“Donna was underage when he knocked her up. He was nearly ten years older. Forty years ago, that would have been an ugly scandal for a wealthy family like the Swensons. They probably arranged a quickie marriage to give the kid a name. They split six months after the wedding, right after his son was born. Read the bio on Donna that Conan sent.”
“I’d rather fly back there and take a look at them again.” She leaned forward and slowly read through the report, shaking her head as she did. “After the divorce, Donna went on to college and still ended up working as a receptionist? Not that there’s anything wrong with the job, but it shows an odd lack of ambition on her part. She must have had a lifetime support clause in that divorce. Can I meet this Swenson?”
“Not in person.” Jax turned the laptop around and typed, then swung it back around. “U.S. Senator Augustus Swenson and hiseldestson, state representative Augustus Theodore Swenson, Jr.—goes by Teddy to differentiate from his better-known dad. Gus has other sons by his second wife, but Donna’s son is the one who followed in his footsteps. Teddy is running for his second term this fall.”
Evie studied the images. “The senator is wearing a toupee. I think they call them toppers now. So, Donna married this guy with the fake tan and the fake hair when she was in high school, and baby boy Teddy must now be in his late thirties. He looks sort of familiar.”
Jax studied the image and shrugged. “I’ve seen the senator in the news, but the California rep rings no bells. He looks like a thug.”
As soon as he said it, he got it. He looked up at Evie. “Teddy could have been driving his mother’s truck. He has to live in that district to represent it.”
* * *
“Hewasdrivinghis mother’s truck.” The picture returned now—the stocky man at the deposit desk with the angry aura. “I saw this guy in the bank when we were there. And the truck was parked outside. Remember, I thought it was coincidence that the truck went to the drive-through after we did.” Evie dug her hands through her curls, trying to see how any of this related.
“If he was in the truck, following us, it’s unlikely he was back at the office, shooting Pendleton. I’ll check with Oswin, see if he can get his hand on the sheriff’s timeline. When exactly did Pendleton die?” Jax began typing.
“We lost Teddy on the highway after lunch, well before we went to that office where you took forever scanning those documents. I saw the truck at the law office while you were doing that, so he must have gone back to the office after we lost him. Pendleton was alive when the bank called him before lunch. Tight time frame.” Evie pinched her nose and tried to recall the two women, the tough old spa owner and the friendly receptionist. She’d not seen anything particularly murderous in their auras.
“None of this has anything to do with Clancy. We should leave it with Oswin.” Jax glared at his computer screen.
“Eagle pins, Swenson on your dad’s contract, Clancy as the Swenson trust broker...” Evie sprang up from the comfy chair, totally unable to focus. “Nope and nope, not getting it. I have to go spell Mavis for lunch. The sheriff wants her to come in for another interrogation, and she’s ignoring customers while she throws cards. She needs a break. Dot might come over to quiz me about ghosts. I’ll see if I can learn anything about cat-heaving visitors.”
Ever the gentleman, Jax stood when she did. “After you’ve spelled Mavis, and I wish you meant that literally, let me take you to lunch. Loretta, too, if you like. Let the leeches look after themselves.”
Evie beamed and kissed his cheek. “R&R aren’t leeches. They know how to fend for themselves. You’re on. Around one?”
“Does it count as a date if you bring Loretta?”
Evie laughed. “Ulterior motive, good thinking. Nope, not a date. Lunch between co-guardians does not count. I’m not that easy.” She glanced around at the furniture accumulating in his new office. “Although it does seem as if you might not be abandoning us again anytime soon.”
Although she’d been the one manipulating that. Jax hadn’t even bought achair. But he’d bought a law office.
She swung out, leaving Macho Man to the business of law. She knew all he wanted was in her pants. She wanted that too, except she wanted a heck of a lot more. Malcolm women did not do easy sex for a great many good reasons, one of which was that Evie didn’t want to raise children without a father as her mother had done. She was having enough difficulty adapting to Loretta. And birth control simply didn’t work as well as it should in her family.
A man who could walk away from his job, his home, and his responsibilities for six weeks wasn’t a safe bet, she kept telling herself.
Evie took over behind the counter of the Psychic Solutions Agency and Gift Shoppe. Mavis shoved her tarot in its box in disgruntlement and stomped out, practically emitting steam. Everyone knew Mavis was incapable of killing a fly, but Evie supposed the sheriff’s legal work had to look good.
Before she could pick up her feather duster, her sister Gracie popped in with daughter Aster in tow.
“Hey, babes, how’s it going?” In delight, Evie crouched to hug her niece.
“Is Lorie here?” the tow-headed six-year-old asked.
“Loretta? She’s with Iddy. Are you going over to pet the kitties next?”
Aster nodded eagerly. Gracie dropped a stack of papers on the counter. “First, I’m unloading this mess on you. I’ve been reading through the correspondence files that Roark keeps sending me from the California lawyer. There’s an awful lot of legal talk that I don’t really grasp. I printed out the bits between Ives and Franklin that seemed maybe relevant?”
Faced with a stack of written material requiring concentration, Evie wrinkled her nose. “I don’t suppose you highlighted pertinent details?”
“I don’t know enough to know what’s pertinent. I put them in order of date, newest first. The ones there on top of the stack talk about mining rights and patents, wills and trusts, and lawsuits involving some company that’s threatening them. I can’t believe people wrote all those paper letters back then! It must have taken forever to resolve anything.” Gracie hauled Aster away from the display of crystals and picked her up. “Jax probably ought to look at it.”
“He’s taking me and Loretta to lunch later. I’ll hand them over. It’s odd that they corresponded when I thought they lived in the same town.” Evie scanned the first letter. At least it wasn’t full ofwhereasandwherefores, just the mention of patent rights and a lease agreement with Sovereign.
“No cellphones, email, or voice mail, just answering machines,” Gracie reminded her. “If one was living at a ranch and the other in town, mail might have been faster than phone tag. And they were lawyers. Lawyers like paper trails.”
Evie sighed as her sister departed, leaving her with a load of guilt on the counter. “What I need is a secretarial ghost to highlight and annotate.”