Chapter Twenty-Three
Logan and Ava left her father’s home, picked up the kids, and then headed straight for Mary and Lyle’s house. Mary had to be told the news and neither of them was looking forward to that conversation.
“Do you think he has a girlfriend, too?”
Logan looked over at his wife sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Despite all she’d been hit with in the past twenty-four hours she’d been admirably calm. Almost too calm.
“I think this isn’t a subject we should be having with the kids in the backseat.”
Ava looked over her shoulder and sighed. “They’re watching Scooby Doo. I doubt they’re even paying attention.”
“It was your idea to get them a tablet. I didn’t have a tablet when I was six. I had a bat and ball.”
And I walked to school uphill in the snow. Both ways.
“Times have changed. Kids play differently. And they do have a bat and ball. They play outside quite a bit, but in the car and on airplanes they can’t play baseball.”
She made sense but he didn’t have to like it. He wanted his kids to understand and embrace technology but it was disturbing that they seemed to love it so much. Way more than they should.
Logan glanced over his shoulder at his two children, their heads close together as they giggled at the antics of the talking cartoon dog who solved crimes. If only it was as easy as setting a trap and letting it all go awry.
“I don’t think he has a girlfriend.”
Logan kept his voice low, although Ava was surely correct in that the twins weren’t listening.
“For Mom’s sake, I hope not, especially when they were trying to work things out not long ago. But he did know all about Lyle and never said anything. I’m not sure I can forgive him for that.”
He’d thought about the situation and had come to a conclusion. “I know you’re angry and upset, babe, but…he’s your dad. And he’s not young anymore. I don’t want to see you do something drastic and then wish you hadn’t later.”
Like if Bruce suddenly died. Ava would never forgive herself if he passed away while they weren’t speaking to one another.
“Since when do you take Dad’s side?”
It was kind of funny. Logan and Bruce didn’t agree on the color of the sky, yet here he was kinda sorta defending his father-in-law. Bruce had done wrong and Logan wouldn’t give him a pass on that, but he didn’t want to see Ava make a knee-jerk decision that she’d regret later.
“I’m taking your side. I’m thinking about you, not Bruce. Frankly, he has to deal with the consequences of his poor decisions. But taking your love away from him probably isn’t the answer. He knows you don’t approve.”
“He’s a hypocrite.”
The words were said under Ava’s breath but he still heard them.
“Yes, and from the look on his face when we questioned him he knows that. I don’t think you’ll be getting any lectures from him any time soon, so there’s that.”
“It’s so out of character for him,” she sighed, reaching across the seat and placing her hand on his. He immediately wound their fingers together. Her skin felt warm and reassuring, just as it always did. Ava brought peace to his sometimes crazy world. He only hoped he could do that for her today.
“He was bored. He just wasn’t thinking. He wanted some excitement.”
“He got it,” Ava snorted. “He thought he was James Bond, frequenting an illegal gambling den. My poor mother.”
Carol was the real victim in all of this. She’d put up with more than any woman should through the years. They’d been talking divorce for a long time but it looked inevitable now. Logan didn’t think Ava would forgive him if she found out he was lying behind her back. In fact, she’d kick his ass from here to Puget Sound and back again.
“What are you going to say to Mary?”
They’d already decided that Ava would be the one to tell her sister while Logan kept the twins busy in the backyard. Mary was incredibly unpredictable. She might blow up or she might shrug and move on. But he did need to ask her about that insurance policy. She’d never mentioned it in all of their conversations about Lyle’s death.
“She already knows about Natalie, so no surprise there. I’m not going to tell her that maybe Lyle was going to go ahead with the divorce. It won’t help and we really don’t know for sure. I will tell her about the gambling debts. She deserves to know. If she hasn’t exploded at that point, I’ll tell her about Dad.”
“Sounds like a decent plan. I need to talk to her about the insurance policy.”
“I’ll do that,” Ava assured him. “It’s going to come up when I talk about the money issues. I need to know if she was aware just how bad their financial situation was.”
That everything worth selling was basically gone. At least according to Bruce via Lyle.
But Logan had been lied to before by the Bryson family. He wouldn’t put it past them to hide their assets so no one could get to them.
“Let me know if you need my help.” Logan pulled up into Mary’s driveway. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I can do it.”
Ava had already been through quite a lot and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
“No, I’ll do it. I need to be the one.”
What a lousy fucking day. This was why he didn’t want to come back to Corville. The only good thing that had ever happened here was meeting Ava.
* * * *
Ava closely watched Mary’s expression, waiting for anger or tears or some other strong emotion but saw none. It was as if Ava had announced to her sister that she didn’t like ketchup. Mild surprise but no real reaction either way. Ava didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed.
“I knew Lyle was up to more than just another woman,” Mary finally said, staring out of the back window of the living room that looked over the yard where Logan played with twins. “I just didn’t know what it was. Do you know how much he lost?”
“Not yet. We’re going to bring in the club owner and question him.”
“Will they come after me for the money?”
Ava hadn’t expected that question.
“No! I don’t think so. Logan didn’t say anything about that.” She couldn’t help her curiosity though. “Are you planning to stay in Corville?”
“This is where the family business is. This is where Mom and Dad live.”
“With the insurance money you could go anywhere, do anything. You could start over.”
There. She’d dropped the bomb right in the middle of Mary’s flowered furniture. Time to see what her sister would say.
“I suppose I could but it was intended to keep the business running.”
“Half a million is a lot of money.”
Mary shrugged and returned to her seat on the overstuffed couch. “Aaron has the same policy. They took them out at the same time.”
“But you’re the beneficiary, not the company. Or Aaron.”
“So? I was his wife.”
Ava sighed and pushed her hair off of her face. Mary didn’t seem to get it. “It adds to your motive. This doesn’t help us clear your name.”
The anger that Ava had been expecting earlier finally made an appearance. Mary’s face turned red and her lips pressed together tightly. “I didn’t kill my husband for the money.”
“Or because he was cheating. Or gambling. Do you see where I’m going here? You had plenty of motive, Mary. We need to find a way to clear your name but you’ve got to help us here.”
“I loved my husband,” Mary declared, sitting ramrod straight, her entire body stiff. “I don’t believe that he was going to ask for a divorce either. We were really happy the last few months.”
Ava hated to be the bad guy but she had no choice. “I told you that he was still in touch with Natalie right up until the day he was shot.”
“That doesn’t mean they were sleeping together. Maybe she was helping him with the gambling debt.”
Denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt. It ran right through Corville as well. Ava dropped the subject and picked up another grenade, lobbing it between them.
“What about Daddy?”
Looking away, Mary took her time answering. “While I’m upset about that, I’ll find a way to get over it. We’re family. If Lyle taught me anything in the years that we were together it’s that family is the most important thing.”
“Everything we’ve found so far doesn’t help you in the least. It looks worse than ever for you. Is there anything you can tell me that might help? Something you may have forgotten? Anything at all? It could even be the smallest thing. You’re in deep trouble here, sis. All the signs point to you.”
As it was, Logan was going to have to talk Drake out of arresting Mary but she would probably be brought in for official questioning.
“No, there’s nothing I haven’t told you.”
“Then I suggest you get a lawyer. A good one.”
Mary had the audacity to smile at moment like this. “I’m not worried. I’m innocent. You and Logan will eventually prove it. Besides, no jury in Corville would convict me. They all know what kind of person I am.”
Ava wished she had her sister’s confidence.