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know that a man called asking about you yesterday? Who? Laura's heart was beating in her throat all of a sudden. Could it have anything to do with the fire and her exploded car? What did he look like? she asked. The hand that wasn't clutching the vid-phone balled into a fist at her chest. Her father frowned, the expression making the wrinkles in his face into furrows. He was racially impure, Laura. He claimed to be a police person but I saw right through that. He.... Dad! Laura's breath left her in a deep, exasperated sigh. That was just Vince ... Detective Roberts. He's investigating the deaths of Gerald and Francine, didn't he file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/custo...%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm (89 of 266) [8/28/2005 6:29:40 PM] file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/customer/My%20Documents/eb...P%20E-Books/Butterfly%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm tell you? I don't care who he is or what he's doing, Laura. You know better than to be associating with people like that. We leave them alone and they should leave us alone. The races must not mix. That's the way your mother and I raised you. Gloria is not my mother! My mother never raised me to hate anybody just because they looked different from me. She was nearly shouting but didn't seem to be able to lower her voice. Her father's frown deepened. You will apologize for that remark, young lady, this instant. Laura sighed again. Why was it that he could always reduce her to a rebellious teenager in seconds? It was as though a part of her had never gotten out of the house in Heron's Point. A part that was perpetually a child fighting against the influence of her father and step-mother. But there was no point in fighting with him-- it was an argument she could never win. Dad, she said as calmly as she could. I don't have time to do this with you right now. I've had a rough twenty four hours between someone murdering my ex- husband and his wife, my apartment complex burning down, and my car blowing up. I'm going to be working with Vince for a while to try and figure some of this out and I think it's better we don't talk for a while. Young lady, I'll.... But her father suddenly seemed to run out of words and his face , which had been growing a dull, brick red as they argued, suddenly went positively purple. He looked like he was choking. Dad? Laura was concerned. He got himself so worked up and the doctor had warned he was just begging for a stroke the way he let his temper get the best of him. I ... you .... he.... file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/custo...%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm (90 of 266) [8/28/2005 6:29:40 PM] file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/customer/My%20Documents/eb...P%20E-Books/Butterfly%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm He? Laura had been holding the vid-phone up to make sure it only caught her face and now she realized that her father was no longer looking at her. He was staring over her shoulder at something behind her. Laura turned quickly, vid-phone still in hand to see Vince standing in the bathroom doorway wearing only a towel draped around his lean hips. Droplets of water beaded on the smooth, brown skin of his muscular chest and broad shoulders. She tried to remember if she had heard the shower cut off but she had gotten so caught up in the same old conversation with her father that it hadn't registered. How much had Vince heard? Laura, I demand an explanation! I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. And what are you wearing? Oops, in her shock she allowed the vid-phone to sag, transmitting a picture of her sheet wrapped chest. And the sheet was sagging as well. She couldn't have scripted a better scene for giving her father a false impression if she had tried. Look, Dad, I was hurt getting out of the townhouse when it caught on fire and I didn't have anywhere else to stay and Vince offered to.... But her father was past hearing any kind of reasonable explanation. Young lady if you think your mother and I will put up with this kind of disgrace you're sadly mistaken. We'll disown you and make no mistake about it. Don't bother bringing your little mixed breed puppies to my door because I will turn you away. I.... Good bye, Dad. Laura closed the phone hastily, cutting her father off in mid- rant. Vince was still standing there in the bathroom doorway, completely silent and she felt her cheeks burn in shame. Laura opened her mouth to speak but there didn't seem to be anything to say. In her hand the vid-phone buzzed angrily, her father calling back to rant some more. Laura flipped it off and turned to let it slide from her nerveless fingers into the carry-all. She turned back to say something, although what she had no idea, only to see that the bathroom door was shut again. This time there was no humming file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/custo...%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm (91 of 266) [8/28/2005 6:29:40 PM] file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/customer/My%20Documents/eb...P%20E-Books/Butterfly%20Scales%20Evangeline%20Anderson%20NCP.htm coming from behind it. * * * * When Vince came out he was dressed, at least from the waist down, in a pair of tight-fitting blue jeans and black running shoes. Forgot my shirt, he said shortly, going to a dresser across from the room to dig through a drawer that creaked protestingly when he yanked it out. Vince.... Laura looked at him helplessly, wanting to say the right thing and not knowing how. She was horribly embarrassed and the icy anger she felt coming [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |