Amber put three mugs and tea bags on the table and sat down. “Harper knows Thunder Morgan.”
“You do, huh?”
?
??Yes, ma’am. He was a friend of my father’s. A good man.”
Karen simply nodded.
“Don’t you have anything to say, Mama?”
“About what?”
“About my father? About Thunder Morgan?”
“Why would I have anything to say about him?”
Amber pounded her fist on the table. “Because yesterday you told me he threatened to kill us both!”
Harper straightened in his chair.
Karen fidgeted with a hangnail. “Did I say that?”
“Yes, and after you’d sobered up.”
Harper’s eyebrows rose. “Thunder Morgan wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
“That’s what I thought. I’ve met him. He’s a nice man. Why do you think he wanted to kill us?”
Karen pushed a blond tendril of hair behind one ear. “He made it clear to me that night that this was a onetime thing. He wasn’t gettin’ tied down to anyone, and if I didn’t want to go through with it I could back out, no hard feelins’.”
“That’s a nice guy, Mama, not a killer.”
“Yes, he was a nice guy, or so I thought.”
“Didn’t he use a condom?”
“I don’t remember. It was a long time ago, Amber.”
“Well, whether he did or not really doesn’t matter. I’m here.”
Karen nodded.
“Ms. Cross?”
“Hedstrom. Cross is my daddy’s name, remember?” Amber said.
“Right, I’m sorry. Ms. Hedstrom, did he make any kind of threat to you and the child at all?”
“Once Amber was born, I tried to contact him. I just wanted him to know he had a little girl. I wasn’t gonna ask him for anything.”
“Yeah?” Amber said. “So what happened?”
“I tracked down his number and called, and a woman answered.”
“And?” Harper said. “She wasn’t his wife. He never married.”
“I don’t know who she was. I assumed she was his wife. Coulda been a maid. A girlfriend. All I know is she asked who I was, and when I told her my name, she said if I ever called there again both me and the little brat would end up dead.”