Carnal Innocence

shot.”
    “Well, since you put it that way.” Tucker kicked him squarely in the crotch.
    Billy T. doubled over and a sound escaped him like air coming out of a pressure cooker. Still clutching himself, he went down on the side of the road. When Tucker crouched down and took a firm hold on his bruised genitals, Billy T.’s eyes rolled back in his head.
    “Don’t pass out, boy, not until I finish what I’ve got to say. You may start thinking again once your nuts slide down from your throat, and I want you to think about this. Listening?”
    “Ga” was about the only sound Billy T. could make.
    “Good. You know who holds the note on your family’s land? Payment’s been late three months running. I’d sure feel bad if I had to foreclose. And that cotton gin where you occasionally find the time to put in a few hours a week? By coincidence, it so happens I own that, too. Now, you want to have a reprisal against me, I guess I can’t stop you. But you’ll lose your land, and yourjob, and as God is my witness, I’ll do my best to turn you into a soprano while I’m at it.” He bore down with his fingers to make his point. All Billy T. could do was moan and roll into a ball. “I was mighty fond of that car,” Tucker said with a sigh. “And as it turns out, I’m fond of this lady here that you insulted. So, don’t mess with me again, Billy T. I’m not a skinny ten-year-old anymore.”
    “Leave me alone,” Billy T. managed to get out. “You broke something. You broke my works.”
    “Don’t worry, they’ll bounce back. That’s why they call them balls.” When he rose, Tucker noticed that Caroline had dropped the pup, who was now relieving himself on Billy T.’s shoes. He grinned, but gathered the dog up. “Now, that’s adding insult to injury.”
    He turned to where Caroline was standing on the edge of the road, mouth agape, eyes wide. Tucker hitched the pup under his arm. “Come on, sugar. I’ll give you that ride home now.”
    “You’re just going to leave him there?” She craned her neck as Tucker pulled her to the Oldsmobile.
    “That’s the plan. I was thinking we could go take in a movie tonight.”
    “A movie,” she said blankly. “Tucker, I just stood there and watched you kick that man in the …”
    “We call them privates in polite company. Scoot on over, unless you want to drive.”
    Rubbing a hand to her temple, she did. “But that’s fighting dirty, isn’t it?”
    “All fighting’s dirty, Caroline, which is why I dearly love to avoid it.” He leaned over to give her a quick kiss before starting the engine. In an absent move, he tossed Billy T.’s keys across the road. “Now, about that movie?”
    Caroline let out a long breath. “What’s playing?”

c·h·a·p·t·e·r 16
    “P erhaps you’d like a glass I of water, Mrs. Talbot.” Darleen looked at Agent Burns through red-rimmed, swollen eyes ruthlessly outlined with Maybelline. “Yes, sir,” she said meekly. In the last forty-eight hours, she’d learned a whole lot about meek. “I’d be obliged.”
    All solicitude, Burns rose to go into the bathroom and pour tepid tap water into a paper cup. He considered himself an expert interviewer—had even instructed a course on the subject. As he would have told his class at the FBI Academy, the first rule of a good interview is to know your subject.
    Burns figured he had Darleen Talbot’s number.
    Sympathy, flattery, and kindly authority. Those were the watchwords here. Burns estimated thirty minutes for the interview, including a four-minute prologue to gain Darleen’s confidence. Along with the paper cup, he offered Darleen a kindly smile. “I appreciate your making the time to come in and talk with me this morning, Mrs. Talbot.”
    Cautiously, she brought the cup to her unpaintedlips. She’d lost her affection for red lipstick. “Junior said I had to.”
    “Well, I know it’s difficult for a young mother to find the time out of a demanding schedule. Where is your
little one
today?” Burns crossed ask about family off his mental checklist.
    “Ma’s watching Scooter. She likes to sit with him.” As her eyes darted around the room, lighting on anything but Special Agent Matthew Burns, she fiddled with the collar of her flowered blouse. “He’s her only grandson, you know. My two sisters both have girls.”
    “A handsome boy, too,” Burns said, though he didn’t know if he’d ever laid eyes on the youngest Talbot.
    “He is pretty. His hair’s as