Milky Way
The kitchen fell dark again as Griff pulled out two bottles of Bass Ale, then shut the refrigerator door. He stepped back out on the deck behind the ranch house and paused to consider Rodya’s head laying in Maura’s lap, eyes blissfully closed as she gently scratched behind his ear.
“Man’s best friend, huh?” Griff handed her one of the bottles. “Mangy mutt.”
Rodya opened his eyes to watch Griff sit down beside Maura, then closed them again with a dismissive soft snort.
“How quickly they forget—and I wasn’t even in jail for a whole week.”
“Maybe he can still smell it on you. It is a stink that lingers.”
“And what would be your professional recommendation? Tomato juice?”
“Couldn’t hurt.”
Griff took a swig of his beer and stared into the clear night sky.
“That steak was amazing.” Maura looked over at Griff and smiled. “Even better than the one you bought me at Ruth’s Chris.”
“Fresh off the hoof.”
“Does Ben do that every Thursday?”
“Just once a month.”
“So, why are you getting to be as bad as Johnny Eagle?” Maura asked.
“Who says that?”
“Swan. And what makes Johnny Eagle so bad, anyway?”
“Nothing. He’s just well-known to reservation raconteurs for his…conquests. A source of tall tales, not half of which I believe.”
“People tell tall tales about you, too?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“So, you don’t kiss and tell.”
Griff smiled cryptically.
They pondered on the Milky Way’s arc over the Medicine Bow Mountains and chased their thoughts with a pull off their beers.
“And I thought Pine Hollow was way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. Doesn’t it get lonely out here?”
“Quiet, yes. Lonely, not so much.”
“So, what are we going to do about this Valance guy and the rest of them?”
“Don’t know yet.” Griff leaned forward and put elbows to knees. “Are you sure you want in on this? Might get ugly.”
“I’m sure.”
“Why?”
“If you knew skels, like I knew skels, there’d be no doubt. These Talon guys went to all that trouble to kill Eply and frame you for it, then Papa gets you off scot free? No self-respecting bad guy is going to allow that to stand.”
“Johnny…”
“Maybe Cap, too, if they find out about him and the journals and all. Just can’t let that stand.”
Griff nodded.
“I’ll bet you can’t wait to kick that Ranger puke’s ass after what they did to you.”
“Yeah, but…he who flanks first, wins.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve got to outmaneuver these guys.”
“How?”
“If I had all the answers, I’d go on Jeopardy.”
“You mean questions?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t forget to frame your answer in the form of a question.”
Griff hung his head low and shook it wearily.
Maura punched him in the shoulder. “I’m beat. You want to show me to my room?”
Griff sighed. He led Maura upstairs to one of the guest rooms, then came back down to sit out on the deck for a Task-Condition-Standard meditation on Seth Valance and the Talon Group.
When Griff finally went to bed, he slept alone as Rodya curled up at the foot of Maura’s bed in the next room.
***~~~***