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34
JODY WOKE UP at two-thirty in the afternoon, stared at the passage of time on her clock with dismay, and hurried down the hall to shower. Once dressed, she clomped downstairs, intending to apologize for sleeping so late. One look at her grandmother’s face told her that A
Jody hurried over to give her a kiss on the cheek.
“Why’d you let me sleep so late?”
“I thought you needed it.”
“You know about Valentine?”
“Of course. That poor child.”
“Which one? Her or her son?”
“Both of them.”
“Have they caught him yet, Grandma?”
“Not yet. And people are scared to death. They’re locking their doors and loading their guns and just generally acting as if he’s going to break into houses and start shooting people. Personally, I think he’s a long way from here.” A
It must be love, Jody thought, remembering his closed garage.
“Maybe Uncle Chase or Uncle Bobby sent him off on some errand and just forgot to tell you before they left.”
“That’s what I told Hugh. Go change clothes.”
“What are we doing?”
Her grandmother smiled at her. “Your favorite job.”
Jody groaned as she turned to go upstairs again.
“NOBODY EVER GOT close to her,” A
Both of them had on long-sleeve shirts, rubber gloves, and jeans tucked down inside rubber boots so they could muck out the horse stalls, a daily chore that Red usually performed. As a teenager, Jody had learned a lesson about stubbor
Continuing her thoughts about Valentine Crosby’s quiet personality, A
“Her son felt close to her,” Jody said, a little sharply.
“Oh, honey.” A
They were removing twenty-four hours-and more, thanks to Red’s absence-of manure and laying in fresh straw bedding. They’d hauled the feed and water tubs out into the corridor, giving themselves room to work. Shooting Jody a curious look before returning her attention to her pitchfork, A
“Grandma, he told me he always hated his father.”
A
Jody nodded. “He said he used to watch his father all night when he was drunk, to make sure he didn’t hurt Valentine. He claims he was watching Billy all that night-the night everything happened-and so he knows his father didn’t do it. I said, maybe he fell asleep and just didn’t know it, but he swears he never did that, ever. Red says Billy was too drunk to go all that way in the storm and do all those things. Bailey says the same thing.”
“Good grief.” A
“Yesterday,” Jody said, omitting the part about how some of these discussions had gone on around midnight and later.
“When did Collin tell you that? Was it when you ran into them at Bailey’s yesterday?”
“No. Later. Between then and when his mom was shot.”
She realized her grandmother was staring at her.
“I sneaked over there to get a look at their house, Grandma. Last night, after I left here. I never intended to talk to Collin, but he was sitting outside on the curb and he saw me and came over to talk to me.”
“He was just a little boy.”
“Red and Bailey weren’t.”
Nervously, she waited to hear what her grandmother would say to that, but when A
Jody didn’t say anything at first, partly to adjust to the abrupt change of topic, but then she said, “That doesn’t make me better than her.”
“I think it does.”
Jody propped her shovel against a wall. “Uncle Chase thinks that if she’d had a chance to grow up more, she’d have been a better person.”
“He may be right.” A
“What?”
Her grandmother glanced up. “What do you mean, ‘what’?”
“You started to say something else. What was it?”
“Oh.” A
“Uncle Bobby had a crush on my mom?”
“He did. I found a photo of her in one of his jeans pockets shortly before she-disappeared-but it took me a while to put the clues together. I suspect grief over her was one of the reasons he took off for the Army. I think he had a huge crush on her. I don’t believe your uncle Chase did, so I’m more inclined to take his opinion on this matter.”
“I would have thought it would be the other way around.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because Uncle Chase is so handsome and women fall for him.”
“Well, maybe that’s why, since he had lots of other girls.”
“Poor Uncle Bobby.”
“Well, he shouldn’t have had a crush on his own sister-in-law!” A
“What? You did it again, Grandma. You started to say something and you stopped yourself. What is it?”
“Nothing. Really, it was nothing.”
“Please, Grandma. Please tell me whatever you were going to say.”
A
“What?”
“I know that’s a mean way to put it, and I’m sorry, but the truth is, she stole from us, honey. Little bits of cash from one of the ranch accounts. We found the evidence after she was gone. I’m pretty sure your father knew about it and he was worried about it. And about her. And I was worried about them, without knowing that was the cause of it. I hate the fact that she gave him any trouble or grief at all. I don’t think I’ve ever quite forgiven her for that. So I don’t know if your uncle Chase is right or not. Maybe she would have changed, maybe she would have grown up to be a nicer person. I want to think it’s true. I want you to think it’s both possible and true.”
They finished their dirty job in an uncomfortable silence.
At one point A
“I’m glad you did. Well, maybe not glad. You know.”
“You want the truth.”
Jody nodded, and then pretended it was straw dust that was making her take off one glove and raise her fingers to her eyes to wipe the tears away. Her grandmother, sniffing as if she, too, was affected by the dust, didn’t try to comfort her, but left her alone to absorb this new information that her beautiful mother-her spoiled and snobbish mother-had also been a petty thief.
Nothing more was said between them about Collin Crosby.
Jody spent the rest of the afternoon working near her grandmother, but thinking about him. Where was he now? What was he doing? How was he doing? Was there anything she could do to help him-