“But the chief didn’t fire me right away. He was waiting, just as I was, to see what Fordyce would do. Would I be charged with reckless endangerment, manslaughter, or let off the hook with nothing more than a stern reprimand and a warning to be more careful next time?”

He stopped there, and she knew what was coming next. “That’s when I came onto the scene,” she said softly. Although she knew it was useless, she tried again to defend herself. “It was a juicy story for all the reasons you just stated, Raley. One of the city’s finest caught in bed with a dead girl.”

“Drugs, sex, and rock and roll.”

“Absolutely. It was a plum that got dropped into my lap. I jumped at it.”

“You sure as hell did. I had cameras, microphones, and lights trained on me day and night. You even had your damn news vans parked outside-”

When he broke off, Britt finished the sentence for him. “Outside Hallie’s house.”

She hoped he would continue on that subject, but he didn’t. He flipped open the lid to the toothpick box, closed it, flipped it open again, then closed it with finality. She imagined he closed the subject of his fiancée just as purposefully.

He took up the story again. “I was put through extensive questioning, but in the end Fordyce didn’t have enough evidence for a criminal case, so I wasn’t indicted. On the record books, Suzi Monroe’s death went down as an accidental overdose.”

He met Britt’s gaze with angry eyes. “That probably would have been the end of it. I would never have got over it-never will-but at least if it had stopped there, the burden would have been mine alone to carry. It would have remained a private matter. But then you went on TV and made Suzi Monroe out as a victim.”

“She was.”

“She wasn’t my victim!” he said, digging his index finger into his chest. “She was a victim of the lifestyle she’d chosen. She was a chronic drug user. A party girl who swapped blow jobs for drugs. Jay had lined up dozens of her acquaintances who would corroborate that.”

He left his chair angrily, rounded it, and then braced his hands on the back of it, leaning forward as he continued to berate her. “But you didn’t show recent pictures of her wearing stiletto heels and skimpy tops with suggestive phrases spelled out in rhinestones. You showed your viewers high school graduation pictures of her.” His volume increased. “In her cap and gown. She looked like a cross between the girl next door and a Rhodes scholar.”

“I asked her mother for a photograph-”

“Her mother, who didn’t want her daughter to be remembered as a coked-out whore, who would much rather Suzi with an i be immortalized as the victim of a brute who got her drunk, fucked her, and then did nothing to stop her from overdosing on blow.”

Britt took the harsh criticism because it was warranted. Never in a million years would she admit to manipulating the story to that extent in order to impress her new employer and further her career. But in good conscience she couldn’t deny that her reporting had been biased, against Raley Gannon.

“I’ve said-”

“Spare me,” he said shortly.

He made a tight circle in the kitchen, holding his hair back off his face, a gesture that was now familiar to her. She’d seen him do it whenever he reached the limit of his frustration. It was his way of getting a grip on his temper. Whatever it took to do that she was grateful for. Angry, he frightened her.

He resumed his seat. “After Suzi was portrayed as a saint and I her despoiler, the chief had no choice but to fire me. Fordyce didn’t prosecute me for a crime, but he didn’t need to. I’d been tried and convicted by public opinion.” His eyes said, By you.

After a tense silence, she asked tentatively, “Is that when you moved out here?”

He gave a curt nod. “I rented the place for several months, then decided to buy it because I knew I’d never go back. For living a life that’s not worth shit, this is as good a place as any.”

“Where are we exactly?”

“Inland between Beaufort and Charleston.” He told her the general area, locating it for her by naming several towns.

“I never heard of them,” she said.

“That’s the point.”

“Does anyone…Do you see anyone?”

“Like who? My attorney? I paid his invoice, fired him, then never saw or heard from him again. All my friends who stuck by me?” He made a scornful sound.

“Parents?”

He looked pained and said softly, “They left Charleston, too.”

“Did they believe you?”

“Without question. I’m an only child. We’ve always had a close relationship. They would have stood by me, no matter what.”

“Would have?”

“Would have and did. But because they did, they became outcasts by association. Even their oldest friends started avoiding them. They got tired of being ostracized. Dad took early retirement from a medical supply company he helped build, and they moved to Augusta, where Mom has a sister. I hate like hell what they went through on account of me. I’ll never be able to make it up to them. Their whole lives had been spent in Charleston. They tell me they’ve made new friends, that they like it there, but…” He shrugged.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask about his fiancée, but instead she said, “How do you stand it? The isolation. Having no contact with anyone. Well, except for Delno. What do you do with your time?”

He stared at her for several moments. “I plot my revenge.” He spoke quietly, with menace, in a voice that raised gooseflesh on her arms.

She welcomed the noise from outside that signaled Delno’s return. As he stepped onto the porch, he hung a limp carcass on a hook attached to the overhang, told the hounds to lie down, pulled open the screen door, and poked his head inside. “Okay if I come in?”

“No,” Raley said.

Delno stepped inside anyway, rubbing his hands together. “Did I miss anything important?”

“Nothing you haven’t heard.”

His bare feet sounded like hooves on the vinyl when he reached the kitchen. “I’m hungry. You got anything to eat?” He checked the contents of the fridge and, with disappointment, said, “Lunch meat. You rather me fry up that rabbit?”

“I’d rather you go home, and take your stinking, flea-infested dogs with you.” Suddenly Raley got up from his chair and stalked out of the cabin.

Britt looked at Delno, who apparently had decided the lunch meat wasn’t such a bad choice after all. He folded several slices of pink processed meat into his mouth. It was such an unappetizing sight, she glanced at the screen door that had slammed shut behind Raley’s abrupt exit. “He’s still mad at me.”

“Ah, he’s just horny, is all.”

Her head came around quickly. “I beg your pardon?”

“Horny.” He closed the refrigerator door and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I seen it right off.” He dug into his ear with his little finger and extracted a wad of wax that he wiped on the bib of his overalls. “Can’t say as I’m surprised. The way you’ve been fannin’ around here in that getup.”

Attorney General Cobb Fordyce had a hard time keeping his mind on the heated discussion. The long, oval conference table had become a battlefield, opposing sides facing off across its polished surface like armies camped on either side of a DMZ. He held the neutral position at the head of the table.

Before the meeting commenced, he’d considered calling the parties involved and begging for a postponement. But it had been postponed once already. To ask for another delay would antagonize both sides. There would be speculation that his avoidance was politically motivated.

The issue was vitally important and polarizing. The legislators present were operating under a deadline. For those reasons, he’d let them assemble as scheduled even though his concentration was focused not on this topic but on another one.

After hearing the result of Jay Burgess’s autopsy this morning, that was all he could think about.