Where There's Smoke (27 page)

"He's been on the payroll for .
 
. . what, Janellen, two weeks?"

"That's right."

"And he hasn't caused a single mishap," he continued.
 
"So it looks to me like Janellen made a sound business decision."

Jody turned to him, her contempt at full throttle.
 
"Like your opinion counts for something where Tackett Oil is concerned."

"I wasn't speaking as an expert on the oil business," Key returned evenly.
 
"Just as a guy who shook hands with another guy.
 
Cato looked me straight in the eye, like he didn't have anything to hide.

I met him at the end of the day.
 
He was sweaty and his clothes were dirty, which indicated to me that he'd been working his ass off outdoors in the heat."

Jody sent a plume of cigarette smoke toward the ceiling.
 
"Sounds as though you could learn a lesson or two about the work ethic from this Cato fellow.
 
It wouldn't hurt you to sweat a little, get dirty, do some work around here."

"Key's been working, Mama.
 
He fixed the latch on the gate."

"That's tinkering.
 
I'm talking about sweat-of-the-brow, damned hard work."

"On your oil wells, you mean."
 
Despite his best intentions to hold his temper, Key's voice was rising.

"It wouldn't kill you, would it?"

"No.
 
It wouldn't kill me, but it isn't my gig.
 
It's yours."

"Ah, that's why you never wanted to be part of the business.

Because I was there first?
 
You didn't want to play second banana to a woman.

Key, shaking his head, laughed ruefully.
 
"No, Jody.
 
I never wanted to be a part of the business because I'm not interested in it."

"Why not?"

Jody never accepted a simple answer at face value.
 
He didn't remember a time when he hadn't been required to justify, explain, and account for his opinions, especially if they differed from hers.
 
It was no wonder to him that his daddy had turned to other women.

With Jody, everything was a contest to see who could best whom.

It wouldn't take long for a man to grow tired of that.

Forcing himself to remain calm, he said, "Maybe if we were still drilling for oil, if there was a challenge involved, I'd consider going into the business."

"You crave excitement, is that it?"

"Routine holds no Appeal for me."

"Then you should have lived during the boom.
 
It attracted your kind of people.
 
East Texas was crawling with gamblers and con artists and crooks and whores.
 
All living on a wing and a prayer.

Taking high-stakes risks.
 
Saying to hell with tomorrow, let the devil take it.

"That's the life for you, isn't it?
 
You're not happy unless you're walking a tightrope with crocodiles on both sides ready to eat you if you fall.
 
Just like your father, you thrive on adventure."

Key was clenching his teeth so tightly that his jaw ached.
 
"Think whatever you want, Jody."
 
Then, leaning forward, he stabbed the table with his index finger to emphasize each word.
 
"But I never did and never will want to baby-sit a bunch of stinking oil wells."

"Key," Janellen groaned miserably.

She could barely be heard over Jody's chair scraping back.
 
Her face was florid.
 
"Those stinking oil wells allowed you to live high on the hog all your life!
 
They provided food for your belly, clothes for your back, bought you new cars, and paid your way through college!"

Key rose, too.
 
"For which I'm grateful.
 
But am I supposed to become an oilman just to pay you back for upholding your responsibilities as a parent?
 
If you and Daddy had been plumbers, would I be obligated to shovel shit the rest of my life?
 
It was never expected of Clark to go into the oil business, so why me?"

"Clark had other plans for his life."

"How do you know?
 
Did you ever ask him his ambitions?
 
Or did he only follow your plans for his life?"

Jody drew herself up.
 
"He had his career mapped out and would have followed it, had it not been for that whore of a doctor that you've been jockeying around the countryside."

"That was an emergency situation, Mama," janellen interjected.

"That little girl would have died if it hadn't been for Key."

Letty Leonard's accident had been a headline story in the local newspaper.

"Thank you, Janellen," Key said, "but I don't need you to defend what I did.
 
I would have done it for a dog, let alone a little girl."

Jody was fixed on only one aspect of the drama.
 
"I told you to stay away from Lara Porter."

"I didn't hightail it to the emergency room for her, for chrissake.

I did it for the kid."

"Were you thinking of the kid when you bought the doctor's supper?"

Rather than appear surprised or guilty that she also knew about his and Lara Mallory's barbecue dinner, he shrugged.
 
"I hadn't eaten all day.

I was hungry.
 
She happened to be along when I stopped."

Jody's stare was hot with wrath.
 
"I'm telling you one last time.

Stay away from her.
 
Do your drinking and whoring with somebody else."

"Thanks for reminding me.
 
I'm getting a late start tonight."
 
He strode to the sideboard, poured himself a shot of whiskey, and tossed it back defiantly.

Making a sound of disgust, Jody turned and left the dining room with a militant tread, climbing the stairs to the second story.

"Why can't you two get along?"

Key rounded on his sister, prepared to make a defensive comeback.

Her remorseful expression stopped him.

"Jody starts it, not me.

"I know she's difficult."

He laughed sardonically at her understatement.

"Thank you for keeping my secret about Mr. Cato.
 
Mama wouldn't want an ex-con on the payroll, even if he has turned out to be an exemplary employee."

Key cocked an eyebrow.
 
"Exemplary employee?
 
Isn't it too soon to tell?"

"Mr. Cato isn't the subject here," she said primly before switching subjects.
 
"Did you really take her to dinner?"

"Who?
 
Lara Mallory?
 
Jesus, what's the big deal?
 
l popped into Barbecue Bobby's for some ribs.
 
She happened to be along because I was giving her a ride home from the airstrip.
 
That's all there was to it.

Is that a hanging offense?"

"She called me."

His anger evaporated.
 
"She what?"

"She called me last week.
 
Out of the blue.
 
l answered the company phone, and she identified herself.
 
She was very gracious.
 
She invited me to lunch."

He laughed.
 
"She invited you to lunch?"
 
The notion was ludicrous.

"I was so taken aback, I didn't know what to say."

"What did you say?"

"I said no, of course."

"Why?"

"Key!
 
This is the woman who ruined Clark's political future."

"She didn't rape him at gunpoint, Janellen," he said wryly.
 
"I doubt if she tied him to the bedpost, either.
 
Unless it was for recreational purposes."

"I don't see how you can joke about it," she said crossly.
 
"Whose side are you on?"

"I'm on our side.
 
You know that."
 
He stared into near space for a moment, bouncing the empty shot glass in his hand.
 
"It might have been interesting if you'd accepted her invitation, though.
 
I'd like to know what she's up to."

"Do you think she's up to something?"

He thought about it for a moment.
 
Admittedly his estimation of Lara Mallory had risen when he witnessed the determination with which she'd struggled to save the Leonard child's life.
 
He'd seen military medics less committed to saving a patient.

However, despite the courage and skill she'd demonstrated in that crisis, she was still the key player in the scandal that had irreparably compromised Clark.
 
She wouldn't have come to Eden Pass without strong motivation.
 
She wanted something.
 
She'd said as much when she told him she was holding an I.O.U she intended to collect.

You're going to fly me to Montesangre.

He hadn't believed for one second that she was serious.
 
She'd made clear her low opinion of that country.
 
Wild horses couldn't drag her back there.

So why had she said that?
 
To get a rise out of him?
 
To throw him off track and keep him guessing about her true motives?

"She wouldn't have called you unless she wanted something from you," he told Janellen irritably.

"Like what?"

"Who the hell knows?
 
Possibly something as Mickey Mouse as a keepsake of Clark's childhood.
 
Or something as abstract as public approval.

You're a well-respected member of the community.
 
Maybe she thinks that being seen with you would give her the acceptance she needs to make a go of her practice.
 
Next time she calls "If she does."

"I think she will.
 
She's a gutsy broad.
 
When she calls, reconsider.

Lunch with her might be interesting."

"Mama would have a fit."

"She doesn't have to know."

"She'd find out."

"So what?
 
You're a grown-up.
 
You're allowed to make your own decisions even if they don't set well with Jody."

She placed her hand on his arm and spoke earnestly.
 
"Please, Key, for both your sakes, make peace with her."

"I'm trying, janellen.
 
She doesn't want to make peace with me."

"That's not true.
 
She just doesn't know how to give in graciously.

She's old and crotchety.
 
She's lonely.
 
She doesn't feel well, and I think she's afraid of her mortality."

He agreed on all points, but that didn't solve the problem.
 
"What do you want me to do that I haven't already tried?
 
I've bent over backward to be polite and pleasant.
 
I even brought her flowers.
 
You see how much good that did," he said bitterly.
 
"I'll be damned if I'm going to bend at the waist and kiss her pinky every time I see her."

"I'm not asking you to pamper her.
 
She'd see straight through any insincerity and only resent you for it.
 
But you could be less prickly.

When she began talking about work, you could have told her about some of your recent jobs."

"I shouldn't have to display my achievements like merit badges.