J. Jance - Edge of Evil

“Nobody,” Matt said with a hopeless little shrug. “I’m not stupid, you know. Her name’s Jasmine. She’d come to the house sometimes when Mom was at work or when she was out of town. I caught her kissing Dad in the living room once. I saw them. They didn’t see me. Is that why Mom did it, do you think? Is that why she committed suicide, because of her?”

“I have no idea,” Ali said.

That was the best she could do. She certainly was in no position to mention her own doubts about the official suicide call. Besides, if Reenie hadn’t committed suicide, and Howie and Jasmine somehow ended up being implicated in her death, how much worse would that make things for the two children?

“Dad says she left us a note,” Matt continued. “But why would she do that? Why would she leave just one? Wouldn’t she leave a note for him and one for Julie and one for me?”

It was back to the note again. Everybody seemed to have a differing opinion about Reenie’s note-opinions with no real answers.

“That’s how it seems to me, too,” Ali said after a pause.

The back door opened and Bree Cowan walked toward them. Before his aunt could reach them, Matt abruptly changed the subject. “How’s Sam doing?” he asked.

“She’s fine,” Ali said. “But I think she misses you.”

“I miss her, too,” he said. For the first time, his eyes misted over, and he moved away, drifting off toward the house before Bree had a chance to speak to him.

“He’s taking this very hard,” Bree said, watching him go. “But then, we all are.”

Looking at Reenie’s sister, Ali wondered if Bree knew about Howie’s ongoing affair with Jasmine Wright. There was no way to tell, and for the moment Ali decided to follow Matt’s lead and say nothing.

“Come on,” Bree said with forced cheerfulness. “Let me take you inside and introduce you to some of these people.”

Throughout the evening it was clear that Bree and her good-looking husband, Jack Cowan, were in charge. They managed guests, food, and drink with the casual ease of people accustomed to doing a good deal of entertaining. Their efforts left Ed and Diane Holzer free to visit with people who had traveled long distances to comfort them. Watching the family dynamics at work, Ali couldn’t help being grateful that with Reenie gone, her parents still had Bree and her husband to lean on during troubled times.

Much later, as things started to wind down, Ali noticed Ed Holzer sitting off by himself looking haggard and spent. She went over to him and sat down on a nearby footstool.

“How’re you doing?” she asked.

“Not so hot,” he said.

“I noticed Howie didn’t show up,” Ali said. “How come? The kids were upset that he wasn’t here.”

“Because I called him up and told him he wasn’t welcome,” Ed said shortly “For Diane and the kids’ sake, I’ll do my best to tolerate him at the funeral tomorrow, but I just couldn’t face having him here tonight.” Ed shook his head.

Ali gave Ed an appraising glance. “So you know about the girlfriend?” she asked.

He nodded miserably.

“Does Diane?”

“I haven’t told her,” Ed said. “But probably. It seems like everybody else does.”

“Including Matt,” Ali said.

“Damn!” Ed muttered.

It was the first bad word Ali had ever heard the man say, but she knew he meant it.

“She was dying,” he added. “It was only a matter of time. Couldn’t he have had the decency to wait?”

“Did Reenie know what was going on?” Ali asked.

“About him fooling around? I’m not sure,” Ed replied. “Maybe, maybe not. If she did, she wouldn’t have mentioned it to us. Wouldn’t have wanted to worry us.” He swiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. From across the room, Diane seemed to key in on his distress. Under her questioning look, Ed forced himself to sit up straighter and pull himself together.

“I’ve heard something about Reenie maybe wanting to be involved in some experimental treatment.”

“I know she had been looking into several different things, even before she got the final diagnosis. Some of them were expensive, but I told her not to worry about that. If it came down to a matter of money, she could always come to Diane and me.”

“Did she tell you anything about the various treatments?”

“Not really. She said she’d heard about an interesting one down in Mexico, but she was having a hard time getting enough information on it because everyone who signed up for it had to sign a confidentiality agreement.”

“So she didn’t mention who was sponsoring it or what kind of institution was behind it?”

Ed shook his head. “No. I don’t think she knew. She might have found out more after she talked to me. But she did say that, regardless of what course of treatment she chose, and no matter whether or not it helped her, she’d do it anyway, just in hopes of helping the people who came after her. That was Reenie, of course,” he added sadly. “Stubborn as all-get-out, but a do-gooder to the end, always looking out for the other guy. But that’s why this whole thing is such a shock to her mother and me. First she says she’s going to stand and fight. The next thing we know, she’s gone and driven herself off the edge of a cliff.”

Bree came across the room then, settled onto the couch next to her father, and rested her head on Ed’s shoulder.

“How’s it going?” she asked. “You look tired.”

It had always been apparent that Ed Holzer, for some unknown reason, had preferred his younger daughter, Bree, to Reenie. His unabashed and inexplicable favoritism had been part of the family dynamic for as long as Ali had known the Holzers, and it had always been a source of conflict between the two daughters. Ali had long suspected that it had been one of the underlying reasons behind Reenie’s getting involved with a bad boy named Sam Turpin during her senior year and her elopement only days after high school graduation.

Reenie had been smart enough, but she had delayed her entry into college until after the end of her first marriage. Bree, on the other hand, had gone straight from high school to college and, with no detours, had completed her MBA by the time she was twenty-six. She had started out working in her father’s bank. When he sold out, she had gone to work for his fledgling property management company and had been there ever since. Now, as a full partner and in the face of Ed’s declining health, she appeared to be running the show-the business end of things as well as taking charge of the evening’s gathering.

Ed reached over and patted the back of Bree’s hand. “Ali and I were just talking about some of the treatment options Reenie had been considering,” he said. “I don’t know much about any of them, do you?”

Bree shook her head. “Not really. To begin with, she was all fired up about some kind of holistic treatment that was only being offered in Mexico. The last time I talked to her, though, it must have been Monday or Tuesday, she said she had decided against doing any of them. She was going to live her life to the best of her ability and take her lumps.”

“I hope it wasn’t because of the money,” Ed insisted. “We would have been glad to help.”

Bree shrugged. “Don’t beat yourself up about that, Dad. With all the stress Reenie had been under the last few months and especially the last week, you can’t blame her for waffling back and forth about what she should do. When she finally made up her mind, she didn’t bother talking about it; she just did it.”

“But she should have called first,” Ed objected. “She should have let us know. I hate to think of her out on the mountain all alone.”

Bree nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I’m surprised she didn’t call.”