Blazing Star. Suzanne Ellison

been at Worthington House—that’s our local convalescent home—since he slipped and broke his hip. He’ll be back soon, God willing. He’s the dearest old man...”

      She stopped as Johnny interrupted with a comment of his own. “Honey, I forgot to tell you that Eddie’s going to use Phil’s room.”

      “Oh? He’s back in town?” To Karen, she said, “Eddie grew up in Tyler but he’s been gone a long time. Recently he bought Timberlake Lodge from Judson Ingalls, and he’s going to add a wing to create a resort out there. He drops by every now and then—”

      “What I meant was, he’s coming back to stay. Until things get under way at the lodge, at least. I told him he could stay in Phil’s room until Phil’s ready to come back.”

      Tisha smiled, clearly enjoying the Kelseys’ attempts to educate their boarder about the town. “Phil is Eddie’s daddy, Karen, and Anna and Johnny forgot to tell you that their daughter Kathleen lives here, too, when she’s not gallivanting off to Switzerland for the winter. You ought to take notes. You might forget some of this, and you cops need to keep track of local gossip to solve your cases, don’t you? Would you like to wiretap my shop?”

      Karen smiled warily, so warily that Anna wondered if she’d already figured out that Tisha deliberately tossed off outrageous comments to help maintain her flamboyant image. Karen had chosen a tough career, so she must be a pretty tough person. But Anna suspected that she’d had a hard first day at work, and tonight she needed warmth and support from her fellow boarders. Tisha often showed her affection for people by teasing, but Anna didn’t think Karen was in the mood to be teased. “You were about to tell us how things went today,” she tried again.

      Karen met her eyes gratefully. “Well, it was...exciting, Mrs. Kel—Anna. Demanding. Different from...just being a regular cop.”

      “Honey, are you telling us it isn’t exciting to be a regular cop? Why, I can’t tell you the number of nights we’ve sat here and listened to Brick tell us how satisfying it is to—” Tisha broke off and turned to Anna. “Where is Brick, anyway? He loves meat loaf. Didn’t I hear him ask the cook to make it tonight?”

      Now Anna flushed. This morning Brick had asked for meat loaf, but he’d called an hour ago and told her he’d be coming home late because he was helping Patrick fix Pam’s carburetor after work. But Anna wasn’t fooled for an instant. It was far too cold to fuss with a car outside after dark at this time of year. It bothered Anna that she’d heard a tension in Brick’s voice that hadn’t been there since Shelley Schmidt had dumped him.

      As she glanced at Karen, she realized there was only one recent change in Brick’s life: Karen Keppler. Despite the incident at Paul Schmidt’s party, she still had hopes for the two of them. After all, what woman could understand her nephew’s commitment to law enforcement better than another cop? Besides, Brick was such a sweet boy, so kind and loving, so much fun! He didn’t blow up often, and when he did, he was always quick to apologize. He wasn’t one to hold a grudge.

      Anna wondered if the same was true of Karen.

      “Brick’s busy tonight,” she explained. “I’ll save him some leftovers. And Zachary’s having dinner with Judson.”

      Anna caught a glimpse of interest in Karen’s eyes as she listened to the news, and she hoped that Brick would come back before Karen finished eating. When she saw the two of them together she’d have a lot better sense of how they were really getting along.

      Johnny asked another polite question about police work, and Karen was quick to answer it. Overall, she seemed happy to talk about her new job—in general, upbeat terms—but there was a tension in her that revealed to Anna that things were not going as well as she’d hoped. Karen praised Anna’s cooking and did her best to listen courteously to Tisha’s exuberant suggestions for styling her long black hair, but Anna had the feeling that this bright and cheery dinner was the highlight of Karen’s first day on the job. Loneliness would be her only ally once she retreated to her room.

      Anna dragged out the dinner conversation as long as she could, urging Karen to have seconds of the chocolate cheesecake she’d made that afternoon. The girl had just finished the last crumb, insisting that she’d had enough, when the door to the kitchen swung open and Brick burst into the house.

      “Where’s that meat loaf, Aunt Anna?” he called out cheerfully as he pulled off his jacket. “I’ve had one hell of a rotten day and I’m starving.”

      Brick strode into the dining room, then spotted Karen. His smile vanished. As Karen rose to her feet with dignity, nobody in the room could fail to feel the electric charge that zapped between them. But to Anna’s dismay, it wasn’t a charge of passion or hope or pleasure. Karen’s face radiated uncertainty and distrust. Brick’s eyes darkened with rage.

      For a long, tense moment they stared at each other. Nobody spoke. Not even Tisha could come up with a joke to break the tension.

      Then Karen said stiffly, “You missed a fine dinner, Lieutenant, but I believe your aunt saved some for you.”

      Bitterly he answered, “Did you instruct her on the proper procedure for labeling and marking the provisions, Captain Keppler? Did you provide her with the proper forms to account for culinary consumption by late-night nibblers? Did you dictate a memo regarding how many ounces each boarder should be served?”

      That was when Anna knew that her dear nephew was in terrible trouble. In all the years Brick had lived with her, she had never heard him be rude to a guest.

      And this one was his boss!

      Karen ignored his needling tone—ignored him, in fact, altogether—and said to Anna, “Thank you so much for the wonderful dinner. If you’ll excuse me now, I have some work to do in my room.”

      She gave the rest of them a quick good-night, then turned and marched up the stairs. Her steps were firm and she held her head high, but Anna wasn’t fooled.

      She was a woman and she knew a woman’s heart. And she knew that her young boarder would shed some private tears tonight.

      * * *

      DESPITE HER EXHAUSTING first day at work, Karen had a hard time going to sleep. It hadn’t been easy holding her own with Brick Bauer, let alone weeping silently into her pillow so he couldn’t hear her as he settled into bed next door. It was after two when she finally dozed off, and long after six when she woke from a frightening dream in which Bauer was towering over her with a steak knife, threatening to kill her if she didn’t surrender her job.

      Trying to ignore the nightmare, Karen quickly tugged off her nightgown, slipped into a robe and headed for the shower. To her dismay, the door to the bathroom was locked. She could hear Bauer singing “On Wisconsin” in the shower.

      She was surprised that he knew how to sing, let alone that he had the heart for it. Apparently he felt better this morning. After all, last night he’d let off a little steam. So far he’d addressed her with stiff courtesy at the station house, regardless of his poorly concealed irritation, but apparently it was too much to ask him to keep his gloves off in his own home.

      Karen couldn’t really blame him. She’d been tough yesterday, tougher than she would have been if she’d taken over a job supervising women. But women would have accepted her authority once she proved she knew what she was doing. That wouldn’t be enough for the men.

      Worse yet, Paul Schmidt had left the place in a bureaucratic shambles. Oh, Karen imagined things had lumped along all right as long as there was some good ol’ boy to say, “Oh, sure, I remember that night five years ago. Don’t you remember that break-in, Steve? The kid had brown hair...”

      It wasn’t good enough for a complex county system, and it wasn’t good enough for Karen. She’d spent most of the first day figuring out what had passed for record keeping and dictating memos to reestablish a professional code of conduct and an efficient game plan for day-to-day organization. Today she was going to do what she would have done the first day if things hadn’t been in such a mess. She was going