“Can’t remember?” Maggie tried to process.
Liam blew out a breath. “Okay. We can figure this out.” He turned to Helen. “Did she tell you where she’d been when she arrived here?”
“No, not really anything specific, but it was frantic here and the lobby was hopping with holiday check-ins. I didn’t get a chance to pay full attention until later when I got her upstairs, but she was so tired and miserable, I put her straight to bed.” She patted Tammy’s knee. “I’m sorry, honey, but I don’t know where you were between your hospital stay and when you showed up here.”
“Maybe you slept in your car or on someone’s sofa. I’ll ask your neighbors at the trailer park if you mentioned anything.” Maggie jotted notes in her phone, making a list of all the names Tammy spooled out, everyone she considered a friend in Driftwood.
Helen started, took a phone from her pocket and read the message. “I’m sorry, I have to go. Chef needs help.”
Maggie wished for a lightning-quick moment that she could go, too, lose herself in the business of a restaurant kitchen, dissolve her concern in clouds of sizzling butter and boiling pots of pasta. Missing jewelry even in a small town like Driftwood was a needle in the proverbial haystack.
Helen kissed Tammy and headed for the door. “You just call me on the house phone if you need me.”
Liam called to Helen, “Gonna need to finish this conversation, sis.”
“Yes, Liam. I know I will not get out of the scolding you intend to give me.” She kissed him on the cheek and breezed out.
Tammy stared with wide eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
Maggie straightened. “I do. I’ll be you for a while, until you’re better. I’m going to snoop around town and try to figure out who you left the jewelry with, then we’ll take it to the police, just like you intended.”
“But I can’t remember...”
“I’m sure you’ll get your memory back, but in the meantime, I’ll ask around, at the Chuckwagon, too. I’m sure you made friends there.” She shot a quick glance at her watch. “I’m late getting back right now.”
“In the meantime...” Liam broke in in such a severe manner that Jingles looked up from his stupor, startled. “Virgil Salvador is still out there, looking to either get his jewelry back or to hurt you both.”
Tammy shuddered. “I won’t let you risk yourself for me, Mags. I won’t.”
“I owe you one, remember?”
“That was a long time ago,” Tammy said. “The debt, if there ever was any, has been repaid a zillion times over.”
Maggie shook her head. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for you.” She took in Liam’s curiosity. “There was a restaurant fire. She got me out.”
“You’d have done the same for me.” Tears leaked down her sister’s cheeks.
“No crying,” Maggie said. “I’ve got the list of everyone you remember talking to. Just keep trying to think if there’s anyone else.”
“But Joe...how can I warn him?”
“I’ll ask my brother to help track him down. Mitch is a retired US marshal.” Liam held up a hand. “Don’t worry. He’ll keep it on the down low.” His face went stone-still. “But this half-baked investigation plan is not going to work. Don’t you remember how close Virgil got yesterday?”
“This is a private family issue, Liam,” Maggie said.
“Not anymore it’s not,” he half growled.
She stood, catching his ferocious gaze with her own. “Thanks for your help, but I’ll take it from here.”
His lips twitched. A silent rebuff.
“Not gonna let you do this alone,” he said finally.
She tipped her chin up. “I don’t need your permission.”
“Oh, boy,” Tammy muttered. “It’s like a Western standoff. Where are the tumbleweeds rolling by?”
Liam started to speak, then stopped. Finally he crammed his hat on his head.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Liam said to Maggie. “You and Tammy drew my sister into this mess and that means it’s a twofer. If you get Helen, you earn yourself her ornery bear of a brother, too.”
“I said I don’t need your help.” Maggie’s tone was more strident this time, so clear even this mountain of a cowboy could not misunderstand.
“I gotta go.” Liam whistled for the dog who jumped off the bed and bounded over so fast he skidded on the hardwood and sailed right into Liam’s shins.
Maggie relaxed a fraction as he backed off until he shook his head. “No offense, ma’am, but you’re gettin’ my help whether you think you need it or not.” He about-faced and stalked out the door, Jingles following merrily behind.
Maggie blew out a breath.
“What did you ever see in him?” she asked her sister.
Tammy laughed. “He grows on a person and you’d better watch out, Maggie, because he only badgers people he takes an interest in.”
Maggie kissed her sister and left, being sure to go slow enough that she would not run into Liam. She figured by the time she finished unloading the pies from the van, he would be long gone.
People he takes an interest in?
Why did that thought sparkle around her like the glimmering lights on the Christmas tree?
Liam spoke to Mitch right away, asking him to find Joe. “Last name of Albertson.” Mitch had spent years in the US Marshals office tracking the most desperate and degenerate fugitives in the world, so he was sure locating Joe would be a piece of cake.
Mitch did not press him for details, but Liam could see the questions nestled deep in his brother’s black eyes. “I promise I’ll tell you everything when I can.”
Mitch nodded but didn’t look convinced about Liam’s judgment. Liam wasn’t so sure about his own wisdom, either.
When he finished the conversation, he rode out with Chad to tinker with a watering system that was not up to par and then replaced a flat tire on one of the ranch tractors.
Skipping lunch, he got down to business in the workhouse, attending to some accumulated tack repairs that had been piling up on his workbench. He eyed the small piece of skirt he’d cut with the hydraulic press, waiting there on the saddle tree. He was making a child-size saddle to give to Charlie for Christmas. The seat he’d cut by hand with a head knife, custom fitting the saddle for both Charlie and Sugar, the horse Charlie would be riding. Though he longed to work on it, he was far too distracted.
He had called over to the Chuckwagon twice and heard that Maggie was still waiting tables and helping in the kitchen. Her shift ended at five, he’d found out from Nan, and he intended to ensure he was there when she clocked out, no matter how she felt about it. His thoughts alternately pinballed between irritation, aggravation and, oddly, fascination. The latter he could not understand so he did his best to stow it somewhere deep down.
Chad popped his head into Liam’s workshop, a worried frown on his face.
Liam snapped to attention, putting down the tack. “What’s wrong?”
“Aunt Ginny’s fallen. Got her up and on the sofa, but she won’t go to the doc.”
“Uncle Gus can’t make her?”
“He’s away getting lumber in town. I left a message on his cell. He doesn’t pick up when he’s driving.”
Liam didn’t need to hear any more. He hurried to the house to find Aunt Ginny looking more peeved than pained, sitting on the sofa with her foot propped on a Christmas-patterned throw pillow. “I’m right as rain,” she said. “I just missed the last few steps of the ladder. You didn’t need to get Liam, Chad.”
“Aw-ww there’s no place I’d rather be than with you, Aunt Ginny,” Liam drawled. “You’re my best gal.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Let me just take a look at that ankle, huh?” Liam had served as a medical sergeant among other duties in his Green Beret career. He palpated her joint and sent Chad for an ice pack. “Don’t think it’s broken...”
“There, you see—” she started.
“But I recommend we take you into town for an X-ray.”
Her brows drew together. “A recommendation from one of my boys is something I can choose to ignore.”
“Not advisable, Aunt Ginny.”
“I’m not going.”
“Yes, you are,” Uncle Gus said, striding through the door and hurrying to her side. He knelt next to the sofa. “Got your message, Chad, and I’m taking her right now to the emergency.”
“I do not need a doctor,” Ginny snapped.
He cupped a hand behind his ear. “Hear that, Ginny? It’s the sound of me putting my foot down.”
She allowed a grudging smile that turned into a girlish giggle. “I didn’t recognize that sound.”
“That’s because I don’t do it very often, not where my lady is concerned.” He lifted her off the sofa.
“I don’t need carrying,” she said.
“Not losing a chance to hold a gorgeous gal in my arms,” Gus said. “Quiet down now and cooperate, my love.”
Liam went ahead to open doors and they got Aunt Ginny installed in the passenger seat of Uncle Gus’s truck and on their way to the hospital. Liam’s heart squeezed with the tenderness between the two. A love like theirs was a precious thing indeed. An image of Maggie flashed in his brain, but he shook it promptly away. Hunger was messing with his mind, had to be.
His cell phone read a few minutes to five, almost Maggie’s quitting time. “Gotta go,” he called to Chad.
He drove as quickly as he could to the Chuckwagon, relieved to see the Corvette still in the back lot.
The restaurant smelled of the cook’s renowned chili and corn bread, which made Liam’s stomach rumble. He wished he’d grabbed a slice of Aunt Ginny’s holiday loaf before he’d left. He had no idea what the little red and green flecks were that dotted the loaves and he didn’t care. Delicious, was all he needed to know.
Ignoring his hunger, Liam scanned the booths and tables without spotting Maggie. He let himself into the kitchen. Tiny, the enormous cook with a blaze of red hair atop his freckled face, stood over the commercial range, cheeks flushed from the heat.
“Whatcha want, Liam? You looking for one of my special grilled cheese right out of the pan? A side of caramelized onions? I’ll hook you up.”
Liam grinned. “No, sir, though your grilled cheese sandwiches are a wonder to behold. Looking for Mag—I mean Tammy Lofton.”
Tiny flipped a bunch of onions over, loosing a cloud of steam into the air. “Dunno what happened to that gal, but she learned to cook since I seen her last. She’s a wonder.”
“Where is she?”
Liam didn’t catch Tiny’s reply, so he repeated the question.
“Left,” Tiny said.
“But her car’s in the lot.”
“Nan told her to take the Chuckwagon van. They loaded up the apple muffins we baked tonight to deliver to the Veteran’s Hall first thing in the morning for the parade planners.”
He was already turning to go, waving a thank-you to Tiny before he’d finished flipping the onions one more time. No reason to worry, Liam thought, she’s probably fine. Except that the Corvette in the parking lot was like a blaring advertisement for Virgil if he was still in town.
Come find me here, it screamed. But maybe Virgil realized that Maggie had an ally now. Maybe he’d moved on.
And maybe Liam was going to wake up one morning and have his hearing restored and a million bucks in his pocket.
Not gonna happen.
He took the road to the trailer park as fast as he dared.
She’s okay, he told himself, surprised at his own need to believe it. Did he feel such intensity because of how he’d thought he’d felt about Tammy? Was his determination to ensure her sister’s safety coming from that?
Though he gripped the steering wheel and tried for calm, his pulse continued to accelerate.
Coming, Maggie.