Кей Хупер: Whisper of Evil

Ethan frowned slightly, and Max knew he was, however reluctantly, at least half convinced that although Max might well act violently out of temper, he was unlikely to do anything rash once the anger was past.

Try as he might, the sheriff couldn't even persuade himself that he had found a motive for Max to have murdered George Caldwell, far less any evidence he might have done so. Not yet, anyway.

Still, Max didn't relax. He knew Ethan Cole.

Abruptly, the sheriff said, "So, Nell Gallagher's back in town."

"Yeah. I saw her yesterday."

"Spoke to her too, didn't you?"

Max glanced toward the front window of Ethan's corner office and realized what a nice, clear view of Main Street it offered. "We said hello. Not much more than that."

"I guess she's home to clear out the old house, settle the family estate."

"So she said."

"Home for good?"

"I doubt it."

"She still as pretty as she was back then?"

"I'd call her gorgeous," Max replied calmly. "Just like she always was."

Reflectively, Ethan said, "Yeah, but she was a bit odd, as I remember. Not so much shy as… withdrawn. A loner. With that face, though, she had boys chasing after her from about the age of twelve. All those years, and none of us made much headway with her — except for you, that is."

Since it had been a statement rather than a question, Max merely said, "She wasn't easy to get close to." He wasn't about to admit that he had gotten close in the truest sense only once — and paid a very high price for it. "Considering her family's history and how they tended to isolate themselves out there, probably not so surprising."

Ethan eyed him with lifted brows. "You think that was it? Well, maybe. The family did scare at least a few would-be suitors away from those girls, that's for sure, especially that spooky old grandmother of theirs. And I remember Dad warning me not to do anything to piss off Adam Gallagher — which taking notice of either of his girls was liable to do."

Max shrugged. "He was more possessive of Hailey, I always thought. Maybe because she was older and pretty much took her mother's place after Grace ran off."

"Running off seems to be a family trait."

Knowing what was coming, Max waited.

"It was the night of Nell's senior prom, wasn't it? She packed a bag and ran off — and left you standing there all dressed up nice and fancy with no place to go."

"That's about it," Max replied.

"Rumor had it you two had a big fight."

"Rumor got it wrong, as usual."

"So what did happen?"

"Beats me."

"You really never knew why she bolted?"

"I really never knew." With another shrug, Max said,

"I heard a bunch of garbled rumors afterward just like everybody else. Maybe one of them was true. Maybe her father did throw her out for some reason. Maybe there was someone she liked a lot better than me, and she ran off with him that night. Or maybe she found out where Grace was and wanted to be with her mother, and picked that night to go. Maybe one of those rumors was the truth. Or maybe not. The only person who could have told the truth was far away — and didn't bother to write, at least not to me."

"Ouch." Ethan smiled. "You should have aimed for the older sister instead. I always wondered why you didn't, considering you went through school with her."

"You were always more interested in Hailey than I was."

Dryly, Ethan said, "Everything in pants was interested in Hailey. She wasn't much to look at, but, Christ, that girl did put out some powerful signals. Hard to take your eyes off her when she walked down the street."

Max remained silent.

"Think there's any truth to the stories about her?"

"God knows. Something made her father disinherit her." Max offered the sheriff a wry smile. "I would have thought you'd know the truth about it if anybody would, Ethan, considering how well informed you are about everything else in Silence."

"Oh, I imagine I'll get the truth of it eventually." Ethan returned the smile. "I always do."

Deciding the interview was over, Max rose to his feet. "Yeah, well, I know you have other things to think about these days. With four suspicious — and unsolved — deaths in the last eight months, we all know where your… attention needs to be focused."

Ethan rose as well and didn't offer to shake hands. "I don't need you to remind me what my job is." As Max turned away, he added in the same pleasant tone, "Oh — Max? I did tell you not to leave town, didn't I?"

"You told me. And you don't have to worry. I'm not going anywhere."

"Make sure you don't."

All too aware that the sheriff was determined to get the last word no matter what, Max simply nodded and left the office. He hadn't realized how tense he'd been until he was outside, around the corner, and out of sight of that office window and found himself shifting his shoulders in a half-conscious effort to relax.

Damn Ethan Cole.

Bad enough to watch a boy you'd liked grow up into a man you didn't; give that man a badge and almost unlimited authority, not to mention a grudge, and things could get ugly in a hurry.

Trying to shake off a useless bitterness, Max walked to where he'd left his track parked and got in. He started the engine but didn't put it in gear right away. Instead, he found himself thinking about Nell. Again.

All last night, listening to storms rumbling around and through Silence, he had tossed and turned and thought about Nell. Wondered. What sort of life had she made for herself in the last dozen years? Why had she failed to come home even for the funerals of her father and grandmother? What lay behind Hailey's odd, brittle smile whenever the subject of her younger sister had come up?

Most of all, he had wondered if any other man had managed to get close to her even once.

She had changed, that had been plain to see. Still beautiful, he hadn't lied to Ethan about that. But the incredible green eyes that he remembered with rather terrifying intensity were guarded and wary now, and there was an air of stillness, of composure, about her that had not been present years before.

She had been anything but still back then.

Max thought of the sixteen-year-old girl he had first noticed that hot summer day nearly fourteen years ago, riding a little roan mare bareback, her indecently short shorts baring most of her long, tanned legs and the white cotton blouse she wore far too sheer for his peace of mind. She had seemed wild to him, a little fey, her smile uncertain and her sudden, almost uncontrolled laughter quicksilver in the heavy, damp air. Her honey-colored hair had swung free about her shoulders, glistening in the sunlight, and her wide green eyes had stared at him with a strange look of shock, of… recognition.

Half eager, half fearful.

Max shook off the memory of that haunting look and grimly put the truck in gear. Enough. Enough of this. Nell Gallagher was back home just long enough to collect a few photographs and dolls from her childhood, and then she'd leave Silence for good.

He wasn't fool enough to get involved with her.

"Not this time," he heard himself mutter. "Not again."

The house roused surprisingly few memories in her, good or bad, possibly because it had been heavily redecorated since she'd last seen it. It was easy to see Hailey's preferences in the dark fabrics and patterned wallpaper most of the rooms boasted, and in fact the sense of her sister was almost overpowering.

It made Nell uncomfortable in a way she hadn't expected, and that as much as anything else eventually drove her out of the house later that morning.

The Gallagher house sat on property that had once, long ago, been a thriving sugarcane plantation. Over the years, land had been sold off, and what farming was done on the remaining family property was handled by tenant farmers, most of them raising soybeans and sweet potatoes. What family wealth still existed in the last twenty-five years had consisted of income from the tenant farmers and dividends from Adam Gallagher's highly successful ventures into the stock market.