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With a sense of unreality, Rachel watched the tow truck back up to her car. Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since Bonner had fired her. She'd felt so ill and exhausted that she hadn't been able to summon the energy to do anything but stay by the car. Half an hour earlier, a police officer driving by had spotted the reflection of the late-afternoon sun off the car's windshield and come to investigate.
The moment he saw her, she'd known she was in trouble. He'd swept his eyes over her and then spat. "Carol Dennis told me you'd come back to town. Not a smart thing to do, Miz Snopes."
She'd told him her last name was Stone—she'd legally reverted to her maiden name after Dwayne's death—but even though she'd shown him her driver's license, he'd refused to address her by anything but Snopes. He'd ordered her to move the Impala, and when she'd told him it no longer ran, he'd called for a tow.
As she watched Dealy squeeze from the cab of his truck and lumber toward her rear bumper to attach the hook, she dropped Edward's hand and sprang forward to block the man's way. The skirt of her old blue chambray dress, cleaned now from the pounding she'd given it in the river, twisted around her legs. "Don't do this! Please. We're not harming anyone here."
He hesitated and looked over toward Armstrong.
But the wiry, straw-haired police officer with the creased face and small, unkind eyes, remained unmoved. "Get out of the way, Miz Snopes. This is private land, not a parking lot."
"I know that, but it won't be for long. Please. Can't you cut me a little slack?"
"Move aside, Miz Snopes, or I'll have you arrested for criminal trespass."
She saw that he was taking pleasure in her helplessness, and she knew she couldn't sway him. "My name is Stone."
Edward slipped his hand back in hers, and she watched Dealy fasten the hook to the rear of her car.
"You sure wasn't anxious to call yourself by anything but Snopes a few years back," Armstrong said. "Me and my wife was regulars at the Temple. Shelby even turned over an inheritance she got when her mother died so she could help out all those orphans. It wasn't much money, but it meant a lot to her, and now she can't seem to forget about the way she was cheated."
"I'm—I'm sorry about that, but surely you can see that my son and I haven't profited."
"Somebody did."
"Problem here, Jake?"
Her heart sank as she heard the soft, toneless voice she recognized only too well. Edward pressed against her side. She'd thought she'd seen the end of Bonner yesterday, and she wondered what new malevolence he was getting ready to inflict on her.
He took the scene in with those impassive silver eyes. She'd told him she was staying with a friend, but now he could see that she'd lied. He watched the Impala being h
oisted and studied the meager pile of her belongings tossed out on the ground.
She hated having him look at her things. She didn't want him to see how little she had left.
Armstrong nodded a curt greeting. "Gabe. Seems the Widow Snopes here has been squatting on private land."
"Is that so?"
While Gabe watched, the officer once again began to question her. Now that he had an audience, his manner became even more overbearing. "You got a job, Miz Snopes?"
She refused to look at Gabe. Instead, she watched her Impala being towed away. "Not at the moment. And my name is Stone."
"No job, and no money from the looks of. things." Armstrong rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. His skin was florid, she noticed, the complexion of a man who burned easily but was too stupid to stay out of the sun. "Maybe I should take you in for vagrancy. Now wouldn't that be a story for the newspapers. G. Dwayne Snopes's fancy wife arrested for vagrancy."
She could see him relishing the prospect. Edward pressed his cheek to her hip, and she patted him. "I'm not a vagrant."
"Sure looks that way to me. If you're not a vagrant, tell me how you're supporting that boy of yours."
A flutter of panic went through her, an urge to pick Edward up in her arms and run. A flicker in Armstrong's small, dark eyes told her he'd noticed her fear. "I have money," she said quickly.
"Sure you do," he drawled.
Without looking at Gabe, she dug her hand into the pocket of her dress and withdrew the money he'd given her, one hundred dollars.
Armstrong sauntered over and glanced down at what she held. "That won't hardly cover Dealy's towing fee. What're you planning to do then?"
"I'll get a job."
