Chapter 14 #2
“Cremation then. If anyone comes looking for them, they’ll be gone. There will be no evidence that cougars killed them,” Dan said. “We don’t want to bury them out here. Their ashes will be dropped into one of the closed silver mines.”
“We’ve got their guns. They’re on the table in the hallway on the second floor. Do you want me to get them for you?” Frank asked.
“I’ll get them.” Rory went inside the house while the other men went out back to dig out the brothers’ bodies.
They would have to patch up all the places where the bullets struck the walls and ceiling.
“What if someone comes looking for them? Friends or family?” Lacy asked. “Timothy never mentioned his twin brother or anyone else in the family. So I don’t know if he has any. Though a friend or two might come looking for him. Even someone at the PI agency they were running.”
“Does anyone know about you dating Timothy?” Dan asked.
“Only my grandfather. I don’t know about anyone he might have told except his brother.”
Rory returned with the guns. “Here they are. We’ll have to get rid of their cars too.”
“We will.” Dan took the guns and put them in his vehicle.
Then he and Rory began helping to dig out the brothers from the snowdrift.
“I want to check on my coffee shop,” Florence said.
Rory shoveled some more snow away from the house. “I’ll take you. Are you going to open it up?”
“I might. Just in case townsfolk want coffee and pastries after being buried at home.”
“I’ll go with you and help out,” Lacy said.
“I’ll ask if Ava wants to join us. She doesn’t have to, but she might feel a little housebound. We might not get much business though.”
“I’ll bring the snowblower and clean off the sidewalk in front of your coffee shop,” Rory said.
“What can I do to help?” Frank asked, sounding a little left out.
“Greet customers if we have any?”
“I can do that.”
Lacy and Florence watched the men carry the bodies to the ambulance that just pulled into the driveway. Once they were loaded into the ambulance, it left.
“Are you all right?” Dan asked them again.
“Yeah, we’re going to the coffee shop and opening it up,” Florence said.
“We’ll drop by and pick up some things from your shop,” Dan said.
Florence smiled. “Thanks. You may give us the only business we’ll have.”
Then Dan and the other guys left, and she locked up her house. Rory drove her, Lacy, and Frank in Rory’s pickup to the coffee shop. He seemed really happy to be behind the wheel again and not hemmed in.
When they reached the shop, they found the snow piled high against the windows and door. The road and parking spots had been cleared, but they still needed to work on the sidewalk. Rory got started on it.
Once he cleared a pathway to the front door, Florence unlocked it, and she, Lacy, and Frank went into the shop.
Florence called Ava while Lacy started the coffee. “Hey, Ava, I opened the coffee shop. I’m not sure if we’ll get anybody here so you don’t need to come in if you don’t want to. Lacy and Frank are here with me. Rory is out clearing the sidewalk with my snowblower.”
“No customers?”
“No, and we didn’t see anyone on the road either.”
“Okay, I’m staying home with the kids then. I’ll come in tomorrow.”
“That’s fine. I’ll let you know if business picks up.”
Rory was still clearing the sidewalk and finally put the snowblower in the truck, then came in for some hot chocolate and to warm up. “It’s done.”
Just as he spoke, customers were beginning to venture out, probably feeling just as snowbound as they had been. When they saw Florence’s shop was open, they began pulling into the parking lot.
“Looks like we’re open for business,” she said, thrilled they had come in to get things ready.
Frank finished his coffee and began bringing menus to everyone and getting them water.
“What a storm,” one couple said. “We were at the motel and didn’t think we would ever get out of there. The owners had to feed us until we could leave.”
“I’m so glad the storm is over,” Frank said. “Much longer, and we would all have gone a little stir crazy.”
“I agree.”
Then Frank took their orders and turned them over to Florence. She had just finished making the fresh soup and brought it to the table while Frank greeted Dan.
“Is everything taken care of?” Frank was referring to the brothers.
“Yeah. Done.”
“Are you here to pick up something to eat?”
“Yeah. We need some hot sandwiches to go—beef brisket, if Florence has the meat for it.”
“I sure do,” Florence said. “I’ll make them right away.” She had already cooked the brisket and frozen it, so it wouldn’t take long to reheat and grill the sandwiches. “How many do you need?”
“Seven. We’re all coming in to eat and then head out to help anyone in need due to the blizzard.”
“Coming right up.” Florence and Lacy both worked together to make the sandwiches.
Then more people came into the shop, and Rory finished his cocoa and started taking orders too.
Florence and Lacy finished the sandwiches and bagged them, but when she left the kitchen to give them to Dan, a man came to the door, opened it, and walked inside. Her jaw dropped. Dan turned around to see who was at the door and saw the exact clone of Timothy and Manning that she saw.
“Are you the sheriff?” the man asked.
“Yeah, I am.”
“I want to file a missing person’s report for my brothers, Timothy and Manning Wrangler. Your dispatcher said you were here. My brothers came here looking for—”
Peering out of the kitchen to see what the problem was, Lacy dropped the knife she’d been using to cut up sandwiches, and it hit the floor with a clatter.
“Her!” the man said. “Where are they? Where are my brothers?” He sounded furious with Lacy for luring them to Yuma Town as if it were her fault that they had followed her there.
“How should I know? I broke it off with Timothy months ago, but nothing I said worked. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I left Orlando to get away from him. He followed me to New Orleans, then here.
” Lacy folded her arms. “I keep getting restraining orders to keep him away from me, but he ignores them. So who are you exactly?”
“Canton Wrangler. Timothy called me and said he followed you here, that some guy was making the moves on you.”
Great. So this guy knew they had been there for sure.
“That would be me,” Rory said, moving next to Lacy and taking her hand and squeezing it. “We’re marrying soon.”
If human customers hadn’t been there enjoying a bite of food, Florence figured Rory would have said he was mated to Lacy.
“So where are my brothers?” Canton asked.
“How would I know?” Lacy asked. “They never came to the coffee shop. This is where I’m working now. I’m staying at a horse ranch. They never went there either.”
Florence was glad that they hadn’t come here, or Canton would be able to smell that the brothers, or at least one of them, had been there.
“You can file a missing persons’ report at the office. I’ll lead you there,” Dan said to Canton.
“I want to talk further with her.” Canton jerked a thumb at Lacy.
“She said she hasn’t seen them.” Dan’s voice was much sterner now.
The other customers took that as a cue to finish their meals and leave the shop.
“I think she has seen them.”
“Did they tell you that?” Dan asked.
“No. I lost contact with them, maybe because of the blizzard. Timothy only told me he had found her in Yuma Town, Colorado.”
“A lot of people were stranded due to the storm,” Dan agreed.
Though Dan had never said that anyone had been, so Florence thought he was making that up. The cougars living in Yuma Town and beyond had had fair warning and had probably stayed put when the storm hit, unless they were strictly humans and had been caught up in the blizzard.