"They're not too thrilled with this place, either." He gestured around the lodge office.
"And?" Vaughn asked, annoyance percolating in his veins. Was this cop going to spend all day listing his family problems?
"And we've ruled them out as suspects anyway because there's no motive. They want respectability and clean hands too badly to do anything stupid around here."
Vaughn inclined his head. "Again, tell me something I don't know."
"Your old restaurants are in the red," Ross said. "Did you know about that?"
Vaughn jerked his head up at the suggestion. "You're kidding. Laura would have had to bend over backward to screw those up."
"Well, she managed. Your ex owes most of her landlords, all of her vendors and then some."
Vaughn was amazed.
"Are you in contact with her?" the detective asked.
"I haven't been. But she called me recently out of the blue." Coincidence? he wondered.
"What'd she want?"
"Money. She said she had some huge credit card bills."
Ross pulled out his pad and jotted down notes. "And you believed her?"
"I had no reason not to. I asked about the restaurants and she never mentioned business trouble." Vaughn looked out the window and tried to think, but when it came to Laura he was blank.
"Well, we're looking for motive and I can't imagine her wanting your star to rise again while hers is falling," the detective said.
"Laura's vain but she isn't destructive. Besides if she's behind the vandalism then why would she call me now and put herself back on my radar to begin with?" Vaughn asked.
"Do you play chess?"
Vaughn shook his head.
"It's called a Forked Attack. She calls you saying I want money but behind your back she's sabotaging you so the lodge won't have any success." Ross met his gaze. "In a sense she'd be coming at you from two fronts."
Vaughn shoved his hands into his back pockets and paced the floor. "I won't deny anything's possible but this doesn't feel right in here." He jammed his fist over his chest. "Do you know what I mean?"
The other man took a few steps toward the door. "We'll take those feelings under advisement but we have to follow up on all possibilities, no matter how remote. And this doesn't feel all that remote to me."
"Well, I appreciate you keeping me updated," Vaughn said, walking the detective to the exit.
With Ross gone, Vaughn thought back on their conversation. Laura behind the problems here? He snorted. Not likely. Which brought him back to square one. He headed home, hoping Annabelle would have greater insight than the detective in charge of the case.
UPON RETURNING to Vaughn's, Annabelle walked in on a loud discussion and realized immediately she'd intruded on a private talk between Lola and Uncle Yank. Her uncle sat in the large living room area on the couch while Lola, dressed in her new high heels, flowing skirt and low-cut, sleeveless peasant blouse, paced across the hardwood floor and back again.
Though Annabelle gave a wave to them both and went toward her room, she paused in the hallway now and couldn't help but overhear their conversation. In all honesty she was too riveted to step inside, close the door and shut their voices out.
"We had something once," Lola was saying. "And even if it didn't continue in the same way once the girls arrived, it continued. We continued. For years."
Annabelle inched closer to the wall and leaned against the cool Sheetrock. Lola and Uncle Yank? Well she supposed it made sense even if she hadn't known or wanted to think about it before. It'd be like her as a kid thinking about her parents having sex.
"I told you then and I'm telling you now, you deserve better than me," her uncle said, raising his voice.
"Same story, different reasons. Back then you really were afraid of commitment but now you're just afraid of yourself," Lola said, pushing him.
Annabelle couldn't decipher what Lola meant but she assumed it had something to do with the reasons her uncle had come for this visit now. He was running scared, but of what she couldn't imagine.
"I'm not afraid of a damn thing," Yank yelled back, but Annabelle thought the slight quiver in his voice told a different story.
"Neither am I" Lola informed him. "And I'll prove it. Come with me to the company party," she said in a complete subject change, shocking Annabelle.
She couldn't imagine her uncle's expression right now and she actually found herself holding her breath for Yank's answer.
"I'm always at the company parties," he said.
Typical male. Annabelle grinned. Bless Uncle Yank and his stubborn streak.
"Come with me as my date." This from Lola.
A very silent pause ensued before Lola continued. "If you don't at least give us an honest try, I'm gone, Yank. Gone from The Hot Zone and gone from your life."
Unbelievably Annabelle's eyes filled with tears and her heart, already beating fast, squeezed tight in her chest. Though she was an adult, and though she knew she'd always have Lola in her life, standing here in the hallway now, she felt small and insignificant. The same way she'd felt as a child, as she'd listened to Uncle Yank, a virtual stranger, and the social worker deciding her and her sisters' fate.
Powerless and out of control, Annabelle thought and began to tremble. Without realizing when, she sank to the floor and stared at the wall barely registering anything else. By the time she pulled herself together, silence reigned in the living room and she realized she hadn't even heard her uncle's reply.
VAUGHN ARRIVED HOME later than planned because Roy cornered him with football questions so he could help Todd on his day off. The other man seemed more desperate than usual to be a part of his son's life and Vaughn felt for him. After all, he'd have given anything to have a parent interested in his life. But after a while, Vaughn had pleaded a combination of exhaustion and a headache in order to escape.
He walked into a too quiet house. He didn't see Lola or Yank and assumed they were in their respective rooms. How long they were staying was anybody's guess.
He rounded the corner to the hall and shut himself in his room. Boris attacked first, hopping up and down on his hind legs like a pogo stick, never quite reaching above Vaughn's bad knee.
"Down," Vaughn muttered.
Boris sat.
"Wrong action, Q-Tip."
He wagged his tail with way too much enthusiasm and his tongue hung out as he panted.
"Don't you realize I'm the wrong sex for you to get excited over?" he asked the dog.
Yet he found himself leaning over and picking him up, holding him against his chest, as he'd seen Annabelle do, and petting his fluffy fur. Hair. What-; ever it was the dog had covering his body.
Speaking of animals, Vaughn hadn't seen the rabbit since Annabelle had arrived and as for the cat… He glanced over at his bed and saw the expected: the animal curled up in his favorite place on Vaughn's pillow.
Right above Annabelle's head.
That surprised him. He'd thought she was in her room. And seeing as how it was dinner and not bedtime, her presence in his room took him off guard.
He walked over quietly and lowered himself beside her, but the bend and shift of the mattress caused her to stir. She stretched her arms high above her head, pulling her T-shirt up high and exposing her flat, smooth stomach and her unusual outtie belly button.
He stared. He grinned. And his mouth watered at the sight, not to mention his lower body's reaction. He swallowed hard.
Annabelle opened her big blue eyes. "Hi there."
He smiled. "Hi yourself."
"I see you've got yourself some company." She reached out and scratched Q-Tip under his chin.
He laughed. "He seems to like me. Go figure."
She eased herself to a sitting position. "Yeah go figure," she said, her solemn gaze meeting his.
"What's with the afternoon nap?"
She shook her head. "It just seemed the lesser of two evils." Her gaze darted toward the far wall, away from his.
"The other one being?"