I Want Candy by Susan Donovan Read Free Book Online

with irritation. “I guess you better just go ahead and sign her up as my guest for lunch today,” she told Mr. Miller, grabbing Candy’s hand. “Come on. We’ll have to hurry or that hussy Lorraine Estes will try to steal my seat.”
    *   *   *
     
    Turner pushed away from the dining room table, already regretting that he’d stopped by his mother’s for lunch. The combination of too much home cooking, a shortage of sleep, and Candy Carmichael on the brain would make it nearly impossible to stay focused on work that afternoon.
    Reggie grinned at him from across the table. “Anything new in your world?”
    Turner shrugged. “Same shit. Starting another drug task force operation out in Preston Valley. I swear to God, it seems like the only new businesses opening up around here are meth labs.”
    Reggie laughed and gathered up his dishes. “Good to know the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Cataloochee County.”
    “Right. How about the dealership? Business picking up?”
    “No,” Reggie said, frowning. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t get any worse. We only moved fourteen cars and three pickups last week. Worst week this fiscal year.”
    Turner glanced quickly toward the kitchen, making sure his mother was occupied. “So, listen. Check this out—the task force is looking into what’s going on out at the Spivey place.”
    Reggie’s eyes got big and he leaned forward across the table. “Bobby Ray Spivey?”
    He nodded.
    “Oh.” Reggie pursed his lips. “And?”
    Turner looked at his brother like he was crazy. “You know full well what the and is, Reg. This might give me the break I’ve been looking for with Junie.”
    “Ah, man.” His brother groaned softly and peeked over his shoulder at their mother, still busy at the sink, her back to them. Obviously, Reggie didn’t want Mama getting all riled up by the topic of conversation any more than Turner did. “You’ve already been all over that,” Reggie whispered, crossing his big arms over his chest. “You spent years looking, Turner, and you never found a thing linking that slimeball to what happened to Junie. Come on, now. I know it would be a relief to have something— somebody —to blame for her death, but—”
    “I don’t want relief,” Turner snapped. “I want answers. I want the truth.”
    After a few silent seconds, Reggie muttered something indiscernible under his breath and stared at the tablecloth.
    “What?”
    When his brother looked up again he shook his head back and forth. “Junie drove out to that place to give that idiot a piece of her mind about how he treated his kid, who was in her class, right?”
    “Right.”
    “Then she left. She lost control of the car and ran off the road, T. Just because that Spivey loser was the last person to see her don’t mean he did anything to her. The man was found at home watching TV, right? His kid cried when he heard about Junie—she was his favorite teacher—and all this time you and J.J. never found a shred of evidence that the Spiveys had anything to do with the accident. I think maybe…” Reggie’s voice trailed off. “Ah, hell. Forget it.”
    Turner laughed bitterly. “That’s it? I don’t get the punch line? Why stop now?” The heat of anger began to rise up his neck. Reggie was the only person in the world he trusted with work-related shit. Reggie had been an MP in the army for eight years before he came home to run their dad’s Ford dealership, so he knew his share about law enforcement. And Reggie and J.J. were the only two people who knew of his suspicions about Spivey. So it pissed him off that this was the kind of reaction he got. The truth was that having a multiagency task force poking around Bobby Ray Spivey’s life might unearth something that Turner had missed, especially now that an undercover DEA agent had wheedled his way inside that group of lowlifes who hung out in Preston Valley.
    “I just think it’s time, is all,” Reggie said, his