The Maverick Cowboy(7)

"That's right."

"So whatever happened-if you had murdered them-you would've gotten away with it."

Billy raised his chin. "I didn't, BB. I loved them."

There were a million things Blue wanted to say to that, but he squashed the emotions down and concentrated on the cold, hard facts.

"If you didn't kill her and she didn't kill herself, where did she go?" Blue tapped his pen against the paper. "She didn't take her truck, so she must have walked off the ranch, which would have been difficult with a young baby in her arms, or she had help from someone here."

Billy nodded. "The sheriff's men and the county rescue team searched the area pretty thoroughly, and there was no sign of her or any tracks."

"Then someone gave her a ride. How many hands did you have working on the ranch back then?"

"About a dozen."

"And they all knew Mom, right?"

"Yeah, because back in those days, we used to cook for the hands and the family three times a day, so they'd all come up to the house in shifts to eat."

"Ruth and Mom handled that, right?"

"Mostly. It was a lot of work."

"I bet it was."

Blue wrote a note. Ask Ruth about the hands who came up to eat in the house.

"Who did Mom talk to most?"

"She was nice to everyone when she was in one of her good moods. After Rachel's birth she got a lot quieter."

"But she must have talked to someone because he or she helped her leave you. If you had to take a guess, who do you think that was?"

Billy rubbed a hand over his beard. "As I mentioned before, she liked Big Mike."

"Anyone else?"

"Larry Paquino and Red Williams."

Blue wrote the names down. "Roy has all the old ranch records at his place, doesn't he?"

"I think so."

"I'll start there." Blue closed his notebook and stashed his pen in his shirt pocket. "Anything else you can think of?" 

"Not right at this moment."

Blue half rose and then paused. "Did she take her purse with her?"

"I don't know."

"Ruth will." He nodded brusquely at his father. "I'll come and find you if I have any more questions."

Billy remained seated, his head lowered toward his clasped hands. "You can ask me anything you like, son. That's why I'm here. To try and help."

"Until you disappear back to San Francisco?"

"I'm not planning on going back there for a while," Billy said quietly.

"Why not? I'm sure if you asked him nicely, Chase would set you up in an apartment."

There was a long tick of silence. "I don't want to be financially beholden to him."

There was a stubborn note in Billy's voice that Blue recognized all too well.

"So you'd rather hang out here. It's certainly cheaper."

Billy looked up. "BB, I know you're angry with me, and I know I deserve it, but this was my home, too. I grew up here just like you did, and I missed it more than I could ever have imagined."

"It's always been here. You were the one who walked away from it, or should I say crawled?" Blue headed for the door. "You were probably too drunk to remember much about that." Or about deserting your kids, letting four boys grow up without a mother or a father.

He slammed the door like a teenager, marched over to the barn, and saddled up Messi with quick jerky movements. This was why he didn't talk to his dad. It made him want to let all the rage out, and he was too old for that now. He'd learned to live with the betrayal and moved on with his life to become a strong and balanced individual. He rested his forehead against Messi's rough neck and breathed in the reassuring scent of horse.

The quicker he worked out whether there was a chance his mother and sister were alive, the sooner his father would be gone.

That was one hell of an incentive to get the matter cleared up once and for all.

* * *

Jenna patted the mama pig on her ample backside and reversed out of the pigsty, her hands held high like she was in a hostage situation. The thing was, mama sows were super protective of their young, and this one had about twenty little piglets to keep an eye on. She'd grudgingly accepted Jenna in her space, but it wasn't worth pushing her luck. Better vets than Jenna had ended up on the wrong side of a pig.

"She's doing great." Jenna disposed of the syringes in the hazard waste receptacle and washed up in the bucket of hot water Roy put beside her. "And so are the little guys."

"She's a good mother, that one," Roy commented, leaning over the wall to contemplate his charge with some satisfaction. "I picked a fine-looking pig."

Jenna had nothing to say to that as she located her bag and looked for the paperwork that accompanied the shots.

"Have you named her yet?"

"I can't decide whether she's a Bertha or a Martha. Time will tell."

Jenna studied the pig. "She looks more like a Peggy to me, but I'm not sure I'd feel right naming my food."

"Vegetarians." Roy chuckled. "Come out of the sun while you do all that necessary stuff," Roy said as he walked upslope to his modest foreman's cottage. "I've got iced tea."

"Sold," Jenna called out as she followed him. In the distance there was a small cloud of dust getting bigger by the second. Squinting into the sun, Jenna tried to recognize the horse and rider.



       
         
       
        

"BB's coming." Roy didn't even need to look. "Not sure why."

"If you're busy, I could just go home and do the paperwork there," Jenna offered.

"No need. I'd much rather look at your pretty face than BB's. So come on in and take the weight off."

Jenna went into the kitchen diner, which comprised a third of Roy's living space. It smelled of horse, leather, and wet dog, which was pretty much the same as the man himself. Jenna parked herself and her bag at the scarred oak table and got out her pen, trying not to listen as Blue and Roy had a low-voiced conversation outside, which resulted in both men coming through the door into the kitchen.

"Hey." Jenna smiled at Blue, who was wearing a green checked shirt and faded jeans that fit him like a glove. "I'm just finishing up some paperwork, and I'll be on my way."

"Jenna."

He didn't look particularly happy to see her, and her heart sank. She hated people who couldn't make up their minds about how to treat a person and changed direction like a squally sea breeze. It made her uncomfortable.

Roy slapped Blue on the back and propelled him farther into the room. "You want the ranch records from when your mom vanished, right? Are you trying to work out whom she might have taken off with?"

Blue raised an eyebrow. "I see Ruth's keeping you up to date on our family business, then."

"Course she is. I am practically family. Been here longer than you, your brothers, and your grandma."

"True," Blue conceded with a nod. "But I'm sure Jenna doesn't need to hear our sordid family history."

Jenna met his gaze. "I know that your mother and baby sister disappeared, which must've been awful for you all. I'm quite happy to leave if it makes you uncomfortable talking about it in front of me."

Blue sighed and took off his Stetson, running his fingers through his military short brown hair. "It's not a problem. I had to talk to Billy about what he remembers, and I'm in a foul mood. It's not your fault."

Roy handed Jenna a glass of iced tea and offered one to Blue. "BB's looking to see who was employed at the ranch back then because someone must have helped Annie to leave."

"If she did leave," Blue murmured.

Roy set the iced tea down on the counter in front of him. "I agree with your daddy on this one. If she'd meant to kill herself, she would never have taken the baby. She loved that little girl something fierce."

"I thought so, too." Blue's smile was strained. "She still could've been murdered." 

"But they never found her body."

"Plenty of places to hide a body out here, Roy, when we have our own fricking mine on the premises."

Roy patted Blue's arm. "Don't give up hope, son."

Jenna had to look away from the sudden flare of emotion in Blue's eyes. He might claim to be unaffected by what had happened, but it obviously wasn't true. Perhaps the big bad Marine really did have a softer side.

"Let me find those records for you," Roy offered. "I keep them in my office."

"You have an office here?" Jenna couldn't help but ask.

Roy shrugged. "Laundry room, office, feed store. It's all the same to me. I use all the space I can find. It might take a while."

Jenna focused on her paperwork as Blue paced the small living space, snapping his hat against his thigh. It was kind of distracting, but it wasn't her house and she was pretty sure he was too agitated to even realize he was doing it. Years of being her family's peacemaker made her speak up.

"Is your father going to stay on the ranch now?"

He stopped pacing to look at her, his blue gaze assessing.

"Technically, it's his place."

"I thought Chase was in charge."

"Well, he is and he isn't. Chase has the money and Ruth has the know-how to run the ranch, but I suppose my dad inherited the place from his father."