Almost immediately, Officer Kahale called to ask her more questions. One of them was, “How long has your foreman been working for you?”
“Since December twentieth.”
“Did you do a background check before you hired him?”
She was about to look irresponsible. “No. My father hired him. Gary was one of his old high school friends.”
Officer Kahale made a disapprovingMmmnoise. “We’ll need a list of people who’ve worked on your ranch.”
She gave him the ones she had, emphasizing that Dewayne might have an ax to grind.
“We’ll look into these,” Officer Kahale said, and tacked on, “as well as your foreman.”
Gary wouldn’t have stolen her cattle. He was lazy and, okay, probably an alcoholic, but he was her father’s friend, and he didn’t want her to lose the ranch. He was depending on that September bonus.
Still, even after Kate put down the phone, the suspicion lingered on. While Kate made an egg salad sandwich, she called her parents. Missy sat on the floor nearby, staring wistfully at the food. It was like this every single meal.
Kate had expected her parents to feel as upset as she did about the number of cattle missing, but they seemed almost cheerful.
“This can work in our favor,” her father said. “Gary says he’ll find some ranchers who’re willing to wait for half their payment. With the rest of the claim money, you can pay off your debts. You’ll have the cattle you need, and you’ll be out of the red.”
Kate couldn’t speak for a moment. Her father was agreeing with Gary. She didn’t know what to say. “Will the lawyer consider partial payment for cattle staying out of the red?”
“Honey,” her father said, “with millions of dollars at stake, the lawyer doesn’t have to know.”
What little appetite she’d had completely left. “You want me to cheat?”
“If there are extenuating circumstances,” her mother said calmly, “it’s not cheating. I’m sure when Grandpa made his will, he just wanted you to work hard and prove you could make competent business decisions. You’ve done that. It’s the spirit of the law that’s important, not the letter. You’re giving up a year of your life for this. It’s not fair that someone can take that from you.”
Someone being Landon.
Part of Kate wanted to agree with her parents. She wanted to keep Coyote Glen in the black just so that all the people who’d treated her like some pampered interloper wouldn’t be able to smugly celebrate her defeat. Angelina, particularly. But Kate couldn’t rationalize her way to a clean conscience. Buying cattle in some under-the-table agreement would be cheating. How could she ever look Landon in the eye again if she did that? She would know she hadn’t really earned the ranch, that it should be his.
“You raised me to be honest. Are you going back on that now?”
“Honesty is important,” her father said. “But so is family, and Coyote Glen is your family’s land. It ought to belong to us.”
That argument might have had more weight if her parents wanted to keep the ranch, but they didn’t. This was just about money.
“It’s ironic,” Kate said. Ironic, meaning bitter. “My worries about Landon’s honesty drove us apart. You were so sure he would do something underhanded to take the ranch away from me that you made me start to believe it too. But now you want me to cheat to take the ranch away from him. You want me to become the person you warned me about.”
“You’re blowing this out of proportion,” her father said. “It’s not like I’m asking you to steal.”
“Yes, you are.” Her parents ought to be able to see that. They ought to understand what losing Landon had cost her. But they didn’t, and she didn’t want to keep arguing about it. “The police wanted to know if you did a background check on Gary. Did you?”
A pause. Of course they hadn’t. “I talked to one of his old bosses,” her father said. “He gave Gary a good reference.”
“Gary would have been foolish to give you the contact information for anyone who wouldn’t.” Let them think about that as they considered taking Gary’s less-than-legal advice.
“Kate,” her mother broke in, “Gary aside, you’ve got to listen to us when it comes to the ranch.”
“I have so far.” Kate tossed the rest of her sandwich to Missy. “And now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.”
“Kate!” Her father’s voice was shocked, reproving.
“You don’t even want Coyote Glen,” Kate shot back. “You don’t, but I might.”
Silence.