Read Trinity Harbor 3 - Along Came Trouble for Free Online

your marriage. I made it a point to keep it that way.”
    “And now I’ve dragged you into the middle of it,” she said with regret. “I’m sorry.”
    “I’m not in the middle. From this moment on, I’m on the sidelines.”
    She winced at the reminder. “Tel me about the deputy who wil handle it.”
    “His name’s Walker Ames. He’s good. He was a homicide detective in Washington up until a couple of years ago. He won’t miss anything.”
    “But…” She regarded him with dismay. “Isn’t he Daisy’s husband?”
    “That won’t matter,” Tucker said with conviction even as she turned to stare out the window. He tucked a hand under her chin and forced her to face him. “It wil be okay. I promise. You want the best person available on this, and that’s Walker. If there’s so much as a hint that he’s not being scrupulously impartial, whatever the reason for it, I can cal in the state police and turn the whole investigation over to them. I can do that now, if you’d prefer, if you think my department can’t give you a fair shake.”
    “I want to believe you know what you’re doing, but I’m scared,” she admitted.
    “You came to me because you trusted me, right? Then listen to what I’m saying,” Tucker told her. “If you’re not guilty, then you have nothing to fear.”
    “ If? I’m not guilty of anything except wanting a divorce,” she declared fiercely.
    “And I believe that,” Tucker reiterated.
    “Do you? Do you real y?” she asked, her voice escalating in near hysteria. “Or did you bring someone else in to handle this just so you won’t have to be the one to slap the handcuffs on me?”
    Before he could respond, she was out of the car and running. Tucker debated going after her, but decided against it. She wouldn’t go far. If she’d wanted to take off because she was guilty, she would have done it without ever setting foot in his house. She could have been halfway to Europe or South America before anyone even realized her husband was missing, much less dead. She certainly had the resources to flee to anywhere in the world she wanted to go.
    Her accusation that he didn’t believe in her stuck in his craw. Surely she didn’t believe that. She’d just lashed out at him because her nerves were shot and he was handy.
    But what if he was wrong? What if he’d just given her a convenient excuse to take off? He watched as she fled around the side of the house and headed for the river. He found that oddly reassuring. Unless things had changed, there was an old swing hanging from a tree at the edge of the beach.
    She’d always said that soaring into the sky in that swing was like flying and that the air there made thinking easier. That was where he’d find her when the time came to go looking.
    Until then, he needed to go inside, talk to Walker and find out just how much trouble Mary Elizabeth was real y in.
    King strol ed into Earlene’s and headed for his usual booth in the back. He’d only made it halfway when he spotted Frances Jackson sitting al alone at the counter, nursing a cup of coffee, her expression glum. He slid onto the stool next to her.
    “Does that frown you’re wearing have anything to do with me?” he inquired.
    Ever since she’d gone off to some spa and gotten herself al fixed up with a new hairdo and a new svelte figure, they’d been dancing around each other like a couple of testy old bears. No matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to get things between them back on track.
    Now she barely spared him a glance. “Not everything is about you.”
    “These days, seems like nothing is,” he shot back before he could stop himself. “You want me to stop bothering you, Frances? Is that it?”
    This time she swivel ed her stool around and faced him ful y. “Bothering me? When was the last time you asked me to go out? When was the last time you invited me to Sunday dinner with your family? Ever since I got back to town and Bobby got married, you’ve been al