Carnal Innocence

absurd.”
    “You may think so, and I might, knowing Toby and his Winnie all my life the way I have, but Agent Burns has different ideas.” She leaned closer. “He went by and talked to Nancy Koons. Wanted to know if Edda Lou and Tucker had had any fights there in the rooming house. If he’d shown her any violence. And he asked her about Toby, too.”
    “What did she tell him?”
    “Next to nothing, because she didn’t like the way he asked.” Susie drew lines in the moisture of her glass. “That’s why he needs to bring Burke in. Burke knows how to approach people. They’ll talk to him. I have to figure he’ll be out this way again soon, since you were the one who found the body.”
    “There’s nothing I can tell him.”
    “Honey, seems to me he might be interested in the fact that Tucker’s coming around here.”
    Caroline rubbed at an ache centered in her forehead. “My personal life is none of his business. That I will tell him.”
    Long after Susie left, Caroline worried over every point of the conversation. She listened to Toby and his son pack up for the day and worried some more. Alone, she wandered through the house, trying to pinpoint her part in the whole picture.
    She was a stranger. Yet her family had sprung from Innocence. She hadn’t known Edda Lou, yet she had been the one to find her. She’d never spoken a single word to Austin Hatinger. But he’d shot at her.
    She didn’t know Matthew Burns. Oh, his type certainly, but not him. Still, it was true that they moved in the same circles, knew the same places, spoke the same language. How that could help solve a crime was beyond her. Yet Susie had made her feel responsible.
    She was—for lack of a better term—involved with one of the suspects. Another was working for her.
    So she felt even more responsible.
    Oh, she knew all about responsibilities. They snuck up on you, attached themselves to you like tiny, thirsty leeches until you were sucked dry.
    She’d had a responsibility to her parents, to her music, to her teachers, her maestros, her fellow musicians, to her fans. And, as he’d insisted right up to the last, she’d had a responsibility to Luis.
    Oddly enough, she’d come to Innocence to escape from responsibility for a little while, only to find herself bogged down in it all over again.
    She could do nothing. She understood that now. It had always been her choice, and she had always chosen to give in rather than fight back.
    But wasn’t it different this time? Wouldn’t she be giving in by doing nothing? Though she doubted she had anything to offer, she was involved. Not just withTucker, but with Innocence. And for the time being, Innocence was home.
    “All right, all right.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’ll go talk to him. I’ll make a few quiet suggestions, Yankee to Yankee.”
    She snatched up her purse and was heading out the front door when Matthew Burns turned into her drive.
    Well,
Caroline thought with a sigh.
It must be fate.
    “I’ve caught you on your way out,” Burns said as he stepped from his car.
    “No—that is, yes.” Caroline smiled and altered her plans. “But I have a few minutes yet. Would you like to come in?”
    “I would. Very much.” The moment he stepped onto the porch, Useless began to growl behind the screen door.
    “He’s just a puppy,” Caroline assured Burns. “A little leery of strangers.” She opened the door and scooped the dog up.
    “Cute,” Burns commented, but Caroline heard the word
mongrel
clear as a bell.
    “He’s excellent company.” She decided against setting Useless outside and carried him with her into the parlor. “Can I get you something? Iced tea, coffee?”
    “Iced tea would be wonderful. I’m afraid I’ll never get used to the heat.”
    “Heat?” Caroline said with the same amused derision she’d heard from so many of the locals. “Oh, it doesn’t get hot until August. Please have a seat. I’ll be right back.” She snickered to the dog as she went into the kitchen. When she returned, Burns was standing, hands linked behind his back, frowning at the bullet hole in her sofa.
    “An interesting conversation piece, isn’t it?” She set the tray of drinks down. “I’ve about decided not to have it repaired.”
    “It’s deplorable. Hatinger shooting into this house without any concern that you might have been hurt. He didn’t even know you.”
    “Fortunately, Tucker thought quickly.”
    “If he’d thought at all, he