Nora Roberts - Carnal Innocence  

T he air was raw with February the morning Bobby Lee Fuller found the first body. They would say he found it, when in truth what hed done was trip over what was left of Arnette Gantrey. Either way, the end was the same, and Bobby Lee would live with that wide white face floating into his dreams for a long time to come.

If he hadnt broken up with Marvella Truesdale againthe night before, hed have been hunkered over his desk in English lit, trying to twist his brain into coping with Shakespeares Macbeth, instead of dropping his line into Gooseneck Creek. But this last fight in his rocky eighteen-month romance with Marvella had worn him down. Bobby Leed decided to take himself a day off, to rest and reflect. And to teach that sharp-tongued Marvella that he wasnt no pussy-whipped wimp, but a man.

The men in Bobby Lees family had always ruled the roostor pretended to. He wasnt about to break the tradition.

At nineteen, Bobby Lee was long past grown. He was six one and gawky with it, the filling-out years still to come. But he had big, workingmans hands, like his fathers, on the ends of long skinny arms, and his mothers thick black hair and luxuriant lashes. He liked to wear that hair slicked back in the style of his idol, James Dean.

Bobby Lee considered Dean a mans man, one who wouldnt have tolerated book learning any more than Bobby Lee did. If it had been up to him, hed have been working full-time in Sonny Talbots Mobile Service Station and Eatery instead of hacking his way through twelfth grade. But his mama had other notions, and nobody in Innocence, Mississippi, liked to cross Happy Fuller if they could help it.

Happywhose childhood name was appropriate enough since she could smile beauteously as she sliced you off at the kneeshadnt quite forgiven her eldest boy for being held back twice in school. If Bobby Lees mood hadnt been so low, he wouldnt have risked hooking a day, not with his grades already teetering. But Marvella was the kind of girl who pushed a mana mans maninto doing rash and reckless things.

So Bobby Lee dropped his line into the sulky brown waters of Gooseneck Creek and hunched in his faded denim jacket against the raw air. His daddy always said when a man had powerful things on his mind, the best cure was to take himself down to the water and see what was nibbling.

It didnt matter if you caught anything, it was the being there that counted.

Damn women, Bobby Lee muttered, and peeled his lips back in a sneer hed practiced long hours in the bathroom mirror. Damn all women to hell and back again.

He didnt need the grief Marvella handed out with both pretty hands. Ever since theyd done the deed in the back of his Cutlass, shed been picking him apart and trying to put him back together her way.

It didnt sit right with Bobby Lee Fuller, no indeedy. Not even if she made him dizzy with love when they werent scrapping. Not even if she had those big blue eyes that seemed to whisper secrets just for him when they passed each other in the crowded hallways of Jefferson Davis High. And not even if, when he got her naked, she near to fucked his brains out.

Maybe he loved her, and maybe she was smarter than he was, but hed be damned if she was going to tug him along like a pig on a rope.

Bobby Lee settled back among the reeds along the skinny creek fed by the mighty Mississippi. He could hear the lonesome whistle from the train that was heading down to Greenville, and the whisper of the damp winter breeze through the limp reeds. His line hung slack and still.

The only thing nibbling this morning was his temper.

Maybe hed just take himself down to Jackson, shake the dust of Innocence off his shoes, and strike out for the city. He was a good mechanica damn good oneand figured he could find work with or without a high school diploma. Shitfire. You didnt need to know nothing about some fag named Macbeth, or obtuse triangles and the like, to fix a dinky carburetor. Down to Jackson he could get himself a job in a garage, end up head mechanic. Hell, he could own the whole kit and kaboodle before too long. And while he was at it, Marvella I-told-you-so Truesdale would be back in Innocence, crying her big blue eyes red.

Then hed come back. Bobby Lees smile lit his tough, good-looking face and warmed his chocolate eyes in a way that would have made Marvellas heart flutter. Yeah, hed come back, with twenty-dollar bills bulging in his pockets. Hed cruise on back into town in his classic 62 Caddyone of his fleet of carsduded up in an I-talian suit, and richer than the Longstreets.

And there would be Marvella, thin and pale from pining away for him. Shed be standing on the corner in front of Larssons Dry Goods, clutching her hands between her soft, pillowy breasts, and tears would be streaming down her face at the sight of him.

And when she fell at his feet, sobbing and wailing and telling him how sorry she was for being such an awful bitch and driving him away from her, he might just mightforgive her.

The fantasy lulled him. As the sun brightened to ease the stinging air and danced lightly on the dun-colored water of the creek, he began to contemplate the physical aspects of their reunion.

Hed take her to Sweetwaterhaving purchased the lovely old plantation from the Longstreets when theyd fallen on hard times. Shed gasp and shiver at his good fortune. Being a gentleman, and a romantic, hed sweep her up the long, curving stairs.

Since Bobby Lee hadnt been above the first floor in Sweetwater, his imagination shifted into high gear. The bedroom he carried the trembling Marvella into resembled a hotel suite in Vegas, which was Bobby Lees current idea of class.

Heavy red draperies, a heart-shaped bed as big as a lake, carpet so thick he had to wade through it. Music was playing. Something classic, he thought. Bruce Springsteen or Phil Collins. Yeah, Marvella got all gooey over Phil Collins.

Then hed lie her down on the bed. Her eyes would be wet as he kissed her. Shed be telling him again and again what a fool shed been, how much she loved him, how she was going to spend the rest of her life making him happy. Making him her king.

Then hed run his hands down over those incredible white, pink-tipped breasts, squeezing just a little, the way she liked it.

Her soft thighs would spread apart, her fingers would dig into his shoulders while she made that growly sound back in her throat. And then