AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, Penni.”
“Hi, Jacobi.” She lacks her usual sunniness, but her smile says she’s glad to hear another friendly voice. “Tell London and Holland thanks for the supplies.”
“Since they’re bugging me every half hour, reminding me why I work alone, don’t worry, I will.”
We each hunch forward, the phone on the cushion between us.
Niceties are over. “I wanted Penelope on the line. She might have some insight into Hughes’s business.”
She holds up a finger. “Oh, but I don’t know—”
“You know more than you think,” I say.
Jacobi breaks in. “You lived a similar lifestyle, Penni. You know his personality and you’ve heard things. Maybe they didn’t make sense then. Maybe you don’t remember. But you’ve been around him for years, and that’s more than Cannon and I have.”
I tell Jacobi what she said about her parents’ acquaintances. A low whistle comes over the line.
“It didn’t make sense he was in financial trouble,” Jacobi says. “But being low-key successful in something shady fits him.”
“It does,” Penelope agrees, pride ringing in her voice. “It actually does.”
“Her life insurance policy can grease a lot of wheels,” I add, “and it’s money he doesn’t have to launder and hide. All he has to do is prove she’s dead and that he didn’t do it. He’ll get the payout, do the tax thing, and the IRS isn’t going to give a fuck after that.”
Jacobi directs his next question to Penelope. “What else do you remember from your parents’ acquaintances, Roman’s, or any juicy stories that didn’t make the news?”
She frowns. “I think you guys know more than me.”
“Anything might help,” Jacobi urges. “It might be in the periphery.”
“Um…” Penelope taps her cheek. “My father used to always bitch to Mother about the port authority. He’s caught people trying to smuggle drugs and counterfeit items—makeup’s a huge one. He’s a proper CEO now—he doesn’t leave his office much, and we haven’t talked much—but I doubt it’s changed.” She bunches up the blanket and hugs it to her chest as she gets a faraway look. “Mother would have more bits of gossip. There was the other kid actor on her show that was busted for drugs. The handsy director. Oh, the pedophile exec. with the foot fetish. One day she was pissed that her old agent called her for a role where she was a coked-out prostitute. ‘Sex and money,’ she railed. ‘Sex and money—that’s all men care about.’ ”
Her mother’s not wrong about a lot of men.
Penelope hugs her makeshift blanket pillow tighter. “Money is probably Roman’s motivation. He used sex and intimacy to get what he wanted and didn’t seem interested beyond that. I don’t know.”
She won’t meet my gaze. I hate to ask, but sex is a strong motivator for a lot of men. “Did he have any problems in that area?”
“Maybe that it was hard for him to not be himself—cold and calculating.” Her tone is serious. She isn’t kidding. “He was married before.”
I cock my head. “What?”
Penelope glances up, surprised. “His first wife? You don’t know about that?”
“How long ago?” Jacobi asks.
“They weren’t married long. But from the comments old friends of his made, it sounded like true love. After I married him, I assumed she’d gotten the best and the rest shriveled up into the cold ball that became his heart.”
“How’d she die?” I ask. Why didn’t I know? Why wouldn’t a dead first wife be easier to find when we researched him?
“Uh, a fall, I think. Hit her head and never woke up. They were married only a couple of years. He must’ve been twenty-five or so?” Her head falls back. “Ugh, she was older than I am now when she married him.”
“Did he date or have long-term relationships before you?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I never asked, but I haven’t heard anything. His friends used to like to point out how in love with Raina he was.” She stifles a yawn.
“I think that’s enough to get us started. Jacobi, I’ll give you a call back when I go into my office.” I hang up.
Penelope’s green eyes go wide. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No.” She could’ve put us on the right path. Roman’s first marriage was before the heyday of social media. Roman isn’t the type of guy to splash his relationship over the news. We might’ve skipped over a marriage announcement, assuming it was the one when he married Penelope. One dead wife and another he seems to want to kill? “You’re tired, and like Jake said, you gave us enough to start with.”
Is it coincidence that Roman’s first wife died? Why would Roman have reason to get rid of not just one wife, but two, when the marriages were nearly two decades apart?
