Carnal Innocence

far?”
    “Can’t figure. He could be off in any direction, and I could be making a mistake not calling in to county.”
    “Hell of a lot of good they did us last time.”
    “Well,” Burke said, and left it at that. “Could be he headed off for home.” He worried a minute about Carl and his group. “County’s still got his house under surveillance, and he’d know it, but it doesn’t sound to me like the man’s thinking right.”
    Tucker figured the distance with some satisfaction. “I hope to hell that’s just where he goes. They’ll snatch him on up and take him off our hands.” Tucker turned his head and pondered on the glint of Caroline’s second-story windows. “It’s not just that he’s not thinking right, Burke. It’s like he’s gone rabid or something. That day we pounded on each other? He got to thinking I was myold man. He didn’t want to kill me nearly so much as he wanted to kill old Beau.”
    He felt a hankering for a cigarette and struggled it back, “I’ll tell you what I think. It wasn’t me he wanted Cy to bring to that culvert, either.”
    Burke frowned. He didn’t know a hell of a lot about psychology, unless you assumed that was the same as human nature. But he did understand that a man could do desperate things when a woman pushed him to the edge. Like hanging himself in his own barn.
    “That’s a long time to hold a grudge over a woman.”
    “Well, around Innocence, we got a surplus of time. My mama would get up and leave the room anytime his name came up. She did that right up until the end of her life.” Tucker stopped while Burke scanned with binoculars. “It used to make me wonder. I asked Edda Lou once if Austin acted strange about her. She laughed.” Now he did pull out a cigarette. “She said that he’d sometimes call her mama by my mama’s name when he was slapping her around.” A chill raced up his spine. “See anything?”
    “Not a goddamn thing.” Burke pulled out his walkie-talkie to check in with the other groups.
    Tucker felt the chill again. He puffed on his cigarette and told himself it was only natural to feel uneasy when you were out hunting a man. Yet he caught himself, not looking over his shoulder, or squinting in the distance, but staring back at the glint of sun against Caroline’s bedroom window.
    Something was wrong. He could almost smell it, like a trace of ozone on the air after a slash of lightning. Something was sure as hell wrong.
    “Burke, I want to cross over there to Caroline’s.”
    “I already told you, Susie called her and told her to come on into town. They’re probably sitting around the kitchen table talking about flower arrangements and wedding cakes.”
    “Yeah.” Tucker rolled his shoulders as if trying to ease an itch. “But I want to cross over.”
    He was already moving fast when they heard the shots.
    · · ·
    Caroline had corn bread in the oven. Happy Fuller’s family recipe. She’d been finishing up the batter when Susie called. She wasn’t fooled by the invitation to dinner, or the request that she come help talk some sense into Marvella over her color schemes. Austin Hatinger had been spotted less than ten miles away, and Susie didn’t want her to be alone.
    She appreciated the concern, and since she’d started to jump at every creak and shadow since the call, Caroline was more than willing to oblige. She didn’t think Austin was going to show up on her doorstep. Certainly not. But as the sun dropped toward evening, she liked the idea of spending some time in Susie’s safe and noisy kitchen.
    She took a sniff of the air and smiled. The corn bread was nearly ready. Then she’d pack it up, along with Useless, and drive into town.
    She took a look at the oven timer. Little more than five minutes, she saw, and pushed open the screen door to call her dog.
    “Useless. Come on, boy.” She clapped her hands as Happy had done and tried a whistle. “Useless, come on, Useless, we’re going for a ride.” Hearing the whimper under her feet, she got down on her hands and knees to look through the porch slats. And there he was crouched back against the new brace, whining.
    “Dumb dog. Come on right now. What’s got you so spooked?”
    He let out two yips and cringed back against the new brace. Disgusted, Caroline sat back on her heels. “Probably saw a garter snake,” she muttered. She decided to lure him out with a Milk Bone—Useless had already proven to have no willpower when it came to Milk