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“Isn’t there due process or something?” Agnes said. “They can’t just kill people.” He looked at her steadily, and she thought, Of course they can. “Never mind.”
The ensuing silence was filled with flamingo honking. It had been going on all along, but it was easier to tune out now that there were two and the under-note of panicked loneliness was gone. The honking was now a duet of “Can you believe we’re stuck with these morons in this godforsaken backwater?” which was much better than Cerise’s earlier solo of “My God, I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone. ...”
“I’m glad you work for the government instead of the mob,” she said. “I mean, that’s a great retirement plan, right? Health benefits?” Shane put his arm around her.
His arm was nice, a warm weight on her shoulder without really weighing her down. She let it stay there. It was a friendly arm, she decided, not a sexual arm. She wasn’t going back on her decision to not have sex with him by not moving away from him now. They were pals. That was it. That was a pal arm.
She looked up at him. “Is it okay if I pretend you’re an insurance salesman for a while?”
“Sure,” Shane said.
“How was your day, dear?
“I almost sold a policy, but the client gave me the finger.”
“Well, don’t give up. You’ll get Salesman of the Year yet.”
“Yeah, I want that gold watch.”
They sat again in companionable silence—theirs, not the flamingos’—until the mosquitoes got too bad, and then Agnes reluctantly moved away from his warmth and stood up. “Time to go in.”
She looked back toward the house, where Lisa Livia’s bedroom on the second floor was lit up. “It’s nice to see the second-floor lights on. Makes the house look happier.”
He looked back at the house, too. “That Lisa Livia’s room?”
“Yep.”
“Why didn’t you take a bedroom up there instead of that dark little housekeeper’s room?”
Agnes thought about her big, cool, blue bedroom in the attic. “I was making a master suite on the attic floor, for when Taylor moved out here with me. It was going to be a symbol of our commitment, moving into that bedroom together. But he kept putting off coming out here, and I kept getting sidetracked by other things, and I think ... if I moved up there without him, it meant I knew I was going to be alone, that he wasn’t coming out.” She smiled at him. “You should take the other bedroom on the second floor. Two of the bedrooms are full of wedding gifts, but the one next to Lisa Livia’s is made up for guests.”
He shook his head. “Too far away from you. I can sleep on the air mattress across the doorway.” He stood up.
Agnes nodded, feeling guilty as all hell. “Okay. Seems awfully uncomfortable.”
“I’ve had a lot worse,” Shane said.
He walked her down the dock, stopping with her when she slowed at the path for the barn.
“Could you check on Garth for me?” she said, squinting down the path. “He’s all alone out there in the barn, and I feel funny going down there at night. A guy should be checking on him.”
“I don’t want you alone in the house.”
Agnes shook her head. “I’m not alone. Lisa Livia is in there. And you’re right here. Somebody would have to be suicidal to try anything now. Besides, bad things come in threes. I’ve been attacked in there three times already. I’m safe.”
“Yeah, that works,” Shane said.
“The whole town knows you’re here now,” she said. “The place is getting to be like Grand Central Station. I’m not alone anymore. I’m safe.”
He shook his head, but he let her go up to the house alone as he turned toward the path for the barn, and she felt warmed by his concern.
Okay, she thought as she went up the steps, he’s a killer. But he killed for the government, so that was ... well, disturbing.
But the thing was, of all the people she knew, the people she trusted most were Joey, Shane, and Lisa Livia, and she trusted Carpenter, too, and he was Shane’s partner. Meanwhile people like chefs and county inspectors were venal and vile and treacherous. So ...
Confusing.
She went through the screened porch and into the kitchen and screamed, “OH!” when she saw somebody standing by the basement door, realizing a second later that it was the Venus.
