Love Can Be Murder

you told me about the deception, Roxann, but it has to be put right."
    She nodded. "Angora and I talked to the dean of admissions and several regents before we left South Bend about our punishment. Since she didn't meet the entrance qualifications, Angora's diploma was rescinded. I was stripped of honors."
    "But they're not pressing charges of fraud?"
    "No. They said we'd been through enough at the hands of university personnel. I think they were relieved we weren't going to sue them."
    "So you get to keep your degree?"
    "Yes."
    He exhaled. "Was Angora devastated? Poor girl, shackled with that piranha of a mother. Never had a chance."
    "Actually, I think she was relieved. Angora has her faults, but deep down she's an honest person."
    "Except Dixie will throw this up to her for the rest of her life."
    Roxann smiled. "I have a feeling Angora is going back to South Bend to live, and that her visits to and from her mother will be few and far between."
    "Oh?"
    "She met a guy—her attorney. A soybean farmer. He told Dixie to shut her pie hole."
    Her father grinned. "I like the sound of that boy." He pressed his thin lips together, his eyes still troubled. "What are you going to do now, sweetheart?"
    She sat back in her chair and looked around the room. "I was hoping you'd let me camp out here for a while. I could cook and clean in return for my room and board. And I might need your help studying."
    "Studying?"
    "For the LSAT."
    His eyes sparkled. "You're going to law school?"
    "If I can pass the entrance exam."
    He waved his hand. "Just a formality." He stood up, his body animated. "How about some coffee? No—sit still, I'll make it."
    Roxann sat back and, for the first time in years, truly relaxed. She closed her eyes and, starting with the top of her head, allowed every muscle in her body to loosen and expand. The last time she'd felt so light and carefree was the morning of the day she walked home and her mother wasn't waiting for her on the porch. It was the last day, she realized, that she'd felt safe and loved. But it wasn't too late to make amends with her father, and she did have people in the world who cared about her—Helen at the diner, Mr. Nealy next door, Angora, and lots of folks in the Rescue program, even if they didn't remember her name, or hadn't known it to begin with.
    "What happened to that Capistrano fellow?" her dad called from the kitchen.
    At the sound of the man's name, her entire body contracted involuntarily. "He went back to Biloxi."
    "Are you still seeing him?"
    She sighed. "Dad, I was never seeing him."
    "Are you going to be seeing him?"
    She opened her mouth to say no, then stopped. Why was it so hard to admit that she'd fallen for Joe Capistrano? Because of the way he made her question her life choices, and her motives? Carl Seger had spouted platitudes about social consciousness while exploiting hordes of female students. But Capistrano was out on the streets every day catching bad guys so that people could sleep a little easier at night. He had made her see that she wanted to help improve domestic and custodial laws instead of evade them.
    So maybe he wasn't offering her forever. Maybe they could have now, and just... be.
    I hope you get past whatever is keeping you from living...if you do, you've got my number.
    "Roxann?" her father said from the doorway. "I asked if you're going to be seeing the young man?"
    She sat up and reached for her purse. "Dad...do you mind if I make a long-distance call?"
    "Be my guest."
    The card Capistrano had given her was a little worse for time spent in the bottom of her purse, but the number for his cell phone was readable. She dialed the number, heart pounding. When it rang once, she hung up. After a quick pep talk, she dialed again. It rang, and she hung up again. Cursing her cowardice, she dialed the number again. It rang once, twice, three times before he picked up.
    "I thought I'd wait to see if you were going to hang up again," he said, sounding amused.
    She frowned—a pox on caller ID. "It could have been my father calling. Besides, I might just hang up now."
    "Oh, don't do that. I've missed you."
    She swallowed. "I've missed you, too."
    "See, that didn't hurt, did it?"
    "I'm coming to see you."
    "If you weren't, I was coming to get you."
    "Is this going to work, Capistrano?"
    "I didn't get scalded, pepper-sprayed, and tire-ironed for it not to."
    She smiled into the phone and relaxed.

Epilogue

    ROXANN CLIMBED into the passenger seat of the