Green Calder Grass (Calder Saga 6)

“Shots?” The conversation now had Cat’s attention. “What on earth are you talking about, Uncle Culley?”

Before he could explain, Ty walked into the kitchen. His gaze went straight to the old man. “Hello, Culley. Tara said you were out here. I didn’t want you to leave before I had a chance to thank you for going for help today.”

He extended a hand in gratitude. Culley reluctantly shook it, mumbled an unintelligible acknowledgment, and picked up his silverware.

“When you topped that rise, I was never so glad to see anybody in all my life,” Ty told him.

“I imagine you were,” Logan remarked then pursued the subject Culley had raised a moment ago. “Culley was just mentioning that he heard a couple shots.”

“Really? When?” Ty asked, only mildly interested in the answer.

“About the same time I heard the crash.” Culley kept his head down as if absorbed by the meal before him.

“You probably heard the blowouts,” Ty concluded.

“Could be.”

But Logan wasn’t fooled by Culley’s apparent concession, chalking it up to the man’s natural reticence around the male side of the Calder clan. “But you don’t think it was, do you, Culley.” Although phrased as a question, Logan made a statement of it.

Culley fired him a quick look, his black eyes hard with certainty. “I know gunshots when I hear ’em.” He lowered his head again and pushed the food around on his plate. “I figured somebody was shootin’ at coyotes. But there wasn’t nobody else around, an’ there wasn’t a rifle in the pickup.”

“You think somebody shot out the tires.” Logan lifted his glance to Ty to observe his reaction.

“Seems like a mighty big coincidence that one thing happens right after another.” Culley didn’t commit himself to more than that.

“What do you think?” Logan put the question to Ty, noticing the way Ty was already mulling over this new take on the crash.

“I’m not sure. But those tires should have been in good shape,” Ty replied, his own suspicions beginning to grow.

Cat looked at all three of them, a hint of alarm darkening her eyes. “But who would do such a thing?”

“I wonder where Haskell was,” Ty murmured thoughtfully.

“He wasn’t at the construction site when I rode in. I know ’cause I looked for him,” Culley stated in a flat voice that didn’t have to point fingers.

“I’ll take a look around tomorrow morning,” Logan said then cautioned Ty, “Make sure your boys don’t haul that pickup away before I get there. Considering the number of people milling around there, I’m not likely to find much, but—just in case.”

“I’ll see to it,” Ty stated and left the kitchen.

No more mention of it was made by anyone that evening. Cat pushed it as far from her thoughts as she could, but it lurked there in the back of her mind along with the danger it might portend.

The midday sun beat down on the grass plains, blazing out of a sky bereft of clouds. A dry wind blew out of the north, sucking up the little moisture it found and leaving a gauzy haze of dust in its wake.

On any other day Ty’s thoughts would have been on the tinder-dry conditions that gripped the ranch. But with Jessy riding in the truck beside him, still with a hint of underlying pallor and her seatbelt tightly buckled, Ty’s mind was on other things.

He scanned her with a sideways glance, concern darkening his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t mind if we swing by the crash site?”

Jessy looked at him with wise eyes. “I am not going to get all female on you and freak out at the sight of the truck if that is worrying you. I have been bucked off too many horses in my life. The accident left me with a dandy headache and some bad memories, but nothing worse than that.”

“If it was an accident,” Ty inserted, no longer certain that it was.

“That’s one more reason I want to know what Logan found rather than hear about it secondhand later.”

There was no trace of anxiety in her voice. Its absence drew his gaze to the strong, pure lines of her face. Sun wrinkles fanned from the corners of her eyes and the rounded ridges of her cheekbones stood out clearly. Her wide lips lay comfortably together, without a hint of strain or tension. He was struck again by what a remarkable woman she was.

“You have always been one to face any trouble head on,” Ty recalled.

“It’s better to see it coming than have it sneak up behind you,” Jessy stated calmly and closed her eyes to steal some rest.