as I headed for the front door. “What was that you were saying about Elspeth Caulfield?”
“That she tried to kill me? “ I glanced at her over my shoulder as I bent to scoop up the baby. “Did I never tell you about that?”
“I don’t think so,” Charlotte said, sounding doubtful.
“Then remind me to do that over lunch. It’s quite the story.”
“I can’t wait,” Charlotte said, and followed me across the threshold and onto the porch.
Four
Back in Sweetwater, I let Carrie nurse herself to sleep while I told Charlotte about Elspeth Caulfield, and how she had ended up trying to kill me. “You know that Elspeth talked her way into Rafe’s bed in high school, right? Or invited him into hers, or just pulled him off into a field somewhere?”
Charlotte nodded.
“He graduated and was arrested for fighting with Billy Scruggs. She got pregnant and didn’t tell him about it, because he was in prison. She had the baby and her father made her give it up for adoption.”
“And that’s David,” Charlotte said.
“That’s David.” Who was living in Nashville with his adoptive parents, very happily. “Twelve years went by. Rafe got out of prison and started working for the TBI. LaDonna died, and he figured out who his father was, and that his grandmother was still alive. He showed up in Nashville, and ended up calling me to show him the house on Potsdam Street.”
Charlotte nodded.
“Rafe and I danced around each other for a few months, and during that time, I ended up talking to Elspeth about him. She decided she wanted him back. I think she had a plan for getting David away from the Flannerys, too, and she had some sort of idea that the three of them were going to be a family…”
“But you were in the way,” Charlotte said, “because he was getting involved with you.”
I nodded. “First she killed Marquita Johnson—you know, Cletus’s wife—because Rafe hired Marquita to take care of Mrs. Jenkins. Marquita was living in the house with Mrs. Jenkins, and with Rafe when he was in town, and Elspeth thought Marquita might be poaching, so she killed her. And then she came after me.”
“And Rafe killed her.”
“Jorge Pena killed her,” I corrected. “Rafe killed him. And I owe her for that. She planted herself in front of Rafe and refused to move even though Jorge said he’d shoot her. If she hadn’t, Rafe might be dead.”
Or not. He might still have gotten the drop on Jorge. But the chances of him surviving that encounter would have been much fewer.
“Anyway,” I said, as I lifted Carrie to my shoulder and patted her back. She was already asleep, her head lolling. “The last thing I want, is another experience like that.”
“No kidding,” Charlotte said.
I got to my feet. “I’m going to put her to bed. I’ll be right back.”
Charlotte nodded and reached for her phone. I carried the baby up the stairs to her crib and headed back down. “Let’s go in the kitchen. I’ll make some lunch. Anything new?”
Charlotte shook her head. “More hearts and comments on the video she put up two hours ago, but nothing else.”
“Do you think I’m overreacting?” I glanced at her over my shoulder as we traversed the hallway down to the kitchen in the back of the house. Pearl had already greeted Charlotte when we first came home, and had spent the time while I was feeding Carrie curled up on a pillow in the corner of the parlor. Now she lead the procession, her stub of a tail jauntily raised.
“Go outside?” I asked her, and her tail gave a wag. I headed for the back door and pulled it open while Charlotte answered my question.
“Hard to say. You said it yourself, most women are attracted to Rafe.”
And then some. It’s a curse.
“She might just be some lonely woman who thinks he’s hot, and after spending a couple of days following him around, she’ll stop.”
Yes, she might be. “He pointed me out last night, though. Both me and Carrie. ‘That’s my wife and my baby in the car.’ Isn’t it weird that anyone would go that gaga over a married man?”
“Most women lust over married celebrities,” Charlotte said with a shrug. “It might be something like that.”
It might. I peered out the window to where Pearl was squatting in the grass. “So you think I shouldn’t worry?”
She hesitated. “I think it’s probably going to be fine. But I understand why you’re concerned.”