“Except that Judge Knott kept picking at them, unraveling them,” Hank had said. “She was going to help Judge Fitzhume remember me and I couldn’t have that, could I?”
“He says he didn’t mean for it to go so far,” Edwards told me. “He says he didn’t want to hurt you and he really didn’t mean to kill Jeffreys, but the judge brushed him off like he was trash. As if the girl’s death meant nothing. He says that if the judge had just said he was sorry, admitted he’d screwed up, that would have been the end of it.
“But Jeffreys told him, ‘Shit happens, kid. Get over it.’ ” Edwards shook his head at the waste of it all. “He kept saying that this wasn’t how it was supposed to be, it wasn’t what he wanted.”
“No Innisfree for him,” I murmured.
“Huh?”
“Not important,” I told him.
It was almost midnight before I got back to the SandCastle. Edwards had offered to have someone drive me, but I swore I was okay. And I was, except for an incredibly sore shoulder. All I wanted was a long hot soaking bath and two more aspirin. I put my .38 and its holster back into the locked metal toolbox I keep stowed in my trunk and went up to my room with the candles I’d bought earlier.
When I unlocked the door, I was startled to see that the lights were on.
As was the television.
And a man was asleep on my bed with the remote control in his hand.
Dwight opened his eyes when I closed the door and set the candles on the ledge of the tub. He gave me a drowsy smile and looked over at the clock radio on the nightstand. “Midnight? I thought you were going to be in bed every night by nine o’clock.”
As I came closer, he registered my torn and dirty red halter top and saw the scrape on my shoulder and sat upright. His smile turned to concern and all sleepiness disappeared.
“Deb’rah? What the hell happened to you?”
I went straight into his arms for a long slow kiss that made me forget all about my sore shoulder and aching head.
At last we reluctantly drew apart and he said, “How did you get so banged up? What happened?”
“It’s a long story,” I said, as I slipped off my torn halter top and began to unbutton his shirt. “Let’s get in the Jacuzzi and I’ll tell you all about it.”
* See Up Jumps the Devil
* See Uncommon Clay
Sand Sharks Page 23