Read Online Born Innocent by Christine Rimmer - Free Book Online Page A

room, and they each took one of the twin wing chairs opposite the couch. Claire sat on the couch, and a moment later, Ella came in from the kitchen carrying a coffee service on a tray. She slid in next to her daughter.
    “ Dan, Mr. Leven? Coffee?”
    The men shared uncomfortable glances, and then both agreed that would be nice. There was an uneasy silence as Ella poured and passed the cups around.
    Finally, they began talking of the subject that was most on all their minds. Claire asked if they had been able to determine how long Henson had lain injured on the bungalow floor before she had discovered him.
    “ To tell the truth,” the sheriff explained between sips at the coffee, “with all the firecrackers going off all night, no one we’ve talked to can identify when the shot that injured Henson was fired.”
    “ Yes, well,” Ella said unnecessarily. “That makes sense, of course.”
    A silence ensued, where Brawley and Leven looked ill-at-ease, and Ella’s apprehension was painful to see.
    Then Ella said to Sheriff Brawley, “Dan, have a cookie. I know you love pralines.”
    “ Why, thanks, Ella. Don’t mind if I do.” Sheriff Brawley took the praline and bit into it, and was careful to catch the crumbs in his napkin.
    As Dan Brawley chewed slowly and thoroughly, his undersheriff, who was not from an old Pine Bluff family as were Brawley and the Snows, shifted impatiently in his chair. Finally, Leven said, “We’ve got to get on with this, Dan.”
    “ I know, I know.”
    Leven turned to Claire. “Ms. Snow, we’ve already talked to a few people who are staying here at your motel. And by the time we’re through, we’ll interview everyone. And of course, we need to ask you some questions, too.”
    Ella said, “But you talked to her right after she found that poor man, didn’t you?”
    “ Yes, but only about what happened today, about how she found Henson in his bungalow. Now we need to find out everything anybody can tell us about Henson himself—and about the last few days before he was shot.”
    Ella was shaking her head, looking doubtful. “I don’t know. It seems to me that—”
    “ It’s all right,” Claire said. She could see no escape from this interview. At least they weren’t asking her to go over to the sheriff’s office behind the courthouse. “What did you want to know?”
    “ Let’s see.” Leven produced a little notepad and scrutinized it for a moment. He flipped it back a page. Then he looked at Claire again. “You’ve been dating Alan Henson, is that correct?”
    Ella piped right up. “She has not. She absolutely has not. Why, only last evening, she told me—”
    Claire put her hand on her mother’s arm. “I can answer the questions myself, Mother.”
    “ Fine. Of course. Fine.” Ella smoothed her hair. Her face looked very pinched. In spite of her conflicts with her mother, Claire loved Ella deeply. And never so much as now, seeing the way Ella rushed to her defense, a mother hen protecting her endangered only chick.
    Sheriff Brawley took another praline.
    Undersheriff Leven commented flatly, ‘ ‘We’ve contacted Henson’s wife in San Francisco.” Ella gasped. Leven shot her a sharp, triumphant look. “So. You didn’t know he had a wife?”
    “ No,” Ella answered. “I certainly did not.”
    Claire said, “He never mentioned a wife to me, either.”
    “ I’m sure he didn’t.” Leven scribbled himself a little note on the pad, then he asked Claire again, “ Have you been dating Alan Henson?”
    “ No.”
    “ You’ve been seen with him repeatedly.”
    Claire refused to be intimidated; she reminded herself that she had done nothing wrong. “We never had a date,” she said quietly. “I ran into him over at Mandy’s a few times, and we sat together for lunch. And he bought me a drink at O’Donovan’s one night. And last night, my mother had him over to her house for a barbecue. When d inn er was over, he walked me home.”
    Leven smiled. “He