by Mary Coley
“Not exactly anything. Molly.” He ran his hand through his hair, combing it off his forehead.
“Is that because you cared about her? My friend is missing. I need information.”
“Word is that you’ve been asking about that fire and her family ever since you came into town.”
“Nancy at the café told me about the fire. She also told me there might be a job at Jandafar.”
“Nobody comes to this town out of the blue like you did. I’ll answer your questions if you’ll be honest with me.”
“I need information about Molly.” She wanted to trust him. But she’d trusted Will, and she’d trusted Mike, and neither one of them had been honest with her. She didn’t want to play games anymore. She didn’t like lying to people, trying to get them to tell her the truth when she wasn’t willing to do the same. She wiped her eyes again. The scent of Lamar’s woodsy, spicy aftershave filled the SUV.
Someone rapped on the driver’s window.
Mike.
She rolled the window down a few inches. “I’m busy, Mike.”
“Busy? You are a fast worker. I’m staying at Mrs. Childers’ boarding house. When you decide you forgive me for cluing you in about Will, that’s where I’ll be. We’ve got work to do.” Mike lumbered away.
Mandy rolled up the window.
She and Lamar sat in heavy silence.
“Who’s Will?” Lamar asked a few minutes later. “And who was that?”
“You tell me about Molly, I’ll tell you about Will. And about Mike.”
Lamar stared grimly out the car window. “I’ve tried real hard not to talk about it for a long time.” He peered into her face. “And I hope to God I’m not making a mistake by telling you. You’re sure this isn’t going to become a book or get on 60 Minutes or something?”
“I’m absolutely sure.”
He squinted. “I was working at the ranch that summer, right after high school graduation. The clientele was mostly families with little kids. Most families didn’t stay more than a week. Sometimes a teenager showed up with their parents, usually bored stiff. It was hard to have a relationship but consorting with the guests wasn’t recommended anyway.” He cleared his throat. “Late that summer, the Bergens came. Their teenage daughters were knockouts. The other wranglers and me were typical guys. Whoever could score the fastest—it didn’t matter which one of the girls.” He shook his head and looked embarrassed.
“Which one were you after?”
“Molly and Sharon looked a lot alike, but Sharon was wilder than Molly. Molly liked to read, and she didn’t go after us like Sharon did. Chad, the other wrangler, made out with Sharon the first night. I tried to hook up with Molly. She was friendly, but cautious. You could tell she wasn’t out to score like her sister was, or like us guys were.”
“You lost the bet.”
“We all lost the bet. Middle of that week, Chad and I took a group on a trail ride. Fifteen riders, including Molly and Sharon. Two riders started to race. We weren’t supposed to allow it. A woman fell from her horse and hit her head. She died on the scene.”
“Nancy mentioned that to me. Dale Hardesty only knew the basics.”
“Max moved to Texas that summer. He and Dale met in Texas. Actually, Chad is Max’s youngest brother.”
“Is Chad still around?”
“Lives about an hour up the valley. Don’t see him much. He has a part-time job in town.”
“So, tell me what happened with this race.”
Lamar scratched his neck and cleared his throat. “That race was more like a catfight on horseback than a race. The husband egged it on. He’d been flirting with Sharon and his wife was jealous. After she fell off the horse, he threatened all of us, called his lawyer, filed a lawsuit that same day. That night, the Bergen’s cabin caught fire. The parents burned to death and the girls disappeared. Vanished. We searched the area, and the search and rescue teams took it beyond the ranch’s borders and into the Wildlife Refuge. They never found anything.”
“That’s horrible. How could they disappear without a trace?”
“The authorities ruled the fire an accident. Candle melted down and caught the tablecloth on fire, or so they said. But the biggest mystery was what happened to Molly and Sharon. Sharon was nearly 19, Molly a year or so younger. No one pushed the case with the local or state police. No one offered a reward. Once the locals dropped the search, no one cared.”
“Why are you so hesitant to talk about Molly? It wasn’t your fault.”
“Chad and I were the last ones to see the girls alive. He and Sharon had been making out in our bunkhouse. I walked in on them. Later, I saw Molly with her parents at the dance. Didn’t see either of them again.” He peered at her. “What do you know about Molly Bergen? And who’s Will? And who’s that guy who upset you?”
Mandy had to tell him the truth, but not every detail.
“Will is my boyfriend. Mike just told me Will’s been lying to me. He’s not where he’s supposed to be or doing what he’s supposed to be doing this week.”
“You two live together? Are you engaged?”
“We’ve talked about living together. That won’t happen now unless he has a super explanation for lying to me.”
“Does Will know why you’re here?”
“Yes. He didn’t like that I came alone.”
Lamar’s eyebrows lifted. “What about that other guy? Didn’t you come with him?”
“I work with him. He…doesn’t count. And I came here alone. I didn’t ask Mike to follow me.”
“But your man Will didn’t rush out here to convince you to return to Tulsa when he found out you were here?”
She chose her words carefully. “He wanted me to stay in Tulsa. He didn’t see any need for me to come here.” Her heart pounded and her head hurt. Was this the end of her and Will? She had gone against his wishes, but he had lied to her. Could their relationship recover?
“It’s your turn. Why are you looking for Molly Bergen?”
Mandy reached under the seat before she remembered that the book was in her wrecked car at the body shop. “I found this book. The Natural History of Oklahoma. The name written inside the front cover was Molly Bergen.”
“But how did finding that book get you here?”
“I found the book in the home of my best friend after she disappeared. Not long after, I received a phone message from her that said, ‘Go to Jandafar. Find Lamar.’ I researched the name and found this place.”
“Wait a minute. Your best friend had a book belonging to Molly Bergen?”
“Yes. But she doesn’t use that name. She calls herself Jenna, and she’s married to Sean Wade. And he’s disappeared, too.”
“You’re telling me that Molly—Jenna—is still alive, but she’s disappeared, and she told you to come here to find me?”
“Something is going to happen Saturday. That’s why I left Tulsa so quickly.”
“And why you didn’t bring much with you.”
She laughed. “That must be part of the story going around about me.”
His eyes crinkled as he grinned. “Yeah. That and the part about you being paranoid and somebody running you off the road.”
Her laughter died. “Somebody did run me off the road. They rammed the back of my car on an s-curve and I lost control. I rolled my car into a shallow ravine.”
“Did you file a police report?”
“While I was in the hospital this morning. Haven’t talked to them since, though. I left my cell number, but you know there’s no signal up at Jandafar.”
“Nope, nearest tower’s down here, and the granite hills block most signals. There’s talk about putting a tower farther out, but it hasn’t happened yet. Until it does, we all have to use the landline at the ranch.”
Two men left the bar and ambled past the SUV. They looked in through the windshield. “Woohoo, Lamar! Hook ’em horns!”
“Idiots,” he groused under his breath. “What about this other guy, Mike, th
e one you were talking to earlier?”
“Mike’s been helping me find Jenna.”
“Because the boyfriend was out of town.”
“It’s not like that. We’re friends. At least I thought so until tonight, when Mike told me Will’s a lying jerk and he’s been waiting for me to come around and date him.”
Lamar nodded slowly. “Right. He clues you in and wonders why you’re mad at him.”
Mandy’s throat closed and her eyes swam with tears.
“He thought he could show up here and win you over, help you find Jenna and cement a relationship.”
“I guess so. Is that how men think?”
“Some men will do anything when they have their sights set on a woman.”
Mandy had never imagined Mike had his sights set on her. They joked around a lot and he made innuendos, but she never took him seriously. “Did you have your sights set on Molly Bergen?”
He shrugged. “I was too young. But there was something about her. She seemed vulnerable, not like Sharon. Sharon was in a hurry to live.”
“What about the husband of the woman who died? He sued the ranch and won, didn’t he?”
“Unfortunately. He never forgave Sharon, blamed her openly until he left to bury his wife. The ranch owners settled out of court, but there was no way they could continue to operate the place. They had to take out second and third mortgages, and finally, they had to sell. The second owners made a go of it for a few years before they sold to the Hardestys.”
“You mentioned other reporters. They were trying to find out what happened to Sharon and Molly?”
“Every few years, somebody digs it up again and they come, pretending to be tourists, snooping around the burned-out cabin, looking in the woods for skeletons uncovered by coyotes or a downpour. Some people believe the grieving husband set the fire, killed the parents and both girls, and buried them.”
“Did the police look into that theory?”
“The husband was their primary suspect. But nothing ever panned out. They followed him around as long as they could stretch the department’s budget, but the guy was from Abilene, Texas. Too many long-distance expenses.”
“Jenna wanted me to find her by Saturday. Why that deadline?”
“It happened twenty years ago, right before Labor Day.”
Mandy pulled in a deep breath. Her head spun with Lamar’s revelations. How had Jenna been able to keep this horrific secret?
Her friend was Molly, she was sure of it.
But why had Jenna asked Mandy to come here? What was going to happen Saturday?
~ Chapter 35 ~
Jenna
Jenna huddled on the pile of blankets, sweat beading on her forehead.
Coming here had been a mistake. She hadn’t accomplished anything, and she had destroyed her life in Tulsa.
It was all so messed up. The note, followed by the painting, had sent her into a spiral of despair. She’d been unable to ignore her past any longer. Her whole adult life she’d been running, pretending to be someone she wasn’t, pretending that she hadn’t done what she’d done.
None of the people who loved her and cared about her now—mainly Sean and Mandy, but probably Will also—would feel the same if they found out the truth.
She contemplated her next steps. She hadn’t made a plan before coming here. Her only thought had been to get here and find her sister. She had to be here.
Her sister hadn’t died in the fire. She was here, or somewhere near. Jenna had successfully run from the past, but she’d also eluded her sister, if her sister had been trying to find her.
Should she contact Lamar? Initially, she’d thought he might be the one who could help her the most. And she’d given his name to Mandy. But now she wasn’t so sure. She’d suppressed her memories for so long, she was afraid they’d been altered, that what she remembered was either an exaggeration or an outright lie. Maybe what had happened was worse than what she had allowed herself to remember.
Knots tied up her stomach.
It was time to eat again, but there wasn’t much food in the cabin. Condiments, mostly. Since last night, she’d had ketchup on crackers and the last third of a bag of popcorn someone had popped days—maybe weeks—ago and stuck on a cabinet shelf. She hadn’t yet touched the small bottle of pickle relish in the refrigerator. She could try mustard and relish on crackers. It shouldn’t taste that much different from a hot dog.
Her stomach rumbled. She clutched her abdomen. She had to eat, and she had to drink. She had to get out of the attic and do something.
~ Chapter 36 ~
Mandy
When Mandy’s phone rang, she retrieved it from her purse. Will. She stared at his name on the display screen and let it ring again.
Lamar leaned over and looked at the screen. “So, you going to talk to the jerk? I’ll excuse myself.” He opened the door and got out.
She willed her voice to be strong. “Hello Will.”
“Hello yourself. What’s happening?” His voice was upbeat, unlike earlier when he seemed to have been bothered by her call.
“I’m in Medicine Park but still staying out at Jandafar Hills. I think this might be where she is, or will be, but I haven’t found her.”
“Are you leaving tomorrow?”
“Saturday’s the day, Will. Some kind of deadline. I’ll be home after that. What about you?”
“You already know that, babe. The meeting’s over Saturday. I fly out from Toronto on Sunday.”
“I thought you told me that you were staying at the Rex,” she stated, her mouth dry. She dreaded confrontation, but she had to ask.
“Yes, that’s where the conference is.”
“But you’re not staying there. I tried to call your room, and you’re not registered.”
“They put me up at the hotel down the street. They overbooked. It’s a short walk. Not a problem.”
Was it a lie? He didn’t sound concerned. The explanation had come so easily. Had Mike upset her for no reason?
“Where are you really, Will?” Her voice didn’t crack, thankfully.
“I’m in Toronto at the conference. What do you mean? What’s up?” He was using his stubborn tone.
She knew him well enough to know he wasn’t going to admit anything over the phone. It would turn into a shouting match, and neither one would win. There was no reasoning or explaining when he became like this. “Forget it. I was concerned when I couldn’t reach your room. What’s the name of your hotel, in case I can’t get you on your cell?”
He hesitated a half-second too long. “You can reach me on my cell. Otherwise, it’s the Beverly. But I may be able to move to the Rex, so don’t freak out. Two more nights and I’ll be back in Tulsa. Hopefully you will too. Tell me what you’ve found so far.”
She told him quickly and cut the call short. “I need to go, Will. I need to get back up to the ranch, and I’ll lose reception on the curves going through the hills. I’ll call tomorrow.”
“Okay. Tomorrow. Cell would be best. Love you.”
“Me, too.” She disconnected. The Beverly in Toronto. Relief moved through her. It was a reasonable explanation. She trusted him, but something felt different. He was no longer upset with her, no longer demanding that she go home or he would come after her. He was no longer talking about leaving the conference. His voice had sounded completely different. Something had changed.
She thought about going back inside the bar to find Lamar again, but his truck was no longer parked beside her. He’d left when she answered Will’s call.
It was just as well. Her insides felt poured out, and she didn’t want to talk. She started the SUV, intending to drive to Jandafar Hills.
Something jabbed her brain. Mike had come down here to help and to tell her about Will. Were his motives all good? Mike had played the white knight all week, helping her search for the painting, enduring the explosion fiasco and the search through the Wade’s home the following morning. Now he had followed her to the Wichita
Mountains.
She turned the SUV around. Mike was staying at Mrs. Childers’. Nancy, the waitress, had pointed down the street the opposite way from Jandafar when she had suggested the boarding house as a place Mandy might stay for a night or two.
She drove past the restaurant and watched for the rooming house. Three blocks later, there it was. The white sign with black lettering matched the big house partially hidden behind overgrown evergreens. A duplicate sign hung beside the front door on the wide veranda. White rocking chairs and hanging ferns depicted southern hospitality.
In the deepening twilight, the house looked huge, and had it not been for the electric candles in the front facing windows, it might have appeared menacing. As it was, the front door stood open behind a glass storm door and gave a view into the cozy foyer.
She parked at the curb, dashed up the sidewalk, and climbed the veranda steps.
~ Chapter 37 ~
Mike
Mike McNally scurried away from the bar. He fumed.
She doesn’t believe that her precious Will has been lying to her. But she’ll find out soon enough.
His feet pounded the sidewalk, and he delighted in stepping down hard on any insect crossing his path. A spider dashed, he smashed it; a roly-poly scuttled, he squished it; an earthworm wriggled from the edge of a yard, he sidestepped and smashed it. He was not to be reckoned with.
He’s going to get a piece of my mind when he finally gets here. He’s putting me off. He knows I’m due the money. I found his precious Jenna, and now he’s delaying.
Good thing he hadn’t come to the bar and seen Mandy. Who’d have believed she’d be there, and that she’d see me? It could have been a disaster, but I salvaged the situation by diverting her attention to Will.
He stopped at a street corner and waited for the traffic to pass before he crossed the street to the convenience store. Thoughts exploded in his head.
I don’t like the looks of that cowboy she had with her. Typical jerk. Confident, cool. I should have pulled him out of that SUV and smashed his smirking face. Where’d she pick him up, anyway?
