Grave Secret Page 0,69

through life without you. Does that sound too clingy? I can try to be more independent."

"You are independent. You make a lot of decisions, every day," he said. "It's just easier for me to make the practical arrangements. Then you do your specialty. Then we leave, and it's my turn again."

Somehow that didn't sound completely even.

"Where's Manfred?" he asked, suddenly, as if someone had poked him with a needle.

"Gosh, I don't know. He told me to call him if I needed him. He didn't say where he was going or what he was going to do when he got there."

"He really has a crush on you."

"Yeah, I know."

"How about it? If I was to vanish, would you take up with the Pierced Wonder?"

He said that in a teasing voice, but he wanted a reply. I wasn't foolish enough to actually ponder the question and answer it seriously. "Are you kidding? That'd be like having hamburger after having steak," I said loyally. I admitted to myself that there were days when I sure craved a hamburger, and I didn't doubt there would be times when Tolliver eyed other women with appreciation. If he could just keep that urge to the eyeing level, I could do the same. I knew who I loved.

"So, after reading the files, which one do you favor in the role of shooter?" he said more cheerfully.

"Any of them could have done it," I said. "It's depressing to think that. But faced with losing a substantial hunk of a fortune, I imagine any of them could have decided hell no. Even Chip Moseley. He's got to have hopes of marrying Lizzie, after all these years of being together. And it wouldn't be human, not to count on all that money. He'd have a better idea of the size of the Joyce estate than most boy-friends might have, since he runs the big ranch. I'll bet he sees a lot of other financial papers, too, on the various Joyce businesses."

"Yes, I'm sure he does. I'm inclined to dismiss the idea that it's Lizzie, since she was the one who called you in. She had to know that there was a chance you were really able to do what you say you can, so if she was the killer, she'd never have risked it. She'd know that her granddad's death-well, it wasn't an out-and-out murder, but the snake triggered the heart attack and the snake wasn't flying through the air by accident. Someone pitched it at him. Maybe they thought it would bite him, and that would be all she wrote, but instead Rich had a heart attack, which was even better. All the person watching had to do was prevent him from getting to his cell phone. Mission accomplished."

"That was cold," I said, "and the person able to do something like that is really vicious."

"Do you think that the shooter was aiming at me, or at you?" Tolliver asked. "I realize there's no real way to know, but that would sure be interesting."

"Especially for you."

He laughed, just a little, but it was a sound I'd missed.

A knock at the door interrupted me as I'd started to frame an answer.

We both sighed. "I'm tired of having people knock at our door and come in to tell us bad stuff," I said. "We're sitting targets, here in a hotel." I didn't know how it'd be any different if we had our own home, but somehow I felt it would be.

I used the peephole, and to my surprise I saw Manfred. Since we'd just been talking about him, I felt a little self-conscious when I opened the door to let him in. And he flashed a very aware look at me, a look that said he knew he was on my mind.

"How's the invalid?" he said. Tolliver came out of the bedroom then, and Manfred said, "Hey, bro! How's getting shot?"

"Overrated," Tolliver said. We all sat. I offered Manfred a Coca-Cola or a bottle of water, and he took the Coke.

"I heard about the private eye," Manfred said. "She was working for you-all after your sister got taken, right?"

I was surprised that he knew that; I couldn't remember having mentioned it in his hearing. "Yes," I said. "She was. How'd you hear that?"

"It was on the news. About her book." I looked at him questioningly. "Did you know Ms. Flores was writing a book? She didn't tell you?"

"No," I said, though Tolliver was silent.

"Yeah, it was going to be called Private Eye