Part 3 (1/2)
”You'll have to pull cash out of the real estate,” offered Rae.
”It's in the works. Or will be now that we've gotten rid of Gil.”
Gotten rid of Gil? Rae had the uncomfortable feeling that she'd just discovered her true purpose at the meeting. ”I'm not hungry,” she said, eyeing her iced coffee with distaste. It, too, had been overpriced in her opinion.
”Don't worry,” said Danny. ”I've still got some plastic left.” He slapped a VISA card down on the table to prove it.
Finally she relented and let Danny talk her into ordering an appetizer--calamari, while he chose a Reuben sandwich.
After their waiter had left for the second time, Rae asked, ”What happened after the funeral to set your in-laws off?”
Danny's brow furrowed as he appeared to dredge the depths of his memory.
Come on. It hasn't been that long.
”It was at the reception after the service. Josh and I were talking to Beth, my stepdaughter. She'd been staying with her Aunt Morgan since we got back in town. Josh and I just wanted her back with us, like before.”
”When your wife died, her daughter was living with you and Josh?”
He nodded. ”Dee was in no shape to take care of herself, let alone a kid.”
”Uh-huh. So you left Dee...alone.”
Rae watched anger shoot into Danny's eyes. And guilt? ”What was I supposed to do? That was my leverage. Get into rehab and we'll come back.” He gave Rae a pleading look. ”What would you have done?”
Rae shook her head. ”G.o.d's truth, I have no idea. I can't imagine...” She paused as another idea hit her. ”When you say you wanted Beth back with you and Josh--that would be where?”
”In our home, of course.”
”That...place where I picked you up this morning?”
”Well, yeah. I know it's ugly, but that doesn't explain why Morgan just went ballistic, grabbed Beth and took off. People stared at me like I was some kind of perve. Beth had been my daughter for three years. Her mother's death didn't change that.”
As the words tumbled out in increasing volume, Rae saw Danny's eyes well up. She put a hand on his arm, ”Danny, that was the house her mother died in. How do you think that would make Beth feel?”
He shrugged as if it had never crossed his mind. ”But it had been her home. And it would probably be temporary, until I can liquidate it.”
”Your sister-in-law may have considered this insensitive on your part. I can't say I wouldn't have reacted the same.”
”Morgan threw hot coffee at me, made a horrific scene. People looked at me like I was a pariah. Wouldn't you say that was a bit of an overreaction...on Morgan's part?”
”Depends.” Rae shrugged, then c.o.c.ked her head. ”Didn't your wife have a son, too?” she asked as the waiter returned with their order.
”Kevin's nineteen. A legal adult who does as he f.u.c.king pleases,” replied Danny after the waiter had left. ”We hardly ever saw him.”
”Sounds like a real winner.” Rae paused, fork in midair. ”My G.o.d, Danny, where was your brain? Marrying into a mess like that. What was the attraction?”
Under Danny's gaze, Rae picked at the sauteed squid, instantly regretting her outburst.
Finally Danny replied in a small voice, ”We made each other laugh.”
She'd always thought herself possessed of a healthy sense of humor, but...”Laugh?”
”I know. Doesn't exactly fit the picture. Granted, the humor was usually on the dark side.”
”I can imagine.”
”It kept us going. Let us forget sometimes. About the load of baggage we were both carrying.” Then he smiled wistfully as he added, ”And the s.e.x was--”
Rae cut him off with a raised hand. ”Danny, that's more information than I want, if you don't mind.”
Rae guessed that embarra.s.sment overcame him as Danny began to wolf down his Reuben. As the moment pa.s.sed, he looked up at her and asked, ”How's your calamari?”
Like rubber. ”G.o.d's truth? Not like Grandma's.”
She caught the hurt feelings as Danny's eyes burrowed back into the remains of his sandwich. ”I'm sorry, Danny. It's not the food. This's a great place. I'm still so ticked at those attorneys. Anything I eat right now is going to taste like...rubber bands.”
As she chewed...and chewed, Rae found herself agreeing with Danny. The sister-in-law had overreacted. What wasn't Danny telling her? Was it maybe because he didn't know all the answers either?
”What's with the hurry to get rid of all the properties?” asked Rae after swallowing the last of her misnamed appetizer and biting into a new angle. ”If everybody but you is so well-heeled, why rush?”
”Beats me. Maybe that's where they've buried the family skeletons.”
”Let's get the digging started.”
Rae fished around in her handbag and came up with her cell phone, which she handed across the table to Danny. ”Call Sandy.”
The civilian clerk at the information window of the Wheat Ridge Police Department was adamant. ”I can't give you that, Mr. Farris. You're not a party in interest.”
”Why would I be a suspect? According to you people, there's been no crime.”
”Suspect?” The clerk hesitated. ”Oh, you've got it confused with person of interest. Party in interest is someone ent.i.tled to the information by law.”
From her cubicle a few feet away, Sergeant Emily Wehr could hear the argument escalating. The clerk could handle the situation, Wehr was sure of that.
”That should apply to me,” snapped the man.
”Not according to CRS 24-72-304.” The clerk definitely knew her job.
”I'm Mrs. La.s.siter's brother-in-law.”
That name got Wehr's full attention. She moved outside the cubicle and looked beyond the clerk, at the man on the other side of the window.
His face was livid. ”She was my wife's sister, for G.o.d's sake.”
Wehr heard the impatience in the clerk's voice. ”Have your wife come in and fill out a form. Then I'll see what I can do.”
Bad idea, but the clerk had no way of knowing. Wehr stepped forward. ”What's the problem?”
He was a peac.o.c.k of a man. Fiftyish, fitting a tad snugly into a fifteen hundred dollar suit. That he showed up at Wheat Ridge P.D. dressed as if for a board meeting p.i.s.sed Wehr off to start, never mind the rest of it. His hair, a mix of gray and blond, was cut fas.h.i.+onably. Some Cherry Creek barber, no doubt.