P.I. Daddy's Personal Mission

by Beth Cornelison

  Leaning her head back on the seat, she gave Peter another surreptitious scrutiny. He might be off limits in reality, but my-oh-my, Peter Walsh was fodder for some pretty steamy daydreams.

  “This is it,” he said, pulling his truck into the parking lot of a sprawling apartment complex and yanking her out of her musings.

  While she gathered her purse from the floorboards, Peter circled the truck to open her door for her. He offered her a hand to help her down from the high front seat, and Lisa’s heart tap-danced as his large hand closed around hers. Secure. Warm. Strong.

  “Is Ms. Cantrell expecting us?”

  “No. I didn’t want her to have a chance to get cold feet and bolt on us before we arrived.”

  “You really think this meeting will go that poorly?” Lisa fell in step beside him, and Peter placed a hand on her back, guiding her around a pothole in the sidewalk.

  “My father was a brilliant businessman. He built the family brewery into a thriving business. But I’m afraid that’s the kindest thing I can say about him. He left a trail of broken hearts and ill will. I’m not expecting much different with Ms. Cantrell.”

  Lisa read the tension that crept into Peter’s face, creasing his forehead and tightening lines around his mouth. She wondered briefly if Peter, like his father, had left a trail of broken hearts. Eve Kelley told her he’d married his high-school sweetheart. But how much had he dated since his wife’s death?

  They mounted the steps to the second floor and found apartment 208. Peter hesitated, staring at the door with a troubled expression for long seconds.

  Lisa’s heart went out to him, and she wrapped her hand around his and squeezed. When he glanced at her, startled by her gesture, she smiled her encouragement.

  Peter returned a dubious grin. “Guess this won’t get any easier by stalling, huh?”

  Squaring his shoulders, he knocked firmly and raised his chin to wait. The door was answered promptly by an attractive dark-haired woman whose age Lisa estimated at around fifty-five.

  She gave them a friendly, if curious, look. “Yes?” Then Tess Cantrell’s gaze froze on Peter, and her smile faded, replaced by wide-eyed dismay. She raised a hand to her mouth and took a step backward. “Oh, my God.”

  “Tess Cantrell?” Peter asked. “My name is Peter W—”

  “Walsh,” Tess finished for him. “I see your father in you. The resemblance is…uncanny.”

  Hearing that he looked like his father didn’t seem to sit well with Peter. He stared at Tess Cantrell with a furrowed brow and a stunned expression.

  Lisa stepped forward and extended her hand. “I’m Peter’s friend, Lisa Navarre. Would you mind if we spoke to you inside for just a moment? We promise not to take much of your time.”

  Both Tess and Peter rallied when Lisa spoke. Tess shook her hand and gave her a tight smile, then stepped back to invite them in.

  “I heard about your father’s murder. I wish I could say I was sorry to hear of his death, but… I can’t. I was more shocked, really. I thought he’d died fifteen years ago.”

  Peter grimaced. “We all did.”

  “I didn’t do it, if that’s what you’re here to ask.” Tess closed the door and faced them with her hands on her hips. “Though I’d like to congratulate the person who did kill him.”

  Peter sucked in a breath, his nostrils flaring.

  Feeling the tension rising in the room, Lisa jumped in, hoping Peter would forgive her if she was overstepping her boundaries.

  “Ms. Cantrell, we know Mark Walsh hurt a lot of people, and we’re not here to make excuses for him or point fingers of blame. But we need information that we think you might have. Because you were involved with Mark Walsh just before his disappearance in 1995, you have a unique perspective on his state of mind, his activities and the people he had business with.”

  Tess moved past them and took a seat in her living room without inviting them to join her. She stared at the floor with a dark, distant expression, as if recalling past hurts. “What do you want to know?”

  “I need a glimpse of my father’s life before he disappeared.” Peter stepped into the living room and sat on the edge of the couch. “Do you remember him mentioning anyone he was having trouble with? Anyone who was angry with him for some reason?”

  She gave them a bitter laugh. “Where do I start? He didn’t talk much about his business dealings with me, but more than once we had our dinner interrupted in restaurants by someone who had a bone to pick with your father.”

  “What do you think happened in ’95? Could someone have tried to kill him and botched it? Is that what sent him into hiding? Did he ever mention leaving, ditching his life and making a fresh start?” Peter fired his questions in rapid succession, not giving Tess a chance to answer.

  Lisa sidled onto the sofa beside Peter and laid a hand on his knee. He cast a puzzled look to her hand then raised his gaze to meet hers, and with her eyes, she silently warned him to slow down and not push Tess.

  “Like I said, I didn’t know much about his business life. He always spent a lot of time on the phone talking to his office or working on some new deal, but he was real private about what he was doing. I gave him space to conduct his business and never asked questions. That’s not what our relationship was about.”

  The unspoken what-their-relationship-was-about hung in the air like a specter for the span of a tense heartbeat. Peter grunted churlishly under his breath, and Lisa squeezed his knee to hush him.

  Tess apparently heard him, too. She sat straighter in her recliner and lifted her chin. “I make no apologies for the way I lived my life back then. Maybe I was naive to believe all the things Mark Walsh told me, but I did. I gave him the benefit of the doubt more times than I can count. But I honestly thought he cared about me. I loved him, and to me, that was all that mattered.”

  “Why?”

  Peter’s question surprised Lisa, and based on her confused and offended expression, it caught Tess off guard as well.

  “Excuse me?”

  Peter’s dark eyes were shadowed, sad. Not hostile. “Why did you love him? What did you see in him?”

  Lisa’s chest contracted. Peter’s expression reminded her of a young boy looking for some reason to cling to hope, some shred of evidence that his father hadn’t been the disappointment he remembered.

  Tess blinked rapidly and toyed with the charm on her necklace. “He treated me well, made me feel special. He told me things I wanted to hear, bought me presents. We laughed together and traveled together and had great sex.”

  Lisa felt the sudden tensing of Peter’s muscles under her hand.

  “He told me he loved me, and I ate it up. Looking back, I can see how shallow I was being. How easily I bought into his lies. We were together for three years before I learned the truth.”

  “What truth?” Lisa asked.

  “He was never gonna leave his wife. He was using me. Didn’t really love me the way he said. Maybe he cared in his own way, but I wasn’t the love of his life, the way he was mine.” She huffed indignantly. “I wasn’t even his only woman.” She waved a hand toward Peter. “And I don’t mean your mother. I knew Mark was married. I mean the young tootsie he was seeing behind my back. Lord only knows how many others there were. But when I found out about the other woman being pregnant with his baby—”

  Peter jerked.

  “—I gave Mark an ultimatum. Me or her. He said he couldn’t dump—”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Peter shot to his feet, his body tense. “Back up.”

  Lisa’s pulse kicked up. Not only did mention of pregnancies and babies always set her on edge, but she could tell by Peter’s expression, Tess had just dropped a bomb on him.

  “What other woman?” he asked hoarsely. “What baby?”

  Chapter 6

  T ess gave him a wary look. “You didn’t know?”

  Peter’s jaw tightened, his eyes widening with shock.

  Before he could respond, Lisa rose and wrapped her h
and around his wrist. Shoving down her own raw emotions regarding pregnancies, she flashed Tess a smile. “I’m sorry. You’ve caught us by surprise. Obviously Peter didn’t know, and this is a rather big bombshell for him to absorb. I…what can you tell us about this other woman and her baby?”

  Tess shifted on the recliner, clearly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation and eyeing Peter cautiously. “Just that whoever she was, their relationship was a big secret. And I’m not talking secretive like we were. I mean, big-time scandal and hush-hush. And he warned me not to try to find her or confront her because she was…what was the word he used? Oh, yeah…volatile. He said she tended to get really possessive and emotional and could be overly dramatic. He was having to dance really fast to deal with her once she found out she was pregnant. He didn’t want anything to do with her baby and was already regretting having messed with this woman. He called her ‘one of his worst mistakes.’”

  “So you don’t know her name?” Peter asked, his tone remarkably calm.

  Tess shook her head, then sighed heavily. “So when I gave him the ultimatum, he said, ‘No one is going to tie me down. Not you and not her.’ And he left. Just like that. Never heard from him again.” She firmed her mouth and squared her shoulders, but her eyes reflected her warring bitterness and pain.

  Lisa moved closer to Tess and crouched next to her chair. She put a sympathetic hand on the other woman’s. “I’m sorry. I know this is difficult for you, and we appreciate your candor.”

  Tess sniffed loudly and nodded.

  “Do you think this woman, whoever she is, could have been upset enough to seek retaliation against Mark?” Lisa asked.

  Tess lifted a shoulder. “If she was as much of a loose cannon as Mark said, who knows? But I know she was as determined to keep her child’s paternity a secret as Mark was. He told me that much. Did she try to kill him to keep her secret?” Tess turned her palm up. “Did she run him out of town to keep him quiet?” Another shrug.

  Peter paced across the room, his face grave, then he turned toward Tess, inclining his head in inquiry. “Do you think he could have gone to Costa Rica with her? Set her up there with a house?”

  “Costa Rica?” She frowned. “No. As far as I know she stayed in Honey Creek and had the baby.”

  Peter jolted again, his mouth agape. “Honey Creek? She’s from Honey Creek?”

  Lisa could practically see the wheels in Peter’s mind spinning, trying to figure out which woman from his hometown had given birth to his half-sibling.

  Tess pushed to her feet now and moved restlessly across the floor. “After Mark left me, I didn’t care what happened to the highfalutin’ floozy he got pregnant. The crazy woman and her baby were not my problem.”

  Peter was staring out the front window, his expression shell-shocked, so Lisa continued to carry the questioning. She fumbled to decide what else might be relevant to Peter’s investigation, what information Tess might have about Mark’s enemies that she didn’t realize she had.

  “Ms. Cantrell, I know you said Mark didn’t discuss his business deals with you, but can you remember a time during the years you were together when he seemed especially worried or upset over a deal? Did he ever indicate a deal had gone wrong and he had to handle the repercussions?”

  Tess’s shoulders sagged, and she rubbed her neck tiredly. “No. He was always upbeat about his brewery. It was thriving and growing and making him a ton of money. He even started branching out into new industries. He’d started dabbling in oil and ranching, anything he thought he could make a profit on.”

  Ranching. If Mark Walsh was moving in on Darius Colton’s domain, there could have been trouble there. Lisa glanced toward Peter to gauge whether he’d drawn the same conclusion, but his expression was inscrutable.

  Finally Tess stopped her restless shuffling and faced them with a determined set in her jaw. “Look, I don’t know what else I can tell you. I had nothing to do with Mark’s disappearance or his murder. I haven’t seen or talked to him in fifteen years.” She turned fully toward Peter. “But I can tell you this. You kids were important to him. He wouldn’t divorce your mother because he wanted to keep your family together. He didn’t want to lose the right to see his children. He loved you…in his own way.”

  Peter’s face reflected a mix of skepticism and longing. The poignant battle of his emotions tugged Lisa’s heart.

  A gasp from Tess brought Lisa’s attention back to the older woman. Tess snapped her fingers and waved a finger. “I just thought of something. In the months before he left, he was real upset about Lucy.”

  “Lucy?” Lisa asked.

  “My sister,” Peter supplied. His face said Tess’s revelation was old news.

  “Lucy was dating some boy he thought was trouble. He said he laid down the law to her that she couldn’t see him, but he knew she was sneaking around behind his back.”

  Peter sighed and shoved his hands in his coat pockets. “Damien Colton.”

  Recognition lit Tess’s face. “I know that name.”

  “He’s who they charged with Dad’s murder fifteen years ago.” Peter shuffled toward the door, signaling an end to the conversation. “But since my dad wasn’t actually dead, but in hiding, Damien just got a get-out-of-jail card from the state. So, thanks, but…that doesn’t help.”

  Tess spread her hands. “I’ve got nothing else.”

  Lisa nodded and moved close enough to grasp the woman’s hands. “Thank you. For your time and for indulging us when we stirred up bad memories. You have been a big help, and we appreciate what you’ve told us.”

  Perhaps because he felt taken to task by her example, Peter also mustered a smile for Tess Cantrell. “Yes, thank you.” He dug in his pocket and extracted a business card. “If you do think of anything else you feel could be helpful, will you call me? Please.”

  Tess stared at the card for a moment then nodded. “Sure. And I hope for your sake that they catch whoever did it.”

  With that, Peter opened the front door and stood back while Lisa pulled her coat tighter around her and stepped outside.

  The cold slap of the evening air matched Peter’s mood as they drove to the restaurant from Tess’s apartment.

  “If you’d like to skip dinner tonight, I’d understand. You’ve just been handed a shock, and I can imagine—”

  “I’m fine.” He added a tense smile that contradicted his assurances. “And I’d still like your input about Patrick.”

  “My analysis of the problem on the drive to Ms. Cantrell’s didn’t scare you off, then?” Lisa kept her tone light, hoping to establish a less serious tone for the rest of the evening.

  “Not a bit. You were dead on target, and I need all the candor and honesty I can get. Patrick means everything to me, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect him and give him a good childhood.”

  “I’m guessing your relationship with your dad wasn’t so hot when you were a kid?”

  “You’d be right. Although at the time, I really didn’t know any better. I just knew something was missing in our relationship that other guys had with their fathers. I want to be sure Patrick doesn’t grow up feeling the same way.”

  Peter pulled in and parked at a locally owned restaurant whose sign out front claimed they served the best steaks in the state.

  “Best in the state?” Lisa lifted her eyebrows. “Pretty bold claim considering the size of Montana. And this is ranching country.”

  Peter sent her a devilish lopsided grin. “Prepare to be impressed.”

  He escorted her inside and gave his name to the hostess. Once they’d been seated at a private corner booth, Peter ordered them a bottle of merlot and settled back in his seat. His gaze drifted around the classic Western-themed decor of the restaurant, but Lisa could tell by his deliberative expression that his thoughts were elsewhere.

  “So, what do you recommend?” She unfolded her menu and began studying the entree choices.

  Peter’s dark eyes shifted to her. “I
always get the ribeye.” He quirked a grin. “Best in the state.”

  Lisa chuckled. “So I hear.”

  His face sobering, he leaned toward her and lowered his voice. “Do you think the woman my dad got pregnant actually had the baby?”

  Lisa set the menu aside and considered his question. “Why wouldn’t she?”

  Peter flipped up his palm. “Well, you heard Tess. His affair with this lady was super-secret, and my dad called the woman volatile. If she was trying to keep his paternity and their relationship a secret, what better way than to get rid of the baby?”

  The thought of someone ending a pregnancy when she and Ray had so desperately wanted a baby and couldn’t have one made Lisa’s chest contract. She fumbled with her napkin, then, seeing her hands shaking, she laced her fingers tightly in her lap. “I suppose it’s possible. It’s just difficult for me to imagine anyone not wanting a baby, even if the circumstances are less than ideal.”

  Peter nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Assuming she did have the baby, the kid would be…what, fourteen now?” He dragged a hand down his cheek and blew out a deep breath. “I could have a half-sibling out there somewhere.”

  “Tess said the woman was from Honey Creek. Can you think of anyone who fits the description she gave? Emotional. Desperate to keep their relationship secret.”

  “With a kid who is now fourteen…yeah. A couple of possibilities come to mind. Lily Masterson for one.”

  Lisa blinked her surprise. “The new librarian? I thought she just moved to town.”

  “Moved back to town. She lived here years ago. Had a reputation that even high school boys like me knew about. She was a wild one back then.” He hesitated, drawing his eyebrows together in a frown. “She’s involved with Wes Colton now. If she had my dad’s baby, if she was involved with my dad’s disappearance or his death in some way…” Peter gritted his teeth, his dark eyes flashing. “I bet Wes knows about it. He could be covering for her. Seems mighty convenient that Lily shows up back in town at the same time my dad winds up dead.”