CHAPTER FIVE
“Iinherited a retail business from my uncle, on my mother’s side. He passed away about the same time my dad retired,” Sully replied, stepping aside at the doorway to a spacious den boasting a stone fireplace and leather furniture. “Randy, who you met, splits his time between my ranch and my store. Roy works for me full time at the retail store.”
“I think being your own boss and working with your cousins is just too cool!”
“It is cool,” Sully said with a chuckle. “Once a week, my dad drops in at the store too. But he stays busy working with Derek Brevard, Chloe’s husband, training and breeding Percherons for mounted police.”
“That’s a great cause.” Charley entered the den. Large windows on either side of the hearth offered peaceful views of the stables, a corral, and an endless green pasture. “Do your parents still live next door to your ranch?”
“My dad does in the house I grew up in.” Sully smiled, and Charley’s heart raced because Sullivan Custis was just that handsome. She could understand the woman named Trish wanting him. “My mom passed away three years ago.”
“Oh Sully, I’m sorry to hear that,” Charley said softly. “Having lost my mother recently, I can identify with your loss.”
“I’m sure you can,” Sully said with compassion in his deep voice. “My mom came from a wealthy family and left me a generous inheritance. After my dad deeded thirty thousand acres of ranchland over to me, I built this house with some of my inheritance.” With a shrug, he added, “Anyway, my dad lives a bachelor’s life like me now.”
Sully walked to an overstuffed black leather sofa and Charley followed. As he swung a hand toward it, she took a seat. He sat down a cushion away from her and held out his beer bottle. She clinked the neck of hers to his, and they both took a sip.
“I live a bachelorette life in town,” Charley offered without making eye contact.
“In Colorado Springs?”
“Yes. In the Old Colorado City neighborhood of the Springs.”
“Where the young woman was recently murdered,” Sully commented. When she flinched, he asked, “Have you lived there all your life?”
“Yes,” she replied and shifted slightly on the sofa to better face him. “You’re wondering how it is that I just found out I’m a Cooper.”
“Curious,” he admitted, resting his arm along the back of the sofa.
“Here’s what I’ve pieced together with help from the Coopers and a scrapbook I found that belonged to my mother.” Charley took a fortifying drink, pushed a tendril of hair away from her face, and said, “Back in the day, my mother met Clarence Cooper during a week on the dude ranch that Cash inherited, and they became…involved. A few months later, when she realized she was pregnant with me, she didn’t tell him. She ended things before he could figure out she was expecting.”
“Clarence really was a nice man,” Sully said with feeling. “He was good with children who visited the dude ranch and good with all of us kids when we were growing up. Too bad you weren’t offered the chance to meet him.”
“Yes,” Charley said with longing. “Even though I moved into the apartment next door to my mother after I graduated high school, our relationship was strained. She was closed-off, never easy to talk to. I always felt like she was keeping a secret from me.”
“Why do you think she chose not to tell you about Clarence Cooper?”
Charley shrugged and looked away. “She was a fiercely independent businesswoman, and she said that’s why she never married. I’m lucky I was born because I don’t think she had planned to share her life with anyone.” She sighed and shook her head before looking at Sully again. “I point-blank asked her more than once who my father was, but she always said she didn’t know. My birth certificate states,Father Unknown. I questioned her as to where my last name of Cooper came from, and she claimed she made it up out of thin air.”
“I admire independence,” Sully said. “But it’s a shame you and Clarence missed out on each other. He would have been thrilled to have his daughter in his life.”
“I would have liked to have had a father in my life.” Charley felt the recent mixture of grief and fury hitting her and tapped it down. “I appreciate an independent nature too. But I’m angry that she cheated my father and me from getting to know each other.” When she hung her head and stared at her lap, she felt Sully’s hand on her shoulder. “Now that I know what her secret was, I can’t even confront her about it.”
“It was a rough secret. But don’t let anger about the past ruin your future.”
Charley nodded at the good advice, and Sully’s hand returned to the back of the couch. “As you know, my mother was murdered, and when the newspapers said she was survived by a daughter named Charlotte Fleming Cooper, Cash Cooper reached out to me on behalf of the Cooper family. According to Cash, Clarence Cooper had mentioned my mother to the family and said if a child of his were to surface, Charlotte Fleming would most likely be the mother.”
“That sounds like the Coopers. They are loyal and generous to family and friends.” Sully took a drink from the bottle and asked, “Did you already have your MiniCooperbefore you knew about your father?”
“Yes,” she said with a smile. “It’s the first new car I’ve ever owned. It just felt right.”
“No doubt,” Sully said with a grin. He was quiet for a moment, and Charley could almost hear other questions running through his head. “I’m sorry for your losses, Charley. First, losing your mother tragically and then finding out your father was deceased. Do the police have a suspect in your mother’s murder?”
“Not yet.”
“The person found strangled to death in a cave was a woman about your age. The news said your mother died from being shot. I guess from being the son of a former sheriff, I wonder if the police think the two murders are linked due to their close proximity.”
“I don’t know.” Charley shrugged again. “I remember reading that the young woman’s name was Grace Lightner and thinking that being strangled was not a graceful way for her to have to die.”
