“Do you want me to go with you?”
He smiled at her. “No. This is a man’s job. You might not like the talk. And besides they all sleep naked. It’s a cowboy thing. Why don’t you get some sleep? You take Opal for treatment this morning.”
“I don’t feel sleepy. And now I don’t think I could sleep. There was the fire back in Virginia at Albert’s mansion, then the bunkhouse, and now this. I must attract firebugs.”
He turned to face her. “You sure attract me.”
He pulled her into a full embrace. She buried her face in his neck and inhaled the man smell of him. He could be hers, if she wanted. And all the problems that came with him.
He pulled back and lightly brushed her lips with his. “I got to wake those boys.”
“Right,” she said, kissing him back.
He mounted the pinto and steered him toward the new bunkhouse. She watched Jake ride away, the dog trotting after him. If only she could be a fly on the wall. Naked cowboys might be an entertaining sight.
Jake walked into the living room of the bunkhouse without knocking. He wanted the element of surprise to be on his side. He now had doubts about all three of them. This wasn’t a time to trust anyone. He found the switch to the over head light and flipped it on. A quick glance around the room showed him that no one was sleeping on the old couch. He walked over and saw among the clutter on the couch the old gun that Fiona had described to him. It was lying on the couch like someone had tossed it there and forgotten it. He picked the gun up and examined it. He was no expert, but the gun wasn’t collector quality in his opinion. He laid it back down in its resting place and decided it was time to wake up the buckaroos.
“Sweet, Glory, Tommy. Time to get up,” he shouted to the closed doors.
He opened one door and saw Sweet sit straight up in bed.
“What?” said Sweet. “What’s going on?” He looked wildly around the room and grabbed under his pillow.
“Leave the gun under the pillow, Sweet, and get up. Get some clothes on. Come out to the living room. We need to talk.”
Sweet took a deep breath and let it go. “What time is it?”
“Middle of the night,” said Jake, and he walked on to the next room.
The door was closed. He opened it. Tommy Hide was sitting in the dark on the side of the bed fully clothed.
“What’s up?” Tommy asked, blinking into the light.
Jake looked around the spare room. The dresser had a few personal items. The closet door was open and two shirts hung there. A pair of boots stood neatly on the floor.
Jake said, “Did you go to bed?”
“I was so tired I fell asleep with my clothes on. Is it time to leave on the cattle drive?”
“Not quite yet but soon. Come out to the living room. I need to talk to you. Have you seen Glory?”
“Wasn’t it his turn to be on watch?”
“Yes, but I can’t find him.”
Jake went on to the next room, which he found empty. The bed was made. No one had slept there. Several flasks of empty whiskey bottles stood on the dresser. A pile of clothes in the corner was the only other sign of habitation.
Jake tapped his leg and shook his head. Now they were going to have to search for Glory. He could be on a drunk somewhere or he could be long gone.
Tommy was in the tiny kitchen fixing a pot of coffee. Sweet came out of his room, buttoning his shirt. They didn’t say anything. Sweet went into the kitchen and pulled mugs out of the cupboard. Jake followed him and leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed.
“Glory is gone,” said Jake.
“He rode out to check the fence and pond,” said Tommy. He had a slight build, strong hands, and didn’t like to talk.
“Did you see him come back?” Jake asked.
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t,” Tommy said. “He wasn’t here for supper. But that’s not unusual. He doesn’t always eat. He drinks his dinner.”
“He doesn’t sleep much that I’ve noticed,” said Sweet. “He’s been hitting the bottle hard these last few weeks.”
“Do you know why he’s drinking so much?” asked Jake.
Both boys shook their heads.
“He doesn’t talk about himself much,” said Tommy. “Not like some people I know.” He gave Ruben Sweet a pointed look.
Sweet shrugged. “Some people have interesting lives, you know. Other people might want to hear about them.”
Jake interrupted their banter. “There’s an overturned can of gasoline in the back hay shed. You two wouldn’t know how that happened, would you?”
Tommy frowned, and Sweet’s look registered his surprise. They both shook their heads.
“No, sir. I wasn’t anywhere near that barn today,” said Tommy. “I bet I was in bed and asleep by eight o’clock. I was out cutting hay in that hot sun and all that dust, and I was beat. I never noticed who was here when I turned in.”
Jake looked at Sweet.
“I finished up mending fences so the goats wouldn’t get out like you asked me. I came back here after dinner, watched a movie and turned in. I wasn’t near the hay shed.”
Jake looked from one to the other. “I went out when I heard Earl barking around midnight. He was guarding the overturned gas can. I rode around looking for tracks, vehicles, you name it. I haven’t found anything. No Glory. And Lester is gone.”
Tommy poured each a mug of coffee and handed them around. “Guess we better go looking then.”
Jake said, “There’s the outside chance that Glory might not have come back from checking the stock pond and fences on the BLM pasture, so I’ll ride out to the pond to see if something happened to him. Maybe he got drunk and passed out and didn’t make it back. I hope Lester is with him if that is the case. I would hate to lose that dog. You two get your overnight gear and horses and start moving cows. I’ll call Rosemary and Esme and have them come over. I’ll meet you out there.” He walked toward the door, paused and looked back. With a nod of his head he indicated the gun on the couch. “Who does the old gun belong to?”
“Glory,” said Tommy.
Fiona gave up trying to sleep, dressed in jeans and long sleeve blouse, and went to the kitchen to make coffee. She heard the TV and went into the living room to discover Olympia’s new friend stretched out sleeping on the couch. Olympia was nowhere to be seen. She must still be on the new side of the leaf and opted to go to bed by herself. Fiona found the remote and powered off the large screen TV. Paul didn’t make a move or a sound from the depths of the couch.
Fiona shook her head and walked back to the kitchen. This was getting to be more like the H Bar O Resort and Hotel. Olympia had a lot of nerve dragging one of the gold miners home. She was sometimes all nerve and little common sense.
Fiona poured coffee and checked the time. Five o’clock in the morning. The sky was bright in the east, and here she was doing nothing. It was driving her crazy that she couldn’t solve the mysteries. There were too many unsolved oddities and too many leads that seemed to go nowhere. She took the mug of coffee and walked out to the back patio.
Where had Jake gone? Had he found who had tried to start the fire? She rubbed her arm against the chill. Heaven, she never was up this early in the city. Never. She didn’t understand what was happening to her, what magic this isolated spot was having on her sensibilities. She sipped coffee and listened. The silence was broken every once in a while by the yipping of coyotes. They sounded like pups. The rooster in the chicken yard where Opal penned the chickens for the night crowed. Maybe the rooster crowing kept her awake and unsettled. She wasn’t used to the sound. But she doubted it.