Wyoming Tough - Diana Palmer [67]
“I know,” Cane said. “But there’s a pattern of violent behavior going back a long way. It came out at the trial. Besides that, Laura testified that Joe already had a grudge against the victim for a blacksmithing job he did and wasn’t paid for.”
“We were talking about the Brannts,” Tank said, changing the subject abruptly. “And we still have the problem of who took that egg.”
“The only people who had access to this room were Mavie—and we know she didn’t do it—and us. And Gelly,” Cane added quietly.
“That’s not quite true, is it, Tank?” Mallory asked suddenly, and with a pointed stare.
Tank glared at him. “Joe was only in here once, just before he was arrested,” he said.
“Tank, he came on the place without even being noticed when he approached Morie at the line cabin,” Mallory reminded him. “He’s a woodsman. He can get into and out of anything. He’s a locksmith, in addition to being a blacksmith. He can open locks.”
“Isn’t it enough that he’s being accused of a murder he didn’t commit? Do we have to start accusing him of theft, as well?” Tank exclaimed, exasperated. He got up. “I’m going to bed. Arguing gets us nowhere.”
“Me, too,” Cane agreed. He got to his feet. “Dane Lassiter has one of his best detectives up here poking around. He’ll dig up something. I’m sure of it.”
“Most of it will probably concern Gelly, I’m afraid,” Tank said with a worried look at Mallory. “I hope you aren’t more involved with her than you seem to be.”
“I’m not,” Mallory said heavily. “She was just somebody to take around places.”
“You’d better hope she doesn’t come up with a better accusation than the ones she made against Morie and our former cowhand,” Cane told him.
“Like what?” Mallory asked, stunned.
“Maybe she’ll turn up pregnant,” Cane said.
Mallory’s dark eyes twinkled. “Not by me,” he said. “I’m not that careless.”
“She could lie.”
“Bloodwork would exonerate me,” Mallory said easily. “I was never intimate with her in the first place.”
“Good thing,” Tank said.
“Yes,” Cane agreed.
Mallory didn’t mention that there had been a close call once, just once, after Morie left and he was depressed enough to need comforting. But he hadn’t crossed the line with Gelly. So even if she made the charge, he’d be able to refute it. He did worry, though, that she might try to trap him. She wanted money and now she was desperate. He wondered if she might have taken that priceless egg. She did have the opportunity and the motive. It would have to wait for the private detective to iron it out, he supposed.
He went up to bed, his mind still full of Morie’s real identity and the picture that he’d carry forever in his heart, of her in that white gown, looking as elegant as a princess and quite at home among the wealthiest cattlemen in the world.
A FEW DAYS LATER, AT ALL, dark man with long black hair and pale gray eyes, wearing a suit, knocked at the front door.
Mavie let him in and called Mallory, who was the only brother in the house at the moment.
“Ty Harding.” The man introduced himself and shook hands with Mallory. “I work for Dane Lassiter, out of Houston.”
“Come in,” Mallory invited. “Mavie, coffee?”
“Coming right up,” she said, casting a last, smiling glance at the handsome newcomer. Not only was he handsome, he had the physique of a movie star, tall and muscular without being overtly so.
Harding sat down across from Mallory. “I’ve finished the investigation.”
“Then you know who took the egg?” Mallory asked at once.
He nodded grimly. “It was sold to a fence in Denver through a third party for ten thousand dollars.”
Mallory gaped at him. “It’s worth ten times that!”
“Yes, we know. The fence has been arrested and the egg was confiscated from its new owner. He’s pretty upset. He paid a quarter of a million for it. Luckily, the fence hadn’t had time to distribute more than a third of the money.”
Mallory was relieved. “That piece of art was our grandmother’s,” he explained. “It really is priceless, but it has a sentimental