“I remember Cordell and Cyrus fighting over the binoculars.” Showing off for the older girl. “I honestly can’t remember which one of them ended up with the binoculars.”
Jack wondered what his grandmother would say if he told her about the girls? He wasn’t sure what held him back. Certainly not loyalty to his cousins or their friends. He wasn’t even sure why he’d told his grandmother what he had. Just for a moment there, he’d felt sorry for her, he supposed.
She nodded slowly, as if sensing he was holding back something. “I would think that if anyone saw their uncle being murdered, that boy would have had a reaction. He might not have told me, but I would think he’d have told his cohorts.”
“You have to remember, I was just the nanny’s kid,” Jack said, digging up some of that old pain to remind himself why he was here. “My so-called cousins weren’t all that fond of me. So if they had secrets, they kept them to themselves.”
She rose, but with effort. He started to help her, but she waved his hand away. “If you should think of anything that might help me...”
Did she really think he was here to help her?
He was glad when his grandmother called it a night and he could go look for Josey. He was relieved to find her alone, sitting in the tire swing under one of the massive cottonwood trees. A rain squall had blown through, but it was dry under the trees. He loved the smell after a rain almost as much as he loved the scent of Josey’s damp hair.
“You all right?” Jack asked, as he gave her a push. The rope tied to the limb overhead creaked loudly.
Josey jumped off and turned as if he’d scared her.
He remembered the rope burn on her neck and mentally kicked himself for being so stupid. “I’m sorry, I—”
“No, it’s just that I get motion sickness on swings.”
Right. “Dinner was fun,” he said sarcastically, to change the subject.
“Wasn’t it.” She stepped from under the canopy of cottonwood limbs and turned her face upward. “Have you ever seen so many stars?”
“You don’t see many where you live?”
She didn’t look at him. “No. I live in the city.”
He found the Big Dipper, one of the few constellations he knew. He wanted to know more about Josey, but he knew better than to ask. Whoever had hurt her made her afraid to trust. He could understand that.
“HOW DID YOUR talk go with your grandmother?” Josey asked, afraid he was about to question her.
“She talked a lot about Trace, my uncle who was murdered.”
“What was that she asked yesterday about some room that is off-limits?” Josey asked.
He turned to look back at the house and pointed. The room was barely visible from this angle, as it was on the far wing set back against the hillside—the wing that had been boarded up. It was an odd wing, she noticed. If had been built back into the side of a hill and appeared to be much older than the original structure. As an afterthought, a room had been added near the back.
“That’s the room?” she asked.
“That’s it.”
“What’s in it?”
“Nothing. A window.” He shook his head. “Nothing else. It’s soundproof.”
“Soundproof?” She realized he’d been in the room, just as his grandmother had suspected. “Why is whether or not you were in the room such a big deal to your grandmother?”
Jack looked like he wished she hadn’t asked. “Between you and me? She thinks one of us might have seen my uncle Trace murdered.” He nodded at her surprised reaction. “There were a pair of binoculars in the room. I never touched them, but the others were looking through them. She thinks one of them witnessed the murder. The alleged murderer confessed, but was killed. My grandmother believes there was an accomplice, someone from the family, and that’s why Trace was murdered within sight of the ranch.”
“Well, if one of you kids had seen something, wouldn’t you have told?”
“Maybe the kid did, and maybe whoever he told was the accomplice.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It’s also why she is getting us all back here, to interrogate us individually to get at the truth.”
Josey jumped as she realized Enid was standing in the shadows off to the side.
“I guess you didn’t hear me call to you,” Enid said, stepping toward them. “I wanted to see if there was anything I could get you before I turned in.”
“No,” Josey and Jack said in unison.
“Well, fine then,” the housekeeper said. She turned on her heel and headed for the house.
“That woman is the worst eavesdropper I’ve ever come across,” Josey whispered. “I don’t trust her.”
“Me, either.”
“The way she treats your grandmother, it makes me wonder.”
Jack nodded solemnly. “It’s almost as if she and her husband have something on Pepper, isn’t it?”
Josey realized she was getting chilly. She started to head for the house when Jack touched her arm, stopping her.
“Thank you for being here. I mean that. No matter what, I’m not sorry.”
“I hope you never are,” she said, knowing he would be soon enough as they walked back to the house and their bedroom. Jack curled up in his chair. Josey thought she’d never be able to sleep, but, still tired from the long horseback ride that day, she dropped right off.
JACK WOKE TO a scream. He bolted upright in the chair, momentarily confused. The scream was coming from the bed.
He shot to his feet and stumbled in the dark over to the bed. “Josey.” He shook her gently, feeling the perspiration on her bare arm. “Josey,” he said, shaking her more forcefully.
The scream caught in her throat. She jerked
