White Christmas in Dry Creek. Janet Tronstad

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СКАЧАТЬ sound of a distant television let her know Tessie was securely in the bedroom and would not hear them. Yet neither she nor the sheriff said anything for a good minute.

      Finally, the lawman shook his head. “You still hold that against me? I don’t know how many times I’ve explained that I arrested you for your own protection. You had been part of the theft at that gas station. We didn’t know at first that you’d been forced into it by your abusive husband. A blind man could see that he was setting you up to take the fall on those armed robberies he was pulling off. Even after we picked him up, that accomplice of his was still running around free and he was dangerous. I wanted to keep you safe from him. You were never even brought to trial. And it all happened a year ago. It’s not like you have a record from it or anything to hold you back.”

      Renee nodded, but she didn’t meet the sheriff’s eyes. “I’d just never been arrested before. Not even a parking ticket.”

      She had no quarrel with the law. The legal system might be a little black-and-white at times, but every criminal had some sad story in his background. She’d certainly had hers. And this man wouldn’t be the first wounded veteran to do something impulsive. All people needed to be held accountable for their actions. Except that she hadn’t done the crime.

      “I don’t go around arresting people for no reason,” the sheriff continued gruffly, his face turning slightly pink.

      “Well, I suppose I could have done better, too.” Renee had to give him that. “I didn’t help my ex-husband with those robberies, but I sure didn’t know how to stop him, either.”

      When Renee had seen that her husband was robbing gas stations, she’d finally been desperate enough to come look for her father. She’d ended up at Gracie Stone’s nearby house, in as bad shape as this man was tonight.

      “That doesn’t make you guilty of anything,” the sheriff said. “Stopping him was my job. What you should have done was come tell me what he was doing. Sooner than you did.”

      Renee nodded. After Gracie and her father married, they welcomed her and Tessie into their family along with Gracie’s three grown sons. But Renee wouldn’t let herself lean on the Stone family. She needed to find strength inside herself if she and her daughter were ever going to have a good life. Now that she was a Christian, she believed she could do that.

      “I’m not saying you should arrest this man,” she finally said. “It’s just that if you are going to arrest the guy tonight, I want you to do it now, before Tessie has a chance to come back. She thinks he’s a prince. It would break her heart to see you put handcuffs on him.”

      “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt that little girl,” Sheriff Wall responded. “You know that.”

      The sheriff leaned back on his haunches and continued, “And while we’re on the subject, I know Tessie is not particularly comfortable with any of the men around here. Well, except for her grandfather.”

      “Tessie and men are—” Renee paused, searching for the right word “—complicated.”

      The sheriff nodded. “But she seems to really like this guy. At least enough to talk to him and call him a prince. She’s not afraid of him, either. That’s something for her. He needs to be checked out better, but he sounds like he’s single. I wouldn’t rule him out completely. For all their faults, the Calhouns were honest people. And Tessie sure needs a better father than the one she’s got.”

      Renee turned to the lawman in astonishment.

      “He’s absolutely the worst kind of man we could get involved with. Look at him.” She gestured. “Only a violent man gets that many wounds. He spouts all kind of romantic nonsense about angels just hoping some woman will be foolish enough to fall for it. He might have Tessie wrapped around his little finger, but I’ll never budge. He and my ex-husband are enough alike to be brothers. I hope I never see him again after tonight. He even has a wolf for a dog. What kind of a father would he make for a little girl?”

      “Ah,” the sheriff said. “Well, that’s too bad.”

      They were both silent again.

      “You’ve been talking to Betty, haven’t you?” Renee finally asked.

      Sheriff Wall pushed his hat down farther on his head. “Betty’s the dispatcher. I talk to her all the time.”

      Renee gave the sheriff a stern look. “Just so you know—I’m not looking for a husband. She thinks I need one. I don’t. Tessie and I are doing just fine.”

      “Understood,” the lawman said with something like relief in his voice. “I like to help, but I’m not much good as a matchmaker anyway.”

      “No, you’re not,” Renee agreed with a smile.

      The sheriff was silent for a moment and then he pointed to the phone Renee held in her hand. “Speaking of Betty, is she still—”

      Renee grimaced in dismay and held out the phone. She’d forgotten all about it.

      The lawman took it and put it to his ear. “You still on here, Betty? Could you call Havre and see if they have anything on a Rusty Calhoun? They probably don’t, but it’s a place to start.”

      Renee could hear the ambulance as it stopped in front of the house. The sound of boots announced the arrival of two uniformed men as they came through the open doorway. The thin worker had a tattoo on his hand and the stockier one had a beard.

      “This must be our patient,” the tattooed man said as he knelt and put his fingers over the pulse on Rusty’s throat. “He’s doing better than I thought he might from what Betty said.”

      Renee felt relief wash over her as the two men loaded Rusty onto a gurney and wheeled him out of the house.

      The sheriff hung up the phone. “They’ll take Rusty to the clinic in Miles City. There’s nothing for you to worry about. You and Tessie can go to bed.”

      “Oh, that reminds me,” Renee said as she reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the slip of paper. “I took this out of the man’s pocket. It has a phone number on it.”

      The sheriff took the paper and studied it. “Not a local number. Looks like something back east. I’ll have to give it back to him, though. No permission for a search.”

      “He was unconscious,” Renee said.

      “All the more reason.” The sheriff started walking toward the open door. “If I end up arresting him for anything, it could jeopardize the whole case.”

      Renee could see the taillights of the ambulance through the side window on the house. A gust of cold wind blew inside before the sheriff could close the door. Renee wrapped her arms around herself. She felt the chill and shivered. She suddenly realized she’d have to see that man again. She had his horse and that beast he called a dog. She’d have to call over to the bunkhouse to see if anyone was awake to help her. She didn’t want to walk out to the barn in the dark with that animal around. Just because the man called him a dog didn’t make him one.

      * * *

      Early the next morning, Rusty sleepily noticed the antiseptic smell around him while his eyes were still closed. This place felt familiar, but he wasn’t ready to wake up. It СКАЧАТЬ