Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,76
the exact opposite of me. She loved tequila shots, professed that the only book she’d ever read was How To Marry a Millionaire and she watched the Housewives of anything.” He frowned thoughtfully and unclasped his hands.
“So, why did you marry her?” Cameron asked.
A hint of a smile curved one corner of Thomas’s thin upper lip. “I’m not so sure that I married her as she married me. She was a force like a hurricane and she’d decided I was the man who would take her away from the truck stop and into the finer things of life. She was expecting good wine, classical music and faculty parties where she could reign as queen.”
“And that wasn’t the case?”
Thomas’s hint of a smile disappeared, leaving his features once again emotionless. “Nancy hated classical music and I didn’t attend faculty parties. We coexisted for about six months before she decided to go back to work at the truck stop. I knew then that our marriage was over.”
He said the words as if he were commenting that it might rain tomorrow. As far as Cameron was concerned the man’s lack of passion was as disturbing as an eruption of the emotion.
“The pretense of our marriage continued for another six months or so before Nancy finally took off.”
“And that didn’t bother you?” Cameron asked.
Thomas shrugged. “She wasn’t happy in my world and I had no intention of changing and she understood that. I’m the first to admit that I’m a selfish man, accustomed to pleasing nobody but myself. So, the easy answer to your question is no, it didn’t bother me when Nancy left me. I was perfectly satisfied to return to the way things had been before she’d come into my life.”
Cameron wasn’t sure if he believed Thomas’s assessment of the situation or not. “What brought you to Grady Gulch?”
“My sister had driven through here one time a couple of years ago and had been charmed by the slow-moving small-town life. Last year I had enough tenure to quit my job and enough money saved to make some changes. I remembered what my sister had told me about Grady Gulch, so here I am.”
“You haven’t made many friends while you’ve been here,” Cameron observed.
Thomas raised an eyebrow in apparent amusement. “I have found few dusty cowboys or cowgirls who appreciate the fine work of Shakespeare or the soul-moving music of Mozart. And as far as I’m concerned, friends are vastly overrated.”
Pretentious ass, Cameron thought. “I’d like to know where you were on these nights.” He listed the nights of the three murders and also the date of the fire in the café.
“On the nights those poor women were murdered I was at home in bed. On the night of the fire I was driving back from Oklahoma City in the middle of the snowstorm.”
“But you arrived back here in town around midnight and the fire wasn’t set until between the hours of two and three in the morning,” Cameron said.
Once again Thomas’s eyebrow rose. “Have you had me under surveillance? What a waste of resources,” he scoffed. “Do you really believe I’m the man you’re looking for?”
Cameron leaned back in his chair and eyed the man across from him with open speculation. “To be perfectly honest with you, Mr. Manning, I’m not sure what I believe about you.”
“After driving several hours in a snowstorm to get home from Oklahoma City I can promise you I went directly to bed. I have no motive to hurt those waitresses or burn down the café. I enjoy the meals I take there, but certainly haven’t formed any kind of a relationship with anyone there that would produce ill-feelings. You certainly have no evidence that ties me to any of this, so I’d say not only are you wasting your time here, but you’re wasting mine.”
There was a definite touch of arrogance in Manning’s voice that set Cameron’s teeth on edge. It was no wonder the man had made no friends since arriving in town. He might be able to sit in the café for an hour to eat and make nice with the waitresses, but there didn’t seem to be much pleasantness beneath the surface.
Thomas stood and shrugged on his coat, carefully buttoning each and every button as Cameron sat and watched. When he was finished he looked at the lawman and offered him a faint smile. “If you have any further questions for me, I’ll be more than happy to give you the phone number