“Please call me Cal. And not a thing. I couldn’t find the ping.”
“That doesn’t matter. You took the time to look and I get a certain amount from the county for upkeep on my vehicle anyway.”
He paused. “I tell you what. You could use an oil change and the fluids refilled. Bring it by here next week and I’ll give it a more thorough check. We’ll find that pinging yet.”
She doubted it. “I think we’ve got us a deal, Cal. Now I better get going. A deputy’s job is never done.”
He wiped his hands off on the rag and squinted at her. “I guess you aren’t going to tell me what has Cheyenne looking like a dog on bath day.”
She glanced over at Cheyenne, who was sitting on the front steps cuddling Queenie and looking forlorn. “Nope, that’s her job. But I will say this. I think she’s learned her lesson so I wouldn’t be too hard on her.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Deputy Meriwether.”
“Dixie. Call me Dixie.”
He smiled. “Thanks for bringing her home, Dixie.” He paused. “I thought you were a lot like Sheriff Willaby. He’s had it out for me since I came back to Simple. I can’t move without the man pulling me over for one trivial thing or another. But you’re nothing like him.”
“I take that as the highest compliment.” She leaned in and whispered. “Just don’t tell him I said so.”
By the time Dixie collected Queenie and had her strapped in her kitty car seat, Cal was talking with Cheyenne. Like any guilty girl, Cheyenne was crying. Like any good daddy, Cal pulled her into his arms and held her close. It seemed like everything was going to turn out just fine. As Dixie drove away, she couldn’t help feeling like she’d had a part in making things turn out. Even if she hadn’t done anything at all except drive a sweet young thing home and try to put her daddy in a good mood so he wouldn’t be too mad at her. And yet, it felt like she’d done something important.
Maybe being a deputy wasn’t all that hard. Maybe she should quit hiding in the office and start getting out more.
On the way out of the trailer park, she noticed the other trailers weren’t kept up as nicely as Cal Daily’s. Most were rusted with cracked windows and broken screen doors. If the yards weren’t filled with weeds, they were filled with tireless vehicles. Dixie had seen poverty before, but never quite this close. It was disconcerting and sad. She wondered if the trailer park had always been this rundown and if the owners were just being facetious when they had named it Lucky Lane.
Dixie had almost reached the highway when she noticed an old Airstream trailer parked in the last spot. The original metal siding was faded, but still reflected the setting sun like a shiny nickel. A cute red and white striped awning shaded a pair of lawn chairs and a little table with a matching red and white checkered tablecloth. To the left of the table and chairs, a woman in a western shirt, faded jeans, and a cowboy hat was barbecuing on a charcoal grill. The smell of something wonderful wafted in Dixie’s open window and Queenie started meowing.
Which drew the woman’s attention. When she spotted the sheriff’s cruiser, she waved. Not so much in greeting as in waving Dixie down. As much as Dixie had decided she wasn’t going to hide anymore, she figured it might be best if she pretended she hadn’t seen the woman and keep right on going. But the woman wasn’t going to let that happen. She raced out from under the awning right in front of the SUV, forcing Dixie to come to a dust-spitting halt.
The woman walked around to Dixie’s open window and pushed back her cowboy hat. Dixie immediately recognized the pixie cute face of the woman.
“Maisy Sweeney!”
“Last time I checked.” Maisy grinned, displaying the slight gap between her two front teeth. When Dixie had first met Maisy, she’d wondered why the woman hadn’t had it filled. But as she studied her now, she realized that it didn’t look so bad. In fact, it made Maisy’s smile uniquely hers. “What are you doing out here at the Lucky Lane Trailer Park, Deputy Dixie?” Maisy asked.
“I could ask you the same thing. I thought you’d left Simple.”
“I did, but after winning a fat purse at my last rodeo, I decided to take a few weeks off and stop by to see if the sheriff has discovered anything else about Sam.”
“No, I’m afraid not.” Dixie wasn’t about to tell her Sheriff Willaby’s farfetched theory about the Double Diamond boys. “And the sheriff has taken a little vacation and won’t be working on the case for a while.”
“I heard it was more of a forced leave of absence?”
Dixie laughed. “I guess there are no secrets in a small town.”
“That depends. The last time I was here, I couldn’t get any answers from anyone. But as soon as I pulled into town early this morning, people couldn’t stop talking to me. I guess I was considered a stranger at first. Now I’m just Maisy Sweeney, the little gal who took first prize in the mechanical bull competition at Cotton-Eyed Joe’s.”
“I heard about that. You made every women in town proud.”
“And probably ticked off a whole lot of men. Some men don’t like to be shown up by a woman. Especially at a sport they think is their own. Maybe that explains why I can’t catch a man to save my soul.”
Dixie could relate. “Believe me, I get it. There were numerous male cadets at the police academy who thought females had no business being there. Ironically, those men were the first ones to drop out.”
“My mama always said, ‘The bigger a man’s mouth, the smaller his balls.’”
Dixie laughed. “And my mama always said, ‘If you can’t catch a man, maybe you’re going after the wrong
