He revolved his hat in his hands for a moment, thinking.
“We’ll take care of Jeff for you, Sarah. I’m sorry we haven’t all done a better job of it until now. He’s living with my folks, I guess you know. It’s not the best arrangement. He’s too pigheaded and they’re too old. But it won’t last forever that way. I’m pretty sure Mitch intends to take him in, and once he and Abby get married, which they’re sure to do, then Jeff will finally have a home with people who actually give a damn about him. I don’t know what he thought he was going to do with that gun of his dad’s when he ran out of my folks’ house like that, but I shudder to think what could have happened. He was one hurt, angry kid, I’ll tell you, after what he had heard about Tom and Nadine. And what he had heard about you. I think he was heartbroken on your behalf, Sarah. I think he wanted to kill the son of a bitch who had done that to his mother.”
Rex took a deep breath, feeling upset all over again.
When he could talk calmly, he said, “About Jeff. I’ll try to be more patient. Be like an uncle, or something, although I can’t promise I’ll be any good at it. You don’t go from being the sheriff to being the uncle overnight, you know.”
Rex gazed off into the distance, over the flint-topped hills now turning green with summer ripeness. “Well, I guess that’s about it. I don’t know if you ever actually cured anybody. My mom says you did, but I don’t know. And I don’t know if people will continue to come out to see you, now that you’re not such a mystery anymore. But I’ll tell you one thing—even if nobody else ever really got a miracle, I think I’m cured, Sarah, which should be good news.” He grinned down at her gravestone. “God knows you must be sick of me still hanging around you after all these years.”
Out of a still, clear day, the wind suddenly picked up.
It bowed the grass in his direction, unaccountably lifting his spirits and making him think that maybe she hadn’t minded his devotion, after all.
About the Author
NANCY PICKARD is the creator of the acclaimed Jenny Cain mystery series. She has won the Anthony Award, two Macavity Awards, and two Agatha Awards for her novels. She is a three-time Edgar Award nominee, most recently for her first Marie Lightfoot mystery, The Whole Truth, which was a national bestseller. With Lynn Lott, Pickard co-authored Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path. She has been a national board member of the Mystery Writers of America, as well as the president of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Prairie Village, Kansas. Visit her website at www.nancypickardmysteries.com.
Also by Nancy Pickard
FICTION
The Truth Hurts
Ring of Truth
The Secret Ingredient Murders
The Blue Corn Murders
The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders
Twilight
Confession
But I Wouldn’t Want to Die There
I.O.U.
Bum Steer
Dead Crazy
Marriage Is Murder
No Body
Say No to Murder
Storm Warnings
NONFICTION
Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path
The Virgin of Small Plains is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2006 by Nancy Pickard
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pickard, Nancy.
The virgin of Small Plains : a novel / Nancy Pickard.—
p. cm.
eISBN-10: 0-345-49372-9
1. Cold cases (Criminal investigation)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3566.I274V53 2006
813'.54—dc22
2005055550
www.ballantinebooks.com
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