Pulse Points

by Mary Lynn Baxter

  “Not at the moment. When it happens, if it happens, you’ll be the second to know.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that, Ms. Greer.”

  “So what’s your feel on Hart?” she asked in a more conciliatory tone. “Do you think he might’ve killed Parker?”

  Gallain played it cool. “In light of what you’ve uncovered, I’m not ruling that out, though it seems pretty far-fetched, especially without concrete evidence.”

  “So are you going to bring him in for questioning?”

  “I’m not at liberty to answer that question.”

  She laughed without humor, then said, “Sure you are. You just won’t. But that’s okay. I understand. You’ve got to do your thing, make up for lost time, I would imagine.”

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “So do we have a deal?”

  He ran a hand over his jowls. “Deal?”

  “Yeah. I’ve scratched your back. If your investigation of Hart turns up something, then I expect you to scratch mine, so to speak.”

  “What’s with you and Hart, anyway?”

  “What do you mean?” Daisy’s face was guileless.

  Gallain smirked, then indulged her. “It’s obvious you don’t like the guy. I’m just curious as to why.”

  “I don’t have any feelings for him one way or the other. Tanner Hart is news, pure and simple, with a lot to lose if he screws up. If I smell a story, I attack.”

  “And if that attack is unwarranted?”

  Daisy shrugged, then pinned his gaze. “Like you, I take my lumps and move on.”

  Gallain merely looked at her.

  “So again, do we have a deal?” she asked.

  “I’ll take it under consideration. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  Since that conversation yesterday afternoon he’d thought of little else. But he hadn’t made his move on Hart yet, waiting for the headlines to be the first to hit him below the belt. That way Tanner would be good and vulnerable, making it easier for him to move in for the kill.

  Wouldn’t it be pure gold if that cocky bastard had been the one who put those bullets in Parker? Could he be that lucky?

  Man oh man, he’d almost give up one of his nuts to cuff that do-gooder who thought his shit didn’t stink because he had more money than he had brains. Gallain peered at his watch. Hart was bound to have seen the papers. Now was as good a time as any to approach him.

  Gallain pitched his head back and laughed.

  “What’s so damn funny?”

  He whipped his head around and watched as his boss, Harold Clayton, strode through the door. Gallain instantly rearranged his features back to his old stoic self. “The thought of Hart’s tail in a crack.”

  “Is that reporter on to something or is she just sniffing?”

  “I’m about to find that out.”

  “Where did she get her information?” Clayton asked.

  “She wouldn’t tell me.”

  “If this newsflash turns out to have so much as a grain of truth to it, then find out whose hand she greased. We’ll need to talk to him or her.”

  “She may not give up her source.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you can convince her that cooperating with us is in her best interest.”

  “She hinted there’s more to come.”

  “Why did you let her off the hook, then?”

  “I tried to probe, but she clammed up.”

  “Don’t wait on her. Talk to Hart. ASAP. Go by the book so this one won’t get away.”

  “You got it.”

  Don Hornsby ran his tongue over the mole above his lip before he lunged out of the ratty chair at his sister’s house. He had just heard the news on TV about Tanner Hart and Shirley.

  “Fucking unbelievable,” he muttered into the empty room, then walked over and flicked off the tube.

  Had Hart been banging Shirley, too? It didn’t matter. Innocent or not, it looked like Hart might hang for her murder. Talk about falling in a tub of shit and getting up smelling like a rose, that was him.

  He sucked in his stomach, pounded his expanded chest and let out a war whoop. If only Flora didn’t make it following her latest tumble from the wheelchair, he’d be set. Right now, she was in intensive care fighting for her life. He’d made the cursory visits to check on her only because it would earn him brownie points in Kasey’s eyes.

  Thinking of Kasey made him chuckle. Wonder what she was thinking about their stellar client? If Shirley’s murder was pinned on Hart, would that affect the agency? Probably not. Still, it would be a blow to her and she would need support.

  And guess who would be there to offer it? Yours truly.

  Thirty-Seven

  “You know, don’t you?”

  Kasey could barely meet Tanner’s hooded eyes much less answer his question as he stood at her front door. He looked like hell. Disheveled. Tired. Exhausted. Tormented. Any and all those adjectives fit. Yet she didn’t feel sorry for him. He’d put himself in this deplorable situation.

  “I know,” she responded in a dull tone, still refusing to meet his gaze.

  “Are you going to invite me in?”

  She stalled, her simmering rage close to breaking the surface. She was over the shock. Anger had taken its place. “I’m late for work.”

  “Dammit, Kasey, I…we need to talk.”

  Only because he sounded like he was teetering on the edge did she comply. She stepped aside and watched as he strode inside, his gait registering his dejection. She steeled herself not to let her love for him cloud her sound judgment or temper her anger. There was no excuse for Tanner to deliberately withhold that information from her.

  “Do you want some coffee?” she asked, filling the refrigerated silence.

  “How ’bout a gallon?”

  His attempt at humor proved a failure. She didn’t smile nor did he. “I’ll get you a cup.” She turned and went into the kitchen, leaving him standing in the middle of her living room.

  But when she had the coffee poured and on the tray, she realized he had followed her. He stood just inside the kitchen door. “Need any help?” he asked, his eyes probing, as though trying to catch hers and hold them.

  “No, thanks,” she said in a cold voice.

  He expelled a harsh sigh.

  She handed him his cup.

  “Want to sit in here?” he asked.

  “Let’s go into the breakfast room.” The small glass-topped table in the kitchen was too close, too intimate. She needed more space between them. As it was, she could barely breathe with him in the room.

  How could you have done this to me?

  Holding the silence, Tanner gestured for her to get ahead of him. Once they were seated in the breakfast alcove, Kasey still didn’t diffuse the crackling tension. Instead she peered out the window and watched a bluebird that was perched on the railing bathe itself.

  “Kasey, please, don’t do this.”

  She swung her head around, tensing her lips. “What?”

  “Shut me out. I need to explain, and I need you to listen.” He paused and angled his head. “More than anything, I need you to trust me.”

  She gave an incredulous stare. “Trust you?”

  What little color was in his face drained from it, then it took on a fierce look. “Yes, dammit, trust me.”

  She flared back, “Under the circumstances, don’t you think that’s asking a lot?”

  “Okay, I should’ve told you.”

  “Yes, you should have.” She paused and took several sips of her coffee, using the cup to steady her hands. “So why didn’t you?”

  “At first, I didn’t see the need.”

  “That’s a piss-poor excuse.”

  For a second, a smile relaxed his lips. Then it disappeared, and his features contorted once again. “I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with you.”

  Kasey sucked in her breath, her eyes widening. From the outside she heard a car door slam, then a dog bark. Normal things. Mundane things. Not
like what was happening in her life right now. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to be having this conversation with him. She didn’t want him to tell her he loved her, for God’s sake. Not ever again.

  Suddenly her stomach pitched, rejecting the coffee. She set the cup down and tore her eyes off him.

  “I realized how I felt, but then I just couldn’t find the words.”

  Hurt, anger and betrayal were all lumped together. She didn’t know which one was the stronger. “No matter how hard I try, I can’t put you and Shirley together.”

  “We weren’t together,” Tanner countered in a savage tone, lunging out of the chair, his coffee untouched. “Not in the way you mean, that is.”

  “Were you sleeping with her?” The words were so softly spoken Kasey wasn’t sure he heard her.

  He swung around, his eyes narrowed to slits, his breathing heavy. “No, dammit.”

  “Then what does involved mean?”

  “You’ll have to ask Daisy Greer that.”

  “I’m asking you.”

  “We were business acquaintances and friends.”

  She wanted to believe him, but there was more. He wasn’t telling all. Her instinct told her that. God, why was she putting herself through this torture, anyway? She loved him, but since they had no future, it didn’t matter whether he and Shirley had something going or not.

  “You believe me, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know what I believe anymore,” she whispered, finally meeting his eyes. “But I’m not the one who matters.”

  “To me, you are.”

  “What about your constituents?”

  “Screw them. They’ll either believe me or they won’t.”

  “Which means you could lose the election.”

  “Then I lose the election.”

  “You don’t mean that, Tanner.”

  “Yes, I do. It’s you I don’t want to lose.”

  Kasey’s heart twisted under his husky confession, but she remained strong and didn’t give in to her urge to jump up, launch herself into his arms and tell him she forgave him. Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy. While they couldn’t ignore the fire that still burned between them, their relationship had undergone a major blow. “If you and Shirley were just friends, then you should be all right,” she finally told him in a halting voice.

  He swallowed hard, making his Adam’s apple work overtime. “I have nothing to hide. That’s why I’m going to tell you this.”

  She cringed inwardly. She’d been right. There was more, only she didn’t want to hear it. She feared her heart couldn’t hold up under the load.

  “Tanner—”

  “I was with Shirley the day she was murdered.”

  Kasey gasped, then sank her teeth into her lower lip to stop it from trembling. “I’m not surprised.”

  “You knew?”

  “Of course, I didn’t know,” she snapped. “It’s just that I sensed you were hiding something.”

  “I wasn’t hiding anything,” he stressed vehemently. She shrugged, which seemed to fuel his anger. She didn’t care. Right now, she just wanted him to just go away and let her nurse her misery in solitude.

  “We had an argument.”

  He paused, and she knew he wanted her to ask him what it was about, but she had no intention of doing so. Anyway, she felt sure he would tell her even if he sensed her reluctance to hear it.

  “She wanted more from me than I was prepared to give.”

  “She wanted to sleep with you,” Kasey said, cutting to the brutal truth.

  “Yes, though I never gave her any reason to think I was interested in her that way. Finally I told her that wasn’t ever going to happen, and she might as well move on.”

  “Never in a million years would I have put you two together.”

  “We weren’t together,” he stressed again.

  “You must’ve given her some reason to think there could be more between you.” Her tone was venomous along with her thoughts. Both unfair, which tapped into her own guilt, resulting from the secrets she was keeping from him.

  Tanner trapped her gaze. Instantly the air crackled with tangible sparks. “I swear I never led her on. I took her to dinner several times, that’s all. She was interested in politics and wanted to help with my campaign. Or so she led me to believe.” He crammed his hands in his pockets.

  “Did anyone hear you argue?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “What if that Greer woman uncovers that?”

  “Then, I’ll deal with it. Meanwhile, I’ll fear the worst and hope for the best.”

  Kasey ran a finger around the top of her cup, her mind scattering in a million different directions.

  “When I left Shirley, she wasn’t happy with me, I’ll admit. But she was upright and breathing.”

  “I just wish I’d known her better. If I had, maybe I’d have a clue who would want to murder her.” Kasey shivered.

  “Then you know it wasn’t me,” he said in a grim tone. “That I could never do such a thing.”

  “Oh, Tanner, I just wish you’d told me you knew Shirley, that you two had a relationship.”

  “Dammit, stop saying that.”

  “What about Gallain? Don’t you think he’ll be knocking on your door?”

  “Let him knock. I’ll do whatever it takes to clear my name.”

  She attempted another sip of coffee. When she put the cup down, Tanner was staring at her again. “I want to know how you feel, Kasey. How you really feel.”

  He didn’t try to hide his pain which didn’t make her reply any easier. “I can’t say because I honestly don’t know. The fact that you were friends with Shirley and never told me is hard for me to accept.”

  His jaw knotted with tension. “Maybe that’s because you don’t want to.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” she lashed back.

  Kasey jumped as his cell phone rang.

  Tanner cursed, then barked, “Yes,” into the tiny receiver. After listening a few seconds, he snapped the case shut. “Jack and Irene are waiting for me. I have to go.”

  Her chest rose and fell. “That’s a good idea.”

  They looked into each other’s eyes until the silence turned stifling.

  “Promise we’ll talk later.”

  Her gaze didn’t flinch. “I won’t…can’t make that promise, Tanner.”

  Kasey glared down at the paper one more time. And winced one more time.

  Senatorial Candidate To Be Questioned In

  Parker Murder

  Kasey crumpled the headlines into a tiny wad and tossed it in the trash. Otherwise, she would continue to read it over and over as if to punish herself for falling in love with a man who was forbidden to her.

  And whom she no longer trusted.

  It had been three days since she’d had that painful conversation with Tanner. He hadn’t tried to call her nor she him, although she needed to run some new brochure ideas by him. But that could wait, she reminded herself, knowing he had more important things on his mind.

  Proving his innocence, for starters.

  Pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes, Kasey poured cereal into a bowl and sat down at the table. But she couldn’t eat. Her appetite was nonexistent. Her gaze strayed to the trash. The balled article seemed to taunt her. She jerked her eyes away.

  She had been afraid the reporter would uncover the fact that Tanner and Shirley had argued the day of her murder. What she hadn’t counted on was that someone had heard them and seen Tanner leave the scene.

  Feeling herself unraveling on the inside, Kasey grabbed her stomach and leaned forward.

  Moments later, the doorbell peeled. Tanner? With her heart pounding overtime, she went to the door. With relief, she opened it.

  “Don’t you just love it when I show up on your step unannounced?”

  Kasey hugged Ginger. “I’m really glad to see you.”

  “I bet you are. So you’ve seen the headlines?”

  “Mo
re times than I care to share.”

  “I’m on my way to work, so I can’t stay.”

  “Sure you can, at least for one cup of coffee.”

  Ginger half smiled. “You twisted my arm.”

  Moments later they were in the living room, silence filling the space between them. Ginger was the first to break it. “You’ve been crying, haven’t you?”

  Kasey’s first thought was to deny it, then knew it wouldn’t do any good. Ginger would know she was fibbing. “That I have.”

  “I’m afraid he’ll never beat Butler now. Today’s headlines probably nixed his political career for good.”

  “I agree.”

  “And after all your hard work.” Ginger paused, added in a rushed tone, “Thing’s have gotten serious between you two, right?”

  Shock froze Kasey’s hand.

  “I’ve suspected it wasn’t just a casual affair for sometime now, but I haven’t said anything. I respected your privacy. More than that, I wanted you to confide in me.”

  Kasey blew out an uneven breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “The truth would do.”

  “Okay, I’ve been seeing him much more than I should.”

  “Which means you’re still sleeping with him.”

  Kasey felt heat sting her face.

  Ginger grinned and raised a thumb. “All I’m going to say is bully for you.”

  “It’s not what you think,” Kasey said in a rush.

  Ginger looked taken aback. “And just what am I thinking?”

  “That we’re…we’re—” Kasey broke off, batting the air with her hand. “An item, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to convince me. I’m just glad you found someone to see.”

  “It’s really much more complicated than that.”

  Ginger raised her eyebrows then said, “I’m sure, in light of what’s just happened.”

  Kasey wanted to tell her that Tanner’s liaison with Shirley was only one of many reasons she couldn’t be a part of his life.

  “I can’t believe that little twit of a reporter insinuated that Tanner could be Shirley’s killer.”

  “That’s a low, dirty blow.”

  “Why, it’s ludicrous. Why would a man like Tanner Hart throw it all away on a woman like Shirley Parker?”