Tainted Trail by Wen Spencer Page B

thinks since I haven’t shacked up with anyone else, I’ll be crawling back to him any day now. He’s even taken steps to speed up the process, so I needed to get a restraining order on him. I try to keep track of where he’s working so I can avoid him; but he’s never happy at anything very long, so he quits most jobs after a few months. He just started working at the post office a few weeks ago. I guess that got tedious fast.”
    â€œHe must find work easily.”
    â€œHe’s a charming, irresponsible bastard. People love him. Most people forgive him for all the shitty things he does, mostly because when he’s truly cruel, he makes sure he isn’t caught. I caught him at it one too many times, and just ran out of forgiveness. Screwing with your broken arm is so like him. I didn’t want to pull away while he had hold of your arm. Are you okay?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œDo you have a girlfriend, kid?”
    â€œGirlfriend isn’t the right word.” It wasn’t a strong enough word. Fiancée also seemed weak.
    â€œOh! Okay. Well, this might be useless advice then, but don’t rush into anything permanent. Love isn’t enough to base a life together on.”
    â€œMax thinks it is. He says when you find someone, you grab hold and you don’t let go.”
    â€œOh.” She said and started the car. “Sooooo, Max is married?”
    â€œHe was. His wife was killed in a car wreck. He thinks you should make the most of life because you don’t know when it’s going to end.”
    Sam made a sound of enlightenment and pulled out of the parking space. “Well, love is a good start, but love can blind you to the monster inside. People are rarely what you think they are on first sight.”
    What if you’re the one with the monster inside? He wondered about Indigo’s comment of “If we get married.” Was she beginning to see what life with him would be like and having second thoughts? Could he blame her?
    â€œI should have asked earlier,” Sam went on, unaware of Ukiah’s turmoil. “Should you really have eaten so soon after abdominal surgery?”
    â€œYou heard about that?”
    â€œIt’s a small town and I like to nose into other people’s business. What the hell was that all about, anyhow? And why did it piss off Kicking Deer so much?”
    â€œAhhhhhh.” Ukiah drew a blank on how to explain. “That one is hard to explain. Can we get back to it?”
    Sam threw back her head and laughed loudly. “Oh, come on, that’s the interesting one, especially since it’s put a bug up Kicking Deer’s back end something awful.”
    â€œKicking Deer is annoyed because I’m trying to find his grandfather.”
    She stopped laughing. “Jesse Kicking Deer?”
    â€œYes. I would like to talk to him. Do you have any clue how I could do that?”
    â€œAh!”
    â€œAh?”
    â€œThe Tuesday-night disaster. You drove out to see Jesse Kicking Deer and got jumped all over by one big, mean county sheriff.”
    â€œYeah. So Jesse still lives at the ranch?”
    â€œIs this part of the Kraynak case?”
    â€œNo,” Ukiah admitted. He shifted uneasily in his seat. Boy Scouts, with all the emphasis on truthfulness, hadn’t been the best training for a private investigator. “A couple years ago, Max was hired by a client in Pittsburgh to find the identity of a John Doe. The case brought him out to Pendleton and dead-ended. Some new information has turned up, and we think the John Doe and the Kicking Deer boy are one and the same. Sheriff Kicking Deer, however, won’t let us talk to his grandfather.”
    â€œThe Umatilla Wolf Boy ended up in Pittsburgh? That’s a new one. Is this John Doe still alive, or are we talking heirs of the estate—so to speak?”
    â€œHe’s still alive.”
    â€œWhat the hell is he doing in