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Jenna nodded. “We can’t do dinner. We must go feed our horses and I need to wash the stink from the crime scene from my hair. We’ll see you in the morning. Breakfast is at six thirty.”
“I’ll help with the chores in the morning.” Carter looked at Kane. “Chores and then a workout before breakfast? I need someone who’s a threat to try some moves on. I’ve been encouraging the local sheriff at Snakeskin Gully to work out with me, but a Seal he ain’t.” He grinned around his toothpick.
“Sure.” Kane grinned. “I can make you suffer.”
“You can try.” Carter chuckled. He turned to Jo. “Ready?”
“Yeah, see you in the morning.” Jo picked up her things and headed for the door.
Jenna stood and went to push the folder into the file cabinet and locked it. She looked at Kane. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah, almost.” Kane lifted his hat from her desk, smoothed his already immaculate hair and slid it on.
Concerned by his frown, Jenna leaned against the desk and looked at him. “Is it your head?” She cupped his face and ran her thumb over his cheek. “It must have been hell in the cold water.”
“Freezing water and, yeah, it did hurt but I’m fine now.” Kane cleared his throat. “It’s not that. It’s Poppy being here.”
Jenna slipped her arms around his waist. “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah.” Kane gathered her close. “I read her all wrong. I figured she wanted to further her career but she had an ulterior motive for being here. You were right, Jenna, and I’m sorry for not understanding. You know, I’m kinda set in my ways. I like helping people but she came from left field and slipped under my guard. When I’m out with Carter and get come-ons from women in bars I can shut them down before they get out of hand. Poppy… well I met her when I was just out of rehab and it was nice chatting to someone of like mind over lunch. Maybe she got the wrong impression? You know darn well it meant nothing to me. Not then, so soon after Annie had died. It was a onetime thing—a twenty-minute break between lectures.”
Laughter bubbled out and Jenna couldn’t stop it. She grinned at him. “I think Poppy need
s to go back to Cedar Canyon.”
“I think she does too.” Kane smiled. “Oh, there’s something about an understanding woman that melts my heart.”
Grinning, Jenna tried to frown at him, but it didn’t work and she giggled. “You caught me on an off day.”
THIRTY-SIX
Jenna headed down the stairs surprised to see Maggie still at the front counter. “You need to be off home. It’s getting late.”
“Well, I would but I promised to give Deputy Anderson a ride to her hotel.” Maggie shrugged. “She mentioned taking a break and went hightailing it out of here when Deputy Kane took Duke for a walk and hasn’t returned. Did you send her to do something? She hasn’t called in.”
“It’s strange to need a break this late in the day. It’s not as if she’s working late on a case.” Kane frowned. “Maybe she went to Aunt Betty’s?”
“That deputy has been on a break all day.” Maggie rolled up her eyes. “Has she ever worked in a sheriff’s office before?”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, out at Cedar Canyon. Why?”
“Nothing I asked her to do has been done.” Maggie waved a hand toward the desk usually occupied by semiretired Deputy Walters. “She hasn’t touched a thing all day but she was up at the desk quick-smart to chat to anyone who would talk to her.”
Jenna pulled out her phone and recalled she hadn’t added Poppy to her contacts. “I’ll call her.” She looked at Kane. “I don’t suppose you have her number?”
“Yeah, I do.” Kane gave her the number.
Jenna made the call and let it ring until it went to voicemail. She left a message to call her. “She’s not picking up.”
“I told her to turn off her phone.” Maggie frowned. “She had her head down staring at it all day.” She pulled a face. “I know for sure I riled her. She held up the screen to show me and said, ‘There, are you satisfied now?’ She didn’t say another word to me until she left.”
Concerned, she turned back to Maggie. “Can you stay for a little longer? We’ll go and see if we can hunt her down. She’s new in town and there’s not many places she’d know about, so she’s probably close by.”
She hurried out the door with Kane and Duke close behind her. “For someone so highly recommended, she acts very irresponsibly.”
“She’s very immature and acting like a teenager if turning off her phone upset her so much.” Kane moved beside her, his eyes scanning in all directions. “Where could she go? Where would you go if you were upset?”
Jenna shrugged. “I’d go visit a friend, but she doesn’t have a vehicle or any friends in town. The library would be an option, the church. I guess it would depend on how upset I was. If being asked to turn off her phone is a major problem for her, she’ll never handle the discipline needed to work on our team.”
