Page 13 of Reckoning with the Cowboy
Max sighed, thinking about his brother being like a fish in a barrel locked up here. “Come on, you’re coming with me,” he said, and led the way out of the sheriff’s department and into the twilight. The sky around them darkened as they walked down the nearly deserted street.
Cordell felt his stomach growl as he matched his brother’s long-legged steps with his own. “Max, everyone is going to know about our past if Grimes comes to Dry Gulch for us.” His brother grunted in answer. “Where are we going?” he asked, moving fast to keep up. As hungry as he was, he said, “I’m not sure going to the café’s a good idea all things considered.”
“We’renot going to the café.Youare.”
Cordell shot a look at his brother. Max tossed him the keys to his pickup with the rented trailer still parked on the street.
“When you get through eating, drive up to my house. Park it in the back. But I don’t want to see you for at least thirty minutes.”
He felt a jolt. “You think he’s already here, maybe waiting for you at the house?” He started to argue that he didn’t want Max going alone but changed his mind at the steely glint in his brother’s eyes as well as the star on his chest and the weapon on his hip. The sheriff’s look said he’d lock him in a cell again if he gave him any trouble. “I am hungry.”
Max shook his head. “I can hear your stomach growling from here. Thirty minutes, Cordell. Park in the back.”
* * *
The sheriff waiteduntil Cordell disappeared into the café before he started back up the street. Max figured that if Grimes was already in town, he’d be waiting for him at the house. He’d started toward the sheriff’s department, where he’d left his truck that morning when he got the call.
“A man who says he’s your father is on the line,” the dispatcher told him. “Says it’s urgent.”
Max felt as if he’d been punched in the throat. For a moment, he couldn’t speak. “I’ll be right there.” He hurried the last few yards, pushing through the door and heading straight for his office. “Put the call through,” he said to the dispatcher.
His phone was already ringing as he closed the door and headed for his desk. He tried to steady himself, to breathe, but it was as if all the air had been sucked out of him. “This is Sheriff Lander,” he said as he took the call, surprised how calm his voice sounded.
The raspy voice on the other end of the line let out a chuckle, bringing back a nightmare of horrible memories. “How ya doin’, son?”
“I’m not your son.”
Grimes’s laugh still had that promise of imminent violence. “I think we should meet and talk about old times.”
“Why would we do that?” Max asked as he slowly lowered himself into his chair, all the time aware of the danger looming at the other end of the call. “I’ve spent years trying to forget you and those old times. I want nothing to do with you.”
“Funny, but I just can’t forget the last time I saw you and your brother,” the man said.
“Too bad it really wasn’t the last time.”
The laugh this time had an edge to it that told Max that Grimes was about to get to the point of the call. “You know I never told anyone about that night.”
“I would imagine not. Who would believe you given your criminal record?”
A tense silence followed, then Grimes quit trying to be friendly. “Guess you don’t want to know where your mama is, then?”
Max gripped the phone so hard his fingers ached. “You’re finally admitting that you killed her and buried her where she couldn’t be found?”
“I told you she was fine when she left that night. She’d had enough of the two of you. But I did track her down while I was in the slammer. I can tell you where she is. But you’ll have to come home since I really want to see you and your brother. We have some issues to resolve, don’t you think?”
“Home?You can’t mean that shack in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, where you took your meanness out on us, keeping us prisoners there so you could terrorize us.” Grimes had picked the place, he realized now, because there wasn’t another house for miles. They’d been alone and trapped with a psychopath.
“I guess we remember it differently, but you were young.” Did Grimes worry that Max was recording this call? Was that why he was being so careful? “Son, I really want to see you. Why don’t you and Cordell take a ride down here? Or I can come to Dry Gulch. I’d like to meet Goldie. And now Cordell’s back. Heard his high school sweetheart, Josie, is an attorney? I would imagine they’ll get back together, don’t you?”
He knew about Goldie and Josie? Max felt his heart threaten to burst from his chest. Had he really thought getting Goldie out of his house would protect her? It hit him again. Where the hell was Grimes getting his information?
“I think the two of you should come home for this reunion,” the man was saying. “I can meet your girlfriends later. Unless you’re inviting me to Dry Gulch.” He chuckled. “It’s just as well. I’m not planning to stay long down here so I hope to see you at the old homestead by tonight. Otherwise, I guess I’ll have to make the trip up to Dry Gulch.”
“You do know that threatening an officer of the law will get you sent back to prison, right?”
“Threatening?” He howled with laughter. “I just want to see my boys one last time. I’m not as young as I used to be. That’s why I’m heading out to the West Coast after our reunion. I liked the sunshine down in Florida but that was about all.” He chuckled again. “See you soon.”
Max started to speak but realized Grimes had already hung up. He slammed down the phone and swore. Grimes had been so careful not to threaten them outright, but he’d gotten his message across loud and clear.
