“The face of a cat,” Marcia continued as if he had not interrupted. “I was going to say she had the face of a cat. Sort of a small triangle. Sharp. Green eyes. Slightly slanted green eyes. Really neat.

“And maybe she did get fat. Maybe she’s more of your sort of beauty now, if a beauty at all, in fact.” Then Marcia muttered under her breath. “Zaftig! Why not say fat if you mean fat.”

“Can’t be too fat if she’s riding the range on her horses,” Ellison interposed.

Both of them burst into laughter, lightening the tension.

When they stopped Marcia asked, “So, boss, how are we going to get in to see her?”

“Walk up to the front door, I guess,” he said.

“Can’t. You can’t get through the wall.”

“Make an appointment? Maybe through her lawyer?”

“Yeah, if she’ll see you.”

“Too bad that damned cat got away. Well, maybe we can catch …”

Peter burst into the office, eyes wide with panic, arms and legs moving in opposition. When he was at last able to control his windmilling limbs his mouth worked too.

“She took Leon!” he cried, taking huge gulps of air, pointing vigorously out the door the way he’d come.

Ellison knew Leon, of course he did, more than anyone had yet guessed, and he was integrating him into the resort staff this week. Peter tugged at him, but tears and ragged breath notwithstanding, Ellison hadn’t moved.

“Who took him, Peter?” he asked, steadying the boy.

“That old woman took him.”

“What old woman? And why, Peter?”

“The one with the golf balls. She took Leon to get the golf balls back,” he cried.

****

The Cowboy’s Baby by Gretchen Lee Rix copyrighted 2010. Cover photo by Roxanne Rix. Available at amazon.com as an ebook for Kindle readers and Kindle apps for $2.99. ALERT—This blog entry is the end of Chapter One of  The Cowboy’s Baby. Hope you enjoyed it. www.amazon.com/The-Cowboys-Baby-ebook/dp/B003UYUVZC. Find Gretchen Rix on  facebook, and follow me on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/GretchenRix.  Check  out my interview on Kindle Author from November 9.