Tres Leches Cupcakes (17 page)

Cold River Ranch

An arrow beneath the words pointed down a blacktopped road. A tingle rushed through her. She put on her blinker. Half a mile in, the way was blocked by a wrought-iron gate complete with an archway that rose up from either side of the road. In the middle of the metal arch was a rendition of the same logo Sadie had seen on Benny’s shirt at the police station and on the website.

Sadie rolled down her window to get a better view of the thick iron gate. The desert breeze was cool enough to feel refreshing without being cold. The gate wasn’t fancy, just metal posts four feet tall, welded onto crossbeams at the top, center, and bottom of the gate. Upon further inspection, she could see a post set alongside the road six feet in front of the gate, topped with a number pad.

She pulled up until her window was even with the device that she assumed allowed entry if someone entered the correct code. She put the car in park and got out to get a closer look at the ranch. The gate wasn’t like those she’d seen on TV in front of celebrity homes. If someone really wanted to enter they could simply climb over the gate, or through the three-rail fencing that wrapped around the property. But the gate was closed all the same, and it held tight when she shook it—not that she necessarily wanted to go in.

Beyond the gate—a mile at least—was a large adobe homestead with a U-shaped driveway looped in front of it. Behind it, there were numerous outbuildings, including a metal grain silo that rose up behind a weathered barn almost as big as the house. There was plenty of what looked like open range, liberally sprinkled with cattle. The cedars and pinions thickened as the property stretched back, then rose into the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Was Langley affiliated with the ranch too? Sadie scanned the horizon as though Margo’s Land Cruiser might appear in the distance. How would Langley have convinced Margo to follow him to the ranch? Sadie turned back to look at her car parked by the pin pad. She could easily imagine Margo’s Land Cruiser idling behind Langley’s truck as he punched in the code, then easing on through to whatever lay inside the compound.

How did these pieces connect together? Where did Shel fit in? And Langley? And
where
was Margo?

As Sadie approached her car again, she noticed several cigarette butts on the ground.

Sadie lifted her head slightly, looking again at the area of road where Margo’s Land Cruiser would have idled if Langley had punched in the code to allow them inside. She also thought of the cigarette Margo had thrown into the ashtray just before they entered the bar Monday night and specifically the bright red lipstick ring on the filter. It had taken Sadie some serious scrubbing to get the dark red lipstick off her lips the next morning. What if . . .

Sadie scanned the dirt, rock, and dry desert grasses on the edge of the road. She kicked at a couple tufts of brush, trying to peer beneath them. She squealed when a thin, dusty green lizard darted out from beneath the sagebrush, quickly disappearing beneath a rock. It took her a moment to catch her breath. She could handle lizards, it was surprises that got the best of her.

Would Margo have just dropped her cigarette? Or thrown it? There were dozens of butts mingling with the red-brown dirt, but Margo’s lipstick was bright red and the cigarette would be new. Sadie moved further from the asphalt, still scanning the ground carefully. And then she saw it.

Goosebumps broke out across her shoulder blades, and even though it was exactly what she’d been looking for, she almost couldn’t believe she’d really found it. She hurried a few steps forward and bent down, reaching beneath the skeletal remains of a tumbleweed caught up on sagebrush when she heard the sound of an engine.

Her head snapped up, and she looked first in the direction of the ranch. No one was coming from the ranch side of the gate, so she turned around to see a white truck come to a stop behind where her car blocked the road, right where Sadie imagined Margo’s Land Cruiser would have been waiting for entrance. She glanced back to the ground where she’d seen the red-ringed cigarette butt.

“Can I help you,
Señora
?”

Sadie focused on the man leaning one elbow out of the truck and looking at her curiously. It took a beat for her to realize it was Benny from the police station yesterday. She stood even straighter, wondering if he recognized her as well.

“What you doing over there?” Benny asked when she didn’t answer.

“Uh, I . . .” She looked at the ground: powdery red dirt, washed-out sagebrush, tumbleweeds, and the occasional piece of litter, bleached by the sun. And Margo’s cigarette butt. She couldn’t admit she was looking for that, though. “I saw a lizard,” she said quickly, then pointed to the place where she’d seen the lizard disappear. “I . . . I was hoping to catch it for my nephew. He was too fast for me, though—the lizard, not my nephew.”

Benny narrowed his eyes at her as she stood in the brush and tried to look casual.

“What are you doing at the ranch?”

Oh, yeah, the ranch. Sadie glanced toward the hacienda, then back to Benny. “I made a wrong turn,” she said as she began walking back to her car. She’d come back for the butt later. “I was about to turn around when I saw the lizard. Sorry I’m in your way.”

“Hey,” he said again, peering at her as she got closer to him out of necessity. “I know you,
sí
?”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” she said, counting on the fact that he hadn’t paid her as much attention as she’d paid him at the police station. She avoided his eyes all the same though, and angled more sharply toward her car. “I’ll move my car so I’m not in your way.”

She heard the click before she saw his door opening. It blocked her path, and she stopped as he stepped out of the truck. He wasn’t tall, but he was imposing, with an air of confidence and suspicion that made Sadie uncomfortable. He wore what looked like the same denim shirt he’d had on the day before and the gray felt cowboy hat with sweat stains on the brim; whatever he did on the ranch required him to work hard. He had the deep lines on his face of a man who spent a lot of time in the sun and a sense of ownership she found a little confusing. Benny just worked at the ranch; he didn’t own it. From what she’d read online, Edward Standage was the owner of the ranch—and he was sixty-something and Caucasian.

Benny looked at her with distrustful brown eyes and then glanced toward the brush she’d been pawing through before he pulled up. He wouldn’t see the cigarette, would he?

Only if he knew what she was looking for.

He took a couple of steps toward where Sadie had been standing, allowing Sadie to step past him and the door of his truck. She immediately headed toward her car again. Her hand was on the door handle when Benny spoke up.

“Come to the
casa
with me,” he said.

She looked over her shoulder to see that he’d crossed his arms over his chest and was attempting to smile, but the kindness he seemed to be trying to communicate didn’t reach his eyes.

“We have many lizards you can take home to your nephew. I’ll have one of the ranch hands catch one for you and put it in a box.”

“Uh, that’s okay. I’ve already taken too much of your time.” She quickly pulled open her door as he began walking toward her, causing her heart to speed up. There was a time when Sadie would have accepted his invitation and taken advantage of getting to the heart of the investigation. But her curiosity had taken a back seat to fear. Putting herself in danger no longer seemed exciting.

“Don’t go,” he said, still smiling that distrustful smile. She slid into the driver’s seat, but he kept talking from behind her. “Come with me. I give you a tour of the ranch,
sí
?”

“Um, no thanks,” Sadie said. She didn’t look at him as she pulled the car door closed. The window was open, so she looked at him in the side mirror and added, “I’ve got somewhere to be. My nephew is waiting for me.”

“Where were you going when you made the wrong turn?”

She didn’t answer but instead shifted into reverse. With his truck behind her, there was barely enough room for her to execute a tight three-point turn, but he got back into his truck and pulled back and to the side, making it easier for her to use the worn dirt on the sides of the blacktop to complete the turn. She smiled and waved at him as she passed his truck.

He inclined his head, not bothering to smile any more.

She watched him in her rearview mirror for as long as she could. He didn’t go through the gate, and as she reached the end of the road, she thought he got out of his truck again. She wanted to think he didn’t know what she was really looking for, but what if he did recognize her from the police station? If Margo had come to the ranch Monday night—and Sadie was all but certain she had—and if Benny knew she and Margo were friends, would he guess Sadie was looking for evidence?

She turned onto the main road and drove back toward Santa Fe. Her anxiety level slowly evened out and her breathing returned to normal. She thought through everything she’d learned that morning and it didn’t take long to reach the conclusion that she had to go to the police with what she knew. Maybe
they
could go back for the cigarette butt. She didn’t know how she’d explain a second appearance at the ranch, or how she’d talk herself into taking the risk of going back.

She pulled her phone out of her purse and sent a text to Caro so she wouldn’t worry.

I’ll meet you at the bakery as soon as I can. I need to do something first.

She then took a breath and texted Pete.

Margo hasn’t been home since Monday night. I’m going to report it. Who should I talk to at the station?

Chapter 17

Detective Marcus Gonzalas had been friends with Pete for over twenty years and, despite his ethnic name, looked as Caucasian as anyone with the last name of Hansen or Smith. Whenever Pete came to Santa Fe, they went fly-fishing on the Pecos River and, in Pete’s words, “solved all the world’s problems.” As soon as he shook Sadie’s hand, he invited her to call him Marcus, which made her feel like they were old friends too.

Marcus was in his late fifties, same as Pete, but with less hair and more belly, which reminded Sadie how lucky she was to have met a man of Pete’s age with such refined good looks. Marcus led her back to an interrogation room without making a big deal about her arrival. It was nice to already feel trusted by this man; he trusted Pete and Pete had assured him Sadie was just as trustworthy.

They didn’t waste much time with small talk, and Sadie agreed to have their conversation recorded. She told him everything she suspected and everything she’d figured out, leaving out only the part about her picking the lock in order to get inside Margo’s apartment. Luckily, he didn’t ask if the door had been locked or not.

He took notes while she talked and asked a question here and there, but mostly he just listened.

“Benito Ojeda, or Benny, is the ranch foreman,” he said when Sadie finished explaining about the road that ended at Cold River Ranch and Benny giving her a hard time. “He takes his job very seriously. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

“He tried to get me to go to the ranch with him,” Sadie reminded him. That seemed outside Benny’s job description, and there was something unsettling about the way he’d watched her and, in her opinion, tried to lure her to the ranch. “Plus he bailed Sheldon Carlisle out of jail yesterday.”

“I’ll look into the bail situation, but the ranch has had a couple run-ins with some environmentalists the last few years, and so they beefed up security—no pun intended. I’m sure that’s why he came across the way he did this afternoon.” He gave her a half smile, and she returned it out of politeness, even though she felt as though she were being placated. “Benny’s been running the ranch hand-in-hand with Edward for nearly thirty years, and he’s taken the lion share of the workload these last five years after Lacey got sick. He’s just doing his job.”

“Lacey?”

“Lacey Standage, Edward’s wife. She developed some respiratory issues that required her to move to a lower elevation. She’s living in Oregon now, and Edward divides his time between the coast and the ranch. Ethan will eventually take over the ranch but in the meantime, Benny’s doing a lot of the management. Honestly, I’m not sure how he keeps up. It’s not a small ranch by any means.”

“You seem to know a lot about the family.”

Marcus shrugged a shoulder. “They’re pillars of the community, you could say, and I’ve lived here all my life. Anyhow, we’ll go back and look for that cigarette butt by the gate and talk to Benny. Anything else?”

“No, that’s everything.”

He nodded, then looked at the notebook and tapped his pen on the desk in a way that almost looked as though he were rereading his notes, except that his eyes were fixed instead of moving over the words.

Sadie waited him out, wondering what he was thinking about so hard and wishing he’d think it out loud. It was hard for her to give information and yet not know everything the police knew.