Murder Deja Vu

curled his lips. He took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
    “I never thought you could be more beautiful than that early morning on the dock when the sight of you made everything bad disappear. But today, the happiness inside you shines through.”
    “Is this your way of softening me up to get me into bed?”
    “No, I mean it.” Reece rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been waiting to tell you something.”
    Dana’s heart sped up. Reece was in too good a mood for anything to be bad. Still, she couldn’t keep the tentative sound from her voice. “What?”
    “Nothing bad. Something good, really. There’s this guy in Tennessee. He was the first one to hire me to build a fireplace. Before all this mess, he asked me to send him pictures of my house. He liked what he saw and asked if I’d design something similar on the property he bought in the mountains, not far from here. Then all this happened and, well, building a house wasn’t on my mind. I talked to him this morning, and it’s a go.”
    “Oh, Reece. That’s fantastic.” Dana threw her arms around him and planted a kiss on his lips. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
    “Of course, there are a few problems. My license has long expired.” He laughed. “Over twenty years expired. I’ll have to check on the state requirements, take the boards, I don’t know. But I’m excited.”
    “And I’m excited for you. I—”
    The chimes interrupted, but this time Dana recognized the sound of her own doorbell. “Who could that be?”
    “I don’t know, but he’s not my best friend.”
    Dana went to the door and peeked through the glass panels. “He’s mine. It’s Harris.” She turned to Reece. “And Sheriff Payton.”
    Dana noticed the change in Reece’s demeanor. Some things would be hard to put behind him. A cop at the door was one of them.
    “Mind if we come in, Dana?”
    “No, no.” She nodded toward the sheriff and kissed Harris. “Come in to my new great room.”
    “Good to see you, Daughtry,” Payton said. “Glad that mess is settled.”
    “Me too,” Harris said.
    The men shook hands. Reece said, “Thanks. Not as glad as I am. I heard you had something to do with it, Sheriff. I appreciate it.”
    “Doing my job,” Payton said.
    The men looked at the wall. “Beautiful,” they chimed in together.
    Dana faced the work of art. “Isn’t it?”
    “Might want you to look at my fireplace,” Payton said. “I doubt I could afford you, though.”
    “We could reach an agreement,” Reece said, “as long as you didn’t think it was a bribe.”
    Payton pursed his lips, hiding a smirk. “Hmm, depends. Gotta think about that.”
    “Get to the point,” Dana said. “What about Robert?”
    “We thought you should hear it before it’s announced, so you can tell the boys,” Harris said.
    Payton took out a stick of gum, then shook his head and stuffed the pack back into his pocket. “The FBI arrested Robert this afternoon. They’re charging him with interfering with the judicial system, jury tampering, bribery, and inciting the murder of Lurena Howe. Probably some other charges too, when everything’s finished.”
    Dana sank into a chair. She couldn’t catch her breath. Reece sat on the arm and rubbed her neck. From what her boys had told her, she expected something like that, but it still hit hard.
    “Inciting the murder—so he could pin the murder on me?” Reece said.
    “Yup. You were his ticket to the big game—the World Series and Super Bowl all wrapped up in your conviction for the murder of two women. He figured it’d buy him some high office, senator or the governor’s mansion. Unfortunately, he partnered with a man even more unscrupulous than himself, a guy named Harry Klugh. Minette didn’t know Klugh was really Chicago hood Victor Castell. And Castell would cop to anything as long as he didn’t have to face the mob he screwed over twenty years ago.”
    “And you threatened Castell to get the truth?”
    “I’m ashamed to admit that is a fact,” Payton said, showing nothing that resembled remorse. “Chicago still had a contract out on him. Castell had proof that Robert intimidated a juror in a trial because Castell did the intimidating. He also had a tape of Robert suggesting he make a witness recant his story, a witness who disappeared, though Castel wouldn’t cop to that murder. Don’t know why, exactly. We’ve got him for Lurena Howe. He claimed Robert prodded him to prove Mr.