Page 13 of Head Room

“Oh, plenty of reasons to laugh.Just not appropriate.”

“Hah.You, the king of appropriate.But laughing could be appropriate with some of your stories now.I bet watchers would like you even more for that laugh.One of your skills they don’t know about.”

This time he chuckled.Also good.And wicked.“I have other skills they don’t know about.Though Clara—”

“I don’t want to know.”Not about those skills, not about his relationship with the curator of the Sherman Western Frontier Life Museum.

In all the years I’d known Dell, this was the longest relationship he’d had with a woman other than his mother and a sister.And sometimes he was on the outs with his sister.

“I donotwant to know,” I emphasized.

He chuckled again.“You want to know something or you’d’ve waited until I see you next weekend for the wedding.”

That wasn’t tough to figure out.It fell under the heading of takes one to know one.

“What do you know about Colonel Chester Crawford, U.S.Army?”

“You think I know every officer in—?”

“I know you can find out.Reputation.Reliability.Anything else you come up with.”

CHAPTER SIX

Diana was aheadof me as I turned off paved surface onto a gravel road.

I knew this not because I could see her vehicle, but because of the dust rooster tail visible in front of me.Okay, it could have been another driver, but the probabilities were strong that on this road at this time going that speed, it was Diana.

The probability became stronger as the vehicle ahead established more of a lead, making the dust trail barely discernible, despite a turn onto dirt with no gravel.That’s because Diana drives Wyoming dirt tracks like she’s on the Autobahn on a clear day with no traffic.

Evergreens kept both sides of the road company as it climbed.Not enough to require switchbacks, but enough for the engine sound to announce it was doing more than cruising on the flats.Then the road dipped slightly at the same time the trees retreated for a clearing.

A clearing with what at first glance appeared to be an ash pile roughly in the center with an intact outbuilding on the right edge.Yellow police tape nearly encircled the entire area.In a few spots it had torn, with streamers of loose tape calling attention to the gaps.

Diana had parked where the police tape crossed the entry road.Otherwise she would have created a new gap by driving through the tape.

She already had her equipment out and was closing the door.

After I caught up with Diana, I saw an inner circle of police tape around the ash pile.

I ducked the outer tape, then held it up to make it easier for Diana with her equipment pack.

“Elizabeth...”

“Hey, if they meant it, they wouldn’t have strung that inner ring of tape.”

That was more persuasive than expected, because she immediately joined me.

We circled to the left as we moved closer across soggy ground.The new angle revealed the outbuilding closest to the ash pile had damage, including a ragged hole near its roof.More interestingly, the ash pile wasn’t all ashes.

A rock fireplace stood about as tall as me, with the remnants of its fallen chimney mixed in with charred poles tumbled into giant pick-up-sticks.They had obscured the rock fireplace’s height.

The rough outline left by the fire indicated there’d been at least one larger room on our side of the fireplace — likely the living area — and a smaller area behind it.Possibly a bedroom and bathroom, if that lump mostly hidden by debris was a toilet.

No telling from this if there’d been a second story.At least not by me.Maybe a fire expert could tell.

A beam angled from the back of the fireplace to the ground and in that relatively protected area, the hearth showed, along with what appeared to be a cast-iron pot.

No way was I getting answers to my questions out of this nothingness.