Free Chili Con Carnage by Kylie Logan

long, chili pepper earrings, enameled bright red. When she shook her head, they swung against her neck. “I know I wasn’t his type,” she said.
    Which was so not what we were talking about, I didn’t catch on for a moment. When I did, I grinned. “You wish you were.”
    She thought about it. “Maybe. Maybe not. Your father is an attractive man. There’s no doubt about that. Oh, I was interested enough when I first met him. But you’ve got to admit, he has something of a reputation.”
    “No denying it.”
    Gert pushed a hand through her auburn hair. It was shoulder length, and she scooped it up at the back of her neck, twisted it into a loose sort of bun, and grabbed a nearby chopstick to poke through it and keep it in place. “From what I’ve heard, Jack likes his women long and leggy.” Gert patted her own sizable thighs. “I bet your mother was a beauty.”
    “Absolutely.”
    “And Sylvia’s, too?”
    I remembered all the times I’d seen Norma Montgomery when Jack and I had stopped to pick up Sylvia for the summer. My first impression of Norma was that she looked like she didn’t sleep nearly enough. My second was that she held herself too stiff. Like she was afraid that if she gave an inch, she’d crack right in half. But it was her eyes that I remembered most, and the looks she sent in Jack’s direction.
    Even though it was warm in the tent, I shivered. “Norma’s pretty enough, I suppose,” I admitted and added, not because I wanted to but because I felt it was only fair, “Sylvia looks a lot like her. She’s not a nice person, though. Norma, I mean.” I felt it necessary to point this out because, after all, it could just as easily have applied to my half sister. “She hates Jack.”
    Gert finished her tea. “Maybe she has her reasons.”
    When it came to his love life, I wasn’t about to defend my father. “Maybe,” I admitted. “But what kind of reasons could he have to leave the Showdown and not tell anyone where he was going?”
    I’d hoped for more than just a shrug in reply, but really, I hadn’t expected more.
    I thanked her for the tea with a smile and got up to leave.
    “You know . . .” Gert joined me, straightening the pot holders on a rack when we walked by. “If you’re trying to come up with new theories on what might have happened to Jack and not getting anywhere, you could use an old technique I always found helpful in business. When I felt like I was a hamster on a wheel, going over the same ol’ same ol’ again and again, sometimes I’d get a new perspective on things if I changed the view.”
    I looked around at the dusty New Mexico scenery. “You mean, go back to Abilene?”
    “Well, eventually you might want to do that. For now, I’m thinking that maybe if you just got away from the hustle and bustle around here for a while, you know, so you could think and not get distracted by Jack’s spices and Jack’s customers and Jack’s friends, maybe that would help. Of course, so would settling that ugly business from yesterday.” In spite of the heat, she shivered and wrapped her arms over her broad chest. “You haven’t heard anything, have you? About who the police are talking to?”
    “I haven’t. Though I guess I won’t be surprised if they show up to talk to me again.”
    “When they do . . .” Whatever Gert was going to say, she thought better of it, and instead, she put a hand on my shoulder. “Well, you just tell them the truth, Maxie. That’s all you need to prove you had nothing to do with the whole thing.”
    Finally, a person with sense.
    I kept that in mind when I walked back through the Showdown setup, ignoring the few people I saw whispering behind their hands when I passed. When I got to the Palace, everything was ready for the opening: jars neatly arranged, price lists—of course they included the new, higher prices Sylvia insisted on—laminated and hung where everyone could see them.
    When she caught sight of me, Sylvia’s eyes