here,” he said. “What we need to find out is who she might have been seeing, what she might have been doing during the time she wasn’t with me.”
“And how do we go about finding those answers?” she asked.
“We start right here, where she worked.” He slid out of the booth. “Wait here and I’ll be right back. If that toast is your breakfast, then I suggest you eat it because it might be a long day.”
He went in search of Daisy, the owner of the café. If anyone would know the people Wendy interacted with both at work and outside of work, it would be Daisy. She thrived on the café business and gossip. He had no idea if Chief Bowie had already talked to Daisy, but it didn’t matter if he had. Nick wanted to hear from the woman himself. He found the plump woman in the kitchen seated at a small table sipping a glass of tomato juice that matched the color of her hair.
“Hey, Nick,” she greeted him. “What are you doing back here in my kitchen? Is Jenna not doing her job right?”
“No, Jenna is just fine. I was wondering if you’d have a few minutes to come out and sit with me and Wendy’s sister, Adrienne, and answer some questions for us.”
“Even if I didn’t have time, I’d make time.” She set her glass down and stood. “That poor woman. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. I know how much I miss Wendy, and I only knew her for a couple of months.”
She followed Nick out of the kitchen and to the booth, where Nick noticed that Adrienne had nibbled down half a piece of toast. Nick picked up his hat and placed it on his lap so that Daisy could scoot in next to him.
She instantly reached across the table and clasped Adrienne’s small hands in her meaty ones. “Honey, I’m so sorry for your loss. For the brief time she was here, Wendy was like a breath of fresh air, a new member of my family.”
She released Adrienne’s hands and leaned back in the booth. “So Nick said you two have some questions for me.” She looked from Adrienne to Nick.
“I know Wendy was a popular waitress, but we were wondering if you could think of anyone in particular who showed an unusual interest in her,” Nick said.
“She wasn’t just a pretty girl and something new and shiny in town. She was also friendly and a bit of a tease,” Daisy said. “When she worked, her section was always full. She drew everyone to her. The cowboys especially. Her section was almost always full of single ranch hands vying for her attention.”
“Did she make anyone mad or upset?” Adrienne asked. “Did she have problems with any of her coworkers? I know Wendy could be wonderful and charming, but I also know she had a bit of a temper and could be a brat.” Adrienne’s face paled, as if she was sickened by speaking anything ill about her sister.
Daisy frowned thoughtfully. “I think she might have had some choice words with Zeke Osmond. He sat in her section one day, and I think he got a bit vulgar with her. She called him a filthy pig and refused to finish serving him. After that, he always sat at the counter with his lowlife friends.”
“Zeke Osmond?” Adrienne looked at Nick curiously.
“He works on the Humes Ranch,” Nick replied.
“The one next to where you work,” Adrienne said.
Nick nodded thoughtfully. Zeke Osmond was another piece of nasty in a group of nasty that worked for Raymond Humes. There was no question that there was bad blood between the two ranches. Was it possible Zeke had murdered Wendy and then had buried her on the Holiday Ranch to implicate one of the Holiday ranch hands?
He focused his attention back to Daisy, who had continued talking. “Of course, Greg Albertson is Zeke’s shadow and was with Zeke when Wendy and Zeke had words. Then there’s Perry Wright, who seemed to take a real shine to Wendy. He’s so shy, I don’t know whether he ever asked her out or not, but it was obvious he was crazy about her whenever he came in to eat.”
“Have you told Dillon all this?” Nick asked.
Daisy shook her head. “I haven’t talked to Dillon since I made the initial identification. I told him what I knew about Wendy’s interactions here in the café then.” She kept her gaze away from Adrienne.
“And you can’t think of anyone else that Wendy might have had problems with?” Adrienne asked.
“Not while she was working here. Now, what happened on her own time I really don’t know about.” She looked at Nick. “I know she followed you around like a lost little puppy, but I don’t know who else she spent her downtime with. If she was seeing another cowboy or any other man, I didn’t hear about it.”
Adrienne’s eyes narrowed once again as she looked at Nick. Daisy caught her look and laughed. “Honey, if you think Nick had anything to do with your sister’s death, you’re barking up the wrong tree.” Daisy placed a hand on Nick’s forearm. “I’ve known this man since he was a teenager. There isn’t a bad bone in his entire body.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Daisy,” he said.
She rose from the booth. “You don’t have to convince me of your innocence.” She jerked a thumb in Adrienne’s direction. “She’s the one who has suspicion in her eyes.”
“So what happens now?” Adrienne asked after Daisy left.
“We find Dillon and give him the three names that Daisy just gave us,” he replied. He was particularly interested in Dillon following up on the potential Zeke Osmond and Greg Albertson connection.
Last month one of Humes’s men, Lloyd Green, had been suspected of terrorizing the new owner of Holiday Ranch, Cassie, and her friend Nicolette at the Holiday Ranch. He was eventually cleared, but Nick wouldn’t put anything past any of the ranch hands who worked for Raymond Humes.
They were suspected in all kinds of mischief that had happened at the Holiday Ranch...missing cattle and broken fence line and dozens of other issues.
It seemed as if Raymond Humes had gone out of his way to staff his ranch with rough and mean ranch hands, men who had no moral compasses and who thrived on stirring up trouble. As far as Nick was concerned, it was very possible there could be a murderer among the bunch.
“Let’s go see Chief Bowie,” Adrienne said, pulling him from his thoughts.
Minutes later, they pulled up side by side at the police station only to discover that Dillon was out at the crime scene at the ranch.
Adrienne followed Nick to the ranch, her car like a shining star behind his Jeep in the midmorning sunshine. How did people prove their innocence when there was no evidence to prove their guilt?
It was obvious he’d made little to no headway in making Adrienne believe in his innocence, and what bothered him was how badly he wanted her to believe him.
There had been few people in Nick’s life he’d wanted to please. Certainly not the woman who had given birth to him and then had abandoned him at the zoo when he was eight, leaving him to a foster care system that had, at times, been brutal.
When he’d been brought to the Holiday Ranch, he’d desperately wanted to please Cass Holiday, who had given him real-life lessons and a sense of worth and had taught him how to be a good, self-respecting man.
