Free Born Innocent by Christine Rimmer

sheriff told me a little while ago, he’s been shot in the side, and he’s in a coma from hitting his head on the credenza when he fell.”
    “ And that’s all?”
    She caught her breath for a moment, thinking about the baby, before she realized he was referring only to her dealings with Henson. She nodded. “Yes, Joe. I swear it. I—” Claire cut herself off as she saw Joe’s gaze shift to something behind her.
    “ Ms. Snow?”
    Claire turned. Undersheriff Leven was standing in the door to her rooms.
    Leven, who knew his town and everyone who lived near it, even if he wasn’t from an old Pine Bluff family, demanded, “What do you want here, Tally?”
    “ I’m a friend of Claire’s.”
    “ Well—” Leven gestured at the lobby couch “—have a seat. We’re just having a little talk with her. And when we’re finished— ’ ’
    Joe cut him off. “Is she under arrest?”
    “ Of course not, Joe.” Sheriff Brawley, who had wasted little time following Leven out, spoke from the doorway to Claire’s rooms. “We’re taking her statement, that’s all.”
    “ From what she’s just told me, you already have it.”
    “ We’re not quite through yet.”
    “ Is she a suspect in the shooting of Henson?”
    Though Joe had asked the question of the sheriff, it was Leven who hastily replied, “No, not at this point.”
    Joe looked from Leven to Brawley and back again. “Like I said, I think she’s told you enough. She needs legal counsel before she says any more.” Joe strode to the front door and held it open. “Have a nice day, gentlemen.”
    Leven looked red in the face. Claire assumed that he didn’t like being one-upped by a bounty hunter. Joe had once told Claire that bounty hunters were considered little more than vultures by most legitimate policemen. “Damn you, Tally. Who the hell do you think you are?”
    Brawley walked around the desk. “Never mind, Wayne. Let’s go.”
    “ But—”
    “ I said, let’s go.”
    His face pinched and sour, Leven followed his boss to the door. But he couldn’t resist one parting shot. “And where were you last night and early this morning, Tally?”
    “ Wayne,” Brawley chided.
    “ It’s all right, Dan.” Joe turned to Leven. “I played poker in the back room of O’Donovan’s until dawn. Then I walked with Rusty Farber over to Mandy’s for breakfast. After that, Millie Jens came in and said they needed help with the parade floats up at the schoolyard. I was there until parade time.”
    Ella, who had followed the others out into the lobby, confirmed in regal tones, “That is correct, at least the last of it. Mr. Tally was at the school grounds all morning. As you know, I traditionally oversee the float lineup, and I did so this year. Mr. Tally was quite a help to us all.” If one less thing had been wrong in her life right then, Claire would have smiled. Her mother considered Joe Tally far beneath her own lofty position on the social scale. But to Ella, even one’s inferiors had a right to be supported when they told the truth.
    Leven snorted and then said with a great show of irony to Joe, “Up all night, eh? You must be beat.”
    “ You know, now you mention it, I am a little tired.” Joe gestured once more toward the open door.
    “ This isn’t the end of it,” Wayne Leven said tightly. “One way or the other, it’s our job to find out who shot Alan Henson. If Ms. Snow won’t cooperate with us, then—”
    “ Enough,” Sheriff Brawley said to his second-in-command. Then he spoke to Joe. “But he’s right. Chances are, we will be back.’ ’
    Joe said, “I understand.”
    Brawley and Leven went out the door.
    When they were gone, Joe turned to Claire. “Are you okay?”
    She nodded.
    Her mother spoke up from right behind her. “Thank you for ending an... unpleasant interview, Joe Tally. And now my daughter and I would prefer to be alone.”
    Joe looked pained. Claire knew he’d always respected her mother, though Ella