Every Move She Makes. Beverly Barton

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СКАЧАТЬ slumped over to her side, easing part of his weight off her. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t come.”

      “It’s all right,” she said, and meant it. She’d never seen a guy more in need.

      “Give me another chance and I promise I’ll do it right next time.” He used his fingers to comfort and entice her. “What do you say?”

      “Why don’t you stay all night?”

      “I was hoping you’d say that.”

      Ella arrived at her office promptly at eight o’clock. She liked to get in earlier, but when her father was in town, she stayed home to have breakfast with him. Ordinarily she grabbed a cup of coffee and a biscuit and ate on her drive from their home on East First Street to the courthouse in the center of the town square. Her mother seldom woke before ten, and then Viola usually served Carolyn breakfast in bed. So, this morning she’d had her father all to herself. There was no one she loved and admired more than Webb Porter, and she thought herself fortunate to be his daughter. Despite the fact that they didn’t share the same genes, they were remarkably alike. In her case, nurture definitely won out over nature. She was a true Porter in every sense of the word. Her father had told her so many times. The fact that they thought alike on so many issues and had similar traits and habits seemed to delight her father as much as it did her. They were as close as any parent and child could be. She knew without a doubt that she was the joy of Webb Porter’s life. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her.

      Ella laid her briefcase down atop her large antique oak desk. Her father had sat behind this very desk when he’d served as a circuit court judge, before his election to the U.S. Senate ten years ago. When she’d been elected last year, he had told her that she was carrying on a family tradition. Webb had been a local district attorney and then a judge. His father before him had been a congressman, and his grandfather the lieutenant governor.

      After removing her jacket and hanging it over the back of her chair, Ella sat down in the tufted-backed oxblood leather swivel chair. Her mind instantly wandered back to something her father had said during breakfast.

      “If that man contacts you, I want to know about it immediately,” Webb had told her. “He swore revenge against me, and I wouldn’t put it past him to come after you in order to hurt me.”

      “Daddy, do you really think Reed Conway is a danger to our family?”

      “I think he very well could be. If he’s bent on getting back at me, then it’s possible that he’ll go after the people I love. So I want you to promise me to be careful and notify me if he approaches you, either in person or with a phone call.”

      Ella shivered. A sense of foreboding echoed inside her. Did she truly have something to worry about where Reed Conway was concerned? Was her father being overly cautious? Would Reed actually jeopardize his parole in order to seek revenge? If anything happened to a member of her family, Reed would be the first person the police would question. She really hadn’t known Reed, except to recognize him as Judy Blalock’s son. Judy Conway. After her second husband had been murdered, she’d legally changed her name back to Conway.

      And of course, Ella had known Reed as the star of Spring Creek High’s football team. He’d been the guy every girl wanted and every parent feared. He’d had a reputation as a stud, and even when she’d been fifteen, she had understood why girls were drawn to him like moths to a flame. He’d been big and ruggedly good-looking and possessed a cocky smile that made you think he’d been up to no good. And from what she’d heard, he usually had been up to no good.

      A knock on the door brought Ella back from her memories. “Yes?”

      “It’s me, Miss Ella,” a gentle masculine voice said. “I’ve come to fix your lights.”

      “Come on in, Roy.”

      One of the flourescent light fixtures overhead had burned out yesterday and she’d had her secretary, Kelly, request a maintenance man to replace the bulb. Roy Moses, with a tool belt hanging below his jelly-belly tummy, just above his hips, entered the room carrying a ladder. He smiled and nodded, his squinty brown eyes, greeting her with his usual appreciative glance. Roy was a few years older than she, a bit slow-witted, and one of the sweetest guys she’d ever known. He wore his white-blond hair cropped short, which made his full face look perfectly round, like a pale pink ball.

      “Good morning, Miss Ella. How are you today?”

      “I’m fine, Roy. And you?”

      “Fine as frog hair.” He chuckled, the sound a series of deep, slow haw-haw-haws.

      “That’s good.” Ella had known Roy most of her life. He had a sister who was a nurse and a brother who was a fireman. Roy’s IQ score identified him as borderline retarded, but he was a hard worker who held down two part-time jobs. He wasn’t a member of the regular maintenance staff, but was employed as a part-time janitor who did odd jobs at the courthouse—a position Webb Porter had insisted be created for him. His other position was at Conway’s Garage, where he washed and waxed cars and did odd jobs.

      “Don’t want to disturb you none,” Roy said as he set up the ladder beneath the fluorescent ceiling fixture.

      “You aren’t disturbing me. Go ahead and do your job.”

      “You look real pretty this morning, Miss Ella.”

      “Thank you.” Every time he saw her, Roy told her how pretty she looked. She suspected he had an innocent crush on her.

      “Did you hear the news?” Roy began climbing the ladder.

      “What news is that?” Ella unsnapped her briefcase.

      “That Reed Conway is out of prison.”

      “Oh, that. Yes. I’m sure everyone in Spring Creek is aware that he was released on parole yesterday.”

      “I liked Reed.” Roy inspected the light fixture. “I’ll have to take this down and go get another one.”

      “You liked Reed Conway? I didn’t realize that you’d actually known him.”

      “Sure, I knew him. He was my friend. My brother Tommy played football with Reed and he used to come to our house sometimes. He was always nice to me. He never made fun of me the way some of Tommy’s other friends did. And he’d let me toss around the football with him and Tommy.” Roy chuckled his good-natured haw-haw-haw. “Reed used to call me ‘my buddy Roy Boy.’”

      “I didn’t really know him,” Ella said.

      “You would have liked him. Everybody liked Reed. I couldn’t believe it when they sent him away to prison. Anybody who knew him knew he wouldn’t have killed nobody. Not Reed.”

      “Sometimes even good people do bad things.”

      “I know Reed’s stepdaddy was a bad man, but if Reed killed him, he didn’t mean to.” Roy removed the burned-out light fixture and climbed down the ladder with it. “I’m going to be working with Reed.”

      “What?”

      “Over at the garage,” Roy said. “Briley Joe gave Reed a job. He said wouldn’t nobody else in town give Reed a job. I can’t hardly wait to see Reed again. He’s supposed СКАЧАТЬ