Kitabı oku: «Miss Lizzy's Legacy»

One

So this is Guthrie, Oklahoma. Callie wrinkled her nose as she drove down Division Street at a slow crawl. Retail shops and offices fronted both sides of the street, mostly contained in one and two-story buildings, their architecture dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. A man lazily whisked a broom across the sidewalk fronting his business, stirring fall leaves and sending them tumbling to the curb.

Wanting to enjoy the full benefit of what remained of the fall day and take in the sights that lay just up ahead and around the corner, Callie whipped into an empty space at the curb and lowered the convertible top of her Jaguar. As she climbed up on the bumper and stretched across the rear of the car to snap the canvas boot in place, an eighteen-wheeler roared by so close, the wind it stirred sucked at her, making her cling to the canvas to maintain her balance. A ribald proposition from the cab of the truck and three short blasts from the truck’s air horn let Callie know, in no uncertain terms, what the truck driver thought of the view of her backside.

Frowning, she dropped to the roadside and tugged her leather jacket back over her hips. “Men,” she grumbled under her breath. “Their brains are all located just south of their belt buckles.”

With an exasperated huff of breath, she climbed back into her car and gunned the engine, kicking up puffs of dried leaves from the road’s shoulder as she swerved back onto the street.

Two blocks farther and a street sign for Harrison Avenue had her turning left. Callie did a neat—although illegal—U-turn in the middle of the intersection of Harrison and First streets and parked alongside the curb.

She looked around, frowning. She didn’t know what she’d expected to find when she reached her destination, but this hick town certainly wasn’t it. More accustomed to the zip and zoom of expressway traffic and Dallas’s towering skyline, the town of Guthrie seemed to Callie like a ghost town in comparison.

Stepping from the car, she pulled her hair back from her face, craned her head back and just looked. Three stories of Victorian brown brick marked the Harrison House, her home for the next few weeks. Across First Street, a sign outside the Victor Building boasted antiques, shops and the chamber of commerce office. With dusk quickly settling, the businesses as well as the street looked all but abandoned.

A bark and a scuffling noise sounded behind her and Callie turned, but not in time. Before she had a chance to prepare herself, a huge beast of a dog leapt at her. Planting his paws on her shoulders, the animal knocked her flat over the hood of the car, pinning her between the car’s still-warm metal hood and a hundred pounds of muscled fur.

From her position beneath the animal, all Callie could see were black eyes and saliva-dripping fangs. A scream built in her throat, then stuck there as the dog lowered his gaping jaws closer to her face. Squeezing her eyes shut, she buried her fingers in the animal’s thick coat, locked her elbows and shoved for all she was worth.

“Baby, heel!”

In response to the shouted command, the dog barked. The sound vibrated from his paws through Callie’s body and ripped the air so close to her ear it nearly deafened her. Her eyes still squeezed shut, she continued to struggle beneath the stifling weight, waiting for the dog to sink his fangs into her cheek, or worse, her neck.

As suddenly as it appeared, the weight of the animal disappeared. Her eyes still closed, Callie let her arms fall weakly to her breasts. She lay there, her chest heaving with each indrawn breath.

“Baby, is that any way to greet a newcomer?” she heard a deep, male voice ask. “I’ve got him now,” the man said, sounding nearer. “Do you need help getting up?”

His voice was as close as the dog’s breath had been only moments before, and it blew warm against her cheek, bringing with it the scents of tobacco and peppermint. Callie opened one eye to find the man’s face only inches above her own. Coal black hair worn long in the back brushed his collar, and a black Stetson shadowed his face. He poked a finger at the brim, levering the hat farther back on his head. A half grin tweaked one side of his mouth and his brown eyes danced with laughter.

If anything humorous had occurred thus far, Callie hadn’t seen it! She glared at him through the slit of one eye, then lifted her head a notch and opened both to assure herself he did, in fact, have the animal under control. Struggling to her elbows, she planted a palm at the man’s chest and shoved. “No, I don’t need help,” she stated indignantly as she clamored to her feet.

“Baby didn’t mean any harm,” he offered by way of an apology as he stepped aside, avoiding an elbow rammed a little too close to his midriff. “That’s his way of saying welcome.”

“Baby?” Callie paused in the act of straightening her clothes to look down her nose at the dog, wondering how anything so vicious could earn such an innocent name. “I’d hate to see what happens when you sic him on someone,” she said dryly.

“Don’t usually have the need.”

Rubbing at a shoulder that was already beginning to ache, Callie shifted her gaze from the dog to the man, a frown building around her mouth and eyes as she took her first good look at him. He looked like a gunslinger straight off a Western movie set. A black duster draped him from shoulder to mid-calf, below that nothing but a glimpse of jeans and a scuffed pair of boots. The wind caught the hem of his duster and fanned it out, revealing a Western shirt of vibrant reds and blues. Instead of the gun and holster she had expected, a black tooled leather belt banded the waist of his jeans, clasped navel-high by a silver belt buckle the size of a lady’s oval hand mirror.

He turned his back on Callie and braced wide, tanned hands on the side of her car, taking in the leather bucket seats and a dashboard with enough controls to confuse a fighter pilot. “You’re not from around here.”

A statement, not a question, yet Callie felt obligated to answer. “No, I’m from Dallas.”

“Nice car,” he said as he leaned over to peer into the back seat where her purse, overnight bag and several cameras were stashed.

“Thanks,” she murmured grudgingly as she edged closer, not sure whether she should trust the guy or not.

He picked up a Nikon, snapped off the lens cover and put his eye behind the viewfinder. “You a photographer?” he asked as he focused in on Callie.

“Don’t—” The shutter clicked and she groaned, dropping the hand she’d raised to stop him.

He lowered the camera. “Don’t, what?”

She snatched the Nikon from him. “Mess with my camera,” she muttered through tight lips. The pinging sound of water hitting metal had her slowly turning. Baby stood by the front left tire, his leg hiked, relieving himself on her chrome hubcap. Incensed by the audacity of both the dog and his owner, she snapped the lens cover back in place. “Don’t they have leash laws in this town?”

When he didn’t answer, she whipped her head around to glare at him. The lethal look in his eyes made her take a wary step backward. He held her gaze a good ten seconds that had Callie all but squirming before he settled a hand atop the dog’s head and scratched an ear. “Don’t need one,” he said in a lazy drawl. “The dogs in this town, as well as the residents, are friendly. It’s the visitors we have to keep an eye on.” He turned on his heel. “Come on, Baby,” he called as he strode away.

The black Labrador retriever hesitated, looked at Callie, barked, then finally loped off to follow his owner. Callie watched them both, her chest swelling in anger.

“Well, I never!” With a frustrated huff of breath, she jerked her overnight bag and purse from the back seat and headed across the street to the Harrison House.

* * *

“I’ve been propositioned by a truck driver, mauled by a beast I swear is half wolf and half dog, and put down by a local yokel. Prudy, the nicest thing I can say about the town so far is that it’s quaint.” Callie tucked the phone receiver between her shoulder and ear and stretched the phone cord as far as it would allow as she ran a hand along the carved front of an antique armoire in her hotel room, one more of the “quaint” features the town boasted.

“If you wanted to be propositioned, all you had to do was stand down on Harry Hines Boulevard with the rest of the hookers, and with the right command from John, Yogi would’ve taken a chunk out of your leg. ‘Quaint’ you can find within an hour’s drive of downtown Dallas.”

Though the reply was almost acid in delivery, Callie heard the concern beneath. After sharing studio space with Prudy for seven years, the two were more like sisters than business associates, and she’d learned that her friend hid her emotions behind a caustic tongue. “You miss me.”

“Hardly. Without your constant distraction, the studio is relatively quiet. I’ve actually put in a full day at my potter’s wheel and put shape to three really unique pieces.”

“Ouch! My ego is taking a beating.”

“If I thought for one second I could damage your ego, I’d worry.” A deep sigh crossed the phone wires, then, “Callie, come home.”

“Prudy, I didn’t move to Guthrie. I’m merely here on vacation.”

“A vacation is the Bahamas or Las Vegas or Vale. Guthrie is a hole-in-the-wall and a wild-goose chase you’re using as an excuse to escape—”

“Prudy...” Callie warned.

“Well, it’s true. Okay, so we all suffer a creative lag now and again, and considering the pressure Stephen’s put you under— Oh, I almost forgot. He called.”

Callie plopped down on the bed, her shoulders sagging. “Oh, no. You didn’t tell him where I was staying, did you?”

“No. But your mother called, too.”

“What did she want?”

“She wanted me to use my extraordinary persuasive powers to knock some sense into your head.”

Callie fell back across the bed, slinging her forearm across her eyes. And to think she’d thought she could escape a confrontation by leaving Stephen and her parents notes and high-tailing it to Oklahoma at her great-grandfather’s request before either had time to respond. What a joke! “Well, go ahead. Give it your best shot,” she said in a weary voice.

“I’ll tell you the same as I told your mother. I don’t interfere in other people’s lives.”

Though she felt more like curling up in a ball and having a good cry, Callie chuckled at the outrageous lie. “That’ll be the day.”

“It’s true! And besides,” Prudy added, with an offended sniff, “if I were going to interfere, I’d have stopped you from running away before you even left.”

Callie sat bolt upright on the bed. “Prudy! I have not run away. I’m simply fulfilling a request Papa made of me.”

“Oh, yes, Papa. The man is one hundred and four years old and about three bricks short of a load. For heaven’s sake, Callie. Half the time he doesn’t even know who you are. How can you possibly think he could remember enough about your family’s history for you to run off on some half-cocked errand to locate his mother’s grave for him?”

“Because I love him and because he asked me to and because I needed a vacation. Satisfied?”

“No.” Silence followed, then more reluctantly, “Just be careful and hurry home. I do miss you. Sort of.”

* * *

Anxious to escape her room before her mother or Stephen located her, Callie headed for the lobby. Behind the front desk, a man sat with his head bent, his back to her and seemingly oblivious to her presence as he scribbled entries into a ledger sprawled across a rolltop desk.

An old display case, the bubbles and waves in its glass a testament to its age, separated her from the clerk’s desk. The jewelry and trinkets filling it caught her eye, and she stopped to admire then. Colorful stones ensconced in various settings of silver, gold and platinum blinked up at her.

“Would you like to have a closer look?”

Startled, Callie glanced up to find the man still had his back to her. “No, just browsing.”

“Here on vacation?”

A particularly interesting cluster of stones on a brooch caught her eye, and she replied offhandedly, “That and a quest.”

“Yours wouldn’t be the first.” Tucking the pen in the valley created by the ledger’s swelled pages, he spun his chair around to smile at her. “And what quest would you be on?”

Tufts of white hair puffed over the man’s ears and a pair of reading glasses perched precariously on the end of his nose. He looked like an absentminded professor, but it was the openness of his smile that made Callie forget the brooch. After her encounter with the gunslinger on the street earlier, she’d been half-afraid the entire population of Guthrie shared his personality.

Thankful to discover that at least one person didn’t, she propped her elbows on the top of the glass and smiled back. “My great-grandfather’s to be honest. He asked me to track down some of his family who lived here during the late eighteen hundreds, but the only information I have is the woman’s maiden name. I’ve never done anything like this before. Any suggestions on where I might start?”

“The courthouse, the State Capital Publishing Museum, the Oklahoma Territorial Museum, the historical society, the police records, the—”

“Whoa!” Callie laughed as she straightened to dig a scrap of paper and a pen from her purse. She scribbled the information quickly, then glanced up. “Where else?”

Springs creaked as the man reared back in the chair and folded his arms across his ample middle. “That would depend on what information you have to work with.”

Callie shrugged, embarrassed that she had so little to go on. “A name, an approximate time she moved here...that’s about it.”

He puckered his lips thoughtfully. “All those places I mentioned will be helpful, but if you want to know more, Judd Barker down at the Blue Bell Saloon might be able to help you. He knows everything worth knowing about Guthrie.”

Callie tucked the slip of paper into her jacket pocket. Knowing that all the places he’d mentioned would be closed by now, she settled on the suggestion of talking to Judd Barker. “And where do I find the Blue Bell Saloon?”

“One block west on the corner. Can’t miss it. Just tell Judd, Frank sent you.”

“Thanks.” Callie pushed out the door, quickly folding the plackets of her jacket tighter around her as a blast of wind hit her full force. With a shiver she tucked her hands beneath her armpits and headed west in the direction the hotel clerk had suggested. The street both behind and beyond her was abandoned. Lights shone from a few businesses that were still open, but the only sounds in the night came from the click of her bootheels against the brick sidewalk that stretched in front of her and the whine of the wind as it whistled its way into the buildings’ nooks and crannies.

Streetlamps cast a golden glow, lighting her way while turning the bricks beneath her feet a rosy hue. Intent on her mission and with her head bowed against the wind, she passed the Victor Building, crossed a short alley, and then a café without offering any of them a second glance. Her steps slowed, though, as she passed a single, weathered door that looked unused and long-forgotten wedged in the wall of brick.

Faint strains of music drifted through the night air, but it was the sound of a woman’s laugh that made Callie stop and listen. She glanced at the locked door then inched closer to peer through its dusty glass. Though dark inside, with the aid of the streetlamp behind her she made out a wooden staircase in the narrow hallway beyond, its painted steps worn with time and hollowed with the scrape of feet traveling upwards to a second floor. The building appeared empty, yet Callie was sure the music and laughter she’d heard had come from within.

Using the heel of her fist, she rubbed a clean spot on the dusty glass, then looked again. Shadows danced on the landing above, their forms surreal, ghostlike. A woman’s laugh came low and lusty, and Callie could have sworn she heard the woman’s invitation to, “Come on up and join us.”

Stepping back from the door, she placed a hand over a heart that was thudding a little faster than a moment before. “You’re losing it, Callie,” she warned beneath her breath. Turning on her heel, she all but ran the remaining distance to the Blue Bell Saloon.

Set in the corner of the building, the bar’s door offered welcoming light and the comforting sound of conversation and laughter. Fighting the wind, she wrestled open the door and slipped inside.

While she took a moment to catch her breath, she glanced around. A long bar stretched on her left, behind it a mirror spanned its length. Polished brass gleamed from the footrails of the stools pushed up to the antique bar. On her right, tables covered with linen cloths were arranged in cozy groups for the diners enjoying an evening meal.

She took a step inside, intent on reaching the bar and ordering a hot cup of coffee laced with whiskey to calm her nerves before seeking out Judd Barker. A low growl stopped her—one that sounded frighteningly familiar. Steeling herself, she slowly turned and saw Baby standing between her and the door she’d just entered.

His hair bristled around the collar at his neck and down his spine, and his teeth were bared. Had he followed her in? She stole a glance at the door, expecting it to open and his owner to appear, but there wasn’t a sign of the man through the glass. She thought about screaming, but feared that would only upset the dog further. Surely someone in the bar would see the dog and come to her rescue. Keeping her eye on him, she slowly began to back away. “It’s okay, Baby,” she soothed in a voice pitched low to hide her fear. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Her back hit a wall of flesh and she stopped, her eyes widening in surprise. Not wanting to make any sudden movements, she whispered, “Quick! Get the owner or the manager. This dog followed me in here.”

“He didn’t follow you, he was here first.”

At the sound of the familiar male voice, Callie whirled. “You,” she whispered accusingly when her gaze met the brown eyes of Baby’s owner.

He spread his arms wide. “None other.”

She threw a glance back at the dog to make sure he hadn’t snuck up behind her before she turned to glare at the man again. “Isn’t there a law against having dogs in bars?”

He shrugged. “Probably. Nobody complains, though. Baby’s sort of the mascot of the place.”

“Well, I’m complaining,” she said, stabbing her thumb at her chest for emphasis. She pushed past the irritating man and made for the bar. Angling a hip to slide onto a stool, she folded her hands on the bar and managed a smile for the bartender. “Are you the owner, sir?” she asked politely.

He glanced over her shoulder at the man behind her, then looked down again, hiding a smile. “No, ma’am. I just work here.”

“Well, my name is Callie Benson. I’m a visitor in Guthrie, but I’ve already had one run-in with that dog this afternoon and don’t relish another one. Would you mind asking this man to remove the animal, please?”

“I—” The bartender shifted his gaze from hers to a spot above and behind her. Slowly, he shook his head as he returned his gaze to her. “No, ma’am. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

Imperiously Callie straightened, adding a good two inches to her height. “Then I would like to speak to the owner, please. Is he here?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The bartender picked up a towel, trying real hard not to laugh and said in an overly loud voice, “Judd, this woman here wants to talk to you. Says she wants you to kick out Baby.”

If the bartender had lifted a pistol and squeezed off a shot, he couldn’t have stopped the conversation in the room any quicker. In horror Callie watched the mirrored reflection of the room’s interior as every occupant turned his head to stare at her.

“Really?”

Callie shifted her gaze on the mirror to focus on the speaker of the single word, the man behind her—Baby’s owner. She watched as he moseyed up to the bar beside her.

Nausea quickly replaced horror.

“You’re the owner?” she whispered weakly.

“Yep.”

She swallowed hard. “Judd Barker?”

“One and the same.”

“Oh, God.” She dropped her elbows to the bar and her face to her open palms.

“Baby, heel.”

Callie heard the pad of Baby’s paws and the occasional click of a claw hitting the wooden floor as the dog made his way across the room. Embarrassment kept her eyes hidden beneath her hands.

“Now, Baby,” she heard Judd say, “this lady here seems to be holding a grudge against you for the way you greeted her earlier today, and she doesn’t think you ought to be in the Blue Bell. My pappy taught me long ago that the customer’s always right, but heck, Baby, I sorta’ hate to put you out on a night as cold as this one. Can you think of a solution to this problem?”

Callie split her fingers a crack, just enough so she could peek down at the dog. He sat on his haunches not a foot away, his eyes as soulful as a cocker spaniel’s and looking for all the world like a repentant child being lectured by his father. She closed her eyes against the sight of him, refusing to soften to the beast who had twice that day scared the living daylights out of her.

The next thing she knew, Baby’s front paws were planted on her right thigh and his tongue, as coarse and abrasive as the pumice stone she kept on the side of her sink at the studio, was licking at her pressed fingers.

Steeling herself against the warmth flooding her heart, she knotted her hands on top of the bar, but continued to ignore him.... That is, she did so until she felt the damp, velvety texture of his snout as he nuzzled her cheek and heard the most pitiful whimper rumble low in his chest. Then she crumbled.

“Oh, good heavens,” she said, trying to hide the effect he had on her with irritation. He lifted his head and barked twice in rapid succession, then looked at her, panting happily, his tongue lolling, dripping saliva on the leg of her jeans.

Laughing, Callie cuffed him behind his ears and as a reward earned a full lick on the cheek. She looked up at Judd, her eyes dancing. “How do you call off this beast?”

“Baby, sit.” Immediately the black Labrador dropped to his haunches beside Callie’s barstool, but continued to stare at her with those huge black eyes. She looked right back, but with humor this time, not irritation or fright. Stealing a pretzel from the bowl on the bar, she held one out to him. He nabbed it, then lay down at her feet and happily crunched away.

“Does this mean he can stay?”

Callie turned her head to look at Judd. “Do I have a choice?” She opened a palm and gestured toward the customers in the bar who had gone back to their own private conversations. “Between them and Fido here, I think if push came to shove, I’d be the one cast out on the street, not him.” She looked down at the dog again and snorted. His paws were as large as her opened hand. “How in the world did a beast like that earn the name Baby?”

Judd sidled up to the bar and lowered a hip to the barstool beside her, his knee brushing her thigh. Heat radiated from his leg to hers. Callie felt it, but didn’t draw away. Neither did Judd, although she knew by the slight narrowing of his eyes that he was as aware as she of the contact. She arched one brow slightly as she listened to his explanation.

“He wasn’t always this big. Believe it or not, when I first got him, I could hold him in the palm of my hand. He was the runt of a litter of fifteen and about as poor as they come. Why, you could pluck the chords of a song on his rib cage, he was so skinny.”

Callie couldn’t help but laugh.

“My goodness, Baby,” he said in mock surprise. “The lady can smile.”

Immediately, her lips puckered into a frown. “Don’t push your luck. I still may press charges for assault with intent to kill.”

“Baby? Kill? He wouldn’t hurt a fly. That’s just how he greets people.”

Callie looked down at the dog at the same moment Baby looked up. His appearance alone was enough to intimidate a person. Wide, square forehead set off by two pricked ears, shoulders as broad as any professional linebacker and paws as wide as her outspread hand. But his eyes... Once she looked into them, really looked, she knew the dog was a pussycat. His eyes were pure black, but soft and totally endearing. As she looked into them now, she couldn’t believe she’d been afraid of this animal.

“Yeah, well...” she said in embarrassment. “He looks innocent enough now, but that growl.” She suppressed a shudder, remembering, then cocked her head to look at Judd. “If he’s so safe, why did he growl at me like that?”

“He’s protective.”

“Of what?”

“Not what, whom.” He bent to scratch Baby behind the ears. “He thought you might pose a threat to me.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.” He straightened, and Callie saw a half grin tug at one corner of his mouth. She couldn’t help thinking how similar the pet and his owner were. Like his dog, Judd Barker looked meaner than sin. A gunslinger, she remembered thinking when she’d first seen him earlier that evening. And that’s exactly what he’d looked like. Tall and lanky, the lines of his face hard and unforgiving.

But now, without the sinister black duster and Stetson, and with that grin softening the hard lines of his face, he looked almost friendly. She was sure he’d deny the comparison, but beneath that rough exterior she would swear lay a heart as soft as Baby’s.

“You raised your voice this afternoon, and Baby takes offense at anybody who yells at me. So when you came in the door a minute ago, Baby was just warning you to keep your distance.”

“Well, for heaven’s sake,” she said in exasperation.

“No, for mine.” He chuckled and signaled the bartender. “What can I get you to drink?”