The Virgin of Small Plains Page 32

  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 Whole 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

  Generous Death

  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-13: 978-0-345-49372-9

  eISBN-10: 0-345-49372-9

  1. Cold cases (Criminal investigation)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3566.I274V53 2006

  813'.54—dc22

  2005055550

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  v1.0