In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

is he talking about? How could Lutz foreclose? We don't have any loans. Did Mike sign a loan without telling me?"

She shook her head. "Not as far as I know."

Alec turned to his wife. "We think we have the fire contained. We plowed a circle around it as a firebreak, and right now it's burning itself out. Let's go talk to Mike about Lutz.

Of Cabbages And Kings

THEY FOUND MIKE SITTING by the fishpond with Razor stretched out on his lap, a rusty purr sounding as St. Vyr stroked his back.

Alec started the ball rolling. "Mike, did you know Lutz is planning to foreclose on the ranch and the mine?"

"What?" St. Vyr roared. "Who told you that?"

"Ira Johnson said so," Carlos replied.

"Johnson? Is that stinking rat here?"

"Not anymore; he left."

"Is there a loan on the ranch or the mine?"

"No, there is not," Mike snapped. "Why the hell would I need a loan?"

"You signed nothing like that?"

"No. If they have something with my signature, it’s a fake."

Alec sat down beside Mike on the bench. "Who do you know familiar enough with it to forge your signature on documents?"

"Gary Hennessy," Carlos said, taking a seat on the raised flowerbed across from the bench.

"Who is that?"

"The accountant I hired to keep the books at the mine and the ranch," Mike answered. "Why do you think it's him?"

"He has a gambling problem and a wife with expensive tastes. As far as I know it hasn't affected his work yet, but I've been watching him."

Bethany and Iris came out of the house with the sheriff.

"St. Vyr, I need to hear your account of what happened when Emory Johnson came into your room today," Morrison said. "I'm going to need a spare tricorn to haul his body to the undertaker in town."

"Sure." St. Vyr turned to the two young men. "Go ahead and finish clearing up after the fire. We'll finish this discussion and make some plans to deal with Hennessy and Lutz, after I'm done here."

"Sheriff, it's too late to travel back to town. We can make you a bed in the house, so you won't need to ride back tonight," Bethany offered.

Morrison nodded. "Thank you. Now Mike, start with when you first saw Johnson."

Carlos found Iris, Paco, Patrice and several dairy workers trying to round up the goats who had fled the fire. King George trailed Iris like a puppy, complaining all the time and getting in the way.

The goats were enjoying their taste of freedom and reluctant to return to captivity. They hadn't been near enough to the fire to become frightened, but they didn't like the smell of burned grass. Whenever it seemed Iris and her troops were about to succeed in returning them to the pasture, the goats escaped without going through the gate.

After studying the situation, Carlos went to the grain bin and filled a bucket with some of the special feed Iris reserved for her milk goats. He left a trail of grain on the ground leading inside the gate. Discovering the treat, the goats scrambled inside, and Iris was at last able to close the gate on them.

"Whew!" she exclaimed, giving him a big smile. "I wish I had thought of doing that a half hour ago! Thank you."

He put his arm around her as they walked back toward the house. "Yes," he said, "we make a pretty good team, don't we?"

"I—yes, we do," she admitted.

"I want to get married Iris," he said, "to you. What do you want?"

"I—yes, I will marry you."

Carlos pulled her to him and kissed her until she was dizzy.

Not wanting to talk over the situation with Lutz in front of the sheriff or the doctor, the family discussed plans for repairing the fire damage through dinner and for the rest of the evening.

Late that night after their guests had retired to bed, the family held a strategy meeting in Mike's bedroom.

"We need to get a handle on this fast," Mike said grimly. "I want to know if there actually are loan papers showing my signature against the ranch or the mine, or if Johnson was just blowing wind."

"I'd like to know how Johnson knew about it," Iris said.

"We need to question Hennessy about that, and about the loan," Bethany said.

"Where does Hennessy usually hang out?" Alec asked.

Carlos frowned a little. "He and his wife have a small house in town, but I got the impression he doesn't spend a lot of time there. He has a cabin up at the mine and I think he stays overnight sometimes."

"Finding and questioning Hennessy if he is in town will be my job. Carlos, since you are more familiar with the mine, I suggest you go and search his cabin to see if Hennessy left a record of any deal he has with Lutz there."

"He's a careful man," Carlos said. "I think he would have made record of any deals he made."

"I'll go with him," Iris announced. "I'm good and finding places to hide things."

Her father snorted. "If you're going to go traipsing up there with Carlos, the two of you should go ahead and get hitched. I'll send for the preacher in the morning."

"Iris deserves to have our wedding be a special day," Carlos protested. "Not some rushed affair—"

Iris patted his hand. "A small private wedding will suit me. We can hold a reception at the Hotel and invite everyone else later."

"Good," Mike said. "In the morning, I plan to send a man to town to bring back the preacher so we can get those men buried. He can stay to lunch and marry you and Iris afterward."

"Serving the bridal feast with the funeral meats son?" his mother inquired wryly.

Mike nodded. "Alec, before you and Bethany got married, I had planned to make Red Courteen Segundo. If you want to formalize that with him, he can handle the clean up here while you hunt for Hennessy."

"He's a good man," Alec said. "I'll speak to him in the morning. The three of us can leave