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“Matt!” Corrina scolded. “It’s not polite to ask someone about their finances!”
Seth merely chuckled. “Well, I’m not all that rich and part of my family lives next to you,” he told Matthew. “But I don’t. I live down in Texas. In San Antonio, where the Alamo is.”
“Oh,” Matthew mumbled, then a flicker of interest passed over his face. “Do you know Aaron?”
Seth nodded. “He’s my nephew. Are you two friends?”
Matthew nodded. “Yeah. We ride the same school bus together. He’s younger than me, but he’s pretty cool.”
“Mr. Ketchum is a Texas Ranger,” Corrina said to her son.
Matt’s blue eyes suddenly widened with disbelief. “You mean, like the one on TV?”
“That’s right,” Corrina replied. “Except that Seth is the real thing.”
Matthew’s mouth fell open as he stared openly at Seth. “You’re not wearing a badge or gun.”
Seth grinned. He didn’t know why, but something about the boy touched him. Maybe it was the vulnerable look in his eyes or the way he sidled close to his mom as though he couldn’t trust the outside world.
“That’s because I’m here as a neighbor,” Seth explained.
Corrina gestured toward the screen door leading into the house. “Dad’s inside, if you’d like to talk to him,” she invited.
“If he’s busy I can come back some other time,” Seth offered.
She cast him an odd look. “Dad’s never busy. He—uh—he’s retired now.”
Without waiting for him to reply, she opened the door and stood to one side to allow him entry. Seth slipped past her and into a dimly lit living room packed with mismatched pieces of older furniture. The house wasn’t air-conditioned, but there was a water-cooled fan blowing through vents in the ceiling. The moist breeze was enough to make the room temperature tolerable.
“Dad’s sitting out on the back porch,” Corrina stated as she ushered him down a short hallway and into a small kitchen with worn linoleum and white metal cabinets.
Along the back wall of the room, Corrina pushed open another screen door and motioned for Seth to follow her.
“Wake up, Dad,” she said in a raised voice. “Someone is here to see you.”
Rube Dawson was sitting in a metal lawn chair at one end of the screened-in cubicle. His face was red, his eyes bloodshot. Graying brown hair lay in limp hanks against his head and edged down over his ears. A blue plaid shirt was stretched taut over his rounded belly.
Seth didn’t need to see the empty beer bottles sitting on the floor next to his chair to tell him that Rube was a continual drinker.
“Hello, Mr. Dawson. Remember me?”
The older man twisted his head around and squinted long and hard at Seth. “Yeah, I think I do. You’re a Ketchum. Seth, isn’t it?”
Seth nodded while deciding Rube apparently hadn’t ruined all his brain cells with alcohol. “That’s right. I’m Seth. Ross’s older brother.”
Nodding, Rube reached a hand toward Seth and the two men shook hands.
“Sit down, son,” Rube invited warmly, “and tell me what this visit is about.”
Seth took a seat in a webbed lawn chair to Rube’s right. From the corner of his eye he could see Corrina lingering in the doorway, almost as if she was afraid to leave her father alone with him.
“Would you like a cup of coffee, Seth? Or some iced tea?” she offered.
He looked at her. “Tea would be nice. Thanks.”
She disappeared from the doorway and Seth turned his attention to Tucker’s old friend.
With slow, easy movements, he settled back in the chair and crossed his boots at the ankles. “I thought you might be able to help me, Rube. I’m up here trying to help my family find out who killed Noah Rider.”
Rube grimaced and swiped a thick hand through his hair. “That was a hell of a thing. I couldn’t believe it when I heard about it. Noah hadn’t been around here for years. Who would have wanted to kill him?”
Seth studied him closely. “I don’t suppose you’d kept in contact with him?”
Rube shook his head. “Nah. It’s been about twenty-two, twenty-three years since he left here. After he left here I think I ran into him a couple of times after that. And that was by accident over at Le Mesa Park.”
“What was he doing back then?”
“Training racehorses for some rancher down in Texas. Don’t know where. That’s been too many years ago for me to remember.”
Since the remains of Noah had been discovered on the T Bar K, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department had sent Chief Deputy Daniel Redwing to Hereford, Texas, to search Noah’s last known residence. Redwing hadn’t found much for them to go on. The man had apparently been living a simple, modest life. From what the deputy had gathered from the man’s neighbors, Noah had lived alone and rarely had visitors. At the time of his death, he’d been employed at a local feedlot. Physically demanding work for a man in his sixties.
Which could only mean that Noah hadn’t possessed a nest egg for his older years. He’d been forced to work to supplement his monthly social security check, Seth mentally concluded.
“Well, at the time he was killed he was working full-time at a feedlot. His employer told a San Juan County deputy he never missed work and was surprised when Noah had told him he wanted a day off to drive up here to New Mexico.”
“Hmm. So, old Noah was working,” Rube said thoughtfully. “That doesn’t surprise me. He was always a damn sight more ambitious than me.”
That was quite an understatement, Seth decided as he focused his gaze on the back view of the Dawson place. Like the front, there was no yard, just red packed earth dotted with rocks and a few clumps of scraggy sage. Beyond, some twenty yards away, a network of broken-down corrals joined one end of the barn. Except for one black horse, the pens were empty. From the looks of things, Seth figured they’d been empty for several years.
“So you’re retired now,” Seth commented.
Rube leaned forward and rubbed a hand over both knees. “Yeah. I had to give up ranchin’. Just got too old and stiff to sit a saddle. And I couldn’t afford to hire help. Sold off all my cattle and the horses, too.”
Footsteps sounded just behind Seth and he glanced over his shoulder to see Corrina walking onto the porch carrying a tray with two glasses of iced tea.
As she approached him, her gaze met his briefly then fell swiftly to the tray in her hands.
“I hope you like it sweet,” she said quietly. “I already had it made.”
She bent toward him, and as he picked up one of the glasses, he caught the faint scent of flowers on her hair. The sweet fragrance reminded Seth how very long it had been since he’d took any sort of notice of a woman. “I’m sure it will be fine. Thank you, Corrina.”
“I’ll bet I don’t have to tell you that Corrina is the light of my life,” Rube said to Seth as his daughter handed him the other glass. “I don’t know what I’d have done if she hadn’t come to live with me. She takes care of me just like that sister of yours took care of Tucker before he died.”
Seth’s gaze settled on Corrina’s face. Her smooth features were unmoving, giving him little or no hint to what she was thinking about her father’s comments.
“I’m sure you must really appreciate your daughter,” Seth replied.
Rube tilted the tea glass to his lips. After several swallows, he said, “Like I said, Corrina is the light of my life. I couldn’t make it without her.”
Totally ignoring her father’s possessive praise, Corrina quietly walked off the porch. Inside the small kitchen, she walked to the double sink and, balancing her hands on the ledge of the counter, she bent her head and closed her eyes.
Seth Ketchum! Dear Lord, what was a sergeant in the Texas Rangers doing here?
“Mom, is something wrong?”
Matthew’s voice jolted her. With a guilty start, she quickly turned to him, while carefully hiding her shaking hands behind her back. She couldn’t let her son, or anyone, for that matter, know what seeing Seth Ketchum had done to her.
“No, Matt. Nothing is wrong,” she lied. “Nothing at all.”
Chapter Two
A few minutes later, Seth swallowed the remainder of his drink and rose to his feet. He wasn’t really getting any useful information from Rube. And to be honest, the old man was not someone he cared to sit and reminisce with. He was slovenly and represented a side of life that Seth had seen all too often when dealing with criminals. Not that he thought Rube was a criminal. The only thing he figured the old man was guilty of was laziness.
“Well, thanks for your time, Rube. I’d better be going.”
“Sure thing, Seth. Anytime,” the old rancher replied, then squinted his eyes as another thought struck him. “Say, did Ross ever find that stallion of his?”
Seth paused at the door to look back at the old man. “You know about Snip going missing?”
“Ross called me when it first happened. He thought I might have seen the horse. But I don’t get out that much—just drive into town now and then. I told him I hadn’t seen the horse.”
“Well, Ross still hasn’t found him,” Seth said.
Rube shook his head. “That’s too bad,” he said regretfully. “He’s probably dead by now.”
Seth wondered why the old man would be thinking in that direction, when there were all sorts of scenarios that could have happened with Snip. However, he didn’t question Rube. For one thing, he didn’t want to appear as though he’d come over here to interrogate anyone.
“Ross isn’t giving up on finding him yet,” Seth told him, and then with a final word of farewell, he left Rube and entered the kitchen.
Immediately, he spotted Corrina working at the counter. He carried his empty glass to where she was standing, drying a large metal roasting pan.
“Thanks for the tea,” he said. “Where would you like me to put this?”
She cut him a brief, sidelong glance. And he got the sense that his presence was making her nervous. Why, he didn’t know, but the fact did intrigue him.
“Just drop it into the dishwater there in the sink.”
He did as she suggested, then casually leaned a hip against the counter. “I—uh—I was very surprised to see you here, Corrina. I thought you’d left San Juan County years ago.”
Corrina placed the dried pot to one side of the countertop before she turned to face him. “I was gone for a while. But when Dad started…going downhill I came back to take care of him.”
Her blue eyes were shadowed with fatigue—or was it sadness? Either way, it bothered the heck out of Seth to see this beautiful woman unsmiling, her eyes dead.
“I’m sorry Rube’s health is poor,” he said.
Her eyes darted away from his and her hands twisted the dishcloth into a tight rope. “Well, at least he’s alive. That’s more than you have.” She turned her gaze back on him and this time there was compassion in the blue depths. “It’s still hard for me to believe that your father is gone. I’m very sorry about that, Seth. He was…quite a character around here. I think everyone misses him.”
A wry smile touched Seth’s lips. “I don’t know that I’d go so far to say that everyone misses Tucker. He could be a real…difficult man at times. But you are right…. I miss my father and so do my siblings.”
She nodded, then realizing she had a death hold on the dishcloth, she tossed it onto the cabinet and wiped her hands down the front of her jeans. All the while, she was thinking how strong and masculine this man looked.
Long years had passed since she and Seth had attended the same high school. Back then he’d been a handsome boy with a quiet maturity that had impressed her. Now he was a striking man with lines of character etching his chiseled lips and hazel eyes.
Even though he was dressed in jeans, boots and hat as most of the ranchers in this area, Seth’s appearance would stand out from theirs, she realized. Not just because he had a long, muscled body that oozed sexuality. There was an air of authority about him that was only multiplied by the knowledge that he was a Texas Ranger.
“I…uh…never expected to see you again, Seth. You’ve been gone a long time.”
He was surprised she’d even noticed. Or had she simply meant the term “long time” in a general way? he wondered. “Eighteen years,” he answered. “But I’ve come home off and on throughout that time. You would have thought we’d have run into each other.”
A wan smile touched her lips in a way that said his being in San Juan County was hardly enough proximity for them to meet. “Well…we don’t exactly move in the same circles.”
He’d never been a social creature, but perhaps she believed he was. People around here had always been quick to put labels on the Ketchum family. Most of them wrong. And he supposed that hadn’t changed since he’d moved away.
“I didn’t know you lived here,” he admitted. “I’d heard that you married and moved away.”
Turning back to the counter, Corrina picked up the lid to the pot she’d just finished drying. As she swiped a dish towel over it, she said, “Matthew’s father and I are divorced. We were living in Colorado at the time and it was easier just to stay there than to make a major move. But then a couple of years ago, Dad began begging me to come back home and I…couldn’t refuse him.” She shot him a quick glance. “What about you, Seth? Do you have a family down in Texas?”
His eyes widened, as though just someone’s asking him such a question was a shock. “Me, a family? No. I’m not a husband or a father. Just a Texas Ranger.”
She wasn’t surprised. Although, looking at him, it made her wonder how he’d managed to avoid the women, who no doubt gave him second and third looks. Yet she sensed that he was a man who lived his job and anything else was put on the back burner.
Realizing she’d been holding her breath, she let it out and reached up to push back the swath of hair that had dipped onto her cheekbone. “Well, having a family isn’t always what you might expect it to be. The main thing is that you’re happy.”
There was a sadness in her voice that struck Seth right in the middle of his chest. Corrina Dawson had been a soft, sweet young girl. He didn’t like to think she’d already been scarred by a man. Especially one who hadn’t appreciated her.
“I don’t have any complaints,” he said. Then, deciding he’d dallied in the kitchen long enough, he added, “Well, I’d better be going, Corrina. It was nice seeing you again.”
She lifted her head and gave him a little smile. “Yes, it was nice to see you, too. Take care, Seth.”
He nodded, then quickly found his way back to the living room, where he let himself out onto the front porch.
“Hey, Mr. Ketchum, want to see my horse?”
Seth looked around to see Corrina’s young son sitting on top of a wooden doghouse just to the right of the front porch. The boy was staring at him expectantly, almost hopefully, and Seth realized there was no way he could turn down the invitation.
“Sure,” Seth told him. “Just show the way.”
Matthew leaped off the doghouse and motioned for Seth to follow him around the house to a beaten path that led to a nearby barn. The white dog trotted at their heels.
At the rickety corral, Matthew climbed upon the top rail of the fence, then jammed two fingers into his mouth and let out a piercing whistle.
Immediately, the black horse Seth had spotted earlier came trotting out of the building and straight up to Matthew.
“This is Blackjack. He’s nice, huh?”
The gelding was a quality animal, Seth realized as he eyed the heavily built quarter horse. No doubt someone had paid a fistful of money for him.
“Very nice,” Seth agreed. “You must be proud of him.”
For the first time since Seth had arrived at the Dawson place, Matthew shot him a smile. “Sure am! I ride him all the time!” he exclaimed. Then just as quickly the smile faded and he ducked his head and mumbled, “That’s about all there is to do around this old place.”
Folding his arms against his chest, Seth rested a shoulder against the corral fence. “You don’t like living here with your grandfather?”
With his head still bent, Matthew shrugged one shoulder. “Pa’s all right. But he don’t do nothin’. Except sit around and drink beer. That’s not somethin’ I want to do.”
Thank God for that, Seth thought with relief. But when would that change? he wondered. How long would it be before Rube’s bad habits began to influence the boy?
“It’s not something you should do, either,” Seth told him.
“Well, Pa says it helps the pain in his joints. Guess that makes it all right,” he muttered.
Seth was trying to decide how to respond to that when Matthew was distracted by a nudge from Blackjack’s nose.
The boy affectionately scratched the horse between the ears, then stroked the blaze down his face.
“Have you had Blackjack long?” Seth asked.
“Pa gave him to me last year for my tenth birthday. But I’m eleven now,” he tacked on with importance. “We used to have another horse, too. A gray mare. But Pa sold her. Said she was more trouble than she was worth.”
So Rube had bought the black gelding for his grandson, Seth mused. A generous gift from a man who apparently lived on little more than a social security check. But then Rube had sold off all his cattle, he quickly reminded himself. Perhaps he’d put a bundle in the bank and was now drawing a respectable amount of interest. However, if that was the case, he certainly wasn’t using any of the money around the homestead.
“That’s quite a gift,” Seth commented. “Do you ever have friends over to ride with you?”
Matthew’s head swung back and forth. “I can’t have friends over. Mom says it would get on Pa’s nerves.”
A nice way of saying the boy couldn’t have friends over who would see his alcoholic grandfather. What in the world was Corrina thinking? Why was she living here, subjecting her son to this type of environment?
“Well, how would you like to come over to the T Bar K and ride with me sometime soon?”
Matthew’s blue eyes suddenly grew wide with wonder. “You mean it?”
Seth didn’t know a whole lot about children, except that he loved them and tried to help with as many children’s programs as his busy schedule would allow. It made him feel good to think he’d lifted this boy’s spirits.
“Sure, I mean it. I’ll call your mother in a day or two and talk to her about it. Is that okay with you?”
“Okay!”
From her window in the kitchen, Corrina watched the interplay between Seth and her son.
Matthew must have intercepted Seth before he reached his truck and talked him into going down to the barn to see Blackjack. The idea surprised her. Matt normally didn’t take to strangers. Especially adults. But he’d seemed duly impressed with the fact that Seth was a Texas Ranger.
She sighed as a bittersweet feeling wound its way around her heart. When Matthew had been born, she’d wanted so much for him. Mainly two loving parents, a nice home and financial security. Yet try as she might, none of those things had come to pass.
Her son was hungry for companionship. Not just from her, but male companionship. The sort he should have been getting from his father. But Dale had walked out of their lives when Matthew had been only two years old. Her son didn’t remember his father. Nor did he understand why his father hadn’t wanted to be a family with them then or now.
Corrina had given up trying to understand years ago. Dale had been a dreamer and he hadn’t wanted any responsibilities holding him down for any reason. He’d moved on to another life and never bothered to contact the family he’d left behind. In a way, Corrina was glad she never had to see him or deal with him over parental rights to Matthew. Yet she wasn’t blind. She knew how much Matthew ached for a father and that filled her with a guilt she dealt with every day. And her father wasn’t the best role model.
“Corrina, are you in there, honey?”
The sound of her father’s loud call pulled her wistful gaze away from the window.
“Yes, Dad. I’m here.”
“Would you bring me another pack of cigarettes? My old bones just don’t want to move today.”
Since Corrina’s suggestions fell on deaf ears, she’d long ago stopped encouraging her father to change his habits to better his health. Yet it hurt her to see the things he was doing to himself. When Corrina had been in elementary school, her mother, June, had died suddenly and unexpectedly from a hidden heart problem. The tragedy had narrowed her already small family down to just her and Rube.
When she’d married Dale, she’d done so with the hope that his family would become hers, too. But his parents had been cold, distant people who preferred to keep to themselves. Which was just as well, she supposed. They’d never cared for her and Matthew any more than their son had.
The lack of family was the main reason Corrina had decided to come back to San Juan County and live with her father. She realized people thought she was crazy for putting up with a cantankerous old man. But he was her father. And he loved and needed her. That was more than she could say about some people’s family relationships.
She opened a cabinet and pulled down a pack of her father’s cigarettes. “I’ll be right there, Dad.”
Later that evening, as Seth and Ross walked from the cattle barn to the house, Seth used the time to toss a few questions at his younger brother. “Ross, why in hell didn’t you tell me that Rube Dawson had turned into a drunkard?”
“Didn’t know he had. The few times I’ve run into him in town, he seemed perfectly sober.”
Seth snorted. “All I can say is you must not have been looking at the man.”
“Well, I didn’t give him a Breathalyzer test or make him walk a straight line, if that’s what you mean.”
Ignoring his brother’s sarcasm, Seth said, “And you could have warned me that Corrina was living out there now.”
Ross stopped in his tracks to stare at Seth. “Didn’t know that either. But why does that matter—” He broke off, his eyebrows arched with wry speculation. “Well, well, this is something new. My brother, the Ranger, actually noticing a woman.”
Seth shot him a withering look. “How could I not notice with her living there?”
Ross could see from the tight set of Seth’s jaw that his brother wasn’t in any mood for joking, so he quickly sobered his own amused expression. “I honestly didn’t know Corrina lived there,” he said, then added with a thoughtful frown, “If I remember right, she was around my age, wasn’t she?”
Seth nodded. “I was a senior when you two were freshmen.”
“I always got the impression that she had a chip on her shoulder,” Ross commented.
“She had reason,” Seth countered gruffly. “The Dawsons were always one of the poorest families around here. I’m sure it was a struggle for her to hold her head up with pride.”
“I wonder what she’s doing there now. With Rube, I mean. Isn’t she married?” Ross asked.
Seth turned and continued walking in the direction of the house. Ross automatically moved into step beside him.
“Divorced. She has an eleven-year-old son, Matthew.”
Ross took his time digesting this news before he asked, “Well, did Rube give you any helpful information about Noah?”
“Unfortunately no. Said he hadn’t seen the man in several years.”
“Do you believe him?”
Seth sighed. “I have no reason not to believe him. Yet.” He looked at his brother. “He seems to think your stallion is dead.”
Ross snorted. “Hell, that old codger doesn’t know anything about Snip! Dad always said Rube knew a whole lot of nothing about a whole lot of subjects. You wasted your time going over there, brother.”
Where the murder case was concerned, he probably had wasted time, Seth thought. But he’d seen Corrina again. A young woman he’d never quite been able to forget. He couldn’t count that as wasted time.
The next morning, Jess called bright and early to warn Seth to get a horse saddled. The undersheriff was coming out to the ranch so that the two men could ride to the scene where the T Bar K hands had originally discovered Noah Rider’s remains.