Sunshine Walkingstick Omnibus

by Celia Roman

  “Sunny, thank God,” David said. A fine thread of tension run through his cultured voice. “I just saw something in the water, something… God, I must be crazy.”

  He hadn’t struck me that way, not one bit. “You ok? I mean, you ain’t hurt or nothing, are you?”

  “No, I’m fine.” A long, shaky sigh filtered through the line. “It rattled me. I’m not much of a country boy.”

  “I’da never guessed,” I said, mild enough to hide the sarcasm. “I was heading that way. You want, I can stop by, maybe take a look-see.”

  “Yes, please. Gregory’s already back in Atlanta.”

  “You call him yet?”

  “I left a message. He’s in a meeting.”

  “And then you called me.”

  “Of course, darling girl. You’re our investigator, aren’t you?”

  How come ever body assumed I was looking into the Greenwood Five’s problems when I hadn’t officially been hired? “What’s me investigating got to do with anything?”

  “We’ve had some more damage to our dock. I happened to notice it when I came outside to eat lunch, and that’s when I saw…whatever it was I saw.”

  Lunch. Dagnabbit, I knowed I forgot something. “I’ll be there quick as I can. Don’t go near the water again, you hear?”

  “No chance of that, Sunshine.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I hung up. What’d Old Mother said? It took me a minute to pull the conversation outta my noggin, which is what she got for waking me up so dadgum early. Be wary of the water, she said, and a whole lotta other hooha besides. Something about the water coming for me and death.

  My skin tightened and the air inside the car seemed to cool. I shivered and shoved Old Mother outta my head. I could be wary of the water and still help David out. I was gonna need my camera, though, maybe a notebook and pen, too, and I needed food in my belly. I shifted into gear and pulled outta the parking lot. Home first, then David. Missy’s ring’d have to wait ‘til another day.

  An hour and a half later, I inched the IROC into the tiny parking area outside David and Gregory’s lakeside home, right next to Riley’s work truck. My heart flipped over and butterflies danced in my stomach, and I scowled. One date and already I was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush.

  I gathered my investigating tools together and picked my way to the front door through a tangle of carefully maintained greenery. Unlike the other yards in the area, this’un seemed natural, livable, and I even recognized a few of the plants. Rosemary, oregano, and some other stuff what looked suspiciously like herbs of one sort or another.

  David met me at the door wearing a pair of low-slung, khaki cargo shorts and not a thing besides. He leaned close and kissed my cheek, and his aftershave drifted to me, something with just the right mix of spice and tang. “Hello, darling. Thank you for coming so quickly.”

  “Said I would, didn’t I?” I tightened my grip on my tools, keeping my hands right where they was, well away from the lean muscles of David’s torso. He mighta been gay, but him half naked was worthy of a little drool. “You wanna tell me what this is about now?”

  His lips thinned and the lines deepened around his mouth, and for a minute, he looked near about forty, not the early thirties I pegged his age at on the night we met. “Riley’s down at the dock. I made him wait so I could tell you both at the same time.”

  “Heaven forbid he be left outta the loop,” I said drily.

  The tension in David’s expression eased. He grinned and draped an arm around my waist. “He’s here on official business. Apparently, the waterways in this area fall under his purview.”

  I shoulda knowed that and coulda smacked myself for not having it in my noggin. Maybe if I’da spent less time running from Riley and more time paying attention, David wouldn’ta caught me by surprise. I hated being taken by surprise. It was right up there with nails scraping down a chalkboard, far as I was concerned.

  “We better get down there before he takes a notion to jump into the water.”

  A mild shudder run through David’s body into mine. “I don’t know if I can ever go in the lake again.”

  “Can’t have that.”

  His gaze sharpened on me. “Is that a mocking tone I hear?”

  “Not a’tall,” I said mildly. “I was just thinking how you might look in swimming trunks, and how it’d be a shame not to see you all wet in ‘em.”

  That slow smile of his curved his mouth, spreading humor right up into his eyes. “Why, Sunny, are you flirting with me?”

  I shook my head sharp like. “Just telling you the God’s honest truth, Mr. David. You got some mighty fine stems under them shorts. I reckon Mr. Gregory better appreciate ‘em or some other man is gonna snap you up.”

  “Some other man…” David huffed out a laugh and nudged me forward. “God, Sunny. What am I going to do with you?”

  “Not a thing, just like ever other man I know,” I said, real cheerful like, and he laughed and tweaked my nose and called me adorable, like I was a puppy he rescued from the pound.

  On the way to the dock, David give me a mini-tour of his house. He inherited it from his grandpappy on his mama’s side when the old man died a decade before. Heart attack, very sudden. David’s voice deepened into sadness when he talked about his grandpappy, and I gathered they was close.

  After that, David remodeled the house a little at a time, the outside first. He had the walls between the outdated kitchen, the tiny dining room, and the living room tore down, making one great room what was, as he put it, better for entertaining.

  Why a body’d want enough folks around to entertain was beyond me, but it was his house and he done a good job on it, so who was I to argue?

  He gestured down a short hallway toward the master suite, two guest bedrooms, and stairs leading to an attic. “We converted the attic into a library. Gregory works up there when he gets tired of the city.”

  I followed him onto the deck and down the stairs winding toward the water. “You don’t, ah, work?”

  He peered over his shoulder. “If you want to know where I get my money from, just ask. I’m not shy about it.”

  Heat rushed through the skin over my cheeks and I glanced away. “I was curious, is all. You know, about where you work. I weren’t asking about no money.”

  “Hmm. You know, that’s the first time I’ve ever believed a woman who told me that, or a man either.” He shook his head and stepped lightly down the stairs, one hand on the railing. “I have a feeling I can always trust you to be honest with me.”

  My jaw dropped open. I snapped it shut and bounced down the steps behind him, my boots a mite louder on the wooden slats than his bare feet. “I got no call to lie, Mr. David.”

  He jerked around so fast I nearly run into him. “Is there anything I can do to persuade you to call me David, just David. No mister, no hesitation, no sweet blush.”

  I run my thumb over the edge of my camera and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “I was raised to be respectful. Don’t rightly reckon I know you well enough to call you by your Christian name.”

  “I’m giving you permission,” he said evenly. “God, Sunny. Every time you call me mister, I feel like an old man. I’m not that much older than you.”

  “Didn’t think you was,” I grumbled. “You know, for a gay guy, you act an awful lot like a regular guy.”

  He huffed out a sigh and turned around, resuming his steady progress toward the water and Riley, who stood with his back to us looking out over the lake just in front of the attached boathouse. “A man is a man, Sunny, gay or not.”

  Well, there I’d gone and stuck my foot in it again, twice in less than a week, and both with the same man. “I didn’t mean no offense.”

  “None taken, darling girl. This is all part and parcel of our getting to know one another.”

  “If you say so.”

  Riley turned around and stalked toward us, his eyes hot under furrowed eyebrows. “Sunny.”

  His v
oice was mild for all the heat shooting away from him. I stepped onto the dock and met his gaze head on. “Hey, Riley. David was just telling me the history of the house.”

  “Is that so.”

  He stuck his hands on his hips and turned that hot glare on David. His mouth thinned, and for a minute, I thought he was gonna say something. What, I had no idea. Riley had a temper, sure he did, but I never seen him get het up so easy before.

  David arched a single eyebrow. “What do you think about the dock?”

  “I think you’ve pissed somebody off.” Riley crossed his arms over his chest and glared at David. “Say, a jealous boyfriend.”

  I snickered. “Oh, come on, Riley. David’s a flirt, sure, but he don’t strike me as the poaching type.”

  “Fat lot you know,” Riley muttered.

  “I haven’t poached on anyone,” David said, even as a level. “The dock?”

  Riley sighed and run a rough hand down his face. “Whatever’s doing the damage, there’s a lot of force behind it. One of your pilings is busted, same as Belinda’s, almost like it was rammed by something.”

  “Too deep for a boat,” I said.

  Riley nodded. “The ones used here, anyway. Those would do damage closer to the surface of the water. This is deeper.”

  “Not so deep we can’t see it.” David pointed to the dent in a nearby boathouse, on the property of one of the cove’s other residents. “Maybe deliberately so.”

  “A message,” Riley said, and David shrugged.

  “But who’d do that?” I asked. “And why y’all?”

  “A bad business deal? A prank? Systematic harassment?” Riley yanked his hat off and stared out over the water sparkling under the sun’s rays. “What I can’t figure out is how it was done. Somebody would’ve heard a motor big enough to do that kind of damage, whether it was ramming the dock or had a rope tied around it and was pulling.”

  “Most of the houses are vacant during the week,” David pointed out. “Gregory and Faith work out of town, Hal’s on vacation. Thaddeus died and Phillip is more concerned with keeping his father’s company afloat than with tending to his father’s estate.”

  “The Arrowoods live here year round,” I pointed out, “but Belinda and Tom work in town and his kids are in school all day.”

  David slid a sly glance toward me. “Not all the time.”

  “Cutting class, huh?” I shook my head. Kids didn’t never appreciate an education ‘til the opportunity passed ‘em by. “I’ll try to run ‘em down and talk to ‘em. Maybe they seen something.”

  “Speaking of seeing something.” David pointed to the newest damage to his dock. “That’s where I was when I saw a large shadow under the water.”

  I snickered. “A shadow spooked you that much? City boy.”

  “It wasn’t the shadow that spooked me, Sunny. It was the eye, nearly as big as my palm. One minute it was there and the next it was gone.”

  “Hunh.” Riley slapped his cap on and adjusted it over his red-brown hair. “Was the eye attached to something or was it just floating?”

  “Attached, definitely.” David exhaled a shaky breath. “It blinked at me.”

  “Close to the surface?”

  “Best guess? A lot deeper.” David rubbed a hand over his nape. “At least a couple of feet below that crack in the piling, down where the water gets murky.”

  “And you still made out an eye?” I shoved my camera into my back pocket and handed him my notebook and pen. “Draw it for me, ever thing you remember, ok?”

  “Sure.” He settled on the lowest stair step, opened the notebook to a clean page, and laid it across his knee. “Has anyone officially hired you yet?”

  Riley snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that. Belinda offered.”

  I scowled and put my back to him. “Belinda can go suck an egg, far as I’m concerned.”

  David glanced up from his drawing, his hand stilled in mid-stroke. “Bad blood?”

  “Bad ever thing.” An understatement if ever there was one. “I ain’t gonna let one of y’all pay for the investigating of a whole party. Ever body chips in or nobody gets nothing, you hear?”

  “I’ll take care of it. If you’d prefer, I can be your liaison for the group. I’m here most of the time anyway.”

  “Forget it,” Riley said flatly.

  I whirled on him. “Butt out, Ranger Rick. You drug me into this mess, and now, I’m gonna handle it the way I want to.”

  Riley whipped his hat off and slapped it against his thigh. “Damn it, Sunny. He’s trying to get into your pants.”

  I threw my head back and laughed so hard, my eyes watered. My breath wheezed out and I doubled over, bracing my hands on my knees.

  “Laugh it up, Sunshine,” he muttered, and slipped his cap back on. “See if I’m wrong.”

  “Not entirely.” David padded toward us, his footsteps near silent. He laid a hand on my back, patting me softly. “I have every intention of getting you out of those pants and into a bathing suit before the air’s too cold to go on a boat ride.”

  I sucked in a breath with the last of my laughter and pushed myself upright. “See? He ain’t up to no good, Riley. Honest to God, you’re as bad as Fame.”

  “Fame?” David asked.

  “My uncle, Fame Carson.”

  His eyes widened. “You’re Fame Carson’s niece?”

  “Ever body knows that, David. No call to act surprised.”

  I took the notebook from his limp fingers and eyed the drawing. He done a good job on it, filling in details most people woulda missed, like the odd-shaped iris and pupil. Whatever it was, it weren’t human, and that’s all I knowed.

  I passed the drawing off to Riley and eyed David. His skin was ten shades pastier than it was a minute ago. “You ok?”

  “You’re Fame Carson’s niece.” He staggered to the steps and dropped like a stone onto the bottom tread. “Holy shit.”

  “He ain’t got that bad a reputation.” I jerked my chin at Riley. “What d’you think?”

  “I think I need to think about it.” He waggled the notebook. “Mind if I take this back to the office and make a copy?”

  “Make a couple. We’ll show ‘em around.” I stabbed my thumb over my shoulder at David. “Let me get him inside. He’s liable to pass out on us, now that he knows my upstanding lineage.”

  Riley’s lips twitched. “Wait until he finds out about your mama.”

  “Why, that orta send him running right back to the city,” I said drily. “You reckon I orta tell him why folks really hire me?”

  “I can still hear the two of you,” David said. “And yes, I want to know every single detail.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh. You seen enough, Riley?”

  “More than, though what’s there isn’t enough to track down what’s doing this.” He stepped closer and skimmed the backs of his fingers along my cheek. “Can I call you tonight?”

  “Yeah.” I bit my lower lip, weighing common sense against need. One urged me to run as fast and far as I could. The other wanted me to lean into him and take ever thing he was willing to give. “You don’t gotta ask ever time.”

  “I wanna make sure it’s ok.”

  “It is, honest. Call me.” My gaze dropped even with the base of his neck and the pulse beating there beneath his skin. “Maybe we could do something this weekend?”

  “Maybe before then.” He sighed and stepped back. “I need to get back to work. Walk me up?”

  “Sure.” I pivoted and bounded across the deck toward David. He pushed himself into a stand, and for a minute, I coulda sworn I seen something like envy on his face. “Come on, city boy. Let’s get you away from the water.”

  “Funny.”

  We walked up in silence in a line, me sandwiched between David in the lead and Riley bringing up the rear. A few minutes later, the three of us were in the parking area. Riley kissed me, short and sweet, then he was gone. I pressed a hand to my tingling lips. Lord above, that boy could kiss, an
d I was pretty sure I was gonna let him keep on doing it.

  Chapter Eleven

  David invited me to dinner, and since I was there and wanted to talk to him some more, I couldn’t hardly say no. I called Missy and let her know I was gonna be out late, just in case somebody come looking for me, then settled onto a stool on the wrong side of the kitchen island, well outta his way.

  I glanced at my watch. “You always start dinner at three in the afternoon?”

  He grinned and opened the refrigerator door, then pulled out vegetables by the armload. “I’m working on a menu for next Friday’s party.”

  “Not them fancy do-dads.”

  He laughed. “Stop trying to hide that sneer, Sunny. Your face is too expressive.”

  “I don’t like do-dads, is all,” I muttered. “What’s wrong with mashed taters and beans?”

  “Not a thing, darling girl.” He bumped the door with his hip, shutting it, and set the veggies on top of the island. “Woman cannot live by starches and legumes alone. Besides, I think it’s past time you broadened your horizons, don’t you?”

  “Ain’t nothing wrong with my horizons, city boy. Why, I been all the way to Knoxville and back.”

  He selected a knife from a drawer and centered an artichoke on the wooden chopping block embedded in the island’s countertop. “I hope you’re joking.”

  “Wouldn’t lie. Fame used to take us on long drives for no reason a’tall, so we been all over the South, up into Ohio and Pennsylvania. Never been outta the country, though, nor west of the Mississip’. What about you?”

  “I’ve been west of the Mississippi, a long way west. I traveled for a while in my twenties, roamed all over the world.”

  I crossed my arms on top of the counter and rested my chin on my hands. “All over, huh. You been to Ireland?”

  “A couple of times.” He sliced the end off the artichoke and set it aside, then did another the same way. “It’s beautiful, especially when you get out into the countryside.”

  We chatted for a good bit about the places he seen, Hong Kong and New Zealand and all over Europe. All the while, he maimed vegetables and I admired the quick elegance of his hands. He had a way with ‘em, he did, like he spent a lotta time learning how to peel and slice and dice, and weren’t afraid of doing it.