Carnal Innocence

he’d told her, then reached for her cigarette.
    “You’re a pistol, Teddy. You sure you haven’t got a wife hiding somewhere?”
    “Two exes.” Teddy grinned through Josie’s haze of smoke. He hadn’t had so much fun since he’d rigged a cadaver with fishing wire so he could make the arms and legs move in time with “Twist and Shout.”
    “Now, that’s a coincidence. I’ve got two of my own. First one was a lawyer.” Smiling, she drew the word out into two elongated syllables. “A fine, upstanding young man from a fine, upstanding Charleston family. Just the kind of husband my mama wanted me to hook on to. Nearly bored me to death before the year was out.”
    “Stuffy?”
    “Oh, honey.” She tilted her head back so the cool beer slid straight down. “I tried to shake him out of it. I gave a party, a fancy dress ball for New Year’s? I came as Lady Godiva.” Cocking a brow, she ran her hand through her wild black hair. “I wore a blond wig.” Her eyes glittered as she rested her chin on her hands. “Just the wig. Old Franklin—that was his name—Franklin just couldn’t get himself in a partying mood.”
    Teddy could easily imagine her in nothing more than a fall of blond hair, and figured he’d have parried just fine. “No sense of humor,” he commented.
    “You said it. So naturally, when I decided to go husband-hunting again, I looked for a different kind. I met a rough, tough cowboy type on a dude ranch up in Oklahoma. We had some high old times.” She sighed, reminiscing. “Then I found out he was cheating on me. That wasn’t so bad, but it turned out he was cheating with cowboys instead of cowgirls.”
    “Ouch,” Teddy said, wincing in sympathy. “And I thought it was rough just having my wives tell me I had a disgusting job.” He gave Josie a wink. “Women don’t usually find my work suitable for conversation.”
    “I think it’s fascinating.” She signaled for another round, shifting so that she could rub her bare foot over his calf. “You have to be smart, don’t you? Running all those tests, finding out who killed someone just by cutting up, you know. A corpse.” Her eyes glowed as she leaned closer. “I just don’t see how it works, Teddy. I mean, how can you tell about a killer from a dead body?”
    “Well.” He slurped up some beer. “It’s pretty technical, but in easy terms, you just put all the puzzle pieces together. Cause of death, time and place. Fibers, maybe blood that doesn’t belong to the victim. Skin scrapings, hair samples.”
    “Sounds creepy.” Josie gave a delicate shudder. “Are you finding out stuff about Edda Lou?”
    “We’ve got the time, the place, and the method.” Unlike some of his colleagues, he wasn’t bored by shop talk. “Once I conclude my tests, I’m going to correlate my findings with the county coroner’s on the other two women.” Sympathetic, Teddy patted her hand. “I guess you knew all of them.”
    “I sure did. Went to school with Francie and Arnette. Arnette and I even double-dated some—in our wild, misspent youth.” She grinned into her beer. “And I guess I knew Edda Lou all her life. Not that we were good friends. But it’s scary, thinking about her dying.”
    She cupped her chin on her hands. There was a gypsy look about her, that long, curling black hair, thegolden eyes and golden skin. She’d exploited the image that day by adding wide hoops to her ears and baring her shoulders in a red elastic-necked blouse. Teddy’s mouth watered just looking at her.
    “I guess you can’t tell if she suffered much,” Josie said softly.
    “I can tell you most of the wounds were inflicted after death.” He gave her hand a comforting squeeze. “Don’t you think about it.”
    “I can’t help it.” Her eyes flicked down to her fresh drink, then back to his. “To tell the truth—I can tell you the truth, can’t I, Teddy?”
    “Sure.”
    “Death just fascinates me.” She gave a quick, embarrassed laugh, then leaned closer. He caught a seductive drift of her perfume, felt the brush of her breast against his arm. “I guess I can tell you, because it’s your business. When people get killed, and it’s in the papers and on the TV, I just lap it up.”
    He chuckled. “Everybody does. They just don’t say so.”
    “You’re right.” She scooted her chair closer to his so that her dark sweep of hair brushed his cheek. “You know when they have that stuff on like
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