Change of Fortune

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Ross had never quite figured out his place on the Fortune family tree. Sure, he shared the surname since Cindy had never bothered to change her name through any of her three marriages and had made sure each of her children carried it, as well. But he never quite felt a part of the family.

  Cindy had been estranged from her siblings for years. Until Frannie’s marriage to Lloyd eighteen years ago gave her more of an excuse, Cindy only popped into Red Rock once in a while, usually to hit somebody in her family up for money.

  How many times had his uncle William and aunt Molly bailed Cindy out of some scrape or another? Even Lily and her late husband Ryan had taken a turn.

  Ross felt keenly obligated to them all for it—which was exactly why he was here listening to family gossip he didn’t really care about and enjoying Rosita’s exquisite cinnamon rolls.

  “I guess you know the reason we asked you here,” William finally said when there was a lull in the conversation. “We’re just looking for an update on your investigation.”

  “Which one?” Ross muttered ruefully, taking a sip of coffee. Right now he felt as if he were spinning three or four dozen plates and was quite sure each one was ready to crash to the ground.

  “Finding out the truth behind whoever killed Lloyd has to be your priority right now, for Frannie and Josh’s sake. We completely understand that.” William paused, his expression serious. “But I hope you understand that my priority right now is keeping the rest of the family safe.”

  His gaze flickered briefly to Lily just long enough for Ross to wonder if something were going on between the two of them. William and Lily? As stunning as he found the idea, it made an odd sort of sense. They each had lost—and mourned—their respective spouses and they were both heavily involved with the Fortune Foundation.

  He hadn’t heard anything from any other family members about a burgeoning romance between the two of them, but maybe it was still in the early stages.

  He had enough genuine mysteries to solve, he reminded himself. He didn’t need to concern himself with any hypothetical romance between Lily and William—and it was none of his business anyway.

  “Have you discovered anything new about the fires here and at Red or the mysterious notes we’ve received?” William asked.

  In January, a fire nearly destroyed the local restaurant owned by good friends of the Fortunes, the Mendozas. At that same time, William and his brother Patrick each received a mysterious note that said simply “One of the Fortunes is not who you think.”

  Just a month later, another fire had destroyed a barn at the Double Crown, killing a favorite horse, and Lily had received a note of her own that read “This one wasn’t an accident, either.”

  Ross had been brought in after that, when the family realized all these seemingly random events were connected.

  He hadn’t been very successful, though, much to his chagrin, both professionally and personally. Then in April, the mystery deepened and became even more sinister when his mother wrecked her car after a visit with Frannie and the Red Rock police discovered that her brakes had been tampered with.

  Ross still couldn’t completely convince himself Cindy hadn’t done it herself for attention. That was a pretty pitiful suspicion for a son to have about his own mother, but he had learned during his forty years on the planet not to put much past her. Still, he was investigating the brake-tampering incident as part of the pattern.

  “I’ll be honest with you, Uncle William,” he said now. “I’m hitting a wall. The private lab I sent the letters to was unable to find any legible fingerprints on either the notepaper itself or the envelopes used, and they were both very generic items that could have been purchased anywhere. Nothing distinctive at all that might help us identify who purchased them and sent them. The lab was able to collect a small amount of DNA from whoever licked the envelopes, but it’s not in any of the databanks we can access.”

  “Which means what, exactly?” Lily asked.

  He gave them both an apologetic look. “Until we have a suspect to compare the sample to, DNA doesn’t do us much good.”

  “Where do you suggest we go from here?” William asked, his expression troubled. He slanted a look at Lily and the obvious worry in his eyes made Ross wonder again at their relationship.

  “I’ve still got some leads I’m following on Cindy’s brakes and the accelerant used in both fires. But I’ll be honest, right now my focus has to be on Frannie.”

  “That’s just as it should be,” Lily assured him, her features sympathetic. “I worry so for her. She’s such a quiet soul, one who certainly doesn’t belong in jail. I hate that she has to go through this.”

  “What about Josh?” William asked. “In a way, he’s lost both a mother and a father, hasn’t he?”

  “Only temporarily, until I can clear Frannie and get her home where she belongs.” He spoke the words in a vow.

  Lily touched his arm again, her hands cool and soft. “You’re such a good brother, Ross. You always have been. I don’t know what would have happened to Frannie or your brothers if not for you.”

  William made a face. “It was an outrage what you children had to endure. The rest of us should never have allowed it. It’s one of my greatest regrets in life that we didn’t realize just how bad things were and didn’t sue for custody of all of you.”

  How different his life might have turned out, if that had happened. He might have grown up in California with William and Molly and their sons or here on the ranch with Ryan and his first wife. He might have had breakfast every morning in this big, comfortable kitchen, instead of in whatever dingy apartment Cindy found for them.

  “I wish I could say my sister ever outgrew her irresponsibility,” William went on, “but she’s as flighty and self-destructive at seventy as she was when she was a girl. I’m only sorry she dragged the four of you with her.”

  The last thing Ross wanted to talk about right now was his mother and the chaos of his childhood and all the might-havebeens that seemed more painful in retrospect. He quickly changed the subject.

  “I’ll admit, I’m worried about how this is all affecting Josh. He went back to school last week but he won’t talk about how things are going. I know how kids can talk and I’m sure a scandal like this is the hot topic at Red Rock High School.”

  As he hoped, the diversionary tactic did the trick. Lily’s eyes grew soft with concern, as they did whenever she heard about a child or youth in need.

  “Have you thought about grief counseling for him?” she asked. “Perhaps someone at the Foundation might be able to see him. Julie Osterman, for instance, specializes in helping teens who have suffered loss.”

  Okay, maybe changing the subject hadn’t been the greatest idea. He didn’t want to talk about Julie any more than he wanted to discuss Cindy.

  He certainly hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since their dinner and the heated kiss they had shared nearly a week before. He had tried everything to get the blasted woman out of his system. He had worked like a maniac tracking down leads in Frannie’s case, had taken Josh out fishing three more times, had swum so many laps in his sister’s pool he thought he might just grow fins.

  But he still dreamed of Julie every night and thoughts of her had a devious way of slithering into his mind at the most inconvenient time. Like, oh, just about every other minute.

  “He’s actually seeing Julie,” Ross admitted. “He’s been to a few sessions now. I can’t say if they’re helping yet.”

  “Julie is wonderful,” Lily exclaimed. “Don’t you just love her?”

  Ross nearly choked on his coffee. “Um, she seems nice enough.” Somehow he managed not to choke on the understatement, as well. “Josh likes her and that’s the important thing.”

  “Julie is the perfect one to help him,” Lily said. “She understands what it is to lose someone she loved.”

  “Yeah,” Ross said, his voice gruff. “She told me about her husband.”

  Lily blinked a litt
le at that. “Did she?”

  Ross fiddled with his cup. “Yeah.”

  “What happened?” William asked. “I had no idea she was even married.”

  Lily touched his hand. “I’ll tell you later,” she said, then turned back to Ross. “I can’t tell you how pleased and relieved I am that Josh is talking to someone. I’ve been so worried for him, especially since the last words between Josh and Lloyd were so harsh.”

  Ross frowned. “Harsh? Why do you say that?”

  Lily shifted in her chair, looking as if she wished she hadn’t said anything. “They were fighting, maybe a half hour before Lloyd was found dead. I’m sorry. I assumed you knew.”

  Fighting? Josh and Lloyd? This was the first he had heard anything about Josh even seeing his father the night of Lloyd’s death. His nephew had never said a word about it.

  Why hadn’t he? Ross wondered.

  “Did you hear them?” he asked.

  “It wasn’t my intention to eavesdrop. You have to understand that. But I left the dance for a moment and returned to the art booths, hoping to catch one of the vendors who was selling a particularly lovely plein air painting I had my eye on. I had talked myself out of it then decided at the last moment that it would be stunning in one of the guest bedrooms here. It was perfect, by the way. Would you like to see it?”

  Lily was stalling, which wasn’t at all like her.

  “What did you hear?” he asked.

  She sighed. “I was taking the painting to my car when I heard raised voices. I would have walked past, but then I recognized Josh’s voice. They were some distance away, behind the exhibits, and I’m sure they didn’t see me. I’m not sure they would have noticed anyway. They both sounded so furious.”

  His gut clenched. Why hadn’t Josh mentioned any fight with his father? In the nearly two weeks since the murder, his nephew hadn’t said a single word about any altercation. Why the hell not?

  “Could you hear what they were saying?” Ross asked, unable to keep the harsh urgency out of his voice.

  Lily glanced at William then back at Ross. “Not clearly. I’m sorry, Ross. They were some distance away from me. And though their voices were raised, I couldn’t hear everything. Lloyd was mostly yelling at poor Josh about something or other. I heard him call him a careless idiot at one point and he said something else about Josh ruining his life.”

  “Did you hear Josh’s response?” he asked. It suddenly seemed vitally important, for reasons Ross wasn’t prepared to analyze.

  Again Lily looked at William as if seeking moral support. His uncle looked as concerned as Ross was and he was quite certain this was the first his uncle had heard about an altercation between them, as well.

  “He’s just a boy,” she said. “He didn’t mean anything.”

  “What did he say, Lily?” William picked up her hand and curled his fingers around it. “Tell us.”

  She sighed. “He said he wouldn’t let Lloyd get away with it. Whatever it might have been. I couldn’t hear that part. And then he said something about how he—Josh—would stop Lloyd, no matter what it took.”

  The coffee and cinnamon rolls seemed to congeal in Ross’s stomach. “Have you told anyone else about this?”

  “No.” She frowned, suddenly pensive. “But I think Frannie heard their argument, too. In fact, I’m almost certain of it. I saw her just a few moments later and she looked white and didn’t even say hello, which was not at all like her.”

  What else had his family not bothered to tell him? His first instinct was to drive to the high school, yank Josh out of his chemistry final and rip into him for keeping these kinds of secrets.

  What had Josh and his father been fighting about? And more importantly, why the hell hadn’t Josh told him?

  “I’m sorry, Ross. I can see you’re upset. I would have told you earlier but I just assumed Josh or Frannie must have mentioned it to you.”

  “No,” he said grimly. “Both of them are apparently keeping their mouths shut about any number of things. But I intend to find out what.”

  * * *

  He had learned after more than a decade on the police force and two more years as a private investigator that sometimes he just needed to give his subconscious time and space to chew on things, to sort through all the pieces of a case and help him put them back together in the right order.

  Sometimes mundane tasks helped the process, so Ross decided to stop at the grocery store on the way back from the Double Crown.

  The wheels were spinning a hundred miles an hour as he pushed the cart through the cereal aisle, trying to remember which were Josh’s favorites.

  He disliked grocery shopping. Always had. He had a service in San Antonio that delivered the same things to him every week. Milk, eggs, cheese, a variety of frozen dinners. He still had to make the occasional trip to the store but most of the basics were covered by the delivery service.

  Yeah, it made him feel like a pathetic old bachelor once in a while, but he figured it was all about time management. Why waste time with a task he disliked when he could pay someone else to take care of it?

  He knew why shopping bothered him. He didn’t need counseling to figure it out. It was a silly reaction, he knew, but somehow grocery shopping reminded him far too much of those frequent times when Cindy would take off when they were kids—of being nine years old again, pushing five-year-old Frannie in a shopping cart and nagging his six-and seven-year-old brothers to stay with them while he roamed through the aisle trying to figure out what they could afford from the emergency stash he always tried to stockpile with money he stole out of his mother’s purse for just these moments.

  He pushed back the image as he mechanically moved through the store, trying to remember what kind of food he liked when he was eighteen.

  He passed the pharmacy at the front of the store and suddenly saw Jillian Fredericks standing at the counter.

  Damn. He was in no mood for a confrontation with the woman right here in the middle of the Piggly Wiggly, for her sake or his own. She had been through enough and he didn’t want to dredge up any more pain for her.

  Sidestepping to a different aisle was simply the humane, decent thing to do, he told himself, though slinking through the store made him feel even more like that nine year old of his memory.

  He was so intent on avoiding Jillian that he didn’t notice anybody else in the aisle until someone called his name.

  “Ross. Hello! How are you?”

  He lifted his gaze from the detergent bottles and found Julie Osterman standing just across the aisle from him.

  To his eternal chagrin, his heart did a crazy little tap dance at the sight of her.

  She glanced at the few items in his cart. “Please tell me you and Josh are eating something besides cold cereal and potato chips.”

  He felt his face heat. “We had steak the other night with you. And we’ve gone to Red a few times. Tonight we’re ordering pizza.”

  She didn’t roll her eyes but he could tell she wanted to. Instead, she gave a rueful smile. “I won’t nag.”

  He didn’t want to think about the way her concern for their diet sent a traitorous warmth uncurling through him. “But you’d like to.”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but sighed instead. “Just remember, he’s right in the middle of finals. A balanced meal here or there won’t hurt.”

  “I’ll have Mel down at the pizza parlor throw on extra vegetables, how about that?”

  “Sounds perfect.” She smiled, her lovely blue eyes bright and amused, and he suddenly couldn’t think about anything but the heat and wonder of that blasted kiss. “You’re not working today?” he asked.

  “It’s my afternoon off. Usually I try to catch up on my reports at home where it’s quiet but I’ve been putting off grocery shopping and I decided to check that task off my list this afternoon.”

  “It’s a pain in the neck, isn’t it?”

  She looked surprised. “I kind of like shopping. All those possibilitie
s in front of me. I can walk out of the store with the makings of a gourmet supper or I can just run in for a glazed doughnut that’s lousy for me but tastes divine. It all depends on my mood.”

  “Must be a girl thing.”

  She laughed and he realized how much brighter the world suddenly seemed than when he walked into the store. It was an uncomfortable discovery, that she could affect his entire mood just with her presence.

  “How’s Josh doing today?”

  “That seems to be the question of the day. I wish I could tell people some answer other than ‘fine.’ He doesn’t talk much to me about it.”

  He hadn’t pushed the boy, but after his conversation with Lily, he was beginning to think that had been a mistake.

  “That’s completely normal, Ross,” she answered. “Most seventeen-year-old boys would much prefer going outside and shooting hoops to sitting around discussing their emotional mood of the moment.”

  “I think it’s probably fair to say most forty-year-old men aren’t much different.”

  She laughed softly and he was suddenly consumed with the desire to taste that delectable mouth again, right there beside the fabric softeners. He even leaned forward slightly, then caught himself and jerked back.

  Josh, he reminded himself. Focus on Josh. The conversation with Lily came back to him. Had Josh told Julie about his fight with his father the night of his death?

  “Josh talks to you, though, right? I mean, you’ve had two sessions with him now.”

  “Yes,” she said, somewhat warily.

  “Did he mention anything about talking to his father the night of the Spring Fling?” he asked.

  She sighed. “You know I can’t tell you anything about my conversations with him, Ross. They’re confidential. Right now Josh is still willing to talk to me and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the trust he has in me. I’m sorry.”

  Sometimes he really hated when people were decent and honorable.

  That didn’t mean he always had to play by the same rules. A good investigator could read as much in what a person didn’t say—in her body language and her facial expressions—as in her words. He had learned that sometimes offering information of his own could elicit the reaction he needed to verify his suspicions.