delight. “That’s true enough, sweet,” she agreed. “You really can cook. How’s Hayes?” she added.
“Mad,” Minette sighed, perching against the counter. “I mentioned why he hated drugs and the truce went over the hill.”
Sarah grimaced.
“Me and my big mouth,” Minette said heavily. “I just never know when to keep it shut, do I?”
“He won’t believe the truth, after all this time, will he?” she asked.
Minette shook her head. “I don’t know why he hates me so much.”
Neither did Sarah. But she was older than Minette and she’d heard enough gossip to have a faint idea of what might be the problem. She didn’t have the heart to share that information with Minette, however. Some secrets should never be told.
Minette frowned at the guilty expression on her great-aunt’s face. “What do you know, Aunt Sarah?”
“Me?” Sarah acted for all she was worth. “What do you mean, child?”
The innocent act worked. Minette couldn’t see through it. “Sorry,” she replied. “I’m just edgy.”
“I know.” She was somber. “Somebody wants Hayes dead. I hope they can find out who, before they try again.”
“Yancy Dean is one of the best investigators we’ve ever had,” Minette reminded her. “He came out here from Dade County, Florida, and a Miami cop is no slouch.”
“I agree.”
“Besides, Zack Tallman could dig information out of a dry turnip. The pair of them are almost invincible.”
“I heard something today.”
Minette moved closer. “What?”
“Yancy went to see Cash Grier.”
Minette sat down at the table with the older woman. “I know. He’s trying to find out who the shooter was.”
Sarah leaned forward, as if the walls themselves had ears. “Cash still has contacts in covert ops. He knows where to find out things. If it’s local talent, he’ll ferret it out, Yancy says.”
“Yancy’s sharp.”
“Yes. So is Zack,” Sarah agreed. “You mark my words, it’s this drug cartel that’s responsible. Somehow, Hayes is in the middle of a turf war.”
“He catches crooks. It’s an unpopular profession.”
Sarah nodded. “And he takes chances, honey.”
Minette’s black eyes were sad. “I noticed. This is his third gunshot wound. Sooner or later, he’s going to get one they can’t fix.”
“It’s so odd, too, isn’t it?” Sarah asked, thinking aloud. “I mean, Dallas Carson never got shot even once, and he was sheriff here for twenty years. We’ve never had a police chief take a bullet, either. But Hayes gets hit three times.”
Minette frowned. “Maybe it’s just bad luck.”
“It’s indifference,” Sarah said quietly. “He doesn’t care if he dies.”
Minette’s face went pale. She tried to hide it, but the older woman knew her too well.
Sarah laid a hand over Minette’s. “He’s alone. Well, except for this time, when he needed family around him, and he had nobody. He hasn’t had a family since his father died. He lost his mother when Bobby was in high school, then he lost Bobby. Dallas had a heart attack. So now there’s just Hayes. He has no girlfriend, no close relatives, nobody. It’s almost Thanksgiving, too, which reminds him that he’s all by himself in the world.”
“He’s independently wealthy,” Minette inserted.
“What good is money in the middle of the night when you’re totally alone and nobody cares what happens to you?” Sarah asked gently.
Minette frowned.
“Hayes doesn’t have a reason to care if he lives or dies,” the other woman said in a lowered voice. “He loves his job. Of course he does. But he’s fearless because he has nothing to lose, don’t you see?”
Minette had never understood Hayes’s penchant for walking into the jaws of death. She thought it was just cold courage. But what Sarah said made sense.
“You’ve got me and Shane and Julie,” Sarah persisted. “We’re your family and we love you. Who loves Hayes?”
Minette bit her tongue. She wasn’t going to start making confessions. Not now.
But Sarah knew. She’d always known. She’d seen Minette crying her eyes out when Hayes had carved up her heart with vicious accusations after Bobby’s death. She’d watched Minette go from a bright and bubbly teenager to an old woman in the months after Bobby’s overdose. Hayes had been relentless in pursuit of his brother’s killer, and his trail led straight to Minette.
Sarah had never understood why. Minette wasn’t a drug user. She never put a foot out of line, ever. But somehow Hayes convinced himself that she was the guilty party and treated her accordingly. It was odd that Hayes would end up convalescing here, when he’d made a career of hating Minette.
“Sarah?” Minette interrupted her thoughts.
“Sorry. I was just thinking about how long Hayes has blamed you for something you never even did,” Sarah replied quietly. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yes. So am I. But it won’t do any good. Hayes will never change his mind. He knows that Ivy Conley York’s sister Rachel supplied the drugs that Bobby overdosed on. She even left a confession of sorts when she died. He knows that Brent and Ella Walsh, Keely York’s parents, gave the uncut cocaine to Rachel deliberately for Bobby. But even that hasn’t made a dent in his attitude toward me.” She rested her chin on her propped hands. “Sometimes I think hating me is a habit he doesn’t want to give up. So he finds excuses to justify his dislike.”
“It’s so wrong.”
Minette smiled. “Hayes is stubborn.” She toyed with an orange silk flower in the fall arrangement on the dining room table. “I do wish he’d stop walking into bullets, though. For a mortal enemy, he’s got class.”
Sarah chuckled. “A noble enemy.”
“Absolutely.” She looked at her watch. “Well, I’ve got some research to do on the web, so I’d better get to it. You’ll be all right here with Hayes?” she added, and couldn’t help her worried expression.
“Zack and Yancy will be here in the morning,” Sarah reminded her. “They have guns. Big guns.”
“Hayes has a big gun. It didn’t do him much good on his porch, though, did it?” she asked ruefully.
Sarah had to agree. “Anyway, I keep the doors locked and you will be in the house. We can use the phone to call the sheriff’s office.”
