Maddie Inherits a Cowboy

by Jeannie Watt

  Eileen clamped the display model on over her short white bob and turned to Madeline with a cheeky smile. “What do you think?”“You look like you’re about to direct a passenger jet out to the runway for takeoff.”

  Eileen nodded with satisfaction and put the earphones back on the display. “I want those.”

  “All right.” Madeline found the box and avoided wincing at the price. This was her grandmother, after all.

  “Did the Bickmans chip in?” Eileen asked on the way to the checkout counter.

  “No.” Madeline cut a mystified sideways glance at her grandmother. Why would Eileen’s next-door neighbors chip in for a belated Christmas gift?

  “Well, they should, since their complaints are what got Connor all gung ho on the iPod.”

  “Ah. I’ll send them a bill for their half,” she stated.

  Eileen laughed. “Do that.”

  Madeline made the purchase and carried the bag to the car. She and her grandmother drove back to the retirement complex in silence, but it wasn’t a comfortable one. Eileen had something to say. The question was when would she say it?

  “What are you going to do?” Eileen asked when they arrived at her door. She was wearing that shrewd look that told Madeline to tread very, very carefully.

  “About the job or the ranch?” Madeline had told Eileen about the offer before they’d set out on their shopping trip.

  “There isn’t much you can do about the job. The hearing process progresses at its own maddening, snaillike pace.”

  “The ranch, then,” Madeline said. “I don’t know yet.” She followed her grandmother into her apartment, furnished in modern Danish, a style both she and Skip had always secretly hated, although it did set off Eileen’s eclectic array of artifacts rather nicely.

  Eileen placed the bag with the headphones on the small island that separated the kitchen from the living room. “I think the wisest move, since you do have an offer, is to sell. Settle one issue so you can focus on the other.”

  “Are you sure you want to follow that course?” Madeline asked, remembering the tears in her grandmother’s voice not all that long ago. And secretly she hoped Eileen would say no. Then she had a legitimate excuse to wait longer, hold on to that tie that was doing her no good.

  “I believe I am.”

  “What changed, Grandma?”

  Eileen’s smile was bittersweet. “Skip used to send me letters describing how beautiful the land was, how ornery the cows could be, how quiet it was at night. He said he could see millions of stars every clear night because there were no artificial lights to interfere with their brightness. I didn’t totally understand it, but the ranch made him a happy man, and it holds a special place in my heart because of it.” Eileen pulled her shoulders back slightly. “But the ranch hasn’t made you happy and I think the time has come to sell, while we have this opportunity. I’m sorry I stopped you before. I just…wasn’t ready.”

  “It isn’t the ranch that made me unhappy,” Madeline said, before stopping to think. The words simply fell out of her mouth.

  “You haven’t been the same since you’ve come back.”

  “I feel different,” she agreed.

  “Why?”

  Madeline didn’t have an exact answer. Hurting Ty was part of it. Knowing he wasn’t going to forgive her was another. And…maybe it was the doubts she felt with increasing frequency, doubts about the life that she’d been so satisfied with before. It wasn’t that she didn’t still want that life…it was more a question of whether that life wanted her.

  Eileen put her hands on Madeline’s shoulders and squeezed gently. “I truly believe that once you sort out this job situation, everything else will fall into perspective. During unsettling times, and heaven knows I’ve had a few of those, raising you and Skip—” she smiled “—issues become monstrous. We’re making no money off the ranch. The ranch was Skip’s dream, not ours. I think you should sell.”

  TEN DAYS LATER, TWO DAYS before classes were to begin, Madeline showed up at the administration building for the hearing, wearing a navy blue suit and white blouse—her ultraprofessional suit. She met Everett just outside the door minutes before the proceedings began. He’d hurried from across town, and it showed. She reached up and straightened his slightly crooked gray striped tie.

  “Are you ready for this?” she asked, concerned that ever-cool Everett look frazzled.“That’s my line, and yes,” he said, taking over straightening the tie and then smoothing a hand over his sandy hair. “The cab driver was slightly insane, but I’m here.” He shifted his briefcase to his other hand. “Are you ready?”

  She was more than ready. Ten days spent cooling her heels had taken their toll. She’d received the ranch offer from Kira, with apologies, on Tuesday instead of Monday, so Madeline had had to ignore it for only five days, not counting today. She would make a decision after the hearing, and she’d emailed Kira to tell her, getting a quick “thanks” in return. So now the hearing was about to begin and then she’d have to look over the ranch offer.

  Madeline lifted her chin as they were ushered into the room. This first step with the inquiry committee was basically a formality—a meeting in which full information would be given about the allegations to allow Madeline to prepare a response and suggest witnesses. Everett already knew the general allegations and was working on the response, but official hoops had to be jumped through.

  She and Everett took their seats. Madeline kept her hands in her lap, sitting straight as she met the very serious gazes of the inquiry committee, the department head and the dean. They looked like the judge’s panel on Top Chef, which she and her grandmother had watched the night before. Bad sign when she was thinking irreverent thoughts rather than focusing on proving her innocence. She sat up even straighter.

  The chairman of the committee introduced the proceedings and began reading the allegations, which boiled down to Madeline having taken blood samples during finals week two years ago, while the lab had been unmanned for several days, and having misinformed Dr. Jensen about procuring the necessary permissions.

  After the chairman had finished reading the allegations, Everett put down his pen and folded his hands in front of him.

  “A question, if I may?”

  “Of course.”

  “According to the lab records, work schedules and prior and subsequent use of the blood samples, the only window of opportunity is the one outlined here?”

  “Correct.”

  Everett made a note and Madeline continued to stare impassively at the committee. Dr. Mann sat at one end of the table, a slight smile playing on her lips because she didn’t yet know that she’d screwed up. She’d taken the position six months after Skip’s death and wasn’t aware that Madeline hadn’t been around during the critical time frame when the blood samples had been taken.

  But Jensen should have known.

  Had he forgotten? Or perhaps hoped against hope that Madeline and her lawyer would develop sudden cases of stupidity?

  Or had he finally done the right thing, even if it was in the wrong way?

  A few minutes later Madeline and her lawyer were dismissed from the room. Not one thing had happened in the short hearing that couldn’t just as easily happened ten days before. She was definitely being jerked around.

  “I’d say you’re home free,” Everett said as he escorted her from the building onto the freshly scraped sidewalk.

  “Why didn’t Jensen say something about the time frame?”

  “You know that saying about gift horses?”

  “Yes, but I never understood it.”

  “Leave it, Madeline.” There was a note of warning in Everett’s voice. “At least until we get you fully exonerated.”

  “And then what?” Madeline asked, the question aimed more at herself than her lawyer.

  “You go back to work.”

  “Where things will never be quite the same.”

  “Did you expect them to be?” He sounded surprised.

>   In truth, she’d never given life after the hearings a thought. “Up until now I thought that once it became obvious I was innocent, everything would go back to normal. But did you see the look on Dr. Mann’s face? She’s out for blood.”

  “I’d say that’s a safe assumption.” Everett put a hand on Madeline’s shoulder. She felt rather dense for having had such supreme confidence in the process of justice.

  “I don’t think I’ve been thinking straight since this all started. Maybe not since Skip died.”

  “Understandable,” Everett said.

  “I’ve made some mistakes.”

  “As have we all.”

  Her eyes flashed up to his face. “Are you humoring me?”

  “No. I’m agreeing. You’ve made some mistakes.” He brushed snow off his lapel. “Now the trick is to not make any more mistakes—at least not for a while.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  EVERETT WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY have considered Madeline’s next move a mistake. She stood on the front porch of Dr. Jensen’s tasteful brick home and rang the bell. Then rang again when there was no answer.

  You’re going to be arrested for disturbing the peace, she thought as she stabbed the bell with her finger yet again. Or maybe trespassing, because she wasn’t going to stop until she saw Dr. Jensen face-to-face.She was about to ring again when she finally heard movement in the house and a few seconds alter Mrs. Jensen, wearing a long pale blue satin robe, opened the door. All expression left the woman’s normally pleasant face when she saw Madeline, then she pursed her lips so tightly they went white.

  “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

  Madeline was taken aback by the woman’s vehemence. “Good evening, Edith. I need to see Phillip.”

  Edith’s mouth tightened again before she said, “I don’t think under the circumstances—”

  A hand settled on Edith’s shoulder and Dr. Jensen stepped into view, wearing a red plaid robe. Obviously the Jensens went to bed early. It was only eight o’clock. Madeline wondered how Dr. Jensen slept.

  “Come in,” he said, easing his wife aside and opening the door wider.

  “I don’t want to come in,” Madeline said. And she didn’t—she just wanted a few quick answers and it wasn’t so cold outside that she couldn’t hear them on the porch. “What in the hell is going on?”

  “You’d best come inside.”

  “Fine.” Madeline walked two steps into the foyer, just far enough so that Dr. Jensen could close the door. That’s when she noticed how exhausted her former mentor looked. Drained, in fact. He had deep circles under his gray eyes, and he’d lost weight. His face, which had been gaunt before, was positively skeletal beneath his unruly dark gray hair.

  Tough.

  “What’s going on, Phillip?” she asked. “Why is Dr. Mann under the impression I took those samples when you know damn well I couldn’t have?” She cocked her head, regarding him through narrowed eyes. “Have you suddenly gone noble? Is your conscience getting the better of you?”

  Color rose in his pale cheeks. “I was told to keep my mouth shut. So—”

  “He only has two years left until retirement,” Edith interrupted, as if it was Madeline’s fault her husband was embroiled in this situation. “And we need the health benefits.”

  Jensen touched his wife’s arm and she looked away from Madeline. “I’m keeping my mouth shut,” he said as if Edith hadn’t spoken. “Not that she confides in me in the first place.”

  Madeline folded her arms over her chest. “You’re letting her hang herself? Even though…?”

  “It will affect me? Yes.”

  Madeline wished she could feel a measure of gratitude, but this felt too little, too late.

  “He didn’t know about the permissions,” Edith interrupted again. “None of this should have happened.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Madeline said automatically.

  “I skirted the issue,” Jensen said in a low voice. “I assumed that since the blood was available for the medical studies, I could use it, too. I hadn’t realized the permissions were so narrow. They’ve never been questioned before. I was stunned when this happened. The lawsuit…” He moved his head as if trying to shake off a nasty memory.

  That didn’t excuse him for keeping his mouth shut at her expense.

  “What happens after she finds out I have an alibi?”

  “That’s anyone’s guess, but, Madeline, she will continue to try to remove you from the department.”

  “That’s happy news,” Madeline muttered. “Is that why you didn’t step forward on my behalf?”

  Dr. Jensen didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.

  “What about you after she finds out she’s wrong?” Madeline asked.

  “No telling.” He pushed his hands deep into his robe pockets. “I may lose my job. I may not.”

  But regardless, unless Mann found a scapegoat, Dr. Jensen’s usefulness as a funding magnet would be over and that wouldn’t bode well for his future.

  He put his hand on his wife’s shoulder and she covered it with her own, still not looking at Madeline. “I’ve never approved of what Dr. Mann is trying to do,” he said.

  “But you never did anything about it.”

  “No,” he said softly. “I didn’t. We need those health benefits for a few more years… I need my retirement.”

  MADELINE DIDN’T SLEEP that night. After leaving the Jensens, she honestly believed Dr. Jensen had assumed no one would question his use of the blood samples. He hadn’t intended to be dishonest, but once trouble struck, he’d taken the low road, allowed Dr. Mann to manipulate the situation so he could save his job. Madeline understood retirement and health-benefit worries, but even if she’d had a frightened spouse and her future was on the line, she’d like to think she’d do the right thing.

  The more pressing issue was what was she going to do now? She had no doubt she would get her job back…but did she want it?Even if the job atmosphere wasn’t destined to be different when she returned to work, she was different. She didn’t have the same drive to do this job as she once had.

  Fair or not, she couldn’t have her old life back. She either had to adapt or leave. But she could also make sure Dr. Mann didn’t succeed in driving her away.

  After lunch at a small coffee shop that catered to students, Madeline walked to campus and into Edenton Hall, where the anthropology department was located. Dr. Vanessa Mann’s secretary was still out, since it was only quarter to one, but Vanessa was in her office. Madeline walked in without knocking.

  Dr. Mann glanced up from the records she was inspecting, a stunned look crossing her face when she realized who was standing on the other side of the desk.

  “A word?” Madeline asked politely.

  Dr. Mann nodded, glancing over Madeline’s shoulder. She set the silver pen she’d been holding back in its holder and fixed her hard gaze on Madeline, who stared back impassively. The woman was going to have to do better than that, because she was dealing with someone who didn’t feel she had a whole lot to lose.

  “I received notice of the investigative hearing. Sixty days from now.”

  “Scheduling problems. It’s still within the framework outlined by the university policy manual.”

  “I can save you a whole lot of time,” Madeline said, knowing that Everett would, quite frankly, kill her if he knew what she was doing.

  “How?” Dr. Mann frowned suspiciously, possibly hoping that Madeline would simply confess.

  “I don’t know how Dr. Jensen got the blood samples, but it wasn’t from me,” Madeline said, ignoring the question.

  “That’s for the committee to decide.”

  “They’ll decide in my favor.”

  Dr. Mann allowed herself a slight smile that came off more like a sneer. “How can you be so certain?”

  “Because the samples could have only been taken during that window of time when the lab was unmanned. During finals week. Your own inquiry committee agrees.”

 
“And I suppose you have an alibi?”

  “I do.”

  “Care to share it?” Dr. Mann said in a voice that clearly indicated she didn’t think Madeline would.

  “My brother died just prior to that. I spent that finals week, the one in which I was supposedly pilfering blood samples, in Maine with my grandmother, burying my brother.” She cocked her head. “You need to look for another scapegoat fast, so I thought I’d give you a heads up.” She smiled.

  “I’m not looking for a scapegoat,” Dr. Mann snapped. “I’m looking for the truth.”

  “Are you? Dr. Jensen brings in a lot of grant funding. I’m new to the game, so I don’t. I wonder which of us is more expendable?”

  “Anything else?” Dr. Mann asked coldly.

  Madeline smiled without a trace of amusement. “Just one other thing.”

  WHEN THE PHONE RANG, Ty didn’t answer. It was late. The generator was off. It went through its six rings and kicked into voice mail. Ty rolled over. The phone rang again.

  Great. He got out of bed, walked unerringly down the dark hall to the kitchen, where his cell phone glowed and vibrated on the counter.“Hello,” he practically barked into the phone.

  “Ty? It’s Madeline.”

  He knew that because his heart had hit his ribs at the sound of her voice. So much for being over her.

  “I need your help.”

  “What kind of help?” he asked, not quite understanding why she needed his help at ten-thirty at night—one-thirty in the morning her time.

  “Either a shovel or a ride. I hit the ditch halfway up the road to the ranch.”

  Ty stilled. “You’re on the road to the ranch? Right now?”

  “No. I’m off the road. In the ditch.”

  He closed his eyes.

  “Ty, can you please come help me? You know I’ll just show up if you don’t come.”

  “Yeah, but maybe I’d have time to prepare.”