Free Roped (Gail McCarthy Mysteries) by Laura Crum Page B

for a sizable down payment on a bigger place.
    Walking to the table, I picked up the note Denise had left me: "I showed it to three parties today. One of them, a single woman, a high school teacher, seemed very interested. It looks good. Will be in touch."
    Well, well, well. I surveyed the house with the eyes of a stranger, wondering if this schoolteacher would be moved to make an offer. Short sandy beige carpet set off the curved shapes of my few pieces of antique furniture and harmonized gently with the soft-white walls and oiled wood window and door trim. Both living room and kitchen were tiny (the bathroom was even more so) but cozy and comfortable-looking, and that was all there was to the upper story.
    Sighing, I set my hands and feet on the rungs of the ladder that was my stairway and lowered myself through a hole in the kitchen floor. Since the house was built on a steep bank on the edge of Soquel Creek, it had two levels. The upper story was at street level, and the smaller, basementlike lower story was at creek level, more or less. Very much creek level in a wet winter, I'd found. Someone had had the bright idea of connecting the two stories with a ladder. It was space-efficient but could be a little awkward.
    Down below was my bedroom. I could hear the murmur of the creek outside in the darkness through an open window as I began undressing for bed. Would someone else be undressing here in a month or so? And where would I be?
    I felt lost and disoriented at the thought, and very alone. Everything was changing. Blue was gone; my house was soon to be gone; Lonny was perhaps going.
    You've got your job, I reminded myself, and your horses-you'll be fine. You're used to being alone. So how come it felt so shitty right now?
    A loud meow broke into my wallow in self-pity, and a fluffy grayish tabby cat with white paws and chest and a lynxlike face jumped through the open window and onto the bed. "Hello, Bonner," I said.
    I rubbed the cat's head and scratched the base of his tail; he arched his back and purred, and I felt suddenly better. As I pulled the covers over me, the cat settled down by my side, a warm, steady weight, purring contentedly. "Who needs a man?" I told him.
    I'll get another dog, I added to myself, as soon as I get moved. One of Lisa's puppies maybe. And I'll have the horses with me. On these comforting thoughts, I fell asleep, Glen and his stalker the last thing on my mind, happily unaware of what the coming days would bring.

TEN
    I pulled up at Lisa's front gate at eight o'clock the next morning. Joey and Rita barked vociferously on the other side of the picket fence, and I regarded them with even more interest than I had the day before.
    Joe was a "blue" heeler, like my old dog, Blue, a color that was really more of a mottled gray. He had the same square, sturdy frame, the same bobbed tail, and would be about the same weight-thirty pounds, more or less. The Harlequin-esque appearance his half-mask gave him was immediately engaging, at least to someone who likes Queenslands.
    Rita was smaller and shyer; when I opened the gate and let myself in the yard, she kept her distance, barking and occasionally aiming fake snaps in the direction of my heels. I could bite you, she was telling me, don't do anything wrong.
    I walked steadily to the front porch, the dogs accompanying me, still barking, but in an accepting rather than an angry tone. Lisa opened the door and smiled at me. "They like you," she said.
    "I like Queenslands. They probably know it. I think I do want a pup," I added.
    "Good. I'll save the pick of the litter for you. Come on in and have a cup of coffee."
    I followed Lisa into the house, and the big orange cat appeared from nowhere and began weaving between my legs.
    "Hi, Zip," I said. He stood up on his back legs and put his front paws on my thigh, just like a dog, and I scratched his wide head.
    Lisa handed me a cup of coffee, and I sat down in a fat, comfortable chair. Lisa settled herself on