Carly Phillips - Cross My Heart

“I sent flowers to your uncle, as well, Lacey. Molly, dear, your mother must be devastated,” Anna Marie said.

Molly murmured something unintelligible.

“Biscotti?” Anna Marie asked, gesturing toward a plate of almond cookies, quickly changing the subject.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Ty plucked one from the plate, took a bite, and grinned. “Delicious.”

“I made them myself,” Anna Marie said, pleased. “My mother taught me way back when. Being the only girl, we had lots of time together while my brothers were out doing things with my father.”

“About your brothers,” Lilly said, but Ty placed a warning hand on her thigh. They’d discussed taking things slow and leading into conversation. “It must have been interesting growing up with so many boys,” Lacey said, instead of the accusations she wanted to make about Anna Marie’s brother Paul.

Anna Marie launched into childhood stories, growing up in their hometown. “And that is how my father knew your father,” the woman said to Lacey. “Like yours, my father loved antique cars. Actually he just loved cars. He taught me to take care of an automobile, which is why I am able to hang on to a car for so many years. Love it and keep it driven, my father used to say.”

“So you must have been devastated when your car was stolen,” Molly said, finally easing into the reason for their visit.

Lacey had to admit Molly had chosen the most benign way of doing it. She would have just barreled in.

“Yes, yes, I was quite upset.” Anna Marie rose and carried her cup and saucer to the sink.

An obvious escape from having to look anyone in the eye, Lilly believed, and she didn’t think she was looking for clues that didn’t exist. The woman was nervous. And when her teacup toppled from the saucer into the sink, Lilly grew even more certain the other woman was uptight about something. But she wasn’t mean or evil.

Watching her, something inside of Lilly softened. There was no way this gentle, kind woman had deliberately done anything to hurt anyone. At least, not knowingly.

Although Molly had broached the subject of the stolen car, Lacey suddenly thought of another way to reach Anna Marie and her conscience. “Your brothers must have been very protective of you. When we were younger, I know Ty and Hunter looked out for me just like I imagined real brothers would have.”

Anna Marie turned away from the sink. “Oh yes. Would you believe I’ve had to do the same for them over the years? You wouldn’t believe the things those boys got themselves into. I had to regularly come to their rescue with Mother and Dad,” she said, remembering with a laugh.

Molly rose and walked over to the older woman. “I’m sure you still find yourself in the position of having to protect them, even now that they’re grown men.”

“No, they don’t need me anymore. They humor me and listen to my stories from work, but they take good care of themselves now. And they have wives to look out for them, too.”

“But blood is thicker than water, as one of my stepfathers used to say. I’m sure if, say Paul, needed a favor, he’d come to you first.” Molly placed a comforting arm around the woman’s shoulder. “Come sit,” Molly urged, walking Anna Marie to a chair by the table. “Did the police tell you whoever was driving your car also shot Marc Dumont?” Molly asked softly.

Anna Marie twisted her gnarled hands in her lap and didn’t look up. “They came in here and asked all sorts of questions about my car. I told them it had been stolen.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “They didn’t tell me why they were asking until after I told them it had been stolen.”

Molly knelt down beside her. “Except by then, you’d already lied to them to cover for your brother, Paul, right? Because he borrowed your car like he does sometimes? To love it and keep it running like your father said?”

Ty and Lacey remained silent, letting Molly, who had the relationship with Anna Marie, talk to her and draw her out.

Anna Marie nodded. “Paul never had it easy. He was the oldest and the burden of perfection and expectation always fell on him. He needed an escape and since we live so close to Saratoga, the horses provided one for him. He’d go to the track to place bets during the season. And soon the horses weren’t enough.”

“Paul has a gambling problem?” Ty asked.

“I don’t know if it’s a problem, but sometimes on the days he drives my car for me, he’ll take it over to the track or to that offtrack betting place in the next town over.” Anna Marie sighed. “I used to have to beg him to take my car. These days, he asks to borrow it. That’s where I thought he was going. And when he asked me to say it had been stolen, I thought maybe someone had seen the car at the track. If it was stolen, nobody would link it to me or to him.”

“So you agreed to cover for him and say it was stolen,” Molly said.

Anna Marie pulled her sweater tighter around her. “Paul always has answers and takes care of things. I thought he’d handle it like he always did.”

“Except the police came by and told you about the shooting,” Molly said. “And you panicked.”

“You bet I did. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep since. I couldn’t admit I’d lied or I’d be an accessory,” she said, her history in the courthouse showing through. “And if I’d told them Paul had taken the car, they’d arrest him for shooting Marc Dumont, and I don’t really know if he did it or not!”

Molly patted the older woman’s hand in sympathy. “But you knew he asked you to lie, so he had to have been up to something that involved the shooting, right?”

The other woman bobbed her head up and down. “And he involved me. His only sister. His baby sister! But it was too late for me to tell the truth or so I thought. I wanted to talk to Paul first, then I was going to call the police myself.”

“Have you spoken to Paul since?” Ty asked.

She shook her head. “Not since he called and asked me to say the car was stolen.”

“Where is the car?” Lilly asked.

Anna Marie shrugged. “I don’t know. And I don’t know where Paul is. He left me here with all these unanswered questions and lies.” The woman broke down, her shoulders shaking as she put her head in her hands.

While Molly consoled her, Ty pulled Lacey aside and spoke quietly. “We now know Anna Marie gave her car to her brother. That means the police have probable cause to search his garage for the car.”

Lilly nodded. Her head was swimming with facts and disjointed pieces of information. She wanted to talk it through with Ty and make the connections. “What else have you put together?”

He rubbed his hand over his unshaven face. He had to be exhausted from sitting up all night with his mother at the hospital and she felt awful he had to deal with her problems, too. But she knew better than to suggest he leave and get some rest.

“I can’t say I’m one hundred percent sure of anything at this point. But gamblers have to get their money from somewhere,” Ty said.

“Maybe Paul had enough money to cover his gambling debts,” Lacey said.

“He didn’t.” Anna Marie rose from her chair. “He’s been broke for years, spending everything he has. I don’t make enough to help him and my brothers even cut him off last year. But he always said he had a safety net.”

Ty narrowed his gaze. “Do you know what that safety net was? Where he got the money to pay for his habit?”

Anna Marie shook her head.

“I bet I do,” Ty said, suddenly. “For the last ten years, the man has had access to a trust fund that nobody could check on or look into until Lilly Dumont was declared legally dead or Marc Dumont claimed the money instead.”