Page 10 of Thick as Thieves

She became painfully aware of him, standing motionless and silent, watching her. To avoid eye contact, she looked around and took stock of the workshop. Fluorescent tubes augmented the natural light pouring in from four skylights. Two ceiling fans as large as airplane propellers circulated from the ends of long rods. She could identify some of the tools of his trade, while the purposes of other apparatus and pieces of machinery were unknown to her.

A large draftsman’s table occupied a far corner. A light fixture with a perforated metal shade was suspended above it. Next to it was a desk with a computer setup. Except for the sawdust on the floor beneath the table where he’d been working, everything was neatly arranged and appeared well maintained.

Finally her gaze returned to him.

He shifted his stance slightly, the soles of his boots scraping against the floor and disturbing the sawdust. “Sorry about…” He made a small hand gesture in the general direction of her midsection.

“Thank you.” She didn’t dwell on that. “So when you listened to the voice mail yesterday, you recognized my name.”

“Yeah. Rumor had been circulating for months that the youngest of the Maxwell girls was back. Living out there alone. Expecting a baby.”

In all the time she’d been back, this was the first time she had come face-to-face with the gossip about her. “Do you know the rest of it?”

“Don’t know who or where the baby’s father is.”

She ignored the implied question. “Are you acquainted with my family’s history?”

“I grew up here.” He said it as though that were explanation enough, and it was. Everybody knew her family history.

“You ever learn where your dad went, what happened to him?” he asked. “Did the money ever turn up?”

She didn’t address those questions, either. “Are you open to discussing my project, Mr. Burnet?”

“I told you. Discussion would be a waste of time.”

“You won’t even consider it?”

“Don’t know how plainer I can make it.”

“Are you afraid that being associated with the youngest Maxwell girl will dent your reputation?”

The corner of his stern mouth twitched, but it couldn’t be counted as a real smile. “My reputation is already dented. The thing is, your project would involve more work than I take on at any one time. I specialize in small jobs. Ones with a short shelf life. That way, I’m not overcommitted or overextended. I don’t like being tied down. I’d rather keep my work schedule flexible.”

She crossed her arms and looked him up and down. “That sounded like bullshit.”

“It was.”

Chapter 3

When the ball game ended in the tie-breaking tenth inning, the crowd at Burnet’s Bar and Billiards had begun to thin out. Now, only a few customers remained in the popular lakeside watering hole, which seemed on the verge of toppling into the opaque water of Caddo Lake at any given moment. But since it hadn’t slipped from its pilings in the forty years that it had been there, no one worried too much about that happening.

Of the eight pool tables, only one was currently in use. A hotly contested tournament among a group of very vocal and rowdy young men was winding down.

A man and woman, seated across from each other in one of the dark, semi-private booths, had been engaged in a hushed but heated argument for the past hour. Seeming t

o have called a tenuous truce, they left the booth and headed for the exit. The woman flounced out ahead of the man, who punched the exit door hard with the heel of his hand as he followed her.

“I think she’s got the advantage, and he’s in for a rough night,” the bartender remarked to the only drinker left seated at the bar.

Without much interest, Ledge said, “Looks like.” He remained hunched over his near-empty glass of bourbon. The color of the liquor reminded him of something he didn’t want to be reminded of. Arden Maxwell’s eyes were that color. Hair the color of corn silk. An abundance of loopy curls.

“You’re entitled to a free refill, you know.”

Ledge looked from his glass to the bartender. “How’s that?”

“Last holdout of the night gets a top-off on the house.”

“Oh, yeah?”