Carnal Innocence

Caroline crossed the room to crouch at Josie’s feet. “I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling, but I do want to help.”
    “Just stay out of it.” Voice edgy, Josie dropped her hands to her lap. Though her eyes were wet, the heat behind them would dry tears quickly. “If you want to help, stay out of it.”
    “You know I can’t. Not just because of Tucker and the way I feel about him.”
    “That’s just why you should stay out of it.” Josie grabbed her hands, the slim, tense fingers wrapping like wires around Caroline’s. “I know you care about him, you don’t want him hurt. You’ve got to leave this to me.”
    “If I did, what then?”
    “Then it’ll be done with. It’ll be forgotten.”
    “Josie, those women are dead. No matter how ill Dwayne is, that can’t be ignored. It can’t be forgotten.”
    “Bringing it all out, tearing the family apart, isn’t going to make them any less dead.”
    “It’s a matter of right, Josie. And of helping Dwayne.”
    “Help?” Her voice rose as she pushed herself out of the chair. “Going to prison won’t help.”
    “His mind isn’t right.” Wearily, Caroline rose. It was growing too dark to see. She turned on Josie’s bedside lamp and chased away some of the shadows with a rosy glow. “Loving him’s a start, but he’s going to need professional help. Not only to find out why, but to prevent him from doing it again.”
    “Maybe they deserved to die.” As she paced, Josie rubbed hard at her pounding temples. “People do, and it isn’t cold to say so. You didn’t know any of them the way I did, so who are you to judge?”
    “I’m not judging, but I don’t think you believe anyone deserved to die that way. If something isn’tdone, someone else might die. You can’t stop it, Josie.”
    “I think you’re right about that.” She passed her hand over her eyes. “I’d hoped, with Dwayne so miserable—but I guess I knew all along. It’s blood,” she murmured, lifting her head to stare at her own face in the mirror. “Like a wild dog, once you’ve tasted it, there’s no going back. There’s just no going back, Caro.”
    Caroline moved over to her so that their eyes met in the glass. “We’ll find good doctors for him. I know one who’ll help.”
    “Doctors.” Josie tugged the chiffon scarf out of her hair and gave a short laugh. “What bullshit. Did you hate your mother? Love your father?”
    “It’s never that simple.”
    “Sometimes it is. Listen to that.” Smiling a little, she closed her eyes. “That’s Toby March singing. They must’ve hooked him up to a mike down at the carnival. That’s a sound that carries nice on a hot summer night.”
    “Josie, we have to go tell Tucker. And we have to see that Dwayne turns himself in. I’m sorry. It’s the only way.”
    “I know you’re sorry.” With a sigh, Josie reached into her bag. “I’m sorry, too. Sorrier than I can say.” Turning, she aimed her derringer at Caroline. “It’s you or the family, Caroline. You or the Longstreets. So there’s really only one way after all.”
    “Josie—”
    “Do you see this gun?” she interrupted. “My daddy gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. Sweet Sixteen, he called me. He was a great believer in taking care of your own. I did love him. I hated my father, but I did love my daddy.”
    Caroline moistened her lips. She wasn’t afraid yet. Her brain was too scrambled with shock for fear to take hold. “Josie, put it down. You can’t help Dwayne this way.”
    “It’s not just Dwayne, it’s all of us. All the fine, upstanding Longstreets.”
    “Miss Caroline?” Cy’s voice echoed up the stairsand had both women jolting. “Miss Caroline, you in here?”
    Caroline saw the panic shoot into Josie’s eyes. “You tell him to go on. Tell him, Caro. See that he goes outside again. I don’t want to hurt that boy.”
    “I’m up here, Cy,” Caroline called out, her gaze fastened to the short, shiny gun barrel. “You go on out. I’ll be along in a minute.”
    “Mr. Tucker said I should stay with you.”
    She could almost see him, hesitating at the foot of the steps, torn between manners and loyalties. “I said I’d be along,” she repeated, the first true licks of fear sharpening her voice. “Now go on out.”
    “Yes, ma’am. The fireworks are going to start any minute.”
    “That’s fine. You go watch.”
    She waited, hardly breathing until she heard the door shut.
    “I wouldn’t want to hurt