Excerpt
I was still thinking about something Guy said: If the P.A.’s office could indict they would. They’d go for the maximum – the death penalty. Guy is an influential member of the government. His comment would look sweet in the papers. He’s affable too and good-looking, he’s tall and fit – he works out at the gym everyday – and the ladies just love him. He’s single, never been married and he rents a beach house on a secluded cay near the lighthouse. He’s the most sought after bachelor on the island. Women far outweigh men in his constituency so basically he’s got a pretty secure job here in Thirsty Cove. He was some kind of war hero during the war in Nam, a Navy SEAL or something impressive like that – a real hero which adds to his attraction for his voting public.
He’s the epitome of the sharp-dressing lawyer who studies his opening and closing arguments in front of the mirror, checks his teeth, walks with a purpose, practices his comments for the newspaper, and kisses up to judges. He’s a smart guy and has it all. Guy’s approachable and listens to me. He takes my suggestions as if he were reading from the Bible. I’m not saying he’s in my pocket, nothing like it. But Guy believes I want to catch the bad guy, and so he listens to me. We have a great working relationship.
He was real up-in-arms over Leona’s murder. With an election year approaching, Guy wanted to appear tough on criminals. He was already making comments about the sentencing. One thing for sure, he’s got huge balls when it comes to campaigning. He’s ruthless.
Death penalty cases are always high-profile cases. He’d already been sticking his finger into my investigation. He knew his boundaries, so I could just tell him to fuck off when he started to get in my way. He has some good ideas, however. I usually listen to him, hear what’s on his mind, feel him out a little, consider his motives, the election, all the variables that might be motivating him to act. Then, I tell him to go away. Usually, he does but he’s like a dark cloud sometimes. He shows up at the wrong time and pisses on progress – slows things down. And, because he’s a lawyer, he’s a talker.
When I first met Guy, I didn’t like him. He seemed a bit uppity. Then I figured out he wanted to prosecute wrong-doers as much as I wanted to bring them in. Our courtship was a little bumpy in the beginning, but over the past eleven years he’s been here, we’ve smoothed over all the rough edges. It goes like this: I tell him who the enemy is. He brings charges against them. If we don’t have an enemy we can finger, he doesn’t charge.
As a lawman, I set the standards. I like to believe they are higher standards. We measure offenders by the fistful here. Sometimes we need to tweak our policies to fit an offender’s crime. We’re alone out here. No overseeing agencies back us up. No help finds its way to us. We are the predominant decision-makers between jail and the offender. Guess who wins? We’re not on the Deliverance-side-of-the-river, or anything like it, but we do make the rules.
Guy never oversteps me – he learned this early on. It’s a true working alliance.

Only a day had passed since we found Leona dead at her home. I was walking toward the local drugstore while making my rounds and I spotted Divinity run breathlessly past Millie. Millie, in her early seventies, looked like a frail, deflated old grandmother. “Old Millie” is what people call her around town.
Divinity nearly knocked Old Millie down in her haste. Millie’s eyes rolled in disgust as she pressed her back against the drug store door as the girl raced by her. Millie used the ‘F’ word seldom but this time she murmured it with her lips pursed tightly. I got out to check on Old Millie.
“Stupid little fucking brat.” I heard her grumble through her oversized false teeth as I approached her from behind.
“You okay, Millie?” My mouth was still aching from a tussle I’d had the evening before. I was standing just outside the doorway and could hear Candy and Divinity inside talking about Leona. I leaned back a bit and saw Candy behind the makeup counter. She was startled by her daughter’s abrupt and noisy interruption. Millie started in about the lack of manners in kids these days. I was trying to overhear the conversation inside the store. But Millie kept me at bay harping on about the disrespectful youth of today’s world compared to the way it used to be.
“Mom! Mom!” Divinity screamed up to her mother.
I would’ve gotten ‘what for’ if my mother had seen me do something like that.
“For heaven’s sake, Divinity, you lower your voice and show a little decorum!”
My mother’s hand would’ve slapped me up one side and down the other.
I was eavesdropping yet still trying to listen to Millie at the same time.
“Mom! It’s about Mrs. Malouf!”
Why, that little brat could’ve knocked me down running past me that way.
My body was wedged between the door jamb and Millie and although I was making eye contact with her, I was leaning back trying to hear the conversation going on inside.
“Hold it down. Now, calmly, talk to me. You’re being very disruptive, Divinity, I’m at work, for heaven’s sake! Slowly. What’s all this about Mrs. Malouf?”
I have a mind to go in and tell her mother. Tell her what a lousy job she’s done with that child!
“She’s dead, Mom.” I heard Divinity whisper it loudly.
That’s when Millie finally stopped and limped away, still ranting on about Divinity. Divinity continued to breathlessly pant for added emphasis even after she told her mother.
Candy mouthed the word, “What?” Only then did she realize she’d only briefly thought it and hadn’t spoken it at all. Her eyes dropped toward the colorful bottles of cheap colognes, all with names and scents meant to attract the opposite sex: Obsession, Rampage, Passion, Romance, Cinderella, Femme Fatale. The bottles lined the glass shelf sprinkled with metallic sparkles and fake snow cloth, a look Candy thought enhanced the products.
“Wait!” Gravely Candy ordered, but only so she could take a second to pause. She stared at her daughter with overly-painted and wide eyes, then she stood up slowly and braced herself on the counter in front of her. From the looks of her I thought she might topple over.
“Wait, what did you just say?” Candy’s voice sounded dry and low.
“I said, Mrs. Malouf is dead, mom!”
This time Candy reacted as if her daughter had slapped her across the face.
“Jesus Christ Almighty!” At first her masked Texas accent snuck out. “Jesus Christ Almighty!” Candy repeated this time dropping her southern drawl.
“Oh my God. Divinity, are you sure? When did you hear this? Who told you?” Candy shuffled from behind the counter toward Divinity, extra skin swung under her outstretched arms as she advanced on her daughter. Candy grabbed Divinity’s pink fleshy arms in both hands and looked sternly into her child’s face.
“Mom!” When Divinity winced at her Mother’s grip, Candy slacked off.
“Divinity, where did you hear this?”
“I just saw Minnie. You know? Minnie Mussen? She said her dad said the news would be out in this Thursday’s paper. Mom, let go, you’re hurting me!” Divinity wriggled from her mother’s hands. Candy released her and covered her mouth to avoid letting slip some unexpected utterance. The effort lasted only seconds before Candy rushed toward the school supplies where Kim Stafford was stocking shelves. She left Divinity at the make-up counter.
“Kim, guess what I just heard?” Soon the news would spread as fast as a fire from a cigarette thrown out of a car into tumbleweed.
As I watched and listened, Candy’s gossipy mouth started to irk me. Candy’s cosmetic counter was located near the front door. Anyone within fifty feet could’ve heard her. Just then, she turned and saw me standing there. How could she miss me? My body blocked the entire door opening. Anymore, she lowered her eyes from mine if she saw me coming.
You see, two years ago, Candy’s claim to fame at thirty-something was that she was enormously overweight. Incredibly, however, she dropped the weight within a couple of months. Evidence of her lost weight now appeared like half-filled water balloons from under her upper arms and under her depleted bosom. Only the pharmacist, after repeated inventories, finally made the connection between the unaccounted-for, missing amphetamines and Candy’s miraculous drop in pounds. The store didn’t press charges and they didn’t fire her.
I was a surprised when she said something to me about my lip.
“Hi Harv.” She looked at me like a dog who’d just gotten cracked on the head by its master.
“Candy.” I looked over her head and past her toward Kim, who at once decided not to get involved and started stocking shelves again.
“That lip sure looks bad. What happened, Harvey?” Her concern was as fake as her poorly applied make-up.
I told her, “Don’t worry about it.” We didn’t need another one of Candy’s senseless rumors traveling through town.
“Well, it looks bad. If you don’t get something on it soon, it’s gonna get infected. It already looks like it might be. We have some salve in the back by the pharmacy.”
“Like I said, don’t worry about it.” I slowly and deliberately turned to go, but not before I gave her a hard look.