In the Paths of Righteousness (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (12 page)

Jeremiah forced a smile onto his face. “Really? And what do you think I am?”

“I think you’re a man who is considering right now whether or not to kill me.”

“If that’s what you truly think then why are you not afraid?” Jeremiah countered.

“Because I also think you’re a man who has no desire to draw attention to yourself, and you have friends here. Your friends would question what would happen, a little too much, I’m guessing. That would be bad for everyone.”

“Some questions should never be asked,” Jeremiah said.

“Because they can never be answered,” Hank countered.

“I think that you’re hiding something.”

“You know that I am,” Hank said.

“I don’t know what yet, or for what purpose.”

“I have a feeling you will before this journey is done.”

“That’s supposing that both of us are still alive.”

“Supposing,” Hank acknowledged.

Jeremiah locked eyes with the man. He was used to seeing fear in men’s eyes when they understood even the smallest part of his true nature. In Hank’s he saw no fear, only grudging respect.

“I will not hesitate,” Jeremiah said, acknowledging that he would kill him if need be.

“Nor will I.”

“We have an understanding then.” It was a statement, not a question.

Hank nodded anyway.

“Good. Now let’s see if we can’t find Roddy or whatever’s left of him.”

“I also believe he’s dead,” Hank said.

Jeremiah couldn’t help but wonder if Hank believed that because Hank had actually done the deed himself. The problem was, while he had been working on Brent, he had been only vaguely aware of those gathered around and he could not have said who was and was not there or who was there who might have left. He grit his teeth and turned back to the search at hand.

“I don’t think you need to search Jeremiah’s bag,” Traci said quietly.

Cindy looked up at her. “But Mark said everyone’s.” She had Jeremiah’s bag in her hands. She had been holding it for almost a minute, uneasy about opening it. It was an invasion of his privacy.

“And we both know that none of the four of us did this,” Traci said. “I have no intention of searching your bag or Mark’s. You can search mine if you really want to.”

“No, that’s okay, I guess.”

“Look, I get it. It’s bad enough that we have to go through strangers’ stuff, but you know Jeremiah, you’re friends with him. And, clearly, you’re not yet ready to have that age-old question answered.”

“What question is that?” Cindy asked.

Traci smirked. “Boxers or briefs.”

Cindy felt herself flush to her roots.

“Aha! I knew that was what had you worried,” Traci said triumphantly.

“Worried, might be a tad strong,” Cindy said, struggling to regain what was left of her dignity.

“Oh, come on, I’ve been sitting here watching you stare at that bag and I could see the curiosity but it just wasn’t strong enough to override your shyness.”

“Sense of decency, you mean,” Cindy practically snapped.

“It’s not like you were going to be staring at him in his underwear, just his underwear.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Cindy said, dropping the bag when she realized she was still holding it.

“Okay,” Traci said. “But we’re finished up here, so if you did want to discuss, now would be the time.”

“Nothing to discuss.”

Traci rolled her eyes. “You know sooner or later you have to talk to somebody about how you feel. It might as well be me now.”

“We are in the middle of a murder investigation,” Cindy protested, trying to get the other woman back on track.

“When aren’t we? Or you at least?”

“I-I don’t know. All the time.”

“Never. Look, if you’re not ready to talk about how you feel about Jeremiah that’s okay. I just think you should talk to someone soon before things get more complicated.”

Cindy felt a headache coming on. “Let’s just get back to the others so we can break the bad news about not finding anything.”

“Okay,” Traci said, with an exaggerated sigh.

They stood up and walked back to where Mark and the others were closer to the wagon. As they approached Mark raised an eyebrow and they both shook their heads.

“No luck,” Traci said.

Mark looked frustrated. “Thanks for trying, ladies.”

“What do we do now?” Liz asked.

“Now, we wait for reinforcements,” Mark said.

Jeremiah and Hank rejoined the group and Cindy was relieved to see that Jeremiah was okay. Neither he nor Hank looked happy though.

“We couldn’t find any trace of Roddy,” Jeremiah said.

“The news just keeps getting better and better,” Mark said with a sigh.

“Nothing left to do but wait,” Hank said.

“Okay, let’s build a fire,” Mark said. “Cindy, Traci, can you see if there’s any food that we can guarantee hasn’t been tampered with that we can use for the next couple of days? Not everyone finished dinner and I’m not sure we should at this point.”

“I’m pretty hungry,” Kyle said quietly.

Cindy had forgotten that unlike many of them Kyle and she hadn’t had a bite to eat. Neither had Zack or Curly. Her stomach rumbled noisily. “I’m sure we can find something,” she said, pulling Traci toward the wagon.

A couple of hours later things almost seemed normal. Traci and Cindy had found enough canned food to ensure that they all wouldn’t starve and had made sure that those who hadn’t eaten had before offering up the rest of the food they had heated up to those who had already at least had something.

They had more than enough to supply them until the sheriff arrived which was good news for everyone. Fortunately clean up only took a few minutes and then they were free. Traci immediately excused herself to go see how Mark was faring.

Zack and Curly were back out checking on the cattle which still seemed restless and everyone else was settling in around the campfire. It was hard to believe that the whole place was a crime scene. She and Traci had done what they could to disturb as little as they could in the wagon, but sacrifices had needed to be made in order to make sure they could all still eat.

The adrenalin left her body as she walked up to the campfire and Cindy decided it was a good time to take a bathroom break before she collapsed completely. She thought about asking Traci to go with her, but then decided against it. The killer was after Kyle, not her, and besides, everyone else was accounted for. She grabbed her toiletries bag and headed off, moving as swiftly as she could over the uneven terrain.

She made it to the designated bathroom area and went ahead and dry brushed her teeth and got ready for bed while she was there. Finished, she headed back toward the campsite. She had nearly made it back when she heard voices. She slowed, curious.

“I want to shoot him.”

Cindy froze as she heard the male voice whisper.

“You can’t do that,” a second male voice said, speaking low.

She crept closer, heart pounding, as she tried to figure out who the two men were.

“Why not?”

“We’ll end up in a world of trouble.”

“Not if we’re careful, get him away from the others first.”

The speakers were just on the other side of a large rock. She pressed against it, trying to lean around to see who was talking. The rational part of her was screaming for her to go get Mark and Jeremiah, but she was afraid that whoever was plotting against her brother would have moved by then and they’d have lost the chance to confront them. She moved closer, but realized there was no way she could see them without being seen herself.

“Look, I know what he did to you, but you just can’t kill him.”

“Yeah, and who’s going to stop me?”

“I will stop you,” Cindy declared, stepping around the rock.

Cindy’s terror was great as she stared down Zack and Curly. They both looked at her in surprise.

Finally Zack said, “Why do you care about a steer?”

Cindy blinked and then asked, “A steer? You’re talking about one of the animals?”

“Yes, a particularly nasty one that’s dang near already stampeded the herd twice and almost gored Curly and his horse this afternoon. It was one of the fanciest bits of riding I’ve ever seen that saved them.”

“That and the fact that Tex managed to get a rope on the...beast...at the last second,” Curly said.

“So, you’re talking about killing the steer,” Cindy said, relief slowly replacing her terror.

“Yeah, problem is, gunshots can sometimes spook a herd and this one is already acting mighty twitchy,” Curly said.

“Plus, we show up minus a steer and it comes out of our pay,” Zack added. “Course, we could use the fresh meat now that we’re on rations,” he added.

She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. They were trying to decide whether or not to turn a vicious animal into hamburger before it hurt someone and she had thought they were plotting the death of her brother.

“I’m...sorry,” she said at last, not sure what else to say.

They were both staring at her as though she had grown a second head.

“You know, whatever you guys decide to do with the steer, I’m sure will be the right decision,” she said.

“Hold on, did you think we were talking about a person?” Zack asked, light dawning in his eyes.

She bit her lip, not wanting to admit the truth. Finally she nodded.

“And you jumped out here to confront two armed guys by yourself?” Zack asked.

She nodded again.

He whistled low. “That Jeremiah sure is a lucky fellow.”

“
Wh-why would you say that?” she stammered.

He stared at her for a moment and then shook his head. “My mistake. I thought the two of you...”

“We’re not,” she said, wondering why everyone kept bringing that up and struggling not to blush
again
. It was getting old.

“His loss,” Zack said with a grin.

She had no response to that. She stood, staring at him for a moment, and then managed to get out a strangled, “Night!” before turning and fleeing to the campfire.

She was breathless when she reached it and Jeremiah looked up at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

She couldn’t even begin to figure out how to answer that one. So instead she said, “Nothing, I’m fine. It was just a longer walk than I thought.”

She sat down, bumping against him as she did so which just made her thoughts jumble all the more.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, leaning slightly toward her.

“I’m fine,” she said, finding it suddenly hard to think. She turned and found Traci staring at her questioningly. “I’m fine,” she reiterated for her sake.

“Now that we’ve established that,” Mark said with a roll of his eyes, “I think it’s time to think about settling down for the night. It’s been a long day and for some of us it’s going to be an even longer night.”

Cindy couldn’t agree more.

They were leaving the fire going since someone would be up and they had built it fairly close to the sleeping area. She could feel slight warmth from the fire as she got into her sleeping bag.

She and Jeremiah had the second watch. She just hoped she could get some sleep before then. With the way her mind was beginning to race, though, it wasn’t looking good.

Jeremiah got into the sleeping bag next to hers and she deliberately rolled over, turning her back to him. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed, trying to bring order to the chaos that was raging inside her.

It was twenty minutes or more before everyone had finished getting ready for bed and actually settled in. She listened as one by one people began to snore, some softly, others much more loudly, until she wondered if every single person there was in a competition.

Jeremiah woke. He heard a soft footstep nearby. He lay still for a moment, taking in his surroundings. He relaxed after a moment. It was probably Traci come to wake him for his shift.

When Traci touched his shoulder he sat up, grateful that he had been prepared for the contact. He hadn’t been very deeply asleep, part of his mind still attuned to what was happening around him.

Traci touched Cindy next, startling her awake. Cindy sat up slowly, wide eyes blinking hard. Tomorrow night he’d tell Traci to let Cindy sleep. It was too late for tonight, though.

He got up and walked over toward the fire. He sat down with his back to it so he could observe all those sleeping. As Kyle and Traci settled down in their sleeping bags that left only Zack’s empty. He had drawn the first watch for the cattle and wasn’t due to be spelled by Curly for a while yet.

Cindy got up slowly, stretching, and he again regretted that they hadn’t let her sleep. She had to be exhausted with everything that was happening and her own injury even though it seemed to be greatly improved.

She came over and sat down next to him, yawning, and crossed her arms over her chest, probably trying to get warm. The night air was chilly but the fire at her back should soon have her comfortable. At least, that’s what he told himself as he had to stop himself from putting an arm around her to try and help her warm up.

They sat for quite a while in silence. The sounds of the night were all around them and Jeremiah listened carefully, knowing that Zack, Tex and Roddy were all out there somewhere made him uneasy. Zack was supposed to be watching the cattle and that gave him a freedom of movement Jeremiah didn’t have at the moment. Tex should be halfway to town, but that didn’t mean that was where he was. He might have easily circled back and even now be laying in wait. As for Roddy that was the biggest worry of all. He honestly had no idea what had happened to the man and that troubled him deeply.

“What do you think happened to Roddy?” Cindy whispered quietly.

He smiled. He shouldn’t have been surprised that they were both thinking about the same things. They were just far enough away from the others, and the snoring from some of them was loud enough that they should be able to talk freely as long as they were quiet.

“I wish I knew. I didn’t find anywhere he could be hiding, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t someplace out there. With all the tracks it was impossible to follow him and see if there was really a horse waiting for him somewhere.”

“Or someone could have killed him and hid the body.”

“I keep thinking that’s the most likely scenario. The question is why. If Kyle is really the target I can see how everything else was a missed attempt at killing him, but Roddy? Roddy was nowhere near Kyle when he vanished.”

“Maybe he saw something?” she suggested.

“Like someone trying to hide or destroy evidence?”

“Yes,” she said. “Or maybe he even suspected someone or said the wrong thing to the wrong person.”

“Do you know who wasn’t with us the entire time we were trying to revive Brent? I was a bit...occupied. I don’t know who might or might not have been present.”

“I thought only the cowboys were missing, but I could have been wrong,” she said. “There was a lot of stress going on.”

Jeremiah’s chest tightened. “I’ve been meaning to ask. How are you doing? I know you...liked...Brent.”

She turned to look at him and the firelight reflected in her eyes made them smolder.

“Either it hasn’t really hit me yet or I’m becoming desensitized to these things I think. I mean, I’m upset, but
I’m more worried about figuring out who did this before someone else gets hurt.”

“Still, I’m sorry.”

“Brent was really nice. I was shocked when he asked me out, and I didn’t really know what to say. I mean, I’m sure he was a great guy, but...”

Jeremiah wished he could decipher the way she was looking at him. He felt himself getting pulled in closer. He forced himself to turn away and he hastily added another log to the fire just for something to do while he cleared his thoughts. Being on watch together was more of a mistake than he had previously thought.

Finished he turned back. Cindy was once again staring out over the sea of sleeping bags. “Who do you think is the killer?” she asked after a moment.

“Given that only one person has actually managed to hurt Kyle my money’s on you,” he teased to try and shift the mood.

She sighed. “That’s not funny.”

“It is a little bit, you have to admit it.”

“Okay, fine, but just a little bit.”

“I mean, if you had asked me a couple of days ago I would have said he was in the most danger from Traci hugging him to death, but she’s been a model of restraint.”

Cindy smirked. “Wait, it’s early yet.”

Someone coughed and they both fell silent. There was a rustling and then someone sat up. After a moment Jeremiah recognized it as Norman. The man slowly got up and then headed stiffly in the direction of the restroom area. He was quickly swallowed up by darkness. Jeremiah briefly contemplated following him, but that would mean leaving Cindy alone and he wasn’t about to do that.

Beside him he could feel her tension. Clearly she wasn’t happy with having him wander off either.

“That note you found in his pocket, you said it was a love letter.”

“Yes,” she said, sounding intensely uncomfortable.

“Was it to him or from him?”

“To him. It started ‘My dearest Norman’.”

“Did you see who wrote it?”

“No, I assumed it was a girlfriend. I didn’t read very far. It was pretty personal.”

“Do you think it could have been from Liz?”

“I never thought about it, why?” she asked, startled.

“Generally speaking guys aren’t in the habit of carrying around love letters in their pockets. With cell phones they rarely even carry around pictures anymore.”

“So, you think it’s something he got since arriving and not before?”

“It’s just a theory.”

“Liz and he don’t act like a couple,” Cindy said.

“Maybe they’re hiding it for a reason. Or maybe Liz didn’t write it.”

They fell silent as a figure approached out of the dark. It was Norman returning. A minute later he was back in his sleeping bag.

They sat in silence a while longer before Cindy asked, “Did you ever carry around a picture of a girl in your wallet?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Oh, who?” she asked, her voice sounding a bit odd.

Jeremiah smiled. “Her name was Alize, it means Joyful and noone ever lived up to a name more than she did. She was beautiful, long golden, red hair. We used to spend every moment of every day together. I miss her terribly.”

“I’m sorry,” Cindy said. “What happened to her?”

“She died.”

“Oh, that’s terrible!”

“It took me a long time to get over it. I never thought I’d have another dog again, but then Captain came into my life and changed all that.”

“Dog?
Alize was a dog?” she asked, sounding strangled.

“Yes, beautiful Golden Retriever that I had as a kid. She made it to fourteen, which was a good, long life. How about you?”

“No, no dogs.”

“No, I mean, ever carry a picture of a boy around in your purse?”

“I went to Homecoming my sophomore year of high school with Michael Fowler. We had our picture taken and I carried that picture in my purse for quite a while. His family moved away shortly after that, though.”

“So, you never heard from Michael again?” he asked.

“We wrote a few times, but you know how it is.”

He wasn’t sure he did. He was sure, though, that the way he was feeling at the moment it was a very good thing that Michael Fowler was nowhere to be found.

Cindy couldn’t believe the wave of emotions that had been filling her for the last few minutes. Sorrow, curiosity, relief, and most startlingly, deep, intense jealousy. She had been nearly overcome with it when she thought Alize was a girl. She and Jeremiah had never really had a conversation about past boyfriends and girlfriends and she found that she really, really didn’t want to know because the thought of him being with someone else upset her.

Not that she had any right to be upset. They weren’t together, he wasn’t hers. She couldn’t help but think, though, about what Traci had said about her needing to discuss her feelings about Jeremiah with someone soon.

She was beginning to think she was right. Besides, if things continued this way she might find herself accidentally discussing those feelings with Jeremiah before she was even willing to admit them to herself.

Is it the shared danger that brings us together?
she couldn’t help but wonder.
Or is it something more than that?

She closed her eyes for a moment. Kyle had told her that she had changed a lot. Maybe that was true. Some days she felt it more than others. How much of that was because of Jeremiah, his friendship and the things that he brought out in her?