“Some would say that’s the most important thing of all,” Tucker pointed out.
“They’d be right,” Liz agreed. “I finally realized that. That’s why Larry and I started leading totally separate lives, why I left on that trip and ultimately why I told him I wanted a divorce. I wanted more than a big house, a fancy car and a lot of acquaintances.”
“What about kids? You always talked about wanting a large family.”
She sighed at the reminder. “Before the wedding we had talked about having kids and I desperately wanted them, but after I discovered Larry was cheating, I thought it would be wrong to bring a child into the mess we’d made of our marriage. Besides, despite his promises before the ceremony, Larry flatly refused to even consider starting a family because he thought it would interfere with my devotion to his needs.”
“So, he got everything he wanted and you got what?” Tucker asked.
When the question was phrased like that, Liz couldn’t come up with an answer that made any sense.
“What you deserved?” Tucker prodded.
“Yes,” she said, realizing now that her acceptance of that had been no one’s fault but her own. “I will never allow that to happen again. When—if—I ever marry again, it will be because someone genuinely wants to be with me, to share my life.”
She felt his gaze burning into her.
“I can’t be that someone, Mary Elizabeth.”
She shivered at the certainty in his voice. “I know that,” she acknowledged, though she couldn’t help the twinge of regret it made her feel. King was right about one thing. A part of her did want Tucker in her life for more than his help in solving Larry’s murder. She just didn’t know if she deserved him.
“Do you?” Tucker asked, slowing the car to look directly into her eyes. “Because if my father was right, if you came to me because you wanted more than my help, then taking you back to my place is a lousy idea. Things between us can never go back to the way they were.”
“Can you at least be my friend?” she asked, unable to hide the wistful note in her voice.
He hesitated so long, she was sure he was going to say no to that, too.
“I already am,” he said finally. “I suppose I never stopped.”
Being Mary Elizabeth’s friend and nothing more was going to take some getting used to. Tucker handed her sheets and towels for the guest room and left her at the door. No way in hell was he stepping across that threshold and straight into temptation.
His declaration in the car that there could be nothing more than friendship between them had been a warning to himself, as much as to her. Despite all claims to the contrary, she was a suspect in her husband’s death. She had a funeral to plan, a role that she had to continue to play until the moment they put Larry Chandler into the ground, until they found his killer and brought him or her to trial.
Whatever her differences with the man, she wasn’t going to sully his reputation now by airing them in public unless circumstances forced her to. At the very least, Larry Chandler would go to his grave as a fair-haired rising star of politics, not as a philandering husband. As badly as he wanted to, Tucker couldn’t fault her for permitting that illusion to continue.
There was going to come a time, though, when she would have to face some hard truths, if only to save herself. She was going to have to permit Tucker to delve into all the dark nooks and crannies of Chandler’s life looking for other suspects who might have had a motive to want him dead. Clearly Cynthia Miles was only the tip of the iceberg.
Tucker spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, blaming his restlessness on all the unanswered questions taunting him when the blame belonged right down the hall with the woman who was as out of reach now as she had been when she’d first married Chandler.
He must have fallen asleep eventually, because he awoke to the scent of coffee drifting from the kitchen and something else, something with cinnamon in it. Since he doubted he even owned that particular spice, that meant someone had come calling—Daisy, most likely. And that meant an explosion was likely to erupt in his kitchen any second now.
Tucker shot out of bed and dragged on his pants. He was haphazardly yanking a wrinkled polo shirt over his head when he bolted into the kitchen to find Mary Elizabeth sitting at the table with Anna-Louise Walton, his pastor and Daisy’s best friend. It was a marginal improvement over finding his sister there.
“Look what Anna-Louise brought,” Mary Elizabeth said happily, biting into a gooey cinnamon roll.
“Courtesy of Daisy,” Anna-Louise said.
“Have you checked them for arsenic?” Tucker inquired. He met Anna-Louise’s disapproving gaze. “Sorry, but she’s not exactly happy about Mary Elizabeth’s presence here.”
“So I gathered,” the pastor said wryly. “We’ve discussed her feelings at length.”
“Did you come over here to share them?” he asked testily. “If so, you’ll have to wait till I’ve had my coffee.”
“Actually I came to see if there was anything I could do,” Anna-Louise retorted, completely unintimidated by his lousy mood.
“We were discussing the funeral,” Mary Elizabeth told him. “I asked her to conduct the service, and she’s agreed.”
Tucker bit back a sarcastic query about whether Anna-Louise’s church would be large enough to hold all the politicians who’d want to be seen at the occasion, given the likely media circus. He merely nodded. This was not a conversation he wanted to participate in. Given what he’d learned about Lawrence Chandler the night before, it would be the height of hypocrisy to pretend that he cared about the man’s passing.
“I’ll leave you to it, then,” he said, downing the remainder of his cup of coffee even though it scalded his throat. “I want to get over to the station and run some checks on the computer there.”
“About Larry?” Mary Elizabeth asked.
“Yes.”
“You are investigating his death, then?” Anna-Louise asked. “Richard told me Walker was doing it.”
“He’s doing the formal investigation. I’m acting on my own. And before you start questioning my ethics, you should also know that I’ve taken a two-week leave of absence from the department.”
“Tucker, I would never question your integrity. Neither would anyone else around here,” Anna-Louise declared fiercely.
“I hope you still feel that way when this is over. Something tells me it’s going to get ugly. Not everyone will like what I find when I start turning over rocks,” he said, his gaze on Mary Elizabeth.
She paled, but said nothing.
“Will you talk to Richard if you come up with anything?” Anna-Louise asked. “The Weekly is the local paper. He ought to get a scoop, don’t you think?”
“That’ll be up to Mary Elizabeth and Walker. They get first crack at whatever I find.”
Anna-Louise opened her mouth, then clamped it shut again.
“What?” Tucker demanded. “Go ahead and spit it out. It’s not like you to keep your opinions to yourself. You’re likely to bust a gut.”
“Okay, forget the integrity issue for the moment. There’s more at stake. Do you really think this is wise?” she asked.
“Not the point,” Tucker retorted. “Mary Elizabeth asked me to help, and that’s that.”
“I admire your loyalty,” Anna-Louise said. “But how are your constituents going to feel about you running around second-guessing your own deputy?”
“I’m not second-guessing anybody,” Tucker countered. “I’m just conducting an independent investigation to make sure that no stone is left unturned.”
Mary Elizabeth winced. “Even to me that sounds like second-guessing.” She looked at Anna-Louise. “Will people really get upset if he does this?”
“They could. I’ve already heard some gossip about you and Tucker being out to dinner last night. It was the hot topic at Earlene’s this morning.”
“We should have been more discreet.” She looked at Tucker. “I’m sorry.�
�
“Stop apologizing. Dinner was my idea. I can live with the fallout.”
“And this?” Anna-Louise asked with an all-encompassing sweep of the room. “If they were upset about dinner in public, how do you think they’ll feel when they discover that Liz is staying here, sharing a cozy little breakfast in your kitchen?”
Mary Elizabeth looked appalled at the implication. “I’m sharing breakfast with you,” she reminded the minister.
“Anyone driving by and spotting your car out front won’t know that.” She gave Mary Elizabeth’s hand a squeeze. “Appearances are important. You know that. And this doesn’t look good. Why not come and stay with Richard and me for a while, at least until after the funeral and things settle down again?”
“I don’t know,” Mary Elizabeth said. “Maybe it would be best.”
“Hey, you two,” Tucker said, drawing their attention back to him. “I invited Mary Elizabeth to stay here. This is my call. I’m not worried, so there’s no reason for either of you to be.”
“But I would never forgive myself if my staying here—if having you do this investigation—cost you votes next time you run for sheriff,” Mary Elizabeth said, regarding him with concern.
“And I could never forgive myself if I walked away from this, so there you have it,” Tucker retorted, putting an end to the discussion, or at least trying to.
“I can fire you,” Mary Elizabeth said.
“Doesn’t mean I’ll stop working,” he shot back. “I never walk away from a case until it’s over. As for the rest, it’s up to you. I’m comfortable with you staying here, but if you’re not, move to Anna-Louise’s. Of course, you’ll be having a journalist watching your every move if you do that.”
Anna-Louise scowled at him. “Would that be any worse than having a cop watch her every move?” she inquired tartly.
“Probably not,” he conceded.
“I’ll think about it,” Mary Elizabeth told the pastor. “May I call you later?”
“Of course,” she said.
Tucker regarded Anna-Louise with curiosity. “So, what’s the speculation at Earlene’s about the killer? Any theories?”
“Aren’t policemen supposed to be more interested in facts than theories?” Anna-Louise asked.
“Sometimes the best theories contain a nugget of truth. I’ll take my leads anywhere I can find them,” Tucker responded. “What’s Richard heard?”
“Nothing he’s passed on to me, more’s the pity,” the minister said with a hint of disgust. “He’s been working ‘round the clock to get out this week’s edition. I do know this, people around here are very nervous. Earlene says she hasn’t heard this much talk about alarm systems and guard dogs since that banker was killed a few years ago. Trinity Harbor has always been a quiet, safe place to raise a family. This has shaken everyone, reminded them that the real world is encroaching. Next thing you know, there’s going to a backlash against any and all attempts at development or tourism. People don’t want to give up the peaceful way of life that’s been theirs for generations.”
“I doubt we can hold it back,” Tucker said honestly.
“I agree,” Anna-Louise said. “But isn’t it a shame we can’t?”
“Amen to that,” Tucker said, his gaze on Mary Elizabeth. He certainly wished he could turn back the clock—say, six years or so—to a time when this woman had been his to love. Maybe, with a second chance, he could have figured out some way to keep her from making what had clearly turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life.
8
Liz thought she’d been doing a pretty amazing job of holding herself together. All those years of deceiving everyone into believing that she was leading a charmed life had served her well. No one, with the possible exception of Tucker, had seen just how terrified and alone she felt. But Anna-Louise’s reminder that she was going to have to go to the funeral home and make the arrangements for Larry’s burial brought reality crashing down on her.
This wasn’t just some terrible nightmare or TV soap opera. Larry Chandler—the most vital man on earth, albeit a philanderer—was actually dead, and she was going to have to bury him without letting a single soul see the disdain she had come to feel for him. The realization set off a trembling deep inside her that wouldn’t stop. She had already buried too many important people in her life—first her parents, then her beloved grandfather, who’d died less than a year after her marriage, content that he was leaving her in capable hands. If he’d only known…
“Are you all right?” Anna-Louise asked, regarding her worriedly.
“It just hit me,” Liz said, feeling suddenly shell-shocked. “Isn’t that crazy? Everything happened so fast that it just hit me that my husband is gone forever, that he won’t be coming back.”
“It happens that way sometimes,” the pastor said. “Sometimes the mind keeps the truth at a distance until we’re ready to cope with it.”
“What if we’re never ready?” Liz asked, thinking of the huge void Larry’s absence would leave in her life. Granted, she’d been preparing for that ever since she’d decided to divorce him, but it wasn’t the same. It couldn’t be, when the void was so…permanent.
“We’re ready when we need to be,” Anna-Louise insisted. “God gives us the strength to do the things we have to do. Would you like me to call someone to go with you to make the arrangements?”
Liz bit back a hysterical sob. “There’s no one. Isn’t that funny? A woman who once knew everyone in this town has no one to call for help.” Once she would have called Daisy, but that was out of the question now.
“Except Tucker,” Anna-Louise said quietly.
“I can’t ask him to do this,” Liz said firmly. “I can do it. The people at the funeral home are old family friends. They’ll make it easy for me. I just need a few minutes to pull myself together.”
“I’ll come with you,” Anna-Louise said decisively. “I won’t let you do this alone.”
“Thank you, but I can’t ask you to spend your time that way.”
“It’s what I’m here for, to assist you in any way I can.”
Liz thought of Frances’s offer to help. “No, it’s okay. Actually there is someone I can call. Frances will meet me there, I’m sure. She and my grandfather were dear friends. She’ll do it for his sake.”
“Of course she will,” Anna-Louise said at once. “Why don’t I call her, while you get ready?”
Liz realized then that she was still wearing her robe, an expensive silky confection that bared too much. No wonder Anna-Louise had been appalled by her presence in Tucker’s kitchen. “I’m sorry,” she said, gesturing to her attire. “It’s all I had.”
“I’m not judging you. It’s not my business to judge anyone.”
“Then you’re a rarity,” Liz said.
“Only because I take my job seriously. I counsel. I never judge. I leave that to a higher authority.”
Liz smiled at the comfortable, easy way the minister had of speaking about God. “Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had the same relationship with their boss that you have with yours?”
Anna-Louise grinned. “Oh, we’ve had our share of squabbles,” she assured her. “But in the end, I’m usually forced to admit He knows what He’s doing.”
“I like you,” Liz told her impulsively. “I wish we were getting to know each other under other circumstances.”
“We have lots of time,” Anna-Louise said, regarding her with a serene expression that had the power to soothe. “Something tells me you’re home to stay.”
Home, Liz thought. How long had it been since she’d allowed herself to think of Trinity Harbor as home? She could trace it to the moment she’d walked down the aisle at Anna-Louise’s church—long before Anna-Louise’s arrival there—and said her vows to Larry. At that instant, when she’d severed the final tie to her past with Tucker, she had known that for her Trinity Harbor would never be the same.
At the time, she’d had few regrets, beyond the knowledge tha
t she’d hurt a man who hadn’t deserved it. She’d always wanted to live in a big city with all of its cultural opportunities. Knowing that they would live in Richmond for much of the year, with only duty calls back to see Larry’s constituents in Trinity Harbor, had been part of his appeal. That Washington might be their next stop was even more appealing.
She had known what turning her back on Tucker and Trinity Harbor meant. People here had long memories, and they loved Tucker. Taking their cues from King, they’d been distant with her from that moment on. They’d behaved exactly as she’d anticipated.
Was it possible after all this time to win back their affection, to earn a real place for herself here? Would it be fair to Tucker? Would she even be able to bear spending all her time in a community that held so many memories if the man who was central to them kept her at arm’s length?
Liz sighed. None of those questions could be answered today, or even in a week. All she knew for sure was that Richmond had lost its glamour. Time would tell if Trinity Harbor would be enough for her. Luckily, she had nothing but time on her hands.
Walker scowled when Tucker strolled into the sheriff’s office on Courthouse Square in Montross. “What are you doing here?”
Tucker frowned right back at him, pointedly taking note of the fact that Walker was sitting in his chair, behind his desk. “Unless there’s been a coup, it’s still my office. I’ve taken a leave of absence. I haven’t quit. You getting power hungry already?”
“No way,” Walker said fervently. “You can have this job back anytime you want it. Just so you know, though, I may never forgive you for tossing me this particular political hot potato.” He waved a stack of messages in Tucker’s direction. “These are the media calls.” He picked up another stack. “These are inquiries from Chandler’s cronies in the house of delegates.” He reached for another batch. “And these are from the concerned citizens of the county, who wonder if they’re going to be shot while they’re watching Jeopardy some night. Any suggestions what I should do about them?”
Along Came Trouble Page 9