Murder in the Garden District (Chanse MacLeod Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

pool with his mind on something else than mope around this house.” She gave me a rather ugly smile. “He’s my son, no matter how much she wants to forget that.”
    “Are they close?”
    Her voice softened. “I’ll give her that, she treats Carey like he’s blood. She always has. It’s his mother she has a problem with.”
    “How long were you and Wendell married?”
    This time she lit the cigarette. “Wendell wasn’t Carey’s father, if that’s where you’re going with this. Wendell adopted him after we were married.”
    “And Carey’s father?”
    “Carey’s father has nothing to do with this. That’s ancient history, and there’s no need to dredge it all up again.” She blew smoke at me. “I was nineteen, and we weren’t married. We’ll just leave it at that.”
    I was curious why Janna didn’t want to talk about his biological father, but changed the subject. I could have Abby get a copy of Carey’s birth certificate.
    “So, what was so important that night you had to talk to Wendell about?”
    “My marriage was a mess,” she said harshly. “If there was any way I could have, I would have left him and gotten a divorce. The marriage had been over for several years. But Wendell—and his mother—worried about what it might do to his campaign. A divorce might hurt his attacks on the Metairie whoremonger if he didn’t have a loving wife at his side. And the campaign was the important thing, you know.”
    “You didn’t need their permission to get a divorce,” I pointed out.
    Her eyes flashed. “That’s true. I signed a prenup—Cordelia saw to that —so I would get nothing in a divorce.” She seemed to deflate. “How could I fight them for my kids with no money? A few months ago, I packed some suitcases and checked into the Monteleone, to figure things out. She came to see me and ordered me to come back. She told me if I tried to get a divorce, if I ruined his chances at this Senate seat, they’d fight for full custody of the children. I couldn’t abandon the kids like that, Mr. MacLeod. No matter how bad it was for me here, I had no chance in court against them. They have the money, the power, and the connections. I’d never see my kids again. And I would never leave those kids in their hands. Look at the great job Cordelia did with Wendell. She wasn’t going to be in charge of my kids. So I came back.”
    “You’re close to your stepdaughter?”
    “I couldn’t love Alais more if she were mine.”
    She pulled another cigarette from the pack and lit it.
    “If Wendell had his way, Alais would be up at Ole Miss right now. I stood up to him, convinced him she needed a semester off. He didn’t care about her, he never did. And Cordelia? Alais was a girl, useless to her and her plans. Cordelia is hopelessly old-fashioned. Even with Mary Landrieu in the Senate, it never occurred to her that Alais could go into politics. Not that she wanted to.
    “I was stupid to think they’d let me go. And I know my saying that gives me a motive—I couldn’t get a divorce so I had to kill him, right? But I didn’t kill him. Cordelia did. And no matter how hard she tries to pin this on me, she can’t. Because the truth is she killed him. I saw her with the gun.” A weak smile played at her lips. “And won’t the truth set me free?”
    I debated with myself about telling her that Cordelia had hired me to throw suspicion elsewhere. Surely Janna must know this. But then why act as though she didn’t? I decided to keep playing along.
    “When did you and Wendell start having problems?”
    Janna unfolded her arms and looked over my shoulder. “When I married him, it was like an old movie, you know? The secretary marries the boss and lives happily ever after. But those movies never show what it’s like after the wedding. There’s a reason why that doesn’t happen very often in real life. Men from the Garden District shouldn’t marry janitor’s daughters from Hammond. True love doesn’t