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“Oh, I doubt he had murder on his mind at first,” I replied. The image was becoming slowly clearer in my mind, buoyed by all the things the cards and the pendulum had already told me.
Temptation. Betrayal.
“I don’t know exactly how,” I went on. “But somehow, Max Speros must have discovered that the half-sister you’d never met was the same woman that Lucien Dumond had left all his money to. He must have wanted Jack to marry you so he could figure out a way to get me to give you some…or maybe all…of the money.”
“That seems like a pretty crazy plan,” Chloe said, now looking even more dubious.
“People do crazy things when millions of dollars are at stake,” I replied.
She blinked. “That Lucien guy left you that much money?”
“Yes. And it’s been earning interest ever since. Chloe…it’s a lot.”
My comment made her go quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice trembled…and I couldn’t really blame her.
“Is that why Jack asked me out in the first place? Because his father thought he could get to that money through me?”
My heart ached for her. And the horrible thing was, I couldn’t say for sure. Not without a whole lot more facts in hand than I currently had.
“I don’t know,” I said gently. “It’s possible that Max Speros only learned of the connection after you’d been with Jack for a while.”
She didn’t reply at first, maybe because she was trying out the different scenarios in her mind and trying to decide which one seemed more plausible. “But why would Mr. Speros even think he was entitled to that money?”
At least there we were on slightly more neutral ground. “Probably because he would have known that Athene was Lucien’s lieutenant, for lack of a better word. It would only have made sense that Lucien’s money would have gone to her upon his death, since I knew he didn’t want to leave it to his family, and of course he couldn’t have known that she would die shortly after he did. Because Lucien didn’t know who he could trust, he left the money to me instead.”
Mostly on a whim, because Lucien Dumond, a double Scorpio who’d definitely lived up to the destiny the stars had dictated to him, had a twisted sense of humor. It amused him to make the woman who’d fled the state rather than succumb to his dubious charms the beneficiary of his vast estate, rather than leave it to the parents who’d raised his murderous brother…or to the followers who had often renounced their own families rather than abandon GLANG.
Just like Athene, apparently.
“I still don’t understand why Mr. Speros would kill Jack,” Chloe said. Now she sounded almost plaintive, as if her mind didn’t want to accept the horrible truth that the man who’d acted as though he wanted to accept her into his family could do such an awful thing. “I mean, we were broken up. There wasn’t anything else he could have done to keep us together.”
But I knew that individuals in pursuit of millions of dollars didn’t give up so easily. However, we were talking about people who’d been in her life for several years, people she didn’t want to believe could be capable of such terrible things.
“Maybe not at first look,” I said. “But why do you think Jack was here in Globe that night?”
Chloe stared back at me, dawning comprehension in her face. “Because his father made him come here to try to get me back?”
“That seems the most plausible explanation.”
She shook her head then, confusion returning to her expression. “But why would he have killed Jack if he was doing what his father told him to do?”
A very good question. It seemed to me that we’d reached the point where we couldn’t waste any more time on speculation.
No, we needed to get to the heart of the matter.
“Are Jack’s parents still here in Globe?”
“I — I don’t know for sure,” Chloe replied. Then, as comprehension appeared to sink in, she added in worried tones, “You’re not actually going to try to talk to them, are you?”
“Of course,” I said. “That’s the only way to get to the bottom of this. But don’t worry,” I went on, knowing I needed to say something to allay her fears, “We’re going to have backup.”
Obviously, I wasn’t crazy enough to confront the Speroses on my own, although I’d performed similar feats of foolhardiness in the past. Now, though, I had the baby’s safety to worry about as well as my own, and I figured there weren’t a lot of things more intimidating than my six-foot-six police chief husband.
He’d listened to the appalling story with a deepening frown, and then reluctantly agreed to go to the Airbnb where Jack’s parents were staying.
“But I’ve got Henry’s number locked and loaded,” Calvin added, touching the pocket where he kept his cell phone.
That was fine by me. I didn’t have any qualms about calling in the cavalry if things turned nasty. Besides, Globe wasn’t my husband’s jurisdiction, and if Max and Leslie Speros ended up spilling the beans about their son’s murder, then the local police would have to be the ones to make the arrest.
