Page 55 of Backtrack

“One of them anyway,” Lucy said. “Bodie sure used to like them.”

Cutter speared one of the spicy Gulf Coast prawns with his fork and swam it through the velvety cheese grits. “Amazing. This took some work …”

Lucy toyed with her food. “I enjoyed making it. Tell me about your day.”

Cutter gave her the minute by minute—including the way Sue Bryant had gotten pissed at him over his questioning her husband.

“You were just doing your job,” Lucy said. “Still, I’m trying to imagine the way I’d feel if someone accused you.”

“No kidding.” He reached out and touched the tip of her nose. “Mama Bear.”

“You make a good point,” she said. “Why would they take the time to break into the Bryants’? These men murdered two guards in the course of an armed robbery. Foster makes three. They’re looking at the death penalty for sure.”

“Yes, they are,” Cutter mused.

“Then why in the world would they stick around and risk getting caught?”

“I think they’re looking for the diamonds,” Cutter said.

“I do, too,” Lucy said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. But if they don’t have them, where are they?”

“I’m wondering if they were ever even on the truck. Could be this whole thing is an insurance scam.”

“An insurance scam that got out of hand,” Lucy mused.

“Maybe from our point of view,” Cutter said. “Killing the guards could well have been the plan all along.” He took a drink of iced tea, then held the sweating glass to his forehead to cool himself off. “I’m keeping an open mind, though. Don’t want the Johnson boy to get so focused he misses something important.” He took another bite of shrimp. “The kid shows promise, but he still manages to make an ass out of himself several times a day.”

“And you didn’t when you were his age?” Lucy glanced up from her bowl. “Maybe he makes an ass out of himself because you expect him to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you really think Bud Langford assigned LJ to you as punishment?”

“I suppose not,” Cutter said.

“To get his sister off his back?”

“No.”

“To get LJ out of his hair?”

“Maybe.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Really? You’re going with that as your working theory?”

He shrugged, sheepish now.

“No.”

“He’s inexperienced,” she said.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

She pushed her bowl toward him. “I hate to say it, dear heart, but my mouth hurts too much for this. You finish it. I bought peach ice cream if you want to dish us up some and meet me in the living room. I have to sit my bones on something softer …”

“LJ knows he’s green,” Lucy said ten minutes later, when Cutter brought in two bowls of Parker County peach ice cream and sat beside her on the couch. “You have to admit that’s a tough pill to swallow after he’s just come off six months of the academy and five months of field training. Now the sheriff’s saying he needs even more time with a senior deputy—the dreaded remedial loop.”