Chapter 19 #2
He kissed the tip of her nose and took off to finish dressing, while Nora pulled out a skillet and a rubber spatula to stir with, and then headed for the fridge.
About fifteen minutes later, he was back, black hair neatly combed, blue eyes the same color as the shirt he was wearing under his brown leather jacket.
His sharp-creased denim Wranglers were shiny from the light starch from the cleaners, and he was wearing his holstered gun at his hip.
He set his Stetson on the sideboard and shook his head.
“Darlin’, you’re going to spoil me with this.”
She beamed. “Sit. Eat. I don’t want all this to make you late.”
Then they sat down together and began to talk as they ate.
“What’s on your agenda, honey?”
“I’m going to use that table you put up for me and hook up my office, but I’m not logging in until I have the dishes in the china cabinet and the rest of my clothes hung up.
After that, it’s back to business for me, too.
I’ll always have my phone with me, but if I’m doing any live video or Zoom meeting, it will be on Mute.
I’ll hear it vibrating and get back to you the moment I am able. ”
“Same goes for me,” he said. “If I’m on stakeout, sometimes my phone is muted so I don’t give myself away.
Other times it might be when we’re in interrogation.
We’ll figure it out.” He downed the last of his coffee, and got up, leaned over to leave a kiss on her cheek.
“Gotta go, love. Oh… Shoot… I need to write down the security code for the house in case you need to run errands. It can be set manually, or set with a remote and disarmed the same way. There’s an extra remote in the sideboard. ”
“I’ll figure it out,” she said. “I’m all about tech.”
Moments later he was gone, and she began cleaning up the kitchen, suddenly anxious to put a little bit of herself into this home.
She picked up a clean dish towel and headed for the box with her mother’s china and began taking the pieces out one by one, wiping and stacking them on the table, and when the box was empty, she opened the cabinet doors and began filling the shelves with every piece from home.
Royal Doulton Fine Ivory China in the Mandalay pattern.
She could almost hear her mother’s voice again, cautioning her when she was young.
Be careful of my Royal Doulton, Nora.
“I’m being careful, Mama,” Nora said, and she was, even as she set the last piece in place and closed the doors. Then she stepped back, eyeing how they looked against the cherry wood and glass doors.
Satisfied with her effort, she took the empty box to the garage, then headed for her office. She was itching for a project. It was time to set up shop.
* * *
Hours later, she had checked in with her boss to let him know she had everything up and running at her new location and was ready for the next assignment.
It turned out to be a job on recovering wiped data at a lab facility, caused by a disgruntled worker.
The man had been identified and arrested, and Nora’s job was trying to recover it from the mainframe, but it wasn’t until she found transfer portals leading to a rogue IP address at the thief’s home address, that turned the tide.
“Gotcha,” she crowed, then picked up the phone and called the home office, identified herself and her ID code, and was put through to the boss.
“Miss Borden, you have news?”
“Yes sir. I found a transfer portal attached to a rogue IP address that is at the same physical address as the man who was arrested. At first, I thought it was just him trying to hide an original location and wondered if the man who was arrested wasn’t the thief at all, and that we could be looking at foreign interference.
But upon further digging, I believe it was the man under arrest, and I don’t think the data was destroyed; it was transferred, and made it appear as if it had been wiped on the lab mainframe.
Tell the authorities to go back to his residence.
Search his home from top to bottom. Look for a hidden room, either in the wall or in a basement you don’t know about, or an attic that appears to have no access point.
There is a whole other functioning system somewhere on that property or that IP address would not exist.”
“Interesting catch, and if this pans out, good work! I’ll let you know if they locate it, and you can see to the transfer of data back to their mainframe. In the meantime, I’ll put you on hold and not give you another case to work until we finalize this.”
“Understood,” Nora said. The call ended. Satisfied with her day’s work, she logged out and went to look for something to snack on.
While she was prowling through the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, she found a packet of frozen ground beef, a package of taco shells, a packet of taco seasoning, and everything else to make tacos.
It wasn’t fancy, but it was something she did know how to make.
She set the frozen meat in the sink to thaw, then got herself a snack and a cold drink and sat down at the bar and sent Asher a text.
Successful day. Off until tomorrow. I found stuff to make tacos. Are you game enough to trust me?
A minute later she got a reply.
Yum and yes. Running down a lead. I’ll let you know when I’m on the way home.
Pleased with herself, she took her snack to the living room and turned on the TV, found the channel for MSNBC, and sat down to catch up on what was happening in the world.
* * *
Ash sent a text to his dad, telling him Nora was in the house and laughed at the “told you so” response.
Dylan got a text from Asher midmorning. All it said was, “Nora’s in the house.
” He sent a “finally” response, and couldn’t wait to tell Angie there was going to be another woman in the family.
She’d already endured several years of holidays in Crossroads and been the only female on the premises. This was going to rock her world.
And when Gunner got the same message, he was both happy and relieved. His response was, “about damn time.” He hit Send, then he got out of his car and headed inside the motel to get a look at the body that had just been found.
Forensics was already there gathering evidence. The coroner glanced up.
“Ah, Kingston, just in time.”
Gunner grimaced a bit at the stench and made sure he wasn’t standing in anything vital. “In time for what?” he said.
“In time to see what’s left of the dude before he’s finished melting.”
“Melting? How?”
“The body has been frozen. I haven’t a clue as to how long he’s been dead, or who he is. The tips off his fingers have been removed, and the tongue cut out of his mouth. Ten bucks he snitched on someone who wasn’t nice.”
Gunner frowned then and moved to the foot of the corpse for a better look. “Oh hell, well, there goes the DA’s case against the Banner gang. Now we know where the missing witness went. I need to call this in,” he said, and walked out.
Not everyone was having a good day.
* * *
It was dark before Asher made it home, but when he walked into the house and heard music playing and smelled good food cooking, everything about this day settled within him.
Nora had heard the garage door go up, and then heard it come down, and ran to meet him with a guacamole-loaded tortilla chip as he was walking into the kitchen.
“Starters,” she said, and popped it in his mouth.
“Ohmygawd.” He chewed and swallowed, then kissed her hello. “That’s delicious. The house smells good. You smell good. I am one happy man.”
“I smell like tacos. I love you, too. Go put away the cop and come sit. Want a beer with the tacos, or a soft drink?”
“Soft drink. Whatever you’re having.”
He hung his hat on the hat rack and headed for the bedroom to lock up his weapon and change clothes. He’d repeated this routine for years and years on his own, but never had there been a reward waiting when it was done.
Nora was reheating the taco meat as she pulled out the individual bowls filled with toppings, then made their drinks, and added a roll of paper towels on the table. She couldn’t find any paper napkins, and there was no neat way to eat tacos.
As soon as Ash was back, she took the taco shells out of the warming oven and put them on the table along with the condiments and a little jar of hot sauce that looked well used. She poured up the taco meat into a crockery bowl and added a big spoon. It was the last thing to go on the table.
Asher seated her, then sat. The first thing he reached for was her hand.
“Thank you for this. Thank you for giving up your home for me. And thank you for loving me enough to do it.”
“I gave up nothing that mattered, and came because we belong together. Is there anything you like on your tacos that I have missed?”
“Just my teeth, and I brought them with me,” he said, and then winked.
It made her laugh.
And so they ate, talking a bit about what their days had been like without giving away confidential information.
“I texted the brothers today and told them you were here. Happy wishes all around. I told Dad, too. Another ‘told you so’ response.”
Nora was listening, watching the way his face lit up when he talked about them, and realized getting married by a justice of the peace was inadvertently cheating them of out his wedding.
“Ash, honey, I’ve been thinking about when we get married.
When I said I didn’t want a wedding, I didn’t mean I didn’t want them there.
I just meant the big church thing and invitations and all that goes with that, so how would we make it work?
If we went back to Crossroads, that would be for Jacob’s convenience only.
If we had it here in Austin, then Gunner and Dylan and Angie would have no problems being here, but Jacob couldn’t drive that distance on his own. ”
As Ash began talking, Nora heard excitement in his voice and relaxed. She’d done the right thing.
“If you want to do that, darlin’, then we can get Dad a round-trip ticket, and when he’s strong enough to fly, we’ll find someone in Crossroads who’ll take him to the airport in Amarillo, and then we’ll pick him up and take him home.
I won’t fly the chopper in the winter. Too much danger of stuff freezing up,” he said.
Nora nodded. “Yes, that’s what I meant. I just didn’t explain it properly.”
He gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Then that’s what we’ll do, so we wait for Dad’s recovery, then make it happen.”
“There we go, happening all over again,” she said.
His laughter delighted her, and he delighted her even more when he began making a fourth taco. Tonight was good, and it wasn’t even over.
* * *
Pearl’s first trip to Jacob’s house had turned into a regular thing. If Benny didn’t bring him to the Yellow Rose for lunch, then she took supper to him at night.
At first no one paid attention. Pearl was always feeding someone in need, and nearly all of her daily customers were locals. They just assumed Jacob’s regular appearances at the Rose were all part of his healing—getting out and about again.
But that story went out the window when Jacob walked into the Rose with a bouquet of flowers and gave them to Pearl. She blushed six shades of pink, told Davey the grill cook to shut up when he teased her, then put them on the counter beside the register, and forgot to remove the card.
Love, Jacob was a hard sign to miss.
Neither Pearl nor Jacob commented, but the looks they gave each other were telling, and one day after Pearl had closed the Rose, and everyone was at their clean-up task, Davey asked Pearl a question she hadn’t seen coming.
“Hey, Pearl, I know it’s none of my business, but if you and Jacob really get together, are you two going to keep living alone?”
Pearl hadn’t dared get that far in her head, and the question took her aback. And Pearl, being Pearl, fired off a snappy answer to hush him up.
“If my apartment upstairs winds up empty, you could consider transferring your living quarters from the Crossroads Inn to the Yellow Rose.” Then she laughed. “Even then, you’d likely still be late to work.”
Everybody laughed, even Davey. “Well, I wouldn’t say no if the offer ever came,” he said. “The guy in the room next to mine snores the roof off every night.”
They laughed again, and the moment passed. Except now the question was in Pearl’s mind. Would she want to, if he asked? And the little bee in her bonnet quickly reminded her. He built the house for me.