To Love and to Perish - By Lisa Bork Page 0,16
the temperatures would plummet, the leaves fall, and snow arrive. I wanted to breathe in as much fresh outdoor air as I could before that.
But mostly I was lying in wait for Ray.
He hadn’t answered his phone all day, and I felt near frantic with the need to talk to him. I was in over my head with both Cory and Isabelle and not afraid to admit it. Hopefully Ray would be able to help. He tended to be the voice of reason, and, much as I hated to admit it, most often right.
I recognized the sound of his car engine before his vehicle even came into sight. Ray parked and strolled up our flagstone sidewalk. “Hey, darlin.’”
He brushed his lips over mine and dropped onto his matching rocker, which creaked in protest. “I’m sorry I couldn’t talk today.”
“Something big happen?” I noticed smears of mud on his gray uniform and caught a whiff of … evergreen?
“Major world crisis. A nine-year-old got his knee wedged in the crotch of an oak tree. He couldn’t pull it out. I couldn’t pull him out. His mom was hysterical, carrying on to the point where I actually considered slapping her. I had to call the fire department. Meantime, every yahoo in the county with a scanner showed up to watch. I needed Gumby and Max just for traffic and crowd control. It was a circus, and I was the ringmaster.”
“Did you get him out?”
“We took down almost the whole tree after first cutting down the evergreen next to it, to get at the oak from the right angle. The kid’s knee was swollen and twisted, but he’ll be okay.” Ray settled more comfortably in his chair and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. “So what’s going on?”
Where to start? Murder accusations take precedence over adultery any day of the week.
I filled Ray in on the day’s events and my last conversation with Cory. “He’s really worked up about Brennan. He’s got all kinds of wild ideas about investigating on his own.” I left out the fact Cory had asked me to help, which was superfluous.
Ray snorted. “What’s he think he’s going to learn that the department doesn’t know?”
“He’s curious about the woman with James Gleason. He wants to talk to her, find out what James and Brennan were arguing about.”
“She’s Gleason’s estranged wife. Ken spoke with her.”
“And what was the argument about?”
“His sister’s death. Both Brennan and the wife confirmed that.”
“How did you know?”
“I talked to Catherine.”
That sick feeling washed through my stomach again. “She called you?”
“I called her to see what we could do to help Brennan.”
A nice gesture on his part. We were all friends, after all. “Did Gleason’s wife say anything else helpful?”
“Not really. Apparently her son suggested the family attend the race. She and Gleason ran into Brennan by chance. Gleason accused Brennan of not caring about his sister and causing her death, and the two got into an argument. When they wouldn’t stop arguing, his wife took off in the opposite direction, missed the whole crash, and didn’t even hear about it until the sheriff’s department showed up on her doorstep for next of kin notification. She and Gleason didn’t come to the festival together, and they don’t live together anymore either. Hard to say how broken up she is over his death.”
Or if she told the truth regarding her whereabouts during the accident. “Did Catherine know anything else new?”
“Just that she thinks Brennan’s going to have trouble with his bail.”
“Why? He has ties to the area, no prior record. Surely no one believes he’s going to go around pushing other people in front of cars.”
“True. But right or wrong, the cloud of Gleason’s sister’s death is hanging over him now. The judge may not set bail at a figure Brennan can afford.”
I wondered what amount would be unattainable for Brennan, who owned a million dollar, two-story contemporary house with a panoramic view of the lake and an in-ground swimming pool, plus a huge garage to house his car collection, a brand-new office building in the village, and a much-in-demand construction company. Very little got built on our lake or in the town without his involvement. “What can Brennan do?”
“I don’t know. Catherine says it’s unreasonable, but the bail amount may be enough to keep him locked up. She said to tell Cory to sit tight for now. That she’s got it all under control.”
I doubted Cory would be able to “sit tight,” especially if Brennan