Page 83 of Three-Inch Teeth

“I’ve had only three men in my life,” Cotton said, surprising her. “The first one was very bad. The second was very good. The third is Leon. I’m not sure what he is.”

Sheridan didn’t interrupt Cotton. The woman seemed to have something to say finally. And Sheridan didn’t want to steer the conversation to her own recent loss. There were still too many conflicting emotions over that and she didn’t feel prompted to share them with an odd old woman.

Cotton said, “I regret things that I did in my life before I met the very good man, Mr. Cotton. When I cut that bad man out of my life, I cut out everything about him. Everything. It was like I had a tumor removed that also took some healthy tissue. It is what it is.”

“Do you mean your sons?” Sheridan asked.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it and I won’t.”

“What was your married name before you met Mr. Cotton?” Sheridan asked. “I might be crazy, but I can’t get over the feeling that we’ve run across each other before, somehow.”

“We haven’t,” Cotton snapped. “Now, go.”

With that, she pushed her chair back and rose from the table. Sheridan watched her carefully as she hurried to the kitchen door.

Before she slammed it shut, Cotton looked back at Sheridan with angry eyes. From behind the door, she shouted, “Go away and never come back.”

*

SHERIDAN SHOULDERED BY Bottom on the front porch. He seemed to be arguing with his bankers and his face was bright red.

She was in a fog and her stomach hurt. Her vision seemed clouded by her sudden thoughts and feelings.

The very bad man. Two sons, the younger one dead and the older a stranger to her. Healthy tissue removed along with the tumor. Katy Cotton was in her mid- to late seventies and Leon had alluded to the fact that she had some kind of ties to Wyoming in her past.

But most of all, it was the pancakes and the way she cooked and ate them.

Sheridan drew her phone out of her back Wranglers pocket and speed-dialed her mother. Marybeth answered on the first ring by saying, “Hi, honey. How are things going in Colorado?”

“Great, actually. I’m ready to head back.”

“This place is a nightmare right now,” Marybeth said. “Wait until I catch you up.”

“I look forward to that, but there’s something I really need to run by you.”

“What’s that?”

“Are you sitting down?”

“I’m at my desk. What is it?”

“What was Dad’s mother’s first name?”

Marybeth hesitated for a beat. “Her name was Katherine. I never met her, and your dad never talks about her, because she walked out on the family when he was ten years old and his younger brother, Victor, was eight. Why do you ask?”

“Was she known as Katy?”

“Yes, she was,” Marybeth said. “Katy Pickett.”

Sheridan turned around and stared at the house on the Never Summer Ranch. Leon Bottom paced and gesticulated on the front porch, arguing with his banker. Behind a lace curtain on the second floor, a figure looked back at her.

“I think I just met my grandmother,” Sheridan said. “And she’s a nasty piece of work.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Twelve Sleep County Library

“MY MOTHER?” JOE said incredulously to Marybeth. “In Walden, Colorado? Can that even be possible?”

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