When artist, Nicole Jeffords, learns that a reputable psychic who often works with the police has had a vision that the remains of a fifty-year-old male may be buried under an artist's studio in Austin, she becomes convinced that the studio in quest...
It was because Ramona wanted to learn to shoot that she began to spend more and more time with Lloyd. He took her to a friend's property way out in the country, set up a target, handed her some sort of pistol, and bam! off they were.
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Ramona at her first target practice
Of course it wasn't as simple as that. Lloyd taught her gun safety first: how to use the thing, set her sights, protect her hand. He taught her the right attitude of respect toward the cold piece of metal she held, a kind of fervor for what the weapon could do. She had never shot a gun before. Now she was hooked. When I saw her after her first trip out to the country, her eyes were gleaming and she had the biggest smile on her face. "Mama, you have no idea how much power it gives you!" Now she understood what all the crazy gun rights people were talking about. She'd always been against the proliferation of guns, but after holding one in her hand and pulling the trigger she became a little crazy herself. And she was good at it – maybe not bullseye perfect, but she hit the target every time.
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Her natural talent contributed to her enthusiasm. She wanted to go shooting every weekend, but that meant being with Lloyd who had expectations of the relationship that weren't necessarily congruent with her own. Did she want to sleep with him and be his girl? Not right now. Ramona prized her freedom and worried that once she became intimate with Lloyd, he'd turn ultra possessive and begin to suffocate her.
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And yet, he excited her. The zippy sports car he drove with such expertise, the power he exuded when he taught her to shoot, the mystery that surrounded him. There were whole patches of his life he wouldn't discuss. When she asked him about women he'd been involved with, his experiences in the army, where he'd lived before Austin, what sort of jobs he'd had, his face would close and he'd conveniently change the subject. Or he'd feed her just the slightest bit of information, just enough to satisfy her curiosity for the moment, but whet her appetite for more little tidbits so that, despite herself, she became kind of hooked on him. I, of course, encouraged her. My goal was to learn as much as I could about Lloyd's boss, blind Joe, and it was a no brainer that Lloyd himself was the best source.
