Page 18 (1/2)

Caroline didn&039;t even have to weigh her loyalties

Before Burns&039;s dust had cleared, she was scooping up Useless and heading for her car The keys were dangling in the ignition, right where she&039;d left the, she looked back at the house She hadn&039;t locked the doors Hadn&039;t even thought about it Foolish, perhaps, considering the recent violence that had tainted Innocence But to lock the doors without closing and latching the as eventhe heat inside

In less than a oing to be afraid in my own home," she told Useless as she set him inside the car He i in anticipation of a ride

"My ho the house, the fresh paint, the polished s, the scarred porch rocker With a sense of satisfaction and purpose she climbed into the car "Corapevine"

She backed down the drive, unaware of the figure that stood, shadowed by the line of trees, watching

The Statler Brothers ailing away fro thele feather and her combat boots To complete the outfit she wore a splotched painter&039;s s as pullet eggs

She stood in front of a canvas, feet planted, body braced More like a prizefighter going into round three, Caroline thought, than an artist Dwayne was sprawled in the porch rocker, a tumbler full of Wild Turkey in his hand and the mild smile of an affable drunk on his face

" &039;Lo, Caroline" He gestured with the glass in greeting "Whatcha got there?"

Caroline set Useless down and he immediately streaked off to sniff the bushes Buster had runted, dabbed a little paint on the canvas "My grandmammy ran a pair of Yankee deserters off her plantation in 1863"

Caroline inclined her head She&039;d co at Antietae"

Lulu pursed her lisp and considered "And ould that have been?"

"Septerandmother&039;s carefully documented family Bible "His name was Silas Henry Sweeney"

"Sweeney, Sweeney Seems to me there were some Sweeney cousins on my husband&039;s side-that&039;d be my second husband, Maxwell Breezeport" Lulu squinted her eyes at Caroline and liked what she saw The girl was fresh as a new quart of cream And there was a sharp, stubborn look in her eyes, in the set of her chin, that Lulu approved of wholeheartedly

The Yankee blood was probably diluted anyway, Lulu decided, and besides, it was time Tucker settled down

"You come down here to sashay around Tucker, have you?"

"Certainly not" But Caroline found it impossible to take offense "I have coh If he&039;s here"

"Oh, he&039;s around right enough" Lulu studied her palette, then plunged her brush into a pool of virulent green "Co down there gawking atDwayne, where&039;s that brother of yours? Can&039;t you see this girl&039;s come to seduce him?"

"I have not come-" Caroline broke off and backed up a foot when Lulu leaned over to sniff at her

"Pretty cagey not wearing perfu brush at her "When athemselves up, he&039;ll fall flat for the smell of pure soap and water"

Caroline cocked a brow "Is that so?"

"You know it&039;s so You don&039;t get to be how the hell old ahty-four, Cousin Lulu"

"Eighty-four? Eighty-four?" Paint dripped on her shoes "You&039;re drunk as a polecat, Dwayne No southern lady would ever reach the hty-four It ain&039;t seemly"

Dwayne considered his whiskey He ell on the way to being sloshed, but he wasn&039;t stupid "Sixty-eight," he decided "What I ht"

"That&039;s better" Lulu so on in, Yankee, work your wiles on that poor, hapless boy Just so you know I&039;m on to you"

"I&039;ll keep that inIt ayne, cocked back in the rocker, clutching a hugely proportioned glass of whiskey The style was soazine Dwayne&039;s face was green, his eyes cracked with broken red lines Poking up fro purple donkey&039;s ears

"Ah, an interesting concept," Caroline commented

"My daddy always said anybody who drinks for a living&039;s bound to make an ass of himself"

Caroline looked froe she realized that Cousin Lulu wasn&039;t as crazy as she pretended to be "I wonder what reason anyone would have for choosing to drink for a living"

"For soh Dwayne, where&039;s that brother of yours? This girl&039;s waiting and I can&039;t paint with her breathing down my neck"

"Back in the library" He took a coo on in, Caroline Third door down on the right of the hall"

Caroline stepped in The house was so quiet, it ie to call out and announce herself The light had that olden quality she associated with museums, but the silence was more like that of a lady&039;s elaborate boudoir while the an to have doubts that anyone was there at all She caught herself tiptoeing down the hall

The door to the library was shut tight As she put her hand up to knock, she pictured Tucker inside, stretched out on the most comfortable flat, cushioned surface, hands cocked behind his head, legs crossed at the ankles He would, of course, be taking his early evening, post-afternoon, pre-bedti, she turned the knob and nudged the door open She&039;d just wake his to tell hih to listen Because while he was busy sleeping away his life, things were

But he wasn&039;t on the curvy love seat under theNor was he sprawled in the wing chair facing the stone fireplace Frowning, Caroline turned a circle, taking a curious scan of the walls of books, an excellent Georgia O&039;Keeffe, and a dainty Louis XV side table

And saw him behind a sturdy oak desk, bent over a pile of papers and books, with his fingers ski casually-no, she realized- skillfully over the keyboard of a sleek little office cole word He answered with a grunt, typed in solanced up The distraction on his face cleared instantly

"Well, hey, Caroline You&039;re theI&039;ve seen all day"

"What are you doing?"

"Just running so lean and lazy in a T-shirt and chinos "Nothing that can&039;t wait Why don&039;t we go on out on the back porch, sit, and watch the sun set?"

"It won&039;t set for two hours or ot ti hi him off with one hand, she moved closer to the desk to see what he&039;d been up to

There were ledgers, printouts with coluures, invoices, receipts Eyes narrowed, Caroline ran her finger over files

LAUNDROMAT, CHAT &039;N CHEW, HARDWARE, GOOSENECK

UNIT 1, ROOMING HOUSE, TRAILER PARK

There was a pile of paperwork about cotton-seed, pesticide, fertilizer,companies

Another pile consisted of various prospectus folders and stock reports

Dragging a hand through her hair, Caroline stepped back "You&039;re working"

"In ato letto think it through

"Bookkeeping You&039;re keeping books"

He grinned "Honey, it&039;s against the law only if you keep two sets Which uess it&039;s et caught keeping two sets, which he never did and lived to his dying day as a pillar of this coe of the desk "If you don&039;t want to sit on the porch and neck awhile, what can I do for you?"

"You use a computer"

"Well now, I admit I was prejudiced about it at first But these da of them I&039;m all for that"

"Do you do all of this?"

"All of what?"

"This!" Frustrated, she grabbed up a pile of papers and shook them at him "Do you keep all these records, these books? Do you run all of these businesses?"

He stroked a hand over his chin thoughtfully Then he punched a few buttons, and the monitor winked off "Mostly they run theures"

"You&039;re a fraud" She slapped the papers down again "All that lazy-southern-wastrel routine-I&039;d rather sleep than sit It&039;s just a front!"

"What you see is what there is," he corrected her, a around the room "It just seems to me that you have a different definition of lazy up north than we do down here Down here we call it relaxed" He gave her a pained look "Honey, I sure wish you&039;d learn to relax The way you stir up the air in here is tiring ot a handle on you, you shift Like a virus" She turned back "You&039;re a businessman"

"I don&039;t think that description suits me, Caro Nohen I think of a businessman, I think of somebody like that Donald Trump or Lee Iacocca All those fancy suits,ulcers Of course, there&039;s Jed Larsson, and he wears a suit only on Sunday as a rule, beenas I can remember But he does suffer fro the subject"

"No, I was getting around to it You could say I oversee soures, it doesn&039;t take much effort"

She dropped down on the love seat and scowled at hiured I was enjoying it" He walked over to join her "But if it&039;llit a try"

"Oh, just shut up ato think" She folded her arht Wasn&039;t that what Lulu had called hi, and he&039;d obviously been doing it his oay, in his own time, for years Hadn&039;t she seen it herself? The way he could give you that sleepy-eyed grin one ht into your brain with a look the next?

"The other day, before that business with Bonny, did you say that you and Dwayne worked in the fields?"

"We&039;ve been known to"

"And you once ree he didn&039;t use But you didn&039;t say if you had one"

"Can&039;t say I actually graduated I never could get the hang of sliding through school like Dwayne did I studied soh" He sure out it&039;sin a cotton field Want e yearbook?"

She only hissed out a breath "I can&039;t believe I actually came over here to protect you"

"Protect me?" He slid an arar, that&039;s awful sweet of you God, you s on the sill"

"It&039;s soap," she said between her teeth "Just soap"

"It an to nuzzle her neck "Dead crazy &039;Specially this spot right here"

She shivered as he nipped under her jaw "I came here to talk to you, Tucker, not to oh" Her words trailed off as he began doing sneaky, seductive things behind her ear

"You go ahead and talk," he invited her "I don&039;t mind a bit"

"If you&039;d just stop that"

Okay He switched froive him more access "Matthew Burns caradually, gradually, relax again

"I can&039;t say as that surpriseshorse could see that"

"It had nothing to do with It wasn&039;t personal" The hell with her fuzzy brain, Caroline decided, and turned her lips to h as he pleasured the me off you"

"Hmmm Much to my frustration, you haven&039;t been onabout the case The ht flashed on in her brain and she jolted back "The aping blouse "What are you doing?"

He had to take a steadying breath "I was just working on getting your clothes off See on that for so her "And it looks like it&039;s going to get put off again"

She fumbled her buttons back into place "I&039;ll let you knohen I want to be undressed"

"Caroline, you were letting ain" To douse soestured with the decanter

"No"

"Well, I do" He poured two fingers of whiskey

She lifted her chin "You can be just as annoyed as you like, but-"

"Annoyed?" His eyes flashed to hers before he lifted the glass "Sugar, that&039;s a hty mild word for what you work in me I&039;ve never had a woman stir my juices with less effort than you"

"I ca"

"My point exactly" He finished off his drink, thought about having another, and opted for half a cigarette instead "Who&039;s Luis?"

Her ed to speak "I beg your pardon?"

"No, you don&039;t You just don&039;t want to answer me Susie mentioned that there was somebody named Luis you were pissed at" He scowled down at the stub he was s "Hell of a stupid nanified"

He relaxed enough to grin "Depends on where you&039;re standing, I expect Who is he, Caro?"

"Sohtly "Now, if you&039;d like to hear what I&039;ve come to-"

"Did he hurt you?"

Her eyes locked with his In them she saw patience, coth "Yes"

"I&039;d like to prouess I can do that"

Soht she&039;d locked tight was creeping open "I don&039;t want promises," she said al thearette, then crushed it out "But I do care about you I guess you could say I&039; about you"

"I think-I&039; to do with her hands "I care about you, too, Tucker And that&039;s where it has to stop I came here because I care about you, and I wanted you to know that Matthew Burns is looking for a way to prove you killed Edda Lou Hatinger"