Carnal Innocence

for him to do so.” She looked out the window, and her eyes were drawn to the line of trees, and the memory of what lay beyond them. “It’s more, Susie. I suppose it feels like everything else has been covered up by this search for Austin Hatinger. I can’t forget that just a couple of weeks ago I walked out there by the pond and found his daughter.”
    “Nobody’s forgotten about Edda Lou. Or Francie or Arnette either. It’s just if you think about it too much, you go crazy.” She lowered her voice. “That Agent Burns is talking to everyone in town. He interviewed Darleen just this morning. Happy told me about it. The thing that’s making it hard is he’s not working with Burke. He’s working around him. Doesn’t want the local law messing with his federal case, I suppose, but it’s a mistake. Burke knows these people, and they trust him. They don’t trust some shiny-shoed Yankee.”
    Caroline had to smile and look down at her own shoes. “Mine haven’t been polished in weeks.”
    “Oh, it’s different with you.” Susie waved Caroline’s northern connections aside. “Your kin was here. Of course, you could say that you and that Burns fellow speak the same language.”
    Caroline lifted a brow. “You could, but I don’t think it’s quite true.”
    “It seemed to me he had a lot of respect for you.”
    “For Caroline Waverly, musician. There’s a difference.” On a sigh, Caroline sat again. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re dancing around, Susie?”
    “It’s just that I was thinking, with you and Agent Burns in the same circles, so to speak, he might listen if you made a suggestion.”
    “What suggestion would that be?”
    “He can’t keep cutting Burke out like this,” Susie blurted out, and scowled down at the chocolate crumbs. “I’m not just speaking as Burke’s wife, because I love him and know this is eating at him. I’m speaking as a woman, as part of this community. Whoever killed those girls needs to be caught, and it’s going to be a whole lot harder without Burke smoothing the way with people, and getting them to open up.”
    “I agree with you, Susie. I do. But I really don’t see how I can help.”
    “I just thought you might find the opportunity to mention it. In passing.”
    “How’s this? If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll try.”
    “I guess he didn’t do anything for you,” Susie said. “Romantically speaking.”
    Caroline gave a quick laugh and shook her head. “No, he didn’t. And no man will again who thinks of my music first and me second.”
    “Oh. That sounds like a story.” All anticipation, Susie propped her chin on her hands.
    “Let’s just say I was involved with a man who thought of me more as an instrument than as a woman. Agent Burns looks at me the same way.”
    “Did you get your heart broken?”
    Caroline’s lips curved. “Cracked, a little.”
    “Well, the best way to shore it up again is a nice fling with an easy man.” She touched her tongue to her top lip. “I heard you went to the movies with Tucker the other night.”
    “Why am I surprised?”
    “Josie mentioned it to Earleen. I’d think Tucker Longstreet’d be a nice, painless cure for a broken heart.”
    “Cracked,” Caroline corrected her. “And we just went to the movies. That doesn’t constitute a fling.”
    “A man who brings a woman roses is laying the groundwork for one.” She grinned as Caroline shut her eyes. “He stopped by and took Marvella out for lunch while he was down in Rosedale picking them out.”
    “They were just a neighborly gesture.”
    “Uh-huh. Once Burke brought me a real neighborly bunch of violets. Nine months later we had Parker. Now, don’t get all flushed and bothered,” Susie said with a wave of her hand. “I’m just being nosy. And I thought if you had any … neighborly interest in Tucker, you might want to know that Agent Burns is asking a lot of questions about him.”
    “What kind of questions?”
    “Questions that apply to Edda Lou.”
    “But …” Caroline felt her heart give one uncomfortable thud. “But I thought that he wasn’t a suspect because he was home the night she was killed.”
    “Maybe the FBI would like to find a way around that. Of course, he’s asking questions about a lot of people.” She looked deliberately toward the back door, and the porch beyond where Toby was humming “In the Garden.”
    “Susie.” Caroline bit her lip and lowered her voice. “That’s