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She shook her head, feeling heartsick for him, and lonely.
It was impossible. The violently intertwined lives of their families stood between them. Her own family, alone, was an obstacle bigger than the Testament Rocks, as hard and unyielding as stone when it came to the subject of Billy Crosby.
I should stop thinking about Collin and stay away from him, because that is the best and only way I can help him.
FOUR HOURS LATER Jody found out she wasn’t the only one who would determine when and how she could help Collin Crosby. When the ranch phone rang after supper and she went to answer it, she saw his name in the caller ID window. Quickly, she picked up the portable receiver, said, “Hold on,” and hurried out to the porch and then kept walking into the front yard, away from ears that might overhear her.
“Collin,” she said. “How-”
He didn’t give her a chance to ask anything.
“Jody, I need to tell you something that nobody else wants to hear.” There was no “Hello,” no “How are you?” and no news. He just launched right in as if he didn’t have much time, or thought that maybe she wouldn’t. She clung to the receiver, but she was really clinging to the sound of his voice, not knowing if and when she’d hear it again. “If you can’t talk, just listen. I don’t think Billy killed Mom. It took me about half an hour to get over the first shock and then I realized-where’d he get the gun? There was no gun in the house. He sure didn’t come out of prison with one. There wasn’t one in my car, there isn’t one in my mom’s car, and I swear to you there wasn’t one in the house.”
“Could he have hidden one away, years ago?”
“He could have, yes, but it’s not a big place and I’ve been over every inch of it doing things for Mom. Painting, fixing the roof, replacing insulation, taking down old cabinets and putting up new ones. I’ve looked in every nook and cra
“And that didn’t happen.”
“Right. That’s fantasy.”
“I don’t know what to say. Why would anybody want to kill your-Oh.”
It hit her, of course, that somebody would do exactly that if they wanted to frame Billy.
“Oh, God, Collin. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s enough that you didn’t say bullshit.”
“I wouldn’t. I won’t. Where are you?”
“In the motel in Henderson, waiting to find out what happens next.”
“Do you know where your father is?”
“No. If I did, I’d tell them.”
“Even though you think he didn’t do it?”
“I’m afraid of what he will do if he’s as desperate and angry right now as I suspect he is. He doesn’t have any money. He doesn’t have anything except Mom’s car, and he can’t even refill the gas tank when it runs out, which it probably already has. He’s not a smart guy, Jody. He’s just a physically tough man who runs headlong into trouble, and he’ll probably keep doing that until it kills him. I don’t want it to kill anybody else first.”
“What can I do?”
He said nothing for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t even have called you. I must sound like I’m possessed and I suppose I have been, in a way, for years.”
“That’s okay,” she said gently. “We’re both a little crazy.”
“I called you because I just… needed to.” There was another pause, and then Collin said, “I meant what I said to you last night, Jody.” And then he said, “I’ve got another call coming in. I’d better take it in case it’s about Billy.” A quick goodbye and he was gone. Jody punched a button to see his phone number again and memorized it. Maybe she would never call him, but it made her feel better to think she could reach him.
Jody turned to find her grandfather striding toward her across the grass.
She held the phone against her chest, hoping he wouldn’t ask about the call.
But all he said was, “Would you run down to Red’s house for me, Jody? I’ve called a dozen times, I swear, and all I get is voice mail on his cell and his phone at the house. I’m getting pretty fed up that he hasn’t let us know where he is and what he’s up to. I called Chase and Bobby, and neither of them sent him out of town, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Sure, Grandpa.”
“I’ve got half a mind to go with you and give him what-for.”
“No, no, you stay here. I’ll do it.”
If anything could have struck Jody as fu
35
IT WAS ONLY a couple of hundred yards to Red’s place, down an incline that put him out of sight of the ranch house and gave both Red and the Linders some privacy from each other. When Jody was small, now and then her grandmother had sent her down to the mailbox at the front gate near the hired hand’s house just to let her run off some energy. Now she walked, not ran, in that direction, mentally working through a list of single women she knew in the county to try to predict who it was going to be. Thinking about Red’s new romance was easier than thinking about Collin’s phone call and all the things it might mean to her, to him, to her family, to a whole lot of people.
It was a beautiful evening on the ranch, fragrant and fresh.
The time was past twilight, with full night closing in.
She’d brought a flashlight with her to show her the way home, but she didn’t turn it on yet.
Red’s house came into view and she halted at the sight of it.
His truck was there and the garage door was still down.
She would just walk up, ring the bell like a proper visitor, and if his woman friend opened the door, she would ask with an i
At the front door, she rang the doorbell and then knocked.
Nobody answered, though she could hear the television blaring from the bedroom. She rang again and knocked harder, giving them time to get dressed, if that was the problem. After waiting several more minutes with no results, Jody walked around the bushes at the side of Red’s house and went over to the garage. Red’s dog was pacing in front of the closed garage door.
She didn’t try to pet the stray that Red called Mangy Beast.
She looked like a blue heeler with a touch of husky in her, a gray and tan dog that he’d found by the side of the highway near the front gate. Red considered it a major miracle of his life that an actual hunting dog had materialized there, needing a home. She had acted liked a whipped cur for a long time before her curved, bushy tail began to wag when Red went out to feed her.
Mangy Beast wasn’t mean, but she wasn’t friendly, either.
The sturdy, muscular creature with the strange light eyes stood in front of the garage door, staring at her.
“Are you hungry, girl?”
It wasn’t like Red to neglect to feed animals, whether cattle or dogs, and it appeared to Jody that he had committed several of those sins today-neglecting horses, cattle, and his own pet.
On the far side of the garage-where any woman watching from the house couldn’t see her-Jody found an old bucket and put it under the window frame. She stepped up and looked inside a dirty window.
Red’s visitor drove a red Ford Taurus that looked familiar to Jody.
Where had she seen that car before and who was driving it?
She stepped down and walked to the back door this time.
Beyond the illumination cast by the lights inside the house, Red’s yard was totally dark, so she turned on her flashlight and trod carefully, watching where she placed her feet so she wouldn’t stumble over a garden hose or anything else in her way. As she neared the back stoop, she realized Mangy Beast was with her, keeping silent pace with her. The dog’s hackles were raised on the back of her neck, as if she didn’t approve of Red’s visitor inside, and she was growling low and deep in her throat.