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Cody chuckled. “Welcome to the fascinating world of ranching, Mr. Whatley. You have qualities. Indeed, you do.”
“Thanks.” Whatley sighed. “Now if I could just solve my poor sister’s problem before her no-good boyfriend bankrupts us both and sends us living on the streets.”
“That won’t happen. I spoke to your sister and mentioned there might be serious complications if she continued to stop your checks and refuse payment on your credit card. She’s starting them up again, but through her attorney. I think she’s afraid of her new boyfriend but too enamored to admit it.”
“That’s what I think, too. It’s a relief, about the money,” he added quietly. “I’m in debt up to my ears. I’d even maxed my credit card. Without those checks coming regularly, I guarantee I’d be on the streets already.”
“Nope. You’ll never end up on the street, not here. One of us would adopt you and take you in.”
Whatley flushed. “What?”
“You’d have a place to live, and plenty of choices.” Cody smiled. “You have no idea how much you’re liked. You fit in.”
He looked up, still flushed. “This is the first time, ever, you know, that I lived in a place where I fit in. I’m eccentric. I got joked about and made fun of back home by the friends we had.”
“Then they weren’t friends, were they?”
“No, I don’t think they were,” he replied slowly. “My sister has never been a good judge of character. She’s flighty. She took in a homeless woman, who proceeded to bring all her friends in, and my sister had to call the police to evict them. They did a lot of damage. She was too afraid of them to ask them to leave. I coaxed her into calling the police, because I knew Dan Brady would go out there himself and take care of the problem. If only Nita would look at him! He’s a good man. Just what she needs.”
“He’s the police chief? I knew the last name but not the first. You like him.”
“I do. He’s a fine man. Even though he did arrest me once for a robbery, but the owner took my part and said I’d never steal anything. They found the man who did it and he confessed, a few weeks later.” He looked up. “If it wasn’t for nice people, I guess I’d be serving time in place of the real culprit.”
“Not here in Catelow,” Cody said. “Not ever. Not on my watch.”
“Which brings me to the question, why are you here, Sheriff?”
Cody chuckled. “The bank robbery.”
“Oh! Somebody thinks I did it?” he asked and didn’t even seem nervous. He smiled.
“Your name was mentioned, along with several others.” His eyebrows rose and he smiled, too. “One of them was the Methodist minister. He was, to say it mildly, shocked.”
Whatley burst out laughing. “Who accused him?!”
“A member of the congregation who was angry that he wasn’t moving forward and doing what all the big-city churches are doing.”
“It’s a small town and we’re still God-fearing people,” Whatley said with conviction. “If the minister was ever homeless, he could move right in with me. I hope he sticks to his guns. The government should keep its nose out of medicine and religion. It’s not qualified to handle either.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Cody got up and picked up his hat.
“If you had me down as a suspect, why didn’t you interrogate me?” Whatley asked on the way out.
Cody poised on the top step and looked back at him with twinkling eyes. “I just did. A more innocent man I’d have to hunt hard to find. Have a nice day.”
“You, too, Sheriff.” And Mr. Whatley smiled, too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
CODYHADPERMISSIONfrom the town fathers to go to Denver, expenses paid, to interrogate the victim of the opportunist’s attentions, since it tied in with a bank robbery suspect, Horace Whatley, in Catelow. It was a tenuous connection at best, but a solid one. If this opportunist had an accomplice who was trying to frame Horace Whatley for the theft, he could be put away and the gigolo would have Nita Whatley all alone with no family to get in his way, and he’d have her money.
Cody told his girls, as he thought of Abby and Lucy and Hannah, that he’d be away a few days to investigate a charge against a local man’s sister’s boyfriend, who’d left a victim in nearby Denver.
“That would be Mr. Whatley’s sister, back in Florida,” Abby said at once, nodding.
His mouth fell open slightly. “How did you know that?”
“Oh, somebody told somebody, who told somebody else, who heard it from somebody in the local café. That sort of thing. There’s a nasty schemer after Miss Whatley. I hope they rope him to a tree and put a sign on his chest telling what he did.”
