Berry looked at her with surprise. 'I thought you only met him last night.'
'I did. But I like what I see.'
Dodge's pang of jealousy was misplaced but undeniable. What was it that Caroline liked so well when she looked at the tall, rugged Deputy Nyland? His tanned face and sandy hair? His broad shoulders and flat belly? His stern mouth and cleft chin?
'Nyland's probably a stand-up guy,' he grumbled. 'Competent enough. But I don't have the confidence in the authorities that you do, Berry. I've found fugitives while the guys with badges were still trying to organize their search. I don't have to file paperwork. I don't have to get clearance from guys who're a lot dumber than me. I don't have to follow rules or fear demotion if the situation goes south.'
Berry looked toward Caroline, who took her daughter's hand and pressed it between her own. 'Dodge can keep his ear to the ground. Keep us informed. I don't want to be blindsided by anything, especially by the reappearance of Oren Starks.'
'I'd rather avoid that, too.' Addressing Dodge again, Berry asked, 'Aren't you required to have a license in the state where you're working?'
He shrugged. 'I don't know. Maybe. Probably.'
She laughed. 'You don't care?'
'Do you?'
She looked at Caroline, who foundered. 'We, uh, Dodge and I haven't had time to discuss all the particulars of his ... uh ... inclusion.'
He jumped in. 'I introduced myself to Nyland as a friend of the family. I'm not official.'
'Until your bill comes due,' Berry said drily. 'What do you charge for keeping your ear to the ground?'
'A fair rate. I won't fleece you. That I promise. And as long as I'm not on retainer, we can honestly say to Nyland, or to anyone else who asks, that I'm operating in an unofficial capacity.'
Obviously Berry still had misgivings. 'It's a strange setup.
'I believe Dodge will be a tremendous help,' Caroline said.
'Does Mr. Carlisle know about him?' Berry asked her.
'I'll inform our attorney when the time is right.'
Berry withdrew her hand from her mother's clasp, stood up, and began to roam restlessly around the room. 'I don't understand the need for a lawyer. I haven't done anything wrong.'
'All the more reason to have an advocate,' Dodge said. 'Anytime Nyland wants to interview you, you don't say a word without a lawyer present.'
'I already have.'
Dodge cursed under his breath.
Caroline asked, 'When was this, Berry?'
'At the hospital before you arrived. He and I talked.'
'About what?'
'Oren's characteristics. Anything that might give Deputy Nyland a lead to follow. It was harmless.'
Dodge had his doubts. 'Don't do it again. Understood? My boss would advise the same thing.'
'Of course he would. That's how he makes his living.'
'True. And a damn good living. But I would trust him with my life. Lots of people have.'
'Guilty people.'
'Innocent people, too,' he returned calmly. 'Including the woman he ultimately married.'
Caroline sat forward. 'He married a client? I sense an interesting story.'
Dodge looked across at her. 'Yeah. It's a story about a woman in trouble, and the guy who came to her rescue. A very old-
fashioned kind of story. Boy meets girl, and just like that, he's in over his head.'
'Boy lost girl?' Berry asked.
'No,' Dodge said. 'Lucky for Derek and Julie, their story had a happy ending.' His eyes remained locked with Caroline's, and for several seconds the atmosphere was fraught with tension. She was the first to look away.
Dodge uncomfortably shifted his position in the squeaky chair and motioned down at the tray on the coffee table, calling Berry's attention to it. 'That seemed to spark a memory earlier. You mentioned wineglasses.'
She resumed her seat in the corner of the sofa and tucked her feet beneath her. 'After dinner, Ben and I decided to split what was left in the bottle of wine. So before going upstairs, we sat in here to drink it. Deputy Nyland must have seen the glasses on the coffee table and jumped to the wrong conclusion about what they implied.'
'Wine-fueled hanky-panky?' Dodge said.
'Something like that.' A vertical frown line appeared between her eyebrows. 'I wonder if he pawed through the trash to count the beer and wine bottles we'd consumed.'
'It was the happy hour that set Mrs. Lofland off,' Dodge remarked. Both women looked at him inquisitively. 'I talked to her.'
'You talked to her?'
'When?'
They asked the questions simultaneously. Dodge explained. 'After that ugly scene outside her husband's room. The two of you put your heads together for a private conversation. Nyland got a phone call. I thought I'd find the lady, see what was on her mind. She was in the hospital cafeteria, sitting alone, having a Coke. She was crying. I went up to her, told her I couldn't fail to notice that she was upset, asked if I could be of help.'
He recounted to them almost verbatim the conversation he'd had with Ben's wife. It had been explanatory, enlightening, and, largely, troubling.
When he finished relating to them what had been said, neither Caroline nor Berry would look him in the eye. The thin bead chain dangling from the ceiling fan clinked against the metal casing. Dodge's breath soughed in and out of his overtaxed lungs. The cane seat of the rocking chair squeaked again, although he would have sworn he hadn't moved a muscle. Those sounds emphasized the silence of the two women.
Finally Dodge asked bluntly, 'Is it true, Berry?'
She nodded.
He frowned and looked across at Caroline, who was staring at her hands, which she was clasping and unclasping where they lay in her lap. He cleared his throat and stood up. 'I need to smoke.'
He was almost out of the room when Berry, head lowered, said quietly, 'When you come back, I'll explain.'
'That would be helpful.'
'What I don't get--'
'Yeah?'
She raised her head and looked at him. 'Had you ever met Amanda Lofland?'
'Never laid eyes on the woman till I heard her telling you to stay away from her husband.'
