Broken Vows Mystery 02-For Richer, for Danger Read online

  Max glanced at the Z. “How come you got the cover off, Dad?”

  His father refused to meet Max’s gaze. “Mrs. Parker wanted to see the car. How was camp today?”

  “Same as always.” The kid looked between me and his dad. “Are you selling the car, Dad?” He didn’t have to say how he felt about the possibility. His face spoke volumes.

  The air was leaking out of my bag. It might as well have been a gust blowing me right out of the garage.

  Ed met my gaze. “Max wants to race the car someday. I’m saving it for him.”

  Max beamed. “Yeah. I’m going to race at Watkins Glen, just like my dad.”

  Maybe it was my newfound motherhood, but somehow I knew an offer of even one hundred and fifty million dollars for the car wouldn’t be enough.

  ____

  The only part of my day that went according to plan was my arrival home at four forty-five. I should have been at least half an hour ahead of Ray, but no, his cruiser sat in the driveway. Panic flowed through my veins. Erica had messed up and he’d been unable to reach me. I jumped out of my car and crashed through the front door.

  Ray looked up from his seat on the couch. Noelle lay across his lap, her head in the crook of his arm, drinking a bottle. Ray had his good-cop, bad-cop, whatever-you-need-me-to-be cop look on his face. I never knew exactly what approach to take with that inscrutable look. But I sensed his anger. It resonated through the airwaves and shook my confidence. Even Noelle stopped sucking for a moment to study Ray’s face.

  I dropped onto the arm of the couch, at the end farthest from Ray. “You’re home early.”

  “You didn’t count on that, did you?”

  I decided to play innocent. Probably not the best choice with a cop. “Was there a problem?”

  “No, Jolene, no problem. Except my unstable sister-in-law was watching my child after I expressly told my wife that was unacceptable to me.”

  I cringed. “Cory had a rehearsal at two. Erica was the only one available. Dr. Albert said she was capable. I thought she was, too.” I glanced around the room. The toys sat neatly in the basket. Noelle looked clean and happy. “She did a good job, didn’t she?”

  Noelle sucked the bottle dry. Ray lifted her to his shoulder, patting her back. She let out a burp like a sonic boom with a sour odor that drifted all the way to my nose. He carried her over to her playpen, seating her. She began to fiddle with the red and yellow spinning toys attached to it.

  Ray crossed his arms over his chest. “For once, Jolene”—he said my name like the crack of a whip—“Erica is not the problem. You are.”

  “I’m sorry, Ray. I had to do what I thought best.”

  “That’s the problem. Marriage is based on honesty and trust. Never once did it occur to you to be honest and tell me the truth.”

  I managed not to blurt out that it had, in fact, occurred to me and that I’d dismissed the idea. Why fuel his anger? But Ray was wrong about Erica. She was more capable than he believed.

  I tried to distract him by changing the subject.

  “I met Mr. and Mrs. Bryce today. There’s something funny about them. They don’t quite go together.” I expected his natural investigative curiosity to take over and relieve the tension in the room. Noelle was fine. No harm had been done by my little omission.

  Ray dropped his arms and walked past me to grab a baseball hat off the coat rack. “Maybe they’re not the only married couple who don’t go together.”

  After his car backed out of the driveway and laid rubber on the road, I looked at Noelle. “Sh … shoot.”

  She opened her mouth and let out more gas in agreement.

  In the middle of the night I awakened on the couch with fuzzy teeth and a dry mouth. I’d wanted to wait up for Ray to beg his forgiveness, but all the steamy weather and driving around yesterday caught up with me as soon as I tucked Noelle in for the night and sat down on the couch. I didn’t even remember turning off the television or lying down, but I had a pillow under my head and the afghan Ray’s Aunt Dorothy knitted us for a wedding present draped over me. Then I heard the snores from our bedroom and realized Ray had returned.

  I slipped under the covers beside him. He continued to snore. Given our spat earlier, I thought it too presumptuous to give his shoulder a shove to turn him over like I usually did. Instead, as I listened to him rumble and whistle, I thought about the wedding we had to attend in a few hours where love was supposed to be in the air. I tried to remember the last time only love had been in the air between the two of us and came up dry. Maybe married life wasn’t supposed to be that way. Maybe married life meant strife. Maybe that was why the two words rhymed.

  Ray slept in the next morning while I attended to Noelle. When he did get up, he said nothing to me. Instead, he chopped fruit and mixed it into a salad for the potluck dinner after the wedding ceremony. I always laughed at how Betty Crocker this big, tough man could be, but today would not be a good time to tease him about it. I ignored him as well.

  At one o’clock Ray and I arrived at the park for the marriage of Deputy Sheriff Steven “Gumby” Fellows to Miss Briana Engle, an exotic dancer at the Cat’s Meow, a “men’s club” conveniently situated in the countryside between the nearest two major cities. Gumby had met Briana when he responded to a drunk and disorderly call at the club one night and found an out-of-state vaccination salesman trying to give Briana a poke. Rumor claimed it was love at first ogle for Gumby.

  I had dressed Noelle in a dainty white eyelet dress with pink ribbons and matching ruffled panties. She was the only dressed up person at the wedding except for the bride, since the invitation had specified casual, comfortable attire, suitable for volleyball and swimming. Ray and I had shorts and polo shirts on.

  It was a low-budget wedding. The bride, attired in a mid-thigh white halter dress with sequins at the collar—a virginal stage costume perhaps?—and the groom, in his sheriff’s department uniform minus gun and holster, exchanged their vows in the gazebo while the attendees encircled the structure. No chairs were provided, so Ray offered to take Noelle off my hands. I didn’t hesitate.

  The ceremony ended within minutes when Gumby snapped his handcuffs around one of Briana’s wrists then one of his. The crowd applauded and cheered.

  After a quick champagne toast from glasses distributed by the bride’s co-workers dressed in French maid costumes, the bride stripped off her wedding dress to reveal a white string bikini and tattoos of a flying dragon on her tailbone, a heart stabbed with an arrow on her right breast, and a teddy bear on her ankle. No one would ever have trouble identifying her body at the morgue.

  Gumby put his deputy sheriff’s hat on her head and I got a flashback to a tabloid photo of Pamela Anderson’s wedding to Kid Rock. I expected this one to last about as long. When I turned to share this with Ray, he was gone from my side.

  I set my empty champagne glass on the nearest picnic table and studied the people waiting in line by the buffet table. No sign of Ray. He wasn’t near the volleyball courts or the beach either. Our baby bag no longer sat under the picnic table where we’d left it, though. I headed over to the restrooms to see if he had taken Noelle in for a diaper change.

  His voice reached my ears before I saw him. “It’s great to see you. You look … gorgeous.” The warmth in his voice made me stop in my tracks.

  “Just like Valerie Bertinelli?” The woman’s voice oozed sugar and sex, a hard-to-resist combination. I’d heard her voice somewhere before, too. But her words disturbed me the most, because Ray had a thing for Valerie Bertinelli. He’d kept her picture inside his locker all through high school, and my resemblance to her was the first thing that attracted him to me. Of course, with my now-bobbed hair, I didn’t look like her so much anymore. Ray still mourned the day I cut my hair.

  But who else looked like Valerie?

  Then it hit me. Catherine Thomas, the criminal defense attorney Ray had dated while we were separated. She looked like Valerie, right down to the tips of her long
brown hair. But what the heck was she doing here?

  I stepped around the corner. Catherine held Noelle in her arms. Ray gazed upon them both like they were the Madonna and child. Noelle’s fingers stroked Catherine’s long hair and Catherine kissed her on the forehead. Ray smiled. The whole picture made me nauseous.

  “There you guys are.” I strode forward and held out my arms to Noelle. She hesitated then lunged for me. The hesitation stabbed me in the heart.

  Catherine handed her over. “Hi, Jolene. It’s nice to see you again.”

  “Catherine, what a surprise.” And not a pleasant one, but I kept that to myself. “Are you enjoying a day at the park?”

  Ray and Catherine exchanged glances. “Actually, Steven invited me to the wedding. We got to know each other rather well last year.”

  Catherine didn’t say “while Ray and I were dating,” but I heard the words loud and clear. While I had mourned our separation and sat on our divorce papers for three whole years, Ray had managed to move on after two years into a year-long relationship with Catherine. “Oh, great. The more the merrier. Have you eaten yet? We could all go through the buffet line together.”

  Ray gave me the look, the I-see-right-through-you look. I returned it in spades.

  Catherine missed our interchange. Her gaze seemed to be searching the crowd in the park. “Sure. Let me find my date and we’ll catch up with you.”

  Relief flowed through me. She had a date. She’d moved on. Ray was still mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

  The way Ray and Catherine looked at me, I feared for a moment I’d said those words aloud. Maybe it was the look on my face. I did have a face that was way too easy to read. Most of the time, I didn’t have to say anything in order to let people know exactly where I stood.

  Ray grabbed my elbow and tugged. “We’ll see you at the buffet table, Cat.”

  When we were out of hearing distance, I shook him off. “Cat? Her nickname is Cat?”

  “That’s what I called her.”

  “How nice. She’d fit right in at the Cat’s Meow.” I picked up speed and headed toward the portable highchair we’d brought for Noelle. I strapped her into it then took off for the buffet line a few yards away. Ray dogged me every inch of the way. “Of course, she’s a little too gorgeous for there, isn’t she, Ray?”

  He got behind me in line and leaned in to my ear. “You’re making a scene.”

  “No, I’m not.” But I did glance about to make sure no one was looking at us.

  “Catherine and I are history. You know that.”

  I placed a few slices of rolled-up ham and provolone cheese on my plate, followed by a big splat of potato salad, two rolls, some red Jell-O with raspberries suspended in it, and some of Ray’s fruit salad. It took Ray a little longer to fill his plate. He might as well have taken two plates. By the time he reached the picnic table, I had diced up the cheese and some watermelon for Noelle and shredded the roll into tiny pieces that she stuffed into her mouth until she had chipmunk cheeks.

  Gumby’s grandparents, who were seated on the other end of the table, admired Noelle and kept us from continuing our discussion. When they rose to throw out their plates five minutes later, Ray picked up where we had left off. “Darlin’, you know you’re the only girl for me. But Catherine is still my friend. I see her around sometimes. I can’t just ignore her.”

  He’d called Catherine a woman and me, a girl. I decided to let it pass. All of it. Ray slept with me every night again now, and Catherine had a new beau. We could all move on.

  Catherine appeared with a plate in hand. “I wanted you to meet my date.”

  Ray raised his eyebrow at me in warning. “Great. We’d love to.”

  Catherine sat on my side of the table. I appreciated the gesture. She waved in the direction of the buffet table. “He’ll be right over. He’s getting a plate. We met last week at a party in Syracuse. When I found out he lived in Wachobe, I begged him to be my date for the wedding. We’re just getting to know each other, but he seems like a great guy.”

  I smiled and nodded. Maybe this guy would be the love of her life. I hoped so for her sake. Missing out on Ray had hurt her, I knew.

  Catherine smiled. “Here he is now.”

  Her date was a remarkably good-looking man. Slender with streaked sandy-colored hair, he had a tanned face and light blue eyes that reminded me of Robert Redford. When he smiled, his pearly white teeth only enhanced the similarity.

  “Brennan Rowe, this is Ray and Jolene Parker.”

  Ray stood to shake Brennan’s hand. I waggled my fingers at him. Brennan and Ray sat down side by side.

  I turned to smile at Catherine. “We’ve all met before. Brennan is a customer at the shop.” He was a lot of other things, too.

  Not the least of which was gay.

  ____

  On the way home in the car, Noelle fell asleep with her neck bent at an awkward angle and drool running down her cheek. After the number of people who had asked to hold her, including the entire exotic dancing staff of Cat’s Meow, I tried not think about the germs she’d been exposed to at the wedding. With any luck, all the fresh air and hot sunshine would protect her. I couldn’t say as much for Catherine Thomas.

  “So, Ray, this is an interesting dilemma. You’re Catherine’s friend. Did you pull her aside while you were playing volleyball and let her know Brennan was so not into her?”

  Ray glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “No. Rowe will tell her. Or he’ll just fade into the sunset and she’ll move on to the next guy.”

  “Do you think he deliberately misled her?”

  Ray flipped the turn signal and executed a left off Main onto North Street. “Hard to say. He is in the construction business. I think he likes to cultivate a certain image.”

  True. In fact, when Cory told me last year that Rowe was gay, I didn’t believe him at first. But then I considered Cory to be somewhat of a subject matter expert. “Not very honest of him.”

  “No, but Catherine said she begged him for the date. He’s a nice enough guy. Maybe he didn’t see any harm in one date.”

  “Is there any?”

  Ray sighed. “Catherine hasn’t had great luck with men. She might not take the truth so well. Hopefully, Rowe will just tell her he doesn’t want to see her again.”

  “And leave her wondering what’s wrong with her.” Now I felt sorry for Catherine. A couple hours earlier I would have happily wished her off the face of the earth, but the ties of sisterhood had kicked in. I didn’t like to see anyone get their heart broken.

  “There’s nothing wrong with her.” His words sounded a little sharp.

  I looked over at him, studying his face as he turned right onto our street.

  “Oh, that’s just what I want to hear. Catherine’s perfect.” I harbored no illusions that Ray felt the same way about me. My flaws were many. But then even some of the most beautiful diamonds had flaws, didn’t they?

  “I didn’t say that.” He made the turn into our driveway and threw the Lexus into park, killing the ignition. “Let’s forget about Catherine and Brennan, okay? They can take care of themselves.”

  I looked in the back seat at Noelle, who slept on, oblivious. “Okay. I guess I was just asking because I don’t know what to do about Cory.”

  I explained to Ray about meeting Mark Wynn and his family at the water park. “I can’t believe Cory knows about Mark’s family. So if Mark doesn’t tell him this weekend, do I tell Cory or not?”

  Ray leaned back against the headrest. “I don’t know. It’s tricky meddling in other people’s relationships. Let’s think about it for a while. What else did you learn in Canandaigua?”

  I filled Ray in on Mr. and Mrs. Bryce. He asked me a few questions I didn’t know the answers to, then glanced back at Noelle. “Not much to go on. Maybe you should think about going back tomorrow and showing the girl’s picture around in some stores. Or I can go on Monday. I have the day off.”

  “You go.” If Ray went, I’d know
the right questions were being asked at all the right places.

  The air conditioning dissipated. The car grew warm. Ray rolled down the windows. A slight westerly breeze drifted inside and feathered across my face, drying the sheen of sweat on it.

  Ray drummed his forefingers on the steering wheel. “I faxed Theo and the girl’s pictures to Turning Stone and the two casinos in Niagara Falls. I also faxed them downstate and to the southern tier. I included all the off-track betting outlets and the horse tracks, too. Gambling is gambling. But they could be in Vegas for all we know.”

  I tried to think of a new approach. “Can you put a warrant out for their arrest?”

  “The robbery warrant is still outstanding on Theo. Has been ever since last year when he skipped town on bail. The girl was only implicated in the robberies by her association with him, so there’s no warrant on her.”

  “Why isn’t a bail bondsman looking for Theo?”

  “His parents paid cash. That’s the only reason they want to see him again.”

  “So we’re on our own.”

  “Pretty much. But we can handle it, don’t panic yet.” He reached over and ran the back of his hand down my cheek. He leaned over and I closed my eyes, waiting for his gentle kiss. It never came.

  Noelle stirred, stretched and let out an impatient shriek when she realized she was trapped in her car seat. When I opened my eyes, Ray rolled his and reached across me to open my car door. He and I scrambled to extricate Noelle from her car seat. We spent the rest of the evening watching her play in the kiddy pool and holding hands while we soaked our feet.

  Around seven-thirty, the phone rang. I was busy laying Noelle down for the night. Ray answered. I could hear the low reverberation of his voice, but not the words.

  He appeared in the doorway to Noelle’s room. “I got a call. I gotta go.” He hustled into the room, kissed his fingertips and laid them on Noelle’s forehead. Then he kissed me on the cheek, even though I offered my lips. “I don’t know how long I’ll be. Don’t wait up.”

  I chased after him, stopping in Noelle’s doorway. “Okay. Love you.”