Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
W hen Freddy entered her office and walked around behind her desk, Ry remained leaning in the doorway, his hat shoved to the back of his head. They hadn’t talked much on the way back to the ranch house, as if each knew an argument could easily break out over the subject of Eb’s character.
She picked up the receiver and glanced at him. “I know what you think, but Eb would not say something like this unless he believed it was true.”
Ry’s expression gave nothing away, but he didn’t agree with her, either.
Freddy punched in the Whitlocks’ number.
She knew it by heart. She’d spent hours over there as a child, back when Eb’s wife, Loraine, was still alive.
Eb and Loraine had been childless, and so they’d become honorary aunt and uncle to the Singleton girls, especially after Freddy and Leigh’s mother died.
Ry didn’t know all that history, and besides, he was from New York.
New Yorkers were famous for their suspicious natures.
Eb’s housekeeper, Doreen, answered the phone. “Sure, I’ll get him, honey,” she said. “He’s just out back working on the horseshoe pit he wanted to put in before the next party.”
Freddy smiled. Eb loved to entertain, and he usually invited at least a hundred people. His barbecued beef was legendary in the valley.
In a few moments, his voice boomed into her ear. “Freddy! Gonzales called me about that alfalfa. Your horse okay? I meant to phone you, but I got distracted. Which one was it?”
“Tumbleweed, our little dun mare, and she’ll be okay. Luckily, we got to her in time.”
“I found mold in my alfalfa, too, but I hadn’t given any to my horses, thank God,” Eb said. “Gonzales is giving us credit on a new load, of course. I made sure he’d do that for all of us.”
“Thanks, Eb. Listen, I understand you talked to the environmental engineer who was out here yesterday.”
“Just happened to run into him while I was out riding fence. Nice fella. Hated to tell him about those drums, but he was asking questions, and I’m a lousy liar.”
“Well, I think your memory’s playing tricks on you, Eb.” Freddy put a smile in her voice. “Dad had those hauled out when we stopped using them. Nothing’s buried at the True Love.”
“Freddy, you were only a little thing then. I believe I remember better than you do. He decided not to go to the expense. We didn’t have so many regulations back then, of course.”
“I was ten years old, Eb, and I remember the trucks coming in to haul them away.”
A cajoling note came into Eb’s voice. “I would do anything for you. You know that. But I have to tell the truth. Those drums are still there.”
“Eb, they’re not, either!”
“Well, I hope you have some paperwork to prove it, sweetheart, or somebody will have a little digging to do.”
Freddy sighed. “‘ll look through the files. Talk to you later, Eb.”
“Good luck. By the way, you and Leigh are coming to the party next week, aren’t you?”
“We’ll be there,” she said. “Goodbye now.” She replaced the receiver and stared at the phone. “I know Dad had the drums taken out.”
“I’m sure he did, too,” Ry said from the doorway. “Old Whitlock’s trying to screw up the deal.”
She glared at him. “Stop assuming that, Ry! We’re talking about something that happened twenty-two years ago. He could have forgotten, and in all honesty thinks he’s telling the truth.”
Ry folded his arms. “Pretty convenient that he happened to run into the engineer yesterday, wouldn’t you say?”
“He was checking his fence for breaks. Is that a crime?”
“I wouldn’t think a fellow of Whitlock’s stature would be inspecting his own fence. Doesn’t he have hired hands to do that?”
Freddy pushed away from the desk and rounded it to open a file cabinet drawer.
“You have to understand old cowboys. They can’t sit around, and sometimes the most satisfying work is the most mundane.
I can easily imagine Eb worrying about his own fence.
Now, if I can just find some record of those drums being hauled away, we’ll take it into town and clear up this business once and for all. ”
“You think there might be a receipt in there?”
She shoved the stuffed files apart. “I think there might be.”
“Looks like you could use a second file cabinet.”
“You’re right. But I’d have to find another battered one like this, so they’d match. A brand-new one would spoil the ambience.”
He laughed and walked over to brace one arm against the top of the cabinet. “At least we have a great excuse to go into town today,” he said in a low voice.
Heat washed over her, but she kept her head down as she closed one drawer and opened another. “Do you think so?”
“When I first came down to the corrals and saw you, I completely forgot about Ballesteros. And you know how important this deal is to me. But one look at you, and all I could remember was last night.”
Freddy realized her hands had stilled and she’d been staring sightlessly at the mashed files for several seconds.
“I’ve never spent a night like that in my life, Freddy.”
She risked looking into his eyes. What she saw there made her grip the edges of the file cabinet to keep from throwing herself into his arms. She swallowed. “You’d better go find something to do for a few minutes or I’ll never finish this search.”
The corner of his mouth tilted up.
“I mean it, Ry. And don’t forget, this office is in the middle of all the activity around here. People come and go constantly. We may not be able to keep our relationship a secret, but I’d rather not flaunt it.”
He smiled softly. “You’re right. Another five seconds and I’m liable to throw you down on the floor and rip your clothes off.”
She believed every word of it. “Take a hike, cowboy.”
He tipped his hat. “I’ll be on the front porch,” he drawled.
A half hour later, Freddy gave up. If the receipt was in the bulging file cabinet, she wouldn’t be able to find it without going through every piece of paper in every aging folder.
That could take hours, even if she enlisted some help.
She went looking for Ry and found him sitting with Dexter and Chloe, Dexter’s dog.
“It’s like the old needle in a haystack,” she said, dropping into a chair next to Ry. “I tried all the logical places, but no luck.”
“Dexter remembers the drums were hauled away,” Ry said.
Freddy leaned around Ry. “You do? The day those big trucks came and took the drums, the ones Dad used for gas?”
Dexter nodded. “Yep.”
“I sure wish Eb Whitlock remembered it.”
Dexter made a face.
“Oh, Dex!” Despite her frustration, Freddy laughed. “You just don’t like him because he kissed Belinda.” She glanced at Ry. “Let’s go see Mr. Ballesteros. On the way, I’ll try to remember the name of the trucking company. They might have records. Do you remember the name, Dexter?”
“Nope. Used to.”
“Yeah, me too.” Freddy reached across Ry’s ankles to pat the dog. “See you later, Chloe.”
“Chloe,” Dexter said, nodding. “That’s it. That’s her name.”
“What about Duane?” Ry asked. “Has he been here long enough to remember the trucking company?”
“No, but Belinda has.” Freddy jumped up and headed for the kitchen.
“I’ll come with you,” Ry said.
But to Freddy’s disappointment, Belinda had been too busy with cooking chores back then to take note of the removal of the drums.
“Let’s drive in and see Ballesteros,” Ry suggested as they left the kitchen. “Maybe he’d take a notarized statement from you.”
Hope filtered through her gloom. “You think so?”
“It’s worth a shot.”
“Okay.” She took her leather purse from a bottom drawer of the desk. “Let’s go.”
Ry looked surprised. “That’s it? You don’t have to fix your face, or anything?”
She paused in confusion. “Why, do I have a smudge of dirt on my nose?”
“No, you’re perfect, but I’ve never known a woman who’d walk right out the door without taking time to primp a little.”
Freddy hooked her purse over her arm and grinned at him. “That’s because you’re used to city girls. Welcome to the country, greenhorn.”