Truth and Dare

Over at the courthouse, everyone seemed to have kind words for Cade. There were many cheerful hellos and pats on the back welcoming him to town. When she’d entered the first time she’d been completely ignored, except for the occasional curious glance.

“They’re so much more friendly toward you,” she said as they walked down the long staircase to the basement.

“What do you mean?” He helped her push open the large wooden door protecting the old records.

“When I first arrived, some of them looked at me like I was an exhibit at the zoo.”

“Ah, well, they’ll warm up to you soon enough. Everyone around here is cautious of strangers,” he said as he held the door open for her.

“Like those men at the diner?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s going on with them. I’ll have a talk with them later.”

There was no sense making more trouble. “Don’t bother. That was probably their way of protecting their town from an outside threat. Though why they see me that way makes no sense.”

“With those three there’s absolutely no tellin’.” Cade waved a hand in front of his face as they reached the dusty records room. “I’m guessing the spotless housekeeping upstairs doesn’t make its way down here very often.”

“From the looks of it, they pretty much use this as a storage room. Evidently no one in Phosphor ever has to do any research, because I found at least three inches of dust on most of the boxes. I wonder if they understand how much of their history is down here.”

“What do you mean?” Cade took a deep breath and blew the dust from the top of a box they’d moved to the table.

“From an anthropological point of view, when people migrate to an area and when they leave can be based on a variety of factors. You can find information about certain eras where the town may have been booming because of river travel, or the railroads. From some of the mortgages and contracts I saw earlier, there seems to be an influx of ranchers buying up land around here over the last five years.

“Possibly they’ve had some good years without drought and the pastures are greener than normal. I don’t know that for a fact, but it’s something that can be found out with a little study. I find it fascinating.” She coughed from the dust. “I only wish other people found it as interesting as I do.”

“Huh. I never thought about it that way. My cousins and I have all bought up land, or have come back to town to rebuild our family ranches that have gone to pasture.”

“My first question would be why in the last five years?”

“I don’t know about my cousins, but for me I finally had the income to do with the place what I always wanted. My plan is to have at least three hundred heads of longhorns in the next twenty-four months. I’d also like to fix up the old family house and make it a weekend and summerhouse. Somewhere I can get away from Austin and my life there.”

“Makes sense. Do you feel a need to reconnect with your past and possibly spend time with your family? I find that is the motivation for most people when they return to their old homes.”

Cade was scrutinizing her. “I guess so. I’ve been so caught up with my business I realized I hadn’t spent Christmas with my grandmother in five years. She put her foot down when I forgot her birthday in February, and I guess that’s when I started thinking about the ranch.”

Patience knew there was more to his story, but she wasn’t sure he was ready to examine that yet.

“Well, I guess we better get started opening these boxes. They aren’t going to research themselves.” He grinned at her.

“What I wouldn’t give for a modern-day courthouse with computer records.” She smiled back at him. “But I guess this is why my friends call it grunt work.”

Cade searched through twenty-year-old property deeds. Patience took on the task of reading through the more recent files. They hoped to meet in the middle somewhere.

“Hmm.” She heard him murmur.

“Did you find something?” She peeked over the edge of the box she was going through.

“It’s not so much about what is here, as what isn’t. There are six months’ worth of files missing.”

Patience stood. “Maybe no one filed deeds during that time,” she offered.

“No, it wouldn’t matter. There were years when nothing was filed, but there were still file folders for those months. But it’s the dates that really have me wondering.”

“Why is that?”

“The missing files are the ones six months before my dad died.”

3

“I SHOULD CALL THE SHERIFF with this information.” Patience drew the box toward her and replaced the documents. “For all we know, he may have the files in his office. He said he’d do some preliminary work before I arrived.”

She slammed a box lid down. “I didn’t even let him know I was in town. I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble by going to see him first.”

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and twisted it back on her head. Cade had the urge to touch the wayward strands, but he made himself pack up the rest of the boxes.

“Don’t beat yourself up. You were excited about getting started.” Cade did his best to be encouraging.

“Don’t pander to me, Cade. I made a mistake. A rookie one, I’m sure. Now I need to backtrack and do what I should have done this morning when I got here.”

“That’s a good idea.” Cade ignored her comment about pandering. He had a feeling she wouldn’t believe him if he tried to explain that wasn’t what he meant to do. “If he didn’t take the files, then that’s a clue for us. Don’t you think?”

Patience pursed her lips. “Definitely. I’ll stop by the station and ask him, but first I need a shower. I feel like I have ten layers of dust on me and I haven’t even checked into the B and B yet.”

The image of Patience naked with warm water and soap sluicing down her body was almost more than he could take. Cade returned the boxes to where they found them. “You said you were staying at the B and B?”

“Yes. Staying at a B and B takes me into the life of the townspeople, which is helpful when you’re trying to understand the local culture. You said you were hanging around for a few weeks, where are you staying?”

“Same place, just around the corner from the diner.”

A small smile turned up the edges of her mouth. Could she possibly be happy about staying in the B and B with him? “If you want to follow me, my truck is across the street.”

“Sure.” She glanced up but there was no trace of the smile he’d seen there.

As they rolled up in front of the B and B, Cade jumped out to help her with her bag.

“It’s okay,” she said refusing to let go of the suit case.

“Trust me, I need you to let me do this. When we get inside you’ll understand.”

She gave him a curious look but relinquished the bag. “Why?”

Holding open the door, Cade ushered her in carrying both of their bags.

“My stars, if it isn’t my errant grandson come home, and with a woman.” His grandmother held her hand to her heart. “Are there any great-grandbabies out there for me to hold?”

Dressed in her jeans, denim shirt and cowboy boots, GG hadn’t changed a bit. Her long white hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore the silver belt buckle she’d won bull riding forty years ago. She’d always been a woman before her time.

Cade scooped her up in a big hug, and she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Missed you,” he said as he put her down.