Beef Stolen-Off (16 page)

“Let’s get this place cleaned up, so we can get home before midnight,” Jordan said, carrying the bowl of water to the kitchen.

Riding home in the front passenger seat, Sandy turned sideways to include Lola in the conversation. “I’ve been thinking. I’m going to spend next weekend at the lake.” She paused to grin widely at Lola in the backseat. “If all goes well—as I expect it to—I’ll call a moving company to pick up my stuff the following Saturday.”

Jordan snuck a peek in Lola’s direction. If only everyone’s
troubles could be solved with this faux-séance stuff. First on her ghost-releasing tour with Lola would be Rusty’s mother. If anyone was in need of getting rid of demons, it was Maria Morales.

Thinking of Maria, Jordan vowed to finally stop talking about it and make that trip to her house the following week.

Staring out the window, she got the uneasy feeling the evil spirits in Maria’s life wouldn’t be as eager to disappear as Sandy’s ghosts seemed to have been. And if what Jordan suspected was true, the evil spirit threatening to harm Maria probably wasn’t dead.

In all likelihood, it was a living breathing person, one who was very close to the woman and doled out her medicine every day.

“They found two stolen cows in Kansas,” Danny said, shoving the last bite of the breakfast burrito into his mouth.

Jordan stopped chewing on the hash brown stick. “That’s good news, right?”

“You’d think, but how they got there is a mystery.”

“That’s odd. How did they know they were stolen? Were they branded?” She took the remains of her Mickey D’s breakfast to the trash can in the kitchen.

“Both cows were, and they have legitimate paperwork on them.”

“That makes no sense. What do the people who sold them have to say?” Jordan glanced at the clock above the kitchen entrance. Already running late, she’d have to save her chocolate éclair for later.

“That’s the weird part,” Danny said, eyeing her pastry. “You gonna eat that?”

“Don’t even think about it. You shouldn’t have gobbled yours before eating your burrito.”

“Oh, like you don’t usually do that. Where do you think I learned that trick?” He finished his coffee and threw the empty cup in the direction of the trash can.

“You should stick with football,” Jordan teased, picking up the cup and tossing it. “So back to the cows, what’s so weird about it?”

“The Kansas ranchers would have never figured out anything was wrong since the cows came from the Carlyle Ranch, one of their regular suppliers. But the bill of sale listed two male Black Angus cows, and they called the Carlyle Ranch owner to let him know one was a female. Most ranchers like to keep the females for breeding, so they wanted to make sure there wasn’t a mistake.”

“Don’t tell me,” Jordan said, shaking her head. “The ranch owner said ‘What cow?’”

Danny laughed. “You missed your calling, Jordan. That’s exactly what he said, right before he took an inventory of his herd and found out six were missing.”

“Okay, so they realized the cows had been stolen. What’s so weird about that?”

He threw his hands in the air. “The cow had the Carlyle brand, and they had an authentic bill of sale written on the company letterhead. Don’t you get it?”

“Obviously not.”

“When the original owner checked his accounts online, it was there.”

“What was there?”

“The transaction stating he had actually sold the cow to the Kansas rancher.”

Jordan hurried back to the table and sat down, suddenly interested. “See, I was right. The Carlyle Ranch owner was
probably going to report that cow stolen after shipping it off to Kansas for a double whammy: money from both the insurance company and the auction. Pretty clever, if you ask me.”

Danny frowned. “I hate to admit it, but you might be right.”

Jordan leaned across the table, her hand cupped to her ear. “What did you say? I didn’t hear you. Could you repeat that last part about me being right?”

“Oh, get over yourself.”

“I am right. How else could it have shown up on the books as a sale?”

“I’ll find out today. I’m headed to Burleson to the Carlyle Ranch to check it out for myself. I’ll be gone most of the day.”

“Hope you catch the bad guys,” she said, suddenly thinking about her day. “I almost forgot to tell you. I’ll be gone all day, too, but I thought we could hit that great little Italian joint in Connor when we both get back. You know the one that gives you a monster-size order of spaghetti and meatballs with all the sides for under ten bucks. I was even thinking some of the gang might want to go with us.”

“This is your mandatory lunch date with Lucas Santana, and you’re planning to spend the whole day over there? I thought he gave you the creeps.”

“Oh, please! I’m not a glutton for punishment.” She pointed to the smoky gray vase on the counter filled with a colorful arrangement of lilies and gladiolas. “I’m taking those to Rusty Morales’s mother after lunch.”

Danny shot up from the chair. “I’ll go with you. I’d like to ask Mr. Morales a few questions about Rusty, now that we know he was probably murdered.”

“No way. This is a social visit, and the last thing I need
is you asking questions. Besides, aren’t you off to Burleson?” Jordan wasn’t about to tell her brother the real reason she was going to see Maria and decided the sooner she got his mind on something else, the better. “Hey, have they identified what killed Rusty yet?”

“They didn’t find any trace of poison in the blood, but the forensics guy from Dallas says he has a pretty good idea. They’re reexamining tissue samples and stomach content, and he wants to run a few more tests before releasing his findings.” Danny shook his head. “The sheriff is getting antsy because we haven’t made any headway on this, and he’s asking for help. It ticks me off to no end that they won’t give me a little bit longer to break this case before they send for the big dogs from Dallas.”

“Don’t take it personally, Danny. You’re the new guy here, and apparently, the sheriff’s getting flack from the higher-ups to put the thieves behind bars. It’s starting to get mysterious, and I’d really like to be updated on this since I was with the guy when he died.”

“That will cost you,” he said, nodding toward her éclair.

She narrowed her eyes, mentally debating if it was worth giving up the pastry. “I’ll give you half, but you’d better save me the other part.”

“Done.” He flashed his I-outsmarted-you grin.

She was tempted to grab the éclair and run, but she was too curious about the details of Rusty’s death.

Standing in her closet surveying her wardrobe, she swallowed hard and squared her shoulders. She was so not looking forward to confronting Diego Morales.

Driving out to the Morales house, Jordan breathed a sigh of relief that her visit with Lucas and Bella had once again
been pleasant. That is, unless you counted the awkward moment when he’d pulled out a brownish red scarf from a drawer. He’d winked and said he’d thought of Jordan’s wild red hair and bedroom eyes when he’d seen it on the mannequin in the store window.

The anger had flashed momentarily in Bella’s eyes, but she’d quickly recovered and erased any emotion she might have felt—like the dutiful wife who pretends not to notice her husband’s faults. The only problem was, she didn’t have the security of a piece of paper legally declaring she was more than just a nursemaid and faithful companion for all those years. Apparently, for her, living with luxury was worth the cost of putting up with the old man’s disrespect.

Still, it had to have jerked her chain when Lucas brought out the expensive silk scarf. Married or not, the moron shouldn’t have done that kind of thing in front of Bella. And when Jordan had refused to accept it, Bella had even insisted she would hurt Lucas’s feelings if she didn’t take the gift.

Like she cared a rat’s rear end about his feelings—if he even had any other than lust.

Trying to put that behind her, she concentrated on the country road, praying she didn’t miss the turnoff. According to Bella, Maria and Diego lived in a small house on the other side of Ranchero, almost to the Oklahoma border. As soon as Jordan made the turn and drove down the deserted road, the little voice in her head reminded her for the umpteenth time that she was taking a huge risk. Despite Brenda Sue’s assurances that Diego couldn’t have harmed his wife, Jordan was not totally convinced. She’d seen his temper flash when he’d spoken to Lucas at Rusty’s funeral and his gentler side when he’d talked to his wife. She had no idea which Diego she’d confront inside the house.

Staring at the farmland on both sides of the driveway, Jordan almost whipped the car around and went home. With the closest neighbor over three hundred yards away, nobody would be able to hear her scream for help if she needed it.

What if Diego took issue with her questioning his wife? She remembered him as a husky man, not quite as tall as Rusty, but with arms that testified to a disciplined workout schedule. Despite his age, Diego still had a commanding presence. Even though she’d grown up taking on her brothers whenever they’d challenged her, their size and strength had always trumped her smaller stature and athletic skills.

What was she thinking, coming here? Walking up to the front door, she swallowed several times, trying to keep the butterflies in her stomach under control. She should have brought Danny with her like he’d wanted. At least he knew where she was in case she didn’t make it back.

When she’d called yesterday to ask if she could visit and to get directions to the house, Diego had been hesitant, explaining that Maria tired easily. Only after she’d promised to make her visit short and sweet had he finally given in. She’d gotten the same reaction from Bella when she’d mentioned she was going to visit with Maria.

Geez!
Both Bella and Diego acted like she was asking to take the old woman on a three-mile hike or something. Bella had mentioned at least twice how exhausted Maria became after her weekly visits with her. Jordan had sworn she only wanted to drop off the bouquet and say hello, purposely leaving out the part about snooping around. She had to find out if Diego was hurting Maria, even though the woman had denied it at her son’s memorial service.

Jordan was still thinking about it when the door opened and Diego stared down at her, his icy black eyes sending
daggers. Mentally, she kicked herself again for not bringing Danny with her—and Ray. Even though the older man had been retired from the Ranchero Police Department for ten years, between regular workouts at the gym and the extracurricular ones with Lola, he stayed in great shape and would have been a better match for Diego if things got out of hand.

“Maria’s in the living room.”

Jordan followed him to a small room off the main entrance where Maria Morales sat in front of a roaring fire. When she heard them enter, she swiveled the wheelchair around.

“Hello, Maria. It was gracious of you to allow me to come and visit with you today. I brought you these beautiful flowers from a greenhouse behind Brenda Sue’s house.”

At the mention of the woman she knew well, Maria smiled and motioned for Jordan to sit in the chair closest to the fire.

“I’ll take those,” Diego said, placing the vase in the center of the table. With a quick nod to his wife, he left the two women alone.

Jordan used that time to take in the surroundings, noticing how warm the room made her feel. The worn-out carpet and the handmade afghans thrown over the faded furniture seemed pleasantly familiar; it was almost like sitting in her grandmother’s house back in Amarillo.

“I wanted to come by to make sure you were okay,” Jordan said. “I know losing your only child has to have taken a toll on you, and I wondered if there was anything I could do.”

Tears formed in Maria’s eyes, and she shook her head.

“I didn’t know your son well, but I spent enough time with him to believe he was a good man.” She left out the
part about how he might have been the ringleader for the cattle-rustling epidemic that was costing the ranch owners millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Maria sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a white handkerchief that magically appeared from under the blanket on her lap.

“Brenda Sue told me all about how you raised her and how upset she was when you had your stroke.”

Jordan waited for some kind of response. When there was none, she continued.
Might as well get right to the point.
“She said it was odd how the levels of medicine in your blood were so high. I hope they’ve adjusted the dosage so that doesn’t happen again.”

Again, she waited for Maria’s reaction, and again, there was none. Jordan decided to press on. “Are you afraid of someone, Maria?”

Maria’s eyes widened, and she glanced at the doorway before she nodded.

Just then Diego appeared with a tray filled with coffee and cookies. The look he gave Jordan when he handed her a cup made her wonder if he’d heard the last question. She reached for the coffee and took the cookie only after he insisted.

Despite the fact the cookies were definitely store-bought, Jordan decided there was no way she was going to eat it and take a chance he’d doctored it with something. Although she was certain the man had nothing to do with Rusty’s poisoning, the jury was still out on whether he had overmedicated his wife with powerful blood thinners.