"Does Cindy know?"

"Not unless he told her," said Annie Sue. "You think we ought to go over there after supper?"

"Too late. She said he was picking her up after work. And she just laughed when I asked where they were going."

They stared at each other grimly.

"He's older than we thought, too," said Annie Sue. "Twenty-five, didn't you say, Deborah?"

"Or twenty-six. Reid wasn't sure."

There was an appalled silence. At sixteen, older men were nineteen-year-old college freshmen. Someone ten years older?

"I knew he was no good," Paige said again, but there was no satisfaction in her tone.

They didn't ask my advice and there was nothing I could say that would make any difference. They might not be grown, but they weren't children either and there was no way to put raging hormones back in the box once they were loose.

By the time Annie Sue was ready to admit that it was getting too dark to see, mosquitoes were about to eat us alive and all the wall boxes had wires to them although nothing was actually hooked to the panel box yet.

As we loaded tools and ladders back into the truck in the gathering dusk, Herman drove up in the company's newest truck. I saw right off that he wasn't in the best of moods, but I couldn't tell whether it was because he'd had a hard day or because he was half sick.

He was determined to inspect Annie Sue's work and snapped at her impatiently when she couldn't put her hands on the big flashlight that was supposed to be in the back of the truck. Annie Sue got tight-jawed and defensive, and Paige went beet red with sympathetic impotence. It didn't help Herman's temper when I spotted the missing flashlight on the seat of his truck-right where he'd left it.

Tension crackled like heat lightning in the starless sky, but I was too hot and tired to play the thankless role of peacemaker. A mosquito whined in my ear, another was gnawing on my ankle, and my deodorant threw in the towel as perspiration trickled down between my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Suddenly, all I could think of was how nice it'd feel to be floating in Aunt Zell and Uncle Ash's pool, a bourbon and Pepsi floating in an untippable tumbler beside me, far, far away from quarrelsome people.

"See you tomorrow," I said and left them to it.

When I called that evening to tell Ned O'Donnell that I was reducing Layton Ogburn's bail, he was suspicious. "Don't you do it on my account."

"A little ol' district court judge doing favors for a superior court judge? Never in a million years, Your Honor."

I told Zack Young the same thing when he stuck his head in during the midmorning recess next day and thanked me for my cooperation.

"Raising that much cash would've cost your client more than his profits on a WomenAid house," I said, pouring another gla.s.s of ice water. "Better in their pocket than in a mortgage company's."

"If it came to that," Zack agreed blandly. "I had an appointment with a superior judge over in Wake County this afternoon. You just saved me a trip to Raleigh."

The day continued overcast and heavy, but the rain held off, tormenting us with a promise of relief that wouldn't come. I sweated through morning court in my heavy robe, then drove home at lunch, took off all my underwear and panty hose, and drove back to court wearing only an opaque cotton sundress and sandals under that horse blanket.

On the afternoon docket, a flasher was followed by a thief who'd stolen his next-door neighbor's air conditioner right out of the window. Both pleaded the heat as a mitigating circ.u.mstance. I sent the flasher for a Mental Health evaluation and sent the thief to an air-conditioned jail cell for forty-eight hours.

When I met Annie Sue after work, I warned her that I'd have to leave early for a political meeting over in Makely. She seemed as listless and dispirited as the weather.

"Your dad give you a hard time last night?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Not really. In fact, at breakfast this morning, he told Mom I was doing good. I don't know why he couldn't just tell me though. Why does he have to be like that?"

"At the risk of sounding s.e.xist, honey, that's just the way some men are."

Her smile was wan. "Yeah."

"Did you talk to Cindy?"

She grimaced. "For all the good it did. Guess what? He doesn't love his wife. They're going to get a divorce. 'And what about the baby?' Paige asked her."

"Baby?"

"That's what Cindy said. Yeah, baby. Paige did some asking around. Remember Sat.u.r.day, that tall black-haired woman? She had on that funny Calvin and Hobbes T-shirt you liked?"

I nodded.

"Well, she lives in the same trailer park as them and she's friends with Roch.e.l.le Bannerman. She told Paige that Roch.e.l.le and Carver were going through a rocky time of it 'cause neither of them wanted a baby this quickly-they've only been married about a year-but Roch.e.l.le's never said anything about a divorce. And he's still living with her."

Annie Sue climbed up on the stepladder and started splicing wires into a ceiling box. "We told Cindy all that, but she won't listen. She's talking about dropping out of school and marrying that creep."

Her fingers worked furiously the whole time and as she finished one box and moved her ladder into the dining area to begin on another, thunder rumbled and drops of rain began to fall, tentatively at first, then gathering in volume and tempo till there was a steady drumming on the tar-papered roof over our heads.

We raced out to close the windows on the car and truck and came back damp and cooler as the wind rose and sheets of rain swept down the road in front and even blew vagrant drops onto us as we stood in the doorway and watched. The trees around the house swayed and danced, their leaves turning inside out, and lightning popped somewhere nearby.

After the first rush, the skies lightened somewhat and the winds died down, but rain continued to fall steadily as if it were fixing to set in and go all night. Annie Sue had rigged a droplight so that we had no trouble seeing what we were doing, but it made me lose track of time. Suddenly I realized I only had an hour to shower, change, and get to Makely before the meeting started.

"Want me to help you put this stuff away?" I asked.

"I'll do it. I just need to finish up a couple of more things."

Even though this was a stable, low-crime neighborhood and even though there was plenty of daylight left, I hesitated. "I don't know, honey. I don't think you ought to be here alone."

"It's okay. Besides, Paige's coming. We're going to practice some harmony on a song we're doing at her church next Sunday. She should've already been here." She smiled down at me from her perch. "Don't worry. If she doesn't come soon, I'll pack up and go before dark. Promise."

Just to be on the safe side, I stopped at the convenience store and got Patsy Redd.i.c.k to lend me the phone again. Eleanor Byrd, Perry Byrd's widow answered on the third ring. I didn't identify myself, just asked for Paige.

"Paige? She left a little while ago to go help work on that WomenAid house." She didn't ask who I was, so I thanked her, hung up, and headed off for a very dull, very routine, but thankfully very short meeting.

It was only a little past eight-thirty when I got back to Dobbs. Had the skies been clear, it wouldn't even be full dark yet. All evening, one storm after another had rolled across the Triangle, misty showers followed by frog-strangling gully washers. At the moment, it was raining fairly hard, but straight down. The temperature hadn't dropped much and I had my window lowered to enjoy the cool wetness on my arm.

My route through town took me only a few blocks from the construction site, and a guilty memory had surfaced on my drive back: I had left Herman's fifty-foot tape measure and brand-new hammer up on one of the cross-braces in the living room. I was sure Annie Sue would overlook them in the twilight; I was equally sure that three little sharp-eyed Norris vandals wouldn't if they disobeyed Lu and came back in the daylight.

There was nothing for it but to go by and pick them up. The convenience store was still open as I turned up Redbud Lane and a light was on in the house diagonally across the way. I pulled into the muddy yard so I could shine my car lights in through the open door s.p.a.ce.

To my surprise, Annie Sue's van was still parked there. So was Carver Bannerman's red Jeep. At least I a.s.sumed it was his vehicle, only now it was covered by a black vinyl snap-on top.

No one appeared in the doorway and I could see no light. I splashed through the rain and onto the covered porch where I paused to call Annie Sue's name.

No answer.

My car lights did little to illuminate the front room and I nearly tripped on something.

Herman's hammer.

When I picked it up, the handle felt as if someone with greasy hands had been using it, but I barely noticed as I called again.

Rain drummed on the rooftop but beneath the steady pounding, I thought I heard a moan. Something moved at the far end of the house. At first glance it appeared to be a roll of tar paper propped in the corner, then I saw the pale oval of her face.

"Annie Sue?"

"Deb'rah? Dad?" Her voice sounded dazed.

My eyes had become accustomed to the dark and now I saw the overturned stepladder. Broken gla.s.s twinkled in the car lights from the smashed light bulb that had been her droplight.

"What's wrong?" I cried, stubbing my toe and banging my shins as I threaded a path through the normal building rubble.

She started to cry as I reached her. "Daddy?"

"He's not here, honey. It's just me. What's happened? Are you all right?" I dropped the hammer and reached to help her stand.

Even in the poor light, she was shocking to see. Her hair was wild, her cheek was sc.r.a.ped, the front of her shirt gaped open, and her shorts and panties were down around her ankles.

She felt her nakedness and groped for her clothes as a wave of nausea hit her. Aflame with a murderous anger I didn't know I could feel, I held her until her stomach was empty and only dry heaves wracked her body.

That b.a.s.t.a.r.d. That- "Did he do it?" Annie Sue sobbed. "Oh sweet Jesus, please don't let me get pregnant! Please, Jesus! Oh Deborah, Mommy and Daddy are going to be so mad at me. I tried to kick him in the-you know-but he just laughed, and I fought and I tried to get away and please, Jesus, don't let me get AIDS!"

Making soothing noises, I helped her pull up her shorts, then coaxed her through the house and out to my car.

"It's okay, honey," I said, smoothing her hair as she cried in my arms. "It's going to be all right, but you have to tell me now what happened. Did Carver Bannerman do this to you?"

She gulped back another sob and nodded.

"You were here all by yourself? Where was Paige?"

"She and Cindy-Dad- They don't like him much. And when he started on me, they left."

"When who started?"

"Dad." Old resentments mingled with misery in her voice. "He was mad at Reese because he'd fouled up a job and then he got over here and I'd wired the kitchen stove outlet to the same circuit as the air conditioner instead of putting them separate and I knew it was wrong as soon as I showed it to him, but he could've just said. He didn't have to yell in front of my friends. So they left and then he left and I was so mad I stayed to fix it right and then he came in."

"Bannerman?"

"I think I want to go home now," she whimpered.

"We will," I soothed. "Just as soon as you finish telling me."

"I didn't know he was anywhere around. It was raining hard and I didn't hear him come in. I was almost finished and when I turned around, there he was. I told him if he was looking for Cindy, she'd already gone and how come he was out tomcatting around to dances anyhow when he had a pregnant wife at home?"

She shivered and pulled away from me to roll down the window and take long deep breaths of the wet night air. "Oh, G.o.d, Deb'rah! What if I do get pregnant?"

"What happened next?" I prodded.

"He said, 'What's the matter, dollface? You jealous?' I told him not to be a jerk, but he started bragging about how he'd made a woman of Cindy and I probably wanted him to do me, too. I thought maybe he'd been drinking or was on dope or something and I tried to change the subject. Told him if he was there to inspect the rough-in, I was all finished. I was picking up my tools and he said something nasty about inspecting my wiring first and he grabbed me. I tried to get away and that's when the ladder tipped over and smashed the light bulb. He started cursing me and pulled me toward the back of the house. I fought and kicked and he yanked at my shirt and threw me down on the floor and next I must have hit my head because I don't remember anything else till you came and oh, please, Deborah. Let's go home! Please?"

"We'll go home," I promised. "But first, I want to take you to the hospital."

Streetlights along Redbud Lane were few and far between, but they threw enough light for me to see her head shaking back and forth wildly. "No! I can't-I don't-"

I put my arms around her again and tried to make her understand the necessity. "They'll have a rape kit there, honey. They're trained to collect the evidence we're going to need to put that b.a.s.t.a.r.d in prison."

She tried to pull away but I held her tighter. "I know you don't think you can stand it, but you have to, Annie Sue. You can't let him get away with it."

"But Mom and Dad-"

I knew I was on shaky legal ground. Annie Sue was a minor and I was not her mother. I couldn't force them to prosecute; it wasn't my decision to make. But d.a.m.ned if I wasn't going to try to preserve the evidence if they did want that slimeball put under state prison.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Annie Sue calmed down enough to see my reasoning. She agreed to let me take her to the hospital if I'd stop and call Nadine first. This time, despite the pouring rain, I used the pay phone in the parking lot beside the convenience store. It rang several times, then clicked into their answering machine.

Where the h.e.l.l were they? I was so sure Nadine and Herman would be there, that for a moment I blanked. This wasn't a decision an aunt should make. What if I committed Annie Sue to something they might not want? Frustrated, I slammed up the phone without leaving a message and dashed back to the car. Even with an umbrella, my sandals and skirt were sopping wet as I climbed back in.

Tears streamed down Annie Sue's battered face when I told her Herman and Nadine weren't there, but she didn't argue as I turned my car toward the hospital.

I parked at the emergency entrance and the nurse who came forward as we hurried in out of the rain was Bambi Cobb. Her sister Sherry manages the law office I'd shared with Reid and John Claude and from what I'd seen of Bambi, she was every bit as sharp as Sherry. No dramatics, no superfluous lamentations, just a real efficient professional.

"We want a full rape kit workup," I said.

She nodded, then put her arm around Annie Sue and led her down the hall to an examination room.

I ducked into a nearby rest room, and one look at the mirror made me wonder that Bambi hadn't asked if I needed help, too. I washed my face and hands and did what I could with my sandy blonde hair-in wet weather, it thickens up even more and tries to curl instead of falling smoothly around my face. My soggy coral sandals had walked through so many puddles tonight that they were ruined. Paper towels helped with my muddy feet, but nothing could be done about the smudges on my coral silk blouse. As for my no-longer-white skirt, how did I get so much mud and-were those blood stains? No cuts on my hands. Annie Sue?

The skirt was full enough to let me briefly consider turning it around.

"Right," said the pragmatist who could remember every humiliation of junior high. "That's all we need-Colleton County's first female judge walking around with blood-stains on the back of her white skirt."

"Only dirty minds think dirty thoughts," the preacher said primly.

I left my skirt where it was, slashed on fresh lipstick and went on down to the waiting room.

And stopped short.

There stood Nadine with tearstained, anxious face and beside her stood Dwight Bryant. Both of them stared back at me.

"What are you doing here?" we asked each other. "Herman's had a heart attack," Nadine said tremulously.