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

marriage work. She’d dutiful y appeared by his side at every chicken dinner, every smal -town parade, every campaign stop. The year of finishing school her grandfather had insisted on had made her poised. Early years in Europe with parents who had too much money and too many interests to pay attention to a little girl had taught her to fend for herself and never let them see how much their neglect hurt. For the rest of the campaign, she had smiled despite the torment.
    And on the day after the hard-won election victory, she had insisted Larry fire the campaign manager he’d slept with, denying the woman the prominent place on his staff she had clearly expected.
    “She goes, or I wil leave you now and tel the whole world why,” she had threatened him quietly as he savored the headlines in the local paper. She had grown up over the course of the campaign. Now it was time he did the same.
    It had been three months before he’d taken another lover. Another six before he traded that one in. Liz had known about most, if not al , of them, but with each one her wil to fight had lessened. Her respect for her husband had vanished, and with it, the last remnants of her love. Her hopes and dreams had faded, including the plans for a family. Even if she hadn’t decided against bringing children into such a marriage, Larry’s belatedly announced timetable would have precluded it. He wanted his career on a firm footing before any children kept her from devoting her ful attention to him, he had told her when she’d dared to broach the subject of starting the family they’d once talked about.
    That coldly calculated timetable of his had been yet another reminder that he wasn’t the man she’d thought him to be. Even so, it had taken her a long time—too long—to admit defeat.
    Now, though, as she watched her husband’s shrouded body being removed from their house, she knew the humiliation was final y over.
    Or was it? Unless Tucker could find the evidence to save her, even in death Larry Chandler was going to find one more way to rip her life to shreds.
    4
    T ucker filed a glass with water and ice, then stood staring out the kitchen window at Mary Elizabeth. What had she been through in the last six years?
    What had driven her to want to put an end to her golden marriage? Had it been bad enough that she’d been driven to take drastic measures? Had she believed, even for an instant, that divorce wouldn’t end whatever hel Chandler was putting her through?
    The instant the thought crossed his mind, he banished it. He would not let himself consider for one second the possibility that she was guilty of murder. Every person deserved a presumption of innocence, but it was easier for him to get to that point with Mary Elizabeth. Past history, deep feelings, gut instinct al intertwined to assure that he saw her only in the most positive light.
    Which was why he’d turned the case over to Walker from the get-go. Tucker didn’t have a prayer of maintaining objectivity. He’d blindly rushed to her defense in a math class cheating scandal in tenth grade. He’d done it again on countless other occasions when her grandfather had found fault with one thing or another that she’d done. Each and every time Tucker had believed with everything in him that Mary Elizabeth was the innocent victim. Even after she’d turned her back on him years ago, he believed in her now.
    How stupid was that? he wondered cynical y. But breaking off a relationship was a far cry from murder. Things would have to be beyond desperate for a strong, deeply moral person to cross that kind of line.
    Walker found him where he remained standing at the window, the glass of water stil clutched in his hand, continuing to ponder whether things had gotten that desperate for Mary Elizabeth.
    “You okay?” his brother-in-law asked.
    “I’ve been better.”
    “How’s she doing?”
    “She’s a strong woman,” Tucker said.
    “No hysterics? No grief?” Walker