She looked stricken. “I love my brother. More than you can imagine. It’s me I’m not so crazy about.”
“Or me.” Raine didn’t comment, so she went on. “Why are you here, Raine? We’re not friends. And you’ve made it more than clear you think I’m a naive fool and beneath your brother.”
“Like I said, even I don’t like me.”
Bailey folded her arms across her chest. “Was it Paul or August who told you to check on me?”
“Neither. This fabulous idea was all mine.”
“You’ll be relieved to know, I’d rather be alone.” She held out her hand. “I’ll take the key, then you can run along.”
“Sorry, can’t do that.”
“Please go.”
“Sit. I’ll make us a cup of tea.”
“Raine—”
She cut her off. “I don’t blame you for being angry with me. But now’s not about what a jerk I’ve been. It’s about Logan.” Her voice softened. “This is where he’d want me to be. Making certain you and the baby are fine.”
Bailey stared at her a moment, then burst into tears. She brought her hands to her face. “I’m so scared.”
Raine held her while she cried, awkwardly patting her back. “I know. I am, too. But it’s going to be all right.”
When she’d finished crying, Raine led her to the keeping room couch, then instructed her to sit. She squatted in front of her and caught her hands. “Have you heard anything yet?”
“Nothing.”
“Which doesn’t mean anything. You called the lawyer?” She nodded; Raine went on. “He’s very good, so no worries there. Do you know anything about how this process works?”
“No,” she whispered.
“First off, arresting is one thing, charging is another. They have to have enough evidence to do that. Billy Ray doesn’t make that decision. Neither does the sheriff’s office. The district attorney’s office does. If the state doesn’t think they have enough to move forward, essentially to win the case, they have to release him.”
“Really?”
“Yes. People get arrested all the time and aren’t charged. If they can’t charge him they have to let him go. And they don’t have long to make up their minds. Like, seventy-two hours.”
“Three days,” she whispered, sniffling. “It sounds like forever.”
Raine held out a box of tissues. Bailey grabbed several. “How do you know all this?”
“Dad,” she said. “Or the person I thought was my dad. And True.”
“Logan’s been—” The words stuck in her throat. She cleared it, forced them out. “Arrested before?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Questioned about True. It was so awful. So unfair. I—”
She bit the last back and stood. “I’ll get us that tea.”
“Tea?”
“Don’t look at me like that. An alien isn’t going to pop out of my stomach. Dammit, I’m trying to be a sensitive, caring sister-in-law. You’re pregnant, so no alcohol. If you weren’t, I’d be opening a second bottle already.”
Impossibly, Bailey felt her lips curve into a smile. “My husband’s been arrested and my sister-in-law’s being nice to me. I’ve fallen into an alternate universe and can’t get out.”
Raine laughed. “Life is some screwed-up ride, isn’t it?”
A carnival ride, Bailey thought. Spinning out of control. She hugged one of the throw pillows to her chest. Raine’s horrid painting, the one of True wearing red shoes, popped into her head.
That damn shoe. She wished she never found it.
Ask her about it, Bailey.
Raine returned with the tea. She set Bailey’s cup on the coffee table in front of her. It smelled like oranges and spice, cinnamon and clove. A comforting combination. She didn’t have the energy to reach for it.
She looked at Raine. “I have to ask you a question.”
“Okay.”
“Did True own a pair of red shoes?”
Raine almost choked on her sip of tea. “Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“One of those paintings of her, in that room … she was wearing red shoes.”
“An aesthetic decision. That’s all.” At Bailey’s silence, she added, “That’s the difference between realism and expressionism. My artistic choices are emotional ones.”
Bailey drew her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, thoughts racing. “Do you think Logan killed True?”
Raine looked shocked. “No! Of course not. He loved her.”
“Love and murder go hand in hand.” She blinked against tears. “Isn’t that what they say?”
“Logan did not kill True. Despite the heartless monster Billy Ray and others like to make him out to be, he’s anything but. He’s gentle and kind. He couldn’t hurt a flea, let alone another human being.”
Bailey’s tears spilled over and she pressed her face into the pillow.
Raine came over and tried to comfort her. “Hey, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to make you cry again.”
“I’m just so … happy.” She looked at Raine, vision blurry with fresh tears. “Because that’s the way I feel about him. But no one else … everyone else seems to think he’s a cold-blooded killer.”
“And they’re all full of shit.”
She laughed, a sound that was more whimper than amusement, then blew her nose. “How did everything get so screwed up?”
“You’re asking me that?”
Bailey laughed again, then wiped her eyes with the clean tissue. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Being here.”
Raine was silent a moment, then looked back at Bailey. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Bailey waited, though a part of her wanted to cover her ears. She didn’t know if she could take any more bad news.
“I know Logan didn’t kill True.”
Her mouth went dry. She tried to swallow but couldn’t. “How?” she managed, the word coming out choked.
“Because I know why she left Logan.”
“I don’t know if I can do this right now, Raine. I don’t know if I can handle learning another thing Logan didn’t share with me.”
“He doesn’t know this. Only I do. It’s my secret.” She brought her hands to her face. Bailey saw that they were shaking.
“My secret,” she said again. “Mine and True’s.”