He asked, “Why Judge Waters’s footsteps and not Daddy’s?”
She reached for her bottle of water and began playing at twisting the cap off and on. “My father lived the cliché. In middle age, he left my mother for a much younger woman.”
“How old were you?”
“Fourteen.”
“How’d that go? The affair, I mean.”
“For him? Very well. He and the woman married, and stayed married until he died.”
He frowned. “Could she be the secret enemy behind the shooting?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never even met her. At Dad’s funeral we pretended the other didn’t exist.”
“Did they have children together?”
“And ruin her trophy-wife figure? No way.”
“What about his estate?”
“Everything went to her, so she isn’t begrudging me an inheritance, if that’s what you’re thinking. His will was airtight. In any case, Mom and I didn’t contest it. Six months after he died, his recent widow relocated to Chicago and linked up with a big-shot hedge fund guy.” She gave the cap another twist. “Fuentes came out of hiding to attend a party.”
“That’s not a question.”
“Humor me.”
“He came to Halcon for his niece’s quincea?era.”
“Her fifteenth birthday party.”
“A big deal in the Hispanic culture. A girl’s coming-out. We figured Fuentes would attend to honor the memory of his late brother, the girl’s father. He’d been killed by an El Paso narc officer the year before.”
“You were put in charge of the ambush.”
“I campaigned for it.”
“You’d only been a Texas Ranger a little over a year.”
“But I’d spent eight years with the DPS.”
“Not setting speed traps.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You did a lot of online reading.”
She smiled. “You were in the Criminal Investigations Division.”
“Mostly in the drug program.”
“You stopped traffickers.”
“Small-timers. A few middlemen. I wanted to cut off the head of the snake. Soon as we heard about the upcoming party for Fuentes’s niece, I moved to Halcon, spent months keeping my head down, eyes and ears open. Worked in a hardware and feed store as my cover.”
“Was Beth with you?”
“It’s not your turn.”
She just looked at him. He relented. “No. She was pregnant, and the situation was too dangerous. If my cover was blown, Fuentes would’ve killed her, too, probably before he came after me, just to make a point. We were living in Houston at the time. I drove home to see her when I could.”
“Were you with her when Georgia was born?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah.” Lowering his head, he stared down at the toes of his boots and for several moments seemed immersed in the memory. “I was right there. Soon as the cord was cut, the doctor handed Georgia to me.” He laughed softly. “I didn’t know something that little could make that much racket.”
His head came up in time to catch Holly’s smile, and he returned it.
But he immediately turned serious again. “It was hard to leave them, to go back to Halcon. Beth begged me not to. We fought about it. But Fuentes was still wreaking havoc. I had a job to finish.”
“Was Beth ever reconciled to that?”
“No,” he said gruffly. “I don’t think she was.”
Then, in a sudden shift of mood and topic, he asked her if her mother had ever remarried.
“She never even went on a date. Dad’s leaving had shattered her self-confidence. Until the day she died, she was a very unhappy woman, and her unhappiness wasn’t merely from a broken heart.”
“What else?”
“Dad knew all the loopholes and used them unscrupulously in the divorce settlement. Mom didn’t have the wherewithal to fight him. I was too young. He walked away without a care. For my mom and me, it wasn’t so breezy. When Dad declined to help finance my education, Judge Waters broke off all contact with him.”
“And came to your aid.”
“He helped me obtain a scholarship. The rest you more or less know.”
He gave her a thoughtful look. “I also come from a broken home. My mom lives in California with husband number two.”
“Do you see her? Does Georgia?”
“Every other year or so. Mom’s not what you’d call a nurturer, and Georgia doesn’t see her enough to know her. By name only, really. Which is fine with me.”
“And your father?”
“He’s a son of a bitch.”
“Like mine.”
“Worse.”
She laughed lightly. “I’ve called mine worse, believe me. But,” she said, emphasizing the qualifier, “he did me a favor. He directed my career choice.”
“Ah, family law. Your specialty.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “I get it now. You’re fighting a personal crusade. You want women to get a square deal out of their lying, cheating, leaving, thieving husbands.”
“I’m fighting a personal crusade for fairness. Neither party should be disenfranchised, especially by lawyers’ tricks.”
“When you preside over a divorce or a custody hearing, your experience doesn’t bias you in favor of women?”