Jessica Keller - The Ranger's Texas Proposal

Living off frozen pizza? Josie shivered at the thought. “No Mrs. Grayson, then?”

“There’s my mother?” He shook his head. “But no, she hasn’t been Mrs. Grayson in fourteen or so years. She’s Mrs. Nye these days.”

“Dating?” Why was she grilling him?

“No, ma’am. I’m not exactly the dating type.”

She pointed her fork at him. “What did I say about the ma’am business?”

He ran his hand over his hair. “Force of habit, I’m afraid.” Then he rocked forward, pushed his plate to the side and rested his hands on the table. “How about you tell me what happened at the barn last night—go ahead and go into detail, if you will.”

“Right.” Josie clasped her hands in her lap. “It was just past sunset last night. I know that because the boys were in the dining room with their house parents—there are couples at the ranch who serve as counselors and role models for the boys living there. They had just finished dinner. I was heading out to my truck.”

“That one out there?” He jutted his thumb toward her driveway.

“The only one I have.”

He laid a hand on the table, giving off a relaxed air that Josie knew—from Dale’s training—was all part of the tricks of the trade when it came to getting a witness to feel comfortable in an interview. “Is it safe to drive?”

“Is this pertinent to my story?”

“No.” He shifted in his seat. “I apologize. Continue, please.”

“Well, I was about to unlock my truck but I froze because I heard a clanging sound, and I know that sound because it’s very distinct. I hear it every day.” Josie stopped clenching her hands together. Relax. She wasn’t on trial. Heath was here to help.

She took a deep breath and continued, “It was the side door to the calf barn. The one I personally had locked before dinner. I’d asked one of the ranch hands—Davy—to grease the door so it wouldn’t frighten the calves anymore, but I guess he hadn’t gotten around to doing that yet. Good thing, too, because if he had, I might not have seen all of this and the calves would be lost.”

“You’re positive it was locked?”

“Absolutely. I sent the boys in to wash up for dinner and I stayed back and locked all the doors before I headed in.”

“So you heard the door open?” he prompted.

“Yes, and then I saw someone charge out of the barn.”

“Could you describe them?”

Of course he’d ask that. She should have used the past few hours to try to draw a better, clearer image from her memory.

She shrugged. “Medium height, medium build. I’m sorry...that’s all I’ve got.” She blew out some air. “They were wearing a hooded sweatshirt and it was dark out. I never got to see his face.”

“His? Are you certain it was a man?”

Questions... Josie took a deep breath. It was Heath’s job to pick apart her story. That was how he found the truth. Josie knew that, but even still, it made her want to shrink. Dale had never been able to turn off his police brain. He spoke to Josie the same way he would a suspect. Maybe that was an across-the-board thing for all people in law enforcement.

She picked at a chip in her table. “I guess I’m assuming that part.”

“Do you have any idea who it might have been?”

“No. I mean, at first I thought it might be one of the older teens from the ranch. They have setbacks sometimes. But it wasn’t one of them.”

His chair creaked. “You’re positive?”

“Absolutely. They wouldn’t do something to put the calves in harm’s way. Even if one of them were upset.”

“Did the person recognize you?”

“No. Maybe? How would I know? I didn’t recognize them. But I talked... I said my name.” She licked her lips, remembering that detail. She’d called out to the person... It’s Josie. If one of the boys had been in distress, she’d wanted to be able to help them.

Heath leaned forward.

Josie pressed on. “The person took off toward the open pasture and I couldn’t chase them.” She gestured toward her abdomen. Pregnant women didn’t run. Hopefully, Heath picked up on that without her stating it. “And as they took off, all the calves spilled out of the barn and started running around the ranch—into the darkness. I couldn’t catch them all, so I called for help and all the boys and the house parents came out and helped corral the calves. We caught them all and were finally able to locate all the boys, too.”

“Locate the boys?” His head tilted, just by a fraction. “So someone was missing?”

“Stephen.” Should she have told Heath? She didn’t want him to grill the teen. Stephen had been aloof recently, but he was still on track to go home next month. “He’s seventeen. But he’s a good kid. He didn’t do it.”

“How can you be certain?”

“He had a book with him. He’d been out reading.”

Heath frowned. “Outside? In the dark?”

“It wasn’t him.”

Heath’s brow dived. He used his pointer finger to rub under his chin. “How long were you outside before this all happened? Roughly.”

“Fifteen...maybe twenty minutes maximum.”

“Alone?” His eyebrows inched closer together with each question. “What were you doing out there for so long?”

She’d been focusing on how lonely she was. She’d been crying, not looking forward to the quiet back at her cabin. She’d foolishly asked God for a second chance at life and love.

Josie hid her shaking hands under the table. “Does that matter to the case?”

“It might.”

Calm down. “I was thinking. Thinking and watching the sunset. That’s all.”

He touched the tips of his fingers together. “I ask because I have to determine the suspect’s most probable time of entry into the barn. You didn’t hear someone accessing the barn before then?”

“Not at all. I’m the one who locked it. All the doors were locked. And that was at least an hour before then.”

Heath rocked forward. “More than likely the perpetrator was camped inside already when you locked the doors.”

“He was in there with me?” That idea made her skin crawl. She’d locked up alone and it wasn’t like she walked around the boys ranch armed.

“That’s my guess. It could change depending on other information.” He leaned back in his chair again and tapped one finger on the table a few times. “Then again, it’s most likely one of the boys, so there was probably no danger.”

“It wasn’t one of the boys. They were all accounted for.” Besides Stephen, but it wasn’t him.

Heath pressed back from the table and crossed his arms. Leveled her a doubtful look. “Those boys are at that ranch because they’re trouble. They wouldn’t be there if they weren’t. I wouldn’t put it past any of them to cause problems. They’ve done worse.”

Josie pressed back from the table. How could Heath say those things? Peg the boys as bad eggs before he’d even met them? Was he one of those cops who had seen so many horrible things that he automatically assumed the worst about everyone? She had watched Dale grow bitter about the world, more so each year on the job.

She shouldn’t press Heath. Then again, Josie had promised herself after Dale passed away that she wouldn’t allow anyone to push her around ever again. Not that Heath was being pushy. But from now on, she was going to be strong. Ask questions. The old Josie always swallowed her thoughts and opinions... No longer.

A breath. “I’m sorry, but your tone. You...you don’t like them—the boys—do you?”

“I don’t know them. I’ve only been to the ranch a few times and last time was years ago at the old location.”

“Yet you’re judging the boys anyway.” She shouldn’t be talking to him like this. Heath was almost a stranger, and here she was challenging him. But it grated on her to hear someone misjudge them, and so quickly. The Lone Star Cowboy League had worked hard to try to weed out the rumors in town that the boys at the ranch were trouble, yet still some of that belief lingered.