Trinity Harbor 3 - Along Came Trouble (21 page)

“Looks like your husband’s coming,” he noted. “Why the devil is he using his flashing light?”

“I imagine because he thought it was an emergency,” Daisy said. “You have any food around? It’s going to take more than tea to settle him down.”

“There’s a plate of sandwiches in the refrigerator. I didn’t want to bring ’em out in this heat til everyone got here.”

“I’l get them,” Daisy said. “I’m not sure I want to hear what Walker has to say about your sneaky tactics.”

“Coward,” King accused as she scooted inside.

Walker took a real long time exiting his car. King had a hunch he was trying to persuade himself not to draw his weapon. King counted on him doing the right thing eventual y.

“Oh, come on up here,” he cal ed out. “You’re not going to shoot me.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Walker said, but he came on up on the porch and accepted the iced tea King handed him, then settled into an adjacent rocker.

“Let me guess—this is about Tucker.”

“Smart man.”

“I have nothing to say. Tucker is a grown man and my boss. He’s handling this in the most professional way he knows how. Beyond that, it’s none of my business.”

“Of course it is,” King scoffed. “You’re family now. We Spencers look out for each other.”

“No,
you
look out for everybody,” Walker corrected. “Or, rather, you meddle in their lives.”

“Got you and Daisy married, didn’t I?” King demanded. “You complaining about that?”

The beginnings of a smile tugged at Walker’s mouth. “Not with my wife standing in the shadows listening to every word I say,” he retorted.

“Damn,” Daisy said. “I thought I could find out something to hold over your head.”

“Not a chance, darlin’. I have only good things to say about you and our marriage.”

King regarded them with satisfaction as Daisy slipped onto Walker’s lap and gave him a kiss. Yes, indeed, he’d done al right by those two.

Jenna and Bobby arrived next, walking up to the porch hand in hand, stil looking thoroughly besotted with each other. Another success story, King concluded with satisfaction.

“Now Anna-Louise is the only one who’s missing,” he said.

“She’s not family,” Bobby pointed out. “And I don’t think she much likes you using her to do your dirty work.”

“I just want her here to remind everyone of what sort of role models we’re supposed to provide for this town,” King said. “Besides, if there was ever a woman who could hold her own against me, it’s Anna-Louise. She doesn’t do anything she doesn’t think is right, even if I’m the one doing the asking.”

Daisy and Bobby exchanged an amused look. King scowled at the pair of them. “Watch it, you two.”

“I’m just surprised at how much respect you seem to have for a woman who doesn’t always listen to you,” Daisy said.

King shrugged. “Have to take the bad with the good. Anna-Louise knows her stuff. Don’t know much of anybody in Trinity Harbor who doesn’t try to live up to her ideals. She doesn’t order people to do the right thing. She just points it out and expects them to make the right decision.”

“Unlike some people we could name,” Daisy said dryly.

Walker seemed to choke on that, quickly turning his head as if that would keep King from seeing his amusement.

“You know, son, you’re beginning to annoy me,” King told his son-in-law.

“Does that mean I can take off?” Walker inquired. The fact that he was picking up a ham sandwich as he asked suggested he didn’t hold out much hope of getting a favorable response.

“No!” King bel owed. “Nobody leaves until we come up with a game plan.” Fortunately he spotted the last of his expected guests barreling up the driveway. “Here’s Anna-Louise now.”

“Oh, brother,” she said when she emerged from the car. “I came out here to pray over your near-dead carcass, and instead, I can see I’m about to be asked to do something I’m not going to like.”

“Oh, can it,” King retorted. “I listened to you bel yache about your problems earlier. You can listen to me now. We have to do something to save Tucker. This situation is getting out of hand.”

Before he could get in another word, Jenna and Daisy were turning to Anna-Louise.

“Is everything okay with you?” Daisy asked.

“What sort of problems was King talking about?” Jenna asked.

Anna-Louise shot him a triumphant look. “Nothing I care to discuss in front of everyone,” she said sweetly. “Could we go inside?”

With that, al three women disappeared into the house. King stared after them with dismay, knowing he had no one to blame but himself for the hasty defection.

“Nice going, Daddy,” Bobby said, not even trying to hide his amusement.

“It could be hours before they come back out here,” Walker grumbled.

“Probably wil be,” King agreed, resigned to the situation. “Oh, wel , you two wil just have to do. Walker, can’t you do something to get Tucker off this investigation he’s doing for Mary Elizabeth?”

“Beyond solving the case myself, I don’t see how, and I’m short on solid leads at the moment.”

“Wel , find some,” King demanded unreasonably.

“Believe me, I’m trying. Nobody wants this murder solved more than I do. I love being a deputy. I do not like being the one everyone complains to when the crimes don’t get solved fast enough.”

King frowned at the response, but accepted it for the moment. He turned to his son. “Bobby, talk to your brother,” King ordered. “Make him see the light.”

“Since when has Tucker ever listened to anything I had to say?” Bobby retorted. “He’s just like you—stubborn as a mule once he gets an idea in his head. And he learned al about rushing to the aid of a lady in distress from you. If he thinks Mary Elizabeth needs his help, then he’s going to give it to her.”

“No matter what it costs him?” King said, then made another attempt to dole out an assignment. “Walker, you tel Tucker how folks in town are taking his leave of absence from the department.”

“Seems to me like most of them understand it, even if they’re not too happy to have me acting in his place,” Walker said. “In fact, al I’ve heard people say is that it’s exactly what they would expect him to do, given what an honorable man he is. He’s putting ethical considerations first.”

“If his ethics were the only thing involved, I’d let wel enough alone,” King snapped. “We al know it’s his hormones. That woman always could twist him up in knots. He stopped thinking straight around her before he even hit puberty.”

“I don’t think he’l let that happen again,” Bobby said. “She ripped his heart out when she married Chandler. A man doesn’t forget a thing like that.”

“Not if he’s thinking with his head,” King agreed. “You think Tucker’s using his?”

“Absolutely,” Walker said.

“I agree,” Bobby added.

“Hmm,” King murmured thoughtful y. He looked at Walker. “And I suppose you never got distracted by a kiss during al those months when you and Daisy were being al logical and sorting things out about the best thing to do about Tommy?”

Walker muttered something indiscernible under his breath.

“I thought so,” King said, then stared at Bobby. “You kept your head the whole time Jenna was pursuing you about developing the boardwalk?”

Bobby frowned. “Okay, okay, you’ve made your point. What do you want us to do?”

“I think we need to sit down and have a talk with him, one of those intervention things I keep hearing about on TV. How’s tomorrow night suit you?”

“What’s wrong with tonight?” Bobby asked. “I thought you were in a hurry. I’d just as soon get this over with.”

“I have my own plans for tonight,” King said.

“More important than getting al this off your chest?”

“Yes,” King said defensively. “Not everything in my life revolves around my children.”

Walker chuckled. “He’s got a date with Frances. Want to bet?” he asked Bobby.

“Nah,” Bobby said, grinning. “That’s a no-brainer. It’s definitely something to do with Frances. And since I’ve seen firsthand how much trouble he’s in with her, I think he’s pretty smart not to stand her up tonight.”

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s not get sidetracked,” King said, pounding his fist on the arm of the rocker. “We’re agreed then. We’l al meet at Tucker’s tomorrow night. You’l see to it that Daisy and Jenna are there?”

“We’l be there,” Walker said. “Bobby?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m sure it wil be the highlight of my week, maybe even the entire month.”

“There’s no need for sarcasm,” King told him. “Now go in there, retrieve your wives and get on out of here. I’ve got things to do.”

Walker and Bobby rol ed their eyes, but did as King had ordered. Fil ed with satisfaction at a job wel -done, he watched the whole lot of them head for their cars. He was about to duck into the house and get ready for his big evening, when Bobby leaned out the window of his car and hol ered at him.

“Hey, King, I recommend some of that fancy aftershave for tonight. The women go wild for it.”

“Boy, it’s not too late for me to disinherit you,” King shouted back.

Bobby merely grinned. “I thought you did that years ago.”

King sighed as he watched them drive off. He was going to have to come up with a better threat than that. It was evident to him that not a one of them real y gave two hoots about inheriting Cedar Hil or anything else he’d worked his whole life to accumulate. Nobody could ever accuse his kids of being nothing but greedy parasites the way some offspring were.

Which, of course, meant that they came around because, despite al the wisecracks, they loved him.

“Wel , I’l be damned,” he muttered with a hoot. A man couldn’t get much richer than that.

Tucker was having trouble concentrating. Every time Mary Elizabeth handed him another file, every time she reached across in front of him to pick up another stack of papers, he caught a faint whiff of the exotic, seductive scent she wore. Her perfectly sedate blouse stretched tight across her breasts, which were encased in a thoroughly provocative scrap of lace that was enough to drive a man to drink. He was beginning to regret his decision to skip the wine and stick with soda. Then, again, he’d probably been real y, real y smart not to do anything to lower his inhibitions.

“Are you okay?” she asked, studying him intently. “You look a little flushed. If it’s too hot in here, I can turn up the air-conditioning.”

Unless she set it on freezing, it wouldn’t help, Tucker concluded. “I’m fine,” he said tersely. “Are you making a list of al these names we’re finding?”

She gave him an inscrutable look, then nodded. “Of course. You asked me to, didn’t you? It’s right here.” She waved a legal pad under his nose.

“I’ve got the business associates on one. Political cronies on another. And there’s a third list with al the women I suspected him of having affairs with.”

“Okay, then, how many more files are there?”

“Just one drawer left and whatever’s in the safe,” she told him.

Tucker groaned. “There’s a safe?”

“Yes.”

“Why the hel didn’t you say so? Anything he’s trying to keep secret would be much more likely to be kept in there.”

“I didn’t say so because you asked for his files,” she retorted with exaggerated patience. “Besides, I had access to the safe, so how secret could anything in there be?”

“What about safety deposit boxes?”

“None I know about.”

“Did he have a safe in his office?”

“Probably.”

“Who at his company would have access to that?”

Liz hesitated. “I’m not sure. I didn’t have the combination, but someone must have it. Maybe Roland Morgan.”

“Remind me again. Roland is?”

“His partner at Chandler Technologies.”

“Right.” His head was spinning from al the names that had been accumulating since they’d started a few hours earlier. He wondered if he’d ever get them sorted out, much less manage to prioritize the ones most likely to want Chandler dead. This Roland fel ow seemed like a good place to start, though.

“Was he at the funeral? Did I meet him?”

“He was there, but he scurried out right after the service. Roland is not a social creature,” Mary Elizabeth said, smiling. “You’l see.”

“You suppose he’s stil at the office?” he asked. “It’s after five.”

“I’l cal ,” she said. “Should I ask him to stick around until we can get there?”

Tucker gauged how long it would take to skim the remaining files, check the safe and drive to the company offices, which he’d seen on the way to the house. “Tel him we’l be there about six-thirty.”

“What if he says he has plans?”

“Tel him to cancel them.”

Mary Elizabeth nodded and picked up the phone. He heard some of what she was saying as he continued scanning papers. Apparently Roland wasn’t giving her a hard time.

“He’l be there. He says anything he can do to help us find out who kil ed Larry, he’s happy to do.”

Tucker was relieved by the eagerness to help, though he’d seen plenty of guilty people try to divert suspicion by making a pretense of cooperation.

“Okay, I’ve made notes of the names from these files. Check the safe, and we can get over there.”

Mary Elizabeth returned with a copy of Chandler’s wil , a few stacks of cash that amounted to a couple thousand dol ars and several jewelry boxes.

“That’s it?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Have you read the wil ? Do you know what’s in it?”

“Like I told Foley, unless he changed it recently, he’s left the business and its assets to Roland and his personal money to the charitable foundation he and I started a few years ago.” She regarded Tucker with a hint of disappointment. “I was tel ing the truth when I said that I had nothing to gain from either divorcing him or kil ing him.”

“Sorry.”

She sighed. “I suppose I can’t blame you for being suspicious. Despite al the downturns in the market, Larry was stil a relatively wealthy man. But whether you believe me or not, it was never about the money with us. We both took great precautions to make sure that we each understood that. Larry loved Swan Ridge, but he accepted that it was my inheritance. I had my own money. I didn’t need his.”

Tucker wasn’t sure how he felt about knowing that Mary Elizabeth hadn’t been bowled over by Chandler’s wealth. That meant there had been something more between them, something deeper and more personal. He’d been able to accept the idea that she’d chosen a rich man over him, but knowing that he’d fal en short in some other way rankled. At the time he hadn’t thought her reasons for choosing Chandler were important, but apparently they’d been eating at him for years now.