her.
Patricia looked out the window and felt everything falling apart around her. She watched as Carter and Blue got out of the Buick and Leland’s BMW parked behind them. She saw Bennett’s little Mitsubishi pickup drive past the end of their driveway and park at his house, and then Bennett got out and came up her drive, joining Carter and Blue. Ed emerged from the back seat of Leland’s gold BMW in a short-sleeved shirt tucked into his blue jeans, wearing a knit tie. Rumpled old Horse hauled himself out of the passenger side of Leland’s car and hitched up his pants. Leland got out of the driver’s seat and pulled on his summer-weight, polyester blazer.
“Who is it?” Kitty asked from the sofa.
Maryellen got up and stood next to Patricia, and Patricia felt her stiffen.
“Patricia?” Grace asked. “Maryellen? Who all’s there?”
The men shook hands and Carter saw Patricia standing in the window and said something to the rest of them and they trooped up to the front porch in single file.
“All of them,” Patricia said.
The front door opened, and Carter walked into the hall, Blue right behind him. Then came Ed, who saw Maryellen standing at the base of the stairs and stopped. The rest of the men piled up behind him, hot evening air billowing in around them.
“Ed,” Maryellen said. “Where are Detectives Cannon and Bussell?”
“They’re not coming,” he said, fiddling with his tie.
He stepped toward her, to take her shoulder or stroke her cheek, and she jerked herself backward, stopping at the base of the banister, holding on to it with both hands.
“Were they ever coming?” she asked.
Keeping eye contact, he shook his head. Patricia put one hand on Maryellen’s shoulder, and it hummed beneath her like a high-tension line. The two of them stood aside as Carter sent Blue upstairs and the men filed past them and crowded into the living room. Carter waited until they were all inside, then gestured to Patricia like a waiter ushering her to her table.
“Patty,” he said. “Maryellen. Join us?”
They allowed themselves to be led inside. Kitty wiped tears from her cheeks, face flushed. Slick stared at the floor between her and Leland and he glared at her, both of them holding very, very still. Grace made a point of studying the framed photo of Patricia’s family hanging over the fireplace. Bennett looked past them all, through the sun porch windows, out over the marsh.
“Ladies,” Carter said. Clearly the other men had elected him their spokesman. “We need to have a serious talk.”
Patricia tried to slow her breathing. It had gotten high and shallow and her throat felt like it was swelling closed. She glanced at Carter and saw how much anger he carried in his eyes. “There aren’t enough chairs for everyone,” she said. “We should get some of the dining room chairs.”
“I’ll get them,” Horse said, and moved to the dining room.
Bennett went with him, and the men hauled chairs into the living room and there was only the clattering of furniture as everyone arranged themselves. Horse sat next to Kitty on the sofa, holding her hand, and Leland leaned against the door to the hall. Ed sat backward in a dining room chair, like someone playing a policeman on TV. Carter sat directly across from Patricia, adjusting the crease in his dress pants, the cuffs of his jacket, putting his professional face on over his real face.
Maryellen tried to regain the initiative.
“If the detectives aren’t coming,” she said, “I’m not sure why you’re all here.”
“Ed came to us,” Carter said. “Because he heard some alarming things and rather than risk y’all embarrassing yourselves in front of the police and doing serious damage to both yourselves and to your families, he did the responsible thing and brought it to our attention.”
“What you have to say about James Harris is libelous and slanderous,” Leland cut in. “You could have gotten me sued into oblivion. What were you even thinking, Slick? You could have ruined everything. Who wants to work with a developer who accuses his investors of dealing drugs to children?”
Slick