Ask Anyone. Sherryl Woods

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      King slid into his favorite booth at Earlene’s first thing on Monday morning. He’d almost stayed home today, but he wasn’t going to let a little thing like being publicly humiliated by his own son keep him from the pleasure of seeing his friends the way he did every single day of the year, rain or shine.

      It was bad enough that Harvey had been the first one on the phone on Sunday, but the chatter had kept up all the livelong day. He hadn’t had a minute’s peace. Worse, first Bobby and then Tucker had called to cancel out on the family dinner. Neither one of them had stayed on the line long enough for him to get a straight word out of them about what was going on. He’d been left with enough fried chicken to feed an army and enough indigestion to keep him from touching a single piece of it. It was damned annoying. He looked forward to that chicken all week.

      Which was why, the second dusk fell, he had driven past Bobby’s to see for himself what all the commotion was about. That merry-go-round horse that had gotten Harvey’s drawers in a knot was still sitting out there. Half the neighborhood kids were still hanging around gawking at it, too, along with what looked like a dozen carloads of adults. Since all the locals had probably been by right after the word spread at church that morning, these had to be out-of-towners drawn by word of the rare antique that had sprung up on his son’s front lawn.

      To top it off, King had spotted Richard Walton snapping pictures for this week’s edition of The Trinity Harbor Weekly . He was accompanied by his wife, King’s very own pastor, Anna-Louise. Irritated, King had forgotten all about his intention to drive straight by without making his presence known. He’d pulled up to the curb and rolled down his window.

      “Woman, don’t you have better things to be doing than poking around out here like a tourist?” he’d grumbled. “Why aren’t you over at the church, saving souls?”

      Completely unintimidated, Anna-Louise had turned one of her placid smiles in his direction and strolled right on over to look him squarely in the eye. “Should have known you’d be skulking around here somewhere,” she commented. “Why don’t you park and walk on up to your son’s front door if you’re so curious about what’s going on? I’m sure Bobby would be happy to see you. He could probably use some moral support about now. I imagine it’s been a trying day.”

      “I doubt he’d be interested in anything I have to say. He never is. Besides, do you honestly think I could get a straight answer out of him?” King had scoffed. “Not likely. He stayed away from Cedar Hill today, because he doesn’t want to tell me a blessed thing.”

      “Richard interviewed him a few minutes ago. You’ll be able to read all about it later this week,” she said, looking smug. She knew perfectly well how King felt about that nosy husband of hers poking into things, especially things that had to do with the Spencer family.

      “You know, Anna-Louise, for a woman as well-versed as you are in God’s word, you have a nasty habit of forgetting all about it when it suits you,” he’d charged.

      She’d leveled a look at him that would have wilted a lesser man. “Oh?”

      “Whatever happened to honoring thy father? Isn’t that one of the Ten Commandments?”

      “It is,” she’d agreed.

      “Well?”

      “I’m not sure of the relevance,” she’d said, then reached into the car to pat the hand clenching the steering wheel. “King, I really don’t think this horse has anything to do with you. Believe it or not, it’s Bobby’s problem, not yours.”

      “He’s my son, dammit. What he does reflects on me.”

      “Oh, for goodness’ sakes,” Anna-Louise had snapped impatiently, “he’s not the one who put the horse here. In fact, from what he said to Richard, I gather that he’s every bit as anxious as you are to make it go away. Now either go inside to lend him your support or go on home and sulk.”

      King had gone home to sulk. He’d spent the whole evening trying to figure out why everyone—himself included—was so stirred up. It was an awful lot of hoopla over one itty-bitty piece of a kid’s amusement-park ride. Anna-Louise was right about one thing. The whole situation would be over with and forgotten in no time. He just had to go about his business and ignore it.

      Which was why he was in his regular booth at Earlene’s awaiting the arrival of his friends. A rousing conversation about the price of beef would get his juices stirring.

      Pete Dexter was the first to arrive. “Oh, boy,” he murmured with a shake of his head as he slid in opposite King. “Bobby’s gone and stepped in it now.”

      King regarded him with a lofty look. “I have no idea what you mean.”

      “Harvey’s out for blood. He claims Bobby is trying to stage a coup and take over the whole blessed town.”

      King gritted his teeth. So he wasn’t going to be able to ignore this after all. “Where would he get a numbskull idea like that? Bobby’s not interested in taking over anything. That boy doesn’t have a political bone in his body.”

      “Then why did he go and buy up all that property? Whoever develops it is going to set the direction of Trinity Harbor for decades to come. And Harvey’s bound and determined that it’s not going to be your son. He says Spencers have been in charge for too long as it is, that it’s time for fresh blood to take this town into the future.”

      King clung to his temper by a thread. “Just how does that pompous fool propose to stop Bobby?”

      “The way I hear it, he’ll tie him up with zoning regulations and red tape until Bobby gives up and walks away from the whole deal. Then I imagine he’ll try to snap up that land for a pittance and do whatever he wants with it. You ask Will what he thinks when he gets here. I heard a rumor he sold a couple of parcels to the mayor a while back before Bobby could snap ’em up. My guess is Harvey would like to see condos all along the waterfront. Next thing you know, none of us will be able to stick a toe in that river without being charged with trespassing.”

      King stared at his oldest friend. “Harvey told you this?”

      “Not about the condos, that’s Will’s idea. But Harvey told a whole roomful of people about the rest at lunch yesterday. I was eating crabs over at Wilkerson’s at Colonial Beach. Harvey was holding forth like a preacher. He was talking so loud and his face was so red, I thought he was going to keel right over onto the seafood buffet.”

      “Did you set him straight?” King asked.

      “Me?” Pete looked baffled. “What was СКАЧАТЬ