Page 79 of Deadly Evidence
“If I go now I’ll have time to get my things out of storage. What little I could keep, anyway,” she added sadly. “I had to sell most of the things at my mom’s place.”
At a soft rap on the door, she turned and found Anna standing there.
“How was your ride with Dante this morning?”
Mia felt herself blush. “It was great. He...um took me way out to the bluff, and we saw some antelope. He said he saw mule deer, but they were too far away. I couldn’t tell if they were deer or cacti.”
“Hard to tell from a great distance unless you can see them moving,” Anna agreed. “Was Frosty good for you?”
“Super. I’m going to miss him so much! Oh—and you, too,” Mia added hastily.
Laughing, Anna came farther into the room and tousled Lacey’s curls. “Well, we’ll miss you, too. I hope you’ll keep in touch.”
Mia felt her smile fade. “Yeah...I will.”
“I need to talk with you for a while. Outside.” Anna touched Lacey’s shoulder. “And you need to get going on your math homework again now that supper is over. Don’t you have a test every Friday?”
Shooting Mia a pained look, Lacey slid off the bed and grumbled on her way out to the kitchen.
Mia eyed Anna, uncertain. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Goodness, no. But you need to hear something, and then we need to talk.”
Mystified, Mia followed her outside and down the lane toward the cabins. When they drew close to Vicente’s, Anna touched her lips with a forefinger. “Listen.”
Mia stilled. All was silent...and then she heard the sweet, full-bodied tones of a classical guitar.
“He’s been playing for almost an hour,” Anna said in a low voice. “Come, take a look.”
They moved closer to the cabin where they could just glimpse Vicente through the window. He sat perched at the edge of his recliner, his left foot propped on a footstool, the guitar resting on his left thigh.
He was bent over it, his face contorted with intense concentration as he plucked the strings in a dizzying, rapid-fire sequence of such emotion and beauty that Mia stared, awed and humbled by the man she’d considered a simple ranch worker.
“That’s the guitar Lacey found in the storeroom,” she whispered. “How can he play sofast—and what is he playing?”
Anna listened for a few moments. “I think that’s Tárregga’s‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra.’”
“It’s incredible!”
“I heard it at an outdoor concert last year in El Paso. The program called the techniquetremoloand said it involved more than five hundred string plucks a minute. I don’t think Vicente is near that fast right now, though. I’m sure he’s pretty rusty.”
Mia stared at her, open-mouthed. “I couldneverdo that.”
“Ah, but where do you think you got your gift?” Anna asked, reaching over to give her a quick hug. “Musical talent comes in many forms. Maybe it partly depends on what one is exposed to.”
“Did you know he could play like that?”
“I’ve known Vicente since I was around ten years old, but I’ve never heard him play. Sad, isn’t it? All that talent just locked away. So many years lost.”
“I don’t get it.”
“He heard you playing earlier. I did, too, and I came to watch, but then I heard some noise in Vicente’s cabin and went over to check it out. Hearing you opened a lot of old wounds for him, I think.”
Embarrassment washed through her. “I—I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be, Mia. It’s time to work this all out. And maybe now, with a little help, we can get the job done.” Anna started for the cabin door and beckoned. “What do you say?”
“Is he...um...going to yell at me again?”
