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“Positive. My daddy was a deputy then. He was in on the cleanup.” He removed the toothpick from the corner of his mouth and pointed it for emphasis. “It was the eighties.”
“Cleanup of what?” Calder asked.
“Family feud,” Weeks said. “One branch of a white-trash clan got crosswise with another branch.”
“Over the property?”
Weeks shook his head. “A litter of bird dogs. That’s what started it, anyway. It escalated from there. Resulted in a shootout at an abandoned filling station.”
“Where’s that?” Calder asked.
“As the crow flies, about a mile and a half from here. That way.” He hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “It was the O.K. Corral all over again. When the smoke cleared, eight were dead. Those that survived died in prison.”
“My daddy discovered the bodies of two women here in the house,” Sims boasted. “They’d killed each other. With thesame pistol.”
Calder said, “Wow. That is a dark history.”
“After that, nobody wanted anything to do with this place,” Weeks said. “Bad mojo. Scares people off, you know?” He looked across at Elle and motioned toward her burger basket. “Are you gonna eat the rest of your fries?”
They all helped to clear the table; then Weeks offered them the use of their phones again. “Keep it to three minutes. Just a good night.”
Dawn happily drew aside to call her husband.
Calder said, “I’m good,” and asked if he could make a pot of coffee.
Elle also declined to use her phone. She considered calling her parents but decided against it. Three minutes wasn’t enough time to explain her current situation adequately. A hurried summary would leave them distressed, not reassured.
Nor did she want to call Glenda again and be interrogated about Calder or provided with unwanted details about Jeff’s newborn son.
After Dawn surrendered her phone again, they all went into the living room, where Weeks tuned the TV to one of the playoff games they’d discussed over dinner.
Dawn discovered an abandoned book of crossword puzzles and applied herself to filling in the ones left unfinished. Elle chose a mystery novel from the bookcase.
After spending the earlier part of the day staring at her with the single-mindedness of an eagle, Calder seemed indifferent to her presence, except for when he’d looked at her to get her take on the dummy cameras.
He’d removed his familiar leather jacket and was wearing a plain white shirt, the tail untucked, the cuffs rolled back. He’d grown just enough scruff to make him look rough-and-tumbly delectable. She hated him for it.
No longer broody and temperamental, he seemed relaxed. He’d gotten increasingly chummier with the deputies and even anted up a five-dollar bill when Weeks suggested a friendly wager on the outcome of the game.
Elle observed the founding of this comradery with a skeptical eye. It was out of keeping with how artfully he had played the deputies at the dinner table. Neither of them seemed to have realized that it wasn’t the house’s history that he was interested in. He’d let them think they were impressing him with their knowledge, when actually he’d been mining information from them.
When he wanted something, Calder Hudson could be charmingly disingenuous. She should know.
When the trio of men boisterously objected to one of the umpire’s calls, she’d had enough. She replaced the novel in the bookcase. “I’m turning in.”
“Me too,” Dawn said. “These puzzles are too hard.”
Both Calder and Weeks said good night, but neither took their eyes off the television. Sims reluctantly left the party to escort Dawn and Elle up the enclosed staircase. After giving each of their bedrooms a cursory check, he wished them a good night and went back down.
Elle let Dawn have the bathroom first. When she came out, she paused in the open doorway of Elle’s room. “I’m glad you’re here, Elle. I mean, I’m notgladabout any of it, but this would be really awkward with all the—” She motioned down the staircase.
“Testosterone.”
The young woman smiled. “Frank’s got a jealous streak. He told me that Mom wasn’t crazy about me going off to parts unknown with two strange men, either. Both like knowing there’s another lady here.”
“I’m glad there’s another lady here, too,” Elle said. “Good night.”
“See you in the morning.”
