Chapter Twenty-Two
Logan wasn’t his father-in-law’s favorite person and that was fine. He’d grown used to Bruce’s bitching and complaining about every little thing. He didn’t like Logan’s profession. He didn’t like Logan’s motorcycle. He didn’t like it when Logan had married Ava. He sure as hell didn’t like it when they’d moved out of Corville and ended up just outside of Seattle. Since Bruce had retired a few years ago he had only become worse, basically unhappy about everyone and everything. Poor Carol was a wonderful woman and she deserved far better.
So it was a complete and utter shock when Logan had surveyed the gamblers in the secret room and found his holier-than-thou church deacon father-in-law playing poker. It was – literally – the last thing he’d expected. If a purple gorilla had been dealing blackjack, Logan would have been less surprised.
Not knowing how Bruce would react, Logan had no choice but to pull the plug on the operation. His father-in-law wasn’t exactly known for his mild manners and discretion, although he’d been keeping a mighty big secret lately. He doubted that this was Bruce’s first time here. He looked far too comfortable.
Luckily Kim didn’t ask too many questions, quickly catching on that something was amiss. She immediately feigned stomach cramps and Logan hustled her down the stairs and out of the front doors before Cindy could do more than make a few half-hearted protests. He bundled Kim into the car and hightailed it out of the parking lot trying to think of a good way to break the news to his wife.
Hey honey, your dad has a gambling problem. Oh, and by the way, he probably knew about Lyle and his gambling habit. His girlfriend, too.
This was going to make Thanksgiving awkward as fuck.
He pulled into the parking lot right next to Tanner’s SUV. They’d chosen a rendezvous spot ahead of time.
Tanner and Ava jumped out of the truck the moment they pulled alongside his vehicle.
“What happened?” Ava’s gaze swept him up and down. “Are you okay? Did someone recognize you?”
Scraping his fingers through his hair, Logan blew out a long breath. He owed them an explanation but dammit, this wasn’t going to go well.
“I’ll explain if you give me a minute.”
All three of them were looking at him expectantly. Kim had been patient so far but he couldn’t expect that to continue for much longer.
“First of all, great thinking, Kim,” he praised. “We got out of there smoothly. I appreciate your help.”
“No problem. Glad that we got out of there without any questions.”
He leaned a hip against the hood of his car. “I did see someone I knew in there and I didn’t know how they would react to seeing me, so I pulled the plug on our operation.”
Tanner nodded grimly. “We’ll just call Griffin or Reed. They might be able to lend us some men that wouldn’t be known there.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not our only problem now.”
Ava frowned. “Do you think Cory suspected something?”
“Not in the least. No, this…this is…personal, baby. Maybe you and I should go someplace and talk about it.”
Her sharp gaze ran from Tanner to Kim and then to Logan. “Personal? Do you mean that I know who was there?”
Logan nodded, already pissed off at Bruce Hayworth putting him in this position. Ava was going to be upset. Mary was going to be upset. Carol was going to be upset.
That was a whole lot of upset that one man had caused with his thoughtlessness.
“You might as well just tell me because they’re going to find out eventually. There aren’t any secrets in a murder investigation, remember? That’s what we told Mary.”
Yep, Logan was going to kick Bruce’s ass.
“It was your dad.”
Ava’s eyes widened and then her lips flattened into a straight line.
“My father? He was there?”
“He was at the poker table. I don’t think he saw me but I definitely saw him.”
No one said anything for the longest time. Ava appeared to be grappling with what she’d learned about her own parent and Kim and Tanner were respectfully giving her the space to do that.
“You did the right thing,” Ava finally replied. “I doubt he would have reacted well to seeing you there. With Kim especially. He wouldn’t have understood that you were on an assignment.”
Shit, it hadn’t even occurred to Logan that Bruce would think he was cheating with Kim. He’d been worried about the gambling angle.
Tanner cleared his throat loudly. “What do you want to do now?”
Have a drink. Maybe two.
“We need to speak with Bruce, obviously. He must have known about Lyle’s gambling habit.”
“And probably Natalie as well,” Ava said, her tone hard. “I never realized my father was this skilled at secret keeping. He’s just full of surprises.”
“Let’s hope there aren’t any more, babe.”
“What about Cory?” Kim asked, nodding back toward the nightclub. “We’ll still need to talk to him. He’s a possible suspect.”
“I can answer that,” Tanner said. “I now have probable cause to drag his sorry ass in for questioning. I’m going to get that back room shut down as quickly as possible. With the possibility of federal charges hanging over his head maybe Cory will talk.”
But first Logan needed to speak with Bruce, and there was no way he was going to be able to keep Ava from not attending that discussion. This was going to get ugly.
* * * *
The reason for Ava’s sleepless night was sitting at his kitchen table and lying through his teeth. If she’d done the same thing when she was a kid, he would have washed her mouth out with soap and sent her to her room without supper.
“I didn’t know about Lyle’s gambling,” Bruce protested, his face almost purple. “And I absolutely didn’t know about any other women. I don’t think Lyle would do that.”
Ava rolled her eyes at Logan before turning back to her father.
“Right, because he was such a fine, upstanding citizen. Did you know he wanted Logan to look the other way when he realized that Wade was the vigilante killer?”
Bruce had the good sense to look down at the floor but Ava wasn’t done with him. She had a lifetime of his lectures saved up, constantly telling her right from wrong, and she wasn’t going to let this go easily.
“Dad, look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t know that Lyle was cheating and gambling. Can you do it? You can’t, can you?”
“Bruce,” Logan said, keeping his tone as nonjudgmental as possible. “We need to find Lyle’s killer and you might know something that would help us.”
Bruce’s head snapped up. “That was my first time there.”
It was amazing how easily her father lied. It made Ava wonder how much practice he’d had over the years.
“We’re going to bring in the manager of the nightclub. If we ask him about you will he say it was your first time there?”
The air seemed to leak out of Bruce, his shoulders slumping in defeat. “No.”
Flipping a chair around, Logan straddled it so he was facing Bruce. “Now we’re getting somewhere. We need the truth. I won’t settle for anything less and neither will your daughter. Not to mention Mary and Carol.”
Bruce shook his head and Ava was startled by how Bruce had aged ten years in mere minutes. His previously red cheeks were now ashen and his eyes bloodshot. He looked old and sad and not in the least intimidating.
“I didn’t do anything all that bad.”
Bruce’s voice was barely a whisper.
“That’s good. Real good. Now let’s start at the beginning. Did Lyle take you to the gambling house the first time or did you take him?”
Her father’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “He took me. About a year ago. I was always complaining about how bored I was. He said that he knew something that was more exciting than puttering around in the garage.”
Lyle had taken her father. But Bruce still had to have known about Natalie.
“Do you know how long Lyle had been going before he took you?” Logan asked.
Bruce shook his head sadly. “I don’t know. It was awhile, though. Everyone knew him there. They all greeted him by his first name.”
Rubbing his chin, Logan nodded. “Okay, this is good information. Did you know that Lyle owed a lot of money?”
“Yes.” Bruce’s voice was barely audible. “I was trying to help him.”
“Oh, Dad. What did you do?”
Ava couldn’t see how her father could help Lyle unless he was willing to give him a whole heck of a lot of cash, which Bruce Hayworth didn’t have. Had he been playing cards to win back the money?
“How? How could you help Lyle raise that kind of cash?” Ava queried. Her parents weren’t wealthy but perhaps he’d dipped into their retirement savings.
“I’m a decent card player.”
Logan’s gaze flickered over to Ava, his eyes sad. “That’s why Lyle asked you to go with him, isn’t it? He wanted help winning back the money.”
“Not at first.” Bruce shook his head in denial. “But then later… When the debts really began to pile up and they were threatening him, although not so much in the last several months.”
Ave pounced on that. “With death?”
Bruce frowned. “I don’t think so. They said they’d rough him up and he’d be hurt bad. They threatened to tell Mary. They wanted him to sell some of the Bryson assets.”
“Why didn’t he?” Logan shot back. “That would have been the sensible move.”
“There wasn’t anything left to sell, really. I think he must have sold a few things to keep them at bay because they’ve left him alone for awhile.”
Such a simple statement but it was sad, too. At one time the Bryson family had ruled this little town like local royalty.
“What about Natalie?” Logan asked. “You did know about her, right? You had to know.”
Bruce nodded slowly as if admitting it was painful. It should be.
“I knew. He and Mary were always fighting and yelling at one another. He wanted to have kids and she didn’t.”
Was her father actually defending Lyle? Jesus, Ava could hardly stand this conversation.
“Was he going to divorce Mary?” she demanded. “She thinks they were reconciling but that’s not what Natalie thinks. What’s the truth?”
“He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to be free, but he hated the idea of going through the divorce and I was trying to talk him out of it.”
So that still gave both Mary and Natalie a motive. Lyle wouldn’t make up his mind.
Logan stood and pushed the chair back into place at the table. “We’re going to need more details, but before we go any further I need to know what you were doing the morning Lyle was shot.”
Bruce’s eyes went round and his mouth fell open. “You think I did it? I need an alibi?”
“I think you do,” Logan stated flatly.
Bruce wasn’t taking the news well. His once gray skin had turned a ruddy shade and his breathing was loud and agitated. “You think I would shoot my own son-in-law?”
To her husband’s credit he didn’t crack a smile, simply staying expressionless. If her father had ever caught Logan doing some of the things they used to do before they were legally wed, she had no doubt Bruce would have met him at the door with a shotgun.
“I think that Lyle cheating on your oldest daughter might be considered a motive by some. It’s in your best interests for us to clear you as soon as possible.”
“I was trying to help him,” Bruce protested. “I wouldn’t shoot him.”
“Then where were you that morning?” Logan pressed. “Can anybody vouch for your whereabouts?”
“I wasn’t home. I was at the Rotary Club Breakfast. There should be dozens of witnesses. The speaker was the local high school’s class valedictorian. He gave a speech on service to the community.”
Ava knew a moment of complete and total gratitude. She didn’t have to worry about her father being a killer. Small mercies and all of that.
“Are we done here?” Bruce asked. “I think I’ve had about enough of this and you.”
He didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of what was going on.
“Dad, we’ve only just got started. We have lots more questions.”