Tres Leches Cupcakes (13 page)

Sadie plugged her now-dead cell phone into the charger in her apartment and then headed back to the kitchen to start dinner. Within twenty minutes, she had everything she needed combined in a pan on the stove. She knew posole was one of Rex’s favorite meals; it was even his mother’s recipe and, although written as a slow-cooker recipe, it was easy to convert to a stove-top version. The flavors might not blend quite as well, but it wouldn’t be too different, so long as she used canned chicken, which she did. She was pouring corn bread batter into a baking dish when she heard the door from the garage open.

“Hi, Rex,” she said in an upbeat tone she hoped covered the discomfort that still lingered after what happened last night. She wanted to wait to explain until she could talk to him and Caro at the same time. As always, things felt a little strange with just Rex and Sadie together. “Dinner will be ready by the time Caro comes home.” She glanced at the clock, it wasn’t quite six. There was just enough time for her to bake the corn bread, finish the dishes, and set the table before Caro got there.

Rex busied himself with emptying out his lunch cooler. When he finished, Sadie expected him to head to the living room and turn on the TV, but he didn’t. When she looked up, he was watching her. Rex was tall and broad shouldered, with a square face and coarse dark hair cut into a crew cut left over from his years in the Army. Sadie tried not to be intimidated by him, but his usual posture was imposing, and right now it was even more so.

“Is everything okay?” Sadie asked.

“You made things difficult around here last night.”

“I know,” Sadie said, wishing she’d apologized before he brought it up. “And I’m really sorry about everything that happened. The police wouldn’t let me call anyone or I’d have called you guys first thing.” Well, first thing after she talked to Pete.

He continued as soon as she stopped speaking, giving the impression that he had not listened to any of her explanation. “Caro was about out of her head with worry until Pete called us, which wasn’t until after midnight. You didn’t even tell her where you were going.”

Sadie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of how to respond to his hostility other than with humility and truth. “I told her I was going to a bar with Margo,” she said calmly. “I had no idea that—”

Rex smacked the counter, and Sadie jumped back a step.

“She didn’t know where you were or where to look,” he nearly yelled, his face darkening as he released the rage she suspected he’d been holding back since entering the house. “But she was about ready to check every bar in town lookin’ for you. It caused a real ugly argument between the two of us.”

“I’m very sorry,” Sadie said again, careful this time. Rex had never been as warm as his wife, but Sadie had also never seen him angry. She felt he was overreacting, but didn’t want to be dismissive of her fault in this situation. “You have both been nothing but accommodating of me, and the last thing I wanted to do was cause this kind of . . . concern.” Was that the right word? Was he
concerned
? It felt different than that, bigger. Judging from the pinch around his eyes and the hard line of his jaw, her apology wasn’t making much headway. “It won’t happen again, Rex. I promise.”

He stared at her for a couple of seconds, but his expression did not soften. “It might be a good time for you to come up with somewhere else to stay.”

Sadie’s heart started pounding. “You want me to leave?” she asked quietly. Really? Just like that?

“I think it’s for the best,” he said, sounding a little calmer now that he’d given her the ultimatum. “I’ve been a good sport about you stayin’ all this time, but I’ve hit my limit. It isn’t good for my wife to be so involved in this kinda thing. It’s causin’ trouble between us.”

Dueling perspectives wrestled in Sadie’s mind. Up until last night, she’d worked hard to be a very good guest. She cooked dinner as often as she could, paid rent for the apartment, and did her share, if not more, of the housework; all in the name of pulling her own weight and easing the burden. It didn’t seem fair that he would discount all of that. But then again she didn’t know how bad the argument had been between them last night or how worried Caro had been. In the end, dueling perspectives aside, she wasn’t going to stay where she wasn’t wanted.

“I’m certainly not about to overstay my welcome,” Sadie said tightly. She was tempted to try to explain again what had happened and insist he not treat her like a child. Yet, no matter how hard she tried to justify going on the defensive, she couldn’t skirt around the fact that she’d caused a great deal of trouble for two good people who had only ever wanted to help her.

“I’m glad to hear we’re on the same page, then,” he said. “It’d be better for Caro and me if she thought it was your idea to go sooner rather than later.”

Sadie pinched her lips together and inhaled through her nose. She was not okay with lying to Caro, but did she want to cause more trouble between the people who’d opened their home to her? She was suddenly itching to call Pete and get his opinion. However, Rex was waiting for her to agree; what should she say?

“I can get a hotel,” Sadie said, neatly sidestepping the issue without committing one way or another. She turned away from him to stir the posole. She lowered the heat, already packing in her mind.

“Caro wouldn’t understand if you left too soon. You can stay through the weekend, but I ’spect you to have something set up before Monday. ’Til then, we all go on like you and I didn’t have this talk.”

Sadie took another breath in order to keep from saying how uncomfortable she was with him wanting Caro to believe a lie, but she nodded and returned to the corn bread without another word.

Once Rex left the room, Sadie used the kitchen phone to call Pete, since her phone was charging in the other room, but ended up leaving a message. Then she had nothing to do but try to sort out her thoughts. She did not agree with how Rex was going about things, but even if he was being a jerk about this, he’d let her come into his home and she’d made things hard for him. She hated feeling responsible for that, yet it also reaffirmed her resolve to return to Garrison. She was running out of places to go faster than she thought.

Crock-Pot Posole

2 (14.5-ounce) cans golden hominy, drained

1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chili peppers, not drained

1 medium onion, chopped (about ½ cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts and/or thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 (14.5 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up and not drained

2 (14.5 ounce) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

½ teaspoon salt (or more to taste)

2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro

Sour cream (optional)

Place hominy, green chili peppers, onion, garlic, chicken, tomatoes, chicken broth, and spices in a 3½-, 4-, or 5-quart crockery cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for 5 to 6 hours, or on high setting for 2½ to 3 hours. Stir in cilantro. Garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Note: You can use canned corn in place of hominy. Canned chicken works great, too!

Chapter 13

Rex kept to himself until the front door opened and Caro called out “Hello.”

Sadie took a breath. She’d hoped Pete would return her call before Caro got home, but he hadn’t. She’d have to handle this on her own.

“Hi,” Sadie called from the kitchen, glad that her voice didn’t sound as tight as her stomach felt. She’d considered eating her dinner in her room so as to steer clear of Rex, but knew that it would worry Caro. Sadie heard Rex enter the kitchen to greet his wife, and she turned around in time to see Caro walk right past her husband and come directly to Sadie. Her eyes were wide as she looked Sadie over and put her hands on Sadie’s upper arms.

“How are you? Okay? Did you sleep? Oh my gosh, what happened to your neck?”

Sadie caught Rex’s expression over Caro’s shoulder as he watched them for a few seconds before turning back toward the living room. Sadie felt a wave of sympathy for his position. He was trying to protect his wife, and Sadie had become a threat.

“I’m okay,” Sadie said, deciding to downplay everything. She didn’t want to trigger too much more of Caro’s curiosity. It was a shame because Caro would be the perfect person to appreciate Sadie’s Coke-bottle-to-the-nose maneuver and her encounter with bald Lily. But Sadie needed to pull away, which made her sad. “We just went to the bar to talk to a guy and things got out of hand. My arrest was a mix-up. I’ll have a court date where I’ll get to explain the mistake.” She wished she was as calm about it as she’d made it sound.

“But you went to jail,” Caro said in an almost reverent tone, her eyes still wide and brimming with curiosity. “What was it like? Was it awful?”

“It
smelled
awful,” Sadie said, smiling in an attempt to lighten the mood. “But it didn’t turn out too bad. There was only one other woman in the cell with me, and she was nice enough. I was sure excited to see Pete, though. I’m sorry I had you so worried. They wouldn’t let me make any calls.”

“Oh, I wasn’t that worried,” Caro said, letting go of Sadie’s arms. “I just wish I could have gone with you last night.” She smiled big and wide, reminding Sadie of her own naïve beginnings in the world of investigation. Everything was so simple and obvious then—follow the threads to see where they’d take you. Now, she knew too much about where those threads could lead. She was still curious—all her questions still swirled in her mind—but these days she went in with a bit more caution and realistic expectations than what she saw in Caro’s eyes right now.

“Well, dinner’s ready,” Sadie said, turning to get some bowls out of the cupboard. “If you want to get Rex.”

Dinner was awkward, but Caro didn’t seem to notice the tension between Sadie and Rex. She kept asking Sadie about what had happened the night before, but after enough of Sadie’s flat answers which were meant not to encourage her, Caro went on to talk about the three-year-old twin girls who’d come into the dental office for their first appointment. They’d reminded her of her daughters, so she’d helped keep them distracted while the dentist “counted their teeth” and “painted” them with fluoride.

After dinner was over, Rex returned to the living room where he turned on a basketball game, and Sadie and Caro cleaned up the meal. Sadie tried to steer the topics of conversation away from her arrest, but she didn’t know how to skirt the topic entirely without being downright rude, which she was loathe to do to her friend.

Caro suggested kicking Rex off the TV so they could watch a Netflix movie. “He can watch it in the bedroom,” she said. No way was Sadie going to do that. She used the excuse of a headache—not entirely a lie—to escape to her apartment.

Once there, she lit a fire in the fireplace grotto in the corner of the room, then spied her laptop computer set up on the desk. Having her best investigative tool right there waiting for her had her thinking over some of her remaining questions. First and foremost, what was Shel’s tie to this Gold River Ranch or Cold River Ranch? From the background check she’d done on him, Shel was new to the area and had been working for D&E, not a ranch. Information that didn’t fit was unsettling, and yet the answer could be simple to uncover. She started with a basic Google search, which confirmed that
Cold
River Ranch was an organic cattle ranch located just outside of Santa Fe.

The ranch’s website had a complete history of the Standage family, immigrants who’d started the ranch back in 1914. The ranch had survived the Great Depression due to the family’s wise financial planning and because the ranch had access to water supplied by an underground spring that ran along the south end of the property. They were currently one of the only cattle ranches supported almost entirely by green energy, as solar panels and two windmills on the west end now provided all the power necessary.

Impressive, but she couldn’t see how it was connected to Shel.

She went back to the initial report she’d worked up on Shel, but could still find nothing on the surface to connect him to the ranch, though he had attended the University of New Mexico several years earlier.

She went back to the Internet and searched for any community commentary about the ranch. She found several instances of donations and support of various nonprofit organizations; it seemed the ranch was very generous. Finally, she found an article about Ethan Standage, heir to the Cold River Ranch but also a champion of current laws maintaining proper preservation of historical emblems.

Sadie felt a red flag go up in her mind. Shel was working on an archeological dig site, and Ethan espoused preservation of artifacts. Was
that
the connection? It was frail at best. A knock at the door interrupted her from learning more about Ethan Standage, and she minimized the browser window quickly.