A Family Homecoming

“Who’s he?” Kyle broke in.

“A local boy, into misdemeanors as a kid, and some petty felonies—breaking and entering, shoplifting—later on.”

“Do you think he was one of the kidnappers?”

Rafe shrugged. “I don’t know.” He glanced at Sara, who was helping Lynn put up the posters for class the next day. “I was wondering if we could show Sara a picture of Willie and see if she could identify him.”

He and Kyle looked at Danielle.

“I would prefer to check with the doctor first and see what she thinks. It’s only been a little over three weeks since Sara got away. She still doesn’t speak.”

Kyle’s gaze locked with hers. “Sara won’t be safe until we have those two guys behind bars.”

“I know, but…”

“If we showed her several pictures and let her point to anyone she thought was familiar?” Rafe suggested. “We wouldn’t press her about it.”

Danielle could sense the men’s desire to get on with the investigation. She resented the pressure they silently exerted. She pressed her fingertips to one temple where the beginnings of a headache pinged in her skull.

“Dani,” Kyle said.

She jerked at the nickname. Heat flooded her body and rose to her face. The name had once been an endearment, spoken during the moments of bliss when his hands and mouth had roamed over her as they made mad, exquisite love and later, when they lay drowsy and content in each other’s arms. Go away, she ordered the troubling memories.

“I…all right. But I want to be with her.”

“Of course,” Kyle agreed smoothly. “When can you arrange it?” he asked Rafe.

“Saturday?”

Again both men looked at her. Danielle nodded. “At the house. It will be best if Sara is in her own home. She’ll be more comfortable than at the police station.”

“Great. I’ll come out around ten, if that’s okay.”

She agreed, then went to claim Sara. Rafe was gone when Lynn locked up and the four of them walked to the parking lot. After saying goodbye to the teacher, Kyle drove them to the main square in town and parked in front of the Hip Hop Café.

“This okay for lunch?” he asked.

Sara nodded before Danielle could speak. Looking at her daughter’s pleased countenance, she agreed. She was sorry the minute they walked into the odd little restaurant with its mishmash of articles from ornate mirrors to a moth-eaten moose head on the wall. The town gossip sat at one of the tables. She motioned them over before Danielle could shepherd them in a different direction.

“Well, if this isn’t a surprise,” Lily Mae Wheeler exclaimed, her earrings, which were two bright-green parrots perched on gold wires, swinging madly from each ear as she looked from one person to the other.

Sara, who thought Lily Mae was neat, took a seat. That left Danielle no choice but to join them. Kyle sat next to her, his eyes busy taking in the dining room and each person in it. When he looked at her, he smiled.

Caught off guard, she smiled back.

“Well, so this is your husband,” Lily Mae said. “We’ve been wondering if you were real or made up to cover an embarrassing circumstance.” She glanced meaningfully at Sara.

A dark red tinge crept up Kyle’s neck. “Danielle and I have been married for six years,” he informed the busybody in no uncertain terms.

Lily Mae giggled, then leaned close. “Well, years ago we had one librarian who told one whopper after another. Lexine Baxter left town as a teenager, then came back pretending to be a children’s librarian. Turned out she was a criminal, killed her father-in-law and husband and no telling how many others to get her hands on the Kincaid fortune.”

Danielle felt the air on her neck lift.

Kyle leaned forward. “Did she have a partner?”

“Oh, yes. She killed him, too. At her wedding to poor ol’ Dugin Kincaid, would you believe?”

Kyle looked disappointed and settled back into the chair. The waitress came to take their order.

“I’m up for a chili dog with lots of fries on the side. How about you?” he asked Sara.

Her eyes sparkled and she nodded shyly. Danielle didn’t argue with their choices, but, setting a good example, she ordered the vegetable plate lunch.

“Have you ever seen so many weddings?” Lily Mae asked when they were finished ordering. “Everybody’s getting married on the run these days. Not a good thing, if you ask me. People should take time to get to know each other.” She eyed Kyle. “What kind of work do you do? I might know of an opening you can check on.”

“Thanks,” he said, “but I don’t need a job.”

“Hmm, independently wealthy, huh?”

Danielle shifted impatiently at the woman’s nosiness but said nothing. Kyle was an adult. He didn’t need her help in fending off the inquisition.

“Seems odd that you haven’t visited your family.” Lily Mae turned to Danielle. “You and young Sara here have been in town about two years now, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” Danielle said.

Janie, their waitress, who also managed the place, brought plates of steaming food. “Lily Mae thought Wayne Kincaid was an escaped convict when he showed up in Whitehorn and wouldn’t confess his life story to her. She had everyone thinking he was out to murder us in our beds.”

Lily Mae glared at the saucy young woman. “Well, how was I to know? He acted as if he had dire secrets, not telling anyone where he came from or why he took a job at the Kincaid ranch when everyone knew it had a curse on it. And probably still does.” Her heavily mascaraed eyes narrowed on Kyle. “It makes a body wonder is all.”

Before thinking about what she was doing, Danielle snapped, “My husband’s business is his own, but I can assure you he has no prison record. For your information, he’s a good and honorable person. He works for the…” She noted the four pairs of eyes staring at her. “Well, he isn’t a criminal,” she concluded hotly.

“I’m with the FBI,” Kyle said quietly.

“Well, the FBI,” Lily Mae said, obviously flabbergasted at this piece of news. “Well, I never. The FBI.”

Danielle clenched her hands together in her lap. She was mortified by her outburst. A large hand closed over hers and squeezed gently. She glanced at Kyle. He withdrew his hand, but his eyes stayed on her.

His gaze roamed her face like a summer breeze, caressing her sweetly, conveying his thanks for her defense. The tension oozed out of her. She looked down, embarrassed but somehow glad…and maybe a little proud.

“Are you working on the kidnapping case?” Lily Mae demanded, recovering.

“I think that’s in good hands,” Kyle responded. “Shane McBride and Rafe Rawlings are on top of it. I’m home on an extended vacation.”

Lily Mae’s face lit up. “Rafe Rawlings. Now there’s a story. Did you know he was called Wolf Boy because he was found in the woods when he was just a tadpole? Turns out he belonged to Lexine Baxter. Illegitimate, of course. She abandoned him, poor thing. But he was adopted by a local rancher, so it turned out all right in the end.”

She continued the tale of how another rancher had been accused but acquitted of killing the man who had been Rafe’s father. Turned out Lexine had done that, too, although that had probably been an accident. And then there was the case of Clint Calloway who, it was finally discovered, was the illegitimate son of that old scalawag, Jeremiah Kincaid.

Kyle frowned. “So how did Jenny McCallum get to be the Kincaid heir?”

“Oh, she was another of Jeremiah’s bas…” Lily Mae glanced at Sara, who had lost interest in the grown-up talk and was busy loading her fries with ketchup. “She belonged to Jeremiah, too. Her mother died bringing the child to him. That’s how come Jessica and Sterling adopted her. Lexine tried to get rid of Jenny, too.”

“My heavens, she must have been the most terrible person in the world,” Danielle said, shocked.

“Believe me, there are others just as bad,” Kyle told her, his expression becoming harsh and forbidding.

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