floor. Moments later, spent and relaxed, they used what water remained in the copper tub to scrub each other clean with green soap and a washcloth.
“My,” Miranda said after toweling dry, looking flushed from the hot water and her passion. “That sort of thing really takes it out of a woman.”
“And a man,” Longarm said, padding across the wet floor and climbing into their bed. “Why don’t we take a nap before we join Jenny McAllister and whoever else will be dining downstairs?”
“Good idea! I’d like that just fine,” Miranda said, yawning. “That trip and all the trouble that we had sort of took its toll on me.”
“Me too,” Longarm said, drawing her in close to his body and then pulling the covers over them both.
“I thought you’d want to start your investigation almost the moment we arrived,” Miranda whispered as he started to drift into a heavy sleep.
“Naw, I’ll go out this evening and hang around the saloons and see what I can find out.”
“Do you think that Mountain Packers and those two archaeologists are behind the thefts?”
“I don’t know,” Longarm admitted. “The last thing I want to do is to make any snap judgments. They probably are legitimate scientists, but on the other hand, that sure would be a great cover for robbing Indian graves.”
“What about taking a guide with us up to Mesa Verde?”
“What about it?” Longarm asked, finding it difficult to stay awake.
“Well, we don’t want to put anyone else’s life in danger, so I just thought that-“
“We need a guide if we’re to look legitimate,” Longarm said. “Can we please talk about this later?”
“Just like a man,” she said. “Love a woman, then either go away or go to sleep.”
“You talk way too damn much some of the time,” he said with a lazy smile.
They slept for four hours. It was sundown when they climbed out of bed and got dressed. “It’s nearly seven o’clock,” Longarm said. “Did Jenny McAllister say what time she put food on her dining room table?”
“No,” Miranda answered, “but I expect that it has already come and gone.”
“I’m not that crazy about corned beef and cabbage anyway,” he admitted. “I saw several cafes in town, and this is cattle country. I can’t imagine that we can’t order a pretty good steak with potatoes and all the rest.”
“I agree.” Miranda finished dressing and studied herself in the mirror. “You sure know how to mess up a woman’s hair.”
“You just happen to be the kind of woman that any healthy man would want to mess up a little,” he replied. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Well!” Jenny McAllister called across the lobby when they came downstairs. “It’s a good thing that you finally got out of bed. My other guests have already eaten and departed, but I saved you plenty of corned beef and cabbage. Come on into the dining room and I’ll fix you both up.”
Longarm started to tell the woman that she needn’t go to all the trouble, but Miranda shook her head, letting him know that their fate was sealed and that they should just be gracious and forget about a steak dinner.
“Sit down! Sit down!” Jenny McAllister ordered, “and we will have hot food on your plates in a jiffy!”
The same two grinning Chinamen who had lugged pails of hot bath-water up to their room served them supper, and Longarm had to admit that this was as good as corned beef and cabbage ever got. He was famished, and even ordered seconds. Miranda had no trouble doing the same.
“Well, then,” Jenny said, “I can see that lovemaking still generates a fantastic appetite!”
Miranda blushed, but Longarm laughed out loud, then asked, “Are you always so plainspoken, Miss McAllister?”
“Please call me Jenny. And yes, I am. Always have been and always will be. I say whatever is on my mind, and that keeps my mind from becoming secretive or vulgar.”
“Oh, really?” Miranda asked.
“That’s right,” the older woman replied. “I just hate secretive people. I have a theory that if everyone was a whole lot more honest with themselves and with all others, this would be a far, far better world.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Miranda said. “Have you been up to Mesa Verde many times?”
“Oh, heavens, yes! My late husband Willard loved the ruins, and we’d go up for a month every summer. It’s cooler up there than it is down here in Cortez, and we would have a wonderful time camping and exploring.”
“We are interested in Anasazi artifacts,” Longarm said. “But I understand that they are now under federal protection.”
“That’s right,” Jenny told them. “But that legislation was too little and too late. The Wetherills already freighted out piles of valuable artifacts. There was even a damned foreigner who had a bunch of things sent to Europe! He was a baron or something and a real dandy. When everyone learned that he was taking Indian bones, pots, and the like to Sweden, they had a fit and raised such an uproar that the baron had to practically flee for his life.”
“What do you know about the two archaeologists that are working up on the mesa-top right now?”
“Not much,” Jenny said, frowning with clear disapproval. “They are really stuck-up. I’ve tried to engage them in conversation several times, but they brushed me off as if I were an insect. I don’t like either one of them! And I don’t like the fact that they are up there doing God only knows what. Why, they could be destroying artifacts left and right!”
“Or selling them for profit,” Longarm said with an innocent shrug of his shoulders.
Their hotel keeper blinked with surprise, then asked, “Why did you say that?”
