Thank you for the advice. And I appreciate your getting those records to me.
Lily walked out of the police station with her stomach a-jangle and her mind all tangled up. In principle, she knew the sheriff was right. Her sisters had managed to move on, find great guys, get over the past just fine. She should be able to do the same thing. She loved her job, teaching ultra-bright, challenging kids; loved her apartment in a historic part of Virginia, had many friends and things she loved to do.
But something inside her just couldnt rest. A lot of it was about her dad. She never believed hed started that fire. Every memory of her dad was wonderful and loving, including the very last one, when he sacrificed his own life to save hers. He was no cowardyet thats what theyd always said. That hed set the fire for insurance money, the act of a coward if ever there was one.
Her dad was a hero, not a coward.
She knew it in her heart.
She just had to find some impossible way to prove it.
Chapter 2
Two nights later, Griff heard the rare sound of fire engine sirens, followed by a rush of cop cars down Main Street. It was just nine, the sun thinking about dropping and the air drowsy with heat.
Chapter 2
Two nights later, Griff heard the rare sound of fire engine sirens, followed by a rush of cop cars down Main Street. It was just nine, the sun thinking about dropping and the air drowsy with heat.
He was just shutting down the place. Jason had stuck with him, was pretending to do extra clean-up while Griff hunched over a table with the days receipts. The dayd been busy. Everybody stopped for ice-cream on a summer day. Even so, the ice cream parlor couldnt support a cat, so it occasionally amazed Griff that folks actually believed he had no other source of income.
Of course, it had always worked well for him to be seen as a generic lazy scoundrel and a womanizer. Nobody pried any deeper. Why would they?
You hear the sirens? Jason asked.
Yeah. First time all summer.
Jason squirted more window cleaner on the glass counter, even though hed cleaned it twice already. I heard some say they were worried about her coming back. That the firesd start again.
Say what? Whos this her? Griff looked up, only half-listening. He wanted to get out of here, put his feet up, open a dripping-cold long neck and start in on his real work. But the kid had been scrubbing the place until hed practically worn out his hands; obviously he didnt want to go home. Bruises hadnt healed up from the last time his dad had a snootful.
You know. The pretty lady who came in the other day. The one with the long brown hair. You went right over to her. Dont tell me you didnt notice.
Griff scowled. Sometimes the kid saw way more than he needed to.
Lily had been in twice more for Griffs Secret-but not for any of his. Shed chatted up Steve the first time; someone had talked to her the other. God knew, hed raced from the back room to flirt her up, but shed escaped before he could tackle her both times. Maybe that was accidental-or maybe she didnt remotely feel the same spark he did.
No sweat, hed told himself. But somehow she kept pouncing into his mind, lingering there like a sweet taste he couldnt get out of his head. That he could get hung up on a woman he barely knew was downright worrisome.
It implied a capacity for commitment.
That was fearful.
Still, he couldnt let Jasons comment go. Why would anyone think that Lily Campbell has anything to do with the sirens?
Jason rolled his eyes. Come on. Her coming back after all these years just stirred up the story. Everyone knows what happened.
Well I dont, so why dont you enlighten me?
Her daddy was a fire setter. Thats what everybody said. And now shes back, so people been saying, watch out for fires. And now you heard the sirens.
Thats pretty darned ridiculous, Jason.
Hey, I wasnt even born when it all happened. Im just telling you what people are saying, thats all. Her dad and her mom got burned up in the last fire. The three sisters, they got split up all over the country. People said the three girls, they cried and screamed when folks tried to separate them. That it all was a tragedy. That nobody guessed there was something so broken in Mr. Campbell. That was her daddy. Mr. Campbell. Anyway. The fires stopped after they left. Only now shes back. And theres a siren.
Griff frowned. Jason, thats ludicrous. Whos spreading these rumors?
I dunno. Hey, dont be mad at me. I was just telling you what I heard, thats all.
Well, think about it. If she left town when she was a little girl, theres no reason to think anyone even recognizes her. And if her father was an arsonist, that has nothing to do with her.
I never said he was an arsnist. I said he started fires.
Jason. An arsonist is someone who sets fires.
Sheesh. Its summertime. Youre not supposed to have to learn stuff in the summertime. Its not fair.
There were times Griff loved living in a small town. This wasnt one of them. That young, pretty woman was soft clear through. It was in her eyes, her face, the look of her. That anyone could think she was a criminal-or in town for no good-was beyond absurd.
But Pecan Valley did love its gossip. And good news was boring. The chance of something naughty and meaty was always the ideal, but it was only now that Griff remembered-Lily had mentioned something in that short first conversation. Something about how he might not want to get to know her. He wasnt sure what it meant at the time. Didnt matter then. All hed been concentrating on at the time was the lap of her soft tongue on Griffs Secret.
Hed imagined her tongue on a few other secret places of his in the days since, making him worry that he was turning into a dirty old man-before he was even in his prime.
Jason.
Yup?
You cleaned up enough. Im locking up. I know you dont want to go home.
Sure I do. You think I want to work all the time? he said under his breath, But youll keep half my pay still, right?
Yup. Got it hidden. Earning interest. This was old, touchy territory for the boy. Im just saying. You find trouble at home, you know where I live.
Im not leaving my mom.
That voice. So low. So defeated. So old. I never said you should leave your mom. I said you know where I live. Just like your mom knows theres a shelter where shell be safe, and theyd help her start over.
She wont go.
Thats not on you.
Right.
Griff told himself to shut up, because he knew better than to push. Hed pushed before. He had four kids working for him-all troublemakers, school flunk-outs, all of them tattooed and pierced and familiar with the holding cell at the sheriffs office. You dont push kids whove already given up. And when a kid had already given up by age eleven, you tiptoed, because you might only have one chance to earn some trust-and thats if you were lucky.
Griff wasnt a good tiptoer. He wore a size-l4 shoe.
Once Jason finally headed out, Griff thoughtfully packed up a pint-size cold tote and carried it to his car in the alley. Main Street was shutting down.
Shops closed up early on a weekday, but the pharmacy was still open and Debs Diner still had a cluster of pickups in front. Although there was no sign of the fire trucks now, all the lights were blazing at the sheriffs office.
He noticed the lights, but didnt linger, just turned left two blocks later on Magnolia. The street was an antebellum postcard; the houses were huge and old, built of cool cinder block, most with sweeping verandas and swings hung with chains. Big old oaks shaded the sidewalks, but everybody had flowers, cottage roses under trellises where there was a peek of sun, bosomy peonies in the deep shadehe didnt know all the flower names. A fat fox squirrel chased right in front of his car-the measure of a safe town, hed always thought, was that the darned squirrels knew perfectly well they had right of way.
The rich didnt hang in the neighborhood anymore, mostly because no one was all that rich-but the big old houses still looked loved, porches swept, gardens fussed over. Young couples who wanted a passel of children could afford the mortgages. The elders had already paid off theirs. Those in between had invariably turned their place into the ever-hopeful bed-and-breakfasts.
He parked, climbed out, took his tote. In the way of a small town, he knew Louellas even if hed never been inside. It was the last on the block, with a red tile roof and long, long steps leading to the porchhe didnt initially see her. At least not exactly. What he saw from the rail on the veranda, were a pair of very bare, very dirty, very feminine feet.
Judging from the position of those feet, they were attached to someone who was lying flat on the wood plank veranda floor. A curious position for sure.
He ambled up the sidewalk, up the steps, to peek his head over the rail.
The glow of lights and distant voices murmured from beyond the B and Bs giant screen door, but the only one on the veranda was her.
For a moment, his heart stopped-he wasnt sure she was alive. She was lying there with her feet up on the rail, eyes closed, arms just lying at her sides, palms upas if shed fallen in that kind of heap and couldnt move. She was wearing shorts and a tee in some pastel color, all wrinkled and tangled.
His heart immediately resumed beating on noting she wasnt wearing a bra. And that her plump, perfectly shaped breasts were rising and falling, indicating life-not to mention a delectably appealing rack.
By the time hed finished a complete study-legs were damned good, way, way better than he expected, a little Yankee white, but the calf shape was just that perfect arch of a curve. Anyway. By the time he finished, she had one eye open.
Please, she said. Go on in. Leave me for dead. There are all kinds of people in the house. If you want someone, just pound on the door.
I was looking for you, actually.
No point. Im useless. In a state of complete decline. I cant move, cant talk, dont even care anymore.
Are we he tried to think of a delicate way to phrase it having a little trouble adjusting to the heat?
She closed the eye. Theres air-conditioning. Thats what the ad said. It didnt lie. I bought a thermometer yesterday. My rooms cooled off to eighty-seven degrees. Now go away. I cant stand anyone watching me while I sweat.