Fisher (Prince of Tigers, #3) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,21

comes up with.”

He’d been surprised by how much it would have cost if they’d paid for someone to come in and help Piper out once in a while. To add in that she should have been paid by them to clean up was stupid too. What did the judge think would have happened to the money if they’d had it to send to her? She would have blown it all, and they’d still have bills to pay.

“I do know she’s not paying for staying in the campground she’s in. The man I spoke to about it says Piper is in arrears for over five hundred dollars. Makes me wonder if there is any of the insurance money left. Did she spend it all, and we’re going to have to sue her for it? I hope to Christ, not. I don’t want to have to wait around for it while she gets her shit together. Does she even have a job?” Louis said he’d never heard if she worked or not. “Me either. But you can bet that if she has spent all our money, she’s going to get herself one. I don’t want to have to wait while she gets paid every week, but if that’s what it takes to teach her a lesson, then I’m all for it.”

There was no way Louis could wait that long. He needed money now. The foreclosure of his home was rapidly coming around. He’d not told his wife or daughter yet either. Louis was surprised lately that every time he pulled into his driveway, there wasn’t a bunch of bankers there with one of those large signs that said he was in arrears for house payments. Now he had to meet up with some guy about the scam he was running to make a little extra money through the harder months. Well, every month of late.

“I’m going to go there and have a few words with her today.” Louis asked if he could go. “If you’d like. But I’m doing the talking. I want her to tell me what the fuck she’s done with my mother’s fifty-thousand-dollar life insurance policy. I know she had one too.”

“Fifty grand? Holy shit, Mary, that’ll be nice to have.” She agreed with him. “I was thinking I’d take her camper for now. Just to have someplace to go for a few days. I’m under a lot of pressure.”

“You got caught, didn’t you?” He nodded and told her what he had waiting for him at home. “I can’t bail you out, Louis. As much as I wish I could, I’m in debt too. The last few times at the tracks, I’ve lost big time. If my husband finds out I’m gambling again, he’s going to take the house and all the other things I’ve come to love away. Including the nice car and spa time I have every month.”

“I know. That’s one of the reasons I’ve not asked you. I saw your husband Paddy the other day. He was talking to a buddy of his about how much he wanted to get out of the big house. I guess he figures with Peter going away to college, he’ll be able to sell the house and downgrade to a simpler home.” Louis knew that Mary had borrowed money against the scholarship Peter had gotten, just as he’d done with his daughter’s. There wasn’t any way for him to pay it back either. Not ever. “I’m guessing since he didn’t mention how he’d have to pay off the mortgages first, that you’d not told him about the loan you’d taken out.”

“No. And if I can get the money from Mom’s insurance, that will go a long way in me trying to win back everything I owe.” He asked her if she was going to gamble her part away. “You make it sound as if I’m going to lose it all. I’m not. I’ve gotten smarter about a great many things, and gambling everything isn’t the way to win anything. I’m hedging my bets by putting money down on a lot of different things. That way, if only a couple of them pay off, I’m still ahead of the game. I like being ahead.”

“Yes, I do as well.” He’d never understood the desire to gamble. Having odds and stuff like numbers wasn’t anything that he ever understood. Sometimes when Mary would go on about her odds and the money she’d win if they hit, it was all like a foreign language