Her mind went back to the boy, JJ, and she wondered how he was faring with his new family. She was proud that she’d had even a small hand in finding him a place in the world. He was a sweet boy, with a lot of promise. She felt sad for him. Having lost her mother, she knew how it felt to be mostly alone in the world. Of course, she still had her father. Not that he was much of a parent. He’d spent his whole life in search of exciting women, and her mother wasn’t one. He’d said often enough that they never should have married.
The poor woman had died alone, and a maid had found her after her death. It had been hard for Josie to forgive her father for that. He’d been away for several days, romancing a rich woman over in Cheyenne. He wasn’t even particularly upset to learn of his wife’s death. In fact, he’d told Josie that she needed to pick out the casket and see to the arrangements because, after all, he wasn’t really a relative.
She’d been devastated by her loss and his disinterest. It had come during one of her increasingly short breaks. She did good work, which resulted in more of it. Her bureau chief lauded her to every visiting official, which had landed her with this assignment.
But remembering the dead woman and her small children, she hadn’t hesitated when asked to help shut down the pipeline that had led to their deaths, and the incarceration of the regretful father.
She wanted very much to do that. But her contact, Raines, seemed unusually secretive about how and where they obtained drugs, and even more so about their own contacts. Josie was never allowed to meet any of them. She was told to find a way to go and see the boy, JJ. And while she was there, she was to find a way to see where silos and empty buildings were, and wheremost of the cattle were kept and where the cowboys worked most and where the young cattle grazed. Which, to her mind, had nothing much to do with dealing drugs. She was willing to go see JJ, and Cole and Heather had said she’d be welcome. But she didn’t want to raise any suspicions in John Everett, who was already wary of her. She’d have to bide her time for a little longer and come up with a reason to visit the Big Spur that sounded reasonable.
The drug dealers were a different matter. Now it was a matter of gaining trust, so that she could get past Raines to the brains of this outfit. That was proving to be more difficult than she’d imagined. And not for the first time, she wondered what had become of Raines’s former partner, Pete. Raines hadn’t said a word about him.
A short knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
It was Raines and again, Pete wasn’t with him. He came in, cast a curious look out the door and then closed it.
“My El Paso boss wants to meet you,” he said after a minute.
“Okay,” she said, trying not to sound excited. She was moving up the chain of command.
“He said tomorrow night at seven, at the bar. Listen, this is going to be worth a lot of money for you and me, so don’t mess it up. Have you got those schedules down pat if he asks you about them? The ones at the Big Spur?”
She faked a stammer. “W-well, I know pretty much when they get deliveries. But they’re not always on a schedule,” she said. “The cattle are in different pastures. The calves don’t come until spring, although the upcoming yearlings are in a pasture by themselves. They feed them out on the ranch instead of sending them to a feedlot.”
“Good, good. And what about security?”
“Cameras everywhere,” she said, “at least, where the expensive cattle are, at the stable, the barns, the line cabins—there areseveral of them, scattered around the ranch, used for roundup or nighthawks mostly when the weather is really bad.”
He made a face. “What about those silos and the trucks and the buildings? What sort of security is there?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she said hesitatingly. “I mean, I was just at the ranch house with the kid. I didn’t go touring.”
“So, how about you go visit that kid you convinced Everett to take home?” Raines asked. “You called Mrs. Everett to check on him a couple of days ago.”
Her heart skipped. She’d have to be very careful from now on. She hadn’t realized they had her under such close surveillance.
“I guess I could do that. But not real soon. I mean, I just got back from there. It would raise their suspicions.” She eyed him. “Maybe I could discuss that with the big boss tomorrow night.”
He glared at her.
“Or not,” she said with nonchalance. “Whatever you say.”
“Don’t run your mouth when you see him. Just listen. He’ll tell you what he wants you to know,” he added.
She sighed. “Okay. It’s your show.”
“You bet it is. There’s big money in this and I’m not going to lose out because you got ambitious.”
“I get it,” she said easily. “Where’s Pete?” she asked.
“Working on the deal,” he said enigmatically. “I’ll come get you tomorrow for the meeting.”
“I’ll be here,” she said. “It isn’t as if there’s anything to do in this hick town,” she added.
He just looked at her before he opened the door and went out.
She wasn’t a nervous person, but she was wired by the time her meeting with the big boss rolled around.
She actually jumped when the knock on the door came thenext evening. Spending a whole day in the motel room had made her stir-crazy.
