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Her reports had been comprehensive, but without any exploitation or invasion of the Trapper family’s privacy.
“What’s next for you?” he asked. “New York?”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“Following this big hit, I figured you’d want to move on.”
“I like the view from here.” She motioned toward the panoply behind him.
“New York is famous for its views.”
“I like this
one.”
They stared at each other. Somehow she resisted the urge to go to him and, as though holding herself back by force, folded her arms across her waist and looked down at her bare toes as she curled them into the rug. “The burial was private.” When he didn’t say anything, she raised her head.
“I couldn’t go through all that falderal, Kerra.”
“Nor should you have had to.”
“Yeah, but it’s what everybody expected. I think the folks in Lodal feel cheated of an extravaganza.”
“You don’t owe anyone an explanation.”
“He’s buried beside Mom. No headstone, just a plaque.”
“No diary.”
“No diary.” He gave a rueful smile “Even he thought it was a good bluff.”
“He laughed.”
“First time in years we’d laughed together. Last time, too.”
He paused there before going on to say, “I’m glad we had that laugh.” Within minutes of it, The Major had died. Trapper had been in the ambulance with him.
Knowing how much he disliked sentimentality, she changed the subject. “Hank thought you were bluffing about the rifle.”
“The one time I was completely straight with him…”
“If you’d been wrong—”
“I knew Jenks wouldn’t have left a loaded rifle for Hank.”
“But you only played a hunch that Jenks was the undercover man. If you’d been wrong, I would have shot you. You would have died right in front of me,” she said, her voice cracking.
“True. I’m reckless. Beyond stubborn. A grab-bag of character flaws.”
“Chief among them rudeness,” she said, putting some heat behind it. “You show up here uninvited. You disappeared without saying goodbye.”
“I’m sorry about that, Kerra. Soon as they stitched my scalp—”
“You pulled a disappearing act.”
“Because the falderal was about to get underway, and I didn’t want to be trapped inside the hospital when it did.”
“I wanted to see you, Trapper. To know that you were all right, to comfort you.”
