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fe with him, he’d never have asked her out once, let alone multiple times.
“She’s being treated okay?”
“Yeah. As far as I can tell. Gram’s feisty. She looks and acts younger than she is. It’s just...seeing her in that jumpsuit...” She shook her head, glanced out her side-door window.
There was nothing he could do. His job was to drive. To find out who was after Everleigh. This woman seemed to care more about her grandmother in a cell than she did about her own life. He didn’t know what to make of that kind of selflessness. Sure, he’d die for any of his family...but to grieve over their life circumstances... Maybe he needed to do a bit more in the loving department.
Or maybe he was making far too much of his current client’s saddened demeanor.
He was much better and more successful at his job when he could get into the mindset of his clients. That was all he was doing.
He welcomed the reminder. The chance for a return to his own sense of normal.
A way he could be moved by the woman who’d so unexpectedly, and temporarily, entered his life, and not get freaked out about it.
“Melissa made sure that she’s being kept with light offenders on a ward that has seen no violence whatsoever,” he offered.
She nodded. Whether she’d already known or not, he couldn’t tell.
He drove some more.
And reminded himself that he was on the job, not being a friend to a beautiful woman.
“You mentioned your husband’s life insurance,” he said, thinking of the questions on his list. “Do you have a policy, as well?”
She shook her head. “Fritz didn’t want to pay for both. He said that we needed it just for him to protect his business.”
“So that’s yours now, too?”
Another shrug. “Yes, but I don’t intend to keep it.”
So maybe her attacker had something to do with the business? Joint life insurance was out.
“Who would be the beneficiary if you were out of the picture?”
Her gaze was clear as she turned toward him. He only got a brief glimpse of those hazel eyes, because of driving, but as her pain appeared to have subsided for the moment, he felt better. “We didn’t specify,” she said. “Our mutual will, which would have been made null and void by the divorce, just states that everything that is his goes to me and everything that is mine goes to him, in the event that either of us passes before the other. We made the wills out shortly after we were married on the advice of our pastor. I figured that we’d amend them once we had kids...”
He knew from the case files that she and Fritz had been married almost eighteen years. And wondered why there weren’t any kids. Was one or the other of them incapable? Had it just never happened? Did one of them change their mind?
They weren’t questions that pertained to his place in her life. So why did he find himself needing the answers?
“Can you think of anyone at the health club who’d benefit from you being gone? Or anything Fritz might have had at home, pertaining to it, that someone could need?”
“No. The club was a failing venture. We own the building and the equipment, but Fritz was really the biggest asset. He was a great motivator, and was precise and regimented when it came to designing and monitoring individual workouts for his clients...”
He’d done some digging and already knew the club wasn’t doing well. But... “If he was that good, why was the business faltering?”
“Because while Fritz excelled at what he did, he didn’t spend enough time doing it. He’d rather be having a good time, I now know, with the next good-looking woman who walked in the door. And as he got older, the younger the better, apparently—as long as they were legally adults. Instead of investing money back in the business, or working the hours necessary to keep things going, he worked enough to have money to spend on lavish weekend jaunts with whatever beauty he’d happened to charm.”
Clarke had heard some rumors about the man cheating...but nothing to that extent. And with no actual proof to back them up. He hadn’t looked for the proof and didn’t know if anyone else had done so. But, after just a few hours with Everleigh, he’d begun to doubt their truth—until now. Who’d cheat on a woman like her? One who, in spite of her wrongful incarceration, wasn’t filled with hate or bitterness. One who cared more about her grandmother’s plight than her own. One who seemed to nurture the air around her.
“I don’t get it,” he said aloud, when it would have been more prudent to keep his mouth shut.
“Get what?”
“Why he’d do that to you. Did you know?”
The force with which her head turned, shooting an icy gaze at him, made him wince. Mostly because he knew he deserved the reaction. And because she hadn’t deserved the comment.
