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“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?”
