“Rebecca?”
It was Ajax.
I stood on the other side of the door, not moving, not answering.
“Come on, Rebecca, I know you’re in there.”
He wasn’t going to go away. I turned on the light in the hallway and opened the door wide enough that he could see the gun in my hand. He put his hands in the air and grinned his typical Ajax grin.
“Don’t shoot,” he said.
“What do you want?”
He was wearing his deputy’s uniform, and his squad car was in the driveway. “Seems like you and me need to figure out how to work together.”
“Seems like you need to keep your hands off me,” I said.
“I didn’t hear any complaints until Ricky showed up.” Ajax touched the long, reddish scab on his face where my ring had cut him. “That was when you came down with cat scratch fever.”
“Go away, Ajax.”
“I’m willing to drop the complaint,” he told me, as I began to shut the door. “One word to Jerry from me, and the whole thing goes away. I know you need the job.”
“What do you want in return?”
“Nothing. You and me start over. That’s all. Come on, let me in, and we’ll talk. Just talk, I swear.”
I opened the door wider. “You lay a hand on me, and I’ll kick you where it counts.”
“I believe you.”
We went into the living room together. Ajax took one end of the sofa, and I took the other. He lit up a cigarette, and so did I. We watched each other warily. We didn’t say anything for a long time, which I suppose was his plan. He simply wanted to sit in my house and let me feel the sexual tension between us. And I did. I had experience in realizing that he knew how to kiss and what to do with his hands. The longer we sat there doing nothing but smoke, the more I thought about taking off his clothes. Just to see what it would be like.
“You’ll drop the complaint?” I said finally. “Are you serious about that?”
“Actually, it’s already done. I told Jerry to yank it. I told him I overreacted. We were at the bar, we’d both had a little too much to drink. Things happen.”
“Thank you.”
“Sure.”
“You know, I don’t get you,” I told him, shaking my head. “You’ve got a gorgeous wife and gorgeous kids. Why do you sleep around?”
“Why do you care?”
“I’m just curious.”
“Well, I don’t get you, either. You’re way out of Ricky’s league. Why did you marry him?”
“That’s what you do around here. You get married.”
“You could have done better.”
“In Black Wolf County? Not likely. You take what’s in front of you.”
Ajax slid his cigarette out of his mouth. “Ricky says you’re frigid, you know.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what he tells everybody. You don’t move when he screws you, like you can’t wait for it to be over.”
“I don’t give a shit what Ricky tells people,” I snapped.
“Is it true?”
“Go to hell, Ajax.”
“Hey, I don’t blame you. I see Ricky as a two-pump chump. Who wants that?”
“So what are you saying? One night with you will change me forever?”
“Maybe.”
“Wow, you’ve got quite the ego.”
Ajax chuckled. “Yeah, I plead guilty to that. But what would it hurt to give it a try? I mean, no one has to know.”
He didn’t hide what he wanted, which I found strangely attractive.
“Why do you want me as a trophy, anyway?” I asked. “Does it turn you on when I say no? There are plenty of other women around here who are happy to get on their backs for you.”
“You’ve got something the other women don’t.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
Ajax appraised me from the other side of the sofa. “Honestly? I don’t know. But Ricky saw it, too. The first time he laid eyes on you, he told me he’d found a girl who was different from everybody else. This fierce little loner with the amazing dark eyes. I thought he was full of it, but then I saw you myself, and damned if he wasn’t right. I thought about going after you, too.”
“Except you were already married to Ruby.”
Ajax shrugged. “Yeah. There’s that.”
“I’m not special.”
“Oh, sure you are. I don’t even think you believe that yourself when you say it. You know you’re different.”
“I think you should go.”
“What, don’t you trust yourself around me?”
In fact, I didn’t entirely trust myself not to make a stupid mistake. I was curious, amused, appalled, but a little aroused, too. Ricky was right that I didn’t get that way often. It’s just who I am. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to have sex with someone where it wasn’t about power and control. To meet and be physical with a genuinely good man, as if such a thing existed in this world. But one thing was certain. That wasn’t Ricky, and it wasn’t Ajax, either.
“I appreciate your dropping the complaint,” I said, “but you need to leave. I’m not mad, and I don’t mind anything you said. In fact, I appreciate that you were honest with me. But nothing’s going to happen between us. Not tonight. Not ever.”
He took my rejection gracefully. At least for the time being. I had no illusions that he’d suddenly become a Boy Scout around me. But when I got to my feet, he did, too, and he followed me to the front door without any advances. No hand on my ass. No kiss in the hallway.
“See you tomorrow,” Ajax said.
“Yeah. See you.”
I opened the door, and I screamed.
Someone stood on the porch right in front of me. In the darkness, I thought at first that it was Ricky, but in the next instant, I realized with a stab of relief that I was wrong.
It was Will Foltz. This big, strong teenage football player burst past me and into the house. Oddly, he was crying.
“I told you he didn’t do it!” Will screamed at me. “Jay didn’t do it! And now Darrell’s trying to arrest him!”
Chapter Sixteen
Will paced frantically across the green shag carpet in my living room. I’d known him his whole life, and I’d never seen him so wildly upset. His easy smile was gone. His nose ran, and he wiped it on his sweatshirt. His breathing came so fast that he looked like he needed a paper bag to stop hyperventilating. The kid who liked everybody, whose approach to life was as mellow as an Eagles song, was melting down in front of us.
“Will, sit,” I told him.
He didn’t. He kept pacing. After I repeated it twice more, Ajax stopped the boy in the middle of the room and took him by the shoulders. “Sit.”
Will slumped onto the sofa, with his face in his hands. I sat next to him. As Will tried to catch his breath, I murmured to Ajax, “An arrest warrant for Jay? Did you know anything about this?”
“It must be Jerry. He wants the Brink case closed. I heard about the interview at the school, Jay going ballistic, talking about wanting his father dead. Combine that with everything else, and Jerry probably thinks they can make the charge stick.”
“He didn’t do it!” Will gasped again.
I took hold of his meaty shoulder. I’d babysat for him when he was a boy, but this kid was practically twice my size. “Will, tell me what’s going on. What happened?”
“Darrell came to my dad’s house. He was going to arrest Jay for murder. That’s crazy! I went and listened at the stairs and heard my dad talking to him. He said Darrell was using intimidation to get Jay to confess to something he didn’t do. But Darrell said he had no choice, and he had to bring him in. So my dad came upstairs to get Jay. He was already gone.”