“He is, but then, so am I.”
“Not the welcome back anybody’d want. How about you go over it for me?”
“Can we talk while I work? We’ve got a six-person trail ride coming up this afternoon.”
“We can sure do that.” He walked with Cal to the shelter and the horses, and Callen picked up where Easy had left off.
As he worked, Callen relayed everything from meeting Bodine in the stables to finding the body.
“You rode up White Tail Trail?”
“Yeah. This weather, it’s like riding through a movie. Picture-perfect.”
“You’d know about that. Movies.”
“I guess.”
“Have you had a drink in the Saloon here since you’ve been back?”
“Nope. I’ve been busy, and I’ve got beer back at the ranch. I’d never met the woman.” And would never forget her. “I can’t prove I didn’t decide to drive over this way in the middle of the night, and go after some woman I’d never met, but it sure would be a change in habit for me.”
Despite the circumstances, Tate’s lips curved a little. “You got in some tussles here and there as I recall.”
“With boys and men,” Callen agreed easily, even though he heard Clintok’s influence in the line of questioning. “The kind of tussling I did with girls and women? That’s of a different nature, and always by mutual agreement.”
“I’ve never heard otherwise.” Tate gestured to Callen’s eye. “Looks like you’ve had a recent tussle. That’s a decent black eye you’re sporting.”
“I’ve had better. Bodine … She just wanted to get to her friend. She couldn’t think outside of that, and I couldn’t let her. So, yeah, you could say we tussled, and she caught me. She’s got an admirable right hook.”
“This how you told it all to my deputy?”
“I did.”
Tate waited a beat, another. “Don’t want to add to it?”
“There’s nothing to add.”
“I’ve got a story to tell you.” Tate dug a pack of gum out of his pocket. “The wife nagged me until I quit smoking.” He offered the pack, and Callen took a stick out. “Anyway, I was saying. There was a poker game one night, over at the Clintoks’ spread. The missus was visiting her sister, took the little girl along, so it was just Bud Clintok and young Garrett at home. He’d’ve been about twelve, I guess, at that time. Your dad was there.”
Callen’s eyes stayed flat gray as he nodded. “He usually was if there was a poker game.”
Or a horse race, or a sporting event to bet on.
“That’s a fact, though he had his stretches where he held that devil down. But this wasn’t one of those stretches. It’s not speaking ill of the dead to say Jack Skinner had a weakness. But there wasn’t mean in him. That night, he was having a run of luck. Raking it in. Lot of drinking going on, a lot of swearing and betting and smoking—which I dearly miss.”
Tate sighed, chewed his gum.
“Last pot, it came down to your dad and Garrett’s. Now, Bud had been losing almost as much as yours had been winning that night. This was a rich pot, and Bud, he kept raising. Jack, he kept raising right back. About five hundred dollars in there when Bud ran out of money. He says he’d put something else in. Your dad, half joking, says he could put the pup in. This dog, no more than a four-month-old pup, had taken to Jack. Jack said the pup was his lucky charm. And Bud says that’s fine. And they laid the cards down.
“Bud, he had a heart flush, eight through queen. And Jack? Four deuces.”
Pausing, Tate shoved back his hat, shook his head. “Four deuces, and that was that. Jack took the pot, but he wouldn’t take the pup. That pup belonged to the boy, and there was no meanness in Jack. He said he’d rather Bud buy him a steak dinner, and that’s where they left it. Everybody went home, a little drunk and lighter in the pocket but for Jack—and myself, as I broke even, and that was as good as a win under the circumstances.”
Tate looked away toward the mountains, then straight into Callen’s eyes. “I heard how somebody shot that pup dead the very next day. Now Bud, he can be a hard man, but he’d never have put a bullet in a pup.”
Callen could see it, had seen that mean in Clintok even back when they were twelve.
“Why did you take him on as deputy, Sheriff?”
“He served his country, and he came back home. I figured, from what I could see, Garrett had outgrown that streak of mean. I’m not saying he can’t ride the line now and then, but I can’t say I’ve had cause to complain about him, either. But him and me? We’ll be having a talk, because a woman’s dead, and nobody who works for me is going to use that to satisfy an old grudge.”
“I’ve got no issue with him. If he stays out of my way, I’ll stay out of his.”
“That’s how we’ll keep it. You give your mother my best when you talk to her next.”
“I will.”
Alone with the horses, Callen gave some thought to bitter young boys—he’d been one—and to a father who’d never been mean, but weak enough to lose everything. Including his son’s respect.
*
In her office, Bodine pushed through the steps, handling the work that couldn’t be put off, but stopping everything whenever one of the resort crew came in for comfort or with questions.
She worked through it with a fist in the pit of her stomach and a headache brewing behind her eyes.
Jessica paused in the doorway, tapped her knuckles on the doorjamb.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“No, it’s okay. I was going to come get you in a bit anyway. Saves me the steps.”
“Have you eaten anything?”
“What?” Momentarily blank, Bodine rubbed at her stiff neck.
“That’s what I thought.” Taking charge, Jessica simply picked up the phone on Bodine’s desk, pushed the extension for the kitchen.
“Hi, Karleen, it’s Jessica. Would you send a bowl of the soup of the day and some chamomile tea down to Bo’s office? Yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks.”
“What if I don’t want soup?” Bodine said when Jessica hung up.
“You’ll eat it because you’re smart enough to know you need it. The same as Rory is, and your mother.”
Bodine worked up a smile. “Are you taking care of us?”
“Somebody has to. You look worn-out, and I happen to know there’s been a steady procession of people coming in here today looking to lean on you, like there’s been in Rory’s office, and Maureen’s. But more streamed in here.”
“Big boss.”
“That’s right. They need you for comfort, so you need soup. Now, tell me what I can do to help.”
“I’ve been working on a couple of things, and … Didn’t you have a consult on the Rhoder Company’s conference set for right about now? And an interview today?”