Unrepentant Cowboy

“No. How exciting for you.”

“Yep. Effie Dalton. She lives in California, but she’s going to be in Dallas visiting my son Leif this week. She wants to come out to the Dry Gulch and spend a few days.”

Joni struggled to remember the basics of what R.J. had told her about his children in extensive detail over the past few weeks. “Is Leif the divorced defense attorney?”

“Yep. That’s the one. Haven’t heard a word from him since the reading of the will, but Effie thinks she can convince him to drive her out here.”

“I know you’d love that.”

“Doggone right, unless Leif’s coming would just mean trouble. I told Effie if her dad wouldn’t drive her out here to call me and I’d send a car to pick her up—anywhere, anytime.”

“How old is she?”

“Fifteen. She lives with her mother. But get this. She loves horses and she’s already talking about becoming an equine vet. I’d sure like for you to meet her while she’s here. Maybe give her some encouragement.”

“I’d love to. But now I’d best get to my next patient. You keep an eye on Miss Dazzler for me. And remember, she needs stall rest until the swelling is gone.”

“No problem. I’ll just come down and sit with her if she gets lonesome.”

Joni suspected that if he’d taken as much interest in his children when they were growing up as he did his horses now, he wouldn’t have to use bribes and manipulation to get them to visit him.

A horse at the far end of the elaborately renovated horse barn neighed.

“Old Bullet’s calling my name,” R.J. said. “Think I’ll have Corky saddle him up so I can take him for a short ride.”

“Should you be riding alone?”

He gave her a wink and a click of his tongue. “Are you hinting you want to go along with me?”

No doubt he’d been as much a womanizer in his younger days as the locals claimed. His flirting was totally harmless now, though.

“I’d love to ride with you, Mr. Dalton, but I have three other calls to make this afternoon. I’ll be lucky if I make it back here to check on Miss Dazzler by dark.”

“You’re too pretty to work all the time. You need a man to go home to. I’ve still got four unmarried sons, you know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now you take care of yourself and I’ll be back first thing in the morning to check on Miss Dazzler.”

“You be careful and don’t be out on these old deserted roads by yourself at night. I guess you heard about Evie Monsant getting murdered yesterday.”

“I heard about a body being found yesterday morning. I didn’t know it was Evie’s until I saw the police tape all around her gate and house when I drove past last night on my way home.”

“The media are already claiming it might be the work of The Hunter,” R.J. said. “I don’t put no stock in that myself, though. I’d put my money on her knowing the guy who killed her.”

“Why?”

“She was a strange woman. Sticking to herself all the time. The way I heard it, she’d hardly say howdy if she met you face on. No telling what she was mixed up in.”

Joni wasn’t so sure. “The news reporters must know something if they’re saying her death could be the work of a serial killer.”

“Not necessarily. Those blowhards love putting the fear in everybody. Gets ’em higher ratings.”

“I hope you’re right. Not that it would make it any better for Evie, but the thought of a serial killer in Oak Grove is bloodcurdling,” Joni admitted.

“You just be careful,” R.J. said. “But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. This is about as peaceful a place as you can find in all of Texas. I figure Evie Monsant brought her trouble with her.”

“Maybe.” But unexpected anxiety skidded along Joni’s nerve endings as R.J. walked her to her aging pickup truck. She’d grown up in a rural area much like this one, where neighbors looked out for one another. She’d always felt safe, the same as she had since moving to Oak Grove nine months ago.

Still she might sleep with her shotgun in easy reach tonight.

She said her goodbyes to R.J., climbed behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The motor made a grinding noise and then sputtered and died. It did the same on the second try. On the third try, there wasn’t even a grind.

So much for getting through and getting home before dark.

* * *

EFFIE JUMPED OUT of Leif’s black sports car and rushed to the metal gate. She unlatched it and hitched a ride on the bottom rung as it swung open, her ponytail bouncing behind her.

Her excitement over arriving at the Dry Gulch Ranch equaled Leif’s displeasure. He’d done his best to talk her into a trip to anywhere but there. He’d even considered buying her a horse of her own when she got back to California, one she could keep at the stables where she worked.

That had felt too much like a bribe. Besides, his ex would have killed him, a fate only slightly worse than playing nice with R.J. all afternoon. But Leif was also spending time with Effie, so there was a silver lining to his misery.

Once he’d driven across the cattle gap, Effie took her time getting back in the car; her gaze was focused on a young deer that had stepped out of a cluster of sycamore trees a few yards in front of them. She stood as still as a statue until the deer turned and ran back into the woods.

His daughter had obviously spent far too much time in the confines of the city.

She fastened her seat belt. “Grandpa didn’t say he had deer on the ranch, too.”

Grandpa. The word sounded irritatingly strange when used by Effie for a man he barely knew and Effie didn’t know at all. “Who told you to call R.J. Grandpa?”

“I asked him what I should call him and he suggested Grandpa. That’s what his twin granddaughters call him.”

Leif seethed but went back to safer territory. “I suspect there are all kinds of creatures who call the Dry Gulch home.”

“What kind of creatures?” Effie asked.

“Possums. Raccoons. Armadillos. Foxes. Skunks. Rattlesnakes.”

“Rattlesnakes. Really?” She screwed her face into a repulsed scowl.

“Yes, but probably not out and about much this time of the year, though it’s warm enough today you’d need to be careful if you were traipsing through high grass or walking along the riverbank.”

“There’s a river on the property?”

“More like a creek, but they call it a river.”

“Can you swim in it? Not now, I know, but in the summer.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.”