by Cathryn Fox
She bowed her head and buried her face in her hands, digging down deep for the presence not to let the tears escape.
“Are you all right? I’m sorry…I thought…” Paul took a step toward her again.
She evaded him and went to the door to step back inside. When she entered the kitchen she came face to face with Barry Dennis. There was ice in the blue of his eyes. Seeing him was like receiving a calming slap in her face. All hints of her hysteria were gone and her balance returned as if he stopped her world from shaking.
Paul came in the door behind her and began to put an arm around her. Roxanne pushed him away more sharply than she should have. So much for her poise.
“I’ll get you some coffee, Paul.” She stepped away from him and closer to Barry. She smiled at Barry in an attempt to erase that too-cool look from his face, which she realized was mostly being leveled at Paul Paris. She darted a glance back at Paul to see that his return stare was equally cold.
“Don’t bother with coffee for me. I’m not ready to call it a night yet. I think I’ll have another drink.” Paul spoke to her, but looked at Barry. Then he turned and moved in her direction with a suggestive smile. “Roxy, why don’t you come and join me? We didn’t have our dance yet.”
Roxanne felt Barry stiffen. She saw Barry’s jaw clench. He put an arm around her and attempted a relaxed pose before he spoke, staring unerringly into Paul’s eyes. She recognized his game face.
“Maybe you didn’t realize. Roxanne is my date tonight.” Barry smiled through clenched teeth, only succeeding in making himself look like a growling animal.
“That’s true. Barry and I haven’t even had a chance to dance yet,” Roxanne said. She was not enjoying this and hoped to ease the tension.
“One dance won’t matter.” Paul challenged Barry.
“Yes, it will.” He drew her closer. “You heard her. Find someone else. You seem to be making it a habit of going after what’s mine,” Barry said.
Now the issue was out in the open. Barry gripped her shoulder more tightly.
“That’s what you’d like to think. But your ex-wife was sorry she ever met you. And Lindy, well, she’s never been yours, has she?”
Barry refused to speak. The man had to be drunk. He clenched one fist and held onto Roxanne harder. But Paul continued his taunting.
“You’re not even claiming your own daughter now. If it wasn’t for me—and Roxanne—Lindy would be all alone.”
“That’s enough, Paul,” Roxanne said, her voice hard.
She was angry on Barry’s behalf and the knowledge exhilarated him. And unleashed his own anger. “Get the hell out of here. And don’t bother going to see Lindy again. I’ll get a restraining order.” Barry didn’t bother to think.
“You would do that, wouldn’t you?” Paul sneered.
“Yes. I would. I am a bastard.”
He watched the man turn red and could see the instant he snapped. Pulling back a balled fist, Paul let it go and slammed him in the midsection before he could sidestep the punch. The force was enough to knock him back against the counter.
“Paul! Are you crazy?” Roxanne was knocked aside and looked between them, stunned.
Barry glared at the man. The arm he’d been holding Roxanne with now clamped his stomach and he was slightly bent over. Dr. Oki approached from the other side of the kitchen to appear next to Roxanne. But before anyone had a chance to do or say another thing, Barry recovered. He straightened himself up and launched a blow that landed squarely on Paul’s jaw and knocked him backward to the floor with a cry of pain.
Roxanne’s hands flew to her face. She looked up at Barry and back at Paul. She could hardly believe the scene before her. Dr. Oki rushed to the man on the floor. Roxanne looked back up at Barry to see him flexing his fingers and then straightening his tie. She couldn’t blame him for taking the shot—but on the other hand, she was appalled. And speechless. She went to the refrigerator and with her hands shaking, took a bag of ice from the freezer and brought it to Dr. Oki. She knelt beside him.
“I’m sure he’ll live,” Barry said.
She looked up at him. His face was calm.
“You’re right about that,” Dr. Oki stood as he spoke. “But he’s out cold and he won’t be doing much chewing for the next couple of months. His jaw’s broken.”
Roxanne stood and watched Barry smile with satisfaction. Then he met her stare and his smile was undiminished. Laura, who held the ice to Paul’s face, gave Barry an admonishing look.
“Laura, can you help me find some volunteers to move him into the guest room? I’ll have Bonnie get him a taxi to the hospital. I don’t think he needs an ambulance, right Doc?” Roxanne didn’t know what to say to Barry. She was sure he was hurting from Paul’s accusations. And she could see that his hand was bruised and swelling.
“No ambulance needed,” Dr. Oki said. The doctor smiled and looked up at Barry with a suppressed grin. “Your hand okay?”
Barry’s arms were folded across his chest. “Fucking wonderful.” He didn’t remove the hand from its tucked position to allow examination. Roxanne knew it probably hurt like hell but he seemed to be in a particularly macho mood at the moment. Laura stood.
“What did you hit him for anyway?” Laura asked Barry as she brushed past him.
“He hit me first.”
“Of course.” Laura threw up her hands and shook her head on her way out the door.
Roxanne tried to stay cool, noting the indignant look on Barry’s face.
“Don’t worry about Laura. She has a little trouble with this macho stuff.” She didn’t bother to keep the edge from her voice.
“Is that what you think it is?”
Before Roxanne could respond, Paul was sitting and calling for her. She turned to him.
“I’m out of here.” Barry walked from the room. Heaving a sigh, Roxanne reassured Paul and saw him to the guest room. She left Paul, hoping to catch up with Barry. She rushed to the front hall.
He stood there with his coat on, buttoning his last button. “Good night,” he said. He reached for the door handle.
“Does this mean I’ll have to take filet of Barry Dennis off my menu for the evening?” Roxanne strived for her teasing tone, but she heard the anxious edge in her own voice.
“Right now I feel like you’ve already chewed me up and spit me out.”
“If I have, I don’t recall it.” She moved to the door to stand in front of him, stopping him on the threshold with a caress of his chin. She didn’t want him to leave. But she decided she had nothing to apologize for. “Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” She gave him her best seductive smile, determined that her disappointment wouldn’t show through. He paused, staring back into her eyes with his piercing blue ones. She wasn’t so sure that he didn’t see through her act.
“No. I may regret it in the morning, but at least I’ll be in one piece.” He removed the scowl from his face, finally treating her to his signature grin, and she automatically smiled back. She knew he’d seen through her, but she felt helpless to stop her eager response to his smile. She better watch her behavior. She was not acting cool and controlled at all. But then that was probably because she didn’t feel cool and controlled—at all.
“I’ll let you leave unscathed. This time.” She stood on her toes and kissed his lopsided lips, then bounced back down on her heels. He stood staring, watching her. She felt unnerved. She almost had to say something more, but instead he did.
“I’m hardly leaving unscathed.” His smile was gone and he continued to stare her in the eyes as if he had something to add. She waited. Her anticipation surely showed in her face. But he turned and shoved through the door into the night without another word.
She used every ounce of her self-control to keep herself from calling after him. Of course he was referring to his hand and the punch in the gut he took from Paul when he made that last comment. But she couldn’t convince herself of that. She slowly turned back to the party.
Chapter Fourteen
PI MELVIN Lipman called Penelope on the phone this time. He had hot information. But Penelope insisted they talk in person. She insisted he bring a complete report.
“I have a signed statement from a solid witness,” he said, handing the folder over. The excitement was in her eyes, but she didn’t open the folder. She led them to two chairs by the window and sat with exaggerated decorum.
“Tell me about it, Mr. Lipman. Briefly.” There was only the hint of a smile on her lips.
“It seems that Roxanne and Don had a very public argument at a party a couple of months before Don’s death. There were dozens of witnesses. Two of them were particularly cooperative and vocal. It seems Ms. Monet had been flirting and Don caught her in a clinch. He tried to drag her home, but she wouldn’t budge and had some words to say, apparently not caring who heard them. Don yelled back. They both made various threats. She promised divorce and he promised death. Pretty dramatic stuff. Had the whole party in a tizzy. Of course their separation followed shortly thereafter.” Melvin noticed Penelope turn pink and then white during his summation of events. He also noted the beads of sweat on her upper lip.
“A motive could be established. Not greed, but something more powerful. We could make a strong case that she had another love interest and wanted out of the marriage. It was obvious he wasn’t going to cooperate with a divorce. At the very least we could propose a possible scenario—an argument with an ensuing fight where she pushed him off the deck.” He paused and thought about whether he should voice the possibility that Roxanne had pushed him in self-defense, but decided in the interest of retaining his job he’d keep that to himself. “Second degree murder.”
“I spoke with the coroner. Accidental death was never established strongly enough to stand up at an inquest. We can convince him to reevaluate,” Penelope said. “In the meantime, you work on loosening her ironclad alibi. Then we’ll go to the police again. They’ll re-open the case for further investigation into a possible murder.”
“Sorry about the house.” Melvin said. She winced. Melvin knew she’d never get the house.
“That was only a minor setback. The real victory will be seeing her thrown in jail.”
“Still it’s a valuable property.”
“You’ll find that I don’t dwell long on defeat.” She stood and dismissed him.
But Melvin couldn’t help the feeling that there was more here than she was telling him about. Things didn’t add up. The death might not be accidental, but he doubted the woman murdered her husband. It seemed unlikely from a physics perspective alone.
But then if Penelope Boswell didn’t care about the truth, why should he? Still, it was hard to quell his natural curiosity about what really happened. He shrugged. Occupational hazard. He always wanted to know the real answer.
Roxanne strolled into his office with a carefree smile on her face. Her special fund-raising campaign had finally got off the ground.
“Finally,” Al said.
“Let me enjoy the reprieve, Al. things are looking up today. So what’s the business we needed to talk about?”
“Sit. You remember I filed for a dismissal of Penelope’s suit trying to claim the house was part of her estate? Well we got the dismissal. The only problem is her lawyers filed another lawsuit.”
“What? What kind of lawsuit?” She had a bad feeling about this judging from the grim look on Al’s face. She sat back in her chair and felt the muscles in her shoulders tensing.
“She filed a wrongful death claim against you. She’s suing you in civil court for Don’s death. The media already has the story.”
She opened her mouth, but no words came out. All the oxygen escaped instead and she felt lightheaded.
“Don’t worry about the suit—no judge is going to take this seriously. I’m having another motion to dismiss put together as we speak. But the press is going to have a field day. I’m sorry. It would be impossible to put your house on the market right now. When the suit is dismissed and the story blows over…”
“How long?” she croaked the words. But before Al could answer, her cell phone rang with Laura’s tone. She answered it.
“Are you sitting down, Rox? I just found out both Barry Dennis and Paul Paris are going to appear at the Children’s Mercy Hospital Christmas party. Hank Sillman invited them. Since we decided to let them air the party as a TV special, they’ve taken control. Hank wants them for the ratings. I’m afraid if I tell him they are arch enemies, he’ll just play that angle up to ratchet up the ratings more.” Laura stopped talking.
Roxanne’s insides clenched at the thought of the two of them in the same room. She rubbed the back of her neck that felt like it was made of steel cable. Or maybe it was the albatross of the house that felt like it was tied around her neck like a noose that made her neck feel so tense.
“Roxanne are you there?” Laura said into the phone.
Al gave her a questioning look.
“I have to go. We’ll deal with it.” Somehow. She looked at Al. “Soldier on. Keep writing those motions.” She thought of Penelope. “I’m not folding.” She stood.
“Some day Penelope will stop trying to get the house and stop lobbying for a murder investigation, then things would be normal again,” she said. Almost. The battered and bloody image of Donald’s dead body would never be erased from her memory. But it might be easier for her to figure out how to move past her bad marriage and Don’s death if she weren’t worried about going to jail for murder.
“I’m glad you’re taking it so well. I was worried…” Al said.
“I need to go now.”
“You’ll need to sign some papers first. I have an appointment coming up, with Barry Dennis as a matter of fact. He said you’d mentioned me as a good lawyer. Thanks. He should be here any minute,” Al said.
After her initial surprise, Roxanne decided this was a good thing. “That’s great. I need to see Barry. What does he need a lawyer for?”
“Paul Paris’s lawyers filed suit yesterday to try and secure custody of his daughter Lindy. Didn’t you see it in the papers?”
“Damn. I didn’t see it. I quit reading the paper like most people,” she admitted as she took the copy of the morning Globe that Al pushed toward her. She read the headline aloud. “Baseball Player Challenges Hoop Star—In Custody Battle.” She could hardly bring herself to read beyond that point, but she did. Skimming the lines, she felt disgust well up until she felt like ripping the paper to shreds.
“How is it possible for people to get away with printing stuff like this? Do they ever think of the children involved? I’m going to have to call the hospital and make sure Lindy doesn’t see this, and more importantly that no one mentions it to her.”
“It’s a juicy story, Rox. You’re not going to stop people from talking about it.”
“Then I’ll have to make sure Lindy gets my version of the story to arm herself with.”
“Your version? Are you in this fight too? Tell me, whose side are you on? Need I guess?”
“I’m not fighting. And that’s what I have to make Lindy understand—that this is not a fight. It’s a misunderstanding about a difficult situation. And that both her fathers love her very much.”
“I think you’ll have to convince Barry and Paul of that story first.” He gave a derisive chuckle. “You want to know my opinion? I think she’s Paul’s kid. Has been all along and should continue to be.”
That brought a real frown to Roxanne’s face as she tossed the newspaper onto his desk. She pushed the spurt of anger back. “Where are those papers I have to sign?”
“You don’t want to debate the issue with me?” He gave her a smile of mock disappointment.
“You don’t want to debate the issue with me. You wouldn’t represent Barry if that’s what you really thought. It’s just your jealousy talking.” That should end the subject for discussion, although her anger still lingered.
Al went quiet and she saw his neck go pink a
s he withdrew some papers from a folder placed in the center of his neat desk. “Here you go. Sign all the tagged pages.” He gestured for her to take his seat behind the desk for the procedure.
She did not like Al’s attitude. At least he didn’t dispute that he wouldn’t represent Barry if he really thought he didn’t deserve custody. She’d worry about that later. She went around the desk, sat and signed.
“You never said how long this could all take—how long I might be stuck with the house?” She finished signing and looked at him, feeling her chest tighten.
“Could be up to a year with the way the courts are. But a year will go by in a snap.”
She thought about where she was a year ago. A lot had happened, but she realized, in spite of all her current problems, she was better off being where she was today. On her own. Except for Don’s death. If only he hadn’t been so crazy, he’d be alive today.
Roxanne couldn’t suppress the knowledge that she would be saying “if only” about Don for the rest of her life.
The door opened. Barry walked in.
“Did someone invite you to this party?” Barry looked at her with a lopsided frown.
It was a much less enthusiastic greeting than she’d hoped for.
In spite of them both, or to spite them both, she walked up to Barry, and taking his face in her hands, she planted a full kiss on his lips. She heard Al suck in a breath while she felt Barry’s hesitation. She stepped back. “Good luck,” she said, and meant it. She knew whose side she was on and now both these men knew. “I was just leaving.” She grabbed her bag and walked past him, but he grabbed her arm.
