I couldn’t ask you to finish,” she replied.

  “You didn’t. I offered and you’d be a fool to turn me down,” he said lightly.

  “Okay, I’ll let you finish the lawn in the morning, but I can just grab a sandwich here for dinner.” She didn’t want to think about going out to dinner with him. It would feel too much like a date and she had no intention of dating ever again.

  “Edie.” He took a step closer to her. “A nice hot meal will do you good. Besides, the special tonight is lasagna and it’s terrific.”

  Lasagna definitely sounded yummy, and she was starving. She hesitated a beat and then nodded. “Okay, I’ll meet you at the café,” she finally said. At least that way she could eat and run.

  He looked at his watch. “It’s four-thirty now. Shall we meet in an hour?”

  “Sounds perfect,” she said as she followed him out of the bedroom. When they reached the front door, he turned back to look at her.

  “You aren’t going to stand me up, are you? I really hate when that happens.”

  She doubted that this man had ever been stood up in his life. “I’ll be there,” she replied.

  The moment he left she raced up the stairs for a long hot shower, already regretting the agreement to meet him. She should have just stayed home and eaten a sandwich. There was something about Deputy Sheriff Benjamin Grayson that definitely put her on edge.

  At five-twenty she drove slowly down Main Street looking for the café. She found it nestled between a taxidermy business and a veterinarian’s office. As she pulled into a parking space down the street, a knot of nerves twisted in her stomach. It’s ridiculous to be nervous about a quick meal, she told herself. She’d just eat fast and then get back to Poppy’s house.

  The evening had cooled a bit as the sun began to sink and she was grateful for the gold sweater she’d pulled on over a clean pair of jeans.

  As she walked by the taxidermy store she shivered slightly at the animals in the window. A stuffed wolf looked ready to pounce on prey and a squirrel stood on its haunches with a nut between its paws. She’d never understood the desire to hang a deer head on a wall or stuff Fluffy to keep forever.

  Dead was dead and no amount of stuffing and saving could change that. Her hand slid up to grip the charm around her neck. As always an edge of grief threatened to swell inside her, but she shoved it away, refusing to give it power.

  Before she opened the café door she smelled the savory scents of frying onions and sweet tomato sauce and her stomach rumbled in response.

  The minute she walked in the door, she saw Benjamin leaning against the long counter and talking to an attractive blonde waitress.

  At the sound of the bell tinkling above the door with her entrance he turned and smiled at her, that sexy grin instantly heating places in Edie that hadn’t been warm in a very long time.

  He murmured something to the waitress and then approached Edie. “You came.”

  “I told you I would. I always do what I say I’m going to do. I’m hungry and too tired to fix something at home. This seemed like the most convenient thing to do.” She was aware she sounded not only defensive, but more than a little bit cranky, as well.

  It didn’t seem to bother him. His eyes twinkling with good humor, he took her by the elbow and led her to an empty booth toward the back of the busy place.

  As they made their way through the tables, he was greeted by everyone they passed. It was obvious Benjamin was well liked in the town he served. Not that she cared. He was just a hot, sexy blip in her radar who would be nothing but a distant memory weeks from now.

  Once they were seated in the booth she picked up the menu, needing something to look at besides him. But the food listings were far less appealing than Benjamin.

  She closed the menu and shoved it to one side. “Don’t you have a wife or a girlfriend you should be having dinner with?”

  “Don’t have either,” he replied and then grinned. “But thanks for being interested enough to ask.”

  “I’m not really interested. I was just making casual conversation.” Awkward, she thought. This whole scene felt awkward. She should have made herself a sandwich at the house and called it a night. But the truth was the house had felt far too quiet without Poppy there.

  “So, tell me something about Edie Burnett,” he said.

  “You know more about me than I’d intended for anyone to know,” she replied darkly.

  “All I really know is that you’ve had a run of bad luck lately, but I’m sure there are far more interesting aspects to you.”

  She leaned back in the booth. “Why are you doing that?” she asked flatly.

  He frowned in confusion. “Doing what?”

  “Flirting with me.” Although she wanted to look away she boldly held his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re looking for but you won’t find it with me. I’m only in town for a short period and, besides, not only am I never going to date again, but I also intend to stay celibate for the rest of my life.”

  His eye
brows rose and then fell back into place. “A lot of men would consider that a real challenge,” he said with that wicked glint in his eyes. The glint dimmed and he shook his head. “He must have hurt you very badly.”

  “It doesn’t matter now, that’s so in my past.” She was grateful that the waitress appeared at that moment to take their orders.

  They both ordered the lasagna special and when the waitress left, Edie took the reins of the conversation. “I pretty well spilled my life story to you when you pulled me over for speeding. Why don’t you tell me something interesting about you?”

  “Probably the most interesting thing about me is that I have three brothers and one sister and all of us went into law enforcement.”

  “Was your father a cop?” she asked.

  “No, Dad was a genius when it came to buying and selling stocks. He worked the ranch and invested and did very well. When all of us kids got older, he and my mother traveled a lot.”

  “I know that one of your brothers is the sheriff. What about the others?” She began to relax a bit with the conversation steered away from her.

  “Tom is the oldest and he’s the sheriff. Then there’s Jacob, who became an FBI agent. Caleb is a deputy like me and so was…is Brittany.” He winced as he caught himself, but it was obvious to Edie that he wasn’t expecting a happy ending where his sister was concerned.

  “I’m sorry about your sister,” Edie said softly.

  “Yeah, so am I. And I was sorry to hear about your mother’s death. My housekeeper told me that your mom was not only pretty but also a nice woman.”

  “She was the best,” Edie said, then picked up her glass of water to take a sip and swallow her grief. “You’ve told me an interesting thing about your family. But tell me something about you personally.” She was determined to keep the conversation on him, to focus on anything but herself and all the challenges she faced.

  “Let’s see.” He leaned back against the booth and gave her that lazy smile that never failed to light a tiny fire inside her. “I like a horseback ride at sunset and big juicy steaks cooked outside. Green is my favorite color and I’ve got a dog named Tiny who thinks he’s master of the world. I’ve never had a broken heart and I don’t think I’ve ever broken one. How’s that?” he said.