When Opal finished eating, she said, “Look you two, I’ve had about enough. You’ve both offered to take me to town, we can all go, if you will promise to behave and act civilly toward one another.” She pressed her fingers into her eyes. “I can’t believe I am talking to two grown women like this.”
Samantha sighed. “You’re right, Opal. I’m sorry Tillie. I shouldn’t have spoken that way to you.”
Tillie didn’t give an inch. “Opal, if you can’t help us out, we’ll be out on the street.”
Samantha said, “Stop being so dramatic. You could always move in with your boyfriend. You could always declare bankruptcy. Howie could get a job.”
Tillie stood. “I can tell when I’m not wanted. I’m leaving. I can see my aunt has no compassion for me.”
“You should talk about compassion,” Samantha fired back.
Opal raised her hand. “Girls, please. Tillie, what did you do with the money from the loan you haven’t paid back?”
Tillie gripped the back of the chair. “We put most of it against the house loan.”
“Most of it?” asked Opal. “It was all for the house. That’s what you told me.”
“We had some other bills we had to pay off.”
Opal looked Tillie directly in the eye. “Tillie, I was hoping not to have to say this. But I’ve thought a lot about your request for more money. I’ve thought over your plight, and it seems to me I keep throwing money down a bottomless hole with you.”
“You’ve helped the others.”
“Some, and they’ve paid me back. You haven’t. Now I have a lot on my mind. I want to keep the ranch solvent. We’re having a tough year with the smuggling and the dry weather. What little cash I have, I’ve got use to keep this place afloat.” She took a deep breath. “So, no. I cannot lend you the money. You or anybody else. I’m sorry but that’s the way it is.”
Tillie held her gaze for a few moments longer, looked at her sister, then out the window. “I know my life’s a mess. I know that. I’m sorry to cause you this upset, Aunt Opal.” With that she turned and left the room.
Opal heard the front screen door bang. She wondered how she ended up with a niece like Tillie. She hadn’t signed up for these problems, but they were on her plate, and she had to deal with them, like it or not.
Samantha said, “I’ll drive you to town, Aunt Opal. You can rest on the way. I know this isn’t easy for you. I apologize for egging Tillie on. It’s just that she can be so conniving. She makes me so mad.”
Opal smiled sadly at Samantha. “I know. Let’s get on into town.”
Thirteen
Paul was not tall. He was slim and balding, and Olympia kind of liked him. He was not your standard romance hero with broad shoulders, slim hips, and bulging muscles, the kind she had been writing about for years. In Paul she sensed a decent man, and she hadn’t known him twenty-four hours. A decent guy. New concept for her. Okay for real life but it didn’t sell romance novels.
She had been out with her real estate agent, looking at ranches, and they had stopped at The Animal Head Bar for a drink and to talk over the ranches they had seen. Paul was standing by the juke box, and Olympia, being the outgoing girl that she was, asked him to play Patsy Cline’s Crazy.
“I don’t see it on here,” Paul had said like flamboyant women talked to him all the time.
Olympia looked over the selections with him and that was how it started. Of course, she had invited him to join them. The real estate agent didn’t seem to mind as long as they kept talking about the ranches she wanted Olympia to buy. Paul chimed right in with his opinions. It turned out that he was a soil scientist, and, having worked at soil mapping in Harney Valley, he knew quite a bit of the area and many of the ranches. He knew all kinds of things about what made a good ranch site, as well as Oregon geology, mountain climbing, volcanoes, bungee jumping, and migratory birds, none of which Olympia had thought much about. The way he spoke was interesting in an unassuming way.
After the real estate agent left Paul suggested they have dinner at a place about forty-five minutes outside of town. It wasn’t anything special just burgers and shakes. Even though they were an odd combination, they couldn’t seem to stop talking. He listened with interest when Olympia talked about writing romance novels, though he admitted he had never read any. At least, he was honest. Since they had taken Olympia’s car and the H Bar O wasn’t far from the restaurant, Olympia invited him to visit. It got late, and he ended up on the couch. He was watching a National Geographic show on television when Olympia came out to find him the next morning.
“Hi,”Olympia said. She didn’t understand why she was feeling shy, an unusual state for her. “I’m sorry I overslept. Did you have breakfast? I forgot to ask what time you need to be at work.”
Paul rose, smiled, and held up his smart phone. “I work my own hours. I’m a consultant. As long as I have my smart phone I can work just about any place. And no, I haven’t had breakfast, but why don’t we grab a bite on the way back to town? You need to take me back to the bar to get my truck, remember?”
“Sounds good to me. Did you sleep okay on the couch?”
“Perfect. I do a lot of camping so I’m used to sleeping on just about anything anywhere.”
“I don’t know where everyone is.”
“I heard people in the kitchen. They left a while ago.”
Paul followed Olympia out the front door. He stopped and looked around. “This is a great setting. Look at that gorgeous high ridge of basalt rim rock.” He stopped and considered. “I’ve mapped this area. We found topography that lent itself to uranium. But it turned out to be very low grade. The mine owners found a lucrative commercial vein to the west of here.”
“Uranium? Around here?”
“Not exactly here. A little further south and west. Geologists investigated here because some of the deposits seemed to be promising. But it wasn’t commercial grade stuff.”
Olympia looked at Paul. “Did you think there is gold around here or anything else that might be of commercial value?”
Paul shook his head. “No, the geological deposits aren’t the kind where you’d find that kind of ore. There are sulfur springs but no precious metals.”
Olympia pointed to the black spot on the knoll on the south end of Paul’s gorgeous ridge. “Someone set fire to Fiona’s bunkhouse. She wondered if it was because there was something of value under the place like gold.”
Paul studied the knoll. “I can tell by looking that there wouldn’t be anything of commercial value. But that isn’t to say someone might think there would be. I’ve heard all kinds of strange tales about where gold might be. You’ve got to be careful. People are funny when it comes to gold.”
Jake rode in the ambulance with Glory. At the hospital they were able to stabilize his condition. The ER doctor said he had a concussion but didn’t know when he’d come around, so Jake decided to go home. He found Fiona in the ER waiting room. She had followed the ambulance in her rig so he had a ride home. As they were leaving, Hoover came into the waiting room, and Jake related what had happened and his suspicions.
“Do you think Glory is behind the arson at your place? said Hoover.
Jake shrugged. “It looked that way to me at first. But apparently he never made it back to the ranch so I don’t know. Tommy Hide and Sweet don’t seem to know anything. Have you run down anyone on that list I gave you?”