Liz grinned. “There you go. Why not see him? He could be a better match for you than King. And if he’s not, well, maybe a little gossip about you seeing another man, will get King’s attention.”
“You’re a clever girl, Mary Elizabeth. I just might do it,” Frances said with some evidence of her usual spunk. “Perhaps I’ll mention to Mr. Mayberry that I’m going to bingo tonight. King will be there and I’ll get to see if Mr. Mayberry is any quicker than King to take a hint.”
Liz uttered a little sigh of satisfaction as she watched her friend bustle off. Definitely two birds with one stone. She’d helped Frances realize there was more than one fish in the ocean, and with any luck she’d redirected King’s energy toward his own love life…and away from her relationship with Tucker.
Tucker breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted his father leaving Earlene’s just as he approached. He’d called Walker the night before and suggested they meet there for coffee. He hoped that seeing them together would put to rest any notion in the community that his integrity or his role as sheriff were in question.
Earlene met him at the door. “We don’t usually see you in here at this hour not wearing your uniform,” she said, an icy nip in her voice. “I’m not sure I like it.”
“It’s just a temporary situation,” Tucker assured her.
“You see that it is. I like Walker just fine, but he’s not one of us the way you are. Trinity Harbor counts on having a Spencer keeping us safe.”
“Earlene, aren’t you one of the first people to tell my father that he does not run things around here?”
She grinned. “I do, and I take great pleasure in it, but that’s not the same thing at all. Sit down over there with Anna-Louise and I’ll bring your coffee.”
“I’m meeting Walker.”
“Is there some reason he can’t sit with her, too? With all the tourists around, we’re crowded at this time of the year. I like to make good use of the space I’ve got.”
He held up a hand. “Okay. I get it. I imagine Walker will enjoy getting Anna-Louise’s perspective on things as much as I will.”
Earlene nodded approvingly. “You always were a sensible man, which is the only reason I’m not about to start lecturing you about watching your step with Liz Chandler.”
Tucker sighed. “Thank you for exercising such great restraint.”
She frowned at him. “Doesn’t mean I’m not worried sick about you, though.”
“Just bring my coffee, okay?” He moved to Anna-Louise’s booth and noted with relief that she seemed to be about to leave. “On your way out?”
“I can stick around,” she said, putting her purse back down and studying him intently. “What’s up?”
“Actually, I’m meeting Walker to talk things over about the Chandler murder. Earlene directed me over here.”
Anna-Louise chuckled. “I guess she wanted to make sure I got my fill of Spencer men this morning. Your father just left.”
“No wonder you looked a little shell-shocked,” Tucker said with genuine sympathy.
“Don’t blame King for that. I’ve just got a lot on my mind. How’s Liz, by the way?”
“I haven’t talked to her this morning. I’ll head out to Swan Ridge when I’m done here.”
“She went back there after the funeral?” Anna-Louise asked, clearly shocked.
“She insisted on it.”
“I’m surprised you went along with that.”
Tucker gave her a rueful grin. “Obviously you don’t know Mary Elizabeth all that well yet. She’s not an easy woman to control.”
Anna-Louise studied him. “You’ve tried?”
“Not in years. I learned that lesson before I hit puberty.” Before she could pursue that, he said, “What are you hearing in here this morning? Are people talking about the murder or the funeral?”
“What you really want to know is whether they’re gossiping about you and Liz,” she guessed. “I haven’t heard anything, but then I’ve been preoccupied. Ask Earlene.”
“Ask me what?” Earlene inquired as she set his coffee down in front of him.
“Are people obsessing about the Chandler situation?”
“They’re concerned about the murder, no question about it,” Earlene reported. “But they’re also talking about all the fancy food and fancy people at the funeral. And some people are speculating about who’ll run for Chandler’s seat. The smart money’s on Ken Willis. He’d already started campaigning at church yesterday. The vote’s evenly divided on whether that was tacky or timely.”
Tucker grinned at the summary. “Anything else?” he inquired dryly.
Earlene scowled at him. “Yes. They’re about to start taking bets on how long it will be before you and Liz get back together.”
“I hope to hell King hasn’t heard that,” Tucker said. “He’ll be all over me before the day’s out.”
“Your father has other things on his mind today,” Anna-Louise said. “But don’t get too complacent. The second he does hear, he’ll find the time to tell you you’ve lost your mind. Now that Daisy and Bobby are happily settled, your love life is his top priority, and he’s clearly concerned about this latest turn of events.”
“I don’t have a love life of any kind, much less with Mary Elizabeth,” Tucker said emphatically, hoping the sharp denial would put the silly speculation to rest. His relationship with Mary Elizabeth was strictly—well, almost strictly—professional.
Anna-Louise had the audacity to laugh. “It’s no better for a lawman to fib than it is for a preacher. Even I can see the sparks between you two.”
“Only because someone planted the notion in your head,” he argued.
Earlene shook her head. “Delusional,” she said in an undertone to Anna-Louise.
“That would be my call,” the pastor agreed.
Tucker scowled at the pair of them. “Don’t you think there’s something the slightest bit unseemly about speculating about my relationship with a woman who’s only been a widow for a few days?”
“From what I’ve gathered, her marriage was over long before that,” Anna-Louise said. “And nobody’s saying you’re doing anything inappropriate, just that all the elements are there for the sparks to start flying.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Tucker grumbled. “Is it any wonder men will never be able to figure out the female mind?”
“Certainly not my wife’s,” Richard agreed, appearing at the booth and leaning down to give Anna-Louise a kiss. “Where’d you disappear to this morning? I thought you wanted to talk.”
Color bloomed in Anna-Marie’s cheeks. “I did, but I needed to get my thoughts in order first.”
“So, what’s up?” Richard asked, starting to slide into the booth next to her.
“Not here,” she said, pushing him right back out. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“I just finished my run,” he protested. “I’m starved.”
“Earlene, fix him some coffee and a couple of doughnuts to go,” Anna-Louise instructed. “I want him in a weakened state for this.”
Richard’s gaze narrowed. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“That depends,” Anna-Louise said neutrally. “Are you on any sort of deadline?”
“No.”
“Got any interviews lined up?”
“No.”
She beamed at him. “Good, then we have plenty of time for a nice serious chat.”
Tucker chuckled at Richard’s bemused expression. “Just go with it, man. When a woman gets in a mood like this, it’s always best to just go along. She’s going to get her way anyway.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Richard said, but he followed Anna-Louise to the counter, retrieved his coffee and doughnut and left, passing Walker on the sidewalk outside.
“Any idea what’s going on with those two?” Walker asked when he reached Tucker’s booth.
“Not really, but Anna-Louise looks like a woman on a mission, sort of the way Daisy looked when she
was campaigning to keep you from taking Tommy away from her.”
“Poor Richard,” Walker said with heartfelt sympathy. He took a sip of his coffee, glanced pointedly around the restaurant at the clearly fascinated patrons, then looked Tucker straight in the eye. “Other than the PR value of your being seen with me, what are we doing here?”
Tucker grinned. “Comparing notes, of course. Anything new back from forensics?”
“They found some fibers at the scene that might be promising,” Walker said readily. “They’re running further tests now.”
“What good are fibers? I thought they’d be just as useless as fingerprints, given that shindig the Chandlers threw on their last visit.”
“They might have been,” Walker agreed. “But these were on Chandler’s pants. And not on the cuffs, if you know what I mean.”
Tucker’s heart began to thud. “He was intimate with someone right before he died?”
“In a manner of speaking. At least that’s the way it looks.”
Tucker had to force himself to ask the obvious. “Do they match those clothes I gave you that Mary Elizabeth was wearing that night?”
“The lab’s checking that now. I should know more by the end of the day.”
“It won’t be enough to arrest her,” Tucker said, his mind sifting through all the possible explanations for the least damning one. “We know she was there. We know she touched the body. She’s admitted that.”
“I’m not going to do anything precipitous, no matter how this turns out,” Walker said impatiently. “Come on, Tucker. I know how to do my job, how to build a case. Once I get around to making an arrest, I sure as hell want it to stick. And it won’t be based solely on something as flimsy as a few stray fibers.”
“Is that so?” a man asked, standing beside the booth and regarding both of them with an angry expression. “You sure about that? Or are the two of you planning to cover up the truth to protect that slut Chandler was married to.”
Tucker was halfway out of the booth, his blood pounding, when Walker snagged his arm and dragged him back.
“I’ll handle this,” Walker said calmly. He rose slowly and faced the man. “Who are you?”
“Doesn’t matter who I am,” he said. “The bottom line is that you small-town hicks intend to hide what really happened down here, and I’m here to tell you that you won’t get away with it.”
“No one’s going to hide anything,” Walker countered. “If you think you know something that would help us solve this case, tell me, and I guarantee you that I’ll follow through on it.”
“Oh, really?” the man asked skeptically, then gave a nod toward Tucker. “He’ll let you do that?”
“Sheriff Spencer is not in charge of this investigation. I am,” Walker said emphatically. “Now why don’t we step outside and discuss whatever leads you think you have?”
“No need to go outside. I’ll say it plain right here. The Chandler woman is guilty.”
Walker shot a warning look at Tucker. “And you know that how?” he asked.
“It’s obvious. She wanted out of the marriage but didn’t want to lose access to all that money. I heard the two of them fighting down in Richmond. Hell, the whole damned restaurant heard them.”
“Emotions tend to run high when divorce is on the table,” Walker said.
“But she said, plain as day, ‘I’ll kill you first.’ I heard her myself,” the man said triumphantly.
Tucker’s pulse began to beat unsteadily. If true, it was a damning remark for Mary Elizabeth to have made. She’d certainly never suggested to him that anything remotely like that had been said in her heated exchange with her husband. He had a dozen questions and no right at all to ask them, not when this was Walker’s witness and Walker was right here to do the questioning himself. Sitting on the sidelines was eating him up inside, though, especially knowing that half the town would know all about this by lunchtime. Even if the man’s testimony was ultimately proved false, Mary Elizabeth would have a hard time living down the accusation.
“Let’s go over to the station and get this on the record,” Walker said to the man. “I’ll have someone take an official statement.”
The man paled at the suggestion. “No way.”
“Why not?” Walker asked. “You want me to pursue this, don’t you?”
“I’m not getting involved.”
“You’re already involved,” Walker pointed out.
“I came in here to do my civic duty. Had to chase all over hell and gone just to find you.”
“You could have called it in and saved yourself some time,” Tucker pointed out.
“Not something this big. I wanted to look this man in the eye when I told him, make sure the significance registered. Now I’ve told him what I heard and that’s that.”
“Unless you want to make it official, it pretty much loses all credibility,” Walker told him. “Anybody can hurl around unsubstantiated accusations. The fact that Mr. And Mrs. Chandler argued in public has been reported. You could be making the rest up.”
“It’s the gospel truth,” the man insisted. “You do whatever you want with it.”
That said, he whirled around and headed for the door. Walker strolled along behind him, clearly in no hurry to catch up. Tucker grinned as he watched Walker take note of the car the man got into, jot down the tag number and stroll right back inside.
“Chances are he’s a crackpot, but at least we can get an ID on him,” Walker said, using his cell phone to call Michele and ask her to put a trace on the tag.
“Unless…” Tucker began thoughtfully.
“Unless what?”
“Unless he was sent here by someone intent on stirring up trouble for Mary Elizabeth.”
“In other words, the real killer,” Walker surmised.
“Or someone who’s afraid she might decide to step into Chandler’s political shoes and take over his seat until the next election,” Tucker said.
“Is she thinking of doing that?”
Tucker shook his head. “She hasn’t said anything to me about it. From everything she has said, I’m pretty sure she intends to sit tight right here in Trinity Harbor. No way to tell how long that will last. She was always attracted to city lights. I thought that was part of Chandler’s appeal—the promise of a sophisticated lifestyle sort of like the one her folks led till they died.”
“I’d sure like to know who else was in that restaurant the night they fought,” Walker said, “but I can’t spare anybody to go down to Richmond and check it out.”
“Subtle, Walker. Real subtle. Okay, I’m on it. Let me know about that lab report on the fibers as soon as you have it.”
“Will do. And Tucker?”
“What?”
“Watch your back. If somebody’s seriously trying to frame Mrs. Chandler, you could get in the way—and we already know they’re not averse to murder.”
“Nobody knows that better than I do,” Tucker told him.
The thought stayed with him all the way to Richmond. It was only when he was halfway there that he realized that other than Walker, Earlene, Anna-Louise and Richard, not one single resident of Trinity Harbor had spoken to him. They might like and respect him, but they were clearly reserving judgment when it came to the way he was handling his life and his job these days. It was the first time it sank in that King was right about all this: Tucker could very well lose the next election thanks to his decision to stand by Mary Elizabeth.
He sighed heavily. If that happened, so be it. He was doing what he had to do.
When she tired of her own company and went looking for Tucker, it required a little detective work, but Liz quickly discovered that he was on his way to Richmond without her, hoping to find some leads at the restaurant where she and Larry had fought. Fortunately, she had a lead foot and she knew a shortcut. She arrived at Chez Dominique just as Tucker walked through the front door. She caught up with him just outside the manager’s office.
“You surely didn
’t think I was going to let you do this without me, did you?” she inquired sweetly. His stunned expression gave her a great deal of satisfaction.
“What the devil did you do, tail me?”
“Hardly. By all accounts, I left a good twenty minutes after you did.”
“Then how the hell did you get here at the same time?”
“You’re in law enforcement. You don’t want to know.”
He dragged her away from the office door. “Mary Elizabeth, why are you here?” he demanded in an undertone.
“Because I know Dominique Gerard and you don’t,” she said at once. “And it’s my life that’s on the line.”
“I thought you trusted me to handle this.”
“I do, but there are some things I can do perfectly well for myself, and this is one of them. Watch and learn.”
She tapped on the office door and swept inside. Dominique, a statuesque beauty from a tiny island in the Caribbean, rose to greet her.
“Ma chérie, I am so sorry for your loss,” Dominique said at once, enfolding her in a jasmine-scented hug. “I was devastated when I heard.”
“I’m sure you were,” Liz said. “I know that Larry was one of your favorite customers.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Dominique chided. “You know that I do not have favorites. It is not sensible in this business.”
Liz grinned. “And you are, above all, a smart business-woman, n’est-pas?”
“One of the best,” Dominique agreed with no attempt at all to feign modesty. “I imagine you are here about the reservation list for the night you and Mr. Chandler fought.” She pulled the reservation book from a desk drawer. “I brought it in here to make sure it did not fall into the wrong hands.”
“Have others been by to see it?” Liz asked.
“Several reporters have called, and one customer asked if it would be possible to have his name removed. He said he did not want to be drawn into the media frenzy that was bound to surround that night.”
“What did you tell him?” Tucker asked.
Dominique turned her attention to him for the first time and blatantly surveyed him from head to toe. “And you are?”
Along Came Trouble Page 14