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“Maybe it seems that way, but I think it’s best for now,” he replied calmly.
Hattie stared at him long and hard, her lips pressed tightly together. “And as long as you think it’s best, that is all that matters, isn’t it?”
“This isn’t the time to come forward.” It was a gut decision. Right now his instincts were the only thing he could trust.
“It could take months for your memory to return,” Hattie warned.
“And in the meantime,” Laredo spoke, “there’s a man out there who wants him dead. For all he knows it could be a member of his own family.”
That possibility had clearly never occurred to Hattie. It showed in the sudden doubt that flickered in her expression. “Still,” she began, “you must be curious about your family. Don’t you want to know if you have a wife? Children?”
“Of course I do.” Impatience riddled his voice, but it was born of his inability to remember for himself.
“I can find out the answers to those questions.” Laredo pushed off the chair and stood up. “Hopefully without raising too much suspicion.”
Gratitude tinged the look he gave Laredo. He was fully aware of how much he already owed this man. But, in addition to that, there was a connection between them that he couldn’t fully explain. Perhaps it was the sense of mutual regard.
The irony of it wasn’t lost on him. He was a man with no memory, seeking his identity. Laredo, on the other hand, sought to conceal his identity under an assumed name.
“I don’t know where you plan on going,” Hattie said, “but you aren’t leaving this house until you’ve had breakfast.”
“I wondered how long it would take before you offered me some of those bacon and eggs you served him.” Laredo walked over to the counter and helped himself to some coffee.
By midday the temperature had climbed to well over ninety degrees, and it felt even hotter than that on the concrete streets and sidewalks of Fort Worth, signaling the onset of another scorching Texas summer.
Inside the hotel lobby, the air was cool. Comfortably ensconced in a leather chair facing the hotel entrance, Laredo pretended to peruse the newspaper he held open while keeping one eye on the front door. He was playing the odds that the arriving family members would stay at the same hotel Calder had used. An early morning trip to the newspaper archives had turned up a photo of Chase Calder. There was no more doubt they were one and the same man.
As busy as the lobby was, with people coming and going and meeting, no one took any notice of his presence even though Laredo had been sitting there close to an hour. He figured he had another hour before someone from hotel security came around to “talk” to him.
A man and woman came through the front door, followed by a porter with their luggage. The man was tall and lean, with jet black hair partially covered by a black Stetson. His gaze made a thorough sweep of the lobby, noting people and details with the watchful alertness Laredo had usually observed in those in law enforcement.
Laredo lifted the newspaper a little higher and shifted his attention to the petite woman at the man’s side. She had a face and figure that any male would notice. Laredo had an odd longing to see her smile, but her face was expressionless, almost stony and lifeless. At first he wondered if the two had had a fight. Then another possibility occurred to him.
After folding up the newspaper, Laredo stood up and drifted closer to the registration desk to covertly observe the pair. The woman stood to one side, staring sightlessly at the floor, while the man arranged for their hotel room. She looked up once, straight in Laredo’s direction, yet she didn’t appear to be looking at anything.
Her eyes were green, and full of more pain than he had ever seen in a woman’s eyes.
Intent on the couple, Laredo didn’t notice the woman who entered the hotel. His first awareness of her was when she glided into his vision.
“Cat, darling, I am so sorry.” She reached out to the petite brunette to clasp her hands. “I just heard about Chase. How horrible for you.”
Chase. Laredo hid a smile at the name. His instincts about the pair had been right; they were part of the Calder family.
“Tara.” Surprise registered briefly in the woman’s face before her expression dulled again. “How did you know we would be here?”
“After Brownsmith called me with the news, I phoned the ranch,” the woman called Tara explained. “Sally told me that you and Logan had left this morning and planned to stay here. As soon as I learned you hadn’t checked in yet, I came right down. It’s foolish of you to spend the night in a hotel when I have that big old house with all those empty guest rooms. Let me take you to my place. You shouldn’t be staying in a cold, impersonal hotel, not at a time like this.”
“I—” The Calder woman didn’t appear to be too thrilled with the invitation.
“I insist, Cat.” The other woman used her most persuasive tone. “No one knows better than I the agony you are going through right now. It hasn’t been that long ago that I lost my own father. Believe me, I know how deeply you are hurting.”
This woman called Cat was the daughter, Laredo realized, and made a closer study of her so he could describe her later to Duke. Correction, Chase Calder.
When the man joined the two women, the daughter turned to him. “Tara wants us to stay at her place.”
“Too late. We are already registered, and our luggage is on its way up. But we do appreciate the invitation, Tara.” His refusal was warmly polite but firm.
The Tara woman took it better than Laredo had expected. She made a small moue of regret and looked at Cat with genuine empathy. “As much as I would like to argue against your decision, I won’t. This isn’t the time for family to be squabbling.”
