Tough Customer

Her head went back several inches. 'You smoke?'

That caused him to laugh. 'I don't actually smoke. I just inhale. Smoking takes too long to get the nicotine into my bloodstream.'

'When did you start smoking?'

'Thirty years ago.'

The significance of the time frame didn't escape her. She held his gaze for several beats, then said, 'You should quit.'

'What for?'

Their stare held until the waitress returned with her tea and his Coke, which was served in one of the vintage bottles accompanied by a slender glass of ice sitting on a little china plate with a white paper doily underneath it. They didn't have Coke in ordinary cans in Merritt, Texas? He didn't touch anything, afraid he'd break something.

Caroline thanked the waitress, spooned sugar into her cup, then poured steaming tea out of a little white pot with pink flowers painted on it. 'It's still weak. I didn't let it steep long enough,' she remarked.

Okay, enough of this bullshit. 'You gonna talk to me, or what?'

She set her spoon in the saucer. It clinked against the cup as though her hand might not have been quite steady. She looked across at him. 'Last night, in my house, a man was shot and seriously wounded. Berry was there.'

Dodge placed his elbow on the edge of the table and cupped his mouth with his hand. For the next quarter hour, Caroline talked, pausing only occasionally to emphasize a point or to organize her thoughts. He listened without interrupting her. He would gladly have sat there looking into her face and listening to her voice until his vices caught up with him and his heart stopped.

But eventually, she paused and took a deep breath. 'Around noon we had a brief meeting with the sheriff,' she said. 'Tom Drummond. He's a nice man. We're social friends. He's held the office for as long as anyone can remember. Berry talked through last night's event with him, although I think that meeting was more of a courtesy to me than anything. Tom's duties are basically administrative. He relies on Deputy Nyland for investigative work.'

'Did you have a lawyer there during this meeting?'

'Yes. Last night, and again today.'

'Good.'

'He wasn't really necessary. Berry's under no suspicion. She hasn't deviated from her first account to Deputy Nyland.'

'Do they believe her?'

The question took her aback. 'Why wouldn't they?'

'Do they?'

'They seem to.'

Dodge didn't comment. He asked, 'So where do things stand now?'

'The official word is that Oren Starks is being sought for questioning, but Deputy Nyland secured a warrant for his arrest. As soon as I got the okay from him, I hired professionals to clean up the mess in the house. They're there now.

'I didn't want Berry to see those rooms again until everything was back to normal, so after our meeting at the courthouse, we went to lunch at the country club. Then I dropped her at the hospital. She wanted to check on her friend's condition. I came here to meet you.'

She took her first sip of tea. It was no longer steaming. He watched her graceful hands, the way they handled the delicate cup and saucer. Her fingers were almost as translucent as the china. 'That's everything up to the present.'

Dodge waited for several seconds, then asked, 'Does she know I'm here?'

Caroline shook her head.

'Does she know you called me?'

Another negative shake.

There were many unspoken questions on that subject hovering between them. For the moment it was better to let them hover. 'This deputy. Nyland? Can he find his ass with both hands?'

She smiled. 'Your vernacular is still colorful, I see.'

'Sue me,' he said, and she actually laughed. Music to his ears. Then her expression became serious again as she thoughtfully considered the answer to his question. In concentration, her forehead wrinkled just as he remembered. The lines were a little deeper.

'Tom speaks highly of him. He places a lot of trust in him.'

'He would. Nyland's his deputy.'

'From what little I've seen of him, he appears competent.'

'What's he like?'

'Characteristically you mean? Serious. All business. Watchful. A man of few words. Even a bit brusque at times.'

'I know a lot of button-up, by-the-book cops who've never solved a crime or found a fugitive,' Dodge grumbled. 'So, back to my original question.'

'I don't know the level of his competency, Dodge,' she replied with a trace of impatience. 'That's partially why I called you.'

He wanted to know what the other part of partially was, but again he saved that conversation for later. If there was a later. That was still a big if. So far this seemed Mickey Mouse. A bullet, a loss of blood, but not the earth- shattering, calamitous event he'd expected when he packed his suitcase last night.

'This whack job, Starks,' he said. 'What do you know about him?'

'Only what Berry has told me.'

'I'll need a lot more than that, Caroline. I need to know what she hasn't told you or doesn't know herself.'

'I figured that much. What I can tell you is that he's been pestering her for months. She was at her wit's end when I convinced her to get out of Houston for the summer. She agreed to, but it hasn't been easy for her.'

'In what way has it been uneasy?'

'She's very focused and ambitious. She works as hard as ever from the lake house, but it's not the same as being in the office. I know because I've done it. There are inherent problems to working out of a satellite location. She hasn't talked to me in any detail about the difficulties posed by being away from her office, but I can tell when she's worried or--'

'You two are close?'

'Very, Dodge,' she replied earnestly. 'Very.'

It knifed his heart to know how important they'd been to each other, and how dispensable he'd been to both. He hadn't done anything to make himself vital, though, had he? There were reasons for his being inessential to their lives.

Guilt was a parasite that would eat you alive, but only if you let it. So he forced self-flagellating thoughts from his mind and focused on what Caroline was telling him about the daughter he didn't know.

'Oren Starks had made her life hell or she wouldn't have moved to Merritt, even temporarily. She would be in Houston, at Delray, working. She thrives on it. She lives for it. Last year, someone else got a promotion she was hoping for, and she was crushed. Admirably, she used her disappointment to propel her, so that the next time a promotion comes along, she'll get it. Her career at Delray has been the focus of her