"Then let me talk to him," Helena Whitworth demanded as she walked through the sheriff's office door.

Granger stood, almost bumping noses with Meredith in his haste. "Mrs. Whitworth, I was just explaining to Mrs.

Allen…"

Helena handed him a paper that had been folded neatly in half. "I'm too old to argue. I brought a letter from Judge Lewis stating that since Zack Larson has no relatives that we know of, I can visit him as his next of kin."

Granger's frown was becoming a permanent part of his face. "I've never heard of such an exception."

Randi laughed. "Great, Helena. You've adopted him."

"No, I'm just visiting Zack Larson. I woke the judge up from his nap. It doesn't seem right for a man who's lived in this town all his life not to have at least one person visit him. If the rest of the city counsel considers themselves the town fathers, I can play the town mother once in a while." Granger shook his head. "What makes you ladies so sure you're right? Did it ever occur to you that Zack may be guilty?"

"It might have." Helena tilted her head slightly. "Bella his housekeeper, Bella Johnson, told me he's been drinking tea lately. English tea."

Granger threw up his hands. "That settles it. I'm letting him out. If he drinks tea, he couldn't be a bad person."

None of the women thought the sheriff was the least bit funny.

"Bella told me the same thing when she brought Zack up a set of clothes this morning." Granger tapped the letter against his hand. "But Bella spent half her life living in a bottle. Zack's family probably offered her the only job slu could get and keep. She'd say anything."

Helena raised her chin as though peasants were questioning the queen. "She worked for Anna, too. Bella may have taken a drink now and then, but I believe she's honest. She wouldn't lie."

Meredith almost felt sorry for Granger. He could handle the drunks and the troublemakers, but he had no idea how to handle the widows.

She watched as he paced the office, rereading the letter from Judge Lewis. "All right, you can see him for five minutes. But you'll have to climb the stairs, the elevator isn't working."

"I'm sorry, officer. I can't." Helena lowered her thin body to the nearest chair. "I've been having dizzy spells lately. I have no plans to climb any more stairs than I have to this day."

Meredith smiled. Helena played her part so well. She wouldn't have been surprised to hear the older woman call Granger "young man."

"You'll have to bring him down here." She said the words casually, as though ordering an extra course at dinner.

Granger had met his match. Helena Whitworth had not managed a successful store and the town by giving an inch to anyone. Meredith had no doubt there would be another letter from the judge if Granger didn't start moving.

"Just wait here, Mrs. Whitworth. Adam and I'll bring him down from the third floor." The sheriff looked at Meredith and Randi. "I don't want either of you in this office when I get back."

After he left, the three women stood staring at one another in silence for a long time. They all knew the risk they took. Crystal said the hospital planned to release Carlo by the next shift change. He had already called and had his men post a guard at the gate of the Montano Ranch. Anna would not answer the phone, she was in no shape to leave, and as soon us Carlo got home and demanded Bella leave, Anna would be all alone. They would no longer be able to get to her… or save her.

If they were going to help Anna, Zack might be their only chance.

"I've never done anything like this in my life," Meredith whispered as she wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and reached for Granger's keys. She circled them around the desk as though they were a toy.

Randi shrugged. "This is just Saturday night excitement for me."

Helena straightened. "We do what we have to. I see no crime in that."

"Hope the sheriff agrees with you," Randi added.

When they heard footsteps on the stairs, they sprang like rabbits.

Randi took her place on the far side, at the bottom of the stairs. Her long leg stretched up to the fourth step as though she were a ballerina warming up.

Meredith stood on the other side near the marble column.

She slipped her hand up along the back side, feeling in the darkness for what she hoped was still there.

Helena waited just inside the office, watching the men come down.

Adam held Zack Larson's arm at the elbow. Granger walked a few steps ahead. As always, he appeared aware of everything around him.

Meredith watched Granger's face, knowing the second Helena started her faint without looking in the older woman's direction. The lawman's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to shout and rushed toward his office door.

Adam and Zack were two steps from the main floor when Meredith rose to her tiptoes and threw the emergency switch.

All power went dead. The hallways blinked black.

Deputy Adam let out a long shout as he stumbled.

Meredith grabbed Zack's arm and pulled him behind the pillar. She was surprised he did not fight her. It was like he was in a coma and no longer cared one way or the other what happened.

It took her a few seconds in the darkness to shove the key in the lock of his handcuffs. "Hurry!" she whispered. "Take my Mustang just outside the door."

He responded as if someone had yelled fire and he had no choice but to run. Long sure steps echoed off the marble floor as he headed for the closest exit. A second later, Meredith heard the door open and shut.

She raised her hand and flipped the switch back on. No one, probably not even the sheriff, knew about the emergency switch. Only janitors, and janitors' daughters who hail once danced in the hallways.

"What the hell?" Adam rolled across the floor like a basketball in need of air.

"What happened?" Granger yelled from the office.

"I fell," Adam mumbled as he rubbed his knee. "Hurt my leg. I swear something ran between my feet a moment after the lights went out. Tripped me right up. This place must have rats a foot long."

Randi stood at the bottom of the stairs where she had been when the lights went out, her red Ropers looking as innocent as Ropers can look.

Meredith hurried to where Granger still held Helena. "What's wrong? Helena, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, dear. Just felt a little faint there for a moment." Helena looked pale, and very fragile. "Thank goodness the sheriff caught me or I could have had quite a fall."

Granger carefully sat Helena on the nearest chair. "How's Larson?" he yelled toward Adam. "Did he fall, too?"

There was a long silence before Adam's disgusted whine echoed off the courthouse walls. "Larson's gone."

Granger was out the office door and into the hall before Adam's words died. "Gone! Where could he have gone?"

The sheriff didn't wait for an answer. He scanned the hallway. The only unlocked door was that of his office. There was nowhere for Zack to hide. "If he didn't come past me…"Granger stormed to the side door in time to see the tail lights of Meredith's car disappear.

"You want me to get the highway patrol on the line, Sheriff?" Adam limped toward Granger.

"No," Granger answered as he crossed back into his office and opened his gun rack. "I plan on following him. Looks like he's heading away from his ranch. Probably figures that would be the first place we'd look. Since he's in Meredith's old car, I've got a good chance of catching him before he can get to the New Mexico line."

"Can't blame him for heading away. If he goes anywhere near the Montano spread, they'll shoot him on sight."

Granger's angry stare met Meredith's. "What did you have to do with this?"

Meredith stood as straight and tall as she could."I planned the whole thing. Turned off the lights. Tripped Adam. Left my keys in my car. I helped him escape." Slic crossed one hand over the other, praying he wouldn't notice how violently she was shaking as she laid his keys back on his desk.

Granger wasn't watching. He grabbed a rifle before turning back to her, a tired smile brushing the corner of his face "If I believed that for one minute, I'd lock you up right now."

He disappeared out the side door with Adam limping at his side.

"Men." Randi shrugged as she looped her arm over Meredith's shoulder. "You can't fool 'em no matter how hard you try."

In the oil business, once you hit oil you dropped pipe and the money started rolling in. The early fields of Texas were full of men with "pipe dreams."


Sunday, December 19

7:25 p.m.

The Breaks


Zack turned south toward what everyone in town called "The Breaks." He knew the dirt roads out there near the river better than the sheriff knew the streets. When he had been a kid, he'd spent thousands of hours riding across them on a dirt bike. If the car held up over the hard snow-packed trails, he knew he could lose Farrington.

His head throbbed as if someone was sitting in the back seat taking a swing at it with a hammer every few minutes. He gripped his side feeling a stabbing pain in his ribs every time he twisted. But, none of it mattered. With pure determination pounding through his veins he had one purpose, Anna. He had to find Anna. Nothing else, not even his life mattered.

The entrance to the breaks was hidden on one side by an old bait shop covered over by trumpet vines, and the town cemetery on the other. During the summer, you could tell the time of day by the traffic on the old road. Fishermen at dawn, families picnicking in the afternoons, bikers looking for the back trails and weekend adventures, and lovers who arrived after dark.

When Zack dipped out of sight of the car following him, he turned off his lights and drove more by instinct than with the help of the pale quarter moon. Cottonwoods twisted be side the road, spilling inky shadows over the snow. The old Mustang blended like smoke through the turns, weaving neap the river and around brown grass as tall as the roof of the car.

Twenty minutes later, Zack pulled out on the far side of the breaks and took the back road to his ranch. The car slid off the road several times, running into the pasture, knocking down fence poles until finally he saw the lone light of his house.

Zack let himself take a deep breath for the first time. He'd made it home. Maybe it made no sense. The sheriff would find him eventually. He had sworn never to tell anyone about Anna, and he knew her brother would kill her if she tried to talk. The sheriff left her with one hell of a choice: if she testified she might free Zack, but she would condemn her brother. And Carlo would kill her before he would let that happen.

So Zack figured he would probably go to jail for a few years. But like a homing pigeon, he wanted to come back one last time. He did not blame Anna for remaining silent. Hell, he had had a lifetime of bad luck. Why would he expect it to change just because she came into his life? He just wished he could hold her one more time.

When he pulled into the yard, he saw Crystal Howard at his front door. For a moment he thought of circling his place and heading for parts unknown. The last thing he needed was more trouble.

She yelled at him before he reached the porch. "The hospital called on my cell. Carlo is on his way home. Can you get Anna back here before Carlo makes it to their place? I figure you got about ten minutes. If you can, we'll get her to safety."

"You know?" he said, fearing he had said too much by even asking about Anna at the hospital. There was no way she could have learned anything about Anna and him.

"We know little," Crystal answered, directly, "except that Anna is in danger, and it isn't from you."

There was no time to talk. He ran to the walkover and crossed the fence. The path to Anna's house was twisted and slippery, but he made it as fast as he dared. He wouldn't be much help to her if he fell and cracked open what was left of his skull. But the drugs for pain made it feel like he was moving through water. His feet would not maneuver as fast as they should.

Zack fought to clear his head. He took in deep gulps of the cold air and concentrated on one thing, Anna.

A few lights were on at her place. Zack felt his way along the patio until he found the sliding doors. The second one he tried, opened.

He entered the house, afraid of what he might find. The memory of the fight still hung in the air. He could almost hear the echoes of Carlo shouting and Anna crying. The smell of the fire he and Anna built late that night still lingered, spiced now with the hint of gunpowder. The feeling that he'd die of pleasure, the fear he'd die of pain now blended in the silence of the huge room.