“What a life she must have had,” Ren said heavily.
“No boys, no dates, no parties, nothing except home and television. And church, of course. He did let them go there. Isabel said that religion was all they had to hold on to after their mother died. He was a control freak. And he had a heroin habit to go with a brain lesion. The drugs finally killed him. Well, he had a heart attack because the drugs had weakened his heart. But it was drugs, all the same.”
“Poor kids.”
“They were. The trainer had to keep him away from the racehorses. He beat one so badly that it had to be put down. We won the Preakness with Grayling’s Pride this year,” he added with a grin. “We’re hoping to go farther with him next year.”
“Racehorses?”
Paul nodded. “The Grayling stables are known far and wide. Their father had his fingers in a lot of pies. Most of the money he made was illegal, but the girls’ mother left them well fixed. The racehorses were hers. You know, they’d never had anything fancy in their lives. They went shopping before Isabel and I married and bought new clothes. Isabel had been going to work in a thirty-dollar suit. Before he died, their father refused to let them get even part-time jobs. He died trying to force Isabel to marry a Middle Eastern prince he’d picked out for her, so that he’d have money for his defense. Isabel refused to do it. He went after her, but her bodyguards broke down the door. He died before they could pull him off. Isabel still blames herself. She didn’t do a thing. He just died.”
“I’m sorry,” Ren said, his heart bruised and battered by the things he was hearing. Poor Meredith! And he’d treated her like an easy conquest. He closed his eyes on a wave of pain that sickened him.
“Could you ask Merrie to come down, please?” Paul spoke to Delsey. He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to be at work in a few hours. I don’t like to cost the government time,” he said with a chuckle.
“Your wife must have millions, too,” Ren said as Delsey went up the staircase.
He shrugged. “She does. So do I, a really unexpected gift from her father,” he lied. Isabel had insisted on sharing her fortune with him, but they’d put it out that her father had left it to Paul in his will, to spare Paul’s pride.
“You still work, though.”
“Sure,” Paul said, chuckling. “I love my job. Isabel loves hers, too. We aren’t cut out for cocktail parties and country clubs.”
“Neither am I,” Ren said. “I like being around the livestock.”
“I love horses,” Paul confessed. “We don’t ride the racehorses, of course, but we have some prize quarter horses that we sell for breeding stock.”
“I thought Merrie was just above the poverty line. She doesn’t act like a wealthy woman.”
“Neither of them do. Isabel said their mother was like that. She wore regular clothing and worked in the garden.” His lips compressed. “There’s a good chance that their father killed their mother. Isabel wants to do an exhumation and have an autopsy that isn’t rigged, like the first one was. Money changed hands and their mother’s death went down as accidental.”
“Shame.”
“It really is. If we do the exhumation, it will just cause the girls more pain, you know? The guy’s dead, their mother’s dead. Life goes on.”
“Or it seems to.” Ren looked up as Merrie came down the staircase with her bag, her fanny pack and her big sketchbook.
“Paul!”
She put her things on the sofa and ran into his arms, hugging him. “Thanks so much for coming!”
He patted her on the back. “No problem, kid. If you’ve got everything, we should go.”
“I’m ready.”
“I’ll drive you over to the airport,” Delsey volunteered, seeing Ren’s discomfort as he stared with anguish at Merrie.
“Thanks,” Merrie said. She hugged Delsey. “Thank you for being so kind to me.”
“It was a pleasure. I’ll miss you,” Delsey said softly.
Merrie laid her head on Delsey’s shoulder. “I’ll miss you, too.”
“Have a safe trip home, honey. Be safe.”
“I will. You take care of yourself.”
Delsey just smiled.
Merrie turned to Ren with her heart breaking in her chest. Her eyes wouldn’t go past his throat. “Thank you for letting me stay here,” she said politely. “I can’t carry all the canvases with us, but if you wouldn’t mind having one of the men pack the stuff up and send it to me, I’ll send you an address label. We have a FedEx account.”
“All right,” he said stiffly.
“I’m ready,” she told Paul.
They were at the door, waiting for Delsey to get her coat on. Ren looked at Merrie with regret written all over his face. His eyes were turbulent.
“I didn’t know you at all, Meredith,” Ren said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
An apology was the last thing she’d expected from him. Her face reddened. “Thanks, Ren,” was all she could manage. She gave him one last look, winced and went out the door with Paul and Delsey.