29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Twenty-Nine
" I reckon Isa is sneaking off with some fellow."
Poppy looked up from sponge-bathing Agatha, and Sol glimpsed a flicker of panic in her soft blue eyes before she could hide it. "What do you mean?"
"I saw Ma this mornin' on her way home from church and asked how it felt to have Isa underfoot all the time again. Damned if she knew what I was yammering on about. Then she went and tried to get nosey, so I had to lie to her. I said Isa must've decided to hole up at the hotel. Shug, I haven't lied to my ma since the last time she came after me with the rug beater." Despite his teasing words, there was a hard set to his face, an expression normally reserved for cattle rustlers and wife beaters.
"Surely there is some other explanation than her being with a man."
It would be easier to believe Poppy if she would meet his eye.
"Maybe not, but I can smell when Isa is up to mischief, and she's up to something." He grabbed his sheepskin coat off the peg beside the bedroom door. There was a nip in the air, and it was too busy at the ranch to afford catching a fever. "I think I'll go pay the deputy a visit."
"Oh, I don't think notifying the authorities—"
"I'm not notifying anyone of anything. I'm gonna see if Isa is shacking up with that boy she went to the dance with."
"Gareth?" She couldn't have sounded more stupefied if he'd announced he was taking a trip to the moon. "You think she's disappearing at Gareth's house?"
"Who else would she be canoodling with?"
"Who says she's canoodling at all, Sol!"
Mulishness firmed the line of his jaw. "I know what I saw on her neck, and it wasn't no curling iron burn."
Poppy's eyes brimmed with worry as he gave her and Agatha a smacking goodbye kiss before walking out the door.
DEPUTY GLEN LIVED in a little second-story apartment a few blocks from the sheriff's office. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Isa was supposed to be at their ma's.
She wasn't.
According to a concerned Minnie, Isa wasn't at the hotel or general store, either. Sol had the unsettling impression he'd been through this before. Isa had gotten it into her fool head to follow Poppy's abductors six years before, and he'd been beside himself.
Now, he was beside himself for a different reason.
He took the outside stairs three at a time, and his fist was hard against the apartment door. In the ally below him, a couple of town kids looked up from whatever bug they were poking. The door opened, revealing Gareth in his Sunday best. His shirt was creased, and the back of his hair had a cowlick. Seeing it was Sol, he opened the door without hesitation.
"Afternoon." Gareth was Isa's age with dark hair and eyes, and he yawned and scratched the back of his head like he'd just woken up from a nap. "Everything all right?"
Sol didn't get much further from the front door and studied the younger man's face for any hint of reticence. "Isa been by here?"
"What?" Gareth's shock seemed genuine.
"My sister. You haven't had her over any, have you?"
"Hell no!" The offense was real. Gareth eyes snapped angrily. "Why would I ever have Isa up here? I don't bring any women up here; it's a stipulation of the lease."
The two men stared hard at each other, one bewildered, one searching for deceit. Finally, Sol's tense posture sagged. "I reckon I got it wrong. I shouldn't have barged in here accusin' you of anything."
"I'll say." Concern replaced the other man's cautious hostility. "Everything well with your sister?"
"Yeah, she's just—it don't matter. I'll see myself out."
"Wait." Gareth put a hand on Sol's shoulder, and the gravity in his eyes made Sol straighten. "I've been meaning to talk to you. There's some fellow by the name of Randal Talbot looking for Junior. I know he's your friend, and the sheriff and I reckon we smell trouble. I was plannin' on visiting him myself come Monday."
Sol's eyes flared. "Appreciate that. I'll ride over today and let him know. Did that fellow say why he's lookin' for Junior?"
Gareth winced. "I don't think you're gonna like it."
Five minutes later, Sol shook Gareth's hand and sped down the stairs to his aging roan gelding. The mystery of where Isa was disappearing to would have to wait—he had to find Junior and warn him. Blanched of color beneath his tan, Sol kicked his roan north, racing to his friend's house.
Trouble was coming.