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  “Did I hear you say you’re Phin Tucker?” Clea drifted past Sophie to take the mayor’s arm. “I can’t believe it. The last time I saw you, you fell off your bike.” She let her eyes slide up to his.

  “I’m having the same feeling now. Hello, Clea. Welcome home.” The mayor looked down into Clea’s blue eyes, but he didn’t sound off-balance in the slightest. He was probably never off-balance. Sophie felt annoyed with him for that.

  “And who’s this?” Clea gazed past his shoulder at the police chief.

  “Police chief,” a deep voice said from behind Wes. “They want to know about some accident.”

  Sophie turned. Medium, dark, and smug, the green suit had too much hair mousse and a slight paunch, and he’d slung his suit jacket over one shoulder in a misbegotten attempt to look cool. His shirt had green and white stripes, and his tie was bright yellow.

  “You must be Frank,” Sophie said.

  “That’s me. Now don’t you worry about a thing.” Frank winked at Sophie. “I can handle this for you. I’m on the council.”

  “Nothing to handle,” the cop said mildly, and Sophie shot Clea a look that said, Do something with this guy.

  Clea took Frank’s arm. “Why don’t we go up on the porch and discuss your scenes for tomorrow?”

  Frank looked stunned, as if he couldn’t believe she was touching him, and let her tow him off.

  One confirmed jackass out of the way. Two possible wolves to go.

  “Well, that’s the car,” she told the cop, and the mayor looked at her one last time and then left them to walk over to it, evidently having seen all he needed. “It’s registered to my sister and me.” She turned back to the dilapidated porch where Amy was now leaning against the post, chewing her ham-and-cheese sandwich and looking exotic in her orange tube top and purple capris, her red hair flaming in the sun. “That’s my sister.”

  “Oh,” the cop said, looking at Amy.

  The mayor called the cop over, and he went as Amy put her sandwich on the porch rail and came down the steps.

  “I told you so,” Sophie said to Amy under her breath. “The Pillars reported us to some outback nazi law-enforcement agency and now they’ve run us down like dogs—‘ ”

  “Fear and Loathing again. You’re getting boring.” She studied the two men. “So that’s Phineas T. Tucker. We were wrong. He’s having sex. And he can have more with me.”

  “Concentrate,” Sophie said. “The cop’s name is Wes Mazur. Get over there and give him anything he wants so he’ll go away and we can get to work.”

  “I’d rather give it to the mayor.” Amy sighed. “Unfortunately, he appears to want it from you.”

  “What?” Sophie said. “Amy, concentrate.”

  “I was standing in the doorway when he said hi,” Amy said. “And from the look on his face, what he has for you is not the key to the city.”

  “There was no look on his face,” Sophie said. The mayor was now gazing at the car with the same lack of expression he’d been sporting since he’d arrived. Clearly a product of too much inbreeding. “I don’t think he has anything for anybody. Go get rid of them.”

  Fifteen minutes later, after the cop had gone back to the patrol car, gotten a crowbar, and pried the fender off the tire, Amy came back to the porch with the two men behind her. “Wes has a few questions.”

  Wes? “Questions?” Sophie clasped her hands together to keep from fidgeting and then began to twist her rings instead.

  The cop gestured to the swing, and she sat down. When he started to sit on the porch rail, Sophie said, “No!” and lunged for the rail, grabbing Amy’s sandwich before he sat on it. “Sorry,” she told him, handing the sandwich to Amy.

  “Thank you.” He sat on the rail while the mayor leaned on the post behind him, looking amused, which did nothing to endear him to Sophie. He was starring in The Philadelphia Story; she looked like an extra from The Grapes of Wrath. Life was so unfair.

  “Just tell me what happened,” the cop said.

  Sophie turned her back on the mayor and told the nice policeman everything, and when she was finished, she said, “I just wasn’t looking and missed the sign. We didn’t break the law on purpose.”

  The mayor stirred a little. “Actually, you did.” He sounded as if he didn’t care. “You left the scene of an accident.”

  “Understandable under the circumstances,” the cop said before Sophie could speak. “Amy says we can have the tape of the accident if we bring it back tomorrow, so we’ll bring the accident report for you to sign then.”

  “Amy asked you to come back.” Sophie bit her lip, wondering why her mother had insisted on having three children.

  “She also mentioned something about the electricity and plumbing,” the cop said, smiling at Amy.

  “A good reason to call an electrician and a plumber,” Sophie said brightly. Not the police and the government, Amy. “Really, there’s no need—”

  “Not a problem,” the cop said. “My pleasure.”

  “—certainly not for both of you—” Sophie began again, hoping at least to avoid the mayor. But when she looked at him, he was staring at her mouth, and she blushed and then felt her temper rise.

  “Did you get hurt in the accident?” he said, and Sophie blinked. “Your lip. It’s bleeding.”

  “Oh.” Sophie licked her bottom Up and tasted salt. “I bit it when he hit us. It’ll be all right.”

  His eyes lingered on her mouth for another moment, and then he nodded.

  It was time to get rid of the mayor.

  One. “But thank you for asking,” Sophie said, smiling the Dempsey smile.

  The mayor looked startled for an instant, and then his lips quirked a little.

  Two. “But I think my mouth will recover, don’t you?” Sophie said, flirting up at him.

  “Oh, yes” he said, meeting her eyes.

  Three. “I’d forgotten all about it,” Sophie said, truthfully. “You must be very observant.”

  “I try,” the mayor said, openly appraising her now.

  Four. Sophie stood up, including the cop in her smile. “You’ve been wonderfully kind, and we really can’t ask you for anything else; certainly not another trip out here. So I’ll come in tomorrow and sign the accident report and—”

  “I can ask them,” Amy said from behind her. “I want plumbing that works and electricity that won’t kill me.”

  Sophie tried to keep the exasperation off her face but the mayor must have seen it anyway because he grinned at her, a real smile this time, and she thought, Of course you’d be gorgeous.

  “We’ll be back tomorrow,” he said, straightening away from the porch post, and all Sophie could say was, “Thank you.”

  When they were gone, Sophie turned to Amy. “Let’s review the plan. It’s going to be just the three of us and we’re not going to attract attention.”

  “You know there’s such a thing as being too cautious,” Amy said. “We need the plumbing and electricity fixed and they’ll do it for free.”

  “The hell they will,” Sophie said, thinking of the mayor. “We’ll pay one way or another.”

  “And I don’t care what you say,” Amy went on. “The mayor is hot.”

  “I didn’t say he wasn’t hot.” Sophie stood up and let the swing bounce behind her. “I said we were going to stay away from him. He’s trouble, it’s in his eyes. He’s a hard mark.”

  “I bet he is,” Amy said.

  “Will you concentrate? We stay away from the mayor.”

  “Yes, but will the mayor stay away from us?” Amy said.

  “God, I hope so,” Sophie said, licking her lip as it started to bleed again, pretty sure she meant it.

  Phin sat in the passenger seat of the squad car and considered running the Dempsey sisters out of town on a rail. He had no legal grounds, of course, but it was his job to ensure the peace, and he had a feeling that getting rid of the Dempseys would be a good start, even if it was only for his peace. There was something