Part 44 (1/2)

'Doesn't everyone?'

Carla shook her head. Nadine grunted as if surprised.

'Well, someone forgot to tell me to pack for a week. And I don't like this commando thing.'

'Over-share.'

'I'll take care of it,' Carla said. 'I know a store open on Sundays. What kind? Thongs?'

'G.o.d, no. I don't like a string up my ... bikinis. All cotton. No lace. Any color.'

'What size?'

'Four.'

'Four? You eat like that and wear a four? That's not fair.'

Nadine waved them away. 'Hurry. I'm hungry, and I need those underwear. And before you leave, Professor, would you empty my bedpan? I really gotta pee.'

Book eyed the bedpan. 'Uh ...'

'I'll get the nurse,' Carla said.

She went outside to find a nurse.

'I like her,' Nadine said.

'I need you to research her dad. He was killed in an oil rig blowout six years ago. Find out what you can-on him and on her.'

'Why?'

'I don't know.'

'That ain't evidence of a murder,' Sheriff Munn said.

Book had called the sheriff with the information about Billy Bob's shady past and his current financial problems.

'Professor, before I can arrest the second-biggest employer in Presidio County after the Border Patrol and charge him with murder, I need a smoking gun.'

Book did not tell the sheriff about his and Carla's unauthorized entry upon Barnett Oil and Gas Company's well site the night before.

'That's good work by your gal, but it's not enough.'

'I'll talk to Carla at dinner, see what we can do.'

'Carla? You working with her?'

'We teamed up.'

'I asked you to team up with me.'

The sheriff grunted.

'Now, don't take it that way, Sheriff, it wasn't personal-'

d.a.m.n. Now he was answering the sheriff's grunts.

'Course, she is a mite better looking than me.'

'Just a little.'

'You figure her out yet?'

'I'm working on her.'

'I bet you are. Taking her to dinner, huh?'

'I am.'

'Where?'

'Reata.'

'Good place.'

'A smoking gun? Any advice, Sheriff?'

'First, the most desperate creature on earth is a cornered bear or a man about to lose everything. Be careful, Professor. And second, order the pecan pie for dessert.'

With six thousand residents, Alpine is like a major metropolitan area compared to Marfa. It has a doctor, a pharmacy, a hospital, a country club, and Reata on Fifth Street in downtown.

'My favorite restaurant in the whole world,' Carla said.

They ate on the back patio, which featured a Giant mural painted on the exterior wall of the adjacent building and country-western music playing on the sound system. The clientele was not a hipster artist crowd; it was a cowboy crowd. Deputy s.h.i.+rley sat at one table wearing her uniform and gun across from a strapping young cowboy. She gave Book a smile and a wink as they walked past. When they sat down, Carla glanced over at Deputy s.h.i.+rley then back at Book.

'You didn't go for the snow cone, did you?'

'Not yet.'

She sighed. 'Men.'

Their waitress was an authentic cowgirl attending Sul Ross on a ranch horse team scholars.h.i.+p. She wore a belt buckle the size of Montana.

'I won that at a cutting horse compet.i.tion,' she said.

Carla ordered the jalapeno and cilantro soup and fried poblano chile rellenos stuffed with cream cheese, corn, and pepper served with a corn chowder; Book went for the tortilla soup and grilled salmon with Boursin cream sauce. Book took the sheriff's advice and ordered the West Texas pecan pie for dessert; Carla had the Dutch Oven apple crisp with cajeta. And he placed Nadine's to go order. They had already stopped and picked up her underwear.