Dead Man Waiting

Dead men tell no tells...especially if they can't be found.During one of the hottest summers in Oklahoma history, Jolie Weaver has worked herself to the point of mental and physical exhaustion trying to keep the Weaver ranch going. Her husband, Wade Allan Weaver, Jr., has been missing for six months, but before he disappeared, he spent so much money on "big boy toys" that Jolie can't even afford to run the AC. Sleeping with windows open isn't an option because most of them are painted shut. And then there's the problem of the prowler--someone who moves things around at night and throws the occasional rock against the side of the house. Not a good idea to give him easy entry. In her desperation, she asks for help from an unusual--and possibly dangerous--source. He calls himself Mack, and Jolie literally picks him up on the side of the road. He agrees to stay and make her a hand for thirty days in exchange for room and board. And, oh yes, he will pay the electric bill. Mack turns out to be a man of few words and many skills, and he takes to ranching quickly. But the future remains in limbo. Will Wade Allen show up before those thirty days end? Will Mack be as good as his word and stay, or will Jolie wake one morning and find him gone? And what about the prowler who has been disturbing her sleep? What is he after? Will he eventually just go away or will his activities become more violent?Most importantly, where is Wade Allan Weaver, jr.' Has Jolie gotten enough of his cheating ways and done him in as members of the Sheriff's Department and her father-in-law suspect? Is he shacked up in Tulsa with a sugar mamma, having the time of his life--a theory Jolie proposes? Or is he just what the old hand at the feed store suggests: a dead man waiting to be found?