Page 61 of Three-Inch Teeth

“Yes.”

“For breakfast,” he added. “I insist. Please come out for breakfast first. Then we can see if there are any more birds you need to scare away.”

“I might pass on that breakfast,” she said.

He was suddenly hurt. “Now, why would you do that?”

Sheridan chinned toward the house and he got it.

“Katy?” he said.

“She watched me all day, and not in a friendly way.”

“Well, she may not be friendly at first,” Bottom said. “I think she’s just protective of me—of the ranch. She doesn’t like to see me get cheated by the locals, and she’s sure they’re all up to no good. She probably considers you one of them.”

“Whatever,” Sheridan said. Then she dug in her jeans pocket and handed over the note that had been left on her windshield the night before.

Bottom read it and said, “Jeez, did you have a bad experience with her somewhere? Did you cut her off on the road or something?”

“I’ve never seen her in my life.” Sheridan left out the part that there was something oddly familiar about the woman.

“She’s not usually this nasty,” Bottom said. “Did I tell you she’s originally from Wyoming? Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe you ran into her up there.”

Sheridan said, “My dad is a game warden. Maybe he arrested her or something.”

Bottom laughed as he pulled out another beer for her. Sheridan declined to accept it.

“I don’t know much about her life in Wyoming,” he said. “All I know is she was originally from there, and her first husband was, too. When that fell apart, she met Ben Cotton and they moved to Michigan and she’s spent the rest of her life serving my family.”

“So you don’t know anything about her first husband? Like his name? Or where she’s from?” Sheridan asked. She thought if she heard the name and town, she might be able to establish a connection. As her dad as always told her, Wyoming was the last remaining state with “one degree of separation,” meaning that if you didn’t know someone else outright you knew someone who knew that person. The place was still that parochial.

“No,” Bottom said. “She never talks about her first husband. I don’t know if she had any kids with him or anything. Katy is very tight-lipped about her past. I wouldn’t even know about her first husband except that she told my mother something about him once—that he was a disaster and she had to get out for her own good. That’s all I know.”

Sheridan made a note to herself to ask her parents if they’d ever heard of the woman. But that could wait. It wasn’t urgent.

As she turned to reach for the door handle of her SUV, Bottom sidestepped in front of her and again held up the second can. “Another one for the road?”

“No, thank you.”

“Or,” he said, pressing toward her, “you could just stay here and help me finish this sixer. I also picked up a few edibles in Fort Collins. They’re legal here, you know.”

“Back off,” Sheridan said firmly.

The rancher responded as if he’d touched an electric fence. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said. “It just gets real lonely out here.”

As he said it, Sheridan got the impression that Leon Bottom was often successful with some women, even though he was no prize in any way. He had money, and he had a big dose of self-delusion.

“I’m out of here,” she said, shouldering around him. “I have birds to take care of.”

“Come out for breakfast and we’ll settle up,” he said, as if waving away the previous exchange. “Katy is a hell of a cook and breakfast has always been my favorite meal.”

Sheridan agreed to do it, although as she drove away from the Never Summer Ranch, she saw Katy Cotton framed in the kitchen window shooting twin laser beams at her from her tiny, squinted eyes.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Saddlestring

DULL KNIFE OUTFITTERS, C&C SEWER AND SEPTIC TANK SERVICE, BIRTHPLACE OF PRCA WORLD CHAMPION COWBOY DALLAS CATES

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