Page 54 of Lone Star

“I thought Michelle already did that over the phone.”

“Tell me in your own words.”

He started with the phone call from Pacer, and laid it all out from there. By the end, Fox’s brows were lifted a fraction – a show of real interest and surprise for him.

“And you’re sure it’s not a cult?”

The fine hair stood up on the back of Candy’s neck. “No. Why would I?”

Fox’s expression went thoughtful. He braced a toe on the floor and rotated his chair fractionally back and forth, head tipped back. His voice had shifted when he spoke; a flat, learned recitation that made him seem almost professorial. “Placing the bodies like that – staking them in place and then killing them. He’s sending a message to someone, yeah, but this is ritualistic.”

“The fed used that word.”

“It’s the right word. A dead body sends a message. You don’t need to do anything special with it. Positioning all the bodies in the same way, that’s about servicing something in the killer’s head. He feels like he has to do it that way.”

Candy frowned. “You keep saying ‘he’ like it’s one person.”

Fox’s head lifted, his gaze narrow and pale. “Cults have leaders, don’t they? He’s got friends to lend a helping hand. Followers. But a single guy thought this up, that I can promise.”

“Gee,” Candy huffed, suppressing a shiver. “He sounds swell.”

~*~

A giant pot of beef stew was already simmering on the stove in the kitchen when Fox and co. arrived, but Darla insisted it wouldn’t be enough food. She enlisted Jenny’s help, told Michelle in no uncertain terms that she was to “sit down and rest,” and hurried to the kitchen to scrape together more food. After a few minutes, Michelle caught a whiff of cornbread baking.

Albie still held TJ, seated now on one of the sofas. TJ stared at his great-uncle with something like rapture; his expression drew a laugh out of Michelle she hadn’t thought herself capable of.

“He’ll be giant,” Albie said seriously, examining the toddler’s feet. “Like his father, I suppose, instead of the lot of us.”

“Dad’s tall,” Michelle said, biting her lip to keep from smiling. “So’s Tommy, and Miles–”

“That’s enough from you,” Albie said, but grinned.

Fox appeared, silent and sudden as was his way. He’d traded his beer for whiskey in a low glass, and held it in one hand while he flicked his fingers toward Albie with the other. “Shove off,” he said, without malice.

Albie sighed, but stood, taking TJ with him.

“Leave the baby,” Fox said, as he slid into his abandoned place.

Albie looked at him with lifted brows, more than skeptical.

“You think I can’t hold a baby?”

Albie’s gaze narrowed. “I didn’t think you’d want to.”

“He’s my nephew,” Fox scoffed.

“What’s his name?”

Michelle watched, laughing silently to herself.

“TJ,” Fox said pleasantly, “you absolute wanker.”

“No cursing in front of the kid,” Albie said, but set TJ down in Fox’s lap anyway.

TJ turned toward him with a happy laugh, and Fox gloated.

Albie sighed, and headed off toward the bar.

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