“Even though you’re three years younger?”
“I am probably some kind of genius,” Coral Anne said. “Maybe when I go off to Harvard or Oxford on a scholarship my momma’ll think I’m not such a mess.” She shrugged. “Momma doesn’t much value women unless they’re pretty. Says it’s a curse for a woman to be smart.”
“Your momma’s wrong.”
“Oh, I know that.” She tossed her head of lank brown hair. Juanita at Charlotte’s was right. Coral Anne would greatly benefit from highlights and a body wave. And a good diet and some aerobics classes. Whatever Coral Anne said, Kate suspected she’d be willing to swap a few IQ points for a date on Saturday night. If she was lucky, once she made it to Harvard, she’d find somebody who valued her for her brain.
“Jason didn’t do it,” she said.
“You seem very sure.”
“He’s the closest thing to a brother I’ve got, and if he’d married Waneath like she wanted, he would really have been my brother. I’m sick of my momma and daddy bad-mouthing him and his family to everybody in town when I know damn well that baby wasn’t his.”
Kate held her breath, then she said, “So, whose was it?” “She wouldn’t tell me. Said it was a stupid mistake, she was only trying to get back at Jason. Showing she could get any man she wanted to.”
“When did she think she’d gotten pregnant?”
“We just did the test last week. The way Waneath eats—excuse me—ate, her periods were never regular. She used to flat starve herself and throw up for two weeks before a pageant.”
“She was bulimic?”
“Not all the time. Won’t catch me doing that even if I wind up big as a house like my momma says I’m going to.”
Kate was about ready to slap Mrs. Talley right back for her treatment of her younger daughter. Coral Anne, however, seemed remarkably levelheaded.
“Anyway, I tried to get her to say who the father was, but she wouldn’t tell me. I think she was embarrassed. She told me she’d been drinking. My guess is one of those jocks at college took advantage of her.”
“She shouldn’t have been drinking, period. Obviously that doesn’t stop any of you, does it?”
“Get real. There’s always somebody willing to supply beer and stuff. Anyway, she said it was after Jason left for Pepperdine. She was scared he was going to dump her.”
“Did she plan to marry him?”
Coral Anne rolled her eyes. “Oh, sure. He was going to give her a ring at Christmas. Right. Maybe in 2050.”
“And if he didn’t?”
“She was really scared. Momma would’ve been real disappointed. ’Course, Momma would just kill her if she found out about the baby.”
“And your daddy?”
“He’d have been miserable, but he’d have stood by Waneath. She kept hoping she’d lose it, you know.”
“Do you have any evidence as to who the baby’s father was?”
“No, but I can testify she said it wasn’t Jason’s.”
“That might not be such a good idea,” Kate said.
Coral Anne frowned. “Why not?” Then her eyes widened. “‘Cause he might a’ killed her when he found out she’d been cheating on him with somebody else?”
Kate nodded.
“He’d never do that. There’s not a mean bone in that boy’s body,” she said, and sounded as though she was repeating something she’d heard an adult say.
“Could she have told someone else, told the father perhaps?”
Coral Anne shook her head. “Nope. We were each other’s best friends.” For the first time Kate saw Coral Anne’s eyes begin to tear up. “But sending Jason to jail won’t bring her back, will it?”
“No, it won’t.” Kate reached out and touched Coral Anne’s shoulder. Coral Anne shook her off and stood.
“Listen, I got to get out of here before somebody recognizes my car. You tell Jason I know he’s innocent, whatever anybody else says.”
“Why don’t you call him and tell him yourself? He’s feeling pretty miserable.”
“Yeah, I guess I could call him from the car,” she said. “I sure can’t call him from home.”
“Thanks for coming over,” Kate said as she ushered Coral Anne to the door of the motel room. “I really appreciate what it took for you to do it.” She opened the door a crack, and saw that the parking lot was in deep shadow. The curtains at the office were closed and there was no sign of Myrlene. “Where’d you park?” she asked.
“Around the corner in back,” Coral Anne said as she slipped by Kate. “I’ll call Jason.” She scuttled around the corner of the building, and a moment later a Camaro, already gray in the fading light, careened around the corner and into the street. Coral Anne drove as crazily as Jason. Maybe everybody under the age of twenty-five in Athena drove like lunatics.
Kate went back inside and shut the door, then sank into the chair Coral Anne had just left.
Momma would just kill her if she found out
. She hated to think that Mrs. Talley could have killed her own child and left her by the side of the road, but mothers did kill their children. As a matter of fact, in cases where children were killed, statistically, mothers were most often responsible.
Had Mrs. Talley been tucked up at home in her marital bed, shared with Big Bill, at the time that Waneath was killed? If David had been cruising the roads looking for Jason, might Mrs. Talley, or alternatively Big Bill, have been doing the same thing? Was Big Bill really a pussycat? Or more like a Bengal tiger?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
K
ATE FOLLOWED her nap with a long and luxurious soak in the bath. Her shoulders ached from pure tension. What she needed was a good session at the gym with her trainer or a Rolfing session with her masseuse.
A voice in the back of her head told her there were better ways to dispel tension. She slapped the thought down. That kind of trouble she definitely did not need.
Still, she found herself taking extra care with makeup, wearing her best slacks, her silkiest sweater in just the right color of green to pick up the green tints in her eyes. She told herself she would not under any circumstances wind up in bed with David, but she’d be pretty disappointed if he didn’t make a pass or two.
“Just let him hanker a little,” she told her reflection. She picked up her purse and walked out of her room. This might turn out to be quite an evening.
The parking lot was not well lit at the best of times. At six forty-five on an early December evening, it was downright sepulchral. She moved quickly to her car, and was just getting her key in the lock when she heard the grate of a footstep behind her on the gravel.
“You drop this case, you hear?”
She froze, then she jabbed at the lock and twisted the key. She recognized that voice from the television. Big Bill Talley, all two hundred and fifty cheerful pussycat pounds, was making his move.
Kate pivoted, prepared to kick his kneecap and rake him with her keys if he came at her.
He swayed three feet away, his face mottled and streaked with tears, a pint of sour-mash bourbon clutched in his paw.
“That boy’s got to die for what he did to my baby.” His voice caught in a sob. “Don’t you go getting him off.”
“Mr. Talley...”
“He killed my baby!”
Kate opened the car door an inch. She’d had plenty of experience with drunks as clients. They changed from maudlin to enraged in an instant. One minute that bottle could be hanging limply from his hand, the next he might turn it into a weapon and smash it into her face. She prayed Coral Anne’s daddy remained a pussy-cat even when he was drinking and miserably unhappy.
Arguments and explanations would have no effect on him. In his present condition he probably wouldn’t listen. If he listened he wouldn’t agree.
She felt desperately sorry for him, but frightened for herself as well. She needed to put a locked car door between her and him just in case he did turn ugly. “Go home, Mr. Talley,” she said gently. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Platitudes.
He took a step toward her, his face twisted with grief. “My loss?” His voice rose dangerously. “That’s what my baby is to you? A loss?”
“A terrible loss. I lost my husband recently. I understand your grief. But convicting the wrong man won’t bring her back.”
“He’s the right man! Don’t you use some lawyer trick to get him off, you hear me? He’s got to pay.”
Kate heard the grief and the rage in his voice. Even a gentle man could go over the edge when his pain became too great to endure. “Please, Mr. Talley, let me call somebody to come get you...”
A light went on in the office, and the door began to open. Big Bill cried, “Oh, foot!” and staggered into the darkness at the end of the building.
“Anything wrong?” Myrlene’s mother called from the office door.
Kate leaned back against her car. She could feel her heart hammering against her ribs. She took a deep breath and said in what she hoped was a normal voice, “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Who was that doing all that yelling?”
“Just some guy who’d had a little too much to drink and thought I might like some company for dinner. No problem.” That sounded pretty lame, but it was the best Kate could do on short notice. She certainly didn’t want Myrlene’s mother making an issue of this. Once he sobered up, poor Bill Talley would probably be horrified at what he had done.
KATE PROTESTED, but Myrlene’s mother called the sheriff’s office anyway to report a near mugging. Kate intended to keep her own counsel. No sense in making a bad situation worse—not in a town where she was the outsider. Big Bill would look like the victim—which he certainly was—and garner all the sympathy. Everybody would shake their heads in sorrow at the terrible pass to which a good man had been brought by a wicked big-city woman.
“No, I can’t identify the man,” Kate said for the fourth time. She sat in a patched imitation-leather chair in the motel office while a young deputy sat across from her with a look of concern on his face. “Except to say that he was big and not young.”
“How you know that, ma’am?”
“His voice was deep.”
“You must have seen him.”
“It was dark.”
“You sure kept your head better than I would,” Myrlene’s mother said, “I’d a’ fainted dead away.”
“Like I said, I don’t think he meant to hurt me.”
She turned to the deputy. “The man was upset that I wouldn’t go to dinner with him. Period.”
“Maybe he wanted your purse,” Myrlene’s mother said, as though that were a comfort. “Getting so not even a town like Athena’s safe any longer.”
“Kate?” David ran into the office, reached down, grabbed her upper arms and hauled her out of the chair and into his arms. “You all right? Sheriff Tait called me and said there’d been some kind of dustup.”
For a moment she let herself relish the feel of him, the warmth of his body, then she shook him off. “No. I am mad as hell, and very, very hungry.” She turned to the deputy. “We both know this isn’t going anywhere, so I’m going to dinner. Okay?”
“But ma’am?”
“Deputy, just tell the sheriff what I say happened, will you? No real harm was done.”
“Ma’am, be careful, you hear?”
“She will be,” David said grimly. He propelled her out the door and toward his truck.
“Wait a minute, please,” Kate said. “I need to lock the Navigator.”
“The hell with it. If they steal it, they steal it. Get in the truck.”
He spun out of the parking lot.
“Now I know where Jason gets his driving skills,” Kate said.
“This isn’t funny. I’m sending you home to Atlanta on the first plane out of Jackson.”
“No.”
“Kate...”
“No.”
“You know damn well who did this, don’t you?” David snapped. “Why didn’t you tell the deputy?”
Kate sat silent.
“Damnation, Kate. It was Big Bill Talley, wasn’t it?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Who else would it be? You said the man wasn’t young. That means it’s not one of the Athena High football squad looking for a hoo-rah.”
“He was very drunk.”
David turned to her. “You do know. First, Mrs. Talley smacks you, then Big Bill assaults you in the parking lot. The Talleys are the ones who belong in jail, not Jason.”
“Maybe so, but I’m not about to put them there. Talk about garnering sympathy for the other side!” Kate heard David’s growl. “He probably never did anything like that in his life—most people haven’t. He’s much more scared than I am right now. He probably sat around in his dealership this afternoon, got roaring drunk, maybe even heard that Coral Anne came to see me this afternoon...”
“What?”
“She did. And the way gossip flows in this town, I don’t doubt someone saw her cut out of the parking lot and told him. So he got drunk and came over to intimidate me. Sounded like a good idea at the time.”
“I’ll kill him.”
“No, you won’t. First, because if he’d wanted to do any damage he would have, and second, Coral Anne says her daddy doesn’t believe in physical violence.”
“And you believed her?”
“I do. Momma’s the dangerous one in that menage, as I have reason to remember.”
“Do you usually have to put up with getting slapped in the face and mugged in parking lots in your job?” he asked.
“Not usually, but I have been threatened more than once.”
“And you’re all right with that?” He took his eyes off the wheel to glance at her.
“Of course I’m not all right with that! But no place is safe these days, and when I used to do criminal cases, I took precautions.”
“Which I deprived you of.”
“No. Lord, David! The minute we get to your house I have to call Arnold in Jackson. He needs to know about this. I suspect Big Bill shot his wad this evening, but if not, Arnold could be in danger. I’m going to tell him to stay in Jackson tonight. He can drive back to Athena after sunrise tomorrow.”
“Good idea.” David turned into the long gravel driveway leading to his house. “I wasn’t certain you’d come tonight,” he said.
“Why wouldn’t I? I have to eat.” Her voice sounded more confident than she felt. She had had some doubts about this evening.
“You need to take your own advice.”
“Which is?”
“Spend the night with me and go back to the motel after sunrise.”
Kate felt her heart rate increase. “Not a good idea.”
“It’s a great idea.” He pulled in front of his house and turned off the ignition, then swiveled with his left arm along the steering wheel and his right hand on her thigh. “Think of me as your friendly neighborhood rottweiler.”
Rottweilers did not have deep blue eyes and crinkly smiles. She opened the car door and slid out quickly. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
He was supposed to be the one doing the hankering. She remembered Arnold’s snide remark about her rampant hormones and remembered just how long it had been since anyone—much less David Canfield—had made love to her. Her hormone scale had every right to be off the top of the chart at this point. Not a good sign if she expected to keep her head.
She heard his car door slam and felt him behind her. He pressed his palm against her waist. She could have drawn the outline of David’s hand on her skin from the heat it generated in her.
“Come on. Let me feed you. I won’t press you, Kate, if you won’t fight me.”
“My adrenaline bottomed out about thirty minutes ago. There’s no fight left in me. I’d take it kindly if you didn’t push me right now. I might dissolve in tears, and then where would we be?”
“Better off than we are at the moment, at least from my point of view, that is, if you let me comfort you.”
“Well, don’t. I need some space. And some food.” Remarkably, he took her at her word, and twenty minutes later they sat across a small round table in his dining area, sipped an excellent Chardonnay and dug into shrimp étouffée and an artichoke salad. A fire crackled and popped in the big fireplace. The only other light came from candles on the table. Kate knew she was being set up. She simply wasn’t certain how she felt about it. One part of her wanted to let the evening unfold David’s way, making love, the other part warned her what a disaster that would be. She took refuge in chat. And knew David wasn’t fooled.
“I had forgotten what a great cook you are,” Kate said. “Must be why I married you.”
“Must be.” He grinned. “Since you and my momma can burn water.”
“I’ll have you know I’ve improved,” Kate said haughtily. “I can heat up takeout in the microwave with the best of ’em.”
“Alec didn’t expect home-cooked meals?”
“He already had a good caterer. Alec expected a law partner and a hostess.”
“And a trophy?” David asked, then shut his eyes.
“Sorry, that was a nasty thing to say.”
“It’s at least partially true,” Kate said. “Except that I’m no long-legged beauty queen, and he’d been divorced for years when we started dating. He wanted company and a colleague.”
“Don’t sell your legs short. What did you want?”
“I’ve had my share of anger this evening, David. You’re not going to infuriate me with psychobabble. No, I did not seek out and marry a father figure—or at least, not principally a father figure. Frankly, I wanted to be the one loved for a change.”
“And that means?”
She shrugged and took a sip of wine before she answered. “You know the old French saying—in love there is one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.”
He set his glass down carefully. “And you thought I was the one who let himself be loved.”
“Well, weren’t you? All that adoration came so naturally to you. Lord knows I did my share of adoring.”
“What you adored was some abstract idea of me.” He picked up his fork and dug it savagely into a shrimp, but did not raise it to his mouth.
“An abstract you carefully constructed for public view—and I was just another member of the public so far as you were concerned. You never gave me a chance to know the real you—at least that’s what you’re saying now.”