Loe raamatut: «The Cowboy Sheriff»

Chapter One

Simon Teague eyed the radar image on his computer and groaned.

“Colorful,” said Deputy Pete Kayne as he walked behind Simon with a fresh cup of coffee.

“Little too colorful.” The image showed too much blue and pink for his taste. If the snow and, worse, ice dipped down much farther, they were going to have a devil of a night.

“I heard on the way in that they think at least the ice will stay north.”

Simon grunted. It was bad enough when Dallas and Fort Worth got socked with winter weather. On the rare occasion that it ventured as far south as Austin, San Antonio and the Hill Country where they now sat, people tended to freak out as if the apocalypse had arrived. That led to wrecks, which led to his deputies and him spending miserable hours out in the cold.

He’d just clicked on the hourly forecast when the phone rang. He reached for the receiver as he scrolled through temperatures that should never cross the Red River into Texas.

“Sheriff’s Department.”

“May I speak to Sheriff Teague?”

“Speaking.” Simon minimized the computer screen and shifted his focus fully to the phone call.

“This is James Dial with the Dallas P.D.”

“Just saw you all are getting slammed up there.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m calling,” Dial said, sounding serious.

A chill went down Simon’s back. This wasn’t going to be good.

Dial took a deep breath before continuing. “I just got back from a crash scene, two deaths. Next of kin for one of the deceased is listed as living in Blue Falls, but I’ve been unable to make contact. Probably better coming from someone local, anyway, though it’s going to be awful either way.”

Damn, of everything his job entailed, telling relatives someone they loved had died was the absolute worst. He’d rather break up a thousand bar fights, even take a few punches himself, than have to make one next-of-kin call.

“Who are you trying to contact?”

“Keri Mehler.”

A rush of cold washed through Simon. His first thought was of Carter, Keri’s brother and his once-upon-a-time best friend. But then the fact that Dial was calling from Dallas registered. Keri’s older sister and her family lived in Dallas.

“Sammi?”

“Samantha and Benjamin Spencer died at the scene when their SUV flipped and rolled several times.”

Simon gripped the phone harder. “The baby?” He’d last seen the little girl at the Fourth of July celebration as she crawled around on a blanket next to the lake while her parents, Keri and the rest of Blue Falls had waited for the fireworks to start. He swallowed hard at the idea that she’d been killed, too, before reaching her first birthday.

“Scared, but not a scratch on her,” Dial said. “It’s a miracle considering how bad that vehicle looked.”

Simon ran his fingers through his hair. How was he going to tell Keri, after everything she’d been through?

“I take it you know Ms. Mehler?”

“Yeah.” Had known her nearly all his life, had once been her friend. Had spent nearly as much time at her house when he was growing up as he had his own.

“Then you can make contact?”

Simon made an affirmative sound, then cleared his throat. “I’ll head over there now.”

“Until Ms. Mehler can come to pick her up, Hannah Spencer is being held in state care.”

Poor little girl. The image of her crying for her mother, a mother who’d never be able to hold her again, twisted Simon’s gut.

After he wrote down all the particulars, Simon hung up and ran his hand over his face. When he looked up, Pete and Anne Marie Wallace, the 9-1-1 dispatcher, were staring at him, both with tight, pinched looks of concern on their faces.

“Keri Mehler’s sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident tonight.”

Anne Marie gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth.

“Keri’s niece?” Pete asked.

“She’s fine.” Simon shook his head slowly. “God, I hate doing this.” He stood and walked toward the coatrack by the door.

“Want me to go with you?” Pete asked, not sounding particularly anxious but willing to help out nonetheless.

“No, you stay here in case the weather gets worse and the crap hits the fan. Don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Call in Jack or Connor if you need to.”

After slipping on his heavy ranch coat and tan Stetson, Simon stepped out into the cold night to deliver even colder news.

* * *

WAS THAT A SNOWFLAKE? Keri moved toward the bakery’s front window and pressed her face close to it. Sure enough, a few snowflakes drifted through the crisp night air. A girlish thrill zipped through her. She hadn’t seen snow in Blue Falls in more than a decade and only twice in her lifetime. Both times didn’t amount to much but still enough to scrape together the world’s smallest snowmen. When she’d been twelve, she’d managed to gather enough snow to make a little snow family—Mom, Dad, two kids and even a snow dog. Of course, they’d all been about the height of a saltshaker and had lasted less than a day, but they’d been fun nonetheless.

She shifted her gaze across the street. Most of Main Street was already closed up for the evening, with the exception of the Frothy Stein. It’d take more than a swipe from Old Man Winter to part the regulars from their whiskey and Shiner Bock.

She’d been imagining curling up in front of her fireplace with a big mug of hot chocolate and a book from her teetering to-be-read pile for the past hour. But first, she had to finish cleaning the bakery. At least Sunshine Monroe, her second in command, had finished the prep for the next morning’s baking before she’d had to leave to pick up her son from basketball practice.

Keri hummed along with the tune by Lady Antebellum as she returned to the mop and bucket of soapy water. After she made a couple of swipes, she was startled by knocking on the front door.

She froze when she saw Simon Teague standing on the other side of the glass. What the devil could he want? She pointed at the obvious sign hanging on the door. “We’re closed.”

He didn’t go away. And something about the solemn look on his face caused her heart to skip a beat. What kind of trouble had Carter gotten into this time? And why the hell did Simon feel he had to be the one to tell her? It still irked her every time she saw him in uniform. Sure, everyone else in town seemed to love him to pieces, but she couldn’t see past what he’d allowed to happen to her brother, his supposed best friend. Even Carter had told her to let it go, but she’d never been the kind to forgive and forget. Not wanting to be angry every time she saw him, she’d settled into a sort of detachment as if she barely knew him.

She propped the mop against the edge of the front counter and strode toward the door. Why had she fantasized about a cozy night at home? That was like screaming at Murphy and his damn law to come screw stuff up.

When she unlocked the door and opened it a fraction, the blast of cold air smacked her in the face.

“Little late for a doughnut, isn’t it?” she asked, not relinquishing her hold on the edge of the door.

He didn’t toss a snappy comeback her way or offer up one of the smiles that he had to know annoyed her. The fact he wasn’t acting normal worried her more than his unexpected appearance outside the bakery.

“Can I come in?”

She wanted to say “no” and ignore the very bad feeling pooling in her middle. Instead, she took a step back and opened the door wide enough for him to fit through. Once he was inside, she shut the door on the unholy cold and crossed her arms across her chest.

“Is it Carter?”

Simon had removed his hat and picked at the edge of the brim without looking. He shifted from one leg to the other then nodded at the tables to his right. “Let’s sit.”

“No, thanks. Just come on out with whatever it is you think my brother has done this time.”

Simon winced. If she hadn’t been watching him closely, she wouldn’t have noticed.

“It’s not Carter.”

“Then what?” She paused and reminded herself to not get so irritated. “I’ve still got work to do before I can go home. And I’d like to head out soon since it’s snowing.”

The discomfort tugging at the lines of his face sent another surge of worry through her, making her wish she’d ignored his presence out on the sidewalk. Instinct told her she didn’t want to hear whatever he’d come to tell her.

“A few minutes ago, I received a call from Dallas P.D. Sammi was in an accident.”

She went still, not even sure her lungs were pumping air.

“Is she okay?” The words came out in a ragged whisper.

Simon stood silent for a moment too long, a moment in which she grasped the terrible truth of what he was going to say next. Her mind screamed at her to flee. If she didn’t hear the words, they wouldn’t be true.

“I’m so sorry, Keri. She and Ben were both killed.”

She stared at Simon without really seeing him. He was no more than a hulking blur in a world suddenly gone very dark. It took so much effort to form a single word.

“Both?”

Simon took a step forward, and his footfalls on the floor sounded so much louder than they actually were, like the booming of cannons instead of the normal tread of boots. Keri retreated away from his outstretched hand. She couldn’t let him touch her. If he made contact, she’d know he was real, that what he’d said wasn’t just part of a horrendous nightmare. She could convince herself that she was really already at home, curled up in that chair in front of the fire asleep.

From somewhere beyond the disbelief, she managed to find the breath to utter another word. “Hannah?” As soon as she asked, she hated herself. She didn’t want to know, couldn’t imagine going on in a world where that precious little girl had died before seeing her first Christmas.

“She’s fine, no injuries.”

She collapsed into a chair and latched onto that one glimmer of good news among an ocean of bad. “Where is she?”

“In state custody until you can arrive.”

It took several seconds for the words to travel from her eardrum to the part of her brain that actually understood. Memories jerked her back more than a year, to when she and Sammi had sat on Keri’s front porch enjoying the pleasant October air.

“I have a favor to ask you,” Sammi had said as she ran a hand over her slight baby bump.

“Sure.”

“Ben and I are drawing up legal documents, and we want to name you as the baby’s guardian should anything happen to us.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. You’re both healthy as a horse.”

“You know things happen unexpectedly sometimes.” Like their parents dying within a year of each other, both from cancer. “Ben’s parents already love this child, but they can’t take on raising a baby.”

The Spencers were wonderful people, but they were already in their seventies. Ben was their only child, born after they’d given up on having children.

Oh, God, they’d just lost their only child. Something about the brutality of that pain hit Keri more than her own.

Simon bent down in front of her, but he didn’t say something asinine like, “Are you okay?” She almost wished he would so she could get angry and scream at him. She wanted to kill the messenger, do something that would fill the growing emptiness, show some emotion before her mind shut down and forgot how.

He didn’t touch her, but she got the impression he was there to catch her if she suddenly fell over. Normally, that would make her mad, Simon Teague thinking she needed saving. Really, anyone thinking she needed saving. But tonight wasn’t normal, was it?

They sat in silence, the only sounds the drone of the heating unit running and the whistle of the wind around the edge of the building. After what seemed like hours, Simon was the one to speak first.

“It’s too dangerous to drive up there tonight, but we can go in the morning.”

His words made no sense. Go where? Why would he be going anywhere with her?

“Keri?” When his hand came to rest atop hers in her lap, she jerked as if he’d hit her with a branding iron.

Keri snatched her hand away and felt tears burn her eyes. Hot, searing tears that would surely make her go blind. “No, you’re wrong. I don’t believe it.”

It was the way Simon sat without speaking, how his expression continued to convey sorrow that broke through her final denial. Her fight dissolved and her chin trembled, but she somehow held her tears back. If she fell apart, she’d never be able to find and reassemble all the pieces.

She pushed her chair back, away from him and the truth written all over his face. When she stood, her legs shook so much she expected to fall into a heap on the floor. She walked over and grabbed the mop and bucket of dirty water. As she carried them to the utility room and set about dumping the water down the drain and rinsing the mop, she sensed Simon in the doorway. She ignored him as she finished her work then headed for her coat and purse.

She flicked off the lights to the kitchen and made for the front door. Simon caught her arm halfway there.

“Where are you going?”

“To Dallas.”

“Not tonight.”

“Yes, tonight. My niece needs me.”

He increased the pressure on her arm enough to make her look up at him. “Yes, she does. But she needs you alive.”

She wanted to ignore him, but a voice deep inside her acknowledged he was right. She couldn’t be so reckless, not for her own sake but for Hannah’s.

“Go home, Keri. Pull together whatever you need. I’ll pick you up first thing in the morning.”

“I can drive myself.”

“Not in that little car of yours. The roads are really bad in Dallas.”

She let her breath out in a long, shaky sigh. “I said I wouldn’t go tonight.”

“I heard you. Your car won’t be any more capable tomorrow. And I don’t want you behind the wheel that far, anyway.”

Damn it, why couldn’t he just leave? He’d done his duty. She glared at him, holding on to her frustration so she didn’t have to think about the other emotions grasping at her like claws. Not seeing any other alternative, she said, “Fine,” then headed toward the door.

She waited for him to step outside so she could lock up. Before she could flee to her little Honda, he stepped into her path.

“Promise me you won’t go anywhere tonight.”

“I’m just going home.” She pushed past him so he couldn’t see the tears building and threatening to spill down her cheeks.

When she sank into the driver’s seat of her car, she had to bite her lip to keep it from trembling. She blinked hard to clear her eyes, swiping at an errant tear. She couldn’t start crying or she might never stop.

She started the car and began the short drive to her house, the house she’d grown up in, where the three Mehler siblings had done homework and had parties and chased their shepherd mix, Trigger, trying to lasso him as if he was a wild horse.

“Oh, Sammi,” she said, choking on the words.

A glance in her rearview mirror revealed that Simon was following her, making sure she didn’t hightail it straight to Dallas. She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles popped. Ironic that he was the one concerned about her lying.

She pulled into her driveway and walked inside without even looking in his direction. As soon as she closed the door and turned on the light, she heard him drive away.

And then all the memories filling the house rushed her. Their mom making strudel in the kitchen, their dad watching UT football games in the living room, Carter and Simon snickering about whatever boys snicker about, Sammi and her playing one on one in the driveway.

Sammi talking on the phone with friends.

Sammi getting ready for her prom date with Brad Fisher.

Sammi packing to leave for college.

Keri clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle a cry and slid down the door to the floor.

She had no idea how long she sat there, not crying but merely staring into space and trying to remember every moment of Sammi’s life. How could she be gone? Keri held out hope that this was all just a dream, one that felt way too real.

At some point, she struggled to her feet and started roaming from one room to another, trailing her hand over family photos, an afghan made by her mother, the blue faux granite countertops Keri had installed the previous year. When she ended up at the room she’d shared with Sammi, she couldn’t step inside. Since she now slept in the master bedroom, she didn’t come in here often. Now she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to enter the room again.

She closed the door on the past and went back downstairs to her own room. For a long time, she’d avoided moving into the master suite she’d always thought of as her parents’ domain. Only after she’d totally redone the bedroom and adjoining bathroom and gotten different furniture had she been able to call it hers and not feel as though she was invading their space.

Tonight it offered no comfort as she strode in and sank onto the side of her bed. Though she was tired, she knew herself well enough to know she wasn’t going to sleep a wink. If not for the crippling ice in Dallas, she’d be on the road. And to hell with Simon Teague’s concerns.

She spent the hours of the night packing, calling Sunshine to make arrangements for the operation of the bakery while she was gone and drinking countless cups of coffee. She even tried to go to bed only to discover she’d been right in the first place. She couldn’t sleep despite how her mind wanted to power down.

By the time dawn revealed the snow hadn’t amounted to more than the equivalent of a heavy frost, she was sitting next to her bags in the living room. She heard Simon’s department-issue SUV as soon as it turned onto her street. She had the front door locked and was down the steps before he pulled into her driveway.

He handed her a thermal mug of coffee, and she took it without a word. What was there to say? She could think of a dozen people with whom she’d rather be riding, but she didn’t want to put anyone else in danger on slick roads. She desperately wished she didn’t have to make the trip at all.

For a couple of hours, they made good time. But around Hico, they ran into the southern edge of the ice storm’s path. Simon had to slow down more with each mile they traveled until it felt as if they were barely moving. At this pace, it was going to take forever to reach Dallas and Hannah.

Keri found herself leaning forward and gripping the edge of her seat. Layers of ice bent tree limbs and caused power lines to swoop. Smoke poured out of chimneys, and she wondered if that was because the electricity and thus the heat were out. She hoped wherever Hannah was, she was warm and safe.

“Hard to believe something so pretty can be so dangerous,” Simon said.

They’d been quiet so long that the sound of his voice startled her. She couldn’t decide if the strained silence or talking to him was worse.

“Yeah.” That solitary word was all she could muster.

As the miles slowly ticked by, she glanced at Simon’s profile. He looked tense, and she wondered how much effort it was taking him to creep along at such an agonizing pace and to keep the SUV from sliding off into a ditch.

She bit her lip and stared out her side window, trying to bar the image of Ben and Sammi’s vehicle spinning out of control. Why had they been out in the storm, anyway? A surge of anger made her want to pound her fists into something hard and immovable. Sammi was smart, so why had she made such a stupid move? Why had she gotten herself killed?

Keri realized she might never get the answers to those questions, and that left her feeling even more bereft.

Their progress was so slow that she’d swear she could swim through taffy faster. By the time they reached the outskirts of Dallas, she was a ball of knotted muscles and blistering fatigue. Once in the city, the streets got marginally better. The sun was out and actually melting a bit of the accumulated ice.

When Simon finally pulled into a parking lot outside of a Dallas P.D. precinct, she let some of her tense muscles relax. They’d made it. But then she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to haul herself to her feet and inside.

“Keri?”

For some reason, the sound of Simon’s deep voice surprised her again.

“What?”

He looked across the vehicle at her. “Have you been able to reach Carter?”

She gripped the door handle so hard she was in danger of ripping it off. “No.” She refrained from reminding Simon that were it not for him, her brother might be with her now. She spurred her tired body into movement and got out of the SUV before Simon could ask any more questions she didn’t want to answer.

She’d tried Carter the night before only to discover the last number she had for him no longer worked. He was out there somewhere unaware that his oldest sister had died.

And it was all Simon Teague’s fault.