“I don’t think you need to do a postmortem on it,” she said. “It’s enough to know that you’re out of the situation now.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” He followed her directions, as she showed him the way to her place. When they got to the gate, she hopped out, opened it up, and he drove in. He waited on the other side, until she jumped back in again. “No electronics for that gate?”
“Yes, but I left it in my truck,” she confessed. “And that’s still in the shop.”
“And when is it supposed to be ready?”
“It was supposed to be ready today, but it might not be till tomorrow now.”
“Is this a case where the parts might accidentally go missing?”
“I hope not,” she said, frowning, “but it has occurred to me that such a thing could happen.”
“Well, let’s hope not,” he said, as he drove up to the ranch-style home and whistled. “Now this is my kind of a place.”
“It was my father’s,” she said. “And his father’s before him.” When he looked at her in surprise, she nodded. “When I said I grew up around here, I meant it. My granddad built this house a good one hundred years ago,” she said, with a smile. “He built it for his wife.”
“Nice. It looks like it’s had a few additions or renovations over the years.”
“That it has,” she said, with a laugh.
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No,” she said, “it’s just me.”
At the house they quickly hopped out, and he locked up the truck, and they walked to the front door, where she started whistling.
“Dogs in or out?” he asked.
“They’re mostly inside during the day,” she said and quickly unlocked the front door. “But I have a dog run and a doggie door for them, so they’re not cooped up all day long. With my job, I can be gone for hours on end.” They stepped inside, to be greeted by three dogs, one a little more standoffish when it saw Bonaparte.
“It’s okay, Max,” she said, reaching down to gently scratch his ruffled neck. But he growled as he looked at Bonaparte. The big man immediately stilled, dropped to a knee, and held out his hand, giving the dogs as much time as they needed to accept him. The other two were racing all around him, jumping up, trying to make friends, and he was careful to pet them gently, but he kept his eye on the larger dog. “What is he?” he asked.
“A mutt,” she said. “Max, it’s okay. This is a friend.”
Max sat down, looked over at Bonaparte, a whine in the back of his throat. Bonaparte immediately stretched his hand out a little farther.
“It’s all right, buddy. I’m just here to help out.” Almost immediately Max made a decision that Bonaparte was fine and came forward for a greeting. The two got to know each other very well, before Bonaparte slowly stood back up again, then looked around and nodded. “Nice place.”
“A lot of years of history here,” she said, with a smile. “A lot of good memories for me.”
“In other words, you’re not planning on leaving anytime soon.”
“Never, I hope,” she said.
“If they ask for your property?”
She walked into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee.
“You want more coffee?” he asked curiously, leaning against the kitchen doorjamb.
She smiled and nodded. “Yes, I do.” And then she shrugged and walked to the back and opened up a double set of French doors.
He and her dogs followed her through. Bonaparte whistled as he saw her backyard. “Wow,” he said, “this is pretty fancy. So I noticed that you’re ignoring my question about them wanting to purchase the land.”
“Let me just say they’ve tried,” she said.
“And I presume you declined.”
“Yeah, because, in case you didn’t notice,” she said, “I’m one of the next properties in line here.”
“So, the bottom line is, they need your land.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s probably what this is all about then, right?”
“A lot of it, yes. I’m not sure if that’s all of it though.”
“It’s quite enough,” he said. “How much do you own?”
She sighed. “I have 160 acres.” He just stared at her, dumbfounded. She shrugged. “There was a lot of family at one time, and it’s pretty well all down to just me now.”
“That’s a lot of land,” he said quietly.
She crossed her arms, leaned against one of the porch posts, and nodded. “It is.”
“So, of course, you’ll never sell.”
“I’ll never sell,” she said, “and therefore—”
“Therefore, they need you to die in order to get this property.” And he started to swear.
She watched him with interest. He was a huge man and generally very well controlled and contained, but right now this whole scenario was getting to him. “I see now that you understand why Levi sent you.”
“He knows about this?”
“Yes, and they’ve hooked up security for me,” she said, “but you and I both know, if Ronnie and Johnny want to take me out, they’ll take me out.”
“Goddammit,” he said, staring at her. “It’s got nothing to do with the town. It has everything to do with property, and you’re in the prime place. It’s got nothing to do with you being the sheriff even. It’s all about you owning what they want.”
“Yep, but you also can see that there’s absolutely no way I can sell.”
“Of course not,” he said. “This is your heritage.”
“It is.”
“No other family?” he asked, as he watched the dogs playing in the yard.
“We’ve been a family of one child every time it got handed down,” she said. “I was hoping to break the pattern. My mother actually had another sibling who died, and my grandfather had four kids, but only one made it to adulthood.”
“With all this land around here, do you have any horses?”
“No, not now,” she said, with a smile. “My grandfather used to train them here. A lot of the property is currently in farmland, which I have several
