Speed Trap (12 page)

Fred said, “J. J. was yelling that Garrett Bowen was the
one who slipped the meth in his pocket. Seems like a big coincidence that he was at Turner's at the same time that your drug mules stopped there. How come you didn't bring him in for questioning?”

Glancing at him sharply, she noticed he was alone. “Where's Donna?”

“I sent her out for some lunch. She should be back soon. You didn't answer my question.”

“I didn't bring Garrett in because he tried to protect me when J. J. pulled a knife. Besides, he was with me at eleven thirty.”

Fred's eyebrows shot up. “Is that so? Still, that doesn't mean he didn't meet those men before they pulled out of Tucker's.”

She'd already considered the possibility. She just didn't want to accept it.

“I'll be in my office for the next hour or so. Put through any calls that come in about the arrests this morning. I might as well get some paperwork done while I wait to hear if the KHP comes up with anything else on those truckers.”

The next two hours of Mandy's day was spent filling out paperwork and running down leads with the KHP. According to the highway patrol, the Tulsa trucking company seemed to be legit, as did the rancher shipping the cattle on the other end. The KHP, like her office, simply didn't have much to go on. It would take a couple of days to process the evidence in the truck. Hopefully, that would offer some new leads.

By the end of a long and frustrating day, she was ready to go home and take a well-deserved soak in a steaming hot bath.

She did just that, but neither the honeysuckle-scented bubble bath nor the lavender-scented candles she liked so well eased the restlessness that plagued her.

Rather than pace the small floor of her living room, Mandy got dressed again and headed for the door. On the way out, she scooped up the clothes she'd purchased for Colin.

Had it really only been that morning? It felt like years had passed.

Within minutes, she was driving down the highway toward Garrett's ranch. She simply couldn't get the man out of her mind. He was such a contradiction. One minute he'd been sweet and kind, talking with her about baby equipment, God and Wiley's neurotic behavior. The next time she'd seen him, he'd been picking a fight with J. J. and Spike. What was up with that?

Had it been for her benefit or had it been designed to throw her off the track by making it
look
as if he wasn't involved with them?

She wished she knew.

To her surprise, Garrett's house was dark when she drove into the yard, but lights shone from the small square windows of the barn and spilled out of the open doorway in a broad rectangle.

Sitting off to the side of the barn was an older model black Ford pickup truck.

Black, like the one that had forced Judy Bowen off the road.

An ugly suspicion popped into Mandy's head. Who was the owner? What were they doing in Garrett's barn at this time of night?

Slipping out of her Bronco, she closed the door quietly. If they hadn't already been alerted to her presence, so much the better. Unsnapping the flap of her holster, she cautiously approached the truck to check the front end. Even in the poor light she could see it wasn't damaged.

She relaxed slightly until the murmur of voices from in
side the building reached her. One of them belonged to a woman.

“You're too soft, Garrett. Put the little thing out of his misery.”

“I will if I have to, but I'm not giving up yet.”

Mandy walked inside, her boots making almost no sound on the soft dirt floor. The interior of the barn smelled of animals and hay and old wood. She followed the sound of the voices to the very back of the building.

“Suit yourself,” the woman said. “It's not like you don't already have enough on your plate.”

“I'm managing.”

Mandy approached the gray-haired woman leaning on the door of a straw-filled stall. There was a stroller near her feet. Garrett sat in the middle of the stall with a tiny black calf in his lap, trying to get it to take an oversized bottle with a red rubber nipple.

Mandy quietly snapped the flap of her holster closed. No drug ring, no meth lab or murder plots being hatched. Just a weary-looking rancher, trying to save one small animal.

So much for her suspicious mind. Sometimes, it was a curse, as well as a blessing.

Pasting a smile on her face, she stepped close to the gray-haired woman. “What's going on here?”

The elderly lady spun around with a hand pressed to her chest. Mandy recognized her as Garrett's neighbor, Ina Purdy.

“Land sakes, girl. Don't go sneaking up on a body like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I'm sorry. I thought you heard me drive in.”

Mandy saw Wiley sitting beside the stroller Garrett had purchased that morning. He trotted over to her and she stooped to pet him. Stepping close to the stroller, she saw Colin was sound asleep and sucking his thumb.

“What are you doing here?” Garrett asked. He had that guarded look in his eyes again.

Don't admit you've been asking yourself that same question for the last ten minutes.

“I stopped by to drop off the clothes I bought for Colin at the yard sale. I meant to give them to you earlier, but I got…distracted. Hope you don't mind my dropping by. I guess I should have called.”

“I think you stopped in to see if I've been letting Colin puff on my crack pipe.”

She couldn't really blame him for his sarcasm.

“Why would the sheriff be interested in cracked pipes?” Ina scowled at both of them.

“Crack, crank, ice, speed, they're all names for meth,” Garrett explained.

Ina looked ever-more puzzled. “That stuff's illegal. Sheriff, if you think this young man is doing something criminal, you've got bad instincts, and I'm
sure
not gonna vote for you come election time. 'Course, you're better than that lazy Fred Lindholm. He always takes my brother's side. Neither one of them have any respect for women. If you need someone to arrest, go haul in my worthless brother.”

Mandy tried not to smile as she listened to Ina's tirade. “On what charge?”

Ina slapped her hand on the wooden stall door. “Being mean and ugly, that's what for.”

“My jail would be full before daybreak if I arrested every mean or ugly man in the county.”

“That's the plain truth, but Garrett here wouldn't be one of them. He's a soft-hearted fool, that's what he is, and he didn't kill that ex-wife of his.”

“The sheriff isn't interested in opinions, Ina. She needs proof,” he muttered and began trying to feed the calf again.

Mandy hadn't expected Garrett to greet her with open arms, but she had hoped for a little warmer welcome.

She turned her attention to Colin. Dropping to her knees beside the baby, Mandy reached out and stroked his cheek. She'd missed him so much.

“Hey, little guy. I come all this way to see you and you're just gonna sleep? What kind of greeting is that?”

Garrett said, “He's had a long day.”

“Me, too,” Mandy admitted with a weary sigh.

Garrett continued to coax the tiny calf to eat, but when he glanced at Mandy, his gaze softened. “At least you got a few bad guys off the street today. That should make you happy.”

“It does, actually, but they'll be out on bail in a few days, so I'm not gloating. J. J. is claiming the whole thing was a frame. I hope you are willing to testify as to what happened.”

“I will.”

“Thanks. A lot of people don't want to get involved when it comes to actually appearing in court.”

“Don't blame them,” Ina interjected. “There are more crooks who work in the courthouse than get arrested. And most of them were elected!”

Rising, Mandy opened the stall gate and stepped inside. Her boots sank deep into the fresh straw. “What seems to be the trouble with this little fellow?”

Ina didn't wait for Garrett to answer. “He was born prematurely. He wasn't meant to survive.”

“His mother rejected him.” The pain in Garrett's voice touched something deep inside Mandy. He knew exactly what that felt like. According to Fred, Garrett's mother had left him when he was a small boy.

Garrett tried again to get the calf to suckle on the bottle. It showed no interest, but bawled pitifully instead.

“Let me try.” Mandy took the bottle from Garrett. Opening
the lid, she dipped her fingers in the milk, then offered her hand to the calf.

Ina shook her head and gave them both a pitiful look. “Sheriff, I know you think I'm being cruel, but it's best to let nature take its course. He's too weak. There isn't any point in trying to save him.”

Mandy met Garrett's eyes. “Maybe the point is to try, even if we don't succeed.”

Ina sighed loudly and shook her head. “Fools rush in. I can tell when my opinion isn't wanted. I'm gonna take Colin up to the house. When you two figure out it's a lost cause, I'll be watching the late show.”

As Ina wheeled Colin out of the barn, Mandy dipped her fingers into the milk again and pushed them inside the calf's mouth. It took a feeble suck. “That's it. Come on. You can do it.”

“Ina's probably right. I think he's blind, too.” Garrett waved his fingers in front of the calf's eyes. It didn't flinch.

Moving his hand back to the animal's side, he softly rubbed across the calf's shiny black coat in gentle strokes. The movement mesmerized Mandy.

He had such strong-looking hands. His fingers were long and blunt with short, clean nails in spite of his outdoor life. She liked that about him.

Sitting next to him in the soft hay, listening to the sounds of the other cattle in the barn was comfortable in a way she'd never known with another man. She liked his gentleness, his determination to raise his son, even the way he kept a pretty much useless dog with a broken tail.

How could a man like that be involved in anything illegal? He couldn't be. She simply couldn't be that wrong about him.

She dipped her fingers into the milk and repeated the
process of getting them into the calf's mouth. “If he's blind, he'll learn to cope. No one is perfect. We all have to learn to deal with our flaws.”

When he didn't say anything, Mandy looked up. She didn't understand the yearning she saw in his eyes. “What kind of flaws do you have?” he asked at last.

“Too many to enumerate.”

“I don't believe that. Name one.”

Her pulse stirred at the intensity of his gaze sending flutters all through her body.

“I wear size ten shoes.” Making a joke seemed easier than revealing too much about herself.

“That's not exactly a flaw.” The light in his eyes changed. He withdrew and the loss was as sharp as a thorn under her skin.

“I'll never be as good a cop as my father,” she admitted in a rush.

Garrett tipped his head slightly to study her. “Why is that important?”

“Because I loved him. I wanted him to be proud of me. He was killed in a drug raid. The men who worked with him said he was incredibly brave. I want to be like him, but I'm not.”

“I think you are. My father is the last man on earth I want to be like.”

“Why?” She really wanted to know.

“Ina would have called him mean and ugly. He drank too much.”

“I'm sorry.”

“No big deal.” He shrugged it off, but Mandy wasn't fooled. It was a big deal.

The calf began to suckle more eagerly on Mandy's hand. “I think he's getting the hang of it.”

“Try the nipple again,” Garrett suggested.

Mandy reassembled the feeder and tried once more to get the calf to suck by stroking his throat once she had the bottle in his mouth. He gave one firm pull.

“That's a good boy,” she crooned.

He responded with a second and a third suck quickly followed by more.

Mandy grinned at Garrett. “He's doing it.”

“I see that. You have the touch.”

Delighted by his praise, she stroked the calf's head. “What are we going to call him?”

“He's not out of the woods yet. Maybe we should wait to name him.”

She liked that he said “we.” “I think we should call him Joey.”

“Guess it's as good a name as any.”

“I'm ashamed to admit, I live in the middle of cattle country, but I don't actually know much about them. Why isn't he out of the woods?”

“He needs to be able to stand or his lungs will fill with fluid and he'll die.”

“Joey is
not
going to die.”

“Because you say so?”