Carnal Innocence

the ball. Francie and I were just at the flirt-and-giggle stage.” He tossed a bit of paper and tobacco aside. “She was asweetheart.” He shut his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about Francie.”
    “Oh?”
    Fury bubbled up. “Look, I was with Burke when he found her. Maybe you’re used to seeing that kind of thing, but I’m not. Especially when it’s someone I had a fondness for.”
    “Interesting that you were fond of all three women,” Burns said mildly. “And Mrs. Logan was found in Spook Hollow?” He gave a quick snort at the term. “That’s just a couple of miles from your home. And Miss Hatinger was found in McNair Pond. Less than a mile from your home. You visited that spot the day you argued with Miss Hatinger.”
    “That’s right. And plenty of other times.”
    “According to Miss Waverly, you seemed tense, upset, when she came across you.”
    “I thought we’d settled on pissed. Yeah, I was. That’s why I stopped off there. It’s a peaceful spot.”
    “And a secluded one. Can you tell me what you did with the rest of your evening, Mr. Longstreet?”
    It wasn’t going to be the truth. “I played gin with Josie, my sister,” Tucker lied without a blink. “Being as I was distracted, she took me for about thirty or forty dollars, then we had a drink and went on up to bed.”
    “What time did you leave your sister?”
    “I went up about two, two-thirty maybe.”
    “Agent Burns,” Burke broke in, “I’d like to say that on the afternoon Edda Lou was found, Tuck came in to see me. He was worried because he hadn’t heard from her, and she wasn’t answering the phone.”
    Burns lifted a brow. “So noted, Sheriff. How did you come by your black eye, Mr. Longstreet?”
    “Edda Lou’s father gave it to me. That’s how I came to realize she was missing. He rode up to the house, figuring I was hiding her. Then he got it into his head I’d talked her into going somewhere for an abortion.”
    “Did you discuss abortion with the deceased?”
    “She was deceased before I had a chance to discuss anything with her.” He pushed himself off the desk.“That’s all I’ve got to say. If you have any more questions, you ride on down to Sweetwater and ask. I’ll see you around, Burke.”
    Burke waited until the door slammed. “Agent Burns, I’ve known Tucker all my life. I can tell you that no matter how het up he was about Edda Lou, he couldn’t have killed her.”
    Burns merely switched off his recorder. “Isn’t it fortunate that I have an objective eye? I believe it’s time we checked at the funeral parlor, Sheriff. The pathologist is due.”
    Tucker’d just about had it. He’d done nothing but mind his own business, live his own life, and what did he have to show for it? Sore ribs, a swollen eye, and the novelty of being a murder suspect.
    He shot out of Innocence and cranked the car up to eighty.
    The way he figured it, it all had to do with women. If it hadn’t been for the way Edda Lou had rubbed up against him every blessed time he’d walked into Larsson’s, he wouldn’t have started dating her. If Della hadn’t nagged him, he wouldn’t have been in town for Edda Lou to harp on. If that Waverly woman hadn’t wandered into the bayou, she wouldn’t have seen him sitting by the pond. Looking “tense and upset.”
    Jesus H. Christ, he’d had a right to look that way.
    He was sick about Edda Lou, gut-churning sick. No matter how sneaky she’d been, she didn’t deserve to be dead. But dammit, he didn’t see why he had to suffer for it. Having to sit there and take it while that stiff-necked Yankee bastard prodded him with questions and gave him those cop looks.
    Worse than cop looks, he thought as he swung around a curve. It had been those superior, big-city honcho-to-addled-good-old-boy sneers that burned his ass.
    Caroline Waverly had looked at him the same way. She’d probably done handsprings on her way to tell the F BI about coming across the dirty Reb plotting murder in the swamp.
    A yard past the McNair lane, Tucker slammed on the brakes. His tires screamed on the pavement as he whipped into a U-turn. Maybe he’d just go have himself a talk with the duchess.
    As he sent gravel spitting, he didn’t notice the pick-up lumbering down the road. Austin’s blackened eyes narrowed as he spotted the red flash disappearing into the brush. His lips spread in a smile as he pulled over to the side.
    He turned off the ignition, pocketed the keys before reaching for