Laid Out and Candle Lit (16 page)

“Yeah. But the card was actually signed
you know who.
He thinks he’s so damn clever sending me an azalea in place of roses. What kind of man sends a girl a shrub?”

She stretched her arm out across the bar and laid her head on it.

Saint chuckled. “I reckon the two of you are still on the outs. Your mama told me y’all had an argument. Do you wanna talk about it?”

She rolled her eyes up at him. “No . . . I mean yes . . . I don’t know.” She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

She sat up straight. “What, Daddy? You’re not full of advice? Mama, Sugarpie and Rayann are. They think I should forgive, forget, and jump into the sack with him.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, sweetie, you’re my little girl. You’ll never hear me telling you to jump in the sack with anybody. As for the advice, they just want you to be happy, and I think you know what you want to do about Cooper without any help from us.”

“No, Daddy, I don’t.”

He leaned down, rested his arms on the bar, and took her hands in his. “Oh, I think you do. Tell me. Since he came to town, do you think about him a little, a lot, or all the time?”

He chuckled. “Oh yeah. Guys get it, too. When we see the girl we want to be with more than anyone else, we get butterflies just like you women.” He leaned in close. “That’s a guy secret, so don’t go spreading it around. I still feel that way when I tease your mama about something and she flashes those eyes at me.”

Tizzy stood up and reached across the bar and hugged him. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“So I guess in the end, they’re right. I
should
jump in the sack with him.” She started to laugh.

“Whoa! Too much information.” He laughed with her. “You still need that shot?”

“Naw, I guess not.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

]

D
uring the two hours and fifteen minutes it took Ridge to get to Dallas, he thought of nothing except the argument with Tizzy. In his mind, he played out a dozen different plans to get back into her good graces.
Graces…Gracie…yeah, Gracie.
Unscrupulous? Maybe. But he faced the cold hard truth. Regardless of the case and her possible involvement, he had feelings for Tizzy.

Traffic inched along bumper to bumper, and he hated the slow pace. In the short time he’d been in Brownsboro, he was already spoiled by getting everywhere fast. Of course, there wasn’t much of an
everywhere
you wanted to get to. He wondered whether if he wasn’t involved in the case, he’d be able to tolerate how little the town had to offer. But then again, there was Tizzy.

He parked his car, removed his bag, and made a quick inspection of the parking lot. He took another sigh of relief. He didn’t see
her
car. If he was lucky, she’d be booked for flights the entire time, and if not, well… he’d deal with her.

He opened the front door, walked straight to the thermostat and adjusted the temperature. He stripped down to his tee shirt and boxers, pulled on a pair of running shorts, stepped back outside and retrieved his mail. Since he paid most of his bills online, the stack consisted mostly of advertisements and his subscription to
Sports Illustrated.

He returned inside, took a bottle of water from the fridge, sat down and started to thumb through the magazine. Within a few minutes, he slumped deep into the chair, his head resting against the back.
Jeez, he was tired
. A distant car alarm jolted him awake. Disoriented at first, it took him a minute to realize he was in his apartment in Dallas and not at the old house in Brownsboro. He glanced over at the clock . . . two a.m.

Stiff from sleeping in the chair, he rolled his neck first one way and then the other. He stared into the darkness and thought of Tizzy. He missed her. He missed knowing she was just across the lawn. He laughed to himself. So near, yet so far away.

* * * * *

The next morning, at fifteen minutes past nine o’clock, Ridge walked into the lobby of the
Radcliff Hotel
and approached the front desk. If Marlene had been having an affair here, she was doing it in style. The lobby had marble floors, crystal chandeliers. And in the center, a large pool where two black swans were leisurely swimming.

The young woman behind the desk raised her eyes and spied his badge. “May I help you, officer?”

“Good morning. I’m Ridge Cooper with the Texas Rangers. He presented a list of dates from Marlene’s credit card statements. “I’d like to speak to the person working the reservation desk on these dates.”

She studied the dates and times and punched something into her computer. “Check-in time was always Friday afternoon, so that would be Allen Nobles’ shift. He should be here in about an hour. If you’d like to wait, here’s a complimentary ticket to our brunch. I’ll call you when he gets here.”

Ridge took the ticket, thanked her, and made his way into the dining area, glad he’d skipped breakfast.

A middle-aged waitress with a weathered face and a husky voice turned over his cup and poured the steaming liquid to the brim. “I’m Fern, and I’ll be your server today. How are you, Hon?”

* * * * *

Ridge was finishing his meal when the front desk clerk came to get him and lead him to a small office where Allen Nobles waited. “Mr. Nobles? I’m Ridge Cooper. I understand you worked the desk when Marlene Weston checked in.” He pushed Marlene’s picture toward him.

“Yes sir, that’s Mrs. Weston.”

“Did she always check in alone?”

“Yes sir. She came alone. But a man, I’m assuming her husband, always joined her later. He’d come on Friday night, but she always checked out by herself on Sunday morning.”

“Not him for sure.” He picked up Norma’s picture and narrowed his eyes. “Her . . . maybe. She resembles a woman who came with Mrs. Weston a few times—only she had blonde hair, not dark.”

Ridge handed him a business card. “Thank you for your time.”

Allen took the card. “Is Mrs. Weston in some kind of trouble? I mean, when a Texas Ranger shows up it usually means bad news. No offense.”

“None taken. I’m investigating Mrs. Weston’s murder. Thank you again for your time.”

Marlene
and
Kyle Richmond. Ridge smiled, thinking of what Bubba would say.
This just keeps gettin’ better and better.
Amen, Bubba.

* * * * *

Richmond Trucking furnished 24/7 towing, hauling, recovery and repair. As Ridge parked, he noticed the large garage, ten bays all occupied with trucks, and an army of mechanics performing various services.

The receptionist was missing from her desk when Ridge entered the small office, but a door located directly behind the desk was marked “Kyle Richmond.” Ridge knocked, and a voice from the other side said, “Come in.”

Kyle Richmond was handsome with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a cocky attitude. Physically fit, and tall enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ridge, he didn’t look surprised to see a Texas Ranger in his office. “I wondered when you’d show up.”

Ridge looked around the room. The guy matched his interior decorating . . . slick. He wore a chunky gold nugget ring with a cluster of diamonds and had a Rolex watch.

“So, you’ve been expecting me?” Ridge clasped hands with him and took a seat.

“Oh yeah. I figured I’d show up on the radar at some point.” He laced his fingers together. “So to answer your questions, yes, I was having an affair with Marlene. Yes, it had been going on for a while. Yes, Carl knew, and . . . no, I didn’t kill her. Anything else?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact. How long is a while, and I’d like details, not just yes and no answers,” Ridge said, displaying his patented stone-cold stare.

Richmond sat back in his chair. “We were an item in high school. Of course, you know that by now. After we hooked back up at our fifteen-year class reunion, she called and wanted to get together again. I said what the hell? My marriage was on the rocks, so I told her ‘Yeah, let me know when and where.’”

Richmond appeared to be enjoying his story because he was smiling, and Ridge decided there must be a punch line coming.

“We’d meet once or twice a month, usually at the Radcliff, and she’d fuck my brains out, and then we’d go back to our lives.” He rocked back in his chair and took a drink from a coffee mug. “I’d never met a woman like Marlene. She couldn’t get enough. She could have twenty orgasms back-to-back. Sex was like a drug to her. The more she got, the more she wanted.”

Kyle leaned forward slightly and gave a disgusted grunt. “Look. Marlene and I weren’t in love if that’s what you’re gettin’ at. I’ve seen other women all along, so if she’d been seeing other men, that would have been fine with me.”

“And you say Carl knew and didn’t care?”

“Hell no. He and Marlene didn’t love each other. Their marriage was more or less planned by their families. They agreed from the start they’d be truthful with each other. Truthful, but not
faithful.
They had sex in order to have babies. Carl had his woman and Marlene had me.”

“What do you mean, Carl had his woman?”

Richmond laughed. “I mean, Carl’s been fucking his secretary from day one, and Marlene knew it. They had some ground rules. They couldn’t bring their lovers to their house, and they had to be discreet. Marlene made up excuses to come to Dallas up until the kids got in college. Then she used them as an excuse. It was a lot easier for Carl. He’s got a bike trail from his house to Leah’s through the woods. He can go to her house without ever gettin’ off his property.”

Kyle opened his desk drawer and handed Ridge a piece of paper. “Here’s the number of the woman I was with. Should be easy enough for you to check out. Just so you know, I’ll miss Marlene.”

Ridge considered how everyone thought Marlene and Boone were as different as daylight and dark, but actually they were alike. Marlene wouldn’t stand up to her parents to be with Kyle Richmond, and Boone wouldn’t stand up to Marlene to be with Tizzy.

He had one more stop to make before he left the city. He needed a gift for Gracie, but before he could get away his neighbor Ava Carlisle knocked on his door. Auburn hair, blue eyes, and all legs, she stepped inside.

“Hello, stranger,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

He pulled away. “Hello, Ava.” The rush of arousal he generally felt didn’t happen.