Lean, Mean and Lonesome. Annette Broadrick

don’t start jumping to conclusions.”

      “Then why hasn’t he been in touch with anyone?” she replied with some heat. “Why is it I’m the only one who sees something strange about the fact that he hasn’t gotten in touch with me, or with Tom, or even James?”

      He shook his head as though he wasn’t sure what she was implying. “You think it’s a conspiracy?” he finally asked “You think everyone else knows where he is but no one i: telling you?”

      She glared at him. “Oh, puleeze. So now you’re agreeing with the good deputy and think I’m neurotic as well?”

      Rafe took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. “For what it’s worth, Mandy, I think you’re a tad sensitive abou what others might or might not think of you. Like you, I’m puzzled about how a person could disappear like that with out somebody, somewhere, knowing what happened and where he is now. It’s possible someone knows more than he or she realizes he knows.” He rearranged the salt and pepper shaker, moving them around each other. He glanced up at her. “When did you last speak to him?”

      Mandy was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, she sounded calmer. “About a month ago. He’d been checking on me more often than usual. During that particular conversation he suggested that I might want to take my vacation early and come to visit him.” Her voice wobbled and she swallowed before continuing. “He said we hadn’t spen much time together since Mom died. He thought I could use a break.”

      “From what?”

      She nibbled her lower lip. “I recently broke an engagement.”

      “Seems to run in the family.” He smiled, trying to put her at ease. “Dan wrote me about his engagement. Then later let me know there was not going to be a wedding.”

      She shook her head. “That was Sharon. He seemed to be crazy about her. All she wanted to do was party. I wasn’t sorry to see her back out of their engagement, although I think Dan took it hard at the time.”

      “Could his disappearance have anything to do with her?”

      She looked at him, startled. “Oh, I don’t think so. That was a couple of years ago. He’s dated several women since then.”

      “Any seriously enough that they might have some idea where he would be?”

      “I don’t know. I could talk to James about it.” She hesitated, then said, “Better yet, I’ll let you talk to him. He makes me uncomfortable.”

      “How?”

      “Every time I see him, he makes a pass at me.” She shivered, as though repulsed by the idea.

      Rafe smiled. “The man shows good taste, at least.”

      She frowned. “Very funny.”

      He could see he wasn’t going to win any points around her at the moment. He shoved back his chair and stood. “I’m going out to get my bag. Is the cabin in use these days? If not, I might as well bunk down in it.” He moved rapidly toward the door, but came to an abrupt halt when Mandy spoke.

      “Uh, no. The cabin burned a few months after you left here.”

      He turned around.

      “Really,” he said softly. “How did that happen?”

      She shrugged. “One of the hands got careless, was my dad’s guess. Left a smoldering cigarette too close to something flammable. By the time anyone saw it, the cabin was in full blaze. It was too late to do anything but keep the fire from spreading.”

      Rafe looked out the window for a moment before returning his gaze to her. “Then I’ll find a motel in town. I have a rental car parked outside the gate that I need to return. ] figure there are enough vehicles around the ranch for me to use one of them while I’m here.”

      “Of course you can use one of the pickup trucks and there’s no reason why you can’t continue to stay here at the house. Dan isn’t going to mind your using his room and you know it.”

      Rafe knew that he would get little rest staying in the same house with Mandy. He needed all the distance he could muster between them. However, his choices at the moment were limited. In his opinion, the ranch held the key to Dan’s disappearance. It made more sense for him to stay put.

      “What about Parker?” he finally asked. “He’s not going to like us sleeping under the same roof.”

      “And whose fault is that? You certainly didn’t put yourself out trying to get along with him.”

      “Yeah, I’m funny that way. Somebody slugs me from behind with no warning, I become very judgmental about his character.”

      “You know why he did that.”

      “I know why you think he did it, but I’m not buying his explanation. He could see I was making no effort to hide for God’s sake. I was no threat to any one. It’s my guess he doesn’t want anyone hanging around you. He might have figured that taking me out would discourage me from lingering for more than a brief visit.”

      “Will you please stop it! Tom isn’t interested in me...o in acquiring this ranch through me. Really, Rafe. I don’t remember you being so cynical.”

      “Right. I always waited around for the Easter bunny every spring.” He walked out the door and let the screen slam behind him. He strode across the porch shaking his head at his juvenile behavior.

      What did it matter to him what kind of relationship Mandy might have with the foreman of Dan’s ranch, anyway? Maybe he was still reeling from too many hours of travel. Mandy had nothing to do with the reason he was here. He needed to remember that.

      “You looking for something?”

      He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. Parker stood a few feet away, his hands on his hips. Damned if he didn’t look like a gunfighter waiting to draw on him.

      “I left my bag out there,” he said, nodding toward the thick foliage across from the house. “Thought I’d go pick it up. You got a problem with that?”

      Parker ignored his question and asked one of his own. “How long you intending to stay?”

      Rafe turned back and continued to walk toward the brush, forcing Parker to follow him if he intended to continue the conversation. “Until Dan shows up. Why?”

      “Then you think he’s still alive.”

      Rafe stopped Why in hell was everyone so willing to think that Dan was dead. “Don’t you?” he asked pointedly.

      Parker shifted his feet, removed his hat, smoothed his hair, replaced his hat, then looked toward the rolling hills that surrounded them. “I don’t know what to think,” he finally admitted. “He’s never just disappeared like this before. He’d know we’d be worried about him and would do everything in his power to let us know if he was all right. If he could. I think something’s happened to him. I’m just not sure what. It’s been too long now. Much too long.”

      “Tell me about the airstrip.”

      Parker looked at him, surprised by the shift in subject. “What about it?”

      “Can you hear when a plane lands or takes off from the ranch buildings?”

      “Sometimes. When the wind’s right.”

      “Did you hear a plane the night Dan disappeared?”

      “I don’t remember.”

      “Mandy mentioned his Jeep being found down there. I figure that’s how he left the place. Which reminds me, I need to turn in my rental car. Is there someone who can follow me into Austin?”

      Parker took his own sweet time about answering. “I can send Carlos,” he finally said.

      Rafe nodded in acknowledgment of the foreman’s reluctance to accommodate him in any way.