Fortune's Woman / A Fortune Wedding

Ross sighed. His gaze met Julie’s for a moment and she saw indecision there as he must be weighing just how blunt he ought to be with his nephew.

She would have told him to be as honest as possible. Josh would find out all the gory details soon enough. In a town like Red Rock, the rumors would fly faster than crows on carrion. Better for him to hear the news from his family than for them to all dissemble about the situation, which he would probably find condescending and demeaning.

Ross must have reached the same conclusion. “It’s too early to say anything with a hundred percent certainty but it looks like he was murdered.”

“Murdered?” Josh blinked at both of them. “You’re kidding me, right? This is all some kind of a sick joke. People in Red Rock don’t get murdered!”

“I’m afraid it’s no joke,” Julie said, her voice soft with compassion.

“Who did it? Do they have any suspects?”

Ross’s gaze met Julie’s again with a wordless plea for help and she thought how surreal it was that just an hour ago they were wrangling over her purse, and now he was turning to her to help him through this delicate family situation.

It was hard enough telling Josh his father was dead. How were they supposed to tell Josh that his own mother was the prime suspect?

“They’re still investigating,” Ross said after a moment.

Josh pulled off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair. “This is crazy. I can’t believe it,” he said again. “Where’s my mom? How is she taking this?”

“Uh, that’s the other thing I needed to talk to you about,” Ross said.

Fear leapt into his dark eyes and he turned to Julie with an accusation in his eyes. “You said my mom wasn’t hurt!”

“She’s not,” Ross assured him. “It’s just…Frannie had to go to the police station to answer some questions.”

Josh obviously wasn’t a stupid boy. He quickly put the pieces together. “Mom had to go for questioning? They think she killed him?”

“Josh—”

The color that had leached away at the news of his father’s death returned in a hot, angry flush. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! If she had it in her to kill him, she would have done it years ago.”

If Julie hadn’t worked with troubled youth on a daily basis for the last five years, she might have found his bitterness shocking. Instead, she found it unutterably sad.

“They’re only questioning her. She’s not under arrest,” Ross said. “I’m sure they’ll figure out soon enough that your mom is innocent.”

“What about his girlfriend? Are they questioning her? Or his last girlfriend? Or the one before that? I could give them a whole damn list of suspects!”

“I’m sure they’ll question as many people as they can,” Julie said. Unable to help herself, she laid a comforting hand on the boy’s arm. Though by all appearances he despised his father, her heart ached at the pain she knew still waited for him down the road. Losing a parent was traumatic for anyone, no matter what their relationship.

Josh didn’t flinch away from her touch, but he remained focused on his mother and her predicament.

“I should go to her,” he said after a moment. “She’s going to need me.”

Ross couldn’t seem to look away from that soft, comforting hand Julie placed on his nephew’s arm. There was no good reason he could figure out that the sight should put a funny little ache in his chest.

He cleared his throat. “I promise, the police station is no place for you right now, Josh. You have to trust me on this.”

He, however, needed to get his butt over there as soon as possible to find out what was happening with the investigation. He was torn between dueling obligations, one to his sister and one to his nephew during this difficult time.

“I’ll be eighteen in two weeks, Uncle Ross. I’m not a child anymore.”

“I know that. But I’ve spent most of my adult life in police stations and I can tell you the best place for you is at home. I’ll go check on your mother.”

“I want to see her.”

“She won’t be able to talk to you, son. Not if she’s being questioned.”

“Well, I can at least tell them that I know she couldn’t have killed Lloyd,” Josh answered.

His loyal defense of his mother struck a chord with Ross. It reminded him far too much of the way he used to stick up for Cindy, making excuses to the other kids when she would stay out all night drinking or would bring a new man around the house or, worse, would entirely forget about them all for a weekend binge.

The difference there was that he had foolishly been trying to protect an illusion, while Josh’s efforts were on behalf of an innocent woman.

“Everything’s going to be okay. Trust me. She’s only being questioned. I’m sure she’ll be home in a short time. Why don’t you head on home and get some rest? You’re going to have a lot to deal with in the coming days.”

“I should be with her,” Josh said stubbornly.

Julie again reached out to Josh and Ross saw that once more her quiet touch seemed to soothe him. “The absolute best way you can help your mother right now is to give her one less worry. You were the only thing she thought about as they were taking her in for questioning. She insisted that your uncle watch out for you and that’s just what he’s trying to do. As he said, you have to trust him right now to know what’s best, okay?”

Her words seemed to resonate with Josh. He looked between the two of them and then sighed. “I guess.”

Ross was astounded and more gratified than he wanted to admit that she would come to his defense like this, especially after their altercation earlier in the evening. That encounter and his own honest mistake over the purse had been a fortuitous meeting, he thought now. He didn’t know what he would have done this evening without her.

The thought sparked an idea—a nervy one, sure, but one that would certainly lift a little of the burden from his shoulders.

“Josh, could you hang on here for a second while I talk to Ms. Osterman?”

His nephew looked confused but he nodded and Ross stepped a few paces away where they could speak in relative privacy.

“Look, I do need to get to the police station to see how things are going with Frannie, but I don’t want to send Josh to his empty house alone. This is a huge favor to ask when I’m virtually a stranger to you and you’ve already done so much, but do you think you could stay with him for a while, while I check on my sister?”

As he might have expected, Julie’s soft blue eyes widened with astonishment at the request. “But wouldn’t you rather have someone in your family stay with him? Your cousin Susan, maybe?”

Susan would come in a heartbeat, he knew, and like Julie, she specialized in troubled adolescents. But he hated to ask the Fortune side of the family for anything. It was an irrational reaction, he knew, but for most of his life his particular branch of the family had always been the needy ones.

He didn’t know how many times the Fortunes had bailed Cindy out of one scrape or another, before they had virtually cut ties with her out of frustration that nothing ever seemed to change.

Even though he loved and admired several members of his extended family, Ross preferred to handle things on his own when he could. And when he couldn’t, he much preferred asking somebody who wasn’t a Fortune for help.

“They’re all going to be busy with the last few hours of the Spring Fling. Plus, now they’re going to have to deal with damage control after Lloyd’s murder.”

It was bad public relations for the festival, especially since this was the second time a dead body had been found while the town celebrated. A few years earlier, an unidentified body turned up at the Spring Fling. The town had only just started to heal from that.

Her forehead furrowed for a moment and then she nodded. “In that case, of course. I’ll be glad to stay with Josh as long as you need.”

For one crazy moment, he longed to feel the soft comfort of her touch on his arm, though he knew that was ridiculous.

“Thanks a million. It won’t be long. I’m sure I’ll be taking Frannie home in just a few hours.

He had been far too optimistic, Ross thought an hour later as he stood in the Red Rock police chief’s office.

“Come on, Jimmy. This is a mistake. You have to know that. There’s no way on earth Frannie killed Lloyd.”

“You were on the job long enough, you know how it works. We just want to talk to her but she’s not saying a word. She’s shutting us down in every direction. I have to tell you, that makes her look mighty guilty.”

A white-coated lab tech pushed open the door. “Chief, I’ve got those results you put the rush order on.”

“Excellent. You’re going to have to excuse me, Ross. Why don’t you go on home? There’s nothing more you can do here tonight.”

“I’ll stick around. Somebody’s going to need to drive Frannie home when you’re done with this little farce here.”

Jimmy opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. “I can’t make you leave. But if you really want to help your sister, tell her to cooperate with us. The quicker she gives us her side of the story, the quicker we can wrap this up.”

Ross had been a cop for a long time, trained to catch subtle nuances in conversation. He didn’t miss the way the police chief phrased his words. Wrap this up was a far cry from send her home.

Something about this whole thing gave him an ominous feeling. He suddenly guessed he was in for a long night.

Chapter Four

Four hours and counting.

From his perch in an empty detective’s chair, Ross looked at the clock above the chief’s glass-walled office in the Red Rock police station.

He couldn’t think the long delay boded well for Frannie. It was now nearly half past midnight and she had been in an interrogation room for hours.

His poor sister. Eighteen years of marriage to Lloyd Fredericks had just about wrung every drop of spirit out of her. She must be sick over this ordeal.

What could be taking so long? Frannie should have been released hours ago. With every tick of the clock, his hopes for a quick resolution trickled a little further away.

When the police chief emerged from the hallway that housed the interview room and headed for his office, Ross rose quickly and intercepted him.

“What’s going on, Jimmy? I need info here.”

His friend gave him a long, solemn look and Ross’s stomach suddenly clenched with nerves. He did not like the implications of that look.

“She’s going to be charged, Ross. We have no choice.”

He stared at the other man, not willing yet to accept the unthinkable. “Charged with what?”

The chief rolled his eyes. “With jaywalking. Lord, Ross, what the hell do you think, with what. With murder!”

This couldn’t be happening. Ross balled his fists. “That’s bull! This whole thing is bull and you know it! Frannie no more killed Lloyd than I did.”

“Are you confessing?”

“I’ve thought about killing the bastard a thousand times,” he answered the chief. “Does that count?”

“Sorry, but if we could prosecute thoughts, I doubt there would be anybody left outside the walls of my jail.”

“What evidence can you possibly have against Frannie that’s not circumstantial?” he asked.

The police chief just shook his head. “You know I can’t talk about that, Ross, especially not with the suspect’s own brother, even if he is an ex-cop and an old friend. Even if you weren’t Frannie’s brother, I couldn’t tell you anything.”

“Come on, throw me a little bone here. It’s only been four hours since Lloyd’s death. Why the big rush? You haven’t even had time to look at any other possibilities! What about Crystal Rivers? She claimed she just stumbled onto the body and found Frannie there, but she doesn’t exactly seem like the most upright, stalwart citizen of Red Rock. For all we know, she could have killed him, then waited around for somebody else to find him before circling back and throwing her big drama queen scene.”

Jimmy was quiet for a moment, then he motioned toward his office. They walked in, and he shut the door and closed the louvered blinds to conceal their conversation from any other curious eyes that might be watching in the station house.

“Look, I don’t know if this is my place, but you and I have been around the block together a few times, from our days at the academy together to our time in the same division in San Antonio. I respect you more than just about any detective on my force and you know I’d hire you here in an instant if you ever decided to come back to the job.”

“I appreciate that. Just be straight with me, Jimmy.”

“I’ll just remind you who calls the shots around here when it comes to prosecutions. Bruce Gibson. That’s not helping the situation for Frannie, especially when she’s refusing to say anything about what happened.”

Ross gazed at the other man as the implications sunk in. Bruce Gibson was the district attorney—and a particularly vindictive one at that. He was the one who chose when charges would be filed and what those charges would entail. Even if the police department wanted to pursue other leads, a district attorney could make the final choice about whether they had enough evidence to go forward with a prosecution.

And he had been one of Lloyd’s closest friends, Ross suddenly remembered, had practically grown up at the Frederickses’ mansion.

Gibson would be out for blood—and it would be a bonus to the man if he could extract a little of that blood from the Fortunes. Gibson had made no secret of the fact that he thought the Fortunes were too wealthy, too powerful. He was up for a tough re-election battle in the fall and from all appearances, he seemed to be making an issue of the fact that he considered himself a man of the people and wouldn’t let somebody’s social status sway prosecutorial decisions.

Added to that, there was no love lost between Ross and Bruce Gibson. Just a few weeks earlier, he and Ross had exchanged words over an incident involving a stable fire on the family ranch and the way the family was choosing to investigate it privately.

What a tangled mess. Any other district attorney would see how ludicrous this whole thing was.

“Can I see her?” he asked.

Caldwell gave him a long, appraising look, then finally nodded. “It’s past normal visiting hours but we can make an exception in this case. It might take a few moments, though. She’s in central booking.”

Perhaps half an hour later, Ross was finally ushered by the young, fresh-faced police officer he had seen earlier on the murder scene to a stark white interview room. Frannie looked up when the door opened and Ross had to stop from clenching his fists again at the sight of her in a prison-orange jumpsuit.

Since his sister’s ill-fated marriage to Fredericks years ago, he had seen her disheartened and hurt, he had seen her hopeless and bleak. But he didn’t think he had ever seen her look so desperately afraid.

The chair scraped as he pulled it out to sit down and she flinched a little at the noise.

“Hey, Frannie-Banannie.”

Her eyes filled up with tears at the childish nickname. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

He was suddenly sorry for that, sorry that while he had never completely withdrawn from his family, he had enjoyed the distance that came from living twenty miles away in San Antonio. He didn’t have to be involved in the day-to-day drama of family affairs, didn’t have to watch Frannie slowly become this washed-out version of herself.

“How are you doing, sis?”

She shrugged. “I guess you know they’re charging me.”

“Yeah. Jim told me. Sounds like Bruce Gibson is on the warpath.”

Her mouth tightened but she only looked down at her hands.

“What happened, Frannie?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s what I hear. But you told them you didn’t do it, right?”

She didn’t answer him. Instead she rubbed the fraying sleeve of the jumpsuit between her thumb and forefinger. “How’s Josh?” she asked.

He sighed at her evasive tactic but decided to let it go for now. “He’s fine. I sent him back to your house.”

“He shouldn’t be alone right now. Is someone with him?”

“Julie Osterman is with him.”

“Julie? From the Foundation? Why?”

Because I didn’t want to ask the family to bail us all out once again, he thought but could never say. “She was with me when…everything happened. I couldn’t be in two places at once and I needed help and Julie seemed a good choice since she’s a youth counselor and all, like Susan.”

“Julie is nice.”

Frannie sounded exhausted suddenly, emotionally and physically, and he wanted to gather her up and take care of her.

Those days were gone, though. Try as he might, he couldn’t fix everything. He couldn’t fix her marriage for the last eighteen years. He couldn’t get his young, happy sister back. And he wasn’t at all sure he could extricate her from this mess, though he sure as hell was going to try.

“Ross, I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything. Whatever you need.”

“Take care of Josh for me. Stay with him at the house. I know he’s almost eighteen and almost an adult and will probably tell you he doesn’t need anyone else but I don’t want him on his own right now. Help him through this, okay? He’s going to need you.”

“Come on, Frannie. Don’t worry. You’ll be out before we know it and this will all be a memory.”

“Just help him. You’ve always been far more of a father to him than…than Lloyd.”

“You don’t even need to ask, Fran. Of course I will.”

“Thank you.” She attempted such a forlorn smile it just about broke his heart. “I can always count on you.”

If that were true, she wouldn’t be in this calamity. She wouldn’t have been married to Lloyd in the first place and she wouldn’t be facing murder charges right now, if he had been able to rescue her from the situation years ago, like he’d wanted to.

“We’ll get the best attorney we can find for you, okay? Just hang in.”

She nodded, though it looked as if it took the last of her energy just to make that small gesture. He had a feeling in another minute, his baby sister was going to fold her arms on the interrogation room table, lay her head down and fall instantly asleep.

“Get some rest, okay?” he advised her. “Everything will seem better in the morning, I promise.”

She managed another nod. Ross glanced at the officer who was monitoring the visit, then thought, to hell with this. He pulled his sister into his arms, noting not for the first time that she seemed as fragile and insubstantial as a stained-glass window.

“Thanks, Ross,” she mumbled before the guard pulled her away and led her from the room.

The Spring Fling seemed another lifetime ago as Ross drove the streets of Red Rock toward the house where Frannie and Lloyd moved shortly after their marriage.

The security guard at the entrance to their exclusive gated community knew him. His fleshy features turned avid the moment Ross rolled down his window.

“Mr. Fortune. I guess you’re here to stay with your sister’s boy, huh? You been to the jail to see her?”

The news was probably spreading through town like stink in springtime. “Yeah. Can you let me in?”

“Oh, sure, sure,” he said, though he made no move to raise the security arm. “Jail is just no place for a nice lady like Mrs. F. Why, you could have knocked me six ways to Sunday when my cousin Lou called to tell me what had happened at the Spring Fling. Too bad I was here working and missed everything.”

Ross gestured to the gate. “Can you let me in, George? I really need to be with my nephew right now.”

The guard hit the button with a disappointed kind of look.

“You tell Mrs. F. I’m thinking about her, okay?”

“I’ll be sure to do that, George. Thanks.”

He quickly rolled his window up and drove through the gate before George decided he wanted to chat a little more.

Lights blazed from every single window of the grand pink stucco McMansion he had always secretly thought of as a big, gaudy wedding cake. There was no trace of his sister’s elegant good taste in the house. It was as if Lloyd had stamped out any trace of Frannie.

The interior of the house wasn’t any more welcoming. It was cold and formal, white on white with gold accents.

Ross knew of two rooms in the house with a little personality. Josh’s bedroom was a typical teenager’s room with posters on the wall and clutter and mementos covering every surface.

The other was Frannie’s small sitting room that hinted at the little sister he remembered. It was brightly decorated, with local handiworks, vivid textiles and many of Frannie’s own photographs on the wall.

Lloyd had a habit of changing the security system all the time so Ross didn’t even try to open the door. He rang the doorbell and a moment later, Julie Osterman opened the door, her soft, pretty features looking about as exhausted as Frannie’s had been.

“I’m sorry I’m so late,” he said. “I never expected things to take this long, that I would have to impose on you until the early hours of the morning.”

“No problem.” She held the door open for him and he moved past her into the formal foyer. “Josh tried to send me home and insisted he would be okay on his own, but I just didn’t feel right about leaving him here alone, under the circumstances.”

“I appreciate that.”

“He’s in the kitchen on the telephone to a friend.”

“At this hour? Is it Lyndsey?”

Josh’s young girlfriend had been a source of conflict between Josh and his parents, for reasons Ross didn’t quite understand.

“I think so, but I can’t be certain. I was trying not to eavesdrop.”

“How is he?”

She frowned a little as she appeared to give his question serious consideration. Despite his own fatigue, Ross couldn’t help noticing the way her mouth pursed a little when she was concentrating, and he had a wild urge to kiss away every line.

He definitely needed sleep if he was harboring inappropriate fantasies about a prickly busybody type like Julie Osterman.

“I can’t really tell, to be honest with you,” she answered. “I get the impression he’s more upset about his mother being detained at the police station than he seems to be about his father’s death. Or at least that appears to be where he’s focusing his emotions right now. On the other hand, his reaction could just be displacement.”

“Want to skip the mumbo jumbo?”

She made a face. “Sorry. I just meant maybe he’s not ready—or doesn’t want—to face the reality of his father’s death right now, so it’s easier to place his energy and emotion on his mother’s situation.”

“Or maybe he just happens to be more upset about Frannie than he is about Lloyd. The two of them didn’t exactly get along.”

“So I hear,” she answered. “It sounds as if few people did get along with Lloyd Fredericks, besides Crystal and her sort.”

“And there were plenty of those.”

Her mouth tightened but she refrained from commenting on his bitterness. Lloyd’s frequent affairs had been a great source of humiliation for Frannie. “How is your sister?” she asked instead.

“Holding up okay, under the circumstances.”

“Do you expect them to keep her overnight for questioning, then?”

He sighed, angry all over again at the most recent turn of events. “Not for questioning. For arraignment. She’s being charged.”

Her eyes widened with astonishment, then quickly filled with compassion. “Oh, poor Josh. This is going to be so hard on him.”

“Yeah, it’s a hell of a mess,” he answered heavily. “So it looks like I’ll be staying here for a while, until we can sort things out.”

She touched him, just a quick, almost furtive brush of her hand on his arm, much as she had touched Josh earlier. Through his cotton shirt, he could feel the warmth of her skin and he was astonished at the urge to wrap his arms around her and pull her close and just lean on her for a moment.