guess I can live with that,” Lenora said, “though I hate to tell her that I’m going back on my offer to move her out here tomorrow. And I don’t like the idea of her going back to that motel all alone.”
“Have the doctor keep her in the hospital,” Matt said. “I don’t know why he’d object to that, as long as we pick up the tab.”
“I suppose that’s an option,” Lenora said. “And tomorrow’s probably not the best day to have her out here, anyway, what with children from the Turnaround Program coming out for the day.”
Matt groaned. “That’s tomorrow?”
“Yes, and you promised to help with the horse riding,” Lenora said, smoothing her short graying hair. “I’ll give Shelly’s doctor a call, but I guess I should go back into town tonight and break the news to Shelly in person.”
“I’ll do it,” Matt said, suddenly uneasy with his mother becoming too involved with Shelly before they had an official report.
“Okay, but don’t tell her the delay is because we’re having her investigated. Just say I’m getting her room ready so that everything will be perfect when she arrives.”
Matt shrugged. “Sorry, Mom, I’m not into sugarcoating.”
“Just be nice,” Lenora said. “Miss Lane’s welcome to Texas has already been traumatic enough.”
“I’m always nice.”
“Compared to what?” Jaime asked. “A striking rattlesnake?”
“Just because I’m not a pushover for a smile and a pretty face doesn’t mean I’m unsociable.”
“Pretty, huh?” Jaime smiled tauntingly. “This story just keeps getting better. But I’ll have to hear the rest tomorrow. I’ve got a date with Tommy Stevens tonight, and he should be here to pick me up any minute.”
“When did you start dating him?” Trish asked. “I thought you were back with Garth.”
“Not anymore. All he thinks about is running off to some new rodeo competition. Like at twenty-five, don’t you think he’d have better things to do than try to stay on a stupid bull?”
Matt would have thought the guy had better things to do than date Jaime. She was as fickle as a mare at breeding time. But all she had to do was crook her finger and Garth—and half the male population of south Texas—came running. He hoped someone would shoot him if he ever got that crazy about any woman.
His cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID: sheriff’s office. He walked to the kitchen to take the call. Ten to one this had to do with Shelly Lane, and the odds were even better that it was not good news.
Chapter Three
“What’s up, Ed?” Matt asked as soon as the sheriff identified himself.
“I just talked to Emile Henley up at the Shell Station on the highway west of town. He said a stranger in a black Ford Fusion stopped for gas at his place about an hour before today’s shooting.”
“That’s interesting. Did he think the man might have been drunk or high on something?”
“Nope, just buck-snorting arrogant according to Emile. He said he tried to make small talk when the guy came inside for cigarettes, but the man just made some comment about Colts Run Cross being a hick town and stomped away.”
“Did he notice if the car had a license plate on it at the time?”
“Said he didn’t notice.”
“But he likely would have if the plate had been missing. The culprit probably removed it just before opening fire on Shelly Lane.”
“That’s what I’m thinking as well. I’d be careful if I was you about moving her onto the ranch. She seems nice enough, but truth is she might be mixed up in most anything.”
“I’m in solid agreement. If it were up to me, I’d write out a check for her time and expenses and say adios, but Mom is championing her case—as if she were the only qualified PT north of the border.”
“I hear you, and your mother can be a stubborn woman at times. Can you call Miss Lane to the phone?”
“I’d have to yell awful loud. I’m out at the ranch.”
“Isn’t she there with you?”
“No, why would you think that?”
“I stopped by the hospital a few minutes ago to question her and the nurse said she checked herself out and told them she would be spending the night at Jack’s Bluff Ranch. I figured Lenora had picked her up.”
“No, Mom’s been here all evening. So have I. Shelly Lane is definitely not here.”
“This case is getting weirder by the minute.”
“Is there something more about her past?”
“Not a lot. I ran her through the system. Everything checks out. No warrants out for her arrest. No rap sheet. Not even an outstanding parking ticket.”
“So you’re thinking this might have actually been a case of random violence?”
“Could be. There’s been a rash of them in southeast Houston of late. We’re less than an hour and a half out of the city so it’s reasonable that some of the hoods down there might have connections up here. But then there was the gun.”
“Are you saying you found the weapon?”
“Not the perp’s, but when we were checking Miss Lane’s vehicle for ballistic evidence, I found a loaded Smith & Wesson .45 in her busted-up glove compartment. It might mean nothing. Lots of women traveling alone carry high-powered pistols these days.”
“But it could mean she was afraid of someone,” Matt said, “someone who followed her to Texas.”
“Exactly.”
As far as Matt was concerned, this was beginning to look more and more like the pretty little PT had better reasons than a need for change of scenery for taking a job so far from home. And now she’d lied about where she’d be tonight.
But no matter what she’d told the nurse at the hospital, it was a sure thing she wouldn’t be spending tonight, or any other night, at Jake’s Bluff Ranch until he got to the bottom of this.
FORTUNATELY FOR SHELLY, Hank Tanner’s Garage and Body Shop was on Birch, a quiet side street of mostly closed family-owned businesses less than a mile from the hospital. It should have been an easy twilight walk except that the temperature was still in the eighties and the humidity seemed higher still.
Perspiration wet her underarms and dripped into her eyes. Worse, her arm had stated to throb. Wiping her face with a tissue from her pocket, she crossed the street and turned the corner, thankful when she spotted the sign for the garage in the next block. Her spirits lifted more when she saw her car parked at the side of the old clapboard building.
Hopefully
