of Walt’s driveway, he tried to ignore the stab of grief that always pierced his heart when he thought of his missing sister.
And now they had another one missing. Tom was reluctant to tie the two disappearances together, but Benjamin had a bad feeling about the whole thing. He was afraid Black Rock was in for dark days, and the darkness had nothing to do with Walt’s imaginary space aliens.
As he headed for the ranch his thoughts returned to Edie Burnett. For a minute as he’d seen her tears after he’d pulled her over, he’d thought she was faking them to get out of a ticket.
Old Mabel Tredway did it on a regular basis. The eighty-two-year-old woman shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car and whenever Benjamin pulled her over for crossing the center line or going a little too fast, she wept like a baby. But the one time he’d given her a ticket, the fake tears had stopped on a dime and she’d cussed him, his dead mama and all the cattle on his ranch.
However, Edie’s tears had been real and as she’d burped up the details of her life with each sob, he had decided not to write the ticket.
She had enough to deal with in deciding what to do with Walt. Benjamin and his lawmen brothers had come to the end of their rope with the old man. Nobody wanted to see anything bad happen to him, but they all felt it was just a matter of time before he got hurt.
As he pulled into the gates that led to the family homestead, he felt the familiar sense of peace the place always brought to him. The house itself was an architectural anomaly. What had started as a simple two-bedroom ranch had become a sprawling complex as rooms were added with each birth of a child.
There was also a small cottage just behind the house where Margaret Kintell, a sixty-eight-year-old widow, lived. Margaret had worked as a housekeeper for the Grayson family for as long as Benjamin could remember. Her husband, John, had worked as a ranch hand until he’d passed away several years ago, and even though Benjamin had encouraged Margaret to retire she insisted that her job was still taking care of the Grayson children.
Unfortunately Benjamin was the only Grayson child still living in the family home and he wasn’t exactly a child at thirty years old. His brothers Tom and Caleb lived in town. Brittany had been living in town at the time of her disappearance and Jacob was holed up in a small cabin nestled in a grove of trees on the ranch property.
The porch light was on so he knew Margaret was probably still in the house rather than in her little cottage. As he walked through the front door, the scent of apples and cinnamon filled his nose and Tiny came running toward him, barking a happy greeting.
“Hi, Tiny.” He bent down on his haunches to pet the mixed-breed mutt who had stolen his heart six months ago. “Margaret?” he called as he stood. As he walked through the living room toward the kitchen, Tiny followed close at his feet.
She greeted him in the doorway and gestured him into a chair at the table. “Go on, now, sit down. I made fresh apple cobbler and I know that nutcase Walt probably didn’t feed you good and proper.”
Benjamin smiled and eased down at the table. “Actually, he had a very nice roast and potatoes for dinner.” Margaret had been mad at Walt since last year’s fall festival when his apple pie had beaten out hers for a blue ribbon.
She harrumphed as she scooped up a healthy serving of the cobbler into a bowl. “Probably got the recipe from one of those space aliens of his. I don’t know why you have taken that man under your wing. You’re too soft, Benjamin. That’s always been your problem. All Walt Tolliver needs is a stern talking-to.” She placed the bowl in front of him and then went to the refrigerator and pulled out the jug of milk.
“Maybe his granddaughter can talk some sense into him. She arrived in town today.”
“Really?” Margaret placed a glass of milk in front of him and then sat across from him. “That would be Julie’s girl.”
“Edie,” Benjamin replied. “Her name is Edie Burnett.”
“That’s right. Julie married that no-account Kevin Burnett. He was a drinker, that one, and a womanizer. The marriage lasted just long enough for Julie to get pregnant. It was a shame, her dying like that in a car accident. So, what’s Edie like?”
Hot. With tantalizing eyes and a body that could make a man weak in the knees. He spooned some of the apple cobbler in his mouth in an effort to think of a more reasonable response.
“She didn’t seem to know what’s been going on with Walt and when she realized he thought Black Rock was being invaded by space aliens, she seemed a little overwhelmed by it all,” he finally replied.
“She in town to stay?”
“No. I imagine she’ll just be here long enough to figure out what needs to be done with Walt and then she’ll go back home.”
“What’s she like? Julie was a pretty woman and sweet as that cobbler.”
“She’s nice-looking,” Benjamin conceded, “but I think she might have a little bite to her.” He thought about how her gaze had frosted over when he’d attempted a little light flirtation.
If he were a man who liked a challenge, he might have pursued a little more flirting just to see if he could melt that frost. But Benjamin was a man who’d never felt enough passion to work too hard for anything. Except this ranch.
“She’s got her work cut out for her in straightening out that old man,” Margaret said as she rose from the table. “I’m going to head to my place. It’s time for this old broad to call it a night.”
Benjamin smiled. “Good night, Margaret.” The old woman had the heart of an angel and the saltiness of a sailor, but she helped to keep the ranch and Benjamin’s life running smoothly.
Once she was gone the silence of the house pressed in on him. Growing up with all his siblings in the house, he’d longed for silence.
But lately the silence in his life had felt oppressive, ushering in a loneliness he’d never felt before. His brother Jacob had closed himself off in the cabin in some form of self-imposed isolation. Brittany was missing and Tom and Caleb now had beautiful bright women to fill the silences in their lives.
He got up from the table and carried his bowl and glass to the sink. As he rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher, he thought of all the things he needed to get done in the next couple days while he was off-duty.
Of course, the law enforcement team in Black Rock was so small that all of the men were often called in on their time off. He left the kitchen and doused the light, then headed toward the master bedroom.
As always, when the silence pressed in the heaviest, his thoughts turned to Brittany. A little over two months without a word, without a clue as to what happened to her. They’d found her car hidden in an abandoned barn a month ago and it was at that moment that any hope he might have entertained in seeing his sister alive again had died.
With intentions of rising before dawn to start the catch-up on chores around the ranch, he shucked his jeans and shirt and got ready for bed. Tiny sat next to the bed and looked up at him expectantly.
“You know you have your own bed to sleep in,” he said to the dog, who cocked his head as if he didn’t understand. Benjamin pointed to the dog bed in the corner. “Go on, get to bed.”
Tiny remained in
