Sherryl Woods - Along Came Trouble

I t was two hours after his encounter with Daisy by the time King tore into the sheriff’s office. He’d missed Tucker by minutes everywhere he looked…and he had pretty much covered the whole blasted county.

Walker had been downright evasive when King had demanded to know where his son had gone when he’d left Swan Ridge.

“You just tell me one thing,” King had demanded when he arrived at the neighboring estate. “Is he with that woman?”

“Can’t say,” Walker said, annoyingly poker-faced.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Why are you here?” Walker countered. “Or do I even need to ask? Daisy’s behind it, right? Tucker said you two were going to get all worked up over him having any contact with Mrs. Chandler.”

“Well, do you blame us?” King had retorted indignantly. “Not five minutes after her husband dies, she’s sniffing around Tucker again.”

“I don’t think it’s like that,” Walker said, defending Tucker with brotherly loyalty. “She turned to a friend for a little help.”

King snorted. “Then you’re as blind as my son where that she-devil is concerned.”

Walker didn’t take the bait. “You got any other questions? I have a whole lot of things I could be doing around here, like helping the forensics guys gather hard evidence.”

“You ought to start with locking up the prime suspect,” King had groused.

“I would if I had one,” Walker countered. “Anything else?”

“Where’s she staying?”

Walker looked him directly in the eye and said with a perfectly straight face, “I don’t know.”

King regarded his son-in-law with disbelief. “You’re in charge of this investigation, am I right? Tucker is sensible enough to leave it to you?”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t know where in the hell your prime suspect is staying?”

“I repeat, nobody has said she’s a suspect,” Walker shot back.

“If she’s not, then you’re a fool,” King declared. “A woman who would cut the heart right out of a man like my son is capable of anything.”

“That’s not the kind of thing you need to be running around town saying to just anybody,” Walker admonished him.

“Why not?”

“You ever heard of slander?”

“Last I heard, you can’t accuse somebody of slander when they’re speaking the truth.”

“As you see it. Unless you’ve got investigative skills I know nothing about, you don’t actually know a damn thing.”

“Facts are facts,” King had said stubbornly.

“Go home,” Walker advised. “Have a mint julep or something else that’ll settle your nerves. Talking to Tucker when you’re all riled up like this will be counterproductive.”

“I’ll talk to my own son when I damn well please.”

“First you have to find him, and my hunch is he won’t be anywhere you’re likely to think to look.”

Walker had certainly been right about that. King had checked Tucker’s place as well as the boardwalk, and now he was going to the most obvious place of all, the sheriff’s office. Maybe Tucker had come to his senses and locked Mary Elizabeth away behind bars. King could always dream.

“Where is he?” he asked Michele, already pushing open the door to Tucker’s office.

“Not in,” Michele told him. “He’s on vacation.”

King stared at her, mouth agape. “Since when?”

“Since an hour ago. He called in early this morning to take the day off, then called back to say he was taking two weeks off. Walker’s in charge, but he’s not here, either, in case you’re wondering.”

King sank down on a chair beside the dispatcher. “What the devil is my son thinking?”

“He was overdue for a vacation,” Michele pointed out. “He’d been getting downright cranky lately. I, for one, am relieved.”

King frowned at her. Either she was completely unaware of the reason for King’s sour mood, or she was deliberately choosing to ignore it and play dumb by acting as if this vacation were nothing out of the ordinary.

“Maybe so, but something tells me he’s not on a beach in the Caribbean,” he snapped.

In fact, King was one hundred and ten percent certain he would find Tucker somewhere in the vicinity of the widow Chandler. When he was calm enough to think rationally, a part of him couldn’t blame Tucker. The boy had been raised with a sense of decency and honor. The woman he’d once loved was in big trouble, and she’d come to him for help. What kind of man would turn his back on her at a time like that, no matter how devastated he’d been years ago when she’d walked out on him?

And, to be honest, there had been a time when King had liked Mary Elizabeth just fine, a time when he’d hoped for a union between her and his son, but every bit of sentiment he’d felt toward her had died the day she’d rejected Tucker so she could marry that weasel Chandler. King was not inclined to welcome her back into the family fold, especially not when she was caught up in a murder investigation that could wind up with mud being slung at anyone around her.

He shot a sly look at Michele, a big woman with a bigger heart. She was every bit as protective of Tucker as he was, the only difference being that she was willing to protect him against King. In fact, she considered it her solemn duty.

“Do me a favor. Try that beeper thing of his,” he suggested casually.

“I told you, he’s on vacation.”

“Darlin’, you and I both know that man hasn’t spent a day in years without that beeper turned on. If it’s with him, he’ll answer you.”

“And then?” she asked suspiciously.

“You let me talk to him.”

She was already shaking her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not? What’s the harm?”

“For one thing, he’s my boss. You’re not. For another, he left very specific instructions that he wasn’t to be disturbed.”

“By anyone?”

“No, by you,” she said bluntly, then shrugged. “Sorry.”

Just then a call came in on the nonemergency line. Looking relieved, Michele reached for the phone. “Yes, he’s here,” she said, sounding resigned. She turned to King. “It’s for you. It’s Daisy.”

King took the phone eagerly. Maybe his daughter had been able to use her powers of persuasion on Walker to get some information. “Yes?”

“Have you talked to him?”

“I can’t find him,” he admitted.

“Try the marina. I just talked to Bobby and tried to get him on our side. He was acting all weird, you know, the way he gets when he disagrees with me but doesn’t want to stir up a ruckus. I’m betting Tucker and Mary Elizabeth were right there, hiding in plain sight, as it were.”

King stood up, grateful for the tip. “I’m on my way. I’ll keep you posted. By the way, you need to tell that husband of yours that he’s a Spencer now. We expect loyalty from family members.”

“Actually, I’m an Ames now,” Daisy reminded him. “But I get what you’re saying. Unfortunately, Walker is an independent thinker, especially when it comes to work. That’s the one arena where my influence is limited.”

“More’s the pity,” King muttered. He handed the phone back to the dispatcher. “If my son happens to show up here, tell him I’m looking for him.”

She grinned. “Oh, I think he’s already well aware of that.”

King frowned at her. “Do you sass him like that?”

Her grin spread. “Whenever I get the chance. You have a good evening now, you hear?”

King shook his head. If he’d had a woman like that working for him, he’d have fired her by her second day on the job. Of course, he conceded, if a woman like Michele were working for him, she probably would have quit within the first hour.