Deadly Sanctuary by Sylvia Nobel Read Free Book Online Page A

for the annual barbeque dinner. It was the end of the week-long Gold Dust Days celebration held each June. All evening, Stephanie had been drinking heavily and flirting outrageously with all the men, including John.
    “Tally stood it as long as he could,” Ginger stated, bending to pull a pan of cornbread from the oven, “then he hauled her into the barn. Ronda said everyone could hear her screaming at him. Afterward, she stormed into the house and he went back to his guests. It was pert near dark when she up and rode off into the desert. Hell bent for leather. When Ronda told Tally, he took off after her, saying he was worried about her horse spooking ’cause of all the lightning that night. Anyhow, he found her an hour later face down in a cholla field holdin’ a handful of reins.”
    “Jesus,” I whispered trying to absorb all the details. Something still didn’t add up. “Ginger, I must be dense, because I still don’t get why Dexter suspected Bradley. It sounds like a freak accident to me.”
    “It was supposed to look like that, sugar, but there’s those who didn’t believe it then…and still don’t.”.
    “And why is that?”
    Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Word around town was them reins might’ve been cut.”

6
    Her dramatic exposé sent a little ripple of shock zinging down my back. Ginger quickly added that even though the motive apparently existed, the inquest had cleared Bradley. I wondered. Was he innocent or had he cleverly covered his tracks? But then, she’d also said there’d been hundreds of people there that night. Who else in Castle Valley would have benefited from Stephanie Talverson’s death?
    Ginger appeared pleased that her news had scored high on my astonishment scale. She shooed me from the kitchen with a request to fetch Brian while she finished preparing dinner. I went reluctantly, still bursting to ask more questions. Could this latest revelation mean Bradley had something to do with Dexter’s disappearance? But that didn’t add up. Two years was sufficient time for the feud between them to have cooled.
    By the time I knocked on Brian’s door, I’d convinced myself the two incidents were unrelated. We chatted for a few minutes until we heard Ginger holler ‘chow’s on!’
    Everything tasted delicious. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d stuffed myself so much at one sitting. The strawberry shortcake crowned with a mound of whipped cream almost finished me off.
    “Don’t let me eat another bite,” I said pushing away from the table.
    “What’s that?” Nona inquired with interest. “You’ve been in a fight?”
    Everyone giggled and then jumped when the big cat I’d seen earlier vaulted with a bang onto the front screen. “Let Churchill in will you, Brian?” Ginger asked. Brian got up, opened the door, and the cat sauntered in, tail waving, its mouth clamped onto something most definitely alive.
    “Good Lord!” Ginger leaped to her feet. “He’s got a scorpion!” Startled by her scream, the cat dropped the creature which lay still for a few seconds, and then barreled across the carpet.
    Brian moved swiftly and crunched the thing under his boot. The cat looked displeased.
    Ginger sank into her chair, patting her chest. “Them things give me the apoplexy.”
    Of course, that brought a rash of favorite insect stories. When my turn came, I told of the boy who’d put a spider down my back in the sixth grade. It brought howls of laughter from everyone.
    Ginger held her stomach. “Y’all really took off your clothes?”
    “Down to my skivvies,” I answered dryly. Ginger coaxed a reluctant Brian into helping her wash the dishes. In the meantime, Nona entertained me with photos and articles about her long theater career. Her scrapbooks made me feel a little sad. It was hard to believe that the young, vivacious person in the pictures was now this shriveled old woman.
    Brian had rented a movie and we’d just reached the thrilling climax when the