The Maverick - By Jan Hudson Page 0,49

after my death.”

Cass took it and used her knife as a letter opener. “Excuse us, Carrie. We can’t wait any longer.” She unfolded the pages and, holding them so Sunny could read, scanned the letter. Her mouth dropped open as she read. “Son of a bitch!” Anger boiled up hotter than molten lava.

“Wrong gender,” Sunny said, “but I couldn’t have said it better. I hope she rots in hell! I don’t want her damned money!”

“She murdered our father!” Cass said to Carrie. “Shot him dead on the steps of the capitol building.”

Sunny tapped the page with her finger. “She admits it right here. No wonder the bitch felt guilty!”

“Oh, dear God,” Carrie said, covering her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I never imagined…”

Cass touched Carrie’s arm. “No need to be sorry. We’re not going to slay the messenger.” She handed the pages to Carrie to read.

The migas lay congealing on their plates as they all three sat there, stunned by Iris’s confession.

After a long silence, Sunny said, “Well, the case is finally closed. We’ll have to tell Wes right away.”

“Would you like me to tell him?” Carrie asked.

Sunny and Cass looked at each other, then nodded. “Please. I think we need some time to process this.”

“I think you’re right,” Carrie said. “And don’t be too hasty to refuse the money and land. After all, it was your father’s birthright…and yours.”

Cass nodded. “We need to wait until the estate is settled, and we have all the facts and some emotional distance from this.” She fluttered the pages.

“You’re right,” Sunny said. “I feel like I ought to belly up to a bar and toss back a stiff one to settle my nerves, but I’d throw up. My stomach might never be the same again.”

“I hear you,” Cass said. “Carrie, I know you’ll understand if we leave now. We have some concerns to discuss. We need some time to wrap our minds around this.”

“I do understand. I wish I could do something to make the situation easier.”

The waitress came over with the coffeepot and their check. “Something wrong with the migas?”

“The migas were superb,” Cass said.

“I’ll get the check,” Carrie said. “Go ahead.” She stood and hugged them both again.

THE RAIN SOON SLACKED off, and they ran out of it entirely as they drove back to Austin. Cass reread Iris’s letter as they drove. Her initial anger had cooled a bit, and she struggled to study it with an objective mind. “‘If you can’t forgive me, at least I hope you’ll pray for my tortured soul,’” she read aloud. “You know, sis, I’m not nearly ready to forgive her, but I can sort of understand her. Our mother and father weren’t exactly blameless in this situation. He was, after all, a married man.”

“Cass, that doesn’t excuse murder. And with his own damned gun! She deserved to be locked up in prison all these years.”

“Spoken like a cop, but I agree.”

“We have to report this, you know.”

“To whom? And why? It’s been over thirty years.”

“I know,” Sunny said, “but the authorities need to close the case.”

“I suppose you’re right, but I’m more concerned about telling Mom than about turning over Iris’s confession to the police. Do you think we should tell her?”

“Eventually, but not now.”

“I agree,” Cass said. “Let’s pick a better time. Do you wonder how Iris knew so much about us? I get the impression that she’d followed our lives to some extent.”

“With the Internet, tracking down people is fairly easy.”

“Now, sure, but widespread use of the Net is fairly recent.”

“Who knows?” Sunny said. “Private detectives maybe. Or for all we know she may have dropped into Chili Witches now and then for a bowl of chili. Nobody would have recognized her. I don’t think Mom or Aunt Min knew her from a hole in the wall.”

Cass put the letter away and leaned her head against the seat rest. “I wonder if her second husband knew what she’d done. She was a tortured soul for sure.”

“Cass, have you ever considered becoming a defense attorney? You’re beginning to sound like one. I don’t care if she was a tortured soul. She should have thought of the consequences before she pulled the trigger. I’m irritated because somebody from APD didn’t haul her in and sweat a confession out of her. Every rookie knows to look at the spouse first.”

“Tell the truth, Sunny. Did you ever think his wife did it?”

She sighed. “No. I always assumed it was politically motivated somehow. There were some hot issues