Texas Moon TH4 (46 page)

Peter had purchased a clean set of clothes for himself in Gage, but he'd been wearing them for days. The blue denims were holding up fairly well, but his black cotton shirt was wrinkled and covered with lint from the bed. He didn't even seem to notice. He was making lists and organizing actions and setting priorities. Janice could practically see the wheels turning in his head. This was the man who had managed one of the largest enterprises in Ohio. She had known it intellectually; she could see it for herself now.

"I'll be ready in a minute. Come back and get me after you've talked to Tyler."

Peter nodded and walked out without a kiss or a word of comfort. Janice didn't mind in the least. She knew where his mind was, and she had no objection to taking second place to the search for Betsy. He would probably always have his mind elsewhere, except when they were in bed. She would reap the benefits from all that concentration then.

She was coming to know Peter much better than she had ever expected, and she liked what she was discovering. She couldn't remember ever truly liking a man before. She'd had a passion for Stephen, but she'd never known him enough to
like
him. She'd worked with Jason, had even understood him and considered marrying him, but she couldn't say she particularly liked a man's man who had paid her little heed. Peter was different.

It was good to know that she could like the man she loved. Love was an unreasonable emotion that she was having difficulty dealing with. She'd struggled with her love for Betsy for years until she had finally come to accept it as the gift it was. She couldn't be so certain that loving an ambitious man like Peter would be a gift. For the moment, it kept her in constant turmoil.

But she understood action and took orders well. Under Peter's direction, they fanned out to cover different territories. He had calculated the most likely time of Betsy's arrival here in El Paso and the next trains leaving. They concentrated on finding people who had worked around the train station during those hours and at the hotels between those hours. El Paso wasn't so large that they couldn't find all of them sooner or later.

Peter was the first to recognize the significance of the sketch of a little boy tacked to a dark corner inside the ticket office. Since Daniel and Tyler had already thoroughly questioned the ticket clerk, he was growing a little testy. Peter had to approach him from a new angle, and the piece of paper blowing in the draft was just what he needed.

He pointed at the partially concealed drawing. "Is that artwork?"

The clerk looked baffled and followed his finger. He shrugged and pulled the paper off the wall, handing it to Peter. "Kid stuff, looks to me. Other fella who works here must of stuck it up. Mean something to you?"

Peter smoothed the paper flat and gave a prayer of thanks. Betsy's big angelic eyes smiled back at him from beneath the disreputable brim of an overlarge felt hat. The girl had talent. He'd see that she had the best art teachers money could buy. He practically kissed the paper, but the clerk was already looking at him oddly.

"Tell me how to find the other man who works here," he demanded, passing a folded bill to the suspicious clerk.

"He's off visiting in Las Cruces. He'll be back in tomorrow." The clerk slipped the money into his pocket and returned to work.

Peter clenched his teeth in frustration and stalked down the street to the restaurant where he'd left Janice. The other ticket clerk had to have seen Betsy. He'd know what train they took. It would take as much time to reach Las Cruces as it would to wait for him to return to El Paso. They were losing too much time.

At Harvey's, Janice was engaged in conversation with an attractive waitress, but she looked up the moment Peter approached. She had the sketches of Betsy and her kidnappers spread out on the table, but the waitress was shaking her head. Peter threw down the new sketch.

Janice studied it and shook her head. "Poor Betsy. She was just growing her curls back. He must have cut them all off again. Did he really think he could disguise her as a boy?"

The waitress picked the sketch up and studied it. 'She's pretty even under that awful hat." She frowned at her own words and called over her shoulder, "Leilah! Come here and look at this. Didn't you tell me you'd seen the prettiest little boy in here the other day?"

A second waitress sauntered up, giving Peter an experienced look before turning her attention to the sketch. She raked her fingers through her long red hair and nodded. "Cute kid. He drew me a cartoon while they were eating." She glanced speculatively up at Peter. "He yours?"

"She's ours." Peter placed a calming hand on Janice's shoulder and reached for the other sketches. "Were these the men with her?"

The redhead shrugged. "The one could be. There was just the two of them. He wasn't bad-looking, but he had a surly temper."

Janice wrapped her fingers around Peter's. "The cartoon? Do you still have it?"

The woman grinned. "Yeah. It was real cute. I hung it up back in the kitchen. I'll go get it."

A train pulled into the station and the restaurant manager looked a little nervous as his waitresses gathered around the one table while ignoring the customers. They passed the sketches back and forth, trying to remember the day the cute little boy had been in. Peter placed both hands on Janice's shoulders and rubbed while listening for any clue that might be helpful.

The redhead returned with a sketch drawn on the blank side of a paper menu. Janice spread it out on the table and Peter studied it from over her shoulder. It showed a bull sitting at a table across from a little heifer in a restaurant similar to the one they were in. A cattle train was pulling into the station that could be seen through the window beside them.

Peter didn't see the point of the cartoon until the waitress leaned over and showed him the pieces of paper sticking out from under the rumps of the animal patrons.

"See? Those are our menus they're sitting on. She said it shows we've got beef on the menu. Isn't that the greatest thing you ever saw?"

Beef on the menu. Surely the child wasn't developing a warped sense of humor at this late date. Every sketch she'd left had been a clue. Stephen obviously kept an eye on her so she didn't dare write anything. What was she trying to say? Peter picked up the paper to study it closer.

Cattle train. Beef. Idly, he flipped the menu over. The word "beef" was circled under "roast beef sandwich." Peter's stomach clenched. He scanned the menu. Various numbers were circled as if randomly. If they meant what he thought they meant, the damned kid was as clever as her mother.

He peeled another bill off the roll Daniel had given him. "I think Betsy may have meant this as a message to us. I'll have her send you a new one as soon as we find her, but we'd like to keep this if you don't mind."

He didn't give the waitress a chance to argue, not that she meant to argue after pocketing the cash. Peter caught Janice's elbow and helped her to her feet, well aware that she watched him with renewed hope. She stayed silent until they reached the street.

"What does it mean? That they took a cattle train?" She hurried to keep up with his long strides.

"Maybe. I want to get back and compare these numbers to the train schedules. There's not too much cattle being shipped through here. I can't imagine them taking a cattle car."

Seeing Tyler heading down the street, Peter flagged him to hurry. Tyler waved and veered off to fetch Evie. Within minutes, they were all in the hotel room studying the sketch and the menu. Manuel ran in to join them not long after.

"We need to be looking for people carrying pencils. Betsy seems to be improving the kind she's using at each stop," Evie commented wryly as she passed the sketch to Peter.

"I'll sew one in all her petticoats as soon as we have her back," Janice promised.

Peter squeezed her hand and began copying the circled numbers from the menu onto another sheet of paper. He ran his finger up and down the train schedules looking for corresponding sequences. He stabbed at a train number and circled it, then drew a line beneath the times and destinations listed after it.

Looking over his shoulder, Janice breathed softly, "Train number 242, arrives Langtry at 2:35."

"Langtry! Hell," Manuel exclaimed in disgust. "There isn't anything out there but dust and desperadoes."

Tyler gave him a look that should have killed. "Shut up, Rodriguez. You're not helping any."

Manuel reddened beneath his deep bronze and gave Janice an apologetic look. "Sorry, Jenny. I was just surprised, that's all. They've got law of a sorts out there now. Shouldn't be hard at all finding a pretty little thing like Betsy there."

A knock at the door intruded, and Tyler answered it, handing the messenger a sizable tip for the telegram he carried. Everyone waited silently as he read it.

He passed it to Peter. "Daniel found a conductor who remembers Bobby Fairweather getting off at Fort Worth. He didn't see Betsy or Stephen."

Peter glanced over the telegram, then back to Manuel. "You know Fairweather better than Daniel. If he knows where Stephen's headed, we'll have to shake it out of him. You can get the Hardings to help, can't you?"

Manuel took the telegram, folded it, and put it in his pocket. "I'll take the next train to Fort Worth. Wire ahead to tell Jason I'm coming. He can be looking out for Fairweather and hold him for me."

"Thanks." Peter handed over enough cash to cover the ticket and expenses. He would be in debt to Daniel for a thousand years, but he didn't care any longer. The money was pointless while Janice clung to a cliff of fear.

"I'll send a wire to Townsend telling him where we're heading." Tyler spun on his heel and walked out. Evie didn't have to be given instructions; she followed close behind, heading for their room to pack their bags.

Peter stood up and took Janice in his arms, hugging her close. The only way he would ever be able to pay his debts would be to return to Ohio when this was all over, but he didn't tell her that. He already knew how she felt about Ohio.

He didn't think he could bear to part with her, but he couldn't ask her to go back where she would be unhappy. He loved her too much for that.

If he had to leave her to make her happy, he would.

Peter covered Janice's mouth with his and drank deeply of the nourishment he needed to live. Going to Ohio without her would be like dying and going to hell, but he could do it. He'd promised to take care of her, and he was a man of his word if he was nothing else.

Chapter 38

The train wailed through the desert night. Janice clung to the hand holding hers. She knew Peter was as awake as she was, but they sat silently, pretending to sleep.

"Please, God, stay with her," she prayed, her lips barely moving. As if he had intercepted the prayer, Peter squeezed her hand. It would be all right. It had to be.

"They must have dozens of cattle ranches out there," she murmured, continuing an earlier argument as if it had never ended.

"The porter told us the train Stephen took had a bull on it destined for the Crooked R. We'll start there," Peter recited patiently. "That could be why Betsy drew bulls in the cartoon."

Starting wasn't enough. She wanted to talk about ending. Janice bit her lip. Everyone was more than kind and doing everything within their power. She couldn't fault them for anything. But she'd been walking around with her stomach tied in knots for nearly a week now, and she was having difficulty being patient.

Langtry was just a little cow town. Surely somebody had seen Betsy—if they'd read the clue right. If Stephen had taken the train he told Betsy he was taking. If he didn't change his mind.

She could think of a dozen more "ifs," but she tried not to. Betsy was there and they would find her.

Laughter erupted among the traveling circus performers at the front of the car. They'd been sharing a bottle of whiskey and playing cards since leaving El Paso, and the noise wasn't conducive to sleep. Tyler and Evie had joined them briefly earlier, but they'd gone off to find some rest. That left Peter and Janice to be distracted by their antics. At the moment a man in a red clown wig and no face paint was honking his rubber nose and declaiming Shakespeare. Janice smiled slightly at the sight and curled up against Peter's shoulder to rest.