The Calamity Janes: Gina and Emma: To Catch a Thief

“He’s gone to work, thank goodness. If he had heard you just now, it would have sent his blood pressure into the stratosphere. Whatever’s going on, we’ll keep it between us for now. I don’t want your father upset. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure listening to you talk like that hasn’t shaken me a little bit, too.”

Her mother did look pale. Gina sought to reassure her. “It was just a figure of speech, Mother. I’m not going to kill anybody.”

“It didn’t sound that way to me. What has Bobby done? And does that have anything to do with what Rafe O’Donnell is doing here in Winding River?”

Gina slowly stirred two teaspoons of sugar into her coffee as she considered just how much to tell her mother. She finally settled on the whole truth. By the time she’d finished explaining all of the sordid details about Bobby’s scam, her mother was practically quivering with outrage.

“What an awful man!” her mother declared. “And that was him on the phone? If I’d had any idea, I would have given him a piece of my mind.”

Gina couldn’t help it. She grinned. “As impressive and daunting as I’ve always found your lectures to be, Mom, I doubt they would have had any effect at all on Bobby. He’s pretty much immune to criticism, and I doubt he has much of a conscience.”

“That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t hear exactly what I think of him. Taking money from all of those people...” She shook her head. “It’s a crime, that’s what it is.”

“Which is why Rafe is after him. And me, for that matter.”

“Surely Rafe doesn’t seriously think you could be involved,” her mother said, her indignation stirring all over again. “You are nothing like Bobby.”

“Thank you, but Rafe doesn’t know me as well as you do. He says he has an open mind. At the very least he’s hoping Bobby will contact me.”

“Which he has. You have to tell Rafe,” her mother said. “That will prove to him that you want this resolved as badly as he does.”

“What am I supposed to tell him?” Gina asked. “That Bobby called but wouldn’t say where he was?”

“That’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but all it proves is that Bobby knows I’m in Wyoming and that we’re in touch,” Gina said, feeling despondent. She was not nearly as sure as her mother that Rafe wouldn’t take the news of Bobby’s call and somehow twist it to fit his own scenario, condemning her in the process.

“You have to tell Rafe,” her mother repeated. “Keeping it a secret will only make you look guilty if he finds out about the call later.” She gestured toward the phone. “Call him right now. That’s my advice.” She bent down and kissed Gina’s forehead. “I have to get going or I’ll be late. You have a good day. This will all work itself out, I promise. People like Bobby eventually get what’s coming to them.”

“I wish I shared your conviction about that,” Gina said, giving her mother a half-hearted smile. “But I will think about what you’ve said.”

If only her parents had caller ID, she thought, staring at the phone, but in this small, friendly community such high-tech equipment was viewed as both unnecessary and in many ways impolite. No one saw any need to know who was calling before picking up the phone. Heck, half the people in town, her folks included, didn’t even own answering machines. People didn’t have the same desire for being connected twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week that they did in New York. There was a lot to be said for that attitude, but right now Gina regretted it.

When the phone rang, Gina jumped, then scowled at the offending instrument before picking it up.

“Yes,” she muttered curtly.

“You didn’t by any chance wake up on the wrong side of the bed, did you?” Rafe inquired cheerfully.

“Something like that,” she said.

“I know the feeling. My mother woke me out of a sound sleep, which would have been bad enough, but she also ruined a particularly fascinating dream.”

“Oh, really?”

“Just so you know, you were the star attraction.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Gina chided, even though the news was fascinating. “I thought we had agreed that there would be no more crossing the line.”

“Did we? My subconscious must have forgotten all about that. Now then, would I be risking my life if I suggested breakfast at Stella’s in twenty minutes? That’s not crossing the line, is it?”

Gina thought of Bobby’s call and her mother’s advice that she share that information with Rafe. “Actually, breakfast might be good. I’ll see you there. Make it thirty minutes, though. I’m only half-awake, and I usually don’t do mornings. It’ll take me a while to jump-start my brain.”

“I suppose saying that it’s not your brain that interests me would be a really bad idea,” Rafe teased.

Gina laughed, her mood improving considerably. “A really, really bad one,” she agreed. “See you soon.”

As it turned out, it took her closer to an hour to shower, dress and walk to Stella’s. Admittedly, she was deliberately dragging her feet. Every time she thought of Bobby’s call and his refusal to even admit where he was, she felt more and more despondent. By the time she got to Stella’s, she was crankier than ever. Finding that Rafe had finished reading the paper and was drumming his fingers on the table immediately put her on the defensive.

“I thought maybe you’d stood me up,” he said as she slid into the booth opposite him.

“I told you I’d be here, didn’t I?” she snapped before she could stop herself.

His expression turned thoughtful. “There’s that tone again. Did something happen this morning to get your day off to a rotten start?”

“You mean aside from your call?”

He winced but said gamely, “Yes, aside from that.”

Gina waited until Stella had poured her a cup of coffee and taken their orders before answering with the truth. “I heard from Bobby,” she admitted in a rush, before she could change her mind. She didn’t feel one bit better once the words were out.

Rafe nodded slowly. “I see. And what did he have to say?”

“Not much. He wouldn’t say where he was. He wouldn’t answer any of my questions. He just said everything was going to work out.”

“For whom?” Rafe asked. “I don’t imagine he was talking about the people he bilked out of their money.”

“No, I imagine not,” Gina agreed ruefully. “Anyway, I thought you should know, even though it doesn’t exactly give you any new information.”

“Thank you,” he said solemnly. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to tell me about the call.”

She studied his face intently. “You don’t think I’m holding anything back, do you?”

“Are you?”

“No, that’s the whole story. The call didn’t last more than a minute.”

His expression turned thoughtful. “I wonder why. Does he suspect your phone could be tapped?”

“I doubt it,” Gina said. “Bobby never has been big on prolonged telephone calls. Ironically, in his own way I think he just wanted to reassure me.”

“Were you reassured?” Rafe asked.

“Hardly. I was furious. I want more than a patronizing pat on the head,” she said, her fury stirring all over again. “I want answers. I want every penny of that money returned. I want to put this mess behind me.”

For the first time since he’d tried to put her life under a microscope, Rafe regarded her with what appeared to be genuine sympathy. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Why are you sorry?”