LITMIR.BIZ

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the lobby and a woman dressed like a ranch hand came into the room. She was striking in her beauty and wore the clothes like she was made for them. In the years he’d worked on a ranch, Jared had never encountered a lady rancher.

      She joined Mr. Warren behind the desk and kissed his cheek. “Hello, Papa.” She was tall and graceful. “Good morning, Mary Lou.”

      “Jasmine, I’d like you to meet Jared Ivy. Mr. Ivy will be working with me at the paper for the next month or so.” He wanted to smile at the way Mary Lou had insinuated their time working together would end with his departure, without actually saying he would be leaving. Their time at the paper together would end. But he wouldn’t be the one going anywhere. “This is Jasmine Warren. She’s Mr. Warren’s daughter and will soon be married to Doc Willis.”

      “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, ma’am.” He dipped his head in deference to the lady.

      Mary Lou continued. “Jasmine, I’d love to interview you for the paper. Your wedding is big news.”

      Jasmine Warren smiled. “If you really think there’s something to write about, I’ll be glad to share with you. Maybe we could have lunch one day soon before the wedding.”

      Jared answered for both of them. “We’d be most agreeable with that. You just name the day.”

      Miss Warren’s face creased. “Will you be joining us, Mr. Ivy?”

      “No, he won’t.” Mary Lou answered on top of his “Yes.”

      Mary Lou tilted her head to one side and spoke to Miss Warren. “Mr. Ivy has brought a claim of ownership against me for the newspaper.”

      Mr. Warren didn’t seem to like the sound of that. “Is that so?”

      “Jacob Ivy was my grandfather. He left me the paper in his will.”

      Mr. Warren’s expression widened as he took in the announcement. “I see.”

      Miss Warren said, “Then I’ll be happy to meet you both on Wednesday at noon. Naomi will be serving her famous chicken and dumplings in the restaurant that day.” She lifted the papers Mary Lou had placed on the desk.

      “Papa, have you seen my cameo? It was right here.” She began picking up the items on the desk one at a time and looking under them. She opened the drawer on her side of the desk.

      “No. Are you sure you left it here?”

      “Yes. I was showing it to Momma Beverly on Saturday afternoon. You must remember. It was just after lunch.”

      “I haven’t seen it.” Mr. Warren opened another drawer on the desk.

      A thought he didn’t like entered Jared’s mind. “Saturday afternoon?”

      Mr. Warren stopped his search. “Yes. You were here that afternoon. Did you see it?”

      “No, but if you’ll think about anyone who may have come through the lobby that afternoon, maybe you can remember someone who could have seen it.” Jared knew one person who’d been here that afternoon. Someone who was desperate for money.

      “Well, you were here.” Mr. Warren began naming everyone he could think of, but his memory wasn’t as sharp as a younger man’s would be.

      “What about anyone local who came in to do business with you? Or perhaps someone who ate in the restaurant?” Jared wanted to stir the man’s memory but he didn’t want to be the one to say Andrew’s name out loud. Mary Lou wouldn’t thank him for it. Her fondness for the youth had been made clear.

      “There were the usual guests on Saturday. Evan was here.”

      Miss Warren headed for the door. “I’ll go ask if he saw it. He may have picked it up for safekeeping if he did.”

      Mary Lou explained. “Evan is Doc Willis.”

      Jared gave a nod of acknowledgment. “Mr. Warren, was there anyone else? Someone who came but didn’t go into the restaurant.”

      “Well, I hired Andrew that day as the new errand boy, but he was only here a few minutes.”

      Mary Lou gave a slight gasp and spun to pin Jared with her gaze. “Are you suggesting that dear, sweet Andrew took Jasmine’s cameo?”

      He held up a hand. “I’m saying that the only way to find it will be to remember who was here. If Andrew was here, he may have seen it.”

      Mary Lou’s words were barely more than a whisper. “Andrew is not a thief.”

      Mr. Warren cleared his throat. They both started. The hotel owner handed Mary Lou money for the newspapers. “If you two will excuse me, I’m going to help Jasmine search for the cameo. I bought it for her mother because it had a rose corsage on the shoulder of the lady’s dress. Her mother’s name was Rose.”

      “I’m sure you’ll find it soon.” Mary Lou thanked him for the money and they left the hotel.

      Jared couldn’t understand why she wasn’t more curious. “Mary Lou, if you’re as good at the newspaper business as you say you are, why aren’t you the least bit interested in what happened to a valuable family heirloom?” They turned at the center of town and headed back toward their office.

      Their office. It sounded odd in his mind. It was his office. He must keep his focus on the ownership of the newspaper and all the responsibility that went along with that. If someone in town was stealing things, he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Solving a crime would show the people of Pine Haven that he was serious about the paper and about bettering the community.

      “People misplace things all the time. Especially small things. I daresay Doc Willis picked it up, just as Jasmine suspected.”

      He shook his head. “But you don’t know that. Aren’t you making a lot of assumptions?”

      She opened the door to the office and went inside.

      He followed her, waiting for an answer.

      “I am not. It is not an assumption to refuse to believe that a trusted friend is a petty thief. It is an assumption to suspect someone you don’t know when you aren’t even sure there’s been a theft.”

      “I’ve only been here a few days, but I’ve seen you rely on your opinion of situations more than once.”

      “My opinions, as you call them, are based on years of experience in the newspaper business and a personal knowledge of the parties in question.”

      Her shoulders stiffened. Even though she stood on the opposite side of his desk, the friction between them filled the room.

      “You did not know the newsagent from the train, yet you dismissed him as innocent without interviewing him.”

      “There was no crime there, either.”

      “True, Elmer Finch didn’t shoot the man in the saloon, but he is harboring a secret. One I think needs to be investigated.”

      “Really, Mr. Ivy, you do go on.” She picked up her pad and pencil from the desk. “If I were to run the paper by following your imaginations, we could become the biggest work of fiction in Texas before the judge arrives.”

      His mother had ignored him. Even hidden truths from him. But she had never dismissed him out of hand.

      Jared mustered all the strength of character he possessed to answer her charges. “Objectivity is the cornerstone of good journalism. I suggest that your years of association with the people in Pine Haven may have dulled your sense of neutrality. Once you become allied with anyone, you lose your ability to consider them in any light other than the one you’ve cast upon them.”

      “Your grandfather trusted my instincts. I have yet to err in my assessments of the good people of Pine Haven. I stand confidently on that record.”

      He crossed his arms over his chest. “Then, as the Good Book says, take heed,

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