Turkey Ranch Road Rage Read Online Free Page B

and he can do whatever he wants on it.”
    She slammed the cup down, hopped up and paced. “They can not do anything they want. My property is there too and I have rights. I’m not stupid or senile either like that idiot Gifford Geller seems to think, telling me they were putting in a water well. Why the jackass thought I’d believe that when there’s city water right in front of my house, I don’t know, but I just played dumb and let him think I’d bought his pack of lies. He’s about as worthless a county commissioner as there is.”
    “Now, Miz Jackson,” Leroy said, “The commissioner—”
    “Shut up, Leroy, you know as well as I do that he’s got his dirty hands in this. Same with that Gilbert Moore who’s been out there. He’ll tell you one thing one time and then something entirely different the next, and then when you call him on it, he tries to make it out like you’re the one who’s crazy. Well, I’m not crazy, and he’s a big fat liar.” She stopped and stomped her gold sparkled foot. “They think they can just come in here and do whatever they want to, and they most certainly cannot. I’ve let them know that real plain, and if they mess with me, I’ll do it again.”
    I had no doubts of that. “So how long has this been going on?”
    “Probably about six weeks. Three days of having my dishes rattling in the cabinets and my coffee splashing out of my cup just sitting on the table was all I could stand. I tried talking nice to them about it and then I gave them a what-for, but they wouldn’t stop. Agnes talked me out of shooting them, but as you can very well see I am not getting any good press this way so I sure hate it that I didn’t blast them when I had the chance.” Seeing the look of disbelief that was apparently on my face, she added, “Well, I wouldn’t have killed any of them, Jolene. I was only going to wound a few.”
    “Oh, well, in that case…” I said, sighing dramatically because really, that’s all you can do. “Anyway, why is Bob Little—”
    “Oh, Bobby can be such an idiot sometimes.” She gave a dismissive wave. “He got himself in way over his head, and before he knew what he was doing, well, here we are. To be so smart about some things he sure is dumb as a post about others.”
    Ditto for me or I wouldn’t be sitting in the Bowman County Jail having this conversation. “Let’s go back to the house so you can show me what’s been going on first hand. Show me where the trucks were, that sort of thing.”
    “I told you I’m not leaving.”
    “Who knows,” I said, deciding to dangle a little bait, “maybe if we leave right now you can catch somebody out there in the mesquites and shoot him.”
    She cut her eyes toward me. “You’re just saying that.”
    “Fine, you stay here and I’ll go knock on Mr. Little’s door myself and have him tell me what’s going on.”
    Lucille eyed me again, frowning and chewing her lip. After another glare, a huff and a pointed scowl, she sat back down and crossed her legs. “You can do what you want, I suppose, but it would be a complete waste of time,” she said, her glittery slipper twitching like it was on fire. “He won’t talk to anybody anymore.”
    “Even you?”
    She huffed again and folded her hands in her lap. “He hasn’t been himself lately.”
    “Well, guess what, I don’t care. I had to rush down here because you’re in jail yet again for committing a felony and somebody is going to tell me something that makes some kind of sense.”
    “I’ll have you know that Jerry Don only wrote me up for a misdemeanor.”
    Leroy nodded in agreement. “But then she wouldn’t leave. That’s why he called you. He thought she’d listen to you.”
    “Right, because that always worked so well before.” I leaned an elbow on the armrest of my own chair and propped my cheek in my palm. “I have no idea what to do, none.”
    “There is something you can do,” she said, responding to a statement I