Page 12

CHAPTER 12

Costa parked in front of the main ranch house. Turning, he saw that Diana had her phone out and was starting to power it up. She looked up sharply.

“Bad idea?” she asked. “I just wanted to text Luis and let him know I’m okay.”

“There’s still no cell service out here. The main house has a landline, and there’s a satellite dish, but other than that we’re pretty cut off.”

He was starting to wonder if it had really been a good idea to bring them here. For so long he had thought of the ranch as a place of safety and refuge. Now, with a tactician’s eye, he was far more aware that they were isolated with limited communications and only one road in or out.

But no one knows we’re here, and that’s the main thing.

“Oh. Huh. I remember how isolated it used to be, but I guess you get used to being in touch.” She hadn’t had a chance to power the phone on yet, and she put it away. “I hope none of my coworkers heard the scanner chatter and freaked out. I wish I’d thought of it sooner.”

“You can use the computer in the main house if anyone’s still up.”

No one appeared to be. The lights at the gate and a couple of porch lights were the only relief in a sea of darkness.

Costa got out of the car. The night air was cool and filled with the fragrant smells of the desert springtime. He got the baby out of her car seat. She nestled soft and snug in his arms.

Diana was looking around, rubbing her arms a little.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s just been a really strange night.”

A door slammed from one of the outbuildings behind the main house, and a moment later a figure in a housecoat appeared, hurrying toward him. Costa recognized his aunt Brill.

“I thought I heard someone out here. What are you doing here so late, love?” She reached out to hug him, then discovered what he had in his arms.

“Sorry about the late hour, Auntie. I needed somewhere to bring a couple of guests.”

“Oh, darling .” Brill took the baby in a rapture of maternal delight, then turned the full focus of her attention on Costa. “Cece ...”

Costa winced. The only people who still used his childhood nickname were his aunts. Diana smothered a grin.

“This isn’t my baby,” he said hastily. “We’re borrowing it. Her.”

Diana looked even more amused. Brill simply looked confused. Meanwhile the baby squinched her eyes shut, flailed a little, and then snuggled into Brill’s shoulder, evidently determined to sleep through this sudden and unexpected intrusion of strange adults.

“What do you mean, borrowing? Cece?—”

“She’s evidence in an ongoing investigation,” Costa said, exactly as he hadn’t planned to. Diana made a choking sound. Brill, protectively clutching the baby, narrowed her eyes at him. “We’re taking care of her for a little while. I’ll explain tomorrow, I swear. In the meantime, we need a place to stay for her and us.”

The “us” made Brill notice Diana. “Oh, hello, dear, we haven’t seen you in so long. This isn’t your baby?—?”

“No!” Diana almost yelped.

This finally got the baby awake and fussing. Costa took her back from a reluctant Brill, jiggling her to soothe her.

“I’ll explain everything in the morning,” he said. “Right now, Diana’s had a really long day and we both just need to crash for the night.”

Brill considered. “The saguaro cabin is empty right now, and we keep it made up for company. Actually, I believe there’s a crib in there already, because sometimes your cousins and their kids stay there. I can bring up some fresh linens from the house.”

“That sounds great,” Costa said. “I really appreciate it. We’ll tell you more tomorrow, I promise.”

Since he was holding the baby, Diana got his rucksack from the car along with the bag of the baby’s things and the cooler. “Saguaro cabin?” she asked. “I don’t remember that.”

“It might not have been called that when you were last here. It’s a house that I think was built by a great-uncle of mine a long while back for his wife, but these days it’s mostly used as a guest house. Oh, Aunt Brill!”

His aunt had started back to the house; now she turned around. “Yes, dear?”

“Does Uncle Roddy have any new surprises on the path to the cabin?”

Brill considered. “Not that I know of, but look out for the flags. We’ve been making sure he marks them.”

She waved and vanished into the house.

“I hesitate to ask,” Diana began.

“My uncle has gone deeply paranoid in his old age,” Costa explained. “You know how he’s always bounced around between different interests. He had an artist phase, a car period, and so on.” They started walking on the gravel path behind the main house, with Costa remaining alert. “Well, his new thing is booby-trapping the ranch.”

“I ... what .”

“Look out for flags. Like the kind that you see marking utility lines and that sort of thing.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the point of booby traps?”

“Not if you have no idea it’s marking anything other than a gas main.”

Diana shook her head with a laugh. “Your family, I swear.”

They climbed the path winding up behind the cluster of houses. Costa smelled horses and cattle. His eyes had begun to adapt to the starlight, but it was still too dark to see much. He heard Diana stumble.

“I should’ve brought a flashlight from the car, sorry. I could go back.”

“It’s all right; don’t worry about it. My eyes are adjusting.” He was aware of Diana looking around, and then she asked, “How many people live here right now?”

“About half a dozen. My great-uncle, three aunts, one cousin and his family part time, though I think they’re in Phoenix this spring ... and my brother’s widow and son.”

Even mentioning Jenny and Jay gave him a profound gut-wrench. Diana glanced at him and didn’t ask any more questions.

The saguaro cabin had a driveway, which Costa had forgotten about; he could have driven up and parked here. But it was a pleasant night and he didn’t mind the walk any more than Diana seemed to. As they approached the dark cabin, he could hear the sound of water running in the creek below them—a spring-only phenomenon, as it would be dry later in the year.

The cabin loomed ahead, eerie in the dim light. It had a covered porch with wooden steps that seemed rickety but were actually rock solid. They climbed to the porch, and Costa tested the door one-handed and found it unlocked. He turned the lights on.

Generally he stayed in his old room at the main house when he was back on the ranch, so he hadn’t been in the saguaro cabin in a long while. It was extremely clear that the aunts had been involved with the decorating. There were lace curtains, a pair of armchairs covered in floral fabric, and a door standing open to the bedroom with its four-post bed and hanging curtains. Everything was a little old-fashioned, including a pedestal sink in the bathroom and an ancient iron stove, as well as a slightly newer gas cookstove that looked like it dated to the sixties or seventies. A huge painting of a saguaro cactus took up most of one wall—painted by Uncle Rodrigo during his artist phase—and made the origins of the cabin’s nickname clear.

“Um,” Diana said, looking around. “One bedroom?”

“Uh, crap. Yes.” Because his family still thought they were together.

There was a loft under the peaked ceiling. Costa looked up the ladder, but as far as he could tell the loft was crammed with stuff, without any beds in evidence.

Diana gave a soft laugh. “Well, here’s the crib.” She pulled it out from behind an armchair, where it had been pushed against the wall, and shook out the small mattress. “At least Em has a place to sleep.”

“You can take the bed. I’ll sleep in an armchair.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s been too long a day. We’re both adults, and we can?—”

Footsteps on the porch silenced the negotiations. Aunt Brill came in with the promised bundle of supplies.

“I have bedding for the crib, and some hand-me-down baby things she can wear. Do you have all the necessary supplies otherwise?”

“I think so,” Costa said. He looked into the bedroom. The bed was queen-sized; they could probably both sleep there as long as they were careful about it. Diana in his bed. “Thanks a lot.”

Brill kissed his cheek. “What’s family for? Get some rest. Breakfast will be in the main house at seven, but there are also some cooking supplies here, and I can send someone up with eggs.”

She left. Costa unloaded the handful of items from the cooler into the nearly empty fridge while Diana began making up the crib.

“I forgot,” Costa said, rucksack open and a T-shirt in his hands. “You don’t have anything to change into.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Diana laid the baby down carefully in the crib. “I’ll sleep in my underwear. I’m exhausted, Quinn. Your virtue is safe with me.”

It wasn’t too late to take an armchair. Costa’s virtue, or perhaps his chivalry, fought a losing battle with the allure of the soft-looking bed. “I’ll just shake out the sheets, make sure no spiders or scorpions got in while the cabin was shut up.”

“Yay,” Diana said wearily.

He shook out and remade the bed. A moment later, Diana came into the bedroom, visibly drooping with exhaustion. She was still dressed, but when she reached a hand up under her T-shirt to unfasten her bra, Costa came alive and sprang off the bed.

“I’ll just—use the bathroom,” he half-babbled, and went to do that.

The cabin was fully plumbed, although the water in the toilet bowl was rust-stained and the shower also showed signs of the region’s hard water deposits. Costa washed his face at the sink and changed into his sleeping clothes, a T-shirt and loose shorts. Then he cautiously opened the door of the bathroom. The lights were off in the bedroom, and there was a single lamp on in the kitchen. He decided to let that one burn, in case they needed to get up in the night and also as a signal to anyone on the property who hadn’t heard about the late-night arrivals that the cabin was occupied. As a final safety precaution, he locked the old iron doorknob—not that it would stop anyone prepared to enter with a swift kick, but at least it would slow them down and make noise.

Diana was a lump under the covers in the bedroom. Costa went to the other side of the bed and sat on the edge. He could sleep on top of the quilt, he thought. It wasn’t that chilly right now, although it would cool down by morning.

“Quinn,” Diana mumbled into the pillow. “Get in bed.”

“I was just thinking I could?—”

“Bed. Now.” She stirred and propped herself up on her elbow. “Unless you find me that awful to share a bed with.”

“Not at all.” Entirely the opposite problem, in fact, but he wasn’t sure if it would improve the situation to say so.

“Great.” She flopped down on the pillow. “Go to bed .”

Costa climbed into his side of the bed. Long-unused springs creaked under him, and it quickly became evident that the mattress had a general tendency to bow in the middle and cause them to slide toward each other.

Would it really be so bad to wake up with Diana nestled in his arms? He could picture it all too clearly, especially after feeling her warm body pressed against him more than once already today.

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Diana said into her pillow. “Go to sleep.”

“Working on it.”

But he lay awake for a long time, running over the day’s events in his mind—and unable to shake his awareness of her lithe body next to him, her warmth penetrating the sheets, her small sounds as she moved in her sleep.