“Maybe you know him. He’s the new—Oh, here he is now.”
Hearing the door to the real-estate office open behind her, Emily turned. The man who strolled in was not overly tall, maybe five foot ten. Through his chambray shirt and close-fitting jeans, she could tell that he was solidly built, with strong arms, broad shoulders and lean hips. He walked with the confidence of a man who was accustomed to being in charge. His hair was brown, shot with red, conservatively cut, a bit disheveled by the autumn breeze. His eyes were brown. Rich, warm brown, but sharp enough that Emily suspected there was very little he missed.
She wouldn’t have called him classically handsome, but that didn’t seem to matter. He had an attraction all his own, and Emily imagined that most women would agree with her.
“Hello, Chief Davenport. I was just talking about you,” Mary Kay said with a flirtatiousness that confirmed Emily’s theory. Mary Kay was happily married, but obviously not immune to a good-looking man.
“Were you?” The man smiled, pushing lazy dimples into his tanned cheeks, and looked curiously at Emily.
Mary Kay made the introductions. “Emily McBride, this is Wade Davenport, Honoria’s new police chief. Chief Davenport, Emily owns the house I mentioned to you yesterday. The four-bedroom frame with the wraparound porch and twenty acres of land?”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. McBride,” Wade Davenport said in a drawl that made it clear that he might be new to Honoria, but was as Southern as any other resident of his new hometown.
Emily placed her hand in his, trying to reconcile the man in front of her with Martha Godwin’s description of the new police chief. Martha had implied that Wade Davenport was a bit slow. Emily didn’t believe that for a moment.
She remembered that Mary Kay had mentioned that he was widowed and a single father. How sad that he’d lost his wife so young, she thought with a tug of sympathy.
“Ms. Evans was telling me about your house yesterday,” he said. “Since I’ve moved here, I’ve been looking for a place with a big yard and lots of room for my son to run in, and yours sounds ideal. But Ms. Evans wasn’t sure you were committed to selling it?”
“Oh, but I am,” Emily replied decisively. “I’ve just signed the papers. My father passed away a few months ago, and the house is just too big for me now.”
“I’ve noticed several new apartment complexes being built in town. Seems like quite a few others around here have decided not to bother with maintenance and yard work,” he commented, not quite prying.
“Actually, I’ll be leaving Honoria,” she replied.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he murmured.
That was when she realized that he was still holding her hand. And looking at her in a way that made her pulse jump.
She quickly pulled her hand away. “Mary Kay will tell you about the house,” she said, keeping her voice brusque as she tucked her purse beneath her arm. “If you’re interested, she’ll set up an appointment for you to see it. It was very nice to meet you, Chief Davenport, but I really have to go now.”
With a quick nod at Mary Kay, she made her exit from the real-estate office. She was aware that she’d been a bit abrupt, but she’d had a sudden need to get away. She felt as if she’d just burned her bridges, and the smell of imaginary smoke was suddenly beginning to choke her.
“I’M TILLING YOU, Davenport, someone’s been stealing money out of my business account,” Dr. Sam Jennings, the town dentist, stated loudly. “And I’m pretty damn sure who. It’s that McBride woman.”
Marshall Hayes, president of First Bank of Honoria, frowned and wrung his hands. “Now, Sam, calm down. You can’t go throwing accusations like that around without evidence. Can he, Chief Davenport?”
Leaning one shoulder against a wall in the bank president’s office, Wade Davenport rubbed his chin for a moment before answering. “It’s always best to have reasonable proof before naming names,” he agreed. “Do you have evidence to support your accusation, Dr. Jennings?”
“She’s a McBride,” the angry man answered with a scowl. “That’s all the evidence I need.”
“That’s hardly fair.” Marshall Hayes was obviously annoyed, but still careful not to alienate one of his bank’s more profitable clients. “Emily is a fine young woman. She’s never caused a bit of trouble in this town, despite the actions of some of her other family members. She’s been a longtime, loyal employee of this bank, and not once has she given me any reason for concern.”
“She’s a McBride,” Sam Jennings repeated, as if that fact was all he needed to support his opinion.
Wade studied the hostility in the balding, fifty-something dentist’s eyes. “If the McBrides are so bad, why haven’t I encountered any of them professionally during the time I’ve been here?”
“The McBrides aren’t all bad,” Hayes answered firmly. “Like all large families, they’ve had their share of problems....”
“The family includes a horse thief, more than a few drunks, a couple of sluts and a murderer,” Jennings sneered. “An embezzler would fit right into that clan.”
“Now that’s just too much.” Hayes looked as if moral outrage had finally overcome his financial discretion. “I find it almost impossible to believe that Emily is an embezzler. And there are some other fine, upstanding citizens among the McBride clan. Emily’s uncle, Caleb McBride, and his wife, Bobbie, are pillars of their church and community. Their daughter went to Harvard Law School, one of their sons is a political bigwig in Washington and the other attends the Air Force Academy. You’re basing your insinuations on a few totally unrelated incidents, Sam, and you’ll be lucky if the whole McBride family doesn’t sue you for slander.”
“A horse thief?” Wade murmured, lifting an eyebrow at the irritated men.
The bank president snorted. “Three generations back, one of the McBrides was accused of being behind a horse-stealing ring. No one was ever able to prove it.”
“Just like no one could prove Lucas McBride killed my nephew, Roger, fifteen years ago,” Jennings snapped. “But everyone knows he did it.”