Chapter 6

Jarrod decided to keep talking. "I hear you might be planning to sell that property you own."

"You interested in buying it?" Shane asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "I have no use for it."

"Well, if you think anybody does, send them my way fast," Shane said. "I'm in deep need of money. Got enough for maybe one or two more meals."

He was angling for a handout. Jarrod considered it, and pulled out his wallet. "This ought to hold you for a few more," he said and gave Shane some money.

Shane took it. He did not say 'thanks.'

Jarrod said, "If I were you, Buster, I'd get out of town as soon as you sell that land. There's nothing for you here."

"I got a wife here," Shane said. "She never divorced me."

"I wouldn't know about that," Jarrod said. "Until I found out you were getting pardoned, I hadn't seen her for years."

"Broke up, did you? I'm not surprised. She's not exactly trustworthy."

Jarrod set his jaw. "There was never anything to break up, Buster. There was never anything at all between us."

"Sure," Shane said, and then he moved on past and started on his way.

Jarrod turned. "Buster!"

Shane stopped but did not turn around.

Jarrod said, "I'd advise you to keep your distance and stay out of trouble while you're in Stockton. Sandra works for A.K. Torrence now. He's not a man to trifle with, and you know you don't want to go back to prison for any reason."

Shane didn't say anything. He just started moving again and kept going.

XXXXX

The listing for Shane's property was posted on one of the local estate agent's billboards by the end of the day. It did not have a big asking price – no surprise, since there was no longer a house on it. Jarrod wondered if the neighbor Brady might buy the land. His cattle had wandered onto to it to graze now and then.

Jarrod wondered if Sandra knew that Buster was selling the property. He wondered if she cared. He wasn't aware that she had ever had anything to do with it since the house burned. Now and then he wondered if the rumors were true and she had set fire to the house herself.

Complicated people, those Shanes. Buster, a man who was surly most of the time and never held a steady job. Sandra, a woman who sang for their supper and sang well enough to appear in several places around town before she settled at A.K.'s after Buster went to prison. The two of them in a marriage that neither one of them seemed to like. The murder of a man – Roman Taliaferro – whom Buster had described as a man he'd sold some tools to but otherwise had nothing to do with.

The Shanes both testified, Buster insisting that Sandra had been there with the body before he was, Sandra insisting she came in to find Buster there with it. Beyond that, they were both silent. Jarrod could never uncover anything else about it, not even a motive for anyone at all killing Taliaferro, but there had to be more between Taliaferro and the Shanes than they were telling. The alarms in Jarrod's head were telling him that right and left at the time. They were telling him that again now.

For some reason just as enigmatic, he felt like that neither one of the Shanes had killed the man, though. One of them had found him dead, probably by someone else's hand. Neither Buster nor Sandra had any speculation about who had murdered him. They each just tried hard to get the law to believe that the other had found the body. Sandra won out on that, and the jury believed that Buster had put that body on the floor. Why, no one ever decided. At the time, Jarrod found himself wondering if the men on the jury had just been waiting for a chance to get rid of Buster.

Jarrod always had the feeling Sandra was telling the truth and Buster was not, about who found the body first, but something else was wrong about the whole thing. Was it fear of suspicion falling on her that made Sandra testify against her husband, or did the desire to get out of a bad marriage have something to do with it? If it did, why didn't she divorce him while he was in prison?

Jarrod had always thought Buster's tale about Sandra having been with the body first, then come back finding Buster there, was preposterous – he never had any evidence that it was true. And if Sandra had been in there first and left, why in the world would she come back? The whole event, the whole trial, everything about it was crazy and to Jarrod's thinking at the time, incomplete. There was something he didn't know then that he still didn't know now. Something had never been right about it, but no one could ever get either of the Shanes to say anything other than what they said at the trial.

Thinking about it now was making Jarrod take a walk. He did his best thinking while walking, but it wasn't helping this time. His head was just spinning and he actually lost track of where he was – until he found himself a block down from A.K.'s Court. He stopped.

He shouldn't go in. But then he saw Shane come out.

Shane went in the other direction and didn't see him. Jarrod didn't like that Shane had gone in there. Even if A.K. was a tough man who could easily take care of him, his mere presence had to have unnerved Sandra.

But it was Buster who was his client, not Sandra. That was ten years ago, Jarrod told himself. You don't owe him a thing now. But you don't owe Sandra anything either.

Everything sensible in his head told him to steer clear and just go home, but he ended up going into A.K.'s Court anyway.

It was only a little past six and not terribly busy yet. No one was singing and the pianist was nowhere around. A.K. was behind the bar, serving two men standing there. A poker game was going on at another table. Two waitresses were around. Sandra wasn't.

Jarrod went up to the bar. A.K. never had a smile for him and didn't now, but he asked, "What'll it be?"

"Scotch," Jarrod said and put money on the bar for the drink. "I just saw Buster Shane go out."

"Yeah, he was in here," A.K. said as he poured.

"Did he see Sandra?"

"She's upstairs and I wouldn't let him go up there."

Jarrod sipped his drink. "He's got that property of his on sale at one of the estate offices. I think that's what he came to town to do."

"I hope he leaves as soon as he does," A.K. said.

Jarrod leaned an elbow on the bar, turned a little to look at the door to the outside, and said, "I wonder what he wanted to see her about. The land is his, not hers. There'd be no reason he'd need to see her about that."

"He probably just wanted to drag Sandra back into that marriage," A.K. said. "Ten years is a long time to go without."

Jarrod wondered if the money he gave Shane earlier was going to go for food or for what he had gone without all these years. "Do you mind if I go talk to her?"

"Yeah, I do," A.K. said. "She'll be down in half an hour. Why don't you just wait?"

Jarrod looked back toward the card game and recognized two of the local ranchers in it. "I'll do that," he said and wandered back to the table.

He asked to join and the men at the table were happy to have him and his money. Jarrod didn't realize that by now, he wasn't going to be home in time for socializing and dinner. Time was getting away from him. He also completely forgot he'd promised his family he'd let them know if he was going to be late.

None of his family members had forgotten. Nick stared at the clock, frowning, muttering. "I'm giving him another half an hour and then I'm going into town to get him."

Victoria gave one of those looks to Heath – go with him so he doesn't get into trouble. Heath nodded silently.