“What’s that y’all said about Joe?” Ruby asked in her soft Oklahoma drawl. Their less-than-a-year-new grandmother stood at the back door, checking out their demolition work. Her curly, reddish-blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her freckle-specked cheeks were smudged here and there with flour, along with her checkered apron as well. “I don’t know why Harley wants to salvage any of this darn lumber. It’s not worth your time and hard work.” She homed in on the camera in Natalie’s hands. “What’s that?”
“Natalie found it under the deck.”
“Well, that sure is an odd place for an ol’ camera.”
It wasn’t the camera that had Claire worrying her lower lip. Ruby didn’t know it, but Claire had found some very disturbing pictures under the floor of Ruby’s bedroom closet months ago. The photos starred Joe in his birthday suit with various unclothed women, and they weren’t playing patty-cake either. Claire hoped this camera didn’t have more X-rated pictures on the film in it. She didn’t think she could stomach more of Joe’s private porn collection.
“You girls interested in some brownies?” Ruby asked.
Red alerts dinged in Claire’s head. “Why are you baking? What’s my mom doing now?”
Ruby tended to deal with stress by mixing flour, butter, and sugar with other ingredients. When combined and baked, they made Claire’s jeans shrink, especially around her hips. With Deborah living in the same RV park as Ruby and Gramps, Ruby baked so much she could have opened her own patisserie in town.
“It’s not your mother this time,” Ruby said. “I saw that newspaper article.” She searched the hills beyond the edge of the campground. “Maybe you gals should come inside for a bit while I make the brownies.”
“My butt doesn’t need any more brownies.” Claire scowled down at the camera. “Ruby, did Joe like to do puzzles?”
Ruby pursed her lips. “Yeah, now that I think about it, he always had a puzzle book in his car when he traveled—ya know, the kind with all sorts of puzzles in it? Except for that last year. After he had the stroke, he just wasn’t the same.”
“Well, that explains his silly treasure hunts,” Natalie said. “The man liked a challenge. I’ll take some brownies, Ruby.”
When Claire continued to frown at her, Natalie shrugged. “Life’s short. Let’s eat brownies and be merry.”
“Great. I’ll have you three belt notches fuller in no time.” Ruby stepped back inside.
When the door closed, Claire and Natalie returned to the camera.
“So you think this is Joe’s camera?” Natalie asked.
“Maybe.” If Claire had to bet, she’d lean toward being all in. “You should take the film to Yuccaville and get it developed.”
“Why me?”
“Because if I do it, everyone around here will start harping on me again about being obsessed with Joe and his hidden treasures.” Never mind that her obsession was well founded, dang it.
Natalie tapped on the camera’s metal casing. “What are you going to do if this holds a clue to another hidden treasure?”
“I don’t know.” She could hand it over to the sheriff, but Grady had enough on his plate with keeping Ronnie alive and safe most days. He didn’t need to deal with another cache of stolen and fenced goods.
“The question is, do I want to know what he’s hidden under this particular X on the treasure map?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because Joe’s treasures tend to end up with me getting hurt.”
An hour and four brownies later, Claire yanked off the final board and tossed it aside, leaving only the joists yet to take apart.
“Good job,” Manny said to her from his seat next to Chester and Gramps in their lawn chairs.
“I need a drink.”
Chester held up his beer. “Have some of mine, just don’t backwash.”
“Not that kind of drink.” Although drinking away her problems appealed until she thought about her mother’s current state.
Claire tightrope-walked across one of the joists and stepped inside the back door. She closed the door behind her and her shoulders lowered an inch. Whew! Waiting for a killer to strike was overrated.
A half hour ago, Natalie and Kate had headed down the road to Yuccaville—Kate to pick up some groceries for The Shaft, Natalie to make sure Kate didn’t end up in jail and to see if they could have the film developed at the drugstore in town.
Claire rounded the long oak bar reminiscent of an Old West saloon and opened the mini-fridge behind it where Ruby kept cold drinks. It was packed full of cheap beer and diet soda. Cursing at Chester and her older sister for not restocking the good stuff, she pushed through the curtains dividing the rec room from the General Store.
Ronnie looked over from her post behind the register where she was ringing up a cute sixty-ish woman in a sporty jacket and canvas pants. The lady collected her Dancing Winnebagos RV Park T-shirt and the book on birds of the Southwest, sending Claire a nod before heading out the door.
“I have a bone to pick with you,” Claire said after the door closed. She headed down the snack food aisle to the wall cooler at the end full of soda and beer and other refreshments.
“Maybe I don’t want to pick bones with you right now.”
“Too bad.” Claire grabbed a Coke and set it in front of Ronnie, tossing a dollar bill on the counter next to it.
“Listen, if this is about what happened to your Jeep last week, you need to get over it. It still works just fine.”
Claire paused in the midst of opening the soda. “What happened to my Jeep?”
“Uhh, nothing.”
She growled in her throat. “Ronnie?”
“What’s your bone?”
The front door opened.
Claire glanced toward it and did a double take.
“Holy shit!” she said when she picked her lower jaw up off the floor. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter Six
“What’s your problem?” Kate asked.
Natalie pulled her gaze from the passing scenery of cholla cacti, tumbleweed-choked fences,
