LITMIR.BIZ

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door? If he were going to walk down the road to the ranch yard, the front door would have made more sense. Would you take me around to the back of the house so I can have a look around there?”

      “Certainly,” she said, and motioned for him to follow her.

      Daniel remained a few steps behind her as they walked off the porch and around one end of the log house. Although he was absorbing the surroundings as they walked, he also couldn’t help but notice the slight sway of Maggie Ketchum’s hips. She was wearing a pair of faded Levi’s that molded to her bottom like the seat of a worn saddle. A pale pink T-shirt outlined breasts that were rounded and full and jiggled ever so slightly as she walked. She was a voluptuous woman. The kind that men wanted in their arms and their bed.

      He couldn’t deny that he’d wanted her from the very first time he’d met her. But he’d carefully kept his attraction to himself. Daniel didn’t get involved with women. Not in a serious way. After watching his mother go through the misery and degradation of being deserted by his father, Daniel didn’t want any part of marriage or the responsibility that went with it.

      But even if he hadn’t been soured by Robert Redwing’s behavior, even if he decided he had what it took to be a husband and father, he was smart enough to know that Maggie Ketchum was way out of his reach. She rubbed shoulders with the well-to-do. She could have most any man she wanted. There was no way she would ever want a Ute Indian, who’d grown up hard on the reservation and now lived modestly on a deputy’s income.

      “There’s nothing back here, really,” Maggie said, swinging her arm toward a wooden deck furnished with a group of redwood lawn furniture.

      Pulling his thoughts back to the moment, Daniel glanced briefly at the back door of the house and the deck that was obviously used for family gatherings. He was more interested in the small gate that opened into a thick stand of ponderosa pine.

      “Where does that trail go?” Daniel asked her.

      Maggie glanced toward the quiet path that was cushioned by a thick layer of yellow pine needles.

      “Oh, it goes for about a hundred yards, then dips down to a meadow where we pasture a few horses. A mare that I ride on occasion, her colt, then Aaron’s gelding, Rusty, and then another gelding.”

      “Does Aaron ever go down to the meadow?”

      “Sure. He goes there a lot. To visit the horses. And it’s also his job in the evening to feed them their grain. This trail ends at a small barn. That’s where we keep our saddles and tack. Aaron plays around there at times. But I went as far as the barn and called for him. He wasn’t there.”

      Her voice trembled as she answered his questions. As Daniel watched her swallow and struggle to compose herself, it was like having a knife stuck in his chest, and the blade just kept twisting and turning. The reaction to her pain was enough in itself to scare the hell out of him.

      He didn’t really know Maggie Ketchum all that well. He’d talked to her three, four, maybe five times on the telephone during the Rider investigation. Also, during those long weeks, he’d had two rather lengthy interviews with her. But even those visits had not given him much insight into the beautiful woman behind the sad blue eyes. Yet from the very first time he’d seen her, he’d felt an overwhelming attraction that had only grown over the past few months.

      “What about the horses?” he asked. “Did you see all of them?”

      “No. At the back of the meadow there’s another grove of trees. When it’s hot, the horses are usually back there for shade. But I didn’t look, I took it for granted that they were there.”

      Daniel glanced down at her feet to see she was wearing a pair of sandals. “Maybe you’d better go change your shoes to something sturdier. I think we need to walk down to the meadow and take a look.”

      “All right. But what…what are you thinking? Do you think he’s left on one of the horses?”

      “If I were still a little boy and I wanted to run away, that’s how I’d do it.” Taking her by the shoulder, he turned her toward the house. “Get ready. I’m going to go use the radio to call in more help. I’ll meet you back here in a couple of minutes.”

      Nodding, she ran toward the house. Daniel hurried back to his vehicle to radio the sheriff’s department back in Aztec.

      A few minutes later he found Maggie waiting for him by the gate. She was wearing a pair of cowboy boots and had a crumpled straw hat on her head. He was glad to see she was composed enough to think of shielding herself from the elements.

      “Three more officers are coming. They’re going to comb the outer perimeters of the ranch, just in case he decided to go to a neighbor’s place,” Daniel told her.

      Unlatching the wooden gate, he ushered her through. As they walked single file down the winding trail with Maggie in the lead, she said, “I just can’t believe Aaron could be so spiteful. He’s never given me any sort of problem. Not about obeying me…not with school…not anything.”

      “Maybe this time he was more hurt than you realized,” Daniel suggested.

      She didn’t reply. But Daniel could see her hand swiping the region of her eyes. The sight touched him, and as they hurried down the trail, he prayed the boy would show up soon.

      When they reached the barn, they could see the horses grazing some two hundred yards away in a far corner of the meadow. It took Maggie only a moment to scan the herd and announce that Aaron’s horse, Rusty, was not among them.

      “Let’s see if his saddle is missing, too,” Daniel suggested.

      Maggie raced into the barn and jerked opened a wooden door to a small room where several saddles hung from ropes attached to the rafters. Bridles, bits, spurs, reins and other riding paraphernalia hung in neat rows along the walls. A stack of folded blankets and saddle pads filled one end of a crudely made counter running along the back wall of the small room.

      “His saddle is gone,” Maggie grimly announced. She went over to the stack of blankets and ran her hands along the folds. “So are his favorite blankets. Dear God, he’s taken off on horseback! By himself!”

      The idea that he’d gone off alone without her permission stunned Maggie, and all she could do was stare in disbelief at Deputy Redwing.

      “Well, better that than going down to the county road and trying to hitch a ride with a stranger,” Daniel told her.

      He walked out of the barn and looked down at the hard-packed earth. There were very few discernable tracks, but as he moved out away from the structure, the soil became looser and he eventually spotted small boot tracks accompanied by a set of four matching horseshoes.

      Careful to stay out of his way, Maggie followed a few steps behind him and tried to keep her tears at bay. She was more than frightened now, she was angry that her son could have done something so defiant and hurtful.

      “It looks like he mounted up here and rode off toward the north,” Daniel declared after a few moments. “Is there anything in that direction he might be going to? Like a cabin?”

      Maggie shook her head. “No. There’re only more mountains in that direction. Ross Ketchum, my brother-in-law, runs a few cattle up there in the dead of summer when the grass is on, but other than that there’s nothing.”

      Daniel glanced up at the sun. “Aaron probably left when he told you he was going to see Skinny. That means he’s been gone for hours. On a horse, he could have gotten far.”

      Maggie closed her eyes for a brief, painful second. “I know,” she said hoarsely. “What are we going to do?”

      “I think the best thing we can do is to saddle up a couple of your horses and try to follow his tracks. Are you up to it?”

      The question prompted her to look at him. She’d only met Daniel Redwing a few months ago and she still wasn’t sure whether she liked the man or not. He had a spare way of talking that often

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