River Road(38)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Nolan did not wait for a response. He opened the door and let himself out onto the front porch. Lucy waited until she heard the big car start up in the drive before she turned around and looked at Mason.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

“I’m thinking that if Kelly is so happy to know that Brinker has been dead all this time, why does he seem so nervous?”

“Maybe it’s just about the listing. After all, there’s a big commission at stake, and he’s not the only real estate agent in town.”

“Maybe,” Mason said. “But I think there’s more to it than a commission.”

“Something about the way he looked around the house when he got here bothered me, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Think he might have been the person who searched the house last night?”

“I have no idea.”

“You’re absolutely sure someone tossed the place?”

“Positive,” Lucy said. “Whoever it was tried to be neat and orderly about the job, but I could tell that someone had gone through the closets and drawers and the desk. The question is, what was the intruder looking for? And why search for it now? The house has been sitting here, unoccupied, ever since Sara’s death. There was plenty of opportunity for someone to break in and steal something.”

“Obviously, the discovery of the body triggered the search.”

“Yes.”

“Lots of questions here.” Mason straightened away from the doorframe. “We need to start finding some answers. How do you feel about doing a little genealogical research?”

“What’s the name of the family?”

“Brinker.”

20

Jeffrey Brinker and I were on top of the financial world back in those days,” Warner said. “Oh, we were still small compared to the big outfits, but we were the smartest guys in the business, and we knew it. Brinker had a way with the clients. My job was to assess the markets and pick the investments. I always did the math before making a buy, but when decision time came, I went with my gut. My instincts were damn near infallible. Jeffrey and I were making money hand over fist.”

Deke kept silent. He eased his rear down onto the stool that he kept behind the counter and watched Colfax contemplate a display of screwdrivers.

He had been surprised to see Colfax come through the front door almost immediately after Mason left. For reasons that were not yet entirely clear, Warner had started talking about the past as if they were longtime friends. That was about as far from reality as it was possible to get. In Deke’s world, a man made a few extra bucks by deploying multiple times to war zones. If he survived, he came home and bought the local hardware store. In Colfax’s world, a man played the markets, got rich and founded a boutique winery.

Deke was pretty sure that the only thing he and Warner had in common was their age.

Colfax was carrying on about the legendary accuracy of his apparently golden gut, but Deke had learned to trust his own gut a long time ago. It hadn’t come in handy for making money, but it had kept him alive in some nasty situations. It was telling him now that there were only two possible explanations for Colfax’s visit this morning. Either Warner wanted information or else he intended to try to apply some pressure. Probably both.

One thing about conversations like this, Deke thought: The best thing to do was just listen.

“But what good does it do to build an empire unless you can pass it on down to future generations?” Warner asked the screwdriver display. “Brinker and I were both cursed when it came to our sons. His died an early death. Mine turned out to be soft and weak.”

Deke shrugged, trying for noncommittal. There was no good answer, even if he had wanted to supply one.

“I used to envy Brinker, you know,” Warner said. “My boy was soft right from the start. I admit I have to bear some of the blame for the way he turned out. I was busy building Colfax in those days. I left Quinn to his mother to raise, and she turned him into a weak-willed mama’s boy with no spine.”

Deke said nothing.

“I had some hope when he married Jillian a few years ago. That girl had spirit and ambition. I knew she was marrying him for his money, but I figured the least Quinn could do was give me a grandson I could raise up to take over the reins of Colfax Inc. But he can’t even manage that much. Jillian has never gotten pregnant.”

Maybe Jillian wasn’t interested in getting pregnant, Deke thought. But he didn’t say it.

“Brinker’s boy, Tristan, on the other hand, was whip-smart, and he had his old man’s guts.” Colfax made a fist. “A little reckless, maybe, but that’s a good quality in a man, don’t you think?”

“Don’t know about that,” Deke said, judging it was time to say a few words to keep the conversation going. “The kid ended up dead.”

“Murdered, you mean.”

“Yeah, well, dead is dead.”

“Brinker’s son would have been a man’s man if he had lived.”

More likely a serial ra**st or possibly a serial killer, Deke thought.

“Do you know, I was damn glad when he and Quinn became friends that summer?” Warner continued. “I hoped some of Brinker’s nerve and ambition would rub off on Quinn. But as usual, Quinn played the follower.”

Deke folded his arms. “I wouldn’t say that Brinker’s boy was a leader. More like a first-class bastard. As far as I could tell, no one, except maybe his father, was sorry when he vanished.”

“Strong men are feared, not loved. They don’t have friends, they have rivals. They have people who take orders from them. They make their own rules.”

“That works until you need someone you can trust to watch your back.”

Warner snorted. “You don’t have a clue about what it takes to be a success, do you? All you’ve ever done in life is spend enough time in the military to make sure you got your pension, and then you came back to Summer River to open a hardware store. Never mind. That’s not important. It sure as hell isn’t why I came here this morning.”

Deke glanced at his watch. “Speaking of the store, I’ve got to open it in a few minutes. Mind telling me what this is all about?”

Warner’s jaw tightened. Anger heated his eyes. He was not accustomed to having other people hustle him along. But he managed to keep himself under control.

“By now you know that the Sheridan woman got my sister’s shares of Colfax Inc.,” he said.