Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,11
next. “Actually, I’m working on a murder case as we speak.”
“Murder?” Her father’s shocked voice boomed through the receiver.
She hated to worry her daddy. But dang it, it was her life and she needed to live it the way she saw fit. She wasn’t smart enough to be a lawyer or a judge or a politician. But she was smart enough to start her own beauty pageant consulting business. Thanks to her mama, she knew all the ins and outs of beauty pageants. It was the one place she felt most confident and in charge. She knew what gowns looked best beneath the lights. How to tape a dress in place so your boobs wouldn’t pop out. How to walk in five-inch heels without twisting an ankle or falling. And how to win the judges over.
True, she hadn’t won the Miss Texas pageant. But she had been the second runner-up and that wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish. She could make her consulting business work. She knew she could. She just had to get her daddy to give in. And the sooner the better.
“Yes.” She made her voice as ominous sounding as possible. “Murder, Daddy. It seems a ranch hand went missing years ago and Sheriff Willaby suspects foul play.”
“I thought Willaby had been put on extended leave until his misconduct was investigated.”
She was surprised that her father knew about that. She could’ve sworn she told him Willaby was on vacation. Oh, well. It didn’t matter. In fact, it could help her cause. Her daddy wouldn’t want her working for a jerk. “The sheriff is being investigated for misconduct, but he was working on the case before he left.”
“And now you’re working on it?”
She wasn’t. She had witnessed Sheriff Willaby’s incompetence. The man couldn’t find his butt with both hands and a three-way mirror. And the theatrical movie plot he’d written down in his report about a bunch of teenage kids murdering a ranch hand and disposing of his body on the Double Diamond was ridiculous.
Still, it had been fun toying with Lincoln Hayes. His face when she had dropped the bomb of Sheriff Willaby considering him a suspect had been priceless. She seriously doubted that the man would bother her again.
“Yes, I’m working on the case, and with a Texas Ranger, no less.” Her daddy thought very highly of the Texas Rangers so she figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw that in. And she was right. Her daddy jumped on that like a trout on a worm.
“A Texas Ranger? Who?”
“Officer Lincoln Hayes. But truth be told, he’s a little incompetent. So I’ll probably be heading the search for the body. And as a Meriwether, I won’t give up until I catch the murderer.”
The sound of breath being sucked in had Dixie turning. Two women stood there staring at her with their eyes bugging out of their heads.
“Murderer?” they said in unison.
Blistered biscuits! Dixie had gone and done it now. She’d just opened up an entire can of wiggling worms that she needed to close as quickly as possible.
“I need to go. I’ll call you later.” She hung up before her father could stop her and slipped her cellphone into the cute little Louis Vuitton phone holder that she’d attached to her deputy belt. Then she turned a bright smile on the two women.
“Good afternoon, ladies. Sorry to get you all riled up. I was just playing a virtual version of Clue with one of my friends.” She held up her thumb and forefinger to indicate an inch. “I’m this close to figuring out who done it and winning the game.”
Raynelle Coffman, who worked at the Simple Market grocery store, placed a hand on her ample chest. She was a sweet middle-aged woman with funky glasses and blue hair. While Dixie would never dye her own hair blue or cut it so short, the color and style seemed to fit Raynelle. “Good Lord, you sure gave us a fright, Deputy Meriwether.”
“Speak for yourself, Ray,” Raynelle’s best friend, Luanne Riddell, said. “I wasn’t scared at all.” Luanne was married with four kids and worked as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. She also made bracelets that reminded people to keep the Ten Commandments, which she sold on Etsy. She had tried to get Dixie to buy one, but Dixie tried to stay away from godly reminders.
“You were scared that a murderer was loose in Simple,” Raynelle said. “And I have your fingernail imprints in my arm to prove it.”
“I didn’t grab