*He came out of the rodeo office door Wednesday after lunch and slammed right into Reggie.
He grabbed her to keep her from going backward down the steps.
“Not again,” she muttered as he set her upright. She stepped back from his hold.
He ignored that. “I was looking for you.”
“Don’t start on me,” she warned.
“Okay, I won’t. I’ll just ask what’s next?”
“What’s next?”
“Yup. Had a talk with Vicky yesterday, didn’t she tell you? Heard how you started this detecting thing for a friend of yours back East.”
“No, she didn’t tell me. But she couldn’t have told you—”
“Details? No. Just that you had a friend in trouble — bad trouble — and you went to work to get her out of it.”
“It’s her story. My friend’s. I can’t tell it.”
“Understood.”
“She never would have been able to teach again and she’s a natural. Not like me.”
His gaze sharpened at that.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind. I really don’t. Because… Well, anyway it would have been a crime—” Her mouth twisted at her word choice. “—if she hadn’t been able to teach anymore. When it was looking like that might happen, I dug into it. I found out some things. Enough that she could teach again.”
“She’s the one you got a teaching job in Montana?”
“How did you—? The grapevine. So you did know I was back. Before the Park Rodeo, I mean.”
“The minute you came back. Wasn’t going to believe it until I saw it with my own eyes, though.”
“But you didn’t make any effort to do that — to see me.”
“Nope. I didn’t.” He paused a moment, then added deliberately, “Being back now didn’t mean you wouldn’t leave again any moment.”
“Whereas you’d never leave.”
“Maybe not permanent, because the ranch is home, but rodeo’s taken me a lot of places and I could see trying a few more.”
From under the brim of his hat he watched her trying to assimilate that. It wasn’t easy for her. Hell, it hadn’t been easy for him. Not learning about other places, not opening himself up to them, not realizing what an ass he’d been to demand that she give up her dream so he could live his.
He’d thought this all through during a night of staring up at the ceiling of his cabin at the B&B.
He wasn’t surprised it was too much for her to swallow at once. Especially since she’d shown signs of realizing what an ass she’d been to demand that he give up his dream so she could live hers.
Guess we both did do what we’d dreamed about. Only it didn’t turn out quite the way we’d dreamed.
All-in-all, he wasn’t surprised when she dove behind the cover of this investigation of hers.
“I have to get to work.”
“All right. So, like I said before, what next? Sounds like you’ve eliminated me.” He left a hint of a question in that. She rolled her eyes. He took that as a yes. “Who are the other two main suspects?”
“Why would you—?”
“Because I’m in this now, too.”
“Being questioned by the deputies doesn’t mean—”
“I’m in it because you’re in it.”
Her head came up, their eyes met, held.
She looked away first. “It’s my responsibility.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t have help. So, like I said before, who are the remaining suspects? Vicky said you had three to start. I was one, so that leaves two.” And then he knew. Should have known a heck of a lot sooner. Would have if he weren’t tied in knots about Regina Marie Moran. He also suddenly felt a whole lot better about a number of things. “Tate is one. And Adam? That’s why you focused on them. Asked all those questions. But couldn’t you tell at that bank in Sherman which one it was?”
“With all three of you about the same size and build, with the distance, and with everything that went wrong I couldn’t even tell it wasn’t you,” she grumbled. “But it’s got to be Adam Hunter.”
“Why?”
“Because Adam needs the money to keep rodeoing, and thanks to poker, Tate doesn’t. That’s why I’m going to talk to him as soon as I find out where he’s staying.”
“I know where he is. We’ll go together.”
“No. This is my—”
“Then you’ll waste time trying to find out what I already know.”
*
Outside the door of the far less than posh motel, Reggie stopped Chapin, one hand to his chest. More like a cop pushing him back than a lover’s caress. But tell that to his body.
“I’ll talk. You stand there silent and threatening-looking. Got it?”
He could do that. Though he’d do a lot more than stand and look if Adam Hunter started anything.
Not pausing for a response, she pivoted and strode to the door.
A sort of yelp came from inside. Probably Adam, wondering who was trying to knock the door down with their bare knuckles.
“Just a minute,” he called out.
Then came the sound of scrambling.
When the door swung open, Chapin had a feeling he knew what they’d find.
He was half right.
*
Adam Hunter answered the door barefoot, with three buttons of his shirt closed, and one side tucked into jeans that were skewed enough that the front snap was halfway to his hip.
“We have to talk.” Reggie sailed past him. Chapin saw her look toward the bathroom — the door was open, which was the first indication his guess of what had been going on might not be right. Then she cast a quick look to her right. She pulled out the desk chair, turned it around, said, “Sit down, Adam Hunter.”
He blinked after her in surprise, then turned back to Chapin. His look started to shift toward a welcome, but quickly fogged into uncertainty.
Chapin figured that meant he had the threatening-looking part right.
He gestured Adam back into his own room, then followed, closing the door behind them. To the right he saw what caught Reggie’s attention. The bedspread was hung up on the curtain rod over the drapes.
Reggie was on the other side of the room, where the bed had been pushed aside to make room for a tripod with a tablet attached to, along with a couple lights. Tablet and lights were all turned off, but where they’d been aiming was pretty darned clear.
Also, a t-shirt, boots, and a pair of socks were scattered on the bed, which was rumpled on the side closer to the camera set-up.
“What is all this?” Reggie asked, picking up an earbud.
The motion let out a spurt of distant music. Definitely not a country ballad.
“Nothing. It’s nothing. Was listening to music.” In two long strides, Adam took the earbud from her, touching something that silenced the music.
Chapin was right after him, a hand on his shoulder. “Sit down, Adam.”
The younger man swallowed and complied.
Reggie’s gaze swooped over Adam, around the room, then returned to the cowboy. “You’re doing porn movies.”
“What? No.” He half started out of the chair, Chapin’s hand stopping him.
“Okay, okay, don’t shout. Explain.”
“It’s sort of, uh, modeling. Except it’s online and, uh, people watch.”
“People watch you model online,” she repeated. Her tone was almost friendly, a little confused. It was her look from the camera setup to his disheveled jeans and shirt that conveyed the skepticism.
“Yeah.”
“Adam Hunter, you’re going to have to say more than that to make me understand.”
If the kid had had his wits about him he’d have demanded to know why he should explain anything to her. But he didn’t.
Part of it was being caught off guard. But a lot of it was Reggie. She had set the tone from the start. Chapin could imagine her students responding just the way Adam was now.
“They, uh, there’s a little fee on the site and I get a little share.”
“A little share of a little fee? That doesn’t sound like it could pay enough to be worthwhile.”
He looked miserable.
“They pay you to take off your clothes.” Reggie’s statement carried no judgment or sting.
“Not all of them. Not all the time. They sort of, uh, bid for buttons to be opened and, uh, other things. But,” he added quickly, “they never see my face. I make sure of that.”
“This is how you’ve been supporting yourself during your, uh, dry spell on the circuit?”
“Yeah. Make a good bit more than at rodeo.” His mumble was morose.
Reggie turned away abruptly, but her voice was strong. “How much for one of these sessions?”
When he told them the range, Chapin whistled softly.
“You’re not going to tell Vicky, are you, Reggie? If it’s against WRC rules, I didn’t know, honest. I’ll stop right now. Never do it again. I just want to keep rodeoing.”
“You’d give it up for good, even though you’re making more money this way?” she asked sternly.
“Hell, yes. All I want to do is rodeo.”
“Then you better put all your effort into rodeo and quit this, don’t you think?”
His face brightened with hope. He looked from Reggie to Chapin, as if checking if Reggie’s words meant what he hoped they meant.
“I will. I swear I will.” Another thought hit him. “Besides, they probably closed me out after stopping short of, uh … the end.”
*
“If you laugh,” Reggie threatened in a low tone as they walked away from Adam Hunter’s room. “I will shoot you.”
“Ever?”
“Until we’re out of sight and out of hearing.”
They got in his truck, he drove around a curve from the motel, and pulled over.
Neither made a sound … until they looked at each other.
When they finished, Reggie said, “Still, that wasn’t going to go in a direction that would ever be good for that kid.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“It’s not good in other ways, either,” she added as he started up the truck for the short trip to the rodeo grounds.
“Like?”
“Don’t you see what this means?”
“It means Adam isn’t robbing banks. Least not on the rodeo circuit.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, you lost me. Why’s that a bad thing?”
“It’s not bad — for him.”
He could see it would be bad for her goal of working for the Knight brothers, since her theory didn’t pan out. But her expression held nothing of self-pity. She looked anguished. And she was looking directly at him.
“Me? Are you saying it’s bad for me? Is that what you’re getting at? Because I thought we got past this before, what with you seeing the bank robber across the street when I was right there beside you. I know trusting isn’t your strongest suit, but—”
“It’s not about me trusting you. It’s about what others are going to think. Tate Lavenge was eliminated and now Adam Hunter is, too. No motive for either of them to rob that bank in Sherman. Adam because he’s making money in—” She whirled her hand in the air like she was trying to get something sticky off it. “—whatever you want to call what he’s doing. And Tate because he won all that money playing poker. That means you’re the only one who matches the pattern now — the pattern I pointed out to them, that I’ve persuaded everyone would lead right to the bank robber. They’re sure to think it’s you. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“There are two more who fit except for one rodeo each.”
“Who?”
“Goose Ducrill. He wasn’t at a rodeo when there was a robbery, but he wasn’t rodeoing anywhere else. If he skipped the rodeo because he didn’t have the entry fee, but came in after—”
“Rodeo in Oklahoma?” When she nodded, he continued, “He left right after his last go-round the week before because his grandpa was dying. Missed one week and got to the next after the funeral. It was even in a local paper, because his grandpa was a big deal around there. He’s not going to win Mr. Congeniality, but he’s not a bank robber. Who’s the other?”
“Lindy.”
“What? You said a man.” He parked under the shade a tree at the farthest reaches of the rodeo parking area, with no one else around.
“That’s not one hundred percent. And even after seeing the guy, I couldn’t swear it couldn’t possibly be a woman, because my view was so fragmented.”
“Well, if it was a woman, it wasn’t Lindy.”
“You can’t be sure.”
“I’m pretty sure she was not up bright and early Monday robbing a bank. She and that Cottonwood County roper hit it off real well. Word is she’s still there.”
“That can be checked, but if you’re right and Lindy has an alibi…” She expelled a breath, then dragged her teeth across her bottom lip. “If they’re eliminated, that puts you back in the spotlight, because I’m the only witness to your being across the street from the bank while it was being robbed and they’ll say I’m biased.”
“Others saw me. That truck driver for one. But—”
“Who knows where he is. Or who he is.”
“—are you biased?”
“Of course I am. And the others were too far away to be able to identify you. Except for that wretched truck driver. If I could get my hands on him, with him ruining my shots and then— What are you doing?”
“Getting my hands on you.” He had her shoulders to turn her toward him.
“Why—?”
That did not require a verbal answer. Because he had his mouth on hers by then.
They were both breathless when he finally eased back.
He liked leaving her breathless. As for her leaving him breathless … oh, yeah, he liked that, too.
“I’m doing a charity rodeo clinic for kids pretty soon now, then there’s a cookout. You can come to that. Then, tonight, we can talk this through.”
She swallowed. “I…” She swallowed again and started stronger. “I have a job to do before— I have a job to do. Besides, I promised Tate I’d have dinner with him tonight.”
He gave her a look. It was level and unemotional. Probably unreadable to most people. But he knew not to her.
“It was before I knew he didn’t need money, so he couldn’t be the robber,” she said.
“That’s supposed to make it all right? That you were going to have dinner with a bank robber and now that he’s innocent of that, you’re going to have dinner with a cowboy who thinks he’s one smooth operator and that you’re a hot, unattached woman?”
“I am a hot, unattached woman,” she shot back.
“You’re doing a lousy job of making me feel better about this.”
“You feeling better about it is none of my concern or—”
“Isn’t it?”
This time his look made her blush.
He palmed her chin, drawing her slightly toward him as he leaned in and they kissed again. Slow and soft and sure.
“You need to have more faith in yourself, Reggie. I do. I’d bet you anything you want that your theory — your pattern — is still right.”
“How can it be?”
“Don’t know that precisely, but you figured out what nobody else even knew was happening. You’ve gotten it this far. You’ll figure out this last bit.”
Her lips parted and he suspected she was going to ask how? again. Then her eyes widened and he knew he was watching that quick mind of hers putting pieces together. Pieces nobody else even recognized belonged to this puzzle.
“When did Tate Lavenge say he won that money at poker?” she asked.
He thought about it. “Heard he and a few other boys stayed on in Park after the rodeo wrapped up. Others talked about working for Walker’s operation for a few days, but they were joshing him for missing out on good grub and good times. And then he said he did well enough at the poker table to be plenty satisfied with how he’d spent his time. So it was definitely after the rodeo.”
“That’s it. That’s it. I eliminated him. Just because he said— Of course, of course.”
“There’s no of course about it to me,” Chapin complained mildly. “Explain.”
“It’s all about following the money. He didn’t have the money to enter the Park Rodeo — we know that because he borrowed it from you. He didn’t finish in the money at the rodeo. So he should have been flat broke. Yet he had money to play poker in Park after the rodeo. So, where’d he get that stake?”
“Could’ve borrowed that, too.”
“Who from? The people who had money had already moved on. The ones who were left were the guys working for Walker Riley to get a stake for their next stop. Did he know anybody else in Park?”
“Not that I know of. But Walker might have staked him.”
“Everyone says he has the rodeo cowboys work for him, that he doesn’t outright lend them money.”
“Usually, but I don’t know if it’s a hundred percent. He could’ve. And that might’ve been how Tate got the money for poker. And then he won and then— What?”
“You can’t have it both ways. I know you don’t want to believe any of the people you rodeo with could do such a thing. But if you believe in me the way you said you do, then it’s Adam Hunter, Tate Lavenge, or you. The evidence says it’s not Adam. And—”
“Evidence says it’s not me, either. Evidence of your own eyes.”
“My eyes aren’t going to cut it with law enforcement. So, if it comes down to him or you, I’m going to prove it’s him. What are you grinning at?”
“You. I like this side of you. All fierce and protective.”
“Don’t get a swelled head, Johnson. Just trying to keep you out of prison.”
“That’s a good start.”
He leaned in for another kiss that could have been the good start of a lot more if she hadn’t backed away, saying, “Wait, wait. We can’t get distracted right now.”
Except then she kissed him, quick and hot.
As he was reaching to wrap her up in his arms, she moved back again.
“Sorry. Sorry. I shouldn’t have— No distractions. We need to rule out the obvious. So you need to call Walker and ask if he lent money to Lavenge. Why are you frowning?”
“You don’t call up a guy and ask if somebody’s borrowed money from him.”
“Chapin Johnson, I love your Code of the West and all, but remember that you or him part? Well, I’m not letting you get in the way of saving your own neck. Along with setting my cousin Betsy’s mind at rest, preventing more robberies, minimizing damage to the WRC’s reputation, avoiding any innocent people getting hurt, and possibly starting me on a new career. Call. Right now.”
“Okay, okay.”
He placed the call. While he was still working his way around to broaching the subject to Walker, Reggie tugged on his sleeve.
“Ask if he knows of anyone who plays high stakes poker around there or if he heard about a game in the days following the rodeo.”
He repeated the question, liking this one a bit more than the original one he was supposed to ask.
He thought Reggie was going to burst as he responded to Walker’s answer with a string of “uh-huhs.”
Then, as long as he was on a roll, he asked if Walker had staked any of the cowboys who’d rodeoed that week with a loan.
“Nope.”
“It’s a damned nosy thing to ask and I wouldn’t blame you if—”
“You wouldn’t ask if you didn’t need the answer.”
“Thanks, Walker. Thanks a lot.”
Before he clicked off the phone, Reggie was saying. “What did he say? What were all those uh-huhs about — other than trying to drive me crazy?”
“He did not loan Lavenge money. Now, tell why you were asking.”
“Following the money.”
“There was a game. Not real high stakes, though. One of Walker’s hands plays in and he’d mentioned Lavenge being there. Was kind of surprised he was still in town because the game was Tuesday night.”
“After the robbery. That’s great. He had to be gambling with money from the bank. Even if Tate won, someone else at the poker table almost certainly took home some of the money Tate gambled with — assuming the teller included bait money. I wonder if those Cottonwood County deputies would tell me—”
Bill Johnson, please report to the chutes.
Damn. As soon as he heard the PA announcement, he knew it was for the kids’ rodeo clinic.
“I have to go — the clinic. Come watch and we’ll talk after. But whatever you do, don’t approach him on your own. He’s got a temper. As for those deputies, no way are they going to tell you anything.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Then why are you smiling?” he asked suspiciously.
“Because I have something better than deputies.”