"I thought you had sex."
Again Lucky looked at something besides his brother's inquisitive face. "Sometime during the night I woke up," he said quietly. "She has this really incredible dark red hair. And her skin is so creamy, translucent, you know." Suddenly he yanked himself out of the self-imposed trance and frowned at his own susceptibility. "She was classy, Chase."
"Then what was she doing causing a stir at the place?"
"Damned if I know. But she wasn't your ordinary barfly, willing to grant sexual favors in exchange for a few drinks. Not a party girl. If anything, she was uptight and … and … bossy. The kind of woman I usually avoid like the plague."
"You'd have done well to avoid this one."
Lucky was reluctant to agree. For some reason he hadn't yet had time to analyze, he wasn't sorry about the night before. Nor did he think it would be his only encounter with Dovey, or Mary, or whatever her name was. The consequences of their night together had got him into more trouble than he'd ever been in. That was saying a lot. But inexplicably he didn't regret it. At least not as much as the situation warranted.
"So what's your plan?"
Chase's question pulled him out of his reverie. "To find her."
"How, if you don't even know her name?"
"I'll start at the place and work forward from there."
"Well, good luck."
"Thanks."
"If you need me, you know where to find me."
"I'll be glad to help you and the boys with the cleanup," Lucky offered.
"We can't start until they've finished their investigation. God knows how long that'll take, because they're sifting everything through a fine-tooth comb, looking for evidence. All you could do is what I'm doing, and that's standing around twiddling my thumbs.
"No, your time will be better spent clearing yourself. The insurance company isn't going to pay us one red cent until we've been exonerated." Chase squinted into the sunlight. "Any ideas who might've done this?"
"My first guess would be Little Alvin and Jack Ed."
"Revenge?" Chase chuckled. "From what I've heard, you made Little Alvin sorry he was a man."
"He deserved it."
"Pat thought he might be a suspect, too, but he's got a whole tribe of Cagneys swearing that Little Alvin was playing cards with his brothers all night."
"With an ice pack on his crotch?"
Again Chase laughed. "Remind me never to get you really mad at me." His expression turned serious again. "Which I'm likely to do by saying this."
"What?"
"It might be a good idea to go see Susan Young. Her daddy's already called me twice today demanding to know what's going on."
Lucky swore. "You're right. I'd better get over there and smooth her ruffled feathers. We need to stay in good with the bank now more than ever. Besides, I truly did do Susan dirty by standing her up last night."
"And making it public knowledge that you spent the night with another woman." Chase eyed him speculatively. "She must've been some redhead."
Refusing to be baited, Lucky settled into the driver's seat of his convertible and turned on the motor. "In ten or twenty years we'll be laughing about this the way we did about Bledsoe's mule out of his thoroughbred mare."
* * *
She padded into her kitchen and opened the refrigerator. As expected, it was empty. One of the hazards of living alone was a bare cupboard. It was less of a hassle to do without food than to prepare meals for one.
The thought of going grocery shopping on her return to Dallas early that morning hadn't been very appealing. Instead, she'd driven straight to her condo and, after taking a long, hot bath to relieve her soreness, had gone to bed.