Appalachian Prey. Debbie Herbert

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СКАЧАТЬ down on the sofa. He pointed to the rocker, and Lilah settled across from him. How to tell her?

      “Was your dad in the habit of keeping large amounts of money around the cabin?” he finally asked.

      “No.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “At least, not that I’m aware of.”

      “Any idea how he might have come into this money?”

      Her lips pinched together. “No.”

      “Moonshining can be pretty profitable for a few folks.”

      The muscles in her jaw worked, and she lifted a hand and waved it in the air. “Not for us. Does this look like a mansion or something? If Dad made much money at it, he sure didn’t believe in spreading the wealth.”

      Harlan knew her financial struggle. She’d been working for six years as a teacher’s aide, paying for college tuition and books as she could on her salary.

      “Sure, he wasn’t known for having an extravagant lifestyle,” Harlan agreed. “But you told me yourself that he acted different when you visited in March.”

      “Lots of shady characters hanging around. A younger crowd, people I’d never seen before.” She sighed and stared down at her hands. “Lots of long talks with Uncle Thad, too. Whenever I entered the room, they would stop talking. But that wasn’t so unusual. In the past, they would come up with some pretty harebrained get-rich schemes that never worked. Part of the reason Mom cut out years ago.”

      Lilah lifted her head and faced him dead on. “But you already know most of this. I confided a lot to you when—” she hesitated a heartbeat “—when we were seeing each other.”

      Seeing each other. Images of her flashed through his mind—Lilah lying on his bed, her hair spread against the sheets, the play of moonlight on her skin, the feel of her hand gliding down his abs and lower still... Best not to dwell on that. He cleared his throat.

      “Can’t help wondering if your dad might have changed his, er, business model. He wouldn’t be the first to switch from moonshine to marijuana. That’s where the real money is these days.”

      Gray eyes flashed. “You asking if Dad was a dope dealer? No way.”

      There was no kind way to have her face the possibility. Might as well be honest. “There’s been rumors. We know for a fact that there’s a huge drug-running operation that passes through our mountains. We just haven’t been able to make a major bust yet.”

      “Rumors?” She stood and paced, temper sparking in her clipped movements. “Figures. Anything criminal happening in Elmore County and people are going to bring up Dad’s name. It’s so unfair. He never hurt anybody. And he never sold liquor to the teenagers that came around. Said moonshine was a grown man’s drink.”

      Harlan bit the inside of his mouth to keep from blurting his thoughts. He’d liked Chauncey, but Lilah had either forgotten her dad’s more violent tendencies or she’d shoved them to the back of her mind. She hadn’t been especially close to her dad, but his death was so recent, so fresh in her heart, and Chauncey was her father, after all.

      “I’m not judging him,” Harlan said, treading lightly. “He had plenty of good qualities—a loyal friend, always minded his own business and generous to a fault. But he had a dark side, too. Chauncey spent many a night as a guest of the Elmore County jail for assault.”

      She shrugged. “Drunken bar fights.”

      Fierce fights that had resulted in serious injuries to the unlucky, foolhardy men who crossed him. But he let that pass without comment. “You’ve never seen anything else suspicious?”

      “I know what pot plants look like. If I’d seen any on our property, I’d have reported it. Take a look around for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

      “Your father didn’t have to be growing it in his fields to participate. He could have managed an indoor operation.”

      “I don’t know anything about that.” Lilah crossed her arms.

      If she had a fault, it was stubbornness. She’d come by it honestly as Chauncey Tedder’s daughter. That man refused to live life on anyone else’s terms and abided by his own creed of what constituted right and wrong—the law be damned. Truth be told, many mountain folk felt the same.

      “If you find anything incriminating while you’re staying here, I hope you’ll tell me.”

      “Outlaws keeping a step ahead of the law up here?” she quipped. “Imagine that.”

      Were they ever. Every drug raid ended the same—a dead end with no evidence or suspects in sight. “This is serious, Lilah. Drug operations bring in a dangerous criminal element. They aren’t like your dad.”

      She sobered. “Which is why Dad would never have been a part of that. Never.”

      He raised his hands, palms out. “Okay, okay. I just can’t help worrying about you staying out here alone.”

      “I won’t be here long. There’s no reason to stay now that...you know.” She let her words trail off.

      Now that their relationship was over.

      Again, it hung heavy in the air between them, weighing on his shoulders like a thick blanket. “When?”

      “Soon,” she answered dismissively.

      He’d lost the right to question her more closely about her comings and goings. None of his business.

      “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sorry for—”

      “Forget it.” She thrust out her chin. “I have.”

      Had she? Had Lilah really moved on? Because he sure as hell hadn’t. “Why don’t you stay with Darla while you’re here? The next guy coming along to buy ’shine might not be as nice as the one that just skedaddled off your property.”

      He caught the slight tightness at the edge of her eyes. “She’s busy with Ed and her kids. We’d get on each other’s nerves after a while, anyway.”

      “Too bad Jimmy couldn’t have stayed longer.”

      “Yeah. He looked so sad when he had to fly back,” she said wistfully.

      His old friend, her brother, was no longer the free-spirited kid that he used to hang around with in high school—and occasionally get in trouble with. Jimmy’s tour in Afghanistan had changed his carefree attitude. At the funeral, and even afterward, he’d been distant and grave. Shell-shocked, some might say.

      The loud rumble of a diesel engine roared from the driveway, and Harlan stepped out onto the porch in time to see a large gruff man at the wheel. He sharply turned the truck, and it circled the yard before heading back down the road.

      “Your cruiser is running off my dad’s business,” Lilah said drily.

      He rubbed his chin. “Wish I could leave it here overnight.”

      “I’ll be fine. Just go.” With that, she turned away.

      He’d СКАЧАТЬ