Trish had driven back with Pop in the truck. Christie wiped her eyes and bit her lip to quell the strong emotions washing over her.
When the truck stopped, her father launched himself out of the truck, spewing anger, “How is that no-good…”
“Pop, not now. He’s dead.” She stood up, wishing she had some way to cover Hector.
“What?” He took a step back and his jaw dropped open. Staggering, he caught himself by reaching over to the truck’s hood. Shaking his head, he whispered, “I always liked that kid. Even if he did work for that woman.”
Christie hurried over to his side and put her arm around her father. “I know. I did, too.” She turned to Trish. “Is the ambulance on the way?”
Trish had made her way around the truck and stood beside them.
“Pop, there’s nothing you can do here. Go home, and I’ll be up in a while. Trish, can you take him back?”
He shrugged away from her. “No. I’ll walk.”
“But, Pop—”
“There’s nothing wrong with my legs.” He shooed her hand away and stumbled forward. As she watched, he turned around and walked over to Christie. “You did what you could.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
Christie struggled to hold back the tears. “Thanks, Pop.” She watched him walk back up the dirt track as she closed Hector’s truck door.
Trish turned toward Christie. “Hector was such a nice guy. It’s so sad. What could have happened?”
“I don’t know. Did he have any health issues that you know of?” Christie’s mind whirled wondering about Hector’s presence on their property.
Trish sniffed. “I don’t think so, but I’m not sure how I would know that. What do you think he was doing out here?”
“I’m wondering that, too. Though the service road is used by the city sometimes, you rarely find people coming out here on a whim.”
“Remember when we all used to meet down here when we were kids?”
The change of conversation surprised Christie. A man had just died. She was surprised at how callous Trish was treating the incident. Yes, there had been memories from the past, but they were now marred again by the death of Hector Garcia. “Yes, I do.” She replied tersely.
She’d never told Trish about the time she’d waited and waited for Cole at this spot, but he’d never come. And how he’d acted like nothing had changed the next day. Even worse, he’d humiliated her by smiling in the lunchroom as if nothing had happened. After that, she had wanted nothing to do with Cole. It was as if Kimberly had been waiting for that moment. Cole, now the Cougars star quarterback, was a prime catch. His dad had money, and he drove the best truck in the senior class. When Kimberly snagged the head cheerleader position, it wasn’t long before the two became a pair. Class favorites, prom king and queen, the list of their achievements went on. When Christie heard the news that the pair were engaged, she was happy to leave town and never look back.
But time had a way of pulling her back to the past, and she had loved and missed the old homestead. Now another, more serious, tragedy had happened.
“Earth to Christie.” Trish waved her hand in front of Christie’s face.
“Sorry. In my own world.” She looked up to see the sheriff’s cruiser and an ambulance coming down the old service road. She waved at them. They turned and navigated down toward the creek. A tall, deeply tanned man stepped out from his patrol vehicle.
“Hug?”
“Christie! Well, I’ll be.” The Sheriff’s face broke out in a big grin.
She remembered the boy who had been a few years behind her in high school. His baby sister, Suzanne, could never pronounce his name, Hugh, so he’d become “Hug” to everyone.
He walked over to her and wrapped her in his big, beefy arms.
“Sheriff Clauson now, huh?”
“Yep. So, fill me in on what happened here.”
Christie sensed his changed demeanor as he moved back into his professional role. The Sheriff asked a few things but said they could go back to the house and he’d go up there and speak with them. Trish had somehow gotten Champ back up to the house, so they climbed into her father’s old pickup. They rode in silence back to the house.
Even though Christie had seen many deaths in her time, something troubled her spirit about Hector’s death. She turned to Trish. “I have to find out if Hector had health issues. What was he doing out here by himself? Sure, heat stroke happens but something doesn’t feel right.”
“I could see if Shana May could let you into his house.”
“What do you mean?” Christie turned off the truck after parking it next to her Jeep.
“She does housecleaning, and I’m fairly sure she does Hector’s house. I can ask.”
Christie pushed her hair back off her face. “I don’t know. I’m not sure that would be right.”
“Look, he’s dead.”
“Trish!” Her lack of empathy stunned Christie.
“Okay, sorry. But we could get into his house if we make her something—like a pie. Then, we could just say we knew she’d be there.” She grinned.
“You are a piece of work, you know?”
Trish laughed. “You have no idea. But you still like me.”
“Yes, I do.” She lowered her head and grinned. “Even if you are crazy.”
They heard a vehicle coming up the road.
Trish shielded her eyes with her hand. “Oh, geez. Here comes trouble.”
“Look again. Double trouble.” Christie crossed her arms and waited.
The truck screeched to a halt, and Emma Webster exited the truck. The other door opened, and Kimberly slid out of her side, steadying herself on her heels.
“Is it true? I just got a call. What happened?” Emma spat at them.
“Whoa, there. Settle down.” Christie held up her hands to fight off the vitriol.
“Don’t tell her to settle down. Hector comes here, and your dad takes a shot at him. Now he’s found dead on your property.”
“Now wait a minute,” Trish blustered until Christie spoke.
“First, my father did not take a shot at Hector—”
“Darn tooting.” A gravelly voice spoke up from behind them on the porch.
Oh, great. The last thing I need is for Pop to get involved.
“Pop, I was explaining—”
“There’s no need to explain anything to those two trollops.”
Kimberly gasped.
“Wow, this reminds me of old times.” Trish laughed. “You gonna run and tell your daddy, Kimberly?”
“You little…” Kimberly moved forward.
A male voice commanded, “Stop right there, Ms. Whitaker.”
They turned to see Sheriff Clauson. He must have parked down by the old oak and walked the last bit up to the house.
Kimberly turned and pointed at Pop. “I want you to arrest him!”
“What?” Everyone echoed.
“He threatened Hector, and when Hector narrowly avoided him in the parking lot, well…”
“He didn’t ‘narrowly avoid’ him. He almost killed my father.”
“So, there you go, you both have motive.” Emma Webster spoke up.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Christie bristled and took a step toward Emma. “Now you’re saying I killed Hector? And what, pray tell, would be my reason?”
“Revenge,” Emma Webster replied.
Christie laughed. “Revenge? For what?”
“For almost hitting your dad. Then you wouldn’t have to take care of him,” Kimberly joined in.
Trish stepped forward. “What is this? Are you all on drugs? Christie’s a nurse. No way would she hurt anyone. Or Mr. Taylor, for that matter. I’m fixin’ to knock out some of those fake pearly whites if you don’t apologize right now.”
“See!” Kimberly pointed at Trish. “She threatened me! I want her arrested, too.”
The sheriff walked closer to the group, and Christie watched as her father moved off the porch.
“Now, Hug, I’ve known ya since you were knee high to a grasshopper. No way would I or my Chrissy cause harm to anyone. You and everyone else here—even this girly—knows that’s the truth of it. Hector came over and I’d been cleaning my shotgun. It wasn’t even loaded. I keep telling this woman that I ain’t selling this place, but she keeps sending those vultures over here. It’s trespassing, plain and simple. As for poor Hector, no telling why he was on my property.”
Emma answered. “Well, that’s easy. He called me saying to meet him here. That he thought you all were planning on accepting our ‘gift’ or possibly wanted to talk about selling the property.”
The Sheriff said, “We have his phone, and we’ll see if the phone records agree with that.”
“I never called Hector,” Pop told Christie.
The Sheriff spoke into his walkie-talkie. “Deputy Roland, bring me Hector’s phone.”
He stuffed his thumbs into his gear belt as everyone glared at each other, but they all remained silent.
Roland arrived shortly and brought the phone over to the Sheriff. Clauson pulled on latex gloves and took the phone from the bag. “Unfortunately, it has a password on it. But—”
Kimberly said, “I think it’s something like a G.”
“You would know, since you’ve been having an affair with him.” Trish thrust her chin out.
“How dare you!” Kimberly responded.
“What! Is this true?” Emma turned to Kimberly.
The Sheriff silenced them. “One call is to you, Emma. There’s another call to Cole. And one text to an unknown number.”
Emma spoke. “It could be from one of our clients. Read me the number, and I can let you know.”
The Sheriff didn’t have to finish all the numbers for Christie to know it was her phone number.
“Ring any bells?” the Sheriff asked.
“It’s mine.” Christie sighed.
“So, you texted Hector?”
“No.”
“The evidence,” he held the screen up for her to see, “ says you did.”
“I didn’t. I’m telling you. What does it say?”
“Meet me at the old spot by the creek.”
Christie gulped, but said nothing.
Sheriff Clauson asked, “Where’s your phone now?”
“Um, in my Jeep, I think.”
“Deputy, please go with Ms. Taylor and retrieve her phone.”
Ms. Taylor now. Him not calling her by her first name didn’t bode well. Christie and the deputy walked over to the Jeep. She started to open the console when the deputy stopped her. He put on gloves and opened it.
The deputy did a search in the console before yelling out, “No phone, Sheriff.”
“But it has to be there. I hadn’t taken it out because I was bringing some things in from the store.” She went to open the other door, but the deputy stopped her. She grunted in frustration. “Fine. Look under the seat. Maybe it fell under there.”
The deputy searched inside, but the phone was not in the car.
“When was the last time you saw your phone, Christie?”
“As I said, I went into town for some supplies, then came back out here. I sometimes leave it in the car.”
The sheriff handed the plastic bag with Hector’s phone back to the deputy.
“And no one has had access to it during that time?”
“No…” She hesitated.
“Is there something you want to say?” Sheriff Clauson motioned for her to continue.
Christie’s thoughts raced. Cole had been waiting for them, and they had taken Pop’s truck to go to the doctor and get feed for the horses. Her mind raced. But why would Cole text Hector from her phone? What would he have to gain?
Oh, no. If Hector and Kimberly were having an affair, did Cole kill him?
She looked up. “Sheriff, I’m not feeling well. I’m still getting used to this Texas heat and humidity again. Can we go inside where it’s cooler?”
“I think we have what we need for now. Just stay in town where I can reach you.” He shook Christie’s father’s hand. “R.C.”
“That’s it? You’re not going to arrest them or something?” Kimberly moaned.
“On what charge?”
Kimberly thought for a moment. “Well, um…”
Pop said, “I agree. Arrest them two.” He pointed at the two women.
“What for?” Emma spoke.
“For trespassing on my property.” He took the check out of his pocket, tore it into little pieces, and threw it up in the air. “And you can take this, too. Now git before I sic my dogs on ya.”
“Sheriff!” Emma cried out. “You can’t arrest me. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“This is his property. Unless you have permission to be here, I suggest you leave. Now.”
The women headed back to the truck.
“This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me,” Emma spat at them.
“Oh, goody.” Christie waved.
After the Sheriff left, she looked at her father and Trish.
He pointed to the house. “Come inside, girl. I know you got something you want to share with us.”