“You have my permission,” she said while raising a challenging eyebrow.
There was not another woman in this world I would take such crap from. But Jeanette…Even I didn’t understand the hold she had on me. I started to go but then an old question bubbled up inside of me. “Jeanette, just curious. How did you know I was having an affair with Edith?”
Jeanette smirked. “Every woman in the county knew it, Mike. We thought it was good for her and we thought it was good for you.”
“But how?”
“It came up in book club.”
I was incredulous. “In book club?”
“Well, the wine does flow there, you know. Edith started talking and nobody thought to tell her to shut up. We all swore later to keep it to ourselves.”
Feeling like I was about to explode, I took myself on a walk straight out across the badlands. I just stomped along, muttering to myself about how stupid I was for even liking Jeanette, much less being in love with her, kicking at clods of dirt, yelling at a startled rattlesnake, then about a mile out, turned around and stomped back. Calmer now, I went to the four-wheeler for the guns, then called Amelia and Ray down from the hill. They were looking happy, tanned, and fresh. Ah, youth. “Just keep these close by,” I said after explaining the reason for the weapons. Neither of them seemed upset that bad men might be coming our way. They were both hunters, though being hunted isn’t nearly the same.
Carrying Jeanette’s Magnum and the rifle wrapped in the tablecloth, I headed to my tent to change into my digging clothes. When I crawled out, Pick was waiting for me. He appeared upset, a worried frown creasing his forehead. He ran his hands through his golden mane, and bit at his lower lip. “I just talked to Tanya about that Russian guy getting killed,” he said.
I corrected him. “As I told you, Pick, Toby was murdered, not killed. A subtle but important difference.”
“Tanya said he was found in the lake,” Pick said. “Couldn’t he have just drowned?”
“An interesting theory,” I replied. “Do you think he drowned before or after he had his throat cut and his skull punched in? Didn’t you hear a word I said?”
He grimaced. “I guess not.”
“Pick, you’ve got to climb out of deep time occasionally to see what’s happening in real time.”
Our boy paleontologist nodded. “So…who killed Toby?” he asked after looking down at his boots for a long second.
“I have no clue.”
“But you’ll find out, right?”
I shook my head. “Pick, I’m going back to tearing down Blackie Butte. When would I find out?”
“Well, you used to be a detective.”
“‘Used to be’ are the operative words here.”
“But couldn’t you…I mean…shouldn’t you…?”
There was something decidedly weird going on in Pick’s mind, not that this was entirely unusual. “OK,” I said, allowing a short sigh of exasperation. “Let me start detecting with you. Did you murder Toby?”
Pick went wide-eyed. “Me? Why would I do that?”
“Maybe you knew him before you came out here.”
“How could that be?”
“Beats me.” I made a check mark in the air. “OK, that’s one suspect found innocent. I think I’ve detected enough for today. I’m going to go pick and shovel.” I reached back inside the tent to get my backpack with the Glock and Jeanette’s big pistol. I left the rifle wrapped in the tablecloth. When I stood up, Pick was still there staring at me like he had something else to say. Instead, I said, “Pick, I’m done with you. Get out of my way.”
Pick got out of my way. I found Jeanette sitting in a camp chair studying a BLM map. She accepted the .357 Magnum without comment, placing it on the table beside her. She never even looked up. I wanted in the worst way to give her some grief about her general attitude but decided it wasn’t worth my energy. In fact, at that moment, I decided I was through with Jeanette and the Square C, too. There were other ranches that needed a seasoned cowpoke like me. I thought maybe Mary, the librarian, and her husband, Wade, would take me on and maybe even give me some respect. My decision made me feel a lot better. Yep, that’s exactly what I was going to do. I could scarcely wait to see the expression on Jeanette’s face when I told her. But first, I had a mountain to take down and some dinosaurs to find.
I climbed up the hill. Laura was on one of the jackhammers but handed it over to Brian and came over. Before she could say anything, I led her about halfway back down the hill to get away from the noise and asked, “Did you kill Toby?”