Bev Magee
Six years was a long time to be something you weren’t. For Shawna Kane, it was a double deception. A feat like that would make anyone want to quit. But quitting would also reveal what she was trying to hide. Luckily when she needed a break, she had a cousin willing to play her. Her male counterpart, anyway.
A visit from Jeremiah stirred up old memories of when she was Buddie Fox. Hidden in a dark corner of the attic in her ranch house, was a wooden crate. Contained inside, were the six years of her life that she had almost forgotten about. The crate now sitting in the parlor, its top pried off, Shawna began to relive those years.
From swindling bankers to crooked lawmen, there wasn’t much the Fox Hole Gang didn’t know about. Their boss, who rarely left Washington, kept them well informed. He never questioned what he didn’t want to know and that was just fine with the gang. That gave Buddie the chance to be Shawna when she had to be as they did their boss’ bidding.
Sometimes she worked alone to keep the secrets the gang held. Very few people knew her secrets and she wanted to keep it that way. But when the gang was blamed for crimes committed by another, she risked her identity to set the records straight.
This author has always enjoyed writing short stories. But creating the Buddie Fox series has made it difficult to incorporate them into the story line. The use of flashbacks made it possible to write a book of short stories. Instead of making each one a story unto itself, the author brought the characters back to the present time in between to give the book a better flow.
Not wanting to write a prequel was what influenced the use of flashbacks. The author used the first book, The Men of Buddie Fox, as the basis of which stories to tell. Though most of the stories mention something from the first book, there are a couple that give a sneak peek into future books.
While this is the fourth book in the series, it was written out of sequence. The author realized a large gap in the time frame of the original four books. She decided that there was a lot of potential for additional books. Her biggest challenge was not giving away anything from the original, still unfinished, final book.
Jerry was passed out in the parlor when Shawna came down early that morning. Willow’s time was due and Joshua was with her, leaving Shawna to handle the twins alone. With a child on either hip, she headed for the kitchen. Cheyenne squealed and reached toward the parlor. Shawna stopped and looked in. Only one person could pull that kind of reaction from the normally calm girl.
Trey was still wiping the sleep from his eyes as they entered the parlor. Taking the twins, Shawna plopped them both down on her cousin. Jerry grunted and glared up at her. Three days on the run and she had to drop forty pounds of squirming babies in his lap.
"Can’t a body get any sleep around here?"
"This is a ranch, Jerry. We get up early. What are you doing here?"
"I had a tail I had to lose. Buddie maybe dead, but no one believes it as long as they see me. I didn’t realize how long I played you until the other day. How many cases did I do for you," he asked cradling Cheyenne in the crook of his arm.
Shawna scooped up her son. "I’m not really sure. I think it was like seven or eight. So, you don’t like being a wanted man."
"It was fine as long as it was for you, but I had a man approach me last week. He gave me the creeps. The man talked like he had an education, but he looked like a vagrant. Smelled like one too. Kept talking about being kissed by me. Please tell me you kissed someone when you were Buddie. I mean, I know I’ve gotten drunk a couple times, but I don’t think I would ever kiss a man."
Shawna laughed so hard, she had to sit. "He asked for it," she said once she could talk. "The man was a cocky banker and I wanted to give him something to think about. He didn’t mention the card I put in his pants did he?"
"I’m glad you think this is so funny. He thinks it was me that kissed him, not you. No, he didn’t say anything about a card. Do I even need to ask where you put it?"
"I’m sure you know where it went." She said to herself, "Now, what was his name?"
"I don’t know and I don’t want to know. Don’t you have copies of the cases that you did? I’m sure it’s in there somewhere."
"I haven’t been in that crate for a long time. Help me drag it out," she said jumping to her feet.
"That sounds like a lot of work," Jerry said dubiously.
"If you help me get it, I’ll let you be so you can get some sleep. No one’s staying in the guest bedroom right now."
"You got yourself a deal," he said jumping to his feet.
Jerry followed Shawna up to the attic to look for the wooden crate she kept up there. Back in the corner, hidden under the strong box that Talbert Grey sent her a few years back. Hank and Billy didn’t know about the files she had written. They told a different side of the work they did.
"What’s in that other box," Jerry asked as she slid it off to the side.
"These are the files that our lawyer sent to me once we were declared dead. Hank’s the one who wrote them, his version anyhow. Of course, they don’t include the ones I did by myself. Those ones are only in here."
Jerry grabbed one of the rope handles and led the way back to the stairs. He helped Shawna carry it into the parlor. The twins looked on from their bassinet as Jerry used a crowbar to pry off the lid. Jerry whistled low when he saw the stacks of files.
"Now I understand why you wanted to quit. I can’t believe you did that many."
"Last time I counted, I think it was fifty in six years. I think we only got about three days off in all that time. Well, Hank and Billy anyway. When I wasn’t there, you were. Hank really liked the job, but it wasn’t what I wanted."
"You were only fourteen when Grandpa died. You couldn’t have run the ranch on your own. I think Grandma did the right thing selling off the herd."
"I would have sold off the herd anyway. No, I wanted to go live in the village. I wanted to learn to be chief while Grandfather was still alive. Grandma would have none of that. She thought I should learn to be a young lady. Little did she know I’d spend six years playing a boy."
"Speaking of which, where’s Josh at?"
"He’s with Willow. Her baby’s due anytime now."
