Thick as Thieves

by Sandra Brown

  “Did you see Rusty that night?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where?”

  “Out at the bar. On the parking lot.”

  “What were you two doing together?”

  He never wanted her to be placed in a position of having to lie for him, so he skirted around the whole truth. “What he and I are always doing when we’re together. Wishing we could eat each other’s liver. We pawed the ground, but that’s as far as it went. Not a single punch was thrown. I left him and was on my way into town to see you when I was pulled over. The officers found the pot. I was arrested.

  “I didn’t see Rusty again until I came home on leave just before my first deployment overseas. We spotted each other in passing and from a distance. We didn’t even acknowledge each other.

  “We didn’t speak until years later, after my discharge. He strolled into the bar one night while I was there. He made out like we were long-lost buddies and asked if I’d heard the good news that he was the district attorney. I told him he was the only person who thought that was good news. I wasn’t kidding.

  “He advised me not to get too used to the idea of being seen as a hero, that he couldn’t wait for me to screw up again and give him a chance to prosecute me. He wasn’t kidding, either. Then he gave me that smirk of his and left. I swear that’s gospel.”

  “All right. But why did he come to me that night and tell such a lie?”

  “He needed you as his alibi. He told you so himself.”

  “But an alibi for what?”

  Cautious in his reply, he said, “I think the answer lies in who banged him up.”

  “He was in bad shape, Ledge. It was a serious fight.”

  “Um-huh. Over something Rusty didn’t want anyone to know about.”

  Crystal’s expression became increasingly troubled. “So he made up that lie about you, the marijuana, to shift blame.”

  “Knowing that you wouldn’t want to believe it, but that you just might because of my prior possession charge, and because of the pounding I’d given your stepbrother.”

  “God, how easily he manipulated me.”

  “He’s good at it. He knew you would never contradict his version of the events that night, not to the police or to anyone, for fear that I would be the one who paid the penalty. Your loyalty to me was his single ace, and he played it. He banked on that loyalty.”

  Which brought him to another matter. The one that hurt. He went over to the sofa, braced his hands on the arm of it, and bent down until he was on eye level with her. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this, Crystal? I had to hear it from Rusty. Today.”

  Her gaze shifted to the wound on his cheekbone. “Is that how you got that?”

  “Technically I got that before he told me.”

  “You two were fighting today?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said curtly. “What does matter is that you never told me about his late-night visit. Not in twenty years. That doesn’t seem like an oversight. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You were going into the army. Why borrow trouble? What difference had it made? None.”

  “It made a difference to me when the dirty little secret came out today.”

  “It wasn’t dirty. Nothing happened between Rusty and me.”

  “Then why keep it from me? It feels like a betrayal.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “Then what would you call it?”

  “Common sense,” she shouted. “You would have gone ballistic. I was afraid of what you would do to him.”

  “I’d have killed him.”

  “Exactly! Given the choice again, I still wouldn’t tell you. I’d rather prevent you from doing something rash and stupid.”

  “Like I did to your rapist stepbrother? Would you rather I hadn’t interceded and let the abuse continue?”

  She looked as though he’d struck her.

  He pushed himself up, turned away from her, hung his head, and put his fingers to his temple. “Shit, I’m sorry, Crystal. I’m sorry. That was an awful, terrible thing to say.”

  “Never mind it. You’re upset.”

  “I am, yeah.” He faced her again. “But that’s no excuse.”

  She gave him a gentle smile. “I forgive you, okay? Tell me why you’re upset. Why are we arguing over this? It happened a long, long time ago. You, me, Rusty, we’re different people now.”

  “You and I, maybe. Not Rusty.”

  He sat down in the center of the sofa, planted his elbows on his wide-spread knees, bowed his head, and shoved all ten fingers up through his hair. “I’m angry over not knowing about this sooner because Rusty’s whereabouts and actions that night could be significant. Only tonight, in the last few minutes, have I realized how hugely significant they could be.”

  “Significant to whom?”

  “Not only to you and me.”

  “Joe Maxwell’s daughter?”

  He kept his hands on his head but turned it toward her. She was fiddling with the fringe on a chenille throw, winding strands of it around her index finger meticulously, keeping her eyes on the needless twining instead of looking at him.

  When she did peer over at him, she said, “One of my beauticians saw you at the hardware store. You had a roll of architectural drawings with you. The clerk you were consulting about paint colors remarked that the front elevation of the house looked like the Maxwell—”

  “Okay. No need to go on.” He lowered his hands from his head and laid it back against the cushions, as he’d done when he’d first arrived.

  Crystal said, “Is she cute?”

  “Cute” wasn’t the right word.

  “More than cute?”

  Arden didn’t have the perkiness that “cute” connoted. She was more serious and often looked sad. She was intriguing and infuriating, and there should be some kind of prize awarded for the sacrificial self-discipline he had exercised tonight by leaving her.

  Goddamn. Why did life have to be so complicated?

  “No comment?”

  Crystal’s question served as a prod away from thoughts of Arden and back to Rusty’s actions that night. “You said it was later confirmed that Rusty’s arm had been broken. When was that?”

  “The swelling and discoloration got worse by the hour. I warned him that if he didn’t have it seen to, he might get gangrene. I don’t know if that’s medically correct, but it scared him into agreeing to go to the emergency room. I don’t know exactly what time it was when he left, but it was still dark, before dawn. I led him through the house and out the front door. Half-heartedly I offered to drive him, but he told me he’d left his car half a block away and that he could manage.

  “A few days later—you were still in jail—Mom and I were at a gas station. He saw us, pulled in, and showed us the cast on his arm. He teased Mom into signing it.” Scornfully, she added, “When he left, she remarked on what a nice, friendly young man he was.”

  All seriousness, she said, “That’s the sum total of what I know about that night, Ledge. Since then, on the rare occasions that I’ve crossed paths with Rusty, he’s never mentioned it, even in a subtle way that only I would catch the meaning of.”

  “But he keeps a close watch on you.”

  She made a gesture of dismissal. “I’m the one who got away. He can’t get over that.”

  “I don’t think his vigilance is that adolescent.”

  “What else could it be?”

  “He wants to make sure you’re accessible. He may need you yet.”

  She frowned. He asked her why.

  “Well, it’s just that…I’ve listened to everything you’ve said, and I would put absolutely nothing past Rusty. He’s a moral cesspool and famous for his machinations.”

  “But?”

  “But if he were establishing me as an alibi for some wrongdoing that night, why didn’t he take me up on my offer to drive him to the hospital? Why didn’t he parade me through the ER and make certain that we were seen together?”

&nb
sp; “You were in place to use on an as-needed basis. The story about me, too. As it turned out, he didn’t need either.” After a strategic pause, he said, “It would be useful to know how Rusty explained his injuries to the ER staff who treated him. I was wondering if…”

  Her brow arched suspiciously. “What?”

  “If Marty might help me with that.”

  “Ledge—”

  “I know, I know. Awkward.”

  As though on cue, they heard a car pulling into the drive. Ledge checked his wristwatch. “Twenty past eleven. Right on time.” He looked at Crystal. “What about it?”

  She sighed. “You can ask. But do so at your own peril.”

  They heard the jangle of a key ring, then the snick of the lock. Marty came in, dressed in blue scrubs printed with the Ghostbusters logo. She tossed her purse onto the entry table. “This is a cozy scene. Am I interrupting?”

  Crystal said, “Actually, we were just talking about you.”

  “I hope it was something salacious.” She crossed over to the sofa, bent down, and kissed Crystal on the lips. “Hello, you.”

  Chapter 22

  Crystal smiled up at Marty. “Hello back. How was your shift?”

  As Marty straightened up, she arched her back in a deep stretch. “Long. Depressing. I hate sick people.”

  “Great attitude for a nurse to have,” Ledge said.

  “When I chose my career path, I didn’t yet know that I had an aversion to the afflicted. Now, I stick with it for balance.” She weighed one hand against the other. “Misery at work. Happiness at home.”

  Crystal smiled up at her. “Pour a drink and join us.”

  She did so, then slumped in the upholstered chair adjacent to the corner of the sofa in which Crystal sat. She toed off her shoes and propped her stocking feet in Crystal’s lap.

  “You were talking about me? What about me? My pink stripe?” She shook her platinum, pixie-cut hair, showing off the neon strip in her bangs.

  “Fetching,” Ledge said. “I’ve thought about having Crystal paint one in my hair.”

  “Not your color. It would clash with that bloody cut on your face.”

  Ledge merely gave her wry smile. Under her breath, Crystal warned her partner that it would be best not to pursue that topic.

  Ledge had come to like Marty Camp. She was one of the few people he was comfortable teasing with, but one had to tease back in order to survive her acerbic jibes.

  She had moved to Penton after suffering through a contentious divorce. The root of the marital problem had been Marty’s sexual dubiety. With her impeccable credentials, she had been readily hired by the county’s largest and most reputable hospital, but was still living out of a suitcase in a motel when she’d gone into Crystal’s salon for a haircut.

  Meeting Crystal had been the end of her sexual incertitude. In a matter of weeks, she’d moved in with Crystal. Marty had made Crystal more content than she’d been in her life, and for that Ledge liked Marty a lot.

  She had a repertoire of salty language, a droll sense of humor, and, while she was a more caring individual than she let on, she also took no shit from anybody. She understood the nature of Crystal’s friendship with Ledge and was tolerant of it. But that acceptance could come to a screeching halt with the request he was about to make.

  “Marty, I’m going to put you in a very awkward position.”

  “Crystal puts me in awkward positions all the time,” she said, giving him a naughty wink. “But I draw the line at threesomes. Even if I were game, you don’t have the right equipment.”

  “My equipment is right enough, thank you.”

  They all smiled, but Crystal laid her hand on Marty’s arm to let her know that the subject wasn’t conducive to cracking jokes.

  “The hospital keeps records. For how long?” Ledge asked.

  “Patient records? I’m not sure. Since I’ve been on staff, the ones I’ve had to access were fairly recent.”

  “How far back was the oldest?”

  “Hmm, two, three years.”

  “Could you do some sleuthing in the records department?”

  Crystal said, “Without getting into trouble or crossing your personal ethical line.”

  “How far back?” Marty asked.

  Ledge gave her the month and date. “Easter Sunday of two thousand.”

  She raised her eyebrows. In contrast to her hair, they were stark black.

  “He would have come in shortly before dawn.” He went on to tell her Rusty’s full name. Crystal gave her a general description of the injuries he had suffered, then Ledge picked back up. “There must be a chart detailing his injuries. Can you get it?”

  Marty pursed her lips. “You’re asking me to violate patient privilege?”

  “Yeah.”

  Marty looked at Crystal. “Is this important to you?” Then she waved her hand. “Strike that. Anything concerning Ledge is important to you.” Going back to him, she said, “I’ll think on it and get back to you.”

  “That’s fair.”

  “Fair or not, that’s how it’ll be. Right now, I’m beat. I’m taking my whiskey into the shower with me, then I’m going to hit the sack.” She stood and, carrying her shoes and drink with her, headed toward the bedroom hallway. “’Night.”

  Crystal called after her that she would be right in.

  Ledge stood. “I can take a hint.”

  “Stay and finish your drink.”

  “Thanks, but no. Earlier tonight, I was on my way to a full-blown binge.”

  “You won’t go back to how you were when you first got home.”

  “That’s right. I won’t, because I’m taking no chances.” He went to the front door.

  She joined him there and said, “The next time you run into Rusty, flip him the bird for me.”

  “Don’t make light of this, Crystal. And don’t underestimate him.”

  “I don’t.”

  “He hasn’t changed his spots since that night he climbed through your window, and I can’t always be around to protect you.”

  “You protect me every day.” She looked toward the hallway that led to the bedroom. “As long as everyone thinks that you and I keep the sheets smoking, Marty and I are free to—”

  “Why do you care what everyone thinks? Why don’t you two just go public?”

  “I’ll have to work up to it. It took me years to go public about Morg.”

  “Well, whatever you do, I’ve got your back.” He pecked her on the cheek and reached for the doorknob.

  She put out a detaining hand. “Ledge, I’m sorry you had to hear about that night from Rusty. I’m sure he gloated. I know how much you would have hated that.”

  “I did. He’s a hyena. But I accept your apology. I can’t stay mad at you for long. In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve only been mad at you once.”

  “When was that?”

  “When I groped your boob, and you slapped me. Hard.”

  She laughed. “I had told you that no man was ever going to touch me that way again.”

  “I’d’ve been less than a man not to test you.”

  “You were sixteen.”

  “Still.”

  “Did I convince you?”

  “I haven’t tried since.”

  They smiled at each other, then she said, “You always alert me when you’re having a thing, so that I’ll be prepared when someone tells me, as a friend, of course, that you’re cheating on me.”

  “A thing?”

  She gave him a you-know-what-I-mean look, and he did know.

  “Which makes me wonder why you haven’t said a word to me about Arden Maxwell.”

  “Nothing to say. There’s no thing. She consulted me about doing some handiwork. I’m working up an estimate.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yep.”

  Crystal regarded him with the intuitive shrewdness unique to a woman, then she laughed. “If you say so.”

  “I just did say so.”

&
nbsp; “What about her baby’s father?”

  He raised his shoulders. “How would I know?”

  “But she seems unattached?”

  “As far as I can tell.”

  “And she’s cute.”

  “I didn’t say she was cute.”

  “You didn’t say she wasn’t. So…?”

  “So nothing. I can’t go there.”

  “How come?”

  “It’s difficult.”

  “How so?”

  “Just difficult, all right?”

  “Ooooh, touchy. That itch must be baaaad.”

  He shifted his stance. “Okay. She’s attractive, and I’m…”

  “You’re…?”

  “Curious. You know. I’m in that ‘what if?’ stage.”

  “Yes, I know that stage, but you’re way beyond it.”

  “This coming from someone who knows nothing about how it works between boys and girls.”

  “I know about attraction. To hell with ‘it’s difficult.’”

  “Spare me.”

  “Have you kissed her?”

  “None of your damn business.”

  “Definitely yes. Have you seen her naked?”

  “No.”

  “But you’re dying to.”

  “Good night, Crystal.”

  “Another definite yes.”

  “Let me know if and when Marty comes through.”

  This time, she didn’t stop him from leaving, but she was laughing lightly as she saw him on his way.

  Rusty was in a bitch of a mood when he let himself into his house. Discovering that the alarm wasn’t set pissed him off even further. “Stupid cow,” he muttered, shooting a glance upstairs, where Judy was no doubt sleeping.

  Alarm set, he made a beeline for his study. He locked himself inside, poured himself a drink, and flopped back into his easy chair. He didn’t boot up his computer. Not even live-streaming sex shows held appeal in his present mood.

  Burnet had been with Crystal tonight.

  For a long time.

  On his way home from a dinner with some pals, Rusty had spotted Burnet’s truck at the curb in front of her house. He’d driven a circuit through town. When he went past again, the truck was still there. And it stayed, even after Marty had come home.

  To add insult to injury, Rusty had seen them together as Crystal was waving him off at her front door. The bitch had been laughing, as though she knew Rusty was watching her enjoying herself with Ledge Burnet. He’d wanted to kill her. But not before fucking her ten or twelve times.