Authors: Candace Havens
The seasoned professionals at Stonegate knew exactly how to tackle cold murder cases. With so many colleagues busy with other projects and a burning desire to get out of the lab, Patience couldn’t let this case rest. She couldn’t stand the idea of this poor man being murdered and no one caring enough to do something about it.
Her mind flashed to the sexy Cade Randall. The instant their eyes met, her body reacted with a heated blush. That sort of thing never happened to her and she’d been worried she might be coming down with a cold. But when those steely gray eyes of his had narrowed in on her, she could tell he was just as attracted to her as she was to him. Anthropologically speaking the reaction was an interesting phenomenon, one she wouldn’t mind pursuing.
Too bad he’s a jerk.
Shoving her hair up into a ponytail, she moved toward the boxes, grateful experienced agency detectives Shannon and Katie had given her advice on where to start. No one seemed to know who owned the land where the bones were discovered. Finding the answer was her first assignment on the well-ordered plan she’d devised.
“More than likely, no one wants to lay claim because they are worried about the consequences,” Katie had informed her. “Some of the records may be really old, and property lines shift all the time. When land is inherited or sold and the surveyors don’t know what they’re doing, anything can happen. There have been cases where fifty years later a farmer discovers part of the land he’s been working on most of his life, isn’t his. Disputes over land, especially in Texas, are a big deal. It’s a good place to start.”
Lifting the lid on the first box, dust assaulted Patience. She sneezed, and reached for a tissue in her bag. Evidently, people didn’t hang out in the Phosphor records room very often. The whole place could use a vacuum and about a hundred dust rags. Patience had a slight case of OCD and preferred her spaces neat and tidy. She kept her labs pristine, and she wasn’t a fan of moldy smelling dustbins like the basement.
Pulling out an armful of files she sat down at the long table and began to peruse them. For three hours she sat searching for one mention of the property in question. She didn’t find a thing.
Her first day in town, and she was doing not so great. Frustrated, Patience returned everything to its proper place and put the lids back on the boxes.
Way to go, detective.
Her friends made it look so easy.
Glancing at her watch she realized it had been several hours since she’d eaten.
Guess it’s time to check out the Bluebonnet Café.
She’d seen the establishment across the street when she parked in front of the courthouse. It was almost one and when she entered the café she could tell it had been a busy afternoon. Dishes were stacked high in a big tub behind the counter, and the waitresses were wiping down all the tables and refilling salt and pepper shakers.
“Hey, darlin’, why don’t you take that booth in the corner, we’ve got that one cleaned up for you,” said the waitress with a long brunette ponytail, jeans and a pink T-shirt that read “Shut up and eat.”
Patience nodded her thanks and walked toward the back. A group of older gentlemen sat at a center table. They looked like regulars, and she wondered if maybe she should try to talk to them to see if they knew who owned the property. But food was her first priority.
The menu was on the table, and from the delicious smells in the kitchen she had a feeling the selections were comfort food greatness. She ordered a cheese-burger, fries and lemonade. She thought seriously about a piece of coconut cake, before deciding the burger and fries would do enough damage.
She didn’t mind her curves, unless they made her jeans too tight, which was why she usually stuck to meat, vegetables and fruit.
The waitress delivered her lunch, and Patience gasped. The hamburger was almost as big as the plate. Even with her appetite she would barely make a dent in the food.
A shadow crossed in front of her table. Patience glanced up to see three of the men from the other table standing over her.
“Hello.” Patience was curious as to why they were there.
“Heard ya was over at the courthouse digging into property records,” the oldest man said. He wore a dark gray hat, jeans and his skin was so leathery it didn’t look real. His nearly black eyes were downright hostile, as was his tone.
“I might have been,” Patience ventured. She didn’t know what they were up to, but she refused to be intimidated. “I’m not sure how it concerns you, one way or the other.” Her right eyebrow rose. She’d dealt with bullies all of her life, she could handle a couple of rednecks in a Podunk town.
“Quite a mouth you got there,” said the youngest of the three, who was probably somewhere around fifty, though it was hard to tell with his black hat pulled down over his face so low she couldn’t see his eyes. He leaned forward.
Patience refused to move, holding her chin even higher.
“Reckon you should keep to your own business and leave our town alone,” the man threatened.
“I reckon you should leave my friend Patience there alone,” said a voice from the doorway of the café. There was a silhouette of a man who wore a cowboy hat, white shirt, boots and jeans, but she couldn’t see his face.
“Her business is my business,” he continued, “and I don’t appreciate you making threats to my friends.”
The older man held his hands up in surrender.
“Just looking after the town, Cade. We don’t like nosey folk in our business.”
Cade walked to the table and Patience had to forcibly shut her mouth with her hand. The man had been sexy in his suit, but in these jeans, he was nothing less than smokin’ hot, as her boss, Mariska, the owner of Stonegate, would say.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Hey, there. Everything okay?”
His lips scorched her skin, and she couldn’t breathe.
She nodded.
Cade slid into the other side of the booth. “I see you ordered enough for the both of us.” He gave her a dazzling smile.
She willed her mouth to work, but it didn’t. Though her heartbeat did double-time.
Cade glanced at the men. “Moses, Jim, Ralph, I’m sure you have better things to do than watch us eat.” He smiled but his tone implied they should leave quickly.
Up until six weeks ago when he came to town to check on his land at his grandmother’s request, it had been two years since Cade had been in Phosphor to visit his family. Not much had changed. For the most part the townspeople were friendly, but these old characters were the exception.
The men stared at him, but eventually backed away, mumbling as they left the café.
Cade jumped up to grab an empty plate from the waitress, and ordered a sweet tea.
Patience remembered the last time she’d seen him. He was like some kind of Jekyll and Hyde—a mind-bendingly sexy Jekyll and Hyde.
“Thanks,” she said finally. “I could have handled them on my own.”
Cade nodded. “I’m sure you could. But I don’t like aggressive types, especially ones who pick on beautiful women.”
He called her beautiful. No one had ever said that about her. The man was a flirt.
She cleared her throat. “What are you doing here?”
Cade took her fork and knife and cut the hamburger in half. Then he scooped a handful of fries and put everything on his plate.
“I’m taking your dare.”
He tried to convince himself that he’d been upset when they met and that he’d made her into much more than she was. But he was right the first time. He’d known that as soon as he walked into the café.
Taking a bite of his half of their hamburger, he studied her as she concentrated on her fries. She was obviously surprised to see him, and he’d arrived just in the nick of time. If she had any inkling of how he really felt, Patience would run straight back to Austin and lock her door.
If he had any brains at all, he’d do the same thing.
“Thanks for sharing your food with me.”
A slow smile crept across her mouth. “Uh, sure. So, you came to help me out?”
“Thought it was the least I could do after being so rude to you the other day. I’m usually never rude to women.” It was true. Many in the business community thought him to be cutthroat and they weren’t wrong. Cade was driven and wanted to provide a solid company for his employees, most of them had been with him from the beginning and sometimes that meant making tough decisions. Combining his company’s resources with that of another would in the long run make both companies stronger.
Patience pushed the stray hairs that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ears. “That’s sexist in a way, you know.”
He nodded. “You can blame my mom, and after she died, my grandmother. Gentlemen are always supposed to speak kindly to the ladies.” He gave her his best sweet Southern accent. “I can honestly say I was in shock. All these years I thought my dad was some sorry bastard who ran off with another woman. Then I find out he’d been murdered.” Cade took a sip of his tea.
“The sheriff explained as much, so I didn’t hold it against you—much.”
Cade had to stop himself from leaning across the table and kissing her when she smiled at him like that.
Whoa, boy, slow it down.
“So what were you doing that got those boys’ attention?”
She shrugged. “I was going through old property records in the courthouse. I didn’t find anything. If Moses had given me the chance, I would have told him he had nothing to worry about. And, well, there’s something I need to tell you. I’m not sure you’re going to like it, but I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain.”
Now he was curious. “I can’t imagine anything you could say that would upset me, Patience.” He liked the way her name sounded on his lips.
After glancing around the restaurant she leaned forward and put her elbows on the table. “I told you when we first met I’m a forensic anthropologist.”
Cade had done some checking into her background before making the drive down to Phosphor. He’d discovered she was the best at what she did. She’d written several books, and universities around the world courted her and through the Stonegate Agency she consulted for law enforcement officials all over the world. She was the superstar of the forensic anthropology field.
“Normally, in a case like your father’s, I identify the remains and then one of the detectives from our agency would take over the case to track down the murderer.”
Cade had a feeling he knew where this was going. “You’re worried you don’t have the right skill set to solve this.”
“Yes and no.” She twirled a fry. “I’ve been with the Stonegate Agency for some time now, and I’ve picked up a great deal from my friends. But I’ve never followed through on a case completely on my own.”
“So why not assign the case to someone else?”
Patience shook her head. “There is no one else right now. We’re short staffed in Austin as it is while some of our associates are away working around the world. It would be weeks, possibly months before one of the detectives could take on anything new. I felt like your father was long overdue for some peace, and I wanted to give that to him. And to your family.”
Every time he thought of the word
murder
he had to pause to consider what it really meant. He had a lot of apologizing to do to the heavens for the many horrendous things he’d said through the years about his dad.
“As far as I’m concerned we couldn’t have anyone better than you helping our family.”
Patience sucked in a breath of surprise, her cheeks becoming a light shade of pink. “Why do you say that?”
“You’re passionate about this or you wouldn’t have taken time away from your lab and other cases.” He wanted to ask her why this was so important to her, but something told him this wasn’t the right time. It was more a hunch than anything, but he also saw sadness in her eyes. “You mentioned at your office that the sheriff would be overseeing the investigation, so I’m not totally understanding the problem.”
She grinned.
Cade shifted in his seat like a nervous schoolboy with a crush.
“I promise you I will do everything I can to find who did this. They have to pay for what they did to your family.”
Cade was grateful someone cared enough to even try. It couldn’t be easy solving a twenty-year-old murder. “Well, I’ll be here to help you, so we can cover twice the ground at the same time. I do have to run out to the ranch every once in a while to see how things are going.”
“The ranch?”
“Yeah, a couple of months ago I hired a foreman to run my family’s old place. We bought some cattle and he’s got the barn on the east side up and running. I promised to help him with the fences while I was here, and fixing up the old barn near the house. But my dad comes first. That is if you want me.”