“I always thought he kind of liked Callie,” Lexie said. “He came over a lot more after Dad was gone. And he seemed pretty broken up when she died.”
“Speaking of Callie,” Tess said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you—things I learned from the sheriff.”
Stunned and perplexed, Lexie listened as Tess described the findings of the medical examiner and the crime lab.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Val demanded. “We aren’t children. We don’t need to be protected from the truth.”
“I know.” Tess sighed wearily. “At first I just wanted to bury her ashes and move on. But then I decided it wouldn’t be fair to the two of you. You have a right to know.”
“So you have even more reasons to believe that Callie might’ve been killed,” Lexie said.
“Not reasons, just questions. It’s not only that she was found on her back. The smoke in her hair, the smear on her shoe, and the missing bra—it all smacks of suspicious circumstances. Where did she go before she died? Who was she with, and why?”
Val shrugged. “The list is pretty short. Unless somebody we don’t know about was on the property, it could’ve been one of the boys, or Aaron, or Ruben, or even Pedro. We may never find out. But we’ll be more likely to see or hear something if we keep this to ourselves. Agreed?”
Her sisters nodded.
“I have another thought,” Lexie said. “What action will we take if we do find out?”
There was a beat of silence. “I suppose that would depend on what happened,” Tess said. “If a crime was committed, we’d have to notify the sheriff.”
“And if it was just Callie sneaking out to meet someone?” Val asked.
Lexie shook her head. “I don’t even want to think about that. I mean . . . she was like our mother.”
“Hey, she was an attractive, sexy woman with practically no social life,” Val said. “We can’t rule that out.”
“Whatever Callie was involved in, she ended up dead,” Tess said. “If she didn’t fall or jump into that arroyo, then somebody put her there. I was hoping we could put her death behind us and move on. But I was wrong. No matter how long it takes, we owe it to Callie, and to our family, to learn the truth.”
* * *
Aaron arrived the next morning, the Kubota loaded with tools and plumbing parts. Lexie had ordered some grab bar kits and picked them up in town, but the frame on both sides of the toilet would have to be built from scratch with pieces of metal pipe cut to size and joined with elbows. Aaron had offered to do the job for free, but Lexie had insisted on paying him for time and materials. He hadn’t objected. With the sale of his property still in limbo, he could probably use the money.
With Val on her way to town and Tess helping drive the bulls to fresh pasture, Lexie and Aaron had the house to themselves. As they worked together, Lexie showing him what she had in mind, handing him tools, and holding things in place, she found herself looking at him in a different light, seeing him as the young soldier who had loved and lost—and perhaps never recovered from his broken heart.
She’d spent enough time with Aaron to be comfortable talking. Why not ask him about the photos? They weren’t really part of what the sisters had agreed to keep secret. And it might help her learn about the mother she barely remembered.
“Aaron, could I ask you about something personal?” She held the grab bar steady so he could mark the drill holes in the shower.
“Depends.” He reached for the electric drill.
“While Val and I were moving things around, we found a box of old photographs—pictures of you and my mother, from the time you were kids. It was a surprise. I never even realized you were friends, let alone sweethearts.”
The drill whined, biting into the shower wall, making three holes for the long screws, then three more for the other end of the bar. “I can’t believe she didn’t throw those pictures away,” he said. “But they must’ve meant something to her. Not that it matters, now that she’s gone.”
“All those years together. It must’ve hurt when she married somebody else.”
Aaron was silent, leaning into the drill to make the last hole. Then the breath exploded out of him. “You’re damn right it did. We had it all worked out, how we were going to get married when I came home, and how I could help her dad and take over the ranch one day. Instead, I served my country with honor and got shit for it.”
It was an awkward moment. Any sympathy on Lexie’s part would be insincere. If her mother, Isabel, had married Aaron, her family wouldn’t exist. Still, she wanted to learn all she could.
“How did it happen?” she asked.
“About the way you’d expect. She’d promised to wear my ring and wait for me, but then Bert Champion hired on to run cows for her dad. Just a no-account cowboy without two nickels to rub together. But he had a pretty face and knew enough to move in on the boss’s daughter. The right words, a little moonlight, and she forgot every promise she’d ever made to me. I came home to find that the bastard had stolen my girl, the ranch, and the family we’d talked about having. He took it all.”
My father wasn’t a bastard. Lexie bit back the words. She was learning things she’d never known, and she wanted Aaron to keep talking.
“He took it all and then the sonofabitch killed her—with that damned skittish horse—as sure as if he’d put a gun to her head. If Isabel had married me, she could still be alive. This house, and the family in it, would be mine.”