Trinity Harbor 3 - Along Came Trouble by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

higher stake in proving her innocence than she did, not even Tucker.
    Slowly she climbed the hil back to the house, aware that Tucker was waiting on the terrace, his expression inscrutable, his eyes shaded by mirrored aviator sunglasses as he watched her approach.
    “Feel better?” he asked when she neared.
    “Not real y. I guess the soothing effects of my hideout don’t extend to murder.” She regarded him curiously. “I’m surprised you didn’t come after me to make sure I wasn’t taking off.”
    “The thought never crossed my mind.”
    “Real y?”
    “Real y.” He regarded her worriedly. “Mary Elizabeth, this is going to get out of hand real y fast. Walker’s had to cal the forensics team and get the local medical examiner in here. Once Doc Jones heads out this way, the media won’t be far behind. You ready to face that?”
    “Can’t we leave?” She shook her head and resolutely squared her shoulders. “Never mind. Of course we can’t. Can I go inside, put on something more appropriate?”
    “No. It’s a crime scene.”
    “Then I guess this wil have to do,” she said, smoothing down Daisy’s il -fitting jeans. “Your sister’s going to be thril ed to see her clothes on TV.
    She’l probably burn them.”
    “Or give them away,” he agreed.
    Then, for the first time since she’d awakened to find him staring at her, he took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. The gesture gave her the strength to face whatever was ahead.
    “You stay put,” he said. “You should be safe enough out here for a time. I’l get you something to drink and be right back. Powel ought to be here soon, too.”
    She nodded and watched him go. She could do this, she told herself. She’d faced the media a thousand times in the last six years. She was good at it, a natural at spinning a story. She would make Larry proud of her one last time.
    An hour later, sheriff’s deputies and media were swarming al over the place. Liz stood by and tried very hard to distance herself from the reason for their presence. She didn’t want to think too much about the scene inside her home, about Larry—a man she had once loved with al her heart—being dead, about the vicious words he’d hurled at her the last time they’d talked. That exchange would live with her forever. It was a side of her husband she’d never seen before, a side that was ruthless and manipulative.
    He’d made it seem as if he’d been devastated by her request for a divorce, when nothing could have been further from the truth. They’d both known for a long time that the marriage was a shel of what it should have been. There had been no passion for years now. There were no kids to distract from the fact that they had nothing in common. Larry had wanted her for her name and connections, and for Swan Ridge, second only to King Spencer’s Cedar Hil in terms of a prestigious address in the county.
    Even the date of their wedding had been calculated for maximum political benefit, just when the campaign season was heating up. Somehow she had missed that when he’d been courting her with lavish gifts and whispered words of love, when they’d talked far into the night sharing their idealistic dreams for a better world that together they could help to shape. She’d been blinded by his charm and his rhetoric. Somehow she had completely missed the shal owness beneath it.
    Her first clue that she’d been conned had been the lover she’d found in his hotel room when she’d unexpectedly joined him on the campaign trail.
    They’d been married for less than two months at the time. Larry had apologized, said the relationship was over, but the woman hadn’t accepted it yet.
    He’d sworn it would never happen again, and bought Liz a diamond and amethyst necklace he’d told her reminded him of the sparkle in her eyes. Maybe if he’d exchanged the extravagant necklace for a sincere apology, she would have believed him.
    Even so, Liz had been determined to make the