Gabriel - Jessie Cooke Page 0,44

I do know that if a woman of mine had died while on a short trip for her father’s funeral, I would have been there, up in everyone’s face, asking questions. Most especially since this woman lived with you, and so did her infant daughter for six months. You want to tell me why you never made that trip, Paul?”

He looked away for several seconds and Blackheart was prepared for a lie when he looked back, but surprisingly what he heard had a ring of truth to it, judging from what he’d already found out about Grossman and Kasey’s family. “Kasey and I were young, and in love. I rented the apartment for us, and technically I did live there part of the time...but I had another family. I was married to a woman who had my child, and I was working for her father at the time in Portland. Kasey knew about her, but she didn’t know about Kasey, and of course neither did her wealthy father.” Blackheart’s face must have given away what he thought about that because Grossman said, “Believe me, nothing you could say would make me feel like a worse person than I already do.”

“Why did Kasey go for it?”

He shrugged, but then said, “At first, we were just friends. She was so young and seemed so alone and out of place here with a baby and no family or friends to speak of. I told her I was married from the beginning, but the more time we spent together, the more the feelings developed between us. Of course, she didn’t like the idea of being ‘the other woman,’ but she chose that over us not being together at all, which at that time felt like my only choice. Maine is a small-town kind of state and my wife’s father is a powerful man. He would have ruined me if I’d left her, or if he’d ever found out about Kasey.”

“What is this ‘powerful’ man’s name?” Blackheart asked. When Grossman hesitated, he said, “I don’t plan on telling him about your history, unless I have to go through the trouble to track him down myself, that is.”

Grossman sighed. “His name is Rick Gordon. He owns Gordon Realty in Portland and they have subsidiaries all over the East Coast.” Blackheart made a mental note of the name and waited. Finally, Grossman went on, “When Kasey died I got a call from the New Orleans police department first. They told me she killed herself...but then they started asking questions about our relationship, and where I was when this happened. It just so happened that I was speaking at a real estate conference in New York that week and I had plenty of proof that I was there and nowhere near New Orleans. I told the officer I was married...and I guess they didn’t see any reason to rock that boat, since they didn’t seem to think I was a suspect.” Blackheart cocked an eyebrow and the other man said, “I know you probably don’t believe this, but I loved Kasey, and I was devastated that she was gone, but what could I do at that point? I was a stupid kid who had bitten off way more than I could chew and I had to decide if telling my wife, losing her and my child and my job would be worth flying to New Orleans just to watch them put Kasey in the ground. I’ll never know if I made the right decision or not...but I didn’t go, and I put everything of hers in a storage in Camden...and went on with my life.”

His eyes looked sad, and Blackheart knew he of all people had no right to judge...but just thinking about telling Patrice how easily this man had erased her mother, the way her own family had...the way he had...it hurt his heart, and made him angry, right or not. “Did her family contact you at all?”

“No. Like I said, the New Orleans Police were the only ones I ever talked to about Kasey, other than her work. Her boss was a friend of mine, and he knew about me and Kasey.”

“Work? Kasey was working at the time? Where?” That was odd because he’d never found any indication of that. Logan looked up her tax records and she’d never even filed taxes in the state of Maine or New Orleans.

“Yeah, she worked for an inn over in Camden, just doing housekeeping and sometimes working the desk.