AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You could have jumped in at any time,” Carver said, dismissively.
I just closed my eyes and shook my head.
“What?” Carver asked, looking at me.
“It’s like you don’t know anything about women,” I said. “I’m constantly fascinated considering you have a wife and four daughters.”
“All we want is love and attention,” Magnolia said. “You’ll get a chance to make it up to me.”
“Glory be,” Carver mouthed silently.
“There are several hits from major news sources matching those dates and names,” Magnolia said. “Fatality car crash involving Sowers and his wife on Christmas Eve. Sowers drove into oncoming traffic and hit a minivan, killing a family of four instantly. There was an investigation to determine if alcohol was involved, but all major news sources cited that toxicology came back clear.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a but coming on,” Carver said.
“There are several smaller, local papers that say Sowers and his wife were coming home from a party and they had both been drinking heavily. The sources come from witnesses at the party. They later all had to retract the story.”
Carver picked up the story, scanning the documents coming up on the screen quickly. “It looks like Sowers ran for a state rep spot in Virginia in the next election cycle, but his opponent cast enough suspicion about the accident that Sowers lost by a landslide. He never ran for another election, choosing to align himself politically in other ways. But by looking at his tax returns and investments, whatever he was doing panned out well for him. The first wife died of cancer about fifteen years ago.”
“Anything we need to know about the current wife?”
“Nia Sowers,” Carver said. “She looks clean. Grew up wealthy. Parents were killed in a car crash when she was fifteen. She graduated from an exclusive boarding school in London and then married Sowers a week after graduation and about two weeks after the first wife died.”
“Gross,” I said.
“He does have a type,” Jack said. “Guys like him are the reason it scares me to death to think about bringing a daughter into this world.”
“That’s why I try not to think about it too much,” I said. “Otherwise we’d never be on the same page about having children.”
“I feel like I’m missing something important,” Carver said. “Am I about to be an uncle? You did eat that breakfast unusually fast. You should probably lay off the caffeine though.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m not pregnant. We’re just talking about it. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“Maybe because you keep talking about it,” Carver said. “Just do it.”
“Thank you, Carver,” Jack said dryly. “We’ll get right on it. Speaking of getting right on it, they should be ready to serve the warrant on the wife. I want to question her while they’re still there.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Carver said. “I’ll see myself out.”
CHAPTERNINE
“What’s on your mind?”Jack asked, taking the exit toward King George proper.
“So many things,” I said carefully.
I remembered what Carver had said about not talking outside the walls of our house about anything he’d shared with us. It also hadn’t gone past my notice that a dark sedan had been following at least two cars behind us ever since we left Bloody Mary.
“Babies?” Jack asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“No,” I said. “Maybe a little. But I’m curious as to what kind of woman could be married to a man like David Sowers. She’d know something—whether about his drug habit or the other women—wives always know.”
“She was barely eighteen when they married,” Jack said. “She might not have had a choice.”
Jack sped up a little, and then he swerved over two lanes and took an exit at the last minute. We watched the dark sedan pass by, unable to get over in time to follow.
“Whoops,” Jack said.
“Are you really that worried about bringing children into the world?” I asked. “Maybe we shouldn’t. What if we’re neurotic? I mean, we know what people are capable of. Most people have no idea of the evil that lives around them or the kind of danger their children are in.”
