Dana’s first husband had been a piece of work, as was her second husband, whose name she still carried. Both had been cheats and liars. As for Mitch Clayton, the less said about him the better. Besides, from what she’d been able to discern about Ray Wilson, Dana wasn’t his type. He apparently liked women with artificial boobs, and Dana’s slim physique certainly didn’t fit that criterion. Who could forget the ingénue actress with the silicone implants that Ray had brought to Darnell and Thad’s wedding reception? Bev certainly hadn’t.
At the time her opinion of him had not been high, but she had to admit that after watching him over the years her opinion had changed. Sure, his choices in women were pedestrian, but she had also noticed another side of him. She had seen him engage in acts of kindness and generosity with his friends. She had discovered that he had started a mentoring program for inner city youth interested in entertainment law as a career. He also volunteered his services to a poverty law center in Los Angeles. Knowing those things about him had increased his credibility with her.
Thad and Darnell thought the world of him. He was like an older brother to Thad, and when their daughter Nia was born, Darnell and Thad did not hesitate to ask Ray to be Nia’s godfather. That Thad had wanted to give him such an honor came as no surprise, but for Darnell to have agreed to it meant that she trusted him as much as her husband, and that was nearly miraculous. Darnell rarely trusted anyone outside of the family. Of course after today’s encounter with Dana and Ray, those feelings might be in question. Mother and daughter were in agreement that something was definitely fishy regarding that pair. After they left her house, Darnell had called Bev and reviewed the “happy couple’s” visit.
“It’s bad enough that Aunt Dana turned her back on this family just because of that Mitch guy, but now she’s going to bring Ray here under false pretenses to stir up trouble!” Darnell was seething. “This is too much.”
If Darnell was right about Dana’s reason for being here, the Stillwaters clan might be headed for turmoil that could have been avoided, and that was an issue of concern. Bev prayed that the animosity that her sister held toward her immediate family wouldn’t spill over into the affairs of their extended kin just because of one man.
Weeks before the rift that had left Dana estranged from her mother and sister, Mitch Clayton had been introduced to the immediate family at an intimate dinner in Bev’s Chicago home. Darnell had not been present, but she had met Mitch before and had informed her mother that she didn’t like him. However, Bev and Ginny were determined to form their own opinions.
They met a man who was intelligent and affable, but closer to Bev’s age than Dana’s. He wore expensive suits, bragged about being a connoisseur of fine wines, and exhibited a charm that to some might have been captivating, but neither woman was impressed. Their instincts told them that he wasn’t the man for Dana, but neither of them had been prepared for the bombshell that she had dropped that evening when she announced that they were engaged. She had known the man for one month. After meeting him both Ginny and Bev had informed Dana that Mitch wouldn’t be welcome in Stillwaters. It was that declaration that had ignited the storm that had weakened their family ties. If her sister had brought Ray Wilson here under clandestine circumstances in an attempt to sabotage the entire family because of some need for revenge, Bev was prepared to intervene—but not quite yet.
“Let’s sit back and see what she’s up to with this fiancé thing,” she advised her only child. “Mama is astute; she knows Dana and her track record with men, and so does Grandy. If either one of them challenges her about him, that’s on Dana. Right now Mama is on cloud nine because her daughter has come home, and I don’t want to spoil that for her. Time will tell what Dana is trying to pull.”
Darnell hadn’t been so sure. “I hope you’re right, because the family has enough going on without Dana sticking her nose into it. Bringing Ray in here to help her could wreak havoc.”
Bev tried to soothe her daughter’s concern. “I think that you’re giving Ray more credit than he deserves. After all, he’s an entertainment attorney…”
“And a skilled negotiator.”
Bev couldn’t dispute that. “Yes, but I think that he has more common sense than she has. Taking that into consideration, maybe she won’t let whatever is happening go too far. ”
It was agreed that Darnell and she would take a wait-and-see position regarding this supposed engagement. So as the introductions to her mother were being made, Bev watched the interaction between Dana and Ray carefully.
Ray tried to appear composed as Bev securitized him. He knew that the farce that Dana had created wasn’t going to work. Darnell hadn’t believed it for a minute, and if he thought that she was tough when they met with her and Thad, he had no illusion that facing Dana’s mother would be easier. He was right. It was worse, but not because of Ginny; because of Bev. From her stance, it was obvious to him that she had spoken to Darnell. The icy stare that she was giving him while he was being introduced to her mother could not be denied. He had butterflies in his stomach. That usually happened whenever he was near Bev.
Ray returned his attention to Dana’s mother, whom he’d had the pleasure of meeting at Thad and Darnell’s wedding. The meeting had been brief, but the lady had been as gracious then as she was now as she greeted him warmly.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Mr. Wilson.” She flashed him a smile that was so much like Bev’s that his stomach fluttered.
Bev favored her mother. She had inherited her large, dark eyes and her height. In her seventies, Ginny Little’s mocha-brown face defied her age. The silver mane that framed her face was cut into a modern, symmetrical style that gave her a chic, sophisticated appearance. Like her daughter, she was a very attractive woman.
“I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Wilson…”
“Please call me Ray.”
“All right, Ray, then I’ll tell you the truth. I only vaguely remember meeting you.” She turned to her youngest daughter and caressed her cheek. “But if you’re the one responsible for bringing my girl back into the family, then you’ve got my vote for future son-in-law.”
Dana slyly dismissed her mother’s words. “Oh, Mama.” Hugging the older woman to her, she didn’t want to feel guilty about her deception. She also didn’t want to admit to herself that she was glad to be home. She had missed her mother. If something had happened to Ginny before the breech between them had been mended, she never would have forgiven herself. Yet she still couldn’t deny the anger that she harbored regarding Mitch, or the resentment that she felt toward the other woman who occupied the room. She turned to her sister.
“Hello, Bev.”
“Dana.”
The chill in their mutual greeting spoke volumes about the relationship between the two sisters. The gulf between them was wide, and it looked as though it would take more than the prodigal daughter’s return home to close it.
* * *
Later, as they headed to her uncle’s house where Ray would be staying, Ray questioned Dana about the tension that he had observed. “What’s this thing between you and Bev? Are you still mad at her because of Mitch?”
“That’s part of it, but we didn’t get along even before that.”
Ray sensed that there was subtext in her statement and it made him ask, “What exactly was it about Mitch that Bev didn’t like?” He had known Mitch on a professional basis for about six years, but on a personal level less than that.
He and Mitch had shared a love for women, sports, and the law, in that order. Mitch had been a gregarious man who tended to be a braggart, but he was a good golfer and Ray and he had gotten along well. Mitch never talked about himself much, and Ray really hadn’t known that much about him. He assumed that he told him what he wanted him to know.
“Bev is just a busybody, that’s all,” Dana sniffed. “She never learned to keep her nose out of my business. She’s always taken the overprotective big sister role a little too seriously.”
/> “Seriously enough to kill Mitch?”
Dana physically recoiled at his words. “No, my sister may be a lot of things, but I don’t think that she’s the killer.”
Ray agreed. He didn’t think for a moment that Bev had harmed anyone. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t sure that a crime had been committed. He had told Dana that earlier when the subject had been broached.
“As hard as it might be to accept, Mitch committed suicide, Dana…”
She had been defensive. “No, he didn’t!”
“It was a self-inflicted wound to the head that ended his life.”
Dana had been adamant. “I’m telling you that you’re wrong!”
After leaving the Stewarts’ house, they had parked the car and taken a stroll down to the lake. Dana had turned away from him in her anguish, as resistant now to the reality of the situation as she had been when it first happened. Gently, he turned her to face him and looked into her eyes.
“I know that he didn’t leave a suicide note, but he did have cancer and he couldn’t face what lay ahead. You’ve simply got to face the facts.”
“I won’t face a lie, Ray.” She had jerked away from him.
Ray had looked at her with pity. After all of these months she was still grasping at straws, trying to escape the reality of Mitch’s death. How desperate could a person be that they would accuse a member of their own family of murder? Had the shock of her fiancé’s death pushed Dana over the edge?
In making her accusation, she had offered no proof to him that Mitch’s death hadn’t been a suicide. Her entire theory was based on intuition rather than facts. That contradicted their legal training.
Dana had said, “Mitch had too much to live for to kill himself. He had his career and he had me. He wouldn’t have given up so easily just because he was ill.” She was insistent. “I’m telling you, someone else had a hand in his death.”
“Just because your family didn’t like him?”
Dana nodded. “Isn’t that enough?”
Her resolve regarding Mitch’s demise seemed absolute, and Ray wasn’t sure that he could change her mind. Bringing him to Stillwaters to assist her in finding this so-called murderer had been an irrational act. Dana needed help, all right, but not the kind that he could give her. He was thinking about talking to Thad and Darnell about what could be done about her when Dana seemed to read his mind.
“I’m not crazy, Ray. I wouldn’t sit here and accuse my sister of murder just because I don’t get along with her.”
“I hope not.” Ray’s words were said disparagingly, but he quickly softened his tone. “I know that Mitch’s death was devastating…”
“You don’t know anything,” Dana hissed, “except what you think that you know. I brought you here to show you power that you and most of this country would never believe existed. Money is power, and we Stillwaters have plenty of money. If you hadn’t seen this place for yourself, you never would have believed it existed. That being true, then there’s little that such power can’t do, and that includes covering up a murder. ”
After thinking about it, Ray had to admit that she had a point.
* * *
From the upstairs window of her mother’s house, Bev had watched as Dana and Ray drove away.
“What kind of man is he, baby?”
Bev turned to the elderly woman who was seated across the room on a damask-covered lounge chair. An open book rested on her lap. With questioning eyes, Esther Freedom Stillwaters, the grand matriarch of the gathered clan, looked up at her granddaughter.
“I think that he’s a good man,” Bev answered quietly as she turned back to look out at the empty driveway.
There was something in the tone of Bev’s voice that caught Esther’s attention. She studied the tenseness in her grandchild’s posture as she stood gazing out of the window at nothing. Her arms were wrapped around her body as if she were protecting herself from something unknown. But what?
“How long have you known this man?”
“About four years.” Bev didn’t turn around. “I met him when Darnell and Thad first got together.”
“I see.” Esther paused thoughtfully before continuing. “And you say that he’s a good man?”
Bev nodded. “Yes.”
“But he’s not the man for her.”
It wasn’t a question, and Bev didn’t answer. She didn’t want her grandmother to know her suspicions and doubts about Ray, and particularly about the conflict that she was feeling regarding his having come here with Dana. But, as usual, the wisdom of age, partnered with acute observation, overshadowed that reasoning as Esther gave her favored grandchild a wily smile.
“But I’m guessing that he just might be the man for someone in this family.”
Bev whirled to face her. “What do you mean by that? You haven’t even met him yet!”
“I will in time.” Esther’s smile deepened. “And then we’ll see.”
Bev frowned. She didn’t like the sound of that.
* * *
As Ray and Dana sat in the driveway of her uncle’s house, Ray evaluated what Dana had told him about her family. According to her when a member of the Stillwaters family wanted to marry, the prospective in-law was taken to the family’s town for “interrogation and inspection.”
“It all appears to be pretty innocent,” she had informed him, “but believe me, it’s dead serious. When we add a member to our family it means expanding a dynasty that’s worth more money than you can even imagine. You see, nobody fails in the Stillwaters family. It’s not an option, and we don’t marry losers. If our family doesn’t approve of someone one of us wants to marry, you won’t believe the pressure that’s exerted.”
Ray read between the lines. “And they put pressure on you about Mitch. But that doesn’t mean that somebody murdered him.”
“You don’t know the Stillwaters family.” Dana didn’t hide her bitterness. “After my mother and sister put the word out about how much they disliked him, family members started swarming on me like locusts. I think that Mama or Bev might have had him investigated.”
That surprised Ray. “Why would they do that?”
“Because they can.” Dana turned to him. “As I said, money is power, and with the Stillwaters clan family is first.”
Considering the reason that Dana had brought him here, that motto rang hollow. He pondered what she had told him so far.
“You know, all of this is well and good, but you still haven’t given me any evidence that a murder has been committed.”
She gave a heavy sigh. “Let me tell you about my Aunt Marva, Nedra’s mother.”
Ray had met Nedra Davis-Reasoner and her husband Sinclair through Darnell and Thad. Darnell and her cousin Nedra appeared to be close. Dana continued.
“Aunt Marva fell in love with her husband when they were in high school, so instead of going to college—which is a Stillwaters must—she married him right out of high school. She defied the family and left the family fold to avoid the drama. The night she gave birth to Nedra, my aunt’s husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver. They had been married for only two years.”
“And?” Ray didn’t get the point.
“After his death, the family found Aunt Marva, who by that time was steeped in religion. They rallied around her, paid for her education, and she’s now the pastor of one of the largest and wealthiest churches in Kansas City, Missouri.”
“And that’s a crime?”
“No, it’s an example of how our family members prosper when they go along with the program, obey the creed. Because she’s the oldest child, it’s Aunt Marva’s mother who everyone assumes will head the Stillwaters family when Grandy passes. That would make Aunt Marva next in line after her.”
Ray was frustrated by her story. He still didn’t get the connection, but he was glad that she wasn’t involving Bev in her conspiracy theory. She could have easily done so, considering their strained relationship. He was feeling good about that until Dana said—
“Bev did the same thing as Aunt Marva.”
“What do you mean?”
“She ran off and married a man that our parents didn’t like. I was little, but I remember how upset they were.”
“What happened?” Ray asked.
“Bev was the same age as Aunt Nedra when she ran away and married her husband. She had scholarship offers from all over the country and was set to go to Spellman in Atlanta. I don’t know if her husband even had a high school diploma. She broke away from the family, and when she was pregnant with Darnell her husband died.”
“I know, in some kind of automobile accident.”
“The family found her, rallied around her, and paid for her education, straight through grad school. Bev became a CPA, founded her financial consulting firm, and prospered.”
Ray sighed. “I still don’t understand what you’re getting at, Dana.”
“The authorities could never verify exactly what caused the accident that killed Colton Cameron. They thought that perhaps what happened might have been some sort of hit and run, just like with Aunt Marva’s husband.” She paused dramatically. “The members of our family may appear to be as gentle as lambs, but we’re lambs with the bite of lions.” Dana looked into Ray’s eyes. “That’s how we are raised, and lions destroy their prey.”
She spoke the last words slowly and distinctly. This time Ray got the point.
CHAPTER 5
“The women in the Stillwaters family don’t play,” Gerald Stillwaters informed Ray as the two men sat on the porch of the Come Right Inn, rocking contentedly in the oversized rockers that dotted the wraparound porch. “When someone does them wrong, there is a price to pay.” He took a moment to glance over at Ray, who sat sipping a beer.
Ray knew that the words had been spoken for his benefit. This was part of the process that he had been going through since his arrival in town with Dana yesterday. He had been introduced to the first layer of the Stillwaters family this morning by Dana’s Uncle Gerald, and the elders had welcomed, studied, and subtly interrogated him.
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