Anderson chuckled in spite of his concerns, but the confidence in her gaze scared him to the bone. How did she do that? Say something cute and funny and make him laugh in spite of the seriousness of this situation. He didn’t like to laugh on the job. He rarely had any reason to laugh on the job.
“You are human, aren’t you?” she asked as she ladled up two steaming bowls of chili that smelled so good his stomach growled again. Only, he couldn’t see any meat in this chili.
“Yes, I’m human and I’m hungry,” he said, grabbing a chunk of cornbread while he hoped the meat was swimming in the bottom of his bowl. Then he stood up. “Sorry. I thought you were ready to dig in.”
She giggled, then sat down. “I am. But don’t wait on me, cowboy. Eat your dinner.”
But Anderson did wait. His mama had taught him manners, after all. And the isolation here told him to be cautious. Not only about the drug runners, but also about how he handled this. He was alone with a pretty woman. Hadn’t seen that coming when he’d been assigned this case.
But his mother had also taught him to be a gentleman. And he’d rather spit dirt than disappoint his mama.
But he could enjoy the company of a woman, right?
Yeah, as long as he remained professional at all times. He said a quick silent blessing of the food with a little plea for guidance thrown in for good measure.
A few minutes later, Jennifer looked up at him while she chewed on her chili. “Is that tea okay?”
Anderson took a sip. “Yep. Tastes good.” Then he shrugged. “It’s a tad weaker than I’m used to, though.”
“It’s green tea. Has a lot of antioxidants.”
Anderson eyed the green-gold liquid. “You don’t say.” He wasn’t quite sure what an antioxidant was, but he had a feeling it didn’t involve red meat and chuck wagon chow.
And neither did this strange chili. “Uh, this is good but—”
“I’m a vegetarian,” she said, grinning. “So no, my chili doesn’t have big chunks of meat. Is that a problem?”
Anderson could see the dare in her dark eyes. “No, ma’am. Not at all. Just happy to get a meal.”
She must have seen the confusion on his face. “You don’t drink green tea, either, do you?”
He shook his head. “Mostly coffee and water, and a soda now and then. I do drink sweet dark tea. My mama makes the best—”
“This will make you healthier.”
“I’m already healthy.”
“I can see that.”
He stopped eating to give her a good long look.
And watched her blush becomingly.
Back to business, Anderson, he told himself.
He tried to sound gruff. “So…let’s go over the ground rules about this new alligator pond.”
“No rules there. It has to be built. The one I have the boys in now is not up to code. And I can’t let school children in here for educational tours until I have a proper pen for those alligators. The new one will have a strong double chain-link fence around it and plenty of open spots for sunning, plus a deeper watering hole so they can relax and hide out if they want. I purposely put it back from the rest of the animals so we’d all be a little safer. Especially my turtles.”
“That all sounds great for ‘the boys’ but we might need to warn your workers to be alert back there.”
“We can do that. They sometimes carry guns anyway—you know, snakes, coyotes and such. They mostly shoot in the air to scare any unwanted visitors away.”
“I don’t want a shoot-out of any kind, at least not between your workers and the drug cartel. Just tell them you need to know about any trespassers.”
“Neither do I. I’ll talk to them first thing in the morning. Or…whenever the construction crew shows back up. They move from job to job.”
“So, nobody else has seen anything out of the ordinary that you know of, other than your fence being damaged?” He reached into the file folder he’d brought and showed her a picture of Eddie Jimenez.
“I don’t recognize that man and if any of my workers have seen him, they haven’t informed me about it. Of course, they work during daylight hours. I’d think drug runners would do their business after dark. But that wouldn’t explain how my fence got cut. Of course, it was around dusk when I did one last check for the day.”
“Yeah, so don’t ever go back there alone after dark, okay?”
“I’m usually too tired to do anything other than come home and eat a bite, do paperwork, then go to bed.”
“Got it. So tomorrow, you can show me around. I’d like to explore the entire acreage while I’m here. And I need to question the previous owner, too.”
“Previous owner lives out of state. I’ll give you his number. We can take the horses out. I need to check on a few things, anyway. I’ll also give you the name and number of the Realtor who brokered the deal.”
“We need to update your regular employees. Just tell them I’m here to help with security for the new pen.”
“That won’t be hard. No offense, but you shout law enforcement. So working security should appease them.”
He held up a hand. “I’m in civilian clothes. Look, just remind them to keep an eye out. Tell them you suspect trespassers back there. If you can give me a list of names, I can do background checks on them, too.”
“Yeah, right. My employees and volunteers are solid.”
“I’m glad you can vouch for them but I have to explore every angle. You’d be surprised how many crimes are from an inside job.”
She nodded. “We’re very strict on the rules and regulations around here, so I’ll tell them to cooperate. But back to that lot, Jacob and his friends used to hang out there. They like to ride their four-wheelers around my property, but I did warn him after the fence was cut. I’ll do the same with the construction workers and the volunteers. I guess it pays to be on the lookout. Like I said, people have been known to try and steal animals, especially endangered or exotic animals, so that’s a valid point. Will that work for you?”
“Fair enough. Now tell me, have you had any other strange things going on around here lately—things that you’ve noticed yourself but didn’t talk to anyone about?”
She shook her head. “Not if you don’t count Boudreaux and Bobby Wayne fighting now and again. Or the coyotes howling in the middle of the night. Or my turtles trying to escape their pen. Or the llama chasing my part-time helper. Or the goats escaping and eating all my potted plants. Nothing strange at all.” Then she glanced up and away. “Or the neighbor who’s protesting that new gator pen—nothing strange there. He just doesn’t get animal rescue, I reckon.” Her head came up. “Hey, maybe he sent that man to cut my fence.”
“Tell me more about the neighbor,” Anderson said. “And we’ll talk about those ornery gators and turtles later.”
“Ralph Chason? He moved next to me about two years ago. We got along fine—I mean we rarely see each other—until he found out I’d bought the extra land. He had a fit when he heard I was digging a pond back there.”
“Why should that bother him?” Anderson asked, his radar going up.
She shrugged. “I think he likes to take long walks back there. He’s kind of a loner, some sort of artist. He works with wood and I’m sure he gets a lot of it from back there. Maybe he thinks I won’t allow him on the property. I do have to put up a double fence for