Carnal Innocence

What the hell’s going on here?”
    “I gotta ask you some questions, Tuck, but before I do I want to tellyou I went to see Austin. I had to tell him.” He pulled out a cigarette. “You watch your back, son.”
    Tucker took the cigarette. “He can’t believe I’d hurt Edda Lou. For chrissake.” He lit a match, then stared as it burned down toward his fingers. “You don’t believe …” He dropped the match and sprang to his feet. “Goddammit, Burke, you know me.”
    Burke wished he’d taken the beer—or anything else to wash this nasty taste from his mouth. Tucker was his friend, the closest thing he had to a brother. And his most likely suspect. “Knowing you’s got nothing to do with it.”
    Tucker felt a punch of panic worse than any fist to the gut. “The hell with that.”
    “It’s my job, Tucker. I got a duty.” Sick at heart, he took out his notebook. “You and Edda Lou had a public argument only a couple days ago. She’s been missing nearly ever since.”
    Tucker struck another match. This time he lighted the cigarette and drew and expelled smoke. “You going to read me my rights, put the cuffs on me? What?”
    Burke’s hand fisted at his side. “Goddammit, Tucker, I just spent two hours looking at what someone did to that girl. This ain’t the time to push me.”
    Tucker held out a hand, palm up, but there was too much sarcasm in the gesture for it to be taken as one of peace. “Go on, Burke, do your frigging job.”
    “I want to know if you saw Edda, or talked to her, after you left the diner.”
    “Didn’t I come in your office this afternoon and tell you I hadn’t?”
    “Where’d you go after you left the diner?”
    “I went to—” He broke off, paling. “Christ, I went to McNair Pond.” He started to bring the cigarette to his lips, then stopped. His tawny eyes glittered in the lowering light. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
    “Yeah. But it helps you telling me yourself.”
    “Fuck you.”
    Burke grabbed him by the shirtfront. “Listen to me. I don’t like what I’ve got to do. But this is nothing
nothing
compared to what the FBI’ll do once they get here.We’ve got three women dead, sliced up like catfish. Edda Lou threatened you in public, and she’s found dead not two days later. I’ve got a witness who puts you at the scene a day, maybe hours, before the murder.”
    The first lick of fear joined the tension in Tucker’s stomach. “You know I’ve been over to McNair Pond hundreds of times. So’ve you.” He shoved Burke’s hands away. “And being pissed at Edda Lou doesn’t make me a killer. What about Arnette, Francie?”
    Burke’s jaw set. “You dated them, all three of them.”
    It wasn’t temper now, but simple shock. “Jesus, Burke.” He had to sit again, and do so slowly, feeling his way. “You can’t believe that. You can’t.”
    “What I believe doesn’t have a damn to do with the questions I have to ask. I have to know where you were night before last.”
    “Why, he was losing his shirt to me, playing gin rummy.” Josie strolled over to them. Her cheeks were pale, but there was a hard gleam in her eye. “You interrogating my brother, Burke? Why, I’m surprised at you.” She walked between them to lay a hand on Tucker’s shoulder.
    “I’ve got a job to do, Josie.”
    “Then you ought to be doing it. Why aren’t you out looking for someone who hates women rather than someone who has such a powerful affection for them like Tuck here?”
    Tucker put a hand over hers. “I thought you were staying with Caroline.”
    “Susie and Marvella came down to be with her.” She shrugged. “It gets to be too many women in one place, and she’s holding up just fine now anyway. You might want to run on home, Burke, make sure those boys of yours aren’t tearing up the house.”
    He ignored the suggestion and the anger in Josie’s eyes. “You and Tucker played cards.”
    “That’s not a crime or a sin in this county, is it?” She took Tucker’s cigarette from between his fingers and drew on it. “We sat up till two, maybe two-thirty. Tucker got a little bit drunk and I won thirty-eight dollars.”
    A wave of relief thickened Burke voice. “That’s good. I’m sorry I had to ask, but when the federal boys get in, you’ll have to talk to them, too. Thought it’d be easier from me the first time.”
    “It wasn’t.” Tucker got to his feet again. “What are they going to do with her?”
    “Took her down to