We enter her office, which holds more oversized furniture but is clear of any clutter minus a computer and a file cabinet.
“Jedd.” She states my name, motioning to a chair across from her as she takes the seat behind her desk. It’s too formal for a sibling reunion, and I don’t like it.
“Janice,” I mock as she scoots her rolling desk chair forward.
“It took you long enough to come see me. What’s it been, almost three months?” Her calculations might not be wrong, but her snippy tone sets me off.
“I’d have been here sooner had I known things were this bad for Boone.”
Janice sighs and removes her glasses, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Really, Jedd? You would have given it all up and returned here to save him?”
“I sent him money,” I remind her, disheartened that she would question my sibling loyalty. I did what I could for him.
“Money is not what he needed.”
“I didn’t know that.” On the rare times I’d spoken with my younger brother, he hadn’t mentioned the urgency of his issues. With my momma and Hasting dead, Boone was alone in the house, but Janice checked on him. He never told me he was in trouble, though I knew he still played cards. His father’s secret weapon in a game. He never inherited the land, after all. Hasting placed the wrong bet—putting his chips on his son—and then throwing down the deed to the farmstead, thinking he couldn’t lose.
He lost.
“He has issues,” Janice snaps. For years, she’s wanted to move my brother to an independent living facility, one where he would be among others needing support and supervision. Janice couldn’t take him in because Boone refused to go with her. Considered high functioning, we’d allowed him to remain in the house as long as he stayed in the Valley. But now, he was gone.
“Why now?” Janice asks. “Why did you come home now?”
“Because you called me. Telling me Boone was missing.”
Her eyes narrow. “What do you really want?” The question doesn’t startle me.
“I want the land back.”
“It’s tied up. I’ve told you that.” My sister could be disbarred for what I know but shouldn’t.
“I’m working something out. I’ve made a deal.”
Janice huffs as she falls back in her chair. “Just like Hasting. A deal. A bargain. A scheme.” Her voice rises. “I wonder where Boone got the idea to gamble.”
“I recall you once appreciated my deals.” I’d failed to protect my sister a hundred times until it all fell apart, and she’d allowed me one final confrontation.
Stay away from my sister. The threat had been idle. The man’s fate had already been sealed.
Janice had wised up because of her heartbreak. She’d returned to college in Nashville, changed her major to law, and here she sits.
Her head tilts to the side, dismissing what I’ve said. “It was all so long ago.”
We sit in silence only a second before I say, “Tell me what you can about Boone.”
“He refused to move and was often absent when I tried to visit, but this time was different. I just knew he was gone. Things haven’t been good. The house is in squalor. His conditions rustic. When I finally called you, he wasn’t there, and the evidence proves he hadn’t been.”
“What evidence?”
“Empty cabinets. No dirty dishes. Nothing really out of place. Well, as best you can tell with the mess.”
I didn’t need to ask about horses. They’d been sold to pay off debts. The land lacked tending. The current owner must have covered the taxes, but the property just sat there. No one tried to evict Boone, which hadn’t make sense until I returned to Green Valley. Still, there was one piece of the puzzle missing.
“Why didn’t he call me?” I question of my older sister.
“Would you have answered?” She knows I always returned calls when I could. Eventually. The past year had been…difficult.
“I’m here now.” I state the obvious because I can’t change the past. If I could, I’d do so many things differently. Fought Hasting for the farm. Taken care of Boone. Not reached for an electrical wire.
“Finally lose a competition?”
When I finished with the Army, discharge due to injury, I was lost until I’d heard of Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association, or PAFRA. I found a sponsor and entered every competition I could. The one-armed warrior rides a bucking bronco. Though it was quite a spectacle, it was a profitable one that resulted in a celebrity status of sorts. The notoriety of both a warrior and a cowboy was heady. Only, years of banging random woman and bucking on the back of a bronco had taken their toll. I was looking for an excuse to settle down, but I just hadn’t found the right place to settle.
Then Boone disappeared, and an idea sprang to life.
“I never lose,” I tease my older sibling. She should remember well the competitive spirit we each had, racing horses over our land, chasing each other on tractors, or fighting over chicken legs at the supper table. Our momma had been a good cook. Janice’s drive to be the best makes her a good lawyer. My ambition kept me away too long.
“Look, I’m working on something on the old Townsen homestead and—”
“You know you need to stay away from there,” Janice hisses, interrupting me as she sits forward in her seat.
“Why? Howard’s long gone.” My eyes narrow at my sister.
“Jedd,” she warns. “Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m not being stupid.” Famous last words before I act foolish. “She needs me.”
“Who?” Janice’s brows crease.
“Beverly.” I mumble her name under my breath.
“What did you do?” Janice hisses, familiar with Beverly’s name.
“Nothing. I worked out a deal, like I said.”
“Jedd,” she warns again, but I dismiss her with a wave of my hand. Her eyes catch on the metal attachment. “How are you?” she adds as an afterthought.
“You know me. Fall down seven times. Get up eight.” Janice stares at me as if she isn’t familiar with the Japanese proverb.
“You need to stay away from that farm,” she commands, the threat lacking.
“I have it under control. I’m more worried about Boone. Do you suspect foul play?” Lord knows he owes many players. The wrong hand. Slip of a card. People took advantage of him without his father as protector. I don’t know that Boone had much left to lose, other than his life.
“I’m not sure. I suppose anyone associated with him might have considered no one would miss him if he was taken out, but there are plenty of people keeping up with Boone’s whereabouts.” Vernon Grady was one of them until Boone somehow gave him the slip. Boone’s ridiculously large size couldn’t be missed, and his presence was also well-known at a few haunts like the Pink Pony. So while anyone looking for him might have noticed his schedule, Boone no longer following the pattern would have been noticed by the places he frequented. Daisy’s Nut House. The Pink Pony. The Watershed.
I’d already interviewed the waitress at Daisy’s, and I’d spoken with Hank. I also interviewed the newest bartender at my current haunt, but he’d only started working this fall, so he wasn’t familiar with my brother.