The deputy carried over Thatcher’s duffel and dropped it at his feet. “Everything’s there, including the nudie pictures.”

Thatcher gave him a sardonic grin. “Good. They’re souvenirs I’m taking to the other hands at the ranch.” He shouldered the strap of the bag and walked out.

* * *

Bill went home for lunch. He was halfway into his meal when the telephone rang. He left the table, went into the hall, and answered.

A deputy identified himself. “Wally Johnson’s been found dead. Two bullet wounds through his head.”

That was more than enough to spoil Bill’s appetite. He pulled his napkin from his shirt collar and blotted his mouth. “Who found him?”

“A cousin.”

“Where?”

The deputy described the scene. “The still was intact, there was a stockpile of product, barrels of mash were fermenting. Only thing spoiled was Wally.”

“What’s the cousin’s name? Besides Johnson.”

“Elray.”

“He owned up to moonshining?”

“Kid’s only fourteen. He was scared shitless that whoever did in Wally was going to come after him, too. Said he’d rather be in jail as in Wally’s shoes.”

“How do I get there?”

The deputy gave him directions. “I’ll wait for you at the turnoff. Otherwise you might miss it.”

“Has the J.P. been notified?”

“He’s on his way. Not that we need an official pronouncement. Wally’s deader’n a doornail. Shot through one of his ears.”

Sighing over the ill-concealed mirth in the deputy’s voice, Bill hung up. But no sooner had he turned away from the telephone than it rang a second time. He picked it up again. “This is Sheriff Amos.”

* * *

Gabe Driscoll sat at the dining table, force feeding himself from the plate of food Mila’s aunt had insisted he eat.

He had met these relatives of Mila’s only once before, and that had been on his wedding day. Whenever Mila had gotten homesick for her extended Teutonic family, with whom he had nothing in common, not even language, he would put her on a train and cite a heavy patient load as his excuse for not accompanying her.

Yesterday, these family ambassadors hadn’t so much arrived as descended. They had been beside themselves with worry over Mila’s fate. But it had come as an unwelcome surprise that they were equally worried about him and his fragile condition.

They’d smothered him with platitudes, advice, sympathy, and affection, which he didn’t want, and certainly hadn’t earned. His only means of escape had been to lock himself in his bedroom with a “sleeping draught,” which had been a bootlegged bottle of bourbon.

This morning, when he’d come downstairs looking even more haggard than he had yesterday, the older couple seemed intent on convincing him that whatever had become of Mila, her leaving hadn’t been voluntary.

He’d said, “I’ll admit that I wondered if she’d had a man in her life before she met me. Maybe she had heard from him and—”

They chorused a swift denial. She hadn’t had a serious beau before him. She wouldn’t have forsaken him or broken her marriage vows, not their Mila. She loved Gabe dearly and wanted desperately to be a mother. He’d coughed a sob and held his head between his hands. “Of course I know that. I do. I’m certain she didn’t leave of her own accord.”

Now, having eaten enough to pacify the aunt, he thanked her for preparing lunch, excused himself from the dining room, and barricaded himself in his office, where he poured himself a bourbon.

He carried the drink over to the sofa, took off his shoes, and reclined, covering his scratchy, burning eyes with his forearm. He hadn’t slept in two nights. His cuffs were loose, his collar button undone, his trousers wrinkled from having been wallowed in.

If he caught a glimpse of himself in a reflective surface, he barely recognized the image. He looked like a bum, bearing scant resemblance to the self-possessed physician who people relied on for healing and succor.

He very much doubted that he would ever regain the high regard and status that he’d had before his wife had gone missing. Even if Mila had abandoned him of her own volition, her mysterious disappearance would leave a stain on him as permanent as a port wine birthmark.

That distressing thought was interrupted when he heard an automobile approaching. Sheriff Amos? That deputy, Scotty, again? Had they found her?

Heart thumping, he drained his bourbon, rolled up off the sofa, and padded over to the bay window. Peeking around the edge of the drapery, he watched a shiny black touring car come to a stop in front of his house. Around town, it was a familiar automobile. As was the driver, whose name was Jimmy Hennessy. He got out and assisted Bernie Croft from the backseat.

The mayor strutted up Gabe’s walkway, chest thrust out like a despot about to watch a parade of his military might.

Hennessy stayed with the car, a daunting, pugnacious presence against the backdrop of Miss Wise’s Victorian house and bright petunia beds.

The doorbell jingled. Mila’s uncle went to answer. Gabe heard him quietly explaining that the doctor was unavailable to visitors and wouldn’t be seeing patients until further notice.

Bernie, of course, was having none of it. He declared that the doctor would see him. Over the uncle’s objections, Bernie came inside. Gabe followed the sound of his footsteps, which stopped outside his office door.

There was hard knocking. “Gabe, it’s Bernie.”

Gabe’s head dropped forward, and he maintained that helpless pose until the door was rapped on again, this time more imperiously.

“Open up.”

Gabe trudged to the door, flipped the lock, and pulled it open. Looking beyond Bernie, Gabe addressed the apologetic uncle. “It’s all right. Mayor Croft is a friend.”

The uncle retreated. Bernie forged in. Gabe closed the door.

Bernie went straight over to the ledge of the bookshelf where he helped himself to the bottle of bourbon, splashing some into a tumbler. When Bernie turned and extended the bottle toward Gabe, he shook his head.

Noticing the empty glass on the end table beside the sofa, Bernie said, “Just as well, I think. Appears you’ve already been imbibing.”

Gabe didn’t reply, but returned to the sofa and slumped against the back cushions. Mila had spent months painstakingly doing the crewelwork on them.