SEVEN
Three years passed. Sari graduated from law school, with Merrie and Mandy in attendance. The girls’ father had been gone for several weeks on some private business. When he came home, he’d searched through his desk for papers he couldn’t find and accused the girls of taking them.
They’d denied it. He had Morris check the security cameras, which showed a telephone repairman in Darwin’s study. Except there was nothing wrong with the phone. Morris checked and the phone company hadn’t sent anybody out.
Darwin had gone out, cursing and raving mad. He’d come home quiet and worried and hadn’t spoken to the girls at all. Sari hadn’t mentioned her graduation ceremony to him. She didn’t frankly care if he attended or not.
The dean handed her diploma to her, shook her hand, and she went to Mandy and Merrie to have photos taken with her iPhone and candid shots with her college friends who had also graduated. There were no close friends. Darwin made sure of it.
Nobody mentioned that Darwin didn’t attend. They didn’t discuss it in the limo, either, because they didn’t trust Morris. He wasn’t like Paul, who shared things with them and protected them. He was Darwin’s man all the way. If he overheard anything, he’d go straight to his boss with it.
But back home, Sari went into Merrie’s room with a small device a classmate had helped her obtain. He’d taught her how to use it, too. She turned it on before she spoke.
“What’s that?” Merrie asked.
“A jammer,” Sari said coldly. “It keeps bugs from listening or recording us. I overheard something.”
“What? Where?” Merrie asked worriedly.
Sari sat down on the bed with her. “One of my classmates is going with the FBI when he graduates. His older brother is a special agent in Houston. He said that some millionaire from Comanche Wells has his fingers in a statewide money-laundering operation with ties to organized crime.”
Merrie drew in a breath. “There are only two millionaires in Comanche Wells, and I don’t think Jason Pendleton would ever…!”
“He wouldn’t,” Sari cut her off. “It’s our father. From what I heard, I’m sure of it.” She leaned forward. “They say that he’s working with some woman with ties to the federal government, that she has access to confidential information.”
“Oh, no,” Merrie said heavily. “It’s got to be that woman he keeps,” she added bitterly.
“It must be,” Sari agreed. “Morris doesn’t say much, but he let slip the other day that he had to drive Daddy over to her house urgently, because she’d phoned him and made threats.”
Merrie’s pretty face drew up. “Unwise, making threats to Daddy.”
Sari nodded. She toyed with the hem of her skirt. “Life is so hard.”
Merrie put a hand over hers. “You still miss Paul, don’t you?”
Sari’s face hardened. “Why would I miss a man who made me out to be a slut, who left without a single word? What happened to us was his fault. It was all his fault!”
“You loved him.”
Sari closed her eyes and shivered. “I thought I did,” she confessed. “But he had a wife and child and he didn’t tell me. He let me go on hoping, wishing…” She stopped and bit her lip. “He didn’t seem like that kind of man.”
“No, he didn’t.” Merrie cocked her head. “You know, Paul was very proud. He wouldn’t even let us buy him a coffee when we were in San Antonio. He paid for his, and for ours.”
Sari blinked. “Yes, he used to do that.”
“He would have told you,” Merrie insisted. “I don’t know why he said that to Daddy, but I think I have some idea. Morris was talking to that new man Daddy hired, and he said that any man who married one of us would be set for life. Maybe he said that to Paul. It would have hurt his pride, if another man even thought he was getting involved with one of us. And, sorry, but the way you looked at Paul was pretty easy to read. You were crazy about him. And everyone could tell.”
Sari just grimaced. “I didn’t know.”
“You were in love. Of course you didn’t know,” she said softly. “But he was a proud man. He knew Daddy would never let you marry him…”
“He was married already,” Sari interrupted, and her face closed up. “Married, with a little girl…!” She got up from the bed and wrapped her arms around her chest. “You can’t imagine how ashamed I was. I felt like a potential home wrecker. Not that many women care anymore about breaking up families,” she added bitterly. “You wouldn’t believe the stories I hear from some of my classmates. And when I mention that we go to church, they laugh. They laugh, like it’s a joke to believe in a higher power!”
Merrie got up and hugged her sister. “I just do what I please and ignore what other people think. You should, too. You can’t go through life worrying about other people’s opinions.”
Sari smiled at her. “You’re so open, Merrie. You love the whole world. After what we’ve been through here, you should be like me, cynical and cold and calculating.”
“You’re only like that on the outside, so you won’t be hurt anymore,” Merrie said sadly. “Inside, you’re the same marshmallow you always were.”
“Lies.”
Merrie grinned.
Sari drew in a long breath and let it out. “Well, I’d better get my clothes laid out for tomorrow. Big day. My first day in court!”
“My sister, Perry Mason,” Merrie said proudly.
“Wrong gender.”
Merrie just grinned again.
“Ah, well, I might actually do some good. Mr. Kemp is just letting me observe at first, so that I can get the feel of court cases. I will get to help with voir dire, though.”
“You’re going to be famous one day, and everybody will be impressed when I tell them I’m your sister!”
Sari was looking at a painting on the wall, one Merrie had done of her when she was younger and madly in love with Paul. Her eyes in the painting were so full of love and hope that they made her want to cry.
“You’re the one who’ll be famous,” Sari corrected. “Merrie, you have such genius in your hands. Your portraits are like photographs!”
“Aw, shucks,” Merrie said, mimicking what Mandy said when she was praised.
“I’m not kidding. You should take some of your canvases up to San Antonio to an art dealer and talk about having a one-woman show.”
“I could never do that,” Merrie said gently. “I’m too shy. I’d fumble and stammer and they’d just put me on the sidewalk and shut the door.”
“I very much doubt it.”
“Besides, Daddy wouldn’t like it,” Merrie added. She shivered. “What are we going to do?” she added, almost in a panic. “Daddy said that we need to think about getting married. He’s got some prince picked out for you.”
“He can pick out all the men he likes. I’m not getting married. Ever.”
“He wants somebody to inherit Graylings,” Merrie said sadly.
“He can adopt a son and give him everything, for all I care. I’ve lived in a golden cage all my life, twenty-five years,” she said with growing anger. “I’m tired of not having a life!”
“So am I,” Merrie said. “But bad things happen to people who go against Daddy.”
Sari turned. “Maybe it’s time bad things happened to Daddy,” she said shortly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, somebody came into the house and walked off with some confidential information and Daddy went ballistic. Don’t you wonder what they got?” she asked. “He’s got his fingers in some nasty things, and not everybody is scared of him, despite his millions.”
“He’ll never get caught, no matter what he does,” Merrie said miserably. “We’ll be shoved at titled Europeans and our lives will never be our own, no matter what we do.”
“No,” Sari replied. “No. We’re getting out. One way or another.”
“Whatever you say,” Merrie replied. “Just don’t let Daddy hear you say that,” she added with a whimsical smile.
* * *
Blake Kemp called Sari into his office after her first day in court. He closed the door, hit the intercom button and told his secretary to hold all his calls.
Then he motioned Sari into a chair and sat down behind his desk.
“You want to know how I did such a magnificent job at voir dire, I just know it,” Sari said with bright, laughing eyes.
But Blake didn’t smile. “A woman was killed just outside Jacobsville three days ago,” he said.
“Oh. And we’re prosecuting the killer?”
“They don’t have a suspect,” he said coldly. “The woman was trampled, supposedly by two of her own horses. The coroner doing the autopsy said that it was probably an accident, but the injuries were suspicious. He called in Hayes Carson.”
“Our sheriff,” she said, nodding.
“Hayes thinks it’s a homicide and he’s proceeding in that direction.” He cocked his head, his gray eyes narrowing. “You won’t like what I’m going to say next.”
She swallowed and looked around the room. She held up a hand and brought her jammer out of her purse. She put it on his desk and turned it on.
“You think someone could have bugged my office?” he exclaimed. “I’m the district attorney!”
“My father has men who would dare anything,” she said. “I know the woman who died. It was on the radio. Her name is Betty Leeds. She’s been involved with my father for years. They say she’s his mistress. I don’t know for sure. She has the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen, and her meetings with him were always clandestine.” She paused. “Some man posing as a telephone repairman took some files out of Daddy’s office. He went crazy. He had surveillance tapes.” She paused again. “Daddy left the house rather suddenly three nights ago, and he didn’t have Morris drive him, as he always does. He drove himself. I think he went to see the woman. When he came home he was sweating and nervous and his head was hurting. It usually hurts when he does something violent to people.”
“Something you know for a fact, Miss Grayling?” Blake asked.
“I wouldn’t dare admit it, even if it’s true, Mr. Kemp.”
He measured her proud look with the faint traces of fear in her eyes and drew a conclusion. He leaned back in his chair. “Well, even if he’s involved, we’d have to have an investigator go out to inspect the car he was driving, and before we could do that, we’d have to have probable cause. The fact that he knew the woman and she died violently doesn’t give us enough evidence to get a search warrant out of any judge in Jacobs County.”
“I know that. But I might be able to help.”
He read the growing unease in her face even as she offered. “No,” he said after a minute. “If he’d been involved with the woman for a long time and he killed her, it speaks of a total lack of emotion on his part.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said under her breath.
“I don’t imagine I do. So you steer clear. But you may need to talk to Hayes Carson. I can bring him over here on the pretext of discussing a court case and you can come in with your sturdy little spy gadget and we’ll have a discussion.”
She grinned. “I had a friend whose brother was in the FBI. He taught me about covert surveillance.”
“Nice. But I have Cash Grier right downtown and he’s even the most dangerous criminal’s worst nightmare. He also has friends with mob connections,” he added, “although I certainly wouldn’t condone having him contact them.”
“I’m sure they’re all legit,” she drawled, her blue eyes twinkling. “One of them was Marcus Carrera. He was the epitome of a dangerous crime boss, but he got out, and now he and his wife have two little boys.”
He chuckled. “They still live in the Bahamas, although she comes home to visit occasionally. She’s from here.”
“I heard that.”
He stared at her. “If your father has ties to this case, it will go hard for him. The FBI will certainly pursue the case, since it involves a federal agent. I understand that they have someone going over files right now to look for evidence of money laundering.”
“That would be Secret Service…”
He shook his head. “That’s tampering with money. This is hiding money from the government, cleaning it so that underworld elements can get to it legally. There’s talk that over a billion dollars has been funneled through the operation. Big money. Somebody is going to do time for that. A lot of time. And if murder was involved…”
Sari’s face paled. She was remembering something her father had said when he’d beaten her and Merrie.
“What is it?”
She bit her lower lip. “Daddy admitted once that he’d killed someone and made it look like an accident.”
“Did you ask him anything about it?” he asked.
She smiled jerkily. “I was bleeding pretty badly at the time. He’d just beaten me and Merrie…” Her eyes closed on his murderous expression. “You mustn’t ever let that get out. He’d kill us…”
“Not in my town,” Blake said coldly. “Not if I have to get help from Eb Scott’s whole damned operation. I promise you that.”
She felt relief, but only for a minute. “Mr. Kemp, he’s richer than you realize, and he can buy people.”
“He won’t buy me.”
“Of course not. But he can buy European talent. Do you know what I mean?” she added. “Plus, you have a wife and children.”
She let the insinuation sink in.
“So that’s how he does it?” he asked coldly.
She nodded. “Everyone has a weakness that can be exploited. He keeps me and Merrie by threatening our housekeeper, Mandy. She has a brother who works for somebody in the mob up north. Daddy keeps her in line by threatening her brother.” She closed her eyes. “Fear is a powerful incentive to keep quiet.”
Blake was pensive. He did know what evil men could accomplish. He’d have to make certain that Isabel and Merrie were safe, before he acted.
“Surely your own father wouldn’t kill you,” he said shortly.
“I wouldn’t bet the farm on that,” she said. She leaned forward. “There have been rumors for years that he killed our mother,” she added with emotion in her voice. “I don’t know. Merrie and I weren’t home when it happened. But Dr. Coltrain thought her death was suspicious. He insisted on a complete autopsy, but he was called out of town and when he got back, the coroner listed her death as natural causes. Dr. Coltrain was furious, but he couldn’t do a thing about it.”
“If Coltrain thought it was suspicious, it was,” Blake replied.
Sari drew in a breath. It was such a relief just to have his confirmation, just to have any of it out in the open.
“You had a security chief who was formerly with the FBI,” Blake said suddenly, curious at the way Sari’s face flushed. “Would he know anything about your father’s dealings and would he be willing to talk?”
“Paul left three years ago,” she said coldly. “None of us have heard from him since. Nor do we care to,” she added when he started to speak. “I would walk on the other side of the street just to make sure I didn’t have to speak to him.”
He let out a whistle. “I see.”
“When do you want me to talk to the sheriff?”
“I’ll try to get him over here tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
He glanced at the device on the desk. “And be sure you bring that gadget with you tomorrow.”
She smiled. “Yes, sir.”