“The jig’s up,” Keely told Boone with twinkling eyes.
“No, it isn’t. Come here.” He took her hand and tugged her farther down the row of books, out of sight of the glass windows. “I hope you’re a good actress.”
“Excuse me?”
They heard the door open. Clark whispered something to the librarian. There was a returned whisper and muffled footsteps on carpet coming closer.
Boone let go of Keely’s hand. “You won’t tell me a damned thing,” he said in a low voice, but one that carried at least to the end of the aisle. “I want to know where Clark is, why he isn’t here with you.” He nodded at her meaningfully.
She caught on at once. “I told you, he just went to get gas—”
Clark turned into the aisle where they were. His look of fear eclipsed when he overheard what Keely said. He seemed to relax.
“I’m back,” he told her. “In the nick of time.” He joined them and grinned at his brother. “What are you doing here?”
“I came in to get a book and found Keely,” Boone muttered. “Why didn’t you take her with you to get gas?” he asked suspiciously.
“I told him that I wanted to check out that canine anatomy book I was telling you about,” she said to Clark.
“Oh. Right,” he agreed quickly.
Boone gave them both a glare as the light overhead went out. “Now I won’t have time to check on mine, no thanks to both of you.” He turned on his heel and stalked out, pausing only long enough to speak to the librarian.
Keely rushed back to grab her own book and take it to the desk, telling the harassed librarian that she’d be back on Monday to check it out and apologizing for keeping her late.
The librarian smiled and said it was all right, but she followed them right out the door, locking up behind her.
“That was close!” Clark exclaimed when they were in the car heading back toward Keely’s house. “How long had he been there?”
“Just a couple of minutes,” she lied. “I thought we were in big trouble!”
“We would have been if he’d seen Nellie get out of my car and into hers,” he said. “What a break that he was talking to you down an aisle instead of in front of the window!”
“Yes, wasn’t it?” she agreed.
“I’ll have to plan better next time,” he said, almost to himself.
“Did she like the necklace?”
He chuckled. “She loved it! I ordered her a Gucci suit to go with it and had it sent to her apartment,” he added. “She was very grateful.”
She could imagine the form that gratitude took, but she wasn’t saying anything. She was still wondering what Boone expected her to do now. She couldn’t bear to tell Clark she’d sold him out. Not that she had, really. Boone wasn’t stupid. Clark underestimated him, as usual. It was par for the course that Boone was always three steps ahead of everybody else.
“Nellie really is beautiful,” she commented, for something to say.
“Absolutely.” He grinned at Keely. “You didn’t have any trouble before Boone showed up?”
“None at all. I was fine.”
“I’ll have to plan better next time,” he repeated. “Boone’s smart. I have to work hard to keep him in the dark.”
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something,” she replied.
“We will,” he replied. “We’re in this together, remember.”
This was likely to end in despair for Clark, either way, and she hated having agreed to being a party to it. Especially now that Boone was clued in. She wondered if she should tell Clark the truth. Probably she should, but she was wary of Boone’s temper if he found out. She felt stifled.
“Don’t look so worried,” he said gently. “Everything will work out. Really it will.”
“Did you know that Misty’s father had a private detective agency in San Antonio?” she asked abruptly, and then could have bitten her tongue for the slip.
“Some agency,” Clark muttered. “I had them check out a cowboy for us when we were hiring on a new horse wrangler. He had a rap sheet and their brilliant staff didn’t find a thing.”
She stared at him. “How did you find that out if they didn’t tell you?”
“Boone found it out,” he said. “He was suspicious of something the man did, so he asked Hayes to look into the man’s background. He had a prior for burglary. A conviction, no less, and he’d served time. Boone fired him the same day.”
“I thought even a bad detective could find out something like that,” she replied.
He frowned. “That’s what I thought. I mentioned it to Boone, too. He said that they hired a man with false credentials, but found it out only after they assigned him our background check. They thanked us for flushing him out.”
She was curious about that. It seemed a little easily explained. But they were already pulling up in front of her house, and there was no more time for questions.
When Clark pulled up at the porch, Ella was standing just outside the screen door in just her slip with a full glass of whiskey.
“So there you are!” she raged as Keely opened her door. “Where have you been?”
“Why don’t you come back home with me?” Clark suggested quickly, leaning over the passenger seat to look out at her.
Even her mother in that shape was preferable to being in the same house with Boone after their awkward conversation. She needed time to think over what he’d said. Not to mention her disquiet at having to listen to another long recital of Nellie’s assets, which had lasted all the way home. She forced a smile. “I can handle her,” she told him gently. “It’s okay.”
“If you say so.” He sounded dubious. “You never did say what happened in Boone’s office the last time you were at the
