Read Online Desert Shadows (9781615952250) by Betty Webb - Free Book Online

Owen,” I told him. “Check them out.”
    I could hear his keyboard click as he copied them down. “Lena, do you think any of these guys might have done it?”
    â€œHard to say,” I told him. “I’ve only interviewed a few people yet, but I’m on my way up to the resort now. I can tell you this, though. Zhang and Ramos both despised Gloriana. Tinsley and Ott are creepy enough to do just about anything.”
    â€œThat’s Representative Tinsley you’re talking about?” His voice sounded doubtful, as if he had trouble believing a politician would do anything naughty.
    I made a mental memo to urge him to get his nose out of those Internet magazines of his and start reading the newspaper. Especially the political section. “Yeah, that Tinsley. There’s something about her that seems off, so I’d like you to dig around in her past, see if there are any gaps in her resumé.” Whatever was going on with Tinsley, Jimmy would uncover it. No one could hack into sealed records and forbidden databases like my partner.
    I’d just hung up and was heading toward the exit, when yet another despicable person crossed my path.
    â€œLook, Lena, you can’t ignore me.” Was it my imagination, or were Dusty’s eyes redder than earlier?
    â€œSorry, cowboy. I’ve got places to go, people to see.”
    He planted himself in front of me, digging the heels of his roping boots deep into the soil. The immovable object. I tried to go around him, but the crowd was so thick that I, the irresistible force, felt effectively cornered.
    â€œYou might as well talk to me. I won’t leave you alone until you do.”
    I thought for a tantalizing moment of the .38 nestled snugly in my carry-all. If I popped him one, surely any reasonable judge would consider the deed justifiable homicide. Any reasonable female judge, that is. With my luck, the case would probably draw some crusty old buzzard who believed in equal killin’ rights for everyone but females.
    â€œOkay, Dusty. We’ll talk. There’s no point to it, though. You not only screwed around on me, but if my information is correct, you actually married the woman! You know me well enough to know that I don’t fool around with married men, so it’s over. I need someone with a little less baggage. If you think I’m carrying a torch for you, you are sadly mistaken.”
    I am so full of crap.
    My eyes must have given me away, because he reached out and grasped my hand gently. “Honey, I’m sorry.”
    â€œYou are one sorry son of a bitch, that’s for sure,” I muttered, as he led me into the shade of an acacia tree. It was all I could do to keep from bawling.
    Dusty hadn’t been my only man—I went through a brief period of promiscuity during my teens—but he’d been the only one I ever loved. But so what? If you can fall into love, surely you can fall out of it. And then maybe, if the gods are with you, fall into it again with someone more appropriate.
    â€œShe meant nothing to me, Lena.”
    It hurt too much to laugh. “Right. That’s why you married her.”
    â€œThe marriage wasn’t legal.” He rubbed his eyes as if they hurt. “It was just one of those Vegas things. Like Britney Spears and what’s-his-name.”
    â€œWith Elvis administering the vows? Last time I checked, cowboy, even Vegas marriages were legal.”
    â€œWe didn’t apply for a marriage license. And the guy wasn’t really a minister, just an Elvis impersonator we met at one of the casinos.”
    â€œSo why bother with Elvis? Why not just have your dirty little weekend, or whatever it was, and leave it at that?”
    â€œAw, Lena. I was drunk, that’s why. I’d been drunk for a week, and you know what that can do to a person.”
    As a matter of fact, I didn’t know. I don’t drink. Never did. Not knowing my parentage,