connection. I hope I can speak frankly.'
She sipped. 'So do I.'
'I'm concerned, Caroline, very concerned. I've heard talk around town that you've been seeing Tucker Longstreet.'
She settled back in the crook of the couch. 'That's the marvelous thing about small towns, don't you think? If you sit in one place for more than five minutes, you hear everything.'
He stiffened like a poker. 'Personally, I don't care for rumor, gossip, or innuendo.' Her quick burst of laughter had him tightening his lips. 'I'm sorry. You made that sound like a rock group or a law firm.' She swallowed the next chuckle when he didn't respond in kind. Laughing at him was certainly no way to soften him up so that he'd listen to a suggestion. 'Places like this run on gossip, Matthew. I imagine it could even be helpful.'
'Indeed. However much I abhor such habits, I must take this professionally. You'd be wise to do the same. Tucker Longstreet is still being questioned regarding a vicious and brutal murder.' Nerves had Caroline passing the glass from hand to hand, but her eyes remained level. 'As I understand, several people are being questioned. I suppose that would include me.'
'Your involvement with this is merely that of an innocent bystander who happened to find a body.'
'There's no merely about it, Matthew. I found the body, and I'm a member of this community. I have…' Her lips curved at the truth of it. 'I have friends here, and probably numerous cousins of one sort or the other.'
'And you consider Tucker Longstreet a friend?'
'I'm not sure exactly what I consider Tucker.' She gave him a bland look. 'Is that a professional question?'
'I'm investigating a series of murders,' he said flatly. 'I have not crossed Mr. Longstreet off my list. I consider him someone to be watched, carefully watched. You may not be aware that he had relationships with the other two victims.'
'Matthew, I've been here for over two weeks. I'm well aware of it. Just as I'm aware that Woodrow and Sugar Pruett's marriage is in trouble, and that Bea Stokey's boy, LeRoy, got a ticket for speeding out on route One. Just as I'm aware that Tucker isn't capable of doing any of those hideous things to those poor women.'
A long, patient breath, and Burns set aside his iced tea. It never failed to fascinate him how easily women could be taken in. 'People were fooled by Ted Bundy's charm and attractive looks. A serial killer is not someone you recognize as such in the everyday course of things. They are clever, manipulative, and often highly intelligent. And often, yes quite often, they themselves go for periods of time when they have no recollection of what they've done. And if they do, they hide it under a mask of affability or concern. But they lie, Caroline. They lie because what they live for is the kill. The anticipation of it, the skill with which they hunt, stalk and slay.'
He watched her pale and reached for her hand. 'I'm frightening you. I mean to. Someone, very likely someone in this small rural community, is hiding behind a mask, and plotting the next kill. I will use all my skill, all my knowledge, to stop him. But it may not be enough. And if it's not, he will kill again.'
She had to set the tea aside. She needed nothing cool now, not when her blood had turned to ice. 'If that's true-'
'It is.'
'If it is,' she repeated, 'shouldn't you be using all available assistance?'
'I beg your pardon?'
'You're an outsider here, Matthew. Your badge doesn't change that. If anything, the fact that it's federal makes you more of an outsider. If you want to help these people, then use Burke Truesdale.'
His smile was tight as he straightened his shoulders. 'I appreciate your concern, Caroline, but the simple fact is you don't know what's involved here.'
'No, I don't. But I do know about politics and authority. No one could perform with dozens of different orchestras under dozens of different maestros and not understand the food chain. My point is, Matthew, you-as I have been most of my life-are the outsider. Burke knows these people. You don't.'
'Which is precisely part of the problem. He knows them, he sympathizes with them. He's related to them or has old friendships to protect.'
'You're speaking about Tucker again.'
'To be specific. The term is 'good ol' boys,' isn't it? They toss back a few beers together, shoot some rabbits or other small creatures, and sit on their porches and talk about cotton and women.' He brushed a speck of lint from his trousers. 'No, I don't know these people, Caroline, but I know of them. The last thing I need to solve this case is to enlist Burke Truesdale to pave my way. I believe him to be an honest man. And a loyal one. It's his loyalties that concern me.'
'May
He spread his hands. 'Please.'
'You're behaving like a pompous ass,' she said, and watched his face fall. 'That might work well in D.C. or Baltimore, but it doesn't cut it here in the delta. If someone else is killed-as you seem to believe-then look to yourself and wonder if it might have been prevented. If you might have prevented it by having a liaison to these people instead of standing back all smug and superior.'
He rose stiffly. 'I'm sorry, Caroline, that we're unable to see eye to eye on this matter. However you might feel, I must still advise you to curtail your involvement with Tucker Longstreet until this case is resolved.'
'I've discovered a terrible habit in myself of ignoring advice.'
'Your choice.' He inclined his head. 'I'll have to ask you to come in to my temporary headquarters tomorrow. Around ten, if that's convenient.'
'Why?'
'I have some questions. Official questions.'
'Then I'll give you answers. Official answers.' She didn't bother to see him to the door.
Chapter Seventeen
Caroline didn't even have to weigh her loyalties.
Before Burns's dust had cleared, she was scooping up Useless and heading for her car. The keys were dangling in the ignition, right where she'd left them.
Turning, she looked back at the house. She hadn't locked the doors. Hadn'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 windows was even more foolish. And to do that meant trapping the heat inside.
In less than a month, she'd picked up country habits.
'I'm not going to be afraid in my own home,' she told Useless as she set him inside the car. He immediately propped his front paws on the dash, tongue lolling in anticipation of a ride.
'My home,' she repeated, studying the house, the fresh paint, the polished windows, the scarred porch rocker. With a sense of satisfaction and purpose she climbed into the car. 'Come on, Useless, it's time we took an active part in the grapevine.'
She backed down the drive, unaware of the figure that stood, shadowed by the line of trees, watching.
The Statler Brothers were wailing away from a four-foot boom box on the porch at Sweetwater. Keeping them company were Lulu and Dwayne. Lulu still wore her eagle feather and her combat boots. To complete the outfit she wore a splotched painter's smock over Levis and a pair of ruby earrings with stones as big 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.
' '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 marked. 'My dog. Good evening, Miss Lulu.'
She grunted, dabbed a little paint on the canvas. 'My grandmammy ran a pair of Yankee deserters off her plantation in 1863.'
