Lone Star Justice (7 page)

He stopped at the counter to order a burger basket, then walked over to the booth and took off his hat. "Maddie, Brandy. Mind if I join you?"

Maddie sighed and said, "Why not?"

Brandy scooted over and he sat down beside her. "Have any luck house hunting?"

"We haven't really started yet. I did stop by the real estate office, but Alice wasn't in, Maddie said. "We were going to stop and get a paper on our way back to the motel to see if there were any ads."

Rand looked at Brandy. "How about school? Did you get signed up?"

Brandy wrinkled her nose, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. I start on Monday."

He smiled and patted her shoulder. "It won't be so bad."

"Yeah, right."

Maddie studied the two of them as they talked. She hadn't realized just how much her daughter looked like Rand until she saw them both in profile. Same square jaw, same narrow nose and high cheekbones. And anyone else in town who took the time to really look would see the resemblance as well. She had to tell Rand the truth, and soon. "Rand, Brandy wants to come out early on Friday so she can help feed the animals. How early should we get there?"

He thought for a minute. "I usually feed at daybreak, but I can wait until you get there."

"We'll be there as early as we can, then. And Rand?"

"Yeah?"

"While we're there, we need to talk."

"And that's not what we're doing now?" The girl behind the counter called his number, and he got up to get his basket. Maddie and Brandy already had their food. "Anyone need a drink refill while I'm up?"

After he left, Brandy leaned across the table and whispered to Maddie, "Are you going to tell him tomorrow?"

Maddie nodded. "Yeah, it's time."

Brandie looked at her with a smug smile. "Way past time, if you ask me."

Maddie grimaced. "Nobody asked you."

"Nobody asked you what, Brandy?" Rand slid back into the booth and started unwrapping his burger. His stomach growled, making Brandy giggle.

"Nobody asked me anything," she told him. "Not about leaving my school, my friends, not about putting me in a strange school." She took a drink of her milk shake. "I can't wait until Mom thinks I'm old enough to have a say in things."

Rand ruffled her hair. "Don't get too impatient. Growing up fast isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"Isn't that the truth," Maddie muttered under her breath.

***

Rand gave Maddie the pickles off his hamburger, an old habit from so many years ago, and yet so ingrained he did it without even thinking. And she took them like fourteen years hadn't passed and they were still two raw country kids, in love and in way over their heads.

He quickly moved his thoughts away from that line of thinking. When he glanced at Maddie, he saw the flush rise up her cheeks. Ah, so she hadn't forgotten.

 When she looked past him and frowned, he turned around to find Cody bearing down on him. "We got trouble, Sheriff."

Rand sighed and picked up his hat, then looked at Maddie. "Come by my office later. Brandy can keep Linda company while you and I talk about those names."

He left without waiting for an answer. Whatever had Cody's tail in a twist had better be good. He hadn't even gotten to eat his lunch.

"What's up, Cody?" Rand asked as they stepped outside.

"There's a package back at the station that I think you should look at. Harold Sims just dropped it off. Came in this morning." Before Rand could ask who it was from, or for, Cody had climbed into his squad car and backed out of the parking lot.

Resigned to missing lunch, Rand followed him back to the office. Linda stood outside on the sidewalk. "I didn't want to stay in there with it, whatever it is. It smells awful."

Rand took the front steps two at a time. Cody was prone to exaggeration, but Linda was normally level-headed and cool in a crisis. If something ruffled her feathers, he paid attention.

The smell hit him as soon as he stepped through the door. Foul and putrid, it was unmistakably the smell of rotting flesh. "What the hell?"

Linda was at his heels, two fingers pinching her nose closed. "It's addressed to Maddie Cooper, General Delivery. Harold brought it here because he didn't know what else to do with it."

"Call Harold and tell him I want to know how it got into the postal system, and when and where. Was it actually mailed, or was it slipped into his truck when he wasn't looking?" As Linda left to do as he asked, Rand turned to Cody. "Get the gloves and a couple of masks. Who knows what we're dealing with here."

When the deputy returned, Rand donned the mask and gloves, and then carefully sliced the tape across the top of the box. When he peeled back the lid, he was glad he'd missed lunch.

***

Maddie looked through the meager real estate offerings in the Greendale Gazette while Brandy flipped through the channels on the television, searching in vain for her favorite music video channel. Domino curled close to Brandy's side, not happy with being cooped inside.

"Do we really have to stay here long enough to rent a house?" With a frustrated sigh, Brandy tossed the remote control onto the scarred bedside table.

"I don't know. But I don't feel safe staying in the motel. The door is so flimsy anyone could kick it in. And too many people come and go at the café. I want to find a place where we would notice anything strange." Maddie circled the only two listings she might be remotely interested in.

"Make sure it's close enough to town to get cable and internet."

Maddie laughed at Brandy's petulant demand. "I'll make that a top priority. Want to get out of here for a while?"

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"I thought we'd drive by these two places, see what they look like. Then I'll show you around the town. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

"Uh-huh. I'll bet there isn't a mall within twenty miles."

Maddie made sure the door locked behind them and glanced around the parking lot before getting into the car. "You're close. When I lived here, the nearest mall was about thirty miles away."

"How did you stand it?"

"It wasn't that bad. We stayed busy doing other things." She pulled out onto the highway and drove the two miles into town. "We went roller skating on Friday night, and either bowling or to the movies on Saturday night. See, that's the movie theater over there on the corner."

Brandy strained to see through the windshield. "That little bitty thing is a theater? Give me a break."

Maddie pointed out things she remembered from her childhood as they drove around the outskirts of town and did a quick drive by of the two houses for rent, then she made the turn onto Main Street that would take them to her old neighborhood. When she pulled to the curb in front of a small frame house, she fought back tears.

Fourteen years. After fourteen years, she was finally home. Only her father was no longer there, and the giant oak that once shaded the front yard had been cut down. The paint was different, too. Instead of gray with black shutters, the house was now white trimmed in dark green.

Brandy looked at the house, then back at her mother. "Is this where you used to live? It's little."

"It didn't seem that small when I was a kid. It was just… home." She remembered when she'd knocked a tooth loose swinging from the wrought iron porch supports. The first time Rand had picked her up for a date. The first time they'd skipped school to make love in her bed while her father was at work.

The day her father found out she was pregnant and lost control, changing her life forever.

It was all old history, but it was
he
r
history. She wished there was a way to go back to the somewhat innocent child she'd been before murder and betrayal hardened her. But that same history had given her the strength she needed to work her way through college while pregnant, and to continue to work and go to school with a newborn to care for.

Her daughter was worth every hardship, every moment of lost innocence.

Flashing red and blue lights caught her attention and she looked in the rearview mirror. Rand. Darn it, she hadn't wanted him to catch her strolling down memory lane. She wanted to present a strong image whenever he was around. Pining over the past made her look weak and sentimental.

With a frustrated sigh, she climbed from the car and met him at the rear bumper. "What am I doing wrong? I don't see any 'No Parking' signs or fire hydrants."

His grim face seemed at odds with whatever parking violation she might have committed. "What is it, Rand?"

He glanced toward the car and spoke quietly. "I need to talk to you. Alone."

Maddie shook her head. "I can't leave Brandy by herself."

Rand pushed his hat back and Maddie looked up into blue eyes that still had the power to make her heart beat faster. She took a step back, needing the distance to get her runaway emotions under control.

"Linda Johnson has offered to watch Brandy at her house. Her granddaughter is spending the night, and she's close to your daughter's age."

"I don't think…"

"Maddie, she'll be fine. Please."

She searched his troubled eyes and saw no sign of deceit or hidden motives. Only worry and concern. "Okay. Let me talk to Brandy. I won't leave her if she doesn't agree. But I want to take a look at the house for rent over on James Street first."

He scribbled Linda's address on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Fair enough. Meet me at the station when you're through."

***

"Well, what do you think?" Maddie asked Brandy as they finished the tour of the older frame home two blocks off the town square. It had a large yard in front and back, complete with giant oaks that reminded Maddie of the one that used to be in front of her childhood home.

The two bedrooms were large and airy, each with their own private bath. The living room was small and cozy, not big enough for entertaining, but Maddie had no friends to invite over, anyway. The kitchen was also small, but the appliances were fairly new and spotlessly clean.

Brandy shrugged and scuffed her feet. "It's okay, I guess. But it's not home."

"I know, honey. It's only temporary. I promise I'll take you home as soon as this is all over. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to, either."

Brandy glanced up, a shrewd look on her face. "Because of what happened? Or because of my dad?"

Maddie thought for a moment. Which one factored most in her desire to get out of Greendale as quickly as she could? Her past had turned the town, and Rand, against her. But she'd been at odds with plenty of people in Montgomery and it hadn't bothered her. "If I had to pick one, I'd say it's probably because of your dad. There are some old, deep wounds between us, and it makes me uncomfortable to be around him. But it doesn't matter. We won't be here long."

Brandy wandered back to the smaller of the two bedrooms. "Can this be my room? I like the window seat. I can curl up there and read."

Maddie walked up behind her daughter where she stood looking out the window, wrapping both arms around her. "Sure, honey. Which ever room you want. We'll go to the rental center I saw back up on the highway and arrange for some temporary furniture, then we can get whatever else we need at the store, okay?"

"As long as I can have that video game system I want…"

Maddie laughed. "I think I've been blackmailed. Okay, let's go talk to Mr. Leonard and see what he thinks about renting us this place for a couple of months."

"You realize that you've gone from saying a week or two to a couple of months, right?" Brandy sighed. "I'm afraid I'm going to be stuck here forever."

"I felt exactly the same way at your age, but no. Not forever. Just until this guy is caught."

" Promises, promises."

***

Rand leaned back in his chair and studied Maddie, seated in a wooden chair on the other side of his desk. It felt strange to see her there. She used to cuddle against his side in the front seat of his pickup, her bare feet resting on the dashboard. Now she sat ramrod straight, knees primly together and feet firmly planted on the floor. He could picture her in a black robe, sitting behind a tall wooden bench, with a gavel in her hand and an intimidating scowl on her face.

He really didn't know her at all anymore.

He tried to get her to talk about her life in Oklahoma, but she answered in monosyllables, giving him very little information beyond what he'd learned in his conversation with the detective handling her case.

"Can we get to the point, Rand? I don't want to leave Brandy any longer than I have to."

He shoved a hand through his hair and leaned forward across the desk. "Who knows you're here, Maddie?"

She looked up at him, confusion wrinkling her brow. "Here? Linda, you, me. Why?"

"No, I mean here in Greendale. Who outside of this town knows where you are?"

She thought for a moment. "My neighbor, Matt Olsen. I called him today and gave him the phone number at the motel. Detective Thacker. That's it."