Jackrabbit Junction Jitters (25 page)

Sitting back on her heels, Claire’s gut boiled. It appeared she
hadn’t been the only ringside ticket holder for Gramps and Ruby’s fight.

“Claire, what’s going on?”

“Sorry,” she whispered into the phone just in case anyone
else was in earshot. “Gramps and Ruby were just in here.”

“What happened?”

Claire dropped onto her butt and leaned her head back
against the bar. “Shit just hit the fan.”

Thursday, August 19th

“Lunch time,” Ruby said to Kate, who sat behind the counter,
working on a crossword puzzle while minding the store for the last hour while
Ruby paid bills.

Her young grandmother-to-be carried a plate with two grilled
cheese sandwiches on it. Kate was beginning to understand why Claire claimed
life at the R.V. park made her clothes shrink. The smell of grilled bread and
melting cheese had Kate drooling like a teething baby.

With Claire and Jess running errands in Yuccaville, and
Gramps driving the stink-mobile to Tucson to be de-skunked while Deborah followed
in Mabel, it was the first alone-time Kate and Ruby had had in days.

“I forgot to ask,” Ruby said, grabbing a bag of pretzels
from a shelf. She placed the plate and the pretzels on the counter in front of
Kate. “How was your date yesterday?”

“Which date?”

“You must be a popular girl,” Ruby’s grin took any malice
out of her comment. “I meant the date with Butch.”

“It was … interesting.”

So much so that she’d spent most of her evening with Porter
thinking about the blue-eyed bar owner.

“Interesting, huh?” Ruby walked over to the cooler and
opened the door. “What’ll ya have?”

“Diet, please.”

The cooler door closed with a thump. “I’d think with a
good-lookin’ guy like Butch, the date would be more than just ‘interesting.’”

“It’s not like that. We’re just friends.” At least that’s
what Kate kept telling herself every time her imagination started removing his
clothing.

“That’s too bad.” Ruby set the soda on the counter. “Butch
isn’t only easy on the eyes; he’s also a real wiz-bang when it comes to running
a business. He turned The Shaft from a stagnant watering hole into a desert
oasis.”

Maybe Ruby could answer some of the questions Kate was too
afraid to ask Butch. “How long have you known him?”

Ripping open the bag of pretzels, Ruby pursed her lips. “Let’s
see, it must be going on five years now. He’s owned The Shaft ever since I
moved to Jackrabbit Junction.”

“Do you know where he’s from?”

“Nope. Joe once mentioned something about Butch tumblin’
into town on a breeze and catchin’ on a fence, but not where he’d tumbled from.”

Kate took a handful of pretzels from the open bag Ruby held
out. “Do you know anyone around here named Valentine?”

“Can’t say that I do. But there’s a girl named Valerie who
works at the hair salon in Yuccaville where I took your mother.”

Kate shoved a couple of salty pretzels in her mouth,
crunching loudly in her head. “Has Butch ever worked for the Copper Snake
Mining Company?”

“I don’t think so. Morning ‘til night most days, his truck
sits in The Shaft’s parking lot. It wasn’t until Wheeler’s Diner went out of
business a few months ago that he hired himself a full-time cook.”

The bells over the front door jingled as Kate took a bite of
her sandwich.

“We’re back,” Jess sang as she be-bopped through the doorway
and across the wooden floor. She pulled a folded piece of paper from her back
pocket and handed it to Kate.

“Thanks.” The sparkle in Jess’s eyes gave Kate the sense that
the kid had come through with the private investigator work Kate had hired her
to do at the Yuccaville library. Jess better have, anyway—she’d charged ten
bucks for her services.

Claire came through the door just in time to see Jess pass
Kate the note. Her sister stared at the paper, eyes narrowing. With suspicion
plastered across her furrowed brow, she looked up at Kate and kicked the door
closed.

“What’s that?”

Kate stuffed the paper in her back pocket. “I asked Jess to
look up the phone numbers on the Internet for several insurance companies.” She
lied without skipping a beat.

“I thought you weren’t going to mess with that until after
the wedding.”

“I changed my mind.” Kate shoved the rest of her sandwich in
her mouth, sparing Claire a cheesy-toothed smile while opening her pop.

“You want some?” Ruby offered to share the other half of her
sandwich.

“No, thanks. We grabbed some lunch in town.” Claire leaned
against the counter. “How was your date last night, Kate?”

“Enlightening,” Kate lied again.

She’d spent more enthralling evenings watching infomercials
for albums full of sappy love songs from the seventies. Porter had spent the
evening talking about two things—writing and Porter. He’d make an ideal
Stepford husband.

“Did you ask him the questions I wrote down for you?”

Kate bristled. “No, I did not.”

“Damn it, Kate.” Claire’s tone was full of exasperation.

“Don’t you start in with me.” Kate chomped on a couple more
pretzels, barely tasting them. “I’m sick and tired of you pimping me out to
that man. If you want to ask him questions, you go out with him.”

Jess tossed a Milky Way bar on the counter. “You can pimp me
out. I’ll ask any question you want for twenty bucks.”

Ruby’s nostrils flared. “You’ll do no such thing.”

“I can’t go out on an actual date with him until I turn sixteen.”
Jess blatantly ignored her mother’s glare. “But you could invite him here for
supper. Just give me ten minutes with the guy and I’ll have all of the answers
you need.”

“Jessica Lynn, what did I just tell you?”

With a loud sigh, Jessica turned to her mother. “Did you or
did you not tell me last night that I have to work for my money just like
everyone else?”

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest, her lips pressed tight.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mother, I’m in the process of
making a deal with Claire.” Jess pulled a dollar bill out of her pocket and
placed it on the counter next to the candy bar.

Kate wasn’t sure if she should take the kid’s money or let
Jess keep it for bus fare out of town.

Ruby snatched up Jess’s candy bar and money. “That’s it, you’re
grounded. Go to your room.”

Whirling, Jess cried, “Gimme that back! That’s my
hard-earned babysitting money. You can’t take it from me.”

“You wanna bet?”

“That’s stealing!”

“No, that’s called charging you a dollar for my white shirt,
which you wore without my permission and then ruined by washing it with your
red shorts.”

Jess’s eyes widened, then her face crinkled into a sneer. “I
hate you!”

“Join the club.” Ruby stuffed the candy bar in her shirt
pocket. “There are two of you now.”

With a war cry Geronimo would have admired, Jess ran from
the room. She clomped up the steps and across the upper hall, sounding like a
herd of moose sporting wooden clogs.

“Sorry about that.” Ruby’s voice sounded strained.

Kate patted Ruby on the shoulder.

“When are you going to see Porter again?” Claire asked Kate.

It was none of her business. “We didn’t make any plans.”

“Come on, Kate. How am I going to find out anything about
him if you are too chicken-shit to ask?”

“Why don’t you take him out to dinner and ask him yourself.”

“Maybe I will. He still thinks Mac and I are splitsville,
right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Kate swallowed the lump of pretzel mush that
suddenly seemed extra dry and thick. She hadn’t expected Claire to take her up
on her advice.

“Fine, I’ll see if he’s available tonight.”

“You know, on second thought.” Kate avoided eye contact. “That’s
probably not a good idea.”

Claire tapped her fingers on the counter. “Why not?”

“Well, I might have let something slip last night that might
make him a little closed-mouth around you.”

“Damn it, Kate. What did you tell him?”

“Claire, I swear it was an accident.” Kate had been so
distracted by her thoughts of Butch and a little too loose-lipped from all of
the wine Porter kept pouring into her glass, that she’d spoken before realizing
what was tumbling over her tongue.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing much really. Just that—”

The phone rang.

“I’ll get it,” Ruby said, but Kate lunged for the receiver.

“Dancing Winnebagos R.V. Park, Kate speaking.” She paused,
listening, trying to ignore Claire’s glower. “Yeah, sure.” She held the phone
out to her sister. “It’s Mac.”

“I’ll take it in the rec room.” As she backed toward the
curtain, Claire pointed at Kate. “We’re not finished.”

Kate stuck out her tongue. “Catch me if you can.”

* * *

Claire cupped the receiver. “You’re calling early.”

“I’m on my way to a project site about fifty miles south of
Tucson.” Mac’s voice crackled through the phone. The canned sounds of traffic
and his pickup engine ran interference. “I probably won’t make it home before
dark, and I doubt I’ll feel like doing much more than showering and crashing,
so I thought I’d take a minute to fill you in on the latest news.”

There was something about his tone that made her stomach
clench. “What’s wrong?”

“Is Ruby within hearing distance?”

“Hold on.” Claire walked across the rec room with the
cordless phone and stepped out the back door, closing it quietly behind her. “Okay.
What’s going on?”

The smell of barbecued meat wafted under her nose. She
shielded her eyes from the sun. Who could cook in this heat?

“I heard back from the Cholla County Recorder’s office this
morning. There’s no proof in their files showing Joe ever owned the Lucky Monk
mine.”

“What do you mean by proof?”

“Claims or patents in his name.”

“How is a patent different from a claim?”

“A mining claim gives the right to mine on federal land. A
land patent gives outright ownership of mineral-laden land.”

“I thought Ruby owned the land the mines are on, not the
federal government.”

“So did I, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Shit.” Claire fanned her T-shirt. The lack of a breeze made
it hard to think.

On the southwestern horizon, cotton-like cumulus clouds
roiled and swelled, cooking up another earth-shaking round of afternoon
thunderstorms.

“Exactly,” Mac said.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I guess I need to start by going through Joe’s
old files. See if I can find anything proving he owned the Lucky Monk. The
problem is that Ruby has that stuff stashed away somewhere, and I’m going to
have to ask her where.”

“How are you going to do that without explaining why?”

“Lie, probably. I hate to, but with her wedding just days
away, she doesn’t need to worry about this stuff.”

“So you’ll dump the truth on her when she comes back from
her honeymoon?”

“Hey, I don’t like this any more than you do, but there’s
still time to get to the bottom of this without troubling her.”

“What if you can’t find anything in Joe’s files?”

“I don’t know.” Mac sounded tired. “Probably contact the
ADMMR and try to trace the history of the mine from its inception.”

“What’s the ADMMR?”

“Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources—the agency
that governs all mining activity on BLM land.”

“BLM as in the Bureau of Land Management?”

“Exactly. The ADMMR has extensive files on mining in
Arizona. It would be like finding a toothpick in a bin of tumbleweeds, but I’m
running out of options.” Mac’s voice grew fuzzy with static. “There are some
permit offices I can check with as well, but since Joe never actually performed
any mining operations on his property, I doubt I’ll have any luck on that
score.”

Claire held the phone tight against her ear. “What about the
other three mines?” she yelled above the static.

“Claims and patents … crackle … on file under Ruby’s name … fizz
… each of them … sizzle … county recorder’s office.”

“Mac, you’re breaking up.” A drop of sweat trickled down her
spine. “What if you can’t prove the mine belongs to Ruby?”

“We’re up … hiss … creek.”

Sudden quiet filled her ear.

“Mac?”

Silence. Claire held the phone to her ear for another few
seconds, then disconnected. She punched in Mac’s cell phone number and got his
voice mail.

“Damn it!” She slipped back inside to escape the heat.

Ruby stood in front of the walnut bar, her arms crossed. “What’s
goin’ on?”

Claire cursed under her breath. Ruby didn’t miss a trick.

Plastering a fake, sunny smile on her face, Claire shrugged.
“Nothing. I just wanted some fresh air.”

Ruby’s eyes narrowed. “It’s one hundred and six degrees in
the shade out there. Why were you talking to Mac outside?”

Panicking, Claire said the first thing that came to mind, “Phone
sex.” She felt her cheeks blaze at her own lie. “It’s been a while since we’ve
uhhh … been intimate, and we were both feeling kind of … frisky. I didn’t want
Jess to hear.”

Ruby held Claire’s gaze for several agonizing seconds, then
sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Thanks for considering Jess’s
ever-growin’ curiosity … I guess.”

She glanced down at the phone in Claire’s hand. Her lips
tilted down at the corners. “There are some disinfectant wipes under the
bathroom sink.”

Without another word, she headed toward her bedroom.

Crossing the rec room, Claire banged her head on the bar—repeatedly.
She needed to work on her lie-on-the-fly skills.

* * *

Sitting at the same Euchre table as her mother was the last
place on the planet that Claire wanted to be at the moment.

Dangling from a noose under the starlit sky with hungry
wolves nipping at her heels would have been preferable.