No Getting Over A Cowboy

“No, I’m pretty sure no one did.”

Even though Garrett hadn’t actually been side by side with Nicky when she’d seen the skeleton, he knew from her reaction that she’d gotten out of there as fast as she could. He would have the bruise to prove it, too, since her head had slammed into his shoulder. As the high school quarterback, he’d been hit by two-hundred-and-fifty-pound football players who hadn’t rammed into him as hard as Nicky had. And as for Loretta, well, she definitely didn’t look like the corpse-touching type.

“Any idea who the guy is?” Clay asked.

Garrett had to shake his head. “No one’s lived here for nearly fifty years, since my great-aunt Matilda.” He paused, frowned. “You think he’s been dead for that long?”

Clay lifted his shoulder. “Hard to tell without some testing. The fabric on the boxers and hat are rotting, but they’re still mainly intact. There don’t appear to be any signs of trauma to the body. No bashed-in skull, broken neck or bones busted from bullet wounds. There’s also no dried blood around him, but over the years the rats and insects could have eaten that.”

That brought on some more oh my Gods from the widows.

Maybe this would get them all out of there. Fast. Garrett cursed himself. These women had already had their spouses die so this was probably hitting them harder than it was him. Still...they had to go.

He hated to think about something like that now, but having them there wouldn’t make this easier. Plus, Clay wouldn’t want them hanging around while he was conducting an investigation.

“This is a clusterfuck,” Garrett heard Lawson say as he walked up behind him. “And it’s about to get more clustered. Belle and Sophie are on their way. They’ll be here any minute.”

Garrett groaned because his mother didn’t usually make situations better, but she might know something about this. It was more than a little unsettling to think that, but it was equally unsettling to realize that over the years he’d camped out in this house. Had brought two girls here. Hell, once Roman and he had had a party. All while there’d been a dead guy in a closet.

“Your great-aunt was married?” Clay asked Garrett.

“No. Not that I ever heard anyway. She didn’t stay here long. According to what my mother told me, my great-aunt moved off after only being here a few months, and then she passed away in the seventies.”

Clay lifted an eyebrow, and Garrett immediately figured out why. Maybe the reason Aunt Matilda had moved was because she’d killed a man and left the body behind. Hell. Not exactly a good thought to settle his stomach.

“I’ll search local records and ask Belle about it,” Clay went on, “but since I haven’t lived around here that long, maybe you can help fill me in. Are there any longtime missing persons that the older townsfolk have mentioned?”

“No,” Lawson and Garrett said in unison. “Anything like that would still be gossiped about,” Garrett added. “Maybe the guy was a repairman or something. He could have slipped and fallen, and Matilda might never have even known.”

Yeah, he was reaching, but he didn’t want to consider the worst. That a man could have been murdered.

“Decomposing bodies stink,” Clay said. “If she was here when he died, she would have definitely known.”

Another round of oh my Gods from the widows.

Garrett heard the footsteps behind him, and for a split second, he thought his mom and Sophie had already arrived. But it was Kaylee making her way into the dining room.

“Mommy puked free times,” she said, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she took hold of Garrett’s hand.

He glanced around to see if Loretta or Nicky was with her, but the toddler was alone. “Where’s your mom?” he asked.

“Puking,” Kaylee quickly answered.

Well, Nicky had said something about having stomach issues when body parts and blood were involved so he guessed this wasn’t a surprise. Still, he didn’t want the little girl around all the talk of rats eating blood or rotting bodies. Heck, he didn’t especially want to be around it, either.

Garrett led Kaylee to the foyer, intending to take her back upstairs to leave her with Loretta, but he didn’t even make it to the steps before his mother and sister came hurrying in. Both looked alarmed and were out of breath.

“I tried to keep Mom at home,” Sophie said to him right off.

Garrett silently thanked her, knowing there was nothing she could have done if their mother was hell-bent on coming here. Which she clearly was.

“It’s true?” his mother asked. “Did Matilda really murder someone and put the body in the kitchen closet?”

Maybe his mother hadn’t noticed Kaylee, and Garrett put his hands over the child’s ears for part of that, but Kaylee had no doubt heard things a three-year-old shouldn’t have heard.

“Either hold your questions or speak in pig Latin,” he told his mother.

His mother’s gaze finally landed on the girl. Landed, too, on the way Kaylee had latched on to Garrett’s hand. “Who is she?”

“Kay-wee,” Kaylee answered.

Garrett provided his mother with more information. “She’s with the widows. You know, the ones you gave a lease? A lease that can’t happen because of the expansion I’ve got going on.”

If his mother was bothered by anything he’d just said, she didn’t show it. She stooped down, smiled at Kaylee. “Well, you sure are a pretty little thing.” She gave Kaylee’s pigtail a gentle tug. “And look how you’re holding Garrett’s hand. That’s so sweet. She obviously likes you.”

That was code for his mother letting him know that she wanted a grandbaby. She already had one. Roman’s son, Tate, but he was almost thirteen now so her mother was apparently getting grandbaby fever.

“No,” Garrett said to his mother, and he figured she knew what that no meant. There’d be no kids in his future. Not after... Well, just not after. If he wanted his heart ripped out again, he’d do it himself.

His mother stood, meeting his gaze. “You didn’t used to be so negative, Garrett. Honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”

Really? He wasn’t about to rehash the last three years and two months of his life. Not when there was something new that needed to be dealt with.

Garrett’s phone rang, and he glanced down at the screen to see Roman’s name. Since he had the lease-signing culprit in front of him, a conversation with his brother could wait. He pressed the button to send the call to voice mail.

“Matilda,” Belle repeated before Garrett could say anything. “I should have known she could k-i-l-l someone.”

That got his attention. And he was thankful his mother had spelled out the key word. “You really think she could have done this?”

“Absolutely. Agoraphobia, my f-a-n-n-y. That woman had secrets, I tell you, and I’m betting the d-e-a-d f-e-l-l-a was one of those.” Belle leaned in to whisper the rest. “Matilda had h-o-t p-a-n-t-s.”

Garrett hoped that was a fashion comment, but he doubted it was. “Did she have men visit her here?”

“Well, of course she did. That’s what women with h-o-t p-a-n-t-s do. Now, mind you, I don’t know the names of those men, but Loretta might remember one or two of them. She was still living in Wrangler’s Creek when Matilda was here.”

Then, Clay would need to talk to both Loretta and his mom. And speaking of Loretta, that was Garrett’s cue to turn this conversation in a different direction. Yes, the body was top priority, but Garrett had a priority of his own.

“Why did you give these women a lease?” he asked Belle at the same moment his mother asked, “Are the widows upset because of the d-e-a-d b-o-d-y?”

He huffed. “Of course, they’re upset,” he verified. “I’m upset. And you’re not getting out of explaining to me how you could sign a lease without talking it over with me first. These women can’t be here.”

His mother patted his arm in a “there, there” gesture. “It was the right thing to do. They needed a place to stay, and it’ll be so nice to have someone living here again. The house needs that. It needs some cleaning and repairs, too,” she added, glancing around. “That cleaning crew I hired should have been here by now.”

It took Garrett a moment just to form words and rein in his temper. He loved his mother, most days anyway, but this was not one of those days. “You’ll have to break the lease. I’ll pay—”

But that was as far as he got because his mother’s attention was no longer on him. Smiling, she moved away from him and walked to the stairs. Kaylee did, as well, and that’s when Garrett saw Nicky making her way down the steps. Judging from the tight grip Nicky had on the railing, she still wasn’t feeling too steady.

“There you are,” his mother said, and the moment Nicky reached the bottom, Belle hugged her. “Nicky Henderson, you look beautiful as always.”