“And you know this how?”

“I paid my dues on the street,” Christina answered. “So now that we’re getting the case closed, how long are you sticking around for, Waylon?”

“Until the end of the week. I want to see these two behind bars. And I need to clean out my apartment. Lease is up on September 1.”

“You won’t quit. Detective work is in your blood.” Larry laughed.

“Watch me.” Waylon smiled.

Christina’s dues paid off, and they snagged both Estrella and Stickler in the bar right where she’d told them they would be. They lawyered up before they were even in the interrogation room, but it was over. Kate’s name was cleared, as were Amanda’s and Jamie’s.

He called from his apartment that evening, and she answered on the fourth ring.

“Sorry, I was rocking the baby. What have you found out?”

“It’s over,” he said simply.

Kate hit the button to put the phone on speaker and sat down on the sofa with the baby in her arms. “Are you serious? For real, it’s over?”

“Probably be on the front page of the metro papers in the morning.” He went on to tell her about Katrina Gonzales. “Conrad’s lifestyle caught up with him. He saw a money deal. The gang saw a con man.”

She’d expected a great surge of adrenaline to shoot through her veins when she finally heard the news, or maybe a few emotional tears, but nothing happened except that the baby burped up milk on her shoulder.

“Are you sure?” Kate asked. “They are behind bars and they confessed?”

“No confession, but the lawyer is already begging for a deal. Seems they have some information about a drug cartel that the feds have been after for years.”

“Will they go free?”

“Oh, no, but they might get the death penalty off the table or their sentences reduced by a few years. Estrella is a cocky little witch. She’ll run the whole Gonzales business from behind bars. Aren’t you happy?”

“Yes, Waylon, but I’m in shock that it’s over. ‘Thank you’ seems like so little.”

“Just doin’ my job,” he said. “I thought I’d be home on Friday, but I need to stay over until the middle of next week to get everything finalized.”

“You’ll be home a week from Sunday for the christening, won’t you? They’re having a baby shower along with the potluck. As godparents, we will need to be there,” she said. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“No, it’s real, and you are free to do whatever you want.” He chuckled. “I’ll call you tomorrow and every day I’m gone.”

“I’ll miss you,” she said.

“I’m glad. Good night, darlin’.”

He’d said home, not back in Bootleg or Mabelle or at the ranch. Waylon was coming home for good, and she’d made up her mind to live in Bootleg. Things were sure enough looking up.

With a towel around her red hair and wearing a white terry robe, Amanda padded out of the bathroom. “That felt so good, and thank you for watching her so I didn’t have to hurry.”

“Sit down,” Kate said as she pulled a tissue from the box on the end table and wiped away the baby’s spit-up.

“Why?” Amanda stopped in her tracks.

“Because I’m going to deliver good news, and you can’t dance around like a wild woman when I do.”

Amanda eased into the rocking chair.

“It’s over. They caught Conrad’s killers.” Kate told her the whole story.

“Katrina Gonzales is that new swimsuit model, isn’t she?” Jamie came in through the deck doors with Gracie behind her.

“Can I take my Barbie dolls in the tub with me?” Gracie asked.

“Go ahead and get her in the tub, and then I’ll tell you,” Kate said.

Kate told the story again when Jamie returned.

“The last tabloid news I saw on Katrina was that she was sporting a gorgeous antique engagement ring, but it didn’t show the ring. I wonder if he gave her the same ring he gave me,” Jamie pondered.

“I can’t believe that he was already engaged when we’d only been married six months,” Amanda said. “And to a gang member’s sister. Was he losing it?”

“He saw dollar signs, not bullets,” Jamie said.

“Well, I hope she has better luck with that ring than I did. Maybe she’ll hock it and buy herself something nice with the money. This time it wasn’t seven years in between.” Amanda dried her hair and tossed the towel onto the coffee table.

“Who knows how many times he was married and divorced between each of us?” Kate said. “So your ring went missing, too, Jamie?”

“Oh, yeah, not long after we were married.”

“And yours, Amanda?” Kate asked.

“About two weeks,” Amanda answered. “I felt so bad about it, but Conrad was real sweet. He said that he should have had it sized down to fit my finger before then so it was his fault. He even said he would replace it, but he hadn’t gotten around to it.”

Jamie unfolded a lawn chair and sat down. “How about you, Kate?”

“It disappeared a couple of weeks after we got married. He said it had sentimental value because it was the ring that his father gave his mother. I felt horrible that I’d lost it, until a couple of years later when he told me that he’d taken it back because I wouldn’t give him a divorce.”

Jamie raised her hand. “I’d be willing to bet we all had Iris’s ring from her first husband and that his new fiancée got the same ring.”

“That son of a bitch,” Amanda growled. “I’d take my wedding band off and throw it in the lake if I was wearing it. I had to remove it when pregnancy made my hands swell. I’ll get rid of the thing when I bring the rest of my stuff to Bootleg.”

“Home—that reminds me,” Kate said. “The murder is solved. We are all free.”

“I like that,” Amanda said. “But I’m kind of glad that this has all happened. I came looking for closure, and I got it. But I also found myself. I like this town and these people, and I’m glad that we don’t have a stink on us. Do you guys feel like it’s not as big a deal as it was a month ago?”

Kate glanced at Jamie.

Jamie pushed up out of the chair. “Yes—same story again, but different reasons. I like the future I see here. Let’s have a glass of wine to celebrate. You haven’t put your two cents in yet, Kate. Are you staying or going?”

“Staying,” Kate said. “I’ve got some things I need to work through that have nothing to do with Conrad. Right now he’s probably more history to me than he is to y’all.”

“Yes,” Amanda and Jamie said at the same time.

Kate had gone to bed with damp hair the night before, and now it was sticking up and out in so many directions she could have modeled for a punk rock band. She ran a brush through her hair, drew it up in a ponytail, and got dressed. When she looked into the mirror again, the same Kate stared back at her, but this one was far different than the one who’d left Fort Worth more than a month ago. That corporate lady would never have been caught in denim shorts and a neon-green T-shirt with a picture of a multicolored unicorn on the front. Gracie had picked it out when they’d gone shopping after the court date, and wearing it made Kate smile—every single time.

She padded to the kitchen in her bare feet and poured a cup of coffee, picked up a leftover breakfast burrito from the stove, and carried both out to the deck. Wednesday morning, five minutes till eight thirty. She’d made an appointment with her mother’s assistant for a fifteen-minute block of time to talk to Teresa.

At fifteen seconds before the time, Kate dialed the number. Her mother picked up at exactly eight thirty. “Okay, Kate, your vacation time is over on Friday. Your name has been cleared. You don’t have any common sense when it comes to men and that will hurt your business a little, but it won’t ruin you if you go forward with determination to show your worth. It’s time to come home.”