Dang Near Dead (An Aggie Mundeen Mystery Book 2) (11 page)

Twenty-Four

At the first hint of dawn, I peeked through the door and brought in the hotel “Do Not Disturb” sign. I toted the chair back to the table and sneaked back to my bunk. Not long after daylight, everyone started moving around, but nobody talked. Even our suitemates were silent. We were all worried about Vicki and wondering whether Bertha and George would have another shouting match at breakfast about whether everyone should stay at the ranch. Our vacation looked doomed.

I stitched up the hole in the back of my dress and put it back on. I was getting pretty sick of the billowy thing.

We were all sitting outside at the table under the oak when Sam and the Tensels walked up. Sam’s expression was resolute. I hoped he hadn’t changed his mind about investigating incognito. He might have decided to let Bandera County authorities determine why and how Vicki fell. If the deputy sheriff assumed Vicki had suffered an accident, a conclusion he might easily reach, we might never learn the truth.

We plodded to the dining hall like mourners headed for a gravesite. I don’t remember if birds were singing. Sam wouldn’t even look at me.

In the dining hall, everyone stood around, quiet with anticipation. As soon as everybody’d gone through the breakfast line and found a table, Bertha stood and cleared her throat.

“I know we’re all concerned about Vicki.” A hush fell. “She’s at San Antonio University Hospital, still unconscious. She can’t have visitors.” Despondent sighs rippled through the room. “But doctors expect her to recover.” We sat straighter. People inhaled.

“Her parents are flying to San Antonio. Let’s pray for the best.” She smiled and settled herself on her bench.

I glanced at Sam. His face was inscrutable.

Utensils clicked, interspersed with the murmur of subdued chatter. Nobody talked to me, so I decided I might as well focus on food. When we finished eating, I asked Meredith for the pad and pencil she always carried and walked over to Bertha.

“I’d like to send a card to Vicki and her parents at the hospital. Can you tell me their names?”

“Steve and Marcia Landsdale.”

As I returned to the table, Sam pushed back his chair. “I feel like taking a walk.”

Since he’d finally spoken, I decided I’d better respond.

“Me, too.” Uninvited, I jumped up and followed him. When he pushed open the lodge door, I barely swished through before it slammed shut.

Sam strode briskly down the main road toward the ranch entrance. It was all I could do to keep up.

He must be furious with me for having teased him. He’d suffered the pain of losing his family. Now he had to deal with a meddling, obstreperous twit—me—complicating the rest of his life. He was never going to speak to me again. He was walking out of my life.

He whirled and glared at me.

“I don’t buy it,” he said.

I froze and sucked in a breath. “Buy what?”

“What Bertha said about Vicki.”

“Why not?” I tried to figure out what he was talking about, gauge his expression, and keep from crying while my heart tried to explode.

“She was just thrown from the horse last night. They’re still doing tests this morning. How could Bertha know the doctors expect her to recover?”

My mouth started moving. “She’s almost like a relative. Maybe Bertha contacted her doctors early this morning.”

“It’s too soon. Vicki was unconscious. Doctors wouldn’t know the extent of her injuries yet.”

“I see what you mean.”

He started walking. We reached the front gate, he opened it, and we walked through. We’d gone a few yards farther down the road when he whirled to face me again. My heart stopped.

“Hand it over,” he said.

“Hand what over?”

“Whatever you found that you didn’t want to discuss when you started kissing me last night.”

My stomach churned like an eggbeater. “How do you know I found anything?”

“You were snooping around at the place where Vicki fell. Hand it over.”

He sounded firm but not hateful. My heartbeat slowed. I wanted to keep the clues to myself until I was sure I’d found something significant. But I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that feat. I stalled.

“If I found anything, which I didn’t, I certainly wouldn’t keep it with me.”

“Yes, you would,” he said. “You’d be afraid to leave evidence in your room.”

I hated the way he read my mind. I reached in my pockets, retrieved the contraband and handed it over: wire, rope, fur, rock, and flecks of clown paint from underneath my nails, each in a plastic bag.

“Good. You kept the items separate.” I exhaled.

“You have her parents’ names?” I handed him the paper.

“I’ll call my SAPD buddy.” He put each sample carefully in his pockets, then patted the pistol holstered on his hip under the loose shirt. “Let’s walk farther away from the ranch.”

He took off with long strides, pulled his cell phone from another pocket and dialed. “Hey, pal. Can you talk?”

I practically jogged to keep up.

The guy on the other end of the wire apparently knew Sam’s voice. I heard him respond. “Yeah. What’s going on?”

Sam lowered his voice. “I’m relaxing on vacation in the Hill Country and didn’t reveal I’m a cop. I think a crime might have been committed here last night. I want to interview the parents of an injured girl. They’re flying from Wisconsin to San Antonio today: Steve and Marcia Landsdale. Can you get me their airline and flight number? Time of arrival?”

“No problem. I’ll leave the info on your cell. You need backup?”

“No. I’m good. I need to keep this confidential. But I may come to town this afternoon to use my computer.”

“I’ll be out of the station. I’ll tell the dispatcher that you’re still on vacation but might come in.”

He clicked off and turned to me. “That was good work, you getting the names of Vicki’s parents. Makes it easy to find them and interview them.”

I beamed. In addition to appreciating my efforts, he’d forgotten to be angry.

I was on a roll.

“What about the evidence samples? Can your friend send them to forensics?” I asked.

“No, he’d have to file a CIL form to ask the crime lab to conduct tests and put a case number on the samples. We don’t want to go that route. We don’t even know for sure we’re looking at a crime here.”

If we didn’t have a crime, why did my feet itch more than my poison ivy patch?

“My friend at the crime lab might be able to help,” he said. He dialed another number, described the evidence in low tones and clicked off.

“He said to bring in what we found. He’ll take a look.”

“You have to take me with you to San Antonio,” I said.

“Why should I do that?”

“They’re my samples. I found them. Plus, I talked to Vicki a lot. We hit it off. Her parents are more apt to trust me.”

“Another cross for those poor people to bear.”

I ignored his remark. “If Meredith and I hadn’t invited you here, you wouldn’t even know about this case. I talked you into coming, remember?”

“How could I forget?” He whipped around and headed back toward the ranch, marching several feet ahead of me with a determined stride. “You have an intriguing sense of logic, Agatha.”

He hadn’t called me Agatha since I crashed into him on the horse trail. Before that, he’d called me Agatha when I confronted murder suspects at the health club after he warned me not to get involved. His calling me Agatha was not a good sign.

We’d walked all the way back to the ranch entrance, had gone through the gate and could see the outline of the lodge roof in the distance before he spoke. When he turned to face me, his jaw was set.

I must have blown it. He looked so stern, I had to clench my fists to keep from sticking fingers in my ears. I didn’t want to hear what he was about to say. “Let Meredith know what’s happening,” he said. “Tell her we’ll be back late this afternoon.”

He was going to take me with him! Before he could change his mind, I ran back to our cabin and motioned Meredith to step outside so the girls wouldn’t overhear.

“Vicki’s fall might not have been accidental,” I said. “I’m going with Sam to San Antonio to meet her parents—see if we can learn anything. I’ll take my laptop if you don’t need it.”

“Sure.”

“If anybody misses us, tell them we went to Bandera for toiletries and will be back late today.”

“I’m going horseback riding this morning. Maybe I can get information out of the wranglers— learn whether Vicki’s horse had any quirks besides being afraid of loud noises.”

It was great having a snooping partner. Meredith’s precision with details was stupendous.

“Be careful, okay? Who else is going on the ride?”

“Selma’s going. She didn’t want to get back in the river.”

As soon as the girls left for their morning swim with River Rat, I packed my laptop, treated my poison ivy and put on my baggiest jeans and shirt. I stuffed my pockets with necessities and strolled to Sam’s car. I paused nonchalantly to look around, then jumped in and slumped down in case anybody walked by. I didn’t want to arouse suspicions about why we would leave and return the same day, so close to the end of our vacation.

Where was Sam?

Twenty-Five

Just when I was sure he’d changed his mind, Sam swung into the seat. He’d barely eased the car through the entrance gate when he started grousing. “I still can’t believe you went back to where Vicki fell, alone, in the dark.”

Since his face was getting red, I kept quiet. “Those pieces of evidence you found: did it occur to you if somebody spooked Vicki’s horse, whoever it was might go back and look for exactly what you found?”

I kept my face impassive with a mere hint of harmony to acknowledge he might be on to something.

“If somebody tried to kill Vicki and you showed up, they wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you, too.” Those words scared me. I had to swallow before I could speak.

“Actually, George and Sunny did show up.” I described how I hid while they looked over the area and left.

“If one of them was the killer…and he showed up alone…and he found you…” Sam pulled on to the shoulder and stopped the car. He reached across the seat and grabbed my shoulders.

“Look, Aggie, we both meant those kisses last night—even if you were trying to distract me.” He looked straight at me. “I know that’s what you were doing.”

I felt my face flush and looked down.

“I care about you, Aggie. You know that. I understand you have this compulsion to learn about everything, but you can’t leap into dangerous situations without thinking. You’ll get hurt.”

The “without thinking” part irritated me. He drew me into his arms. I smiled and closed my eyes.

He held me tighter. “I didn’t think I could care about anyone else after losing Katy and Lee. Then you came along.” He seemed torn about that. He loosened his embrace.

“You loved them, too,” he said. Then his voice cracked. Grief had returned. He released me and sank back against the seat.

I felt my armor cracking and swallowed to regain control. “I did love them.”

Being around Sam again, I realized I’d loved him from way back when he and Katy were married. But moving to Texas after Sam did might have been a bad idea. Losing Katy and Lee had broken both our hearts. I wasn’t sure two broken hearts could mend well enough to love again.

He looked so miserable, I couldn’t help myself. I slid closer to him, reached over and patted his chest. He looked surprised and then suspicious. He put his arm around me, but our moment had passed.

I twisted around to look into his eyes. “I’ll be careful, Sam. I was stupid to go out there alone. It’s just that I get so eager. I feel this urgency to know what happened, especially to someone I care about.”

“I know.” He nodded, exhaled and seemed relieved.

I relaxed into the curve of his arm. I’d loved him for so long. At eighteen, I’d thought I loved Lester. What did I know about love back then?

The mere thought of falling in love again must terrify Sam. He’d worshipped Katy and Lee and lost them. He might fear that daring to love again would diminish their memory.

What if something happened to yet another person he loved? How could he risk the pain of enduring more loss?

That’s when it hit me.

The reason he got so irritated when I thrust myself into investigations wasn’t merely because he thought I should keep quiet and stay out of his way. It was because he’d loved deeply before and couldn’t prevent Katy and Lee’s deaths. He was terrified it might happen again.

There was still the secret from our lives back in Chicago that he must never know. If he found out, our chances of ever being together would be destroyed.

I knew I’d eventually reveal to him what I’d done. Somehow, I’d find the courage to risk rejection. Someday, I’d find and deliver words that would either bind us together or rip us irrevocably apart.

We couldn’t go on indefinitely as we were. We’d crossed a threshold. I didn’t possess enough backbone to risk disclosure, but I prayed courage would come. I had to believe that, at some point, our relationship would be strong enough for me to think he could love me in spite of the past.

Meanwhile, for us to have any kind of relationship, I had to be helpful without making him fear for my safety. If he was able to love again, I’d be there. I was making progress.

“Now that we’re working together,” I said, “if I find anything else, I’ll bring it to you. I promise.” I did not intend to lie. Why did my feet itch?

He tightened his arm around my shoulder, like a pal. “I wish we weren’t always working to solve a crime,” he said. “We could enjoy some normal time together…if you didn’t have that aversion to normalcy.” He looked down at me and grinned.

I smiled back. “You’d be bored.”

“Maybe,” he said.

He cranked the engine and veered the Caprice back onto the highway.