Malice In Wonderland (Book 6) Read online

  “Maybe he should have married them,” Agatha said dryly.

  “What about enemies?” Hank asked.

  “They said they couldn’t think of any,” Coil said. “Everyone loved old Buck. He was a brilliant businessman, and always kept his word. At least when he was wheeling and dealing. His reputation is impeccable in the business world. And the indiscretions in his personal life could usually be taken care of with cash.”

  “What type of indiscretions?” Agatha asked.

  “The man was a notorious womanizer,” Coil said. “Liked having a lot of his business meetings at strip clubs, and he treated company getaways like extended bachelor parties. I’m under the impression women don’t generally care to work for Buck unless they’re looking for a romantic entanglement.”

  “He just sounds better by the minute,” Agatha said.

  Coil flashed a quick grin, but his eyes never stopped scanning the crowd. Agatha knew he’d worked undercover too long to ever feel too comfortable among a crowd.

  “Well, we know Buck had money and power,” Hank said. “Those are two pretty powerful motives for murder.”

  “If he was murdered,” Agatha piped in.

  “His buddies did say that Buck liked to gamble a bit, but after the SMU debacle, he’s stayed out of sports and stuck to the high stakes tables. They said it was nothing for Buck to call them up and take everyone to Vegas in his plane for a few days. He owns a hotel on the strip, so it was nothing.”

  “SMU debacle?” Hank asked.

  “The SMU football team. Don’t you recall when they were under NCAA investigation for all types of violations. They got the death penalty in 1987, and the college had to terminate their winning football program.”

  “Oh yeah,” Hank said, nodding. “I remember now. How was Buck involved?”

  “He was deep in the middle of paying players and buying gifts for their folks,” Coil said. “Then, as everything started to come to light, Buck tried to pay off the NCAA officials. It backfired and he was a social outcast for about a decade, but it blew over eventually.” Coil lifted his Stetson and smoothed back his hair before replacing it. “Did y’all find out anything?”

  “Let’s just say his ex-wives have an eerie resemblance to each other,” Hank said. “And I don’t think everything is as smooth and friendly as they’re letting on.” He nodded toward the group of women and noticed two more had joined them. Must’ve been number one and three.

  “I don’t care what they say,” Coil said. “That many ex-wives together can never be a good thing.”

  “There are secrets there,” Hank said.

  “I’d like to talk to the oldest one again,” Agatha said. “Just us girls. She’s sharper than the others. But I think she was lying behind that smile. I think she still has a whole lot of resentment toward Buck.”

  “Good luck with that,” Hank said.

  Agatha smiled. Hank loved it when she smiled. He also loved it when they were back in Rusty Gun and in their own space. He was retired for a reason. This crowd, though he certainly knew Agatha made enough money from writing to fit in with them, didn’t suit either of their lifestyles. She was an introvert by nature, and he’d learned there was something to slowing down and smelling the roses every once in a while.

  “I’m going to go hang out in the ladies’ room,” she said. “You know how they love to gossip in there. I’ll text you if I hear anything. Plus, I can kill two birds with one stone. I drank a lot of iced tea tonight.”

  Hank and Coil chuckled as she headed back into the house in a hurry. They tried talking to a few other folks, but they did have any luck. The buzz was starting to wear off, and people were getting restless, so they ignored any attempt Hank and Coil made at asking questions.

  “Maybe she’ll have more luck from the bathroom,” Hank said, exasperated. He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Lorraine standing there, smiling expectantly. He’d already decided they’d made her an unofficial spokeswoman for the group, and he wondered what they’d managed to cook up since he last left them.

  “Can I talk to you in private?” Lorraine asked, eyeing Coil suspiciously.

  “I’ll be over here,” Coil said, sighing.

  Hank’s brows raised as she hooked her arm through his, and he led her near the gazebo where there weren’t as many people milling about. Her hands moved from his elbow and latched onto his bicep, where she gave it a couple of squeezes and purred appreciatively.

  Hank swallowed hard and looked toward the house to see if he could find Agatha, but he was alone with Lorraine Hazard, and she was looking at him like prey.

  “Is this a good spot to talk?” he asked, and quickly released himself from her clutches.

  “Yes, thank you,” Lorraine said, nonplussed by the distance he put between them. She took a seat on a rustic bench with a Texas star branded into the back of it. She let out a deep breath and look across the gaudily lit rolling land.

  “I’ve always hated this place,” she said. “Buck and his first wife, Noreen, built it from the ground up after he started making money hand over fist. They were married twenty years you know.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Hank said.

  “Then I came along.” Her smile was unashamed and reminiscent. “I had a job at one of those delivery service places. I’d wear a cute little pink and white striped skirt and a prim white button-down shirt, and I’d deliver everything from balloons to cases of liquor to the who’s who of Dallas. I’d just turned eighteen years old and Buck was a little past forty. Lord, that man was handsome. I’d have walked across hot coals to get to him. He was powerful…magnetic.

  “So, he and Noreen split, and we got married the weekend after the ink was dry on his divorce papers. I was so young and naïve. I had my whole life ahead of me, and it was exactly the life I imagined for myself. Going to spas and traveling all over the world. I gave him two sons, just like Noreen had. We lasted eight years before Connie came along. She’d just turned eighteen too.”

  Lorraine laughed ironically to herself, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. I thought we were building something special here. We had the pool put in, and I put my touches around the house. I went to parties and learned how to be a good hostess. Any imperfections in my face or body were fixed by surgery, so I could be perfect for Buck. And he threw me away anyway.”

  Hank felt sorry for her, and he dropped down onto the bench beside her.

  “It still hurts,” he said with empathy.

  She snorted daintily. “Every day. You’ll hear it over and over again. Everybody loved Buck. He was a man’s man, and he’d do anything for anyone in need. Except for his wife and kids. I don’t hate him, but I do hate what he did. What he did to all of us. Buck loved us for a time, and then he swapped us out like cheap stocks with a promise of quick gain. Money can’t buy everything,” she said. “And if he hadn’t died tonight, you can bet your bottom dollar Candy would’ve been out the door before too long.”

  “This is the first time y’all have all been together at an event like this?” Hank asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “But we all know each other, and we’ve gotten together out of necessity if children were involved. Noreen and I eventually became good friends, and I’m friendly with a couple of the others. We’ll meet for lunch from time to time, or if we happen to cross each other’s paths while traveling, we might have dinner.”

  “What made this time different?” Hank asked.

  Her breath hitched, and she was staring off, looking toward the blue lights flashing in the driveway and mesmerized by them. “I didn’t realize the others would be here. When he called me, I don’t know what I thought at first. He told me he needed to talk to me. That he had something very important to say. I wondered if maybe he was sick or dying. But the way he talked to me was so sweet. He reminded me of the time we’d gone horseback riding on the beach, and he tried to lean over and kiss me just as his horse took off at a break neck pace.” She laughed at the memory, and th
is time it reached her eyes. “He fell right on his behind in the sand. Buck was an expert rider, which is what made it so funny.

  “I thought,” she said, pausing. “Just the way he talked he made me think he wanted me back. For things to be like the old times. Then come to find out that’s what the other’s all thought too. He was screwing us all the way up to the end.”

  “What was it he wanted to tell you?” Hank asked.

  Her back stiffened and he could feel the rage coming off her in waves. “It wasn’t to get back together, that’s for sure.”

  Hank sighed and patted her on the shoulder, completely uncomfortable with public displays of affection.

  Her smile trembled as she looked at him with unshed tears in her eyes. “I appreciate your compassion, Detective.”

  “I know the pain of loss,” he said simply. “What did he tell you?”

  “That he’d finally found the love of his life. He was madly in love with Candy, and it was going to change things between all of us.”

  “Why would someone kill Buck because he loved his wife?” Hank asked

  Lorraine gasped. “He was murdered?”

  “Well,” Hank admitted. “The detectives handling the case sure seem to think so.”

  She leaned back and looked him up and down again. “I thought you were investigating Buck’s death.”

  Hank couldn’t deceive her. He would be guilty of interfering in an official police investigation. The truth was, Hank had zero authority to be there asking questions. Sure, he was one question away from getting all he needed to know, but he wouldn’t ever consider breaking the law or interfering in it.

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “I’m a retired homicide detective who was called in to help a friend of my…” he thought about it a few seconds, completely unsure what he was supposed to call Agatha. “My girlfriend,” he finally said. But that didn’t sit well at all. Agatha definitely wasn’t a girl.

  Lorraine’s brows raised almost to her hairline. “You’re here to help that devil, Heather Cartwright?” she asked sharply.

  “I take it you and Heather don’t make regular lunch dates,” Hank said.

  “If someone murdered Buck there’s no doubt in my mind it was her.” Lorraine straightened her spine and got up, her hips twitching to a rhythm only she could hear as she made her way back to the other exes.

  “Well,” Hank said. “That blows that shot.”

  Chapter Seven

  Sunday

  July in Rusty Gun, Texas was no longer just a warm peck on the cheek like it had been the month before. It was hot. Really hot. And though Hank occasionally saw kids out on their bikes or joggers out in the early morning hours, no one stayed outside for long. Texas summers were everything he’d ever heard about and more.

  It was his second summer in Rusty Gun, and despite the spike in heat, he decided to hit the open road on his motorcycle before his meeting with Agatha and Coil to discuss Heather’s situation. There was no word on what killed Buck Hazard, but Heather was still in custody while Ritzo and Kraken worked on finding something to charge her with.

  Hank drove slowly through Main Street on his black and silver Harley. The heat from the pavement was so hot it could have melted his boots, and it curled around his legs, so it felt like he was being cooked inside his jeans. He wore a white undershirt and a sleeveless flannel shirt over it that flapped open in the hot breeze.

  Since getting a clean bill of health on his dislocated right shoulder after rescuing Agatha from the line of fire from a sniper’s rifle, Hank had become very comfortable handling the giant machine. Exploring Texas hill country had become his passion.

  It was almost eleven thirty as he idled the HOG past what was once Bucky’s Brisket Basket. The former icon along Main Street’s strip had been closed permanently since its owner, Sheila Johnson, had been murdered the past April. Hank felt a knot in his gut. Sheila had been a close friend, and she was one of the few folks he’d felt comfortable enough to open up to.

  Sheriff Coil caught his eye as he hurried across the street ahead of Hank. His old friend hustled into the café with a crowd of church folks. Hank wondered if Reggie had found anything else about Buck’s cause of death since they’d left the party late last night.

  Hank eased his bike in between two parked cars. That was one of the great things about riding a motorcycle. He always got the best parking spots. He thought of Sully, the pirate outlaw biker, and how he’d taught Hank a few tricks of the trade for making sure he got the front spots on his bike while also making sure careless motorists didn’t ding his chrome pride and joy.

  He’d last spoken to Sully a week ago. Seemed the old biker had recovered from his beat down by the Lone Star Rattlers outlaw motorcycle club. With a good word from Coil to the manager at Reverend Graham’s Harley Davidson shop, Sully was back to work in the maintenance department. Hank’s friendship with the ex-outlaw was one he’d never have imagined, but neither was living in a tiny Texas town in the middle of nowhere.

  The bell chimed when he stepped through the door of the cafe, and he waited for his vision to adjust to the soft interior lights of a crowded café. He looked toward their usual booth in the far corner of the restaurant with an anticipation of seeing Agatha waiting for him, but there were unfamiliar faces in their usual space. He scowled. He was most comfortable with structure.

  “Hank,” Agatha called out.

  He turned toward her voice, and there she was. He immediately felt more at ease. Despite having lived in Rusty Gun for almost two years, he was still a stranger to most people, and most people were strangers to him.

  Hank hugged her, and he loved the way she fit so easily into his arms. “Long time no see,” he said to Coil, who was already sitting at the table.

  “Thanks for not running me down out there,” Coil said with a chuckle. “You’re becoming a regular rebel without a cause on that thing.”

  Hank finagled the chair so he faced the front door and adjusted his concealed weapon beneath his shirt. He adjusted the chair a couple of more times until he was as comfortable as he was going to be without having a full view to the outside.

  If he was honest, he was a little paranoid about the Lone Star Rattlers motorcycle club. They weren’t happy about him shooting some of their members, and Hank suspected there might be a bounty on his head. But he kept that to himself as to not alarm Agatha. She had enough to worry about with Heather in jail.

  “It’s good to see you survived the ladies’ room last night,” Hank said, nudging Agatha.

  “Yeah, thanks for waiting,” she said dryly. “I come out and all heck had broken loose.”

  “Sorry about that,” Hank said, wincing. “But once the medical examiner’s office was ready to move the body, they wanted the crowd gone in a hurry.”

  “Shouldn’t we have heard from Heather by now?” Agatha asked. “I’m really worried about her.”

  “The longer she’s there without being charged, the better it is,” Coil said. “If she’d said anything incriminating to start with, they’d book her and be on their merry way with yet another bogus arrest.”

  Hank pulled off his gloves and signaled to the waitress. He could drink a gallon of water on the spot.

  “Coil’s right,” Hank said. “It’s a good sign” Hank agreed. “It’s also possible they might be holding her as an ace card if Hank really was murdered and they don’t have a clue who did it. And I can tell you, there are people at that party who’d be more than happy to see Heather hang for this.”

  Hank saw the worry in Agatha’s eyes, and it ate at his insides that there was nothing more he could do. He put his hand over hers and squeezed gently.

  “What did you learn from the bathroom?” Coil asked.

  “Lots of gossip and talk about the two gorgeous cops who crashed the party,” she said, waving her hand.

  “Oh yeah?” Coil asked. “They called us gorgeous?”

  Hank’s lips twitched as Agatha rolled her eyes.

 
“The word is,” Agatha continued, “that the reason Candy accused Heather was because she was due a sizable settlement upon Buck’s death.”

  “Just Heather?” Coil asked, his cop’s eyes going flat. “What about the others?”

  “Don’t know,” Agatha said, shrugging. That’s all I heard, and I don’t know who was saying it because I was hiding in a stall. Supposedly, Candy suspects Heather because of her track record with huge settlements from past dearly departed husbands.”

  “Maybe that’s what Lorraine was talking about when she said that everything would change now that Buck had truly found the love of his life,” Hank said. “Maybe he was cutting them all out of the will.”

  “Looks like we got some snooping to do,” Coil said. “We can find out whether Heather is still a beneficiary on Buck’s insurance policies. It’s not uncommon for people to forget to change those and end up having an ex-spouse get insurance money.”

  “Hear anything else?” Coil questioned.

  “You mean other than about you?” she asked.

  Heat flushed into Coil’s cheeks and he tried to look sheepish but failed.

  “Those women would eat you up and spit you out, Reggie Coil. Plus, your wife would kill you painfully.”

  Hank slapped him on the shoulder. “You’re too handsome for your own good. You’re like an old Brad Pitt, but still, I can see those cowboy good looks somewhere in that weathered face.”

  “Shut up,” Coil said. “You’re older than I am. By a lot.”

  “If you two children are finished,” Agatha said, “You might be interested to know that word on the street is that Candy was completely blindsided about all the exes showing up. Someone even mentioned maybe Buck was planning to introduce the next potential Mrs. Hazard at the party for everyone to see.”

  “Only an idiot with a death wish would do that,” Hank said, snorting.