The redhead gave her head a shake and sort of slumped back against the side of her car. “Yes. I found out Conrad Lawton was my father, but I didn’t come out here to confront him.” Her gaze shifted to Kody, and she sighed. “I came to apologize to him.”
“What!?” The word burst out of Kody on a broken laugh. “Why on earth would you apologize to him?”
The other woman sighed again and lifted a hand to rub at her forehead. I could see the way her brow furrowed and the way a flush climbed up her neck and into her face.
“I came to apologize because my mother had been blackmailing Sheriff Lawton for years.”
Kody shot a stunned look over her shoulder in my direction. My mind was spinning, trying to put pieces of this ever-expanding puzzle together. If this woman’s mother had been blackmailing Conrad, he would be the one with reason to kill, not the other way around.
“Was Conrad surprised to see you when you showed up on his doorstep?” I let out a little grunt when Kody suddenly leaned back into me, as if she could no longer stand on her own strength. I wrapped an arm around her and held her far more tightly than the situation called for. I knew I would never forget the feel of her slight frame pressed along the length of mine.
“No. He didn’t seem particularly surprised, not by my sudden appearance or by the death of my mother. She was diabetic. She developed kidney disease when I was in my teens. Her health was never the best, but she hung in there much longer than anyone expected. After medical school, I knew exactly how costly her treatments and dialysis were. When I was younger it never occurred to me to ask how we could afford it all. I started asking more and more questions as I got older. She refused to answer, which caused a rift in our relationship. When she passed away the truth finally came out.” The other woman looked at the ground. “Conrad Lawton was the only reason my mother lived as long as she did.”
Kody’s body tensed in my hold, and I could feel the way her heart was racing. “He kept your mother alive, but did nothing while mine died. You have no idea what kind of man my father was.”
The redhead, Presley, gave a sharp nod. “Well, considering we appear to be about the same age, which means he slept with my mother while he was still married to yours, I think I do have an idea of what kind of man he was. The day I tracked him down, he didn’t want anything to do with me. He said that it no longer mattered if his children and the town found out about me because his wife was no longer alive, he was no longer sheriff, and all his kids hated him as it was. I offered to pay back the money he’d given my mother over the years, and he laughed in my face. He told me the money was the only good deed he’d done in his entire life. And he wondered if it was enough to buy his way into heaven.”
Kody scoffed. “That doesn’t sound like my father at all. He knew he had a special place in hell just for him.”
I squeezed Kody closer and absently laced the fingers of my hand through hers. “Did Conrad seem stressed or out of sorts the day you visited him?”
The woman lifted a rust-colored eyebrow and considered me silently for a long moment. Realizing I was asking pertinent questions without an introduction, I told her, “My name is Hill Gamble. I’m a longtime friend of the family, as well as a Texas Ranger. My partner and I are the ones looking into Conrad’s murder. We actually tried to track you down in Ivy, but heard you took a leave of absence from work.”
“Oh…uh…yeah. The work thing is unrelated. I needed time to deal with my mother’s estate, and I wanted to pay proper respects to Conrad.” She looked at Kody and something soft worked its way into her familiar green gaze. “I wanted to introduce myself to his family and say thank you, even if it isn’t wanted.”
“How did you know he was dead?” I kept my tone calm, but I was curious. There seemed to be something more behind her sudden leave of absence than she was saying. I could tell by the way her eyes shifted and how her fingers twitched involuntarily. The woman was hiding something.
“I work in the medical examiner’s office in Ivy and sometimes in Austin when they’re shorthanded. News travels fast in the morgue. Conrad Lawton had a reputation. When his body hit the slab, everyone was talking about it. It was sort of a double whammy. I found out Conrad Lawton was my father and that he was dead all within a couple of weeks.” The fact that she was surrounded by death every single day explained a lot about her composure and coolness. A person had to be able to keep their head and stay focused when faced with the horrors humans could inflict on each other day in and day out.
I felt Kody cringe when she mentioned the word slab. It was a good reminder that while she liked to pretend she was tough as nails, there was a very soft and tender interior under all that armor.
Presley pushed off the car and smoothed a hand down the front of her suit. “I can see now is not the time to make amends. I’m sorry I intruded on a private family moment. I’m not exactly sure why I felt the need to come back here. I’m not usually so impulsive.” She cleared her throat again. “I’ll just be on my way.”
“Can you give me a number to reach you and let me know where you’re staying? I have more questions. You can consider yourself officially part of the investigation into Conrad’s death.” It wasn’t the most tactful I’d ever been, but I had a feeling this woman was smart, and if she decided she didn’t want to be found it would be a problem.
“Uh. Sure. Let me just get you my card.” She opened the car door and rooted around for a second before coming back with a business card. She handed it to me and pointed to a hastily scrawled number on the front. “I changed phone numbers recently, so use that one. I’m currently staying with a friend in Austin and don’t want to impose on her. So if we need to meet, call me and we can set something up.” Again I got the strong impression there was more to this woman’s story than she was letting on. Hearst and I had been by her very nice house in its upscale community when we initially tried to make contact. There had been no signs of renovation or other work being done, so why was she staying elsewhere? “I’m sorry I showed up unexpectedly. I was only thinking of myself. I didn’t stop to consider how any of this would impact the children who grew up knowing Conrad as their father.”
Kody snorted and jerked herself out of my loose hold. I wanted to kick myself for immediately missing the heat of her body against mine. The only time she was ever going to get that close to me was when her defenses were down. The thought stung. I wanted her in my arms more than anything, but she seemed to constantly remind me they were the last place she wanted to be.
“Be glad you don’t know what it’s like to have him as a dad. Caught between love and hate every single day of your life. Your timing does suck, but once things calm down, I’ll tell my brothers what you told me. We’ll decide together if we want to discuss anything further with you in the future. We make all those kinds of decisions as a family.”
Kody was only speaking the truth, but the other woman flinched at the word family. Her icy mask of indifference slipped back in place as she nodded. “Okay. Sorry to intrude and bring such shocking news. I’ll just be on my way.”
“I’ll be in touch, Ms. Baskin.” It sounded more like a threat than I’d intended, but something about this woman made me uneasy.