Tucker moved his shoulders restlessly. "A lot of people, a lot of noise and confusion. I'm worried, especially about Josie and Caroline. I'd feel better knowing you and Carl are close."

"Burke." Susie came in. She was still in her robe, smelling of her shower with carnation-scented soap. Studying her, Burke thought she looked no more than twenty.

"Was that the office?" he asked her.

"No, it was Delia." She laid her hand over Tucker's. "Matthew Burns had Dwayne brought in for questioning."

If he hadn't been so infuriated, Tucker would have been amused. The idea of Dwayne, soft-hearted, bleary-eyed Dwayne, as a murder suspect was certainly laughable. The fact that his brother had been yanked out of bed and driven into town to be questioned by some smug-faced FBI agent was not.

Struggling with his temper, Tucker walked into the sheriff's office with Burke. He wouldn't lose it, he promised himself. It would suit Burns too well to kick him out. Instead, he flipped his brother a cigarette, then lighted one for himself.

"You getting an early start today, Burns," Tucker said mildly. "Guess you forgot today's a national holiday."

"I'm aware of the date." Burns stretched his legs behind Burke's desk and kept his hands folded on top. "I'm also aware that you have a parade scheduled for noon. My business won't interfere with your town's celebrations. Sheriff, I'm told you'll be blocking off the main drag by ten."

"That's right."

"I'd like my car moved where I'll be able to get in and out of town as necessary." Taking out his keys, he set them on the edge of the desk.

Carl saw the flare in Burke's eyes and stepped forward. "I'll move it on down to Magnolia." Jingling the keys in his hand, he stopped by Tucker. "I'm sorry, Tuck. I had orders to bring him in."

"It's all right, Carl. It shouldn't take long to straighten this out. Heard your girl's going to be twirling today."

"She's been practicing day and night. Her grand-pappy bought one of those video recorders so he can shoot her whole routine as she marches."

"I'm sure that's fascinating, Deputy," Burns put in, "but we have business to conduct here." His gaze shifted to Tucker. "Official business."

"I'll be sure to watch for her myself, Carl," Tucker said. He waited until the deputy went out before taking another drag. "Dwayne, did they read you your rights?"

"Mr. Longstreet isn't under arrest. Yet," Burns interrupted. "He's merely being questioned."

"He's got a right to a lawyer, doesn't he?"

"Naturally." Burns spread his hands. "If you're concerned that your rights might be abused, Mr. Longstreet, or that you may incriminate yourself, please feel free to call your attorney. We'll be happy to wait."

"I'd just as soon get it done." Dwayne looked miserably at Tucker. "Sure could use some coffee, though, and a bottle of aspirin."

"We'll fix you up." Burke patted his shoulder as he walked into the bathroom.

"This is official business, Longstreet." Burns inclined his head in dismissal. "You have no place here."

"Burke deputized me." Tucker's lips spread in a slow smile. Though Burke paused, lifting his brows as he came back in with the aspirin, he said nothing to contradict the statement. "He can always use some extra help on the Fourth."

"That's the truth," Burke commented as he shook tablets from the plastic bottle. "And seeing as my youngest has a birthday today on top of it, I'd be obliged if we could get things moving."

"Very well." Burns punched in his recorder. "Mr. Longstreet, you reside at the property known as Sweetwater, in the county of Bolivar, Mississippi?"

"That's right." Dwayne accepted the mug of coffee and the aspirin. "The Longstreets have been at Sweetwater nearly two hundred years."

"Yes." History and family legacies didn't interest Burns. "You live there with your brother and your sister."

"And Delia. She's been housekeeper at Sweetwater for more than thirty years. And right now Cousin Lulu's visiting." Dwayne singed his tongue with the hot coffee, but the aspirin went down. "She's a cousin on my mama's side. No telling how long she'll stay. Cousin Lulu's been coming and going as she pleases as long as anyone can remember. I recollect once-"

"If you'll save the home-boy routine," Burns said, "I'd like to finish before the brass bands and batons."

Dwayne caught Tucker's grin and shrugged. "Just answering your question. Oh, and we've got Cy and Caroline with us now, too. That what you want to know?"

"Your marital status?"

"I'm divorced. Two years come October. That's when the papers came through, wasn't it, Tucker?"

"That's right."

"And your ex-wife now lives where?"

"Up in Nashville. Rosebank Avenue. She's got a nice little house there, close enough to school that the boys can walk."

"And she is the former Adalaide Koons?"

"Sissy," Dwayne corrected him. "Her little brother never could say Adalaide, so she was Sissy."

"And Mrs. Longstreet was pregnant with your first son when you married?"

Dwayne frowned into his coffee. "I don't see that it's any of your business, but it's no secret, I guess."

"You married her to give the child a name."

"We got married 'cause we figured it was best."

With a murmur of agreement, Burns steepled his hands. "And shortly after the birth of your second child, you wife left you."

Dwayne drained his coffee. Over the rim, his bloodshot eyes hardened. "That's no secret either."

"You'll agree it was an unpleasant scene?" Burns shifted forward to read some notes. "Your wife locked you out of the house after a violent argument-I believe you'd been drinking heavily-and threw your belongings out of an upstairs window. She then took your children to Nashville, where she took up residence with a shoe salesman who moonlighted as a musician."

Dwayne examined the cigarette Tucker had tossed him. "I guess that's about right."

"How did it make you feel, Mr. Longstreet, when the woman you had married under duress left you, taking your children, and turned to a second-rate guitar player?"

Dwayne took his time lighting the cigarette. "I guess she had to do what suited her best."

"So you were amenable to the situation?"

"I didn't try to stop her, if that's what you mean. Didn't seem like I was much good at being married anyway."

"The divorce suit she filed against you accused you of emotional cruelty, violence, erratic and unstable behavior, and stated you were a physical risk to both her and your children. Did that seem harsh?"

Dwayne dragged deep on tobacco and wished desperately for whiskey. "I expect she was feeling harsh. I can't say I did right by her, or the boys either."

"You don't have to do this, Dwayne." When his control broke, Tucker stepped forward to take his brother's arm. "You don't have to answer this fucker's questions about a marriage that's over, or your feelings about it."

Burns inclined his head. "Is there a reason your brother shouldn't confirm what I already know?"

Tucker let go of Dwayne to slap his hands on the desk. "I can't think of one. Just like I can't think of a reason I shouldn't kick your skinny butt all the way back to D.C."

"We can discuss that on our own time, Longstreet. Right now you're interfering with a federal investigation. If you persist, you'll do your complaining from one of those cells."

Tucker grabbed Burns's pinstriped tie and yanked upward. "Why don't I show you how we handle things down here in the delta?"

"Leave him alone." Dwayne stirred himself to snag Tucker's wrist.

"The hell I will."

"I said leave him alone." Dwayne stuck his face close to Tucker's. "I've got nothing to hide. This Yankee sonofabitch can ask questions from now to doomsday and that won't change. Leave him be so we can get it done."