High Desert Detective, A Fiona Marlowe Mystery (Fiona Marlowe Mysteries) (33 page)

Jake stretched out his legs after she left. “I could use some
pleasant dreams about now,” he said.

 
Fiona studied his legs. Her
eyes traveled up his body the whole way to his face.

 
He lay with his head
against the back of the couch, eyes closed.

Whatever was she waiting for? She placed her hand on his chest,
barely touching.

He half-opened his eyes and looked at her. She lowered her lips
to his mouth and planted soft kisses around it, following his jaw line to his
eyes.

“Fiona, don’t do this to me.”

Her lips brushed his ear. “I am going to do this to you.”

She took his hand in hers and rose, tugging him up from the
couch.

He stood facing her, his eyes questioning what she was doing.

With her arms she encircled his neck and pulled his lips to hers.
Almost reluctantly, he placed his hands on her waist. His eyes still held the
question that only she could answer. He stopped right before their lips touched.

“I love you, Fiona. I would never hurt you.”

“I know. I’m not playing with you this time, if that is what you
are thinking. I’m serious now.”

He closed the kiss, and her body caught fire. It went up in
flames like the old bunkhouse, unguarded, unbridled, meant to burn everything
in sight. Jake responded in kind, and they danced around the room to a tune
only they could hear. He eased the vest from her shoulders, and it dropped to
the floor. She pulled his bolo tie loose, opened his vest, and he shrugged out
of it. She threw tie and vest on the chair as they danced by, Jake maneuvering
them in a halting two step down the hall to his bedroom. He stopped in the
hallway and opened the buttons to her blouse one at time, pausing each time to
watch the reaction on her face. She smiled and worked on the buttons of his
shirt, following his lead.

“This is your last chance to say no,” he said in his low baritone
whisper.

She unbuckled his cowboy belt.

“I take that as a yes,” he said, sounding like he was in pain.

She led him by the hand the rest of the way down the hall to his
room and closed and locked the door behind them.

* * * * *

Opal rose early the next morning, feeling amazingly good for an
old woman with a terminal disease. She dressed and had in mind to do some work
in the garden before she had to go into town. She walked through the living
room. Someone had left the table lights on and she walked from lamp to lamp,
turning them off. She stumbled across something on the floor and reached down to
see what it was. She held up a pretty black sequined vest that she had last
seen on Fiona. Her eyes found the vest and bolo tie on the chair by the hallway
that she had last seen on Jake. She smiled and looked down the hall to the
closed bedroom door.

At last.

Sammie walked into the kitchen a little later.

“Fiona said she’d take you to town today. I’ll work in the
garden.”

Opal smiled over her coffee mug. “Let’s change our plans. We’ll
do the garden tomorrow. You can drive me in today.”

* * * * *

Jake finished showering and grabbed a big, white fluffy towel to
dry off. He sang the words to
Hey, Good
Lookin
’
in a low, happy voice. He smiled into the
mirror, lathered his face and started shaving, still softly humming the old
Hank Williams song. He didn’t want to wake up the love of his life who lay
sleeping on his big, king size bed. He thought it would never happen, but it
did, and what a night it had been. It was like the lid had finally blown off
and all the pent up feeling they had for each other had finally manifested. It had
gone on just about all night. Finally, toward dawn they had fallen asleep
wrapped around each other.

He couldn’t remember when he had felt this good. Of course, all
of it had to do with Fiona. Fiona, Fiona, Fiona. What a girl. God, he loved her.
Finally, finally, finally.
He felt like he had been
waiting all of his life for her. Boy, when she decided to do something, she did
it with all her body and soul. He felt like she had absorbed his whole being
into hers.

He finished at the sink and walked softly into the bedroom. She
turned over and opened her eyes. When he saw her beautiful body again, he
wanted to jump back into bed with her. He slid in beside her and gathered her
sleepy self into his arms. She was almost purring.

“Hey, are we going to start again?” she said.

“What about a little one?” he said.

“I don’t think you and I can have a little one,” she said and
smiled into his eyes. “You’re all clean and smell good. Where are you going?”

“Got a ranch to run and the day is already half over.”

“What time is it?”

“Nine o’clock in the morning.”

She threw her arm back over her head and yawned.

He kissed her beautiful breasts. He couldn’t help it. Everything
about her was luscious. She looked at him and smiled, and he pulled her to him.
They started again, and, like Fiona had predicted, it wasn’t a little one. They
lay entwined, enjoying the afterglow.

Jake checked his watch. “Good heaven, now it’s ten o’clock.”

“We could take the day off and stay in bed all day,” she said.

That was mighty tempting. Jake tried to remember what he had to
do today. Monday morning was usually paper work. He had to call the bank to see
if they had had made any decision about loaning him money to buy a ranch. Then
he remembered Glory and Opal.

“Glory,” Jake said. “We have to check on Glory.”

“Oh, my, gosh,” said Fiona. “I was going to take Opal to town.”

“Considering the time, I’d say Sammie probably took her, but I’ll
check. Be right back. Don’t go away, maybe we
can
take the day off and spend it in bed together.”

“I’ll take a shower while you check. It’s your fault. You made me
totally forget that I was going to town this morning.”

He watched her cross the room to the bathroom. She stopped and
smiled back at him over her shoulder. She had the longest, sexiest legs and the
prettiest body. Slowly she closed the bathroom door. He shook his head,
smiling. She was wicked.
Wicked, wicked, wicked.
He
found his jeans, pulled them on and walked out into the hall to see if the
ranch was running without his close supervision.

Opal and Sammie were gone. But he ran into Olympia in the
kitchen. She looked surprised to see him.

“Wow, look at you,” she said. “Nice musculature. You’ll have to
excuse my staring, but I notice things like that being a writer of romance. Are
you just getting up? And where is my dear friend, Fiona? She is nowhere to be
seen. I guess you haven’t seen her, have you?”

Jake felt the heat rising in his face.

She laughed. “You are holding her prisoner in your bedroom, I
bet.”

Jake found his voice. “She came of her own volition. Actually,
she seduced me.”

“Perfect.
Great.
This will make a great
love scene in my next novel which I’m going to start today.”

She poured him a mug of coffee. “Here, you might need this.”

Jake smiled and said thanks. Olympia could grow on you after a
while.

“What have you been up to?” he asked, taking an exploratory sip
of the coffee.

She smiled. “I just got back this morning. I’ve been with Paul, the
new love of my life. He’s an interesting guy. I like him. He took off this early
morning for a consulting job down in Nevada.”

“Why didn’t you go with him?”

“I’m going to join him later this week. I found a ranch yesterday
that I like, and I’m going to put in an offer today. It’s a real steal. Pretty
setting, but the house and buildings are run down. I’m going to tear the house
down and build a big old ranch house like Opal’s. Paul looked at it with me and
says the soil and rock formations are good for ranching. I might even invest in
a small herd.”

“Sounds nice,” said Jake. “Where is it?”

“Not too far from here. An old man has it and has to get rid of
it because the bank is going to foreclose. He’s looking for a quick sale.”

Jake frowned. “What’s the old man’s name?”

“Lovejoy. I just love the name. I might have to use it for one of
my new characters. I didn’t meet him. He wasn’t there.”

Jake’s frown deepened. How many
Lovejoys
could there be nearby? “Was there new equipment in the barn?”

Olympia frowned. “No, there wasn’t anything in what, I guess, you
call a barn. It looked like a lean-to. Just some old dusty broken down stuff
was in it. Why?”

“Fiona and I looked at the same place on Friday. It wasn’t on the
market then.”

“Really?
Are you sure? Are you
interested? I thought you wanted Opal’s ranch.”

“I’m interested. Opal isn’t selling me this ranch because of
family problems. Opal’s nephew, Doc, told me Lovejoy’s place might be up for
sale so Fiona and I drove over there to have a look. We talked to Mr. Lovejoy.
He’s very forgetful and can’t walk very well. I don’t know how a real estate
agent picked up on the place so fast.”

It was Olympia’s turn to frown. “She said it had just come on the
market the day before.”

Jake shook his head. “I don’t know how the old man mustered up
the energy to put it on the market that quick unless he had started the process
and forgot to mention it.”

Olympia pursed her lips. “This bears sorting out.”

Jake leaned against the kitchen counter and thought about the
equipment being gone. It had to be the same ranch. But where did the equipment
go? He might take another drive over there.

“I’ll call the real estate agent,” Olympia said. “I’ll ask her if
it is the same place. Were you going to make an offer?”

“I was thinking about it. With things being so unsettled here, I
haven’t made a decision. There’s too much going on, and Fiona and I haven’t had
a chance to talk it over.”

“You and Fiona?
I see. It sounds like
this is getting serious.”

“I asked her to marry me when we were over at Lovejoy’s place, as
a matter of fact.”

Olympia’s eyes widened. “That is so romantic. Fiona Marlowe has a
marriage proposal? She said yes, of course.”

“No, she didn’t. She said she needs to think it over. She’s not
ready. She told me about the guy back in Virginia she was in love with.”

“What? Rob? She needs to get over him. That was doomed from the
start and went on way too long. He was using her.”

“She said it was mutual.”

Olympia sputtered and said, “Right. You don’t want to get me
started on that jerk. I need to talk to her. You are probably the best thing
that ever happened to Fiona. I’ve known her a long, long time. She needs to
settle down with a good man like you.”

“That’s what I told her,” Jake said with a laugh.

Olympia lowered her voice. “Let me tell you something. It is a
good sign that she went to bed with you. She’s a one man woman.”

Jake cleared his throat. “I guess that’s good to know.”

“I’m serious. She gets totally devoted to one man and can’t think
of anything else. That’s the reason she put you off so long. Mark my words. If
you and Fiona want Lovejoy’s ranch, I’ll find another one. There are plenty for
sale. I want to see Fiona happy.”

“I don’t know if a ranch is going to make Fiona happy.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

Jake was quiet then said, “I think Fiona Marlowe has to make up
her mind in her own good time. I hear what you are saying, but I think it is
important to give her the time she needs.”

His cell phone was ringing, and he pulled it out and looked at
the caller ID. “I got to take this call. Excuse me.” He walked out to the back
patio, answered the call, and listened. “I’ll come over and bring the part. Give
me fifteen minutes.”

He closed the connection and sighed. A ranch was a living thing.
It didn’t care about whether a man wanted to spend the day in bed with his
woman. It demanded the last ounce all the time every day.

“I got a ranch to run,” he said to Olympia when he walked through
the kitchen. “Fiona should be out soon. She’s in the shower.” And he kept on
going.

In the bedroom, Fiona emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a
towel.

He pulled her to him and kissed her. “Sorry,
darlin
’,
but I’ve got to go out to the second pivot. The baler has broken down.
Olympia’s in the kitchen ready to make an offer on Lovejoy’s ranch, Sammie took
Opal to town, and would you do me the favor of calling the hospital about
Glory?”

She smiled at him. “Yes, dear, I can do that.”

He touched her damp hair. It smelled good and fell around her
shoulders. “I like when you call me ‘dear’. It has a nice ring to it.”

She gave him a quizzical look. “Wait a minute. Did you say
Olympia was going to make an offer on Lovejoy’s ranch?”

He started pulling on shirt, socks, and boots. “Yes, ma’am,
that’s what I said.”

“But . . . .”

“Better ask her. I got to run. Call me if you need me. My phone’s
always on for you.”

He pulled her into one last kiss. “Too bad that rake had to break
down. But we’ll continue where we left off tonight.”

“Is that a promise?” she said.

“You bet.”

Sixteen

Fiona took her time dressing, enjoying the glow of a satisfied
woman. Jake was way beyond anything she had expected.
Way,
way beyond.
He had an enthusiasm for bodily expression that she had
never experienced before. She had welcomed his exploration of her body without
a backward glance and had responded in kind.

Lovingly, she made the bed. The anticipation of another night
like last night made it a joy to arrange the sheets and blankets for more
loving from Jake. She shook her head and laughed out loud. It had been so much
fun. If she had known, she would have jumped in sooner. But waiting made it all
the more intense and exciting.

She walked to the window that looked out toward the flat fields
green with new cut rows of alfalfa. The tall irrigation pivots were still. The
water shut off. In the far distance she could see a piece of machinery standing
in the field. Maybe that was the baler that Jake had to repair. She was
learning fast about the life of a ranch. She knew what a rake was now and a
swather and a baler. She liked the rhythm of a ranch. It was hard work, but it
had a steady solidness to it that she hadn’t had in her life. Not far from her
thoughts was Jake’s proposal of marriage. It entwined itself into her waking
day and into her dreams.

Taking one last look in the mirror, she reluctantly left Jake’s
room and walked toward the kitchen. She needed to call the hospital about
Glory, but first she needed coffee. Olympia was not in the kitchen but the
coffee pot was on the warmer, and she poured a mug. She wanted to know what was
going on with Olympia so she walked toward the guest room her friend was
occupying and looked in the open door.

There sat Olympia before her lap top computer, typing away.

“Are you working?” Fiona asked.

Olympia kept typing and didn’t look up. “I started a new book.
It’s been clamoring in my head these last few days to be set down in black and
white. I can’t stop now.”

Fiona walked over to stand beside her friend and watch the writer
in the grips of the writing muse.

“Can I ask just one thing?” Fiona said.

Olympia sighed, took off her rhinestone encrusted glasses, and
looked at her. “Fiona, you know I can’t talk when I’m writing. If it doesn’t involve
blood or fire, I don’t want to be bothered.”

“It doesn’t, but I have to ask one little question.”

Olympia squinted at Fiona.
“All right.
One
little question. What is it?”

“Are you putting an offer on Lovejoy’s ranch?”

Olympia smiled. “Only if you and Jake don’t get married and buy
it.”

Fiona laughed. “Jake told you.”

With a deadpan face Olympia said, “Fiona Marlowe you will receive
a full blown lecture from me on why you need to marry Jake when I’ve finished
writing for the day. You have been forewarned. Now go, go,
go
.
I have to get back to this scene.” She flicked her hands in a shooing motion
and turned back to her work. “And close the door on your way out.” She looked
up and smiled. “Please.”

Fiona did as directed. She could hear Olympia’s lecture now. She
had heard it before about how she should fall in love and settle down. Trouble
was Olympia saw the whole world as a romance novel. Real life wasn’t like that.

Lovejoy’s ranch was still in the running, but she wondered about the
ranch coming on the market so quickly. She went out on the front porch, sat
down to finish her coffee, and called the hospital to see about Glory. She
asked for the doctor, but he was with a patient so she left a message for him
to call her. She debated about going in to see Glory, but before she could
decide, she noticed a trail of dust in the distance on the road. A visitor was
coming. She recognized Tillie’s truck as it drew closer. Why would Tillie be
coming this morning when she knew that Opal went for treatments in the morning?
Fiona had the uneasy feeling that Tillie was coming to stir up more trouble.
She doubted Tillie wanted to see her. She probably wanted to see Jake.

Fiona went inside for more coffee and started a fresh pot. She
helped herself to one of the muffins on a plate by the stove. Queenie had come
this morning to clean, and there was something simmering in the crock pot that
smelled like chili. She wondered where Queenie was.
Maybe in
the laundry room because the dryer was running.
It was a good thing that
Fiona had locked Jake’s bedroom door last night so they hadn’t had the help
looking in on their naked selves.

She peeked out the kitchen window to see if she could see Tillie,
who hadn’t appeared at the front door. Fiona walked to the front room window to
look but only her truck was parked in front. She walked to the west facing
windows and saw Tillie’s truck going toward the road that led to the pivots.
She must have seen Jake’s truck in the field. The woman was going to see Jake.

Her cell phone rang, and she pulled it from her jeans pocket to
answer. It was the doctor. “Glory is better, but I’d like to keep him one more
day for observation. We’ll release him in the morning.”

Fiona was relieved that Glory was still alive. “Did the Sheriff
send anyone to guard him?” she asked the doctor.

“Not that I know. Why would he need to be guarded?”

“Whoever beat him up might be back, and we’re concerned for his
well being,” said Fiona.

“We’re pretty secure here, but anyone can come in during visiting
hours. I doubt someone would be so bold as to try something in our hospital, but
I’ll make a note that no one is to be allowed in the room except you and Jake.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there in the morning to pick him up.”

Fiona closed the connection and tried to see what was happening
out in the pasture. She was uneasy about Tillie and decided to get in her own truck
to see what was up. At first she couldn’t find her purse and keys then
remembered she had put her purse on the couch when they came in last night. She
went to fetch them and saw her vest and Jake’s neatly folded on the coffee
table. She felt the blush in her cheeks. What a night. She guessed everyone
knew by now.

She drove her truck out the lane that ran along the south side of
the two huge pivots to the west of the house. The day was warm and sunny. With
the windows down a refreshing breeze kept her cool. On a whim she looked toward
the knoll where the gray pile of ashes of her former homestead lay. Tillie’s
truck was parked at the bottom of the knoll. She hadn’t gone to the pivot to
see Jake. She was on some other mission. Why would she have parked there?

Fiona backtracked and steered the truck toward Tillie’s old,
battered one and pulled in back of it when the path became too narrow to go any
further. She got down and softly closed the door. What was Tillie doing? Fiona
scanned the knoll and the area around the knoll. She saw no one.

She glanced at Tillie’s truck. She could see faint footprints in
the dust by the door. They were headed up the hill. Fiona walked to the front
of the truck and started following. Now there were two sets of faint prints.
Someone was with her. Tillie had brought someone, thinking no one would be
around this morning. She must have figured Fiona would take Opal to town and
the others would be in the fields, working. What was she up to?

Fiona followed the prints as best she could since rocks covered
part of the path. She kept looking around, trying to see where Tillie and
friend might be. At the top of the knoll she had the commanding view that had
made the site so appealing. She paused under what was left of the burned shade
tree. She could see the rest of the ridge to the west. The same ridge that
someone thought would make a great place for a wind farm. Looking east was the
ranch house and outbuildings. To the north lay the pivots. She could see the
baler standing in the field, and Jake’s truck parked beside it. Cattle were
black dots on the horizon to the south. Where could Tillie have disappeared so
fast? The endless high desert landscape was deceptive. A person could easily
disappear behind tall brush and re-appear just as quickly a few feet away.

Fiona decided to follow the ridge since she hadn’t seen Tillie
come back and her truck was still there. It wasn’t going anywhere. Fiona had
her parked in. Something told Fiona this was all about the ridge. Her curiosity
got the better of her and blocked out all her common sense which should have
told her not to follow Tillie alone.

Fiona skirted the sage brush, rabbit brush and a tall stand of
greasewood. Stickers pulled at the legs of her jeans and the uneven ground made
difficult footing. She spied a deer trail that seemed to follow the top of the
ridge and took it. Bless those deer.

After walking a few minutes she stopped and surveyed her
surroundings again. She could see 360 degrees but some of the brush was tall
enough that it blocked a clear view. She had never walked this far from the
ranch. She shielded her eyes, looking toward the sun. This was strange. Tillie
had just disappeared.

Was there an underground opening somewhere that they had
disappeared into? Fiona still thought the area had some kind of an underground
mine. What if it were gold? But Paul had said that there was no commercial gold
in the valley. She checked her watch. It was close to lunch time, and the men
would be coming in for lunch. She opened her phone and called Jake’s number.

“Hello,
darlin
’,” he said. “How are you
doing?”

“Jake, dear,” she smiled when she said it, “I’m up on the ridge
where the bunk house used to be. I followed Tillie up here. Someone is with her,
and they have disappeared.”

“Run this by me again,” said Jake.

Fiona gave him the longer version about how Tillie had showed up.

“Don’t go any farther. I’ve got to finish up with this repair.”
He paused. “No, I changed my mind. Come back down and wait for me at your rig,
okay? I’ll be there as fast as I can. Then we’ll see what Tillie is up to.”

“Did you know she was coming?” asked Fiona.

“No, and Opal didn’t take me into her confidence about what is
going on with Tillie.”

“I think it has something to do with a wind farm on this ridge.”

“You may be right. I’ll get there soon as I can.”

Fiona wedged the cell phone back into her jeans pocket. She made
another 360 degree sweep, looking for Tillie. Jake had said to go back and wait
at the truck. She tapped her toe. She didn’t really want to do that. She wanted
to walk find them, catch them in the act, because if it involved Tillie, it
probably wasn’t legal.

The sun beat hot on her head, and she loosened another button on
her shirt. She shook her blouse to create a breeze and held her hair up off her
neck. Her boots were hurting her feet again. If she walked on, there’d be
blisters for sure. She needed to buy a pair of those half boots called Romeos
she’d seen ranchers wear. They were supposed to be the ultimate in comfort.
Maybe then she could hike these hills without getting blisters. She needed to
learn how to saddle a horse. Then maybe she could ride these hills for hours.
Listen to her. She was beginning to sound like a real buckaroo who was in love
with a real buckaroo. The thought brought a smile to her face. Maybe she’d walk
just a little farther on. She couldn’t stand the inaction of waiting. Jake
sounded like he might be a while. What could it hurt?

She dodged another large stand of greasewood and rabbit brush
that displayed bright green new growth. She walked from one side of the ridge
to another in a weaving pattern, trying to cover all ground. To the west the ridge
started dropping away to a deep canyon. She could see why this might be a good
place for those giant windmills. It was windy on this ridge.

How could Tillie have disappeared so quickly?

Fiona stopped at the edge of the drop off and peered down into the
canyon. Basalt rim rock dropped straight down to the valley floor below.
Tumbled rock and narrow ledges would make it impossible to climb into the
canyon. She continued along the edge where the rock surface gave decent
footing. Finally, she stopped hands on hips. She was stumped. There was no use
going on. She had probably missed Tillie, who by now might be back at her truck
wondering how she was going to get out.

Fiona turned around. Behind her not one hundred feet away stood Tillie
and a man in a hard hat, holding some kind of gear. They were watching her.
They had given her a bit of a start, but she recovered quickly. She waved and
took a step toward them.

Tillie was stone-faced. The man beside her, who was regular
height and on the heavy side, gave a slight nod of the head and what might pass
as a smile.

“It looks like we decided to take the same walk today,” said
Fiona, hoping to lighten the atmosphere that had started to build up energy
like a storm brewing.

“I’m not out for a walk,” said Tillie. “I’m showing this man the
ridge. He’s going to do an evaluation for a wind farm.”

“I see,” said Fiona. The subject was on the table. She didn’t
know how much she should press for information. There was an awkward silence.
So Fiona said, “What does this man say?”

Tillie spoke for the man, who didn’t seem in any hurry to join
the conversation. “This is the first time he’s been up here. It’s too early to
say. He’s just fact collecting today.” Tillie looked away then looked back
again at Fiona. “Why did you follow us up here?”

Fiona decided to play it straight. “I wondered what you were
doing up on my knoll.”

“It isn’t your knoll.”

“It is. Opal deeded the place to me.
 
It involves about five acres on the end of
this beautiful ridge. So I guess I have some say on the wind farm since the
right away is across my land.”

Tillie scowled. “Opal never told me that. You’re lying.”

Fiona narrowed her eyes. “I guess you aren’t privy to everything
that happens in Opal’s life or on this land. I am not lying, and I don’t like
being called a liar.”