“Maybe you should talk to that Charlene Gillette,” she said coyly.
“What?” asked Nikki. What did her mother have to do with anything?
“Mom, don’t,” Oliver warned, suddenly on his feet again.
But Blanche ignored him. “She’s a cat, that one. And she never quit blaming Mavis for her affair with Big Ron when it was Ron who seduced her.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head, cotton candy hair coming out of its clips. “He’s a major player, that one.”
“Mom!” Oliver was horrified. “Don’t listen to her!”
“Well, it’s true. Trust me. Ronald Gillette never let a pretty one pass. They did more than catch his eye, let me tell you.”
Oliver made a strangled, frustrated sound. “Mom, please, you know that he was a judge and—”
“Doesn’t matter!” she snapped.
“—and this is … this is his daughter,” he explained, having paled slightly.
“Is she?” Blanche eyed Nikki speculatively. “Then she should know just what kind of a womanizer her father is!”
“Was, Mom. Ronald Gillette died a while ago.”
“Serves him right!” With that, she wheeled herself back to the bedroom and began barking orders at Sherry, who was still dutifully hanging clothes in the closet.
“I’m sorry,” Oliver apologized and looked like he wanted to disappear.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I just … I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” Oliver said, following Nikki’s gaze in the direction his mother had gone. “She’s always been difficult, but now, she goes from being sweet and pleasant and knowing what’s going on to … to being either out of it or angry.” He swallowed hard. “I can’t leave LA, and she refuses to even consider moving. So, for now, this is the best solution. Mavis never told me. She said she was handling everything and Mom was fine, but Mom is definitely not fine, and the fact is that she was living in near squalor without much supervision.”
“Why was that?”
“Money,” he said, without hesitation. “This place will cost a small fortune, but Mom has the funds, and the money is hers. Mavis didn’t necessarily have that viewpoint.”
“Do you know anyone who would want to harm your sister? Or kill her?”
“Besides me?” he asked sarcastically. Then, “No. Well, I don’t thinkso. A lot of people didn’t like my sister, but did anyone hate her enough to kill her?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, it happened, right?”
And so the answer was yes. Someone did hate Mavis Greenlee enough to end her life. The same with Billy Huber.
But who?
And why?
And how on God’s green earth were they connected?
Chapter 17
“… all I can say is that he was a loser, okay?” Robert Huber’s voice was raspy over the wireless connection. Seated in her Subaru and sipping from a to-go cup of sweet tea, Nikki had pulled onto a side street a few blocks from the river. With the sunroof open, she felt the heat of the day seep into the car. She’d put in several calls to people who knew Billy Huber, and finally his brother in Atlanta had returned the call.
Robert continued. “I would never have loaned him a dime, but he was my brother, and hell, I liked his wife. I felt sorry for him about their kid dying and then the accident with Linda-Sue, but it was a mistake. Terry told me not to do it, but I guess I’m a soft touch, and Billy promised me that when the life insurance on Linda-Sue came in, he’d pay me back. Like that ever happened.” Robert Huber’s voice was raspy over the wireless connection. “And now he’s dead, and I’m out ten K. Not counting interest. Unless I can get it back from his estate, but I’ve seen his place. It’s gonna cost more to clean it up than it’s worth, if you ask me.”
Nikki didn’t argue.
“When is the last time you saw your brother?” she asked.
“I can tell you to the day. Christmas Eve eight years ago. That was when the first payment was due. I went to that hellhole he calledhome, and he wasn’t there. I waited. He came back near midnight drunk as a skunk. We got into it, and he promised he’d get me the money the next week. Of course, that was the end of it. I mean, what can you expect from such a lowlife? Merry Christmas and screw you, that’s all, excuse my French.”
“And after that you never came back?” Nikki asked, staring out the window and watching a bicyclist weave in and out of traffic.
