Never Say Never (22 page)

Whatever minor easing of tension they’d managed to achieve had reverted to friction again. She couldn’t help thinking that the Reed Ranch might not be her home much longer.

It was a very painful thought.

Dustin was letting Rooster pick his way along a stream when he heard Marsh’s loud whistle. He returned the signal, then waited for his friend to appear. Moments later he did, astride one of Dustin’s geldings.

“You must have news or you wouldn’t have ridden out here to find me,” he said.

“Yep. And I’m a damn good friend to do it, too.”

He pulled his hat a little farther down over his eyes to shield them from the light. Marsh had managed to park himself in the path of west-riding sun. “Give me the bad news.”

“They’re gone, Dustin. Sadie and her mother have left town. They’ve had their mail routed to a post office box and canceled their newspaper.”

“Where did they go?”

Marsh shrugged. “No one seems to know. Or else they’re not telling. Would your mother have an idea of where any of Vera Benchley’s family might live?”

Dustin pushed his boots into the stirrups to shift his position while he thought about it. “She might. But how do you know they’d hunt out family?”

“I don’t. I’m grasping at straws.”

“Yeah.” They all were. “Why would they leave if Holly is theirs? Why would they leave her behind instead of taking her with them? Wouldn’t she be safer out of town?”

“I don’t know. Dustin, I hate to say this, but I’m beginning to think this picture isn’t hanging on the wall straight.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Marsh looked away briefly. “All I know is this. Jill McCall shows up on your property at the same time a stray baby does. She claims she has a scare in town, but we don’t have any eyewitnesses to that. It was a helluva good story. Your mother definitely buys it, right down to imagining that a stitched crown on a blanket is a message. What I don’t get is, why isn’t there any record of birth in any of the hospitals, and why the Benchleys wouldn’t alert us to their problem, if, in fact, there was one? Why dump the baby on your land if she was in so much danger? And where is this guy with the shaved head that Jill supposedly saw?”

Dustin tried to throttle his temper. He reminded himself that this was his friend, his
best
friend of many years, who was only trying to look at the situation from a cop’s perspective. Stranger things had happened than what Marsh was suggesting Jill might have done. Still, it was all he could do not to give his horse a swift kick and leave Marsh alone by the stream.

“Maybe there is no record of birth because the baby was born at home. If Vera’s such a damn good seamstress, maybe she’s good at other things, too,” he said, careful to keep his tone neutral. “I don’t know why they didn’t go to the police, unless they were simply scared out of their skin to do it. For all I know, the guy might have threatened them if they did say anything. As for the guy in question, I don’t know where he is. You’re the one who keeps his ear to the ground with the local youth. Do your damn job and ask around.”

“I am, damn it, Dustin. And you know I am. But I wanted to run this past your thick skull and see if we could thresh out any alternative storyline than what we’re getting from your housekeeper. You wouldn’t be so damned touchy about the thing if you weren’t…”

Dustin’s eyes narrowed. “If I wasn’t what?” he asked, his voice dangerously soft.

“Well, hell! If you weren’t blinded by that bright smile and that daisy-fresh appeal of Jill’s. I mean, damn, friend. Every time you walk into the room, Jill looks like she’s seeing the dawn of a new day. She lights up like a star on a Christmas tree.”

He kicked the horse into motion, intent on getting away from Marsh and everything he was saying. He didn’t want to hear it, and he wasn’t going to hear it. What he was saying about Jill was ridiculous both about the baby and about her.

Marsh galloped up alongside him, throwing out an arm to drag him off the horse. They went tumbling to the ground, rolling down into a ravine, punching at each other and swearing like devils.

“You sorry ass son of a gun,” Dustin shouted, pinning Marsh to the ground. “You could have killed me! Or you, not that it would have been any great loss!”

“I’d like to kill you, ’cause I think that’s what it’s gonna take to get you to listen. You mule-headed son of a bitch, you’re thinking with your crotch and not your head!” With a roar, he threw Dustin off of him, leaping to his feet in a boxing stance.

“I’m not buying the crap you’re peddling, friend. You can’t solve the case, so you’d rather lynch Jill than keep working it.”

Marsh circled warily. “I’m the best damn lawman around. I never leave a case until it’s solved. If you don’t think Jill’s cooked up this scam, then you tell me where the bald-headed boyfriend is.”

“I hope he’s in hell. That’s where you’re going when I get through with you,” Dustin said, lunging to pack a punch at Marsh’s jaw. It connected solidly, but the sheriff got one off, too, before Dustin backed up, eyeing his opponent cautiously.

“I don’t think he exists, except in the mind of your housekeeper. She’s bought herself a pretty secure position, with everybody worrying about the baby getting snatched.”

“Not too damn secure after the visit Maxine paid me today,” Dustin growled.

Marsh relaxed his arms slightly. “What the hell are you mouthing off about now?”

He relaxed his stance a little, too, though he didn’t completely release the fisted position of his hands. Marsh was known to get a thrill out of a sucker punch every once in a while. Not that he’d ever pulled it on Dustin, but he would never have bet Marsh would drag him off a galloping horse just to chitchat, either.

“Maxine learned I had a new housekeeper, courtesy of Joey. He was a bit too enthusiastic about her, and Maxine automatically leaped to the same conclusion you have. That Jill is a bed warmer and on her way to becoming a permanent one.”

Marsh had the grace to look sheepish. “I’ve been wondering if Jill heard me say that.”

“She’s heard plenty today I’m sure she’d rather she hadn’t.” He tried to release the tension in his chest but couldn’t. There was a spring of fury inside him, all coiled up and ready to burst any second. Punching Marsh had taken a little of the tightness out of him, but it wasn’t all gone yet. “Maxine wants me to fire Jill. I didn’t take her seriously, until she leveled an accusation against my mother. That she had an affair with David Copeland.”

“Oh, yeah, right. And Santa isn’t a fairytale fat boy.”

Dustin completely relaxed his arms, knowing that Marsh and he could finish their conversation now without their fists. “Well, that’s how determined she is to win this thing. She made no bones that she’s going to make everything much more difficult if Jill remains at the ranch, replacing Nina in the family, to her mind.”

Marsh whistled at his horse, which came to graze at his side. “The old bat’s crazy.”

“Yeah. But you can see that Jill isn’t exactly the most popular person in Lassiter. No one, except my mother and me, seems to think her being here is a good thing.”

“I just want you to think, buddy. There’s something niggling at me about that woman that I just can’t put my finger on. All that sweetness and light bothers me. Maybe it’s Nina, remembering that’s the way she acted when she was trying to hook you. I don’t know. All I do know is that I feel like I’m reading a book, but the last page has been thrown away. How can there be so many pieces to this story missing? Jill’s the one answer that ties everything together.”

Dustin shook his head. “She was too frightened that day. And she doesn’t say anything, but I’ve noticed she doesn’t stray far from the house with the baby anymore. Used to be you couldn’t keep her indoors. Today she’s like a hearth cat.”

“I saw two blankets in front of that hearth. Maybe she likes the company.”

“Shut up. I told you, we kissed, no mountains moved, it was no big deal. The woman was scared and I took advantage of it. Not that it’s any of your business, but it’s been a helluva long time for me.”

“Me, too,” Marsh agreed. “Still, there just aren’t any other suspects. Why wouldn’t the Benchleys at least come to me?”

“Because they were afraid? Because Sadie might have been ashamed? Because they hadn’t taken the threat seriously, and once the boyfriend caught up with the baby, they took off without thinking about asking for help?” Dustin snapped his fingers. “Because Sadie was at risk, too.”

“Okay, I can go with that. But how hard can a guy with no hair be to track down?”

Dustin walked over and grasped his horse’s reins. “I don’t know, but something’s got to give. I think Mother’s arthritis is flaring up again, and that’s going to be another problem. Jill’s so afraid for the baby she won’t go to the grocery with her anymore, which is right, but Mother won’t be able to watch the baby if her hips act up.”

“You may have to stick her in the saddle with you.”

“Nah. I don’t think Jill rides.”

Marsh laughed loudly as he got on his horse. “Man, you are out of control. I meant the baby, bozo.”

He snorted and got on his horse, too. “You’d best watch your mouth because I’m not sure you’re still my friend after today. As I recall, the only way you eat is at my table.”

“Yeah, well, you just count yourself lucky I don’t haul your ass into jail for assaulting an officer of the law.”

Marsh turned his horse toward the house, letting the beast have his head, but Dustin followed more slowly. Whether he liked it or not, the fact that his friend didn’t believe in Jill the way he did wasn’t a good sign. Always before they’d been inseparable, like two sides of a coin. Now they were on different sides, and it was hard to tell which side was right.

Jill waited nervously for Marsh and Dustin to return. Whatever the lawman had wanted to speak to Dustin about, it wouldn’t wait for him to return. Usually, the sheriff made himself comfortable in the kitchen with a snack. Today, he’d thanked Jill politely enough and gone to saddle himself a horse. He hadn’t even nabbed a gingerbread man.

It was a bad sign when Marsh’s stomach couldn’t waylay whatever was on his mind. Now she was jittery.

She’d put Joey down for his nap and checked on Eunice and baby Holly. Both were fine and Eunice insisted she didn’t want any help with the baby. The two of them looked cozy, so Jill went into her room and thought about packing her suitcase. She even went so far as to drag it out of the closet, knowing that there really wasn’t anything Dustin could do about the situation except ask her to leave. She’d seen the look in his eyes as he stormed through the kitchen.

Then she put the suitcase back, telling herself she was being fatalistic. Her feelings were going to get hurt, and she’d have no one to blame but herself, of course. But she might as well look on the bright side and hope that there was the slimmest chance she could stay.

She sat in the kitchen, staring at a cookbook and not registering anything it said about the roast she needed to put in the oven. When the front door opened and shut with a resonating boom, her heart leapt into her throat.

The two men entered the kitchen, filling it with their big-shouldered height. She swallowed, looking from one to the other.

“I see you found him,” she said lamely.

“That I did.”

Marsh sat down across from her. Dustin leaned against the kitchen counter before pouring out a tumbler of tea.

“If you want one, you’ll have to get it yourself,” he told Marsh.

“Naw. Thanks.” Marsh pinned her with a look. “The Benchleys left town, Jill. There’s no sign of when they left, or when they’re coming back.”

“Oh, no.” Her mouth dried out. “How do you know they left town?”

“They stopped their mail and newspaper.”

“Oh, dear. I suppose this means they were really frightened. That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“No?”

She couldn’t fathom the look in Marsh’s eyes. Dustin watched from his corner, but didn’t make an effort to join the conversation.

“Maybe they’ll be back soon,” she said lamely. What did he want her to say? Suddenly, she realized she was on edge, and it was because of the sheriff. He was watching her too closely. “Maybe the baby wasn’t theirs,” she offered. “Maybe it was someone else’s.”

“Maybe it was.”

“But I saw the look in that girl’s eyes, Marsh. She was dying to touch Holly, but then she looked terrified when that boy came. I would swear with my last breath that she was the mother.”

“I haven’t been able to locate the boyfriend.”

“He shouldn’t be too hard to spot in a crowd,” she said thoughtfully. “I would recognize him immediately.”

“Would you?”

Her temper flared. “Yes, I would! That was the most frightening moment of my life! I have nightmares about that nasty look on his face, and the meanness in his eyes.”

“Dustin’s been a strong shoulder for you to lean on.”

“Yes, he has. He—wait a minute.” Jill stopped, leveling a stern eye on the sheriff. “I don’t like the tone of your voice, Sheriff.”

“Easy, Jill. There are a lot of questions that haven’t been answered. I’m trying to find out if you remember anything else that you haven’t mentioned.”