The Barefoot Summer(49)

“Okay.” Johnny filled a bowl with chili and carried it to the table. “It’s nice to meet you, Kate. You’d be one of those women that Conrad married, right?”

“Yes, I am, and it’s nice to meet you, Johnny,” she said.

Would that always be the way she’d be seen in the community? At least in a city the size of Fort Worth, very few people knew her or that a robbery had gone bad in Dallas.

“My pleasure,” Johnny said with a smile. “Guess what, Waylon? We’ve got a set of twin calves. Born too late for this fall’s sale, but in my opinion they’ll be good breeders. Both bulls, and they’ve got some fine lines. That’s what I came to the house to tell you, though I do love a good bowl of chili,” Johnny said.

Johnny’s biceps bulged the seams of his knit shirt, and his dark hair had a ring where his cowboy hat had set all morning. That he’d been in the military was evident by his body language. The way his eyes didn’t miss a thing told Kate that he might have even been in the Special Forces.

“So what branch were you in?” she asked him.

“What?” Johnny brow furrowed. “Oh, you mean the military, not the creek at the back of the ranch. Navy SEALs.”

“Overseas duty?” she asked.

“Spent some time in Kuwait. Texas is a paradise compared to that. Good chili, Waylon. I’ll keep an eye on the calves until you get home and then you can see them for yourself.” Johnny didn’t talk much more as he set about eating. When he finished, he carried his bowl to the sink, rinsed it, and put it in the dishwasher. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll keep it runnin’ smooth until you get back home and pin a couple of medals on those two who killed that bastard. I remember Iris and how she always made special treats for us at Bible school.”

Waylon chuckled. “I sure would like to get this settled.”

Not as much as I would, Kate thought as she finished the chili.

“Get it done and get back here for good.” Johnny waved as he left by the back door.

“You sure you don’t want to go with me?” Waylon turned back to Kate.

“No, I do not. If I get that close to home, Mother might pull me right back into the business, and I really want to get all this finished before I go back,” she answered. “I’m just sorry that Darcy died not knowing that her mother had figured out what a horrible mistake she had made. She talked about a bank deposit box, too. A key was in one of the letters. If that’s in your purview, go by my office and Mother will give it to you.”

“Whatever is in there will be Darcy’s, and since she is dead, it will go to whomever she listed as the beneficiary. But I would imagine you and those other two are free to live in the cabin until it’s all settled,” he answered.

“I’m going to tell Amanda and Jamie about this. They have a right to know,” she said.

“You should. Please tell them to keep it under their hats. I want to put my best folks on researching every alias that he used. He did stay pretty true to what con men usually do.” Waylon got to his feet. “Funny how things work out, isn’t it?”

“His choices brought him to a fatal end for sure. But what did you mean by staying true?”

“They nearly always use the same initials. Would you send me an e-mail this afternoon with all that information? That way I’ll have it when I get to the precinct and we might be able to get something accomplished today.”

“I will as soon as I get to the cabin,” she said. “How will this help you find his killer?”

“If we know the past and the way he lived then, it helps us figure out what was going on just before he died.”

“I’ll bet that it has to do with another wife or at least another woman,” she said. “That was his game. Find a woman. Charm her. Fleece her. And move on.”

Waylon laid his hand on hers. “You are the exception.”

“How’s that?”

“He didn’t fleece you.”

“That was the only way to hold on to a little bit of my dignity,” she whispered.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kate got inside her Caddy, started the engine, turned up the air-conditioning, and hit the button to roll down the window. “If you clear my name, I’ll let you drive my vintage cars as a reward,” she teased.

“Darlin’, that could be considered a bribe,” Waylon said.

“Oh, really? Are you tempted?” She wished the same cool air that pushed the heat out the window could do the same for her body. But as long as Waylon braced a forearm on the window and leaned down so that their faces were only inches apart, the AC wasn’t going to cool anything down but the car.

“We could ride down there together and it wouldn’t seem like such a long trip,” he said.

On one hand she wished she could change her mind. But common sense said she needed breathing space away from him. “I really need to go home. I promised to bring some things from the convenience store, and they’ll be waiting for them. Call me when you get back.”

“I’ll be home on Sunday at the latest. If I make it in Saturday night, will you go to dinner with me on Sunday?”

Kate laid a hand on his arm. “We have a potluck, remember?”

“But I want to take you to Wichita Falls to my favorite burger shop. Once you eat there, you won’t want to get too far away from this area. Who knows? Someday you’ll leave the big city behind like I’m doing.” He straightened up and headed toward the house as he waved over his shoulder.