Rustler's Moon (21 page)

“The girl streaks her hair,” Dan complained. “I can’t tell if her natural color is brown and the red is painted on or if it’s red and she paints in the brown. Polly doesn’t look old enough to be in college, but once I saw her eyes, I swear she’s one of those old souls people talk about. Only apparently, she’s a slow learner and has to keep coming back again and again to learn the same lessons. Proving not all old souls are bright.”

Still focused on Wilkes, Angie wasn’t really paying attention. She’d probably never meet the girl. Simply smiling and nodding now and then seemed to be enough for the sheriff.

“We’re running early, Angie,” Dan said as he pulled up in front of the county offices. “Mind if I check to see if a report has come in?”

“No, of course not.” She planned to stay in the car, but he pointed to the keepsake shop a few doors down.

Angie got the hint. “I’ll be in there when you’re ready.”

She wandered into Forever Keepsake as they unlocked the door for business and met the Franklin sisters.

Angie wasn’t surprised they knew who she was. The sisters might be in their midforties and as wide as they were tall, but they reminded her of the two aunts she’d lived with outside of Washington. There wasn’t a topic the sisters weren’t prepared to talk about, whether they knew anything or not, and they never met a stranger. They swallowed her up in conversation as if she were an old friend.

When the door chime sounded, they were laughing. Angie turned expecting to see the sheriff, but a tall woman with long black hair to her waist stood at the door grinning as if she expected a round of applause for showing up.

The sisters seemed to have turned to stone.

Angie had no idea what to do. From their stares, the Franklins could be looking at an armed robber. Only, the lady’s perfectly tailored dress was far too tight to allow for a concealed weapon.

Her red-lipped smile never slipped as she held out her arms. “Hello, Miss Franklin and Miss Franklin! Or should I say Rose and Daisy? After all, I am all grown up now.”

Neither woman answered.

The beauty didn’t seem to notice. “I just had to stop by and give you two a hug while I was in town. It’s been years and years since I’ve seen you, and I swear neither of you has changed a bit. The boring life in a dead town must slow aging.”

Angie moved out of the line of fire. The taller Franklin, Rose, Angie guessed, since she wore a rose pin on her collar, looked as if she might explode.

Daisy, the shorter Franklin, glared as if fearing the beautiful woman might kill them at any moment.

Rose recovered first. She waddled forward, no smile but a sweet voice. “Why, child, I didn’t recognize you. It
has
been years. We used to see you when you came home from college, but when your parents moved away, I think you only came back to see your aunt once in the past six or seven years. It was while Wilkes was in the army if I remember right.”

At the mention of Wilkes, Angie doubled her interest in the new customer.

The tall lady gave Rose an air-kiss, kind of like what movie stars give each other. Almost touching. Almost caring.

Daisy stepped forward and got her almost hug, too. “You’ve been gone a long time, Lexie. What brings you back?”

Angie seemed to have become invisible, so she simply watched.

The woman called Lexie brushed an invisible tear off her porcelain face and said low and sad, “Since dad died, it’s hard for me to return to Crossroads. My mother moved into a senior living home near me in Dallas and swears she’ll never come back here.”

Both the Franklin sisters nodded like dueling bobbleheads.

Lexie lifted her chin, putting on a brave front. “Only now my aunt is very ill, and I’m afraid I’m her only relative. It’s my duty to be with her during her last days, no matter how busy I am in the city.”

Daisy Franklin nodded, but added, “’Course, your aunt has had dementia for three years, so she don’t remember you. Last I heard, when they moved her to the nursing home in Bailee, she thought she was going on a cruise. Thinks her doctor is the captain. She told someone the waitresses dress in white and serve her an afternoon drink on the deck along with appetizers and her pills.” Daisy smiled sweetly. “They also say she plays bridge with old lady Wilson, who has been cruising since she was ninety-three. Apparently, they’re both party animals, even at the home.”

Angie watched Lexie frown. Obviously the “poor me” act wouldn’t work with these two. She tried another approach. “Still, I’m visiting her every day while I try to clean out that enormous house of hers. I was wondering if you two ladies would like to help me appraise some of her things. I’d give you first option to bid on anything.”

Angie wanted to yell “bingo.” Lexie had finally gotten down to the reason she’d walked in the door.

Before the women could answer, the door chimed again and the sheriff rushed in with a gust of wind.

Angie almost laughed as he took one look at the beautiful woman with the midnight waterfall of perfect hair and froze. Angie had no doubt that if he thought he could step backward and disappear before anyone noticed, he would.

But the sheriff wasn’t a coward. He nodded once and said, “Lexie, you’re back. What’s it been? Ten years?”

“Seven, actually,” Lexie said as she looked him up and down from boots to Stetson.

“Time flies,” he answered and turned his attention to the Franklin sisters.

Not exactly a welcome home, Angie thought. This lady was getting more interesting by the minute. It was as if they gave her a parade when she left, and now she’d returned, they all wanted their streamers back.

Angie swore she saw the woman push out her breasts slightly and arch one of her perfect eyebrows. “Well, Dan Brigman, you haven’t changed one bit since you came here the year I turned eighteen. New sheriff that played everything by the book. Tried to arrest Wilkes and me for driving through the canyon one night. We were just kids having fun.”

Dan didn’t smile. “You might have been eighteen, but you were going over eighty. Wilkes told me it was your idea, but he worked a month to pay off the ticket.”

“Of course it was my idea. Like I always say, I don’t have to go to the party. I
am
the party. Every wild thing Wilkes did was because of me.”

When no one in the shop commented, Lexie must have felt the need to stay on stage. “That man never had a spontaneous or romantic thought in his head. Then one day he just says that he joined the army, like it wasn’t something I should have had a say in.”

“He wanted to serve his country like his dad and grandfather had. I’d call that responsible more than wild.” Dan frowned as if he was thinking of pulling his weapon.

“Always the drama queen, Lexie.” He took a deep breath. “Ever wonder what the town talks about when you’re not around.”

She struck a pose. “In fact I do. I imagine keeping up with my life is the only thing that keeps half the people in this town from dying of boredom.”

Angie wished she were recording this. How could she have thought there would be no drama in a small town? She felt as though she’d stumbled into the middle of a soap opera.

The beauty laughed. “Yeah, I heard the speech. Even my dad thought I should have waited for him, like I had three good years of my life to waste.” She flipped her mane like a stallion on parade.

Angie simply stared. If being self-centered had a smell, the room would need fumigating.

Lexie seemed tired of waiting for a compliment. She twisted her hair in a long rope. When that got no reaction, she crossed her arms to push up her perfect breasts, then widened her stance. Her dress tightened over perfectly shaped legs. If anyone had taken a picture, she’d be on a cover somewhere. “Tell me, Sheriff Brigman, did you ever get over your wife? If so, you might just know where the parties are around this dull town.”

Dan didn’t look as if he even heard her questions. He turned to Angie. “If you’re finished shopping, Miss Harold, I’ll be happy to take you to the museum.”

Lexie jerked, almost tumbling off her five-inch heels. Pretty ones, of course. She looked at Angie as if a frog had just appeared in the room. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t notice you.”

Angie blamed it on that five-foot-three thing again, but really, how could someone miss a whole person in a twenty-by-thirty shop?

The sheriff stepped between them. “Angie, meet Lexie Davis.”

Before Angie could say anything, Lexie laughed. “Well, give the girl a few details, Danny. I’m as close as this town ever got to having royalty. I’m sure she’d want to know who she’s meeting.” She turned her full attention toward Angie. “I was runner-up for Miss Texas eight years ago. I’m married to a very successful plastic surgeon in Dallas now, but all this town seems to remember is that I used to date Wilkes Wagner. We were kind of a thing a while ago.”

Daisy Franklin added, “Dated him almost five years. Broke up with him when he was away fighting for our country. Folks don’t forget that.”

Angie bit back a smile at the expression on Lexie’s face. She looked as though she might have bopped the little Miss Franklin on the head if the county sheriff hadn’t been standing so close.

“We broke up,” Lexie announced. “We went in different directions, and guarding an embassy isn’t exactly like being at war. It’s not my fault Wilkes didn’t move on. I did.”

Angie’s brain was on overload. Lexie was exactly the kind of woman she’d thought would belong on Wilkes’s arm. Beautiful, tall, nice shoes. Maybe she should have been jealous, but Lexie was simply reminding her of what she’d known all along. Great-looking men don’t go for mousy women. She was angry for even daring to hope.

Rose got a word in. “I heard this husband of yours, the doc, is moving on, too. You already shopping for number three?”

Lexie opened her mouth as if she planned to say something ugly to the Franklin sisters. “Do you know, I believe I’ve reconsidered,” she announced with a false smile plastered across her perfect lips as she moved toward the door. “I don’t think I’ll need an appraisal after all, ladies.”

She pivoted, her perfect hair brushing against her perfect bottom as she walked out the door. “Good day, Miss Franklin and Miss Franklin...and whatever your name was.”

Angie looked back to Dan in time to see the sheriff wink at the Franklins. “She forgot me,” he whispered. “How lucky can a guy get?”

Rose and Daisy both tried to hide their giggles.

“Angie.” He smiled. “You’re going to be late to work. I’d better do my duty.” He offered his arm as if he were a formal escort to a ball.

The two women watched as Angie walked out. She thought she heard one of them whisper, “Wish we could have told that Lexie that our Wilkes has him a new girl.”

As the door closed, she whispered to Dan, “That’s not true. Wilkes and I are not together.”

The sheriff leaned near. “The Franklin sisters are never wrong. If they say you are, you are.”

Angie blushed and changed the subject. “Did your paperwork come in?”

“Yep.” Dan smiled. Somehow seeing Lexie had changed his dark mood about this daughter. “I’ve already sent it to Wilkes. He’s picking up Yancy, and they are on their way to Austin.”

“What?”

Dan grinned. “Don’t worry, he’ll be back in a few days and tell you all about it. In the meantime, he told me to ask you to stay at his place. It’s safer. And don’t forget to feed Uncle Vern. The old guy can handle cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch, but he needs something for supper.”

“But I don’t even know...”

Dan interrupted, probably guessing her next question. “You’ll find your way around the kitchen. The housekeeper keeps the place well stocked. I’m guessing the old guy will eat anything you make.” He hesitated. “You’d be doing Wilkes a big favor. He doesn’t like to leave the old guy alone and Vern hates it if he thinks Wilkes sent a babysitter. This way he can think he’s guarding you while Wilkes is gone.”

Angie felt as if she’d been reading a spy novel and somehow skipped a chapter. All she could do was nod as she muttered, “Doc Holliday and I will keep an eye on the place.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lauren

T
HE
S
ATURN
HER
FATHER
gave her for graduation was loaded down. Lauren was only taking Polly home for a long weekend but they were prepared for anything. Computers and books for studying, clothes for the unpredictable weather, boots, rain gear, bathing suits if they lucked out and had a warm sunny day on the deck.

Polly was riding with Tim in the Jeep ahead of Lauren. He’d packed a backpack and a bag of Cheetos. Right now they had the top down on the Jeep and kept waving back to her. Now and then a Cheetos would hit the windshield as though they were passing a snack back to her.

The doctor said that Polly should take it easy for a few days, eat regular meals and stay away from alcohol.

Lauren felt as if she was watching a robot slowly turning into a human. Step by step Polly Anna, as Tim called her, was changing. Cussing less, even smiling now and then. The trashy clothes were gone, but the red stripes in her hair were still there. Polly wanted to be the center of attention and Tim gave her that, but she refused to answer any questions about her past. It was almost as though she was born the day she walked into Lauren’s dorm room.

Lauren tried to make up a past that fit her. Polly’s father had beat her. Her mother had sold her into the sex trade. She was older than she looked, and this was the fifth college she’d flunked out of. She was younger and wanting to go wild a semester before the school found out she was a genius.

Not one of Lauren’s theories worked.

When they reached the lake, Lauren moved Polly into what Pop and her called “Mother’s room.” But, except for a few nights back around her sixteenth birthday, her mother had never slept in this house on the lake. Lauren and her father had moved in while she was in elementary school. Margaret had come out for moving day, hauling some of her books and things as if she was really moving in, but even at five years old Lauren knew something was wrong. Margaret had left that night.