Read Trinity Harbor 3 - Along Came Trouble for Free Online Page B

leveled a look straight into his eyes, one of those piercing gazes that served her wel as a county social worker. “And for once, it won’t be about your children’s love lives. It wil be about ours.”
    “Whatever you say,” King said meekly.
    Obviously Frances had lost patience. It was put up or shut up time. Maybe, if he had a few spare minutes, he’d wander past a jewelry store and see if there was anything there that would suit her. In his experience, jewelry had a way of saying what mere words couldn’t express.
    And, he thought with a sigh, with any luck, she wouldn’t throw it right back in his face.
    Liz ran until she was out of breath. It was no surprise to her that she’d ended up on the banks of the river. It was where she’d always come when she had things to sort through—here or to Tucker. From the time she’d come to live with her grandfather after her parents’ deaths in an avalanche on an Alpine ski slope, Tucker had been her sounding board, always listening without judging. He’d been the best companion a lonely girl could have wished for. He’d been her champion when she’d started classes at the tight-knit Trinity Harbor school. He’d asked her to play on his summer basebal team and dared anyone to chal enge the selection. For a tomboy like Liz, that had been the ultimate compliment a boy two years older could have paid her. Tucker had been her hero from the day they’d met on the school playground because he’d let her fight her own battles, hanging back and ready to help only if she asked for it.
    Times had changed. She’d seen hints of judgment in his eyes more than once this morning, even when he’d managed to say al the right things.
    How could she blame him, though? She was lucky he hadn’t just tossed her out without listening to a single word she’d said.
    She’d also noted what he hadn’t asked, how careful he’d been to avoid discussing the state of her marriage, but the questions were hanging in the air between them. She’d acknowledged her plans to divorce her husband but said nothing about her reasons. Sooner or later Tucker—or his deputy—
    was going to want to know what they were. She was going to have to brace herself for the humiliation of admitting that she’d never been enough for Larry, that he’d taken lovers within weeks of the wedding, perhaps even sooner.
    Would the police see that as a motive for murder? she wondered. Could she make them see that it would be one only if she stil cared, only if she hadn’t been worn out from a one-sided fight to save her marriage?
    She picked her way along an overgrown path that would have horrified Larry—if he’d ever bothered to walk this far. Fortunately he’d been satisfied to survey his domain from the library windows or the brick terrace. He hadn’t known about Liz’s secret hiding place, little more than a shady patch of grass beneath a giant oak with a weathered swing dangling by thick ropes from a low branch. The river lapped gently at the shore here, glistening in the midmorning sun.
    She sat on that swing now and pushed off idly, letting her thoughts wander. If Tucker was right, if someone had witnessed her scene with Larry and used it as a perfect cover for murder, who could it have been? A political enemy? A spurned lover? An outraged husband? There were plenty of each.
    Larry’s passions tended to draw emotional extremes. He’d fielded his share of threats, but had refused to take any of them seriously. Obviously he’d miscalculated.
    There were anonymous letters, though, and tapes of threatening phone messages, al of the sort that many politicians received when they stirred up their constituents. Larry had dismissed them, but he’d been prudent enough to save them just in case one was ever acted on. She could provide them al to the police, which was what she needed to be doing now, not sitting down here hiding out and sulking over the doubts she’d seen in Tucker’s eyes.
    No one had a