Desert Heat

McFadden shook his head. “Look, Joa

“Me personally,” she repeated, plucking the two most significant words out of McFadden’s sentence and focusing in on those. “You said if I personally have done nothing wrong. What about Andy?”

McFadden raised the can of Coors and finished it. He dropped the empty can into a paper bag beside his chair while his somber gaze met and held hers. “I don’t want to break your heart, Joa

Joa

“Can’t, Joa

“There’s a big difference between can’t and won’t, Sheriff McFadden,” she said, standing up abruptly. “Come on, Je

Je

“We can try,” Joa

“Come on, Tigger,” McFadden said to the dog. “Let’s go see about rustling us up some di

Joa

“Mad? Why would I be mad at you?”

“I was having so much fun, I almost forgot,” Je

Joa

“Why?”

“For not taking my own advice. I told you not to let what people say bother you, but I’m letting it bother me.”

“Sheriff McFadden said something?”

“Everybody’s entitled to his opinion,” Joa

When they pulled into the yard at the ranch, with Sadie ru

“You go on inside and let Grandma Lathrop know we’re home,” Joa

As she opened the car door, she heard the troublesome pump in the corral stock tank cough, wheeze, and finally catch. When she reached the corral, she found the ten head of cattle were already munching hay, while a steady stream of water flowed into the metal stock tank. Clayton Rhodes was standing then watching the tank fill when she came up behind him. He jumped when she spoke.

“You and Jim Bob don’t have to do this, you know,” Joa

Clayton Rhodes turned around to face her, cupping one hand to his ear. “What’s that?” he asked. Without teeth he spoke with a decided lisp.

“You don’t have to do this,” Joa

Clayton shrugged his bony, stooped shoulders. “It’s no trouble,” he said. “I figure I could just as well be doing something useful of an evening.”

He turned back to the pump and studied the flow of water into the metal tank. “Didn’t put in much gas,” he added. “Should fill up the tank without ru

“Thank you,” Joa

“Other people haven’t,” Clayton Rhodes observed with a frown. “From the footprints and tire tracks around it, I’d say somebody’s been having a regular convention.”

“Hunters?” Joa

He shrugged. “Maybe, but why hunters would be out tramping around in street shoes is more than I can figure.”

Street shoes? Joa

Finished with the chores, Clayton Rhodes wiped his hands on his worn overalls and started toward his truck with Joa

“I don’t understand,” Joa

“Kinda makes you wonder, don’t it,” Clayton nodded.

Suddenly Joa

“Nope, but thank you just the same,” he said, as they reached Clayton’s ancient Ford with its much-replaced wooden bed. “Think I’ll head on home.” For a moment he stood with one hand on the door handle as if trying to reach some decision. “You know,” he said finally, “I worry about you and Je

“We’re all right,” Joa

Clayton looked down at the hound and shook his head. “This worthless old thing?” he said disparagingly, ruffling the dog’s floppy ears. “Why, she’d as soon lick somebody to death as bite ‘em. She didn’t even bother to bark at me when I showed up here a while ago.

“I’m serious as hell about this, Joa

Joa

The old man nodded sagely. “That’s about what I figured. You do know how to use one, don’t you?”

She nodded. “My dad taught me when I was a girl. It’s like riding a bicycle, you never really forget the basics, but maintaining any kind of accuracy takes constant practice, and I haven’t fired a gun in years.”

“Then I’d get myself some practice if I were you.”

With that, Clayton Rhodes wrenched open the creaking door and reached across the truck’s threadbare seat. He opened the glove box and pulled out a small bundle which he handed over to Joa

“Here,” he said. “This here used to be Molly’s before she up and died on me. I never I liked leaving her out here all by herself, either, so she kept this in her apron pocket just in case. Never had to use it, thank God, but we had some good laughs about her bein’ a pistol packin’ mama.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a box of ammunition. “You’ll need this along with it.”

Joa

He turned the key in the ignition and the old engine coughed to life, then he looked back at Joa

She nodded. “Deal,” she said, “but only as a personal favor.”

As he drove out of the yard, Joa