Truth and Dare

Patience sucked in a breath of surprise, her cheeks becoming a light shade of pink. “Why do you say that?”

“You’re passionate about this or you wouldn’t have taken time away from your lab and other cases.” He wanted to ask her why this was so important to her, but something told him this wasn’t the right time. It was more a hunch than anything, but he also saw sadness in her eyes. “You mentioned at your office that the sheriff would be overseeing the investigation, so I’m not totally understanding the problem.”

She grinned.

Cade shifted in his seat like a nervous schoolboy with a crush.

“I promise you I will do everything I can to find who did this. They have to pay for what they did to your family.”

Cade was grateful someone cared enough to even try. It couldn’t be easy solving a twenty-year-old murder. “Well, I’ll be here to help you, so we can cover twice the ground at the same time. I do have to run out to the ranch every once in a while to see how things are going.”

“The ranch?”

“Yeah, a couple of months ago I hired a foreman to run my family’s old place. We bought some cattle and he’s got the barn on the east side up and running. I promised to help him with the fences while I was here, and fixing up the old barn near the house. But my dad comes first. That is if you want me.”

WANT HIM? PATIENCE WANTED to tie him up in a bow like a present and feast on him for weeks. She couldn’t remember the last time her libido had been this fully engaged. He wasn’t her normal brand of “man candy,” as her friends liked to say, but then what was normal? She hadn’t been on an official date in years.

Technically he was a client and she had to behave.

Katie broke the rule and she survived quite nicely.

Katie, one of Stonegate’s best detectives, lived in London with her hot professor boyfriend. They’d met when Katie was protecting him. So maybe the rule wasn’t so hard and fast after all.

The last thing Patience needed was romantic complications. It would take all her concentration and resources to find the murderer. Her gut told her it would be best to stay away from the handsome cowboy.

“I don’t want you to take time away from the ranch, it sounds like it’s important to you.” She popped another French fry in her mouth. She’d have to run two or three miles to keep half of her lunch from landing on her hips.

“Oh, it’s no problem. I’d planned on spending as much time as I can with you.”

Patience’s head snapped up. Did he say he wanted to spend time with her? From the moment they’d met in her office she’d experienced an inexplicable pull toward him. Had he felt the same?

“Helping with the case that is,” he finished.

Her hopes sank. “Of course.” She waved a hand to the waitress for the check.

“Ah, honey it’s on the house,” the waitress told her. “You got our Cade back to town, so I feel like we owe ya one.” She leaned down and kissed Cade’s cheek, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Something strange came over Patience and it took a second for her to realize her clenched fist might be a sign of jealousy. It wasn’t an emotion she knew. There had never been anyone in her life to feel jealous about.

Interesting.

The scientist part of her brain wanted to explore the implications, but the woman in her was freaked out by her response.

Cade stood and gave the waitress a big bear hug.

Patience’s stomach twisted into one huge knot.

“Charli, you are the best cousin ever, but I told you that’s no way to run a business.” He plopped a twenty down on the table. “You can’t be giving the goods away for free.”

“That ain’t what you told all those girls in high school.” She let out a loud laugh, but she didn’t give him the money back.

Cousin? They were family.

“You keep this one,” she said, pointing to Cade, “on the straight and narrow. Don’t get his temper up or he’s ornery as a hornet’s nest on the first day of spring.”

He made a ring motion above the top of his head indicating a halo. “Don’t listen to her. I’m a complete angel.” He fluttered his eyelashes angelically. “She’s the one with the temper. Just ask her brother Jason. He woke up bald one morning because he said her boyfriend looked like a bean pole.”

Charli slapped him on the hip with the rag. “Now don’t you be tellin’ tales.” The other woman smiled at Patience. “But trust me that boy deserved it.”

They all laughed. This man was the exact opposite of the one she had met at her office. She couldn’t believe she thought him so cold and calculated. He was down-to-earth and relaxed. And she could see he had a great respect for his family.

Over at the courthouse, everyone seemed to have kind words for Cade. There were many cheerful hellos and pats on the back welcoming him to town. When she’d entered the first time she’d been completely ignored, except for the occasional curious glance.

“They’re so much more friendly toward you,” she said as they walked down the long staircase to the basement.

“What do you mean?” He helped her push open the large wooden door protecting the old records.

“When I first arrived, some of them looked at me like I was an exhibit at the zoo.”

“Ah, well, they’ll warm up to you soon enough. Everyone around here is cautious of strangers,” he said as he held the door open for her.

“Like those men at the diner?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s going on with them. I’ll have a talk with them later.”

There was no sense making more trouble. “Don’t bother. That was probably their way of protecting their town from an outside threat. Though why they see me that way makes no sense.”

“With those three there’s absolutely no tellin’.” Cade waved a hand in front of his face as they reached the dusty records room. “I’m guessing the spotless housekeeping upstairs doesn’t make its way down here very often.”

“From the looks of it, they pretty much use this as a storage room. Evidently no one in Phosphor ever has to do any research, because I found at least three inches of dust on most of the boxes. I wonder if they understand how much of their history is down here.”

“What do you mean?” Cade took a deep breath and blew the dust from the top of a box they’d moved to the table.

“From an anthropological point of view, when people migrate to an area and when they leave can be based on a variety of factors. You can find information about certain eras where the town may have been booming because of river travel, or the railroads. From some of the mortgages and contracts I saw earlier, there seems to be an influx of ranchers buying up land around here over the last five years.

“Possibly they’ve had some good years without drought and the pastures are greener than normal. I don’t know that for a fact, but it’s something that can be found out with a little study. I find it fascinating.” She coughed from the dust. “I only wish other people found it as interesting as I do.”

“Huh. I never thought about it that way. My cousins and I have all bought up land, or have come back to town to rebuild our family ranches that have gone to pasture.”

“My first question would be why in the last five years?”

“I don’t know about my cousins, but for me I finally had the income to do with the place what I always wanted. My plan is to have at least three hundred heads of longhorns in the next twenty-four months. I’d also like to fix up the old family house and make it a weekend and summerhouse. Somewhere I can get away from Austin and my life there.”

“Makes sense. Do you feel a need to reconnect with your past and possibly spend time with your family? I find that is the motivation for most people when they return to their old homes.”

Cade was scrutinizing her. “I guess so. I’ve been so caught up with my business I realized I hadn’t spent Christmas with my grandmother in five years. She put her foot down when I forgot her birthday in February, and I guess that’s when I started thinking about the ranch.”

Patience knew there was more to his story, but she wasn’t sure he was ready to examine that yet.

“Well, I guess we better get started opening these boxes. They aren’t going to research themselves.” He grinned at her.

“What I wouldn’t give for a modern-day courthouse with computer records.” She smiled back at him. “But I guess this is why my friends call it grunt work.”

Cade searched through twenty-year-old property deeds. Patience took on the task of reading through the more recent files. They hoped to meet in the middle somewhere.

“Hmm.” She heard him murmur.

“Did you find something?” She peeked over the edge of the box she was going through.

“It’s not so much about what is here, as what isn’t. There are six months’ worth of files missing.”

Patience stood. “Maybe no one filed deeds during that time,” she offered.

“No, it wouldn’t matter. There were years when nothing was filed, but there were still file folders for those months. But it’s the dates that really have me wondering.”

“Why is that?”

“The missing files are the ones six months before my dad died.”

3

“I SHOULD CALL THE SHERIFF with this information.” Patience drew the box toward her and replaced the documents. “For all we know, he may have the files in his office. He said he’d do some preliminary work before I arrived.”

She slammed a box lid down. “I didn’t even let him know I was in town. I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble by going to see him first.”

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and twisted it back on her head. Cade had the urge to touch the wayward strands, but he made himself pack up the rest of the boxes.

“Don’t beat yourself up. You were excited about getting started.” Cade did his best to be encouraging.

“Don’t pander to me, Cade. I made a mistake. A rookie one, I’m sure. Now I need to backtrack and do what I should have done this morning when I got here.”

“That’s a good idea.” Cade ignored her comment about pandering. He had a feeling she wouldn’t believe him if he tried to explain that wasn’t what he meant to do. “If he didn’t take the files, then that’s a clue for us. Don’t you think?”

Patience pursed her lips. “Definitely. I’ll stop by the station and ask him, but first I need a shower. I feel like I have ten layers of dust on me and I haven’t even checked into the B and B yet.”

The image of Patience naked with warm water and soap sluicing down her body was almost more than he could take. Cade returned the boxes to where they found them. “You said you were staying at the B and B?”

“Yes. Staying at a B and B takes me into the life of the townspeople, which is helpful when you’re trying to understand the local culture. You said you were hanging around for a few weeks, where are you staying?”

“Same place, just around the corner from the diner.”

A small smile turned up the edges of her mouth. Could she possibly be happy about staying in the B and B with him? “If you want to follow me, my truck is across the street.”

“Sure.” She glanced up but there was no trace of the smile he’d seen there.

As they rolled up in front of the B and B, Cade jumped out to help her with her bag.

“It’s okay,” she said refusing to let go of the suit case.

“Trust me, I need you to let me do this. When we get inside you’ll understand.”

She gave him a curious look but relinquished the bag. “Why?”

Holding open the door, Cade ushered her in carrying both of their bags.

“My stars, if it isn’t my errant grandson come home, and with a woman.” His grandmother held her hand to her heart. “Are there any great-grandbabies out there for me to hold?”

Dressed in her jeans, denim shirt and cowboy boots, GG hadn’t changed a bit. Her long white hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore the silver belt buckle she’d won bull riding forty years ago. She’d always been a woman before her time.

Cade scooped her up in a big hug, and she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Missed you,” he said as he put her down.

After his mom died, his grandmother was the one person in the world who kept him grounded. She was the reason he went to college and why he didn’t give up when the chips were down. He owed everything to her.

She slapped his shoulder. “Now who is this beauty you brought in with you?”

“Hi, I’m Patience Clark.” She held her hand out to his grandmother.

“Well, you are as pretty as they come,” his grandmother said. “I’m Dorothy Randall, this one’s grandma, and I own this money pit.” She winked. “Everyone calls me GG. Now, how did you meet my grandson?”

Cade knew what he would say would ruin his grandmother’s good mood, but it had to be done. “GG, she’s the woman who discovered what happened to Dad. She’s helping the sheriff with the investigation.” The last bit came out hoarse with emotion. He still had a hard time believing what had happened to his father.

GG pressed her lips together and sniffed once. No tears were shed. It wasn’t her way. Then she hugged a surprised Patience.

“Bless you child for bringing my son back home to me. People been throwing tacks at his reputation ever since he disappeared and now they’re all ashamed. I knew my boy wouldn’t run off. I just knew it.”

Patience cleared her throat. “Thank you for letting me stay here,” she said as she changed the subject. “I’m not fond of motels, or even hotels, for that matter. You have a lovely home here.”

His grandmother let go of her and headed behind the front desk in the lounge area. “Damn, money pit. Hailstorm two weeks ago did some damage to the roof, and the toilet is running in room six where you’re staying tonight.” She pointed at Cade. “You’ll have to jiggle the handle.”

Cade smiled. That was her way of saying he needed to fix the roof and the toilets, and he didn’t mind a bit. “I’ll make a run to Tom’s Hardware later and pick up what we need.”

“I’ve got Patience in room five, the rooms are adjoining. Is that going to be a problem?” GG had a twinkle in her eye. Was it that obvious he liked the beautiful blonde next to him? Nothing much ever made it past GG.

He noticed her erasing the fact that she’d originally had Patience in room one, at the other end of the hall. He couldn’t help but laugh to himself. The woman never stopped.

Patience smiled sweetly. “No, I don’t mind.” She’d missed GG’s intimation and for that he was grateful.

“I’ll take her bags up and show her the ropes.” He paused. “Is that chicken and dumplings I smell?”

“Might be, but they won’t be ready until six. Ya’ll look like you’ve been rolling around in a dusty field. Maybe you ought to clean up?”

“Oh, yes,” Patience said. Once again missing his grandmother’s double meaning. “We’ve been in the basement of the courthouse. If you don’t mind my saying, it’s very dirty down there. The town should better preserve its history.”

“Ha, I’ll have to talk to the mayor about that,” GG said as she chuckled.

Cade laughed as he pulled the bags upstairs and motioned for Patience to follow him.

“What’s so funny?” she asked as they walked along the second floor hallway.

“GG is the mayor.”

PATIENCE FACE-PALMED HERSELF. “Great, I’ve insulted your grandmother who is one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met.”

Cade took the key GG had given him and opened the door. “Nah, she thought it was funny. And I bet the next time we go down to the courthouse basement it will be clean as can be. This is your room,” he said as he opened the door.

Patience walked in front of him and gave out a small gasp. “It’s beautiful.” The walls were painted a soft cornflower-blue, and everything else was white, the furniture, comforter and linens, even the vase holding the colorful bouquet of flowers on the small nightstand.

“She’s a tough old broad, but she does have a knack for turning places into homes,” Cade said. “Where would you like your suitcase?”

“If you don’t mind, by the bathroom would be great. Thanks for carrying everything up.” She suddenly felt awkward. The room was large, but with Cade in there it didn’t seem like it.

“No problem. So I guess I’ll meet you downstairs in a half hour?”

“Uh-huh,” she said.

Cade shut her door to the hallway and then walked through one that adjoined their rooms. He smiled as he closed the door.

Patience fanned herself. The man did strange things to her body without ever even touching her. Unzipping her suitcase she pulled out her toiletries and clean clothes.

In the bathroom, she stripped off her dirty clothes and was about to turn on the shower when she heard someone singing. The voice was rich and beautiful, and it belonged to Cade.

Delicious shivers shot down her spine. She listened for a moment before turning on the shower over the big claw-foot tub. She pulled the curtain around to keep the water from drenching the floor.

Cade was on the other side of the wall. Even with the water running she could hear his humming. Why did the man affect her so?

It’s an infatuation.

How long has it been since you’ve been on a date? Too long.

Patience showered quickly, turning on a cold blast of water at the end to send her traitorous body a message. She had to focus on what was most important—the case. With the towel wrapped around her she stepped out just as her phone rang.

It was the sheriff.

“Dr. Clark, heard you were over at the courthouse this afternoon, thought I’d check up on you.”

“Thanks, Sheriff. I should have come to see you first. Do you have a minute for me to ask you something?”

“Certainly. What’s up?”

She told him about the courthouse. “I was wondering if you might have the files? If so, we’d like to come pick them up.”

“Sorry, I haven’t seen them, but that is curious. You checked several boxes and those were the only ones you found missing?”

“Yes,” she said as she shimmied into her panties.

“I did some digging myself. Joseph Randall, Cade’s father, was the water commissioner back then, but he also worked in the deeds department. At the time, our courthouse was a small operation and everyone helped out when necessary.”

“Water commissioner? I’d imagine water’s a big deal around here, where there are so many ranches.”

“Yep,” he said. “You know, those missing files may be in a storage facility outside of town. The old courthouse was a mess five years ago and they moved a lot of stuff out. I’ll check into it and let you know.”

Before returning to search the records she figured she should speak with Cade’s grandmother to get some background about her son’s business as the water commissioner.

Well, I’m learning as I go.

Now, grilling the woman wouldn’t be her best option. Patience wasn’t always known for her tact, but she knew she needed to approach Dorothy with kindness. Maybe she could ask about Cade as a child and what he was like before his father disappeared.

She stared at herself in the mirror for a moment. You have to be patient. What was it Katie had told her? That one sentence could change the entire way one looked at a case. She needed to keep her ears open and talk as casually as possible with those involved. And not push too hard for answers. People clammed up that way, Katie had reminded her.

Her friends often joked that her name was a misnomer. In her lab, Patience always took her time, but when it came to the rest of her life—well, she had a way of being abrupt and saying exactly what was on her mind. She didn’t have time for the games people often played. And to be honest she didn’t understand them. Unfortunately, from what her friends had warned, game play was a part of solving cases. Often a cat-and-mouse game.

Given what she’d seen already, her direct way wouldn’t work to her advantage here.

There was a knock on the door. “Are you ready?” Cade asked.

She quickly slipped on her T-shirt. “Yes, I’ll meet you downstairs.” Her mind shifted to the sound of his beautiful voice as he’d been singing.

She turned toward the shower wondering if she might need another cold spray. Patience was dressed, but she wasn’t sure about being ready for whatever it was Cade might offer her.

4

“I HAVE TO SOLVE THIS CASE quickly and get out of this town,” Patience said as they left the B and B and stepped onto the sidewalk. She picked up speed as she hit the concrete for their walk to the courthouse.

Cade glanced at her sharply. “Why? I thought you enjoyed dinner. Did GG say something while I was upstairs?”

Laying a hand on his arm, she smiled. “No, I adore her. The food was incredible, but that’s why. A few more days of eating like this, and you’ll have to roll me out of town. I thought I might pop the zipper on my jeans before we even finished the meal.”

Your jeans look just fine. The way they hugged her slightly rounded behind and showed off her legs.

Cade stopped. He shouldn’t be thinking like this. He had to concentrate, get back to Austin. The merger.

Taking her hand, he tucked it in the crook of his elbow. He had to confess he was relieved by her joking about leaving town. Throughout dinner she’d talked mainly to GG, and Patience had charmed them with her openness and honesty.

“I love food, too,” Cade said honestly. “I’m usually a nut about eating healthy and exercise. Of course, all that flies out the window when I smell my grandmother’s cooking. But I plan to work it all off at the ranch this trip.”

“I’d like to see it.”

“The ranch?”

She nodded. “I’ve never been to a real working ranch.”

“Sure, although I don’t exactly have it working just yet. But my foreman and I are at least making some headway. I’ll take you out there anytime you want to go. But no judgments. The old house where I spent part of my childhood looks pretty beat-up on the outside, though the inside really isn’t so bad.”

The house had been in the family for more than eighty years, and his grandmother and all her sisters and brothers had been born there. His father had also been born and raised in the house.

Cade had to clear this throat. His father was the good man his grandmother always claimed him to be. She and Cade’s mother were the only people in town who had believed his father hadn’t run off with some woman.

“Cade?”

“What?”

Cocking her head, Patience watched him carefully with those beautiful green eyes of hers. “You look upset.”

He forced a smile. “Sorry, I was thinking about my dad. His reputation was maligned by most of the town. Eventually, I even believed the rumors. Now I feel so guilty for all the mean words I said about him. I hated him for so long and now—”

“You were a kid, that couldn’t have been easy.”

“No, for the first couple of months I caused my mom and grandmother so much grief. Fistfights every day, and I was small so I came home with a lot of black eyes.”

“You were defending your family and I find that quite honorable.”

Cade took a deep interest in the dust sprinkling the top of his boots. There was absolutely nothing honorable about the thoughts he’d had about his dad.

“Every night I prayed he’d come home to us. Then after six months, I just gave up on him.”

“Like I said before you were—” Patience was interrupted by a loud shriek and then a string of foul words.

“Sounds like that came from the park.” Cade pulled her along with him as he went to investigate the source. They rounded the corner by Tom’s Hard ware Store and found the park crowded with people working on various booths.

“What is all this?” Patience asked as they walked down the path to where the booths were being built.

“The town is getting ready for the annual Firefly Festival,” Cade answered. “Andy was that you howling like a dog in heat?” he joked with his old friend.

Andy held a towel around his fingers and from the hammer on the ground Cade knew exactly what had happened.