Sweet Talking Lawman (20 page)

Tall Tree dropped his
head.  “That was John?  Willow’s gonna kill me.  John’s one of
her favorite dancin’ partners.”  He lifted his head and looked at
Rafe.  “I didn’t know it was John, Rafe!  Damn, I like him,
too.  How bad is he hurt?”

Rafe shrugged.  “He’s
still in the hospital.  You need to tell me what the hell happened out
there on that road.”

Tall Tree shook his
head.  “I was drunk.  I might have been driving a little too fast,
but that motorcycle shouldn’t’a been left that close to the road.  I hit
it and stopped.  Willow called it in and I was gonna wait there, but when
I got out to see how bad the driver was hurt, I found him with a hole between
his eyes.  Scared the hell outta me!  He had a gun in his hand and I
picked it up.  Somebody took a shot at me.  Next thang I know,
there’s blue lights flashin’ and somebody yellin’ at me to drop the gun and
raise my hands.  I just freaked out and fired off a couple of rounds
before I got the hell outta there.  I didn’t know I even hit
anybody.”  He slowly shook his head from side to side.  “Man, I can’t
believe it was John.”

“Somebody shot at you?” 
Rafe was surprised by that turn in the story.

Tall Tree nodded, but then
seemed to give it closer consideration.  “Well, I thought it was at
me.  I heard a gun fire.  I don’t know where it was, but that guy is
dead and I’m holding his gun.  I panicked.  All I knew was that I
needed to get the hell away from there.”

Rafe asked dozens of
questions and then rephrased them and asked them again.  Tall Tree was
firm in his story.  He thought he’d hit someone riding a motorcycle and
stopped to offer assistance even as drunk as he was.  Finding the corpse
scared him so badly he didn’t even recognize the man, then he thought someone
was shooting at him, and panic had taken over after that.

After two hours of
questioning, Rafe left the small room convinced that his suspect was telling
the truth.  Even though he’d been drunk, the events were firmly etched in
Daryl Tall Tree’s mind and as much as he regretted having done it, he never
denied shooting John Montgomery.  But he only knew Hal Cartwright
casually, from frequenting the same local bars, and had no reason to kill him.

Rafe met Levi in the hallway
and compared notes.  Levi had been questioning Willow Tall Tree while Rafe
had questioned Daryl.  He figured she’d be more comfortable and open with
a member of her family, even if it was a distant relationship.  Levi
assured him she had been, but there was very little difference in their
stories.  It looked like they were both telling the truth.

“Which puts me right back
where I was, except now it’s not just suspicious accidents, it’s a cold blooded
murder and I don’t have any idea who did it or why.”  Rafe’s level of
frustration rose by several notches.  He didn’t like violence and
mayhem.   He wanted a nice quiet county.

On his way to The Tepee a
little later, he swung by the hospital and wasn’t the least bit surprised to
find Krystal sitting next to her husband’s bed.  John appeared to be
asleep, and when she saw Rafe push the door open, she rose from the chair and
indicated they should retreat into the hallway before they started a
conversation.

“How’s he doing,” Rafe asked
as they stood outside the door.

“Dr. Alford said I could take
him home tomorrow.  They want to make sure he gets plenty of antibiotics
in his system so he doesn’t develop an infection,” she replied.  “He
didn’t get much sleep last night and you look like hell, so I’m assumin’ you
didn’t either.”

He shrugged.  “I
questioned the Tall Trees and their stories make sense.  Daryl wants me to
assure you that if he’d had any idea it was John, he’d never have shot at
him.  He said he’d just found Cartwright with a bullet between the eyes,
when he heard what he thinks was somebody shootin’ at him, and it scared the
hell out of him so when John arrived and ordered him to drop the weapon, he
panicked and started shootin’.”

“What?  He didn’t see
the lights flashin’ on the top of John’s car?  He had to know it was
somebody he knew.  He knows us all.”  Krystal wasn’t in a forgiving
mood.

Rafe dropped an arm around
her shoulders and gave her a brief, comforting hug.  “He was so drunk he hit
Cartwright’s motorcycle where it was parked beside the road.  Those
flashin’ lights probably never registered in his mind.  He thought
somebody was shootin’ at him.  I don’t think anything else got through his
drunken haze until later.”

His only female deputy looked
up at him.  “Don’t you try to sugar coat what happened,” she railed at
him.  “He could have just as easily hit John in the head and killed
him.  The man needs a good ass kickin’ and I just might give it to him the
next time I see him.”

“By then, you might be too
old for kickin’ ass,” Rafe said solemnly.  “He’s gonna spend some time in
prison for last night and for a man who loves the outdoors as much as Daryl
does, there won’t be anything worse.  He’d probably welcome you kickin’ his
ass if it’d help him avoid time in the pen.”

She swept one hand through
the air between them.  “I’m not feelin’ sorry for him.”  She looked
up at him again.  “You really look bad, Rafe.  Go home and get some
sleep.”

His head shook
negatively.  “Don’t have time right now.  I’ve got a date for lunch
that I can’t miss.  Maybe I’ll get home to take a nap later.”

Her eyes sparkled
mischievously.  “A lunch date that you can’t miss?  Just who might
that be with?”

He chuckled.  “Raale,
Mesa, Jory Madison, Mesa’s mother, and her Uncle Rance.”

Krystal’s hopeful look
died.  “That sounds like a lot of fun.”  Her voice expressed heavy
sarcasm.

He shrugged his broad
shoulders and grinned.  “It was supposed to be just Raale, Mesa and me,
but with things happenin’ like they are, I think they all need to avoid bein’
alone.  There are some weird things goin’ on around here, girl.” 
Rafe patted Krystal’s shoulder.  “Tell John I stopped by and I’ll talk to
you both later.”

She nodded.  “We’ll be
fine.  Make sure you get a nap sometime today.  When you get too
tired, you can’t think straight,” she warned as he turned and started down the
corridor.  She watched until he turned a corner and disappeared from her
sight before she returned to John’s bedside.  Just like everyone else that
knew him, she and John wanted nothing but happiness for Rafe.  And just
like everyone else that knew him, it was easy enough to see that he had been
trying desperately to avoid spending time with Mesa Howell.  A grin split
her lips, revealing her straight, white teeth when she found John awake.

“Guess who the boss is havin’
lunch with,” she couldn’t wait to share the news.

John shrugged.  “Not
me.  If he ate here, the food would probably kill him.”

Krystal laughed at her
husband’s comment, knowing he was just being sarcastic.  “Well, there’s
goin’ to be a crowd there, but he’s havin’ lunch with Mesa and her family at
The Tepee.”

John failed to see the
significance of that so she changed the subject.  “He told me he and Levi
brought in the Tall Trees and questioned them.  Daryl wants you to know
he’s sorry he shot you and Rafe doesn’t think he knows anything about
Cartwright’s murder.  He said Daryl hit the motorcycle while it was parked
and found Cartwright already dead.  He said Daryl told him someone took a
shot at him and he panicked and that’s why he started shootin’ when he heard
you tell him to drop the weapon.  Rafe believes him.”

Mulling it over for a couple
of minutes, John nodded.  “That makes sense to me, as well.  Daryl’s
never been violent before, but finding a man with a bullet between the eyes
would be enough to scare anyone especially if you think someone is making you
the next target.”

She filled him in on the rest
of the information Rafe had given her and when she finished talking, she shook
her head and smiled.  John had drifted off to sleep again.

Rafe was seated at a large
table at the back of the dining room of The Tepee when Mesa and her family
arrived.  He waved them back to join him and scooped Raale up into his arms
as she ran ahead of everyone else.

“I wents to church with Uci
this morning for breakfast.  There wasn’t no kids there, dust old
people.”  She kissed his cheek.  “We ate pancakes and bacon and Uci
gived me seconds on the bacon.  I dust love bacon.”  She spotted Spur
lying underneath the table.  “I din’t think dogs could be in restaurants.”

While she talked, Rafe made
eye contact with Mesa and he tilted his head toward a chair the other side of
Raale.

Rafe chuckled.  “You get
that from me.  Bacon’s my favorite at breakfast and Spur only gets to come
in because he’s my police dog, sorta.”  He stood her back on her feet next
to his legs.

The opening of the diner door
drew his attention and he spotted Uci, Mrs. Barnett, Jenny and her family and
the pastor and his wife filing in and heading over to claim a table near the
one Rafe had chosen.

“Great,” he drawled softly, a
frown knitting into wrinkles between his black brows.  “It looks like a
freakin’ family reunion.”

Mesa reached him as he
spoke.  She nodded.  “When they found out we were meeting you for
lunch, they decided to join us.  I hope you don’t mind.”

He pulled out the chair for
her.  “There wasn’t much chance for any privacy anyway.”  His eyes
held hers.  “We’ve gotta work on that.”

Mesa nodded and slipped into
the chair he held for her.  He pulled out the chair between them and
placed Raale in the seat of it.

The talk around the tables
was constant and as much as he’d wanted to talk to Mesa’s family about what
might be going on at the Rocking H, Rafe didn’t get a chance.  Neither did
he get a chance to talk to Mesa alone.

As the meal was ending, Uci
came over and asked if he could take her home.

He nodded his head. 
“Sure can.  I need to catch a couple of hours sleep anyway.”  He
turned to Mesa.  “Don’t go off anywhere by yourself.  You
understand?”

She nodded.

“Can Raale come home with
us?” Uci asked.

Mesa looked at Rafe and he
nodded with a grin.  “She can entertain Uci while I sleep.”  He was
glad his grandmother had made the request.  He knew he wouldn’t rest well
until he got the mess involving the Rocking H cleared up, but it would help to
know that his daughter was at his house at least for a few hours.

Mesa couldn’t miss the
hopeful look in Raale’s blue eyes and nodded her assent.  Rafe picked up
the check for his table and leaned down near Mesa’s ear.  “I’ll bring
Raale home later, but be thinkin’ about someplace private where you and I
can…talk.”  His voice was low, intended for her alone and he didn’t miss
the pink tint that flushed quickly over her face.

Mesa’s eyes watched him walk
to the register to pay the check and when it was done, he and Spur followed Uci
and Raale out the door, Rafe looking back at her one time with a flirtatious
wink.

When she knew Rafe was gone, Jenny
hopped up from her seat and hurried over to drop in the chair next to
Mesa.  “Now, girlfriend, spill it.  What did he say that caused that
cute flush of color that tinted your face as he was leaving?”

Mesa felt the color darken
her face again, but she managed a smile.  “He was just assuring me that
Raale would be fine with Uci.”

Jenny laughed. 
“Bull-lar-key!!  I’m getting the feeling that y’all are getting together
again.”

Mesa cut her eyes around,
hoping no one was paying them any attention and was relieved to see that they
weren’t.  “It’s not like that.  We just have some things to talk
about.  You know; parental things.”

“Did he make you swear off
our friendship?  ‘Cuz I’ve always been able to tell when you aren’t
telling me the truth and I’m getting that feeling really strong.”  Jenny
frowned at Mesa.  “He’s my brother, and I can tell when he thinks he’s
pulling something slick and that’s what I saw just now.”

A short burst of laughter
escaped Mesa and she turned her head to look out the window as Rafe’s SUV
pulled out onto the highway.  “Jenny, you’re letting your suspicious
nature get the best of you.”

“Humpff,” Jenny
grunted.  “You’re cutting me out.  That’s a very serious breach of
the Life Long Best Friends Forever Code of Conduct, you know.”

Mesa’s hand reached out and
covered one of Jenny’s.  “When there’s something between us for you to get
excited about, I promise I’ll tell you.”  Then her face brightened with a
big smile.  “You and I need a shopping day.  We really haven’t had a
chance to get together; just the two of us, since I moved back home.”

For the next few minutes they
planned an all-day shopping trip that would take them all the way to the mall
in Liberty.  The closest Oak Ridge came to having a mall was the Roger’s
Seed and Feed that was next to The Tepee and the western store, Shaps.

Later in the day, Rafe woke
from a restless dream to a light tap on his door.  He made sure the sheet
was pulled up over his hips before his sleep heavy voice spoke.  “Come on
in.”

Uci stood at the door for a
minute then entered slowly.  She walked to the window and pulled back the
heavy drape that helped darken the room when he had to sleep during the
day.  She unlocked the window and raised it.  When she turned to look
at him her dark eyes were narrowed and her brows knitted.  “If it wasn’t
Mesa in this room with you last night, I might start taking scalps.  In
fact, I might do it anyway.”

Rafe hadn’t blushed in years,
until then.  “Uci…,” he started awkwardly, but stopped when she shook her
aging head disapprovingly.

“Don’t,” she said
slowly.  “If it’s just sex, you better take it somewhere besides this
house and if it’s more than that, you better be careful.  You already
disrespected that girl once.  It breaks my heart that you could do it
again.  There’s an innocent child to be considered now, and since you and
Mesa are adults, I’m taking the baby’s side.  You got that?”

He nodded.  “I…don’t
know what to say.”  He knew when he’d crawled into the bed that he could
still smell Mesa on his sheets and that was probably part of why she’d been in
his dreams, but he couldn’t believe that Uci could smell the lingering odor
from the doorway.  But he knew it was from there that she’d known. 
He’d seen it in her eyes.  The opening of the window had been done to make
a point and it was a point well made.

“Don’t say nothing, just heed
my words.  Now, get up and come down for supper.  Raale has played
with Spur until he’s exhausted.”  As she left the room, he could hear her
grumbling to herself about wishing she could wash away his sins as easily as
she could wash the sin out of his sheets.

Rafe was grateful that Raale
was with them at the supper table.  He could still feel Uci’s disapproval
and as much as he’d been hoping she wouldn’t ever know, her disappointment gnawed
at his sense of honor.

It was late when they
finished eating and he reminded Raale that they needed to get her home before
her mom started worrying.

The child quickly hugged Uci
and thanked her for teaching her to string beads.  Then she followed her father
out to his truck, proudly wearing the bead necklace that Uci had helped her
make.

He didn’t allow Spur to jump
up in the truck with Raale and the big bulldog stalked off to sulk.  As he
stepped up into the cab he spotted Uci standing on the porch and powered down
his window.  “I won’t be long,” he called to her.

She nodded.  “You just
think about this.  Every woman deserves to be courted and made over, no
matter what has happened before.”

Rafe put his window up and
drove away.  He listened to Raale’s almost constant chatter with one ear
as his grandmother’s words rolled around in his thoughts.  He hadn’t
thought he was being disrespectful to Mesa.  A frown knitted his dark brows. 
Hell, truth be known, he hadn’t thought at all, at least not with the brain
above his belt.  He wondered if Mesa had thought of it as being treated
with disrespect.  It really didn’t matter what anyone else thought. 
He shook his head from side to side.  Who was he kidding?  It
mattered.  It mattered a lot.

“Daddy, did you hear
me?”  Raale asked, her brows knit so much like his own.

“Sorry, baby girl, I guess my
mind wandered.  What did you say?”

“I asked why Uci is mad at
you.  It makes me sad when peoples gets mad at you.”  Her big brown
eyes searched his face for an answer.

Rafe shrugged.  “You
know, even adults sometimes do things without thinking about the consequences,
and she wants to make sure I think things through before I make a bad mistake.”

Raale’s frown deepened. 
“What does conqu…se……that long word mean?”

“Con  se 
quen  ces,” he spoke the word slowly, by syllables.  “Consequences
are what happens when a person does something…..without thinking about
everything that could happen….because they did it.  Does that make sense
to you?”

“No,” the child answered,
sighing deeply, “but I guess I’ll unnerstand when I gets older, prodaly. 
That’s what Mom always says.”

Rafe chuckled.  “Uci
thinks I did something I shouldn’t have done.  She wants me to think about
it and make sure I’m not making a mistake that could cause someone to
get….their feelings hurt.”

“Oh,” Raale’s lips tilted up
in a smile.  “It’s not nice to make somebody feel bad.  I guess Uci’s
right.”

He nodded. 
“Uci’s a wise lady and she’s still trying to teach me to do things the right
way.”

Raale giggled.  “Papa J
says he’s a slow learner.  Are you one, too?”

Rafe grinned at his daughter
and nodded.  “I guess I am.  I hope you don’t take after me like
that.”

“Mom says I’m too smarty pants
for my own good, so I guess that means I’m not like that.”  Raale chortled
mischievously.  “But sometimes when she says it, I don’t think it means a
good way.”

After only a lapse of a few
seconds, the child spoke again.  “Are you finished being mad at my mom for
keeping me a secret from you?”

He cut his eyes and looked at
her briefly before turning his attention back to the road.  “Why do you
ask that?”

Raale rolled her brown eyes
at him.  “At Uncle Rance’s bar-b-que you was setting close to her and
today at da restaurant you setted with her again, and you whispered in her ear
and her face turned pink.”

He grinned at his child’s
astute observations.  “It’s kinda complicated.  My feelin’s were hurt
that she kept you a secret, but we’re both your parents, so we need to be
friends.”

A childish chortle drew his
eyes again and when she met his eyes there was a definite sparkle in her brown
orbs.  “Is she gonna gets to be your girlfriend?”

He shrugged.  “I guess
we’ll just have to wait and see.  There are a lot of things we need to
work out before…” he paused, not wanting to lie to his daughter.  “Maybe
she is, but I don’t want you thinkin’ it means we’ll get married or anything
like that.  That probably won’t ever happen.”

“Why?”  She wasn’t
satisfied with his answer.  She wanted more.

Frustration caused Rafe to
shrug again.  “When two people get married, they have to love each other a
whole lot and promise to always be honest with each other and trust each
other.”  He looked at his child again and was glad that she was looking at
him.  He hoped she could understand the truth he was trying to share with
her.  “When your mom didn’t tell me about you, it was kinda like a
lie.  It broke my heart that she could keep something so special, a secret
from me.  You’re the most important thing in my life, and until y’all came
to live at Rance’s cabin, I didn’t even get to know about you.  When I
think about that, it still makes me angry at her.  I’m not sure I can ever
forget about it and that’s what would have to happen for us to ever…be…ever get
married.  Maybe we can go places together and have fun, maybe we can be
friends, but we might not ever be…anything more than that.”

Raale nodded.  “Maybe I
can gets her to say ‘sorry,’ to you.  That makes things all better.
 ‘Sides, my mom is special.  If she gets to be your girlfriend, you
won’t think about her keeping me secret.  You’ll habe too much fun to
think ‘bout it.  My mom is a lots of fun.”

Rafe braked the truck to a
stop in front of the log cabin and watched, his eyes alive with interest as
Mesa stepped out on the porch to greet them.  Raale quickly unfastened her
seatbelt and scampered across the seat to dive into her father’s waiting
arms.  He carried her to the porch and set her on her feet, his eyes
drinking in Mesa with each step he took.

Raale gave her mother a hug
and a quick rundown of her day before she went in search of Papa J, leaving
Mesa standing on the porch with Rafe.

He knew he had to tell her
that Uci knew about their night together, but felt awkward, wondering if Mesa
thought he’d been treating her with disrespect.  He drew in a deep breath
of resignation.  “I don’t know how she knew, but when Uci came to my room
to wake me up this afternoon, she knew you’d been there with me.”