Carolina Moon

badges.
    Tory sat on the ground and waited.
    “I called Wade.” Since there was nothing else to do, Faith sat down beside her. “He has to wait until Maxine comes to look after Mongo, but he’s coming.”
    “There’s nothing for him to do.”
    “There’s nothing for any of us to do.” Faith stared at the tape, the door, the shadows of men moving around behind the blinds. “How did you know she was dead?”
    “Sherry? Or Hope?”
    Faith clutched the puppy to her breast, rubbed her cheek against warm fur for comfort. “I’ve never seen anything like this. They wouldn’t let me near where Hope was. I was too young. You saw it.”
    “Yes.”
    “You saw it all.”
    “Not quite all.” She pressed her palms together, squeezed her hands between her knees as if they were very cold. “I knew when we got to the door. There’s a darkness about death. Violent death especially. And he left something of himself behind. Maybe just the madness of it. It’s the same as before. He’s the same.” She closed her eyes. “I thought he would come for me—I never considered … I never imagined this.”
    And that was the guilt she would live with now.
    “You’re saying whoever did this to Sherry killed Hope? After all these years?”
    Tory started to speak, then shook her head. “I can’t be sure. I haven’t been sure of anything in a long time.” She glanced over as she heard Faith’s name called. Wade ran across the grass toward them.
    It surprised her when Faith leaped up. It was rare to see Faith bother to move quickly. Then she watched them take each other. One long, hard embrace.
    He loves her, Tory realized. She’s the center of things for him. How odd.
    “You’re all right?” He put his hands on Faith’s face, cupped it there.
    “I don’t know what I am.” She had been all right. Everything had seemed to hold at a distance, far enough away not to touch her. Now her hands wanted to shake and her stomach jump. The same way she’d reacted after the surgery when there had been blood on her hands. “I think I need to sit down again.”
    “Here.” When she lowered to the grass, he knelt, his hand still clutching Faith’s while he studied Tory’s face. Too calm, he decided. Too controlled. It only meant when she broke, she’d shatter. “Why don’t y’all come back with me. You need to get away from here.”
    “I can’t, but you should take Faith.”
    “So you can see it through and I can’t? I don’t think so,” Faith said.
    “It’s not a competition.”
    “Between you and me? It’s always been. There’s Dwight.”
    People had started to gather in small pockets of murmurs and curiosity. Word traveled lightning fast in Progress, Tory thought dully. She watched Dwight move through the gatherings and head straight for Sherry’s door.
    “Maybe you can talk to him, Wade.” Faith gestured in Dwight’s direction. “Maybe he’ll be able to tell us something.”
    “I’ll see.” He touched Tory’s knee before he rose. “Cade’s on his way.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I called him. Just wait here.”
    “There was no need for that,” Tory said, frowning at Wade’s back as he slipped through the crowd of onlookers.
    “Oh, shut up.” Annoyed, Faith dug in her purse for a chewy bone to keep Bee occupied. “You’re no more iron woman than I am. It doesn’t make us less to lean on a man.”
    “I don’t intend to lean on Cade.”
    “For Christ’s sake, if he’s good enough to sleep with, he’s good enough to hold on to at a time like this. I swear, you just hunt up things to be bitchy about.”
    “Why don’t we all go out on a double date later? We can go dancing.”
    Faith’s smile was scalpel sharp. “You’re a real pain in the ass, Tory. I’m starting to like that about you. Well shit, there’s Billy Clampett, and he’s spotted me. That just makes it perfect. I was nearly pissed off enough, and drunk enough, one night a thousand years ago to have sex with him. Fortunately I came to my senses in time, but he’s never stopped trying to finish things off.”
    Tory watched Billy stroll toward them, thumbs tucked in his front pockets, fingers beating out a tune on either side of his zipper. “There couldn’t be enough liquor in the county for that.”
    “Finally, a point of agreement. Billy.”
    “Ladies.” He crouched down. “Heard there was some excitement ‘round here. Some girl went and got herself killed.”
    “Careless of her.” Faith didn’t shift