Page 153 of Family Affair

Chapter 35

Coco spent the day at home working on her professional website and taking pictures of her paintings to post them there. Now that her mother was back home, Cade didn’t hang around quite as often, and she missed him dreadfully. He had not made an appearance all day, and she was wondering if he was making any progress. He had promised to call with an update, but so far, nothing.

And the day was almost gone.

Her concentration shot, she mopped around the house without aim, irritating Chap who decided to fall asleep in the middle of the living room where the worn-out carpet provided the best strategic position, according to his doggy logic. Naturally, he was majorly in the way of Coco’s pacing.

Restless, she considered walking him again when her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

Her lungs deflated. It was Ross.

“Cade was booked to Fulton County jail about an hour ago.”

Coco tried to suck air into her empty lungs. “On a murder charge?”

“Yep.”

“But why? What changed?”

“Ward Williamson’s will was read last night. Cade inherited everything.”

“Everything?” she echoed, her chest hollow.

“Yeah. It’s a lot of money, Coco. Cade now has a motive.”

Coco sat down. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense, if you know all the facts,” Ross countered. “But tragically, it doesn’t help his case at all. There must be irony in there somewhere.”

“What now?” she asked, completely at loss. Her mind reeled in a strange catch-and-release action, grasping a thought and letting it go before it truly registered. “What is going to happen to him?”

She could hear Ross blowing out a breath. “His first appearance is tomorrow. Jeff Anderson will be with him, but I can almost guarantee you they will deny his bail. He’ll stay put till his trial for sure.”

It wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Cade had discussed the possibility of getting arrested and had ranked the probability of it happening as extremely high, but she had refused to hear him.

“What can I do?”

“Nothing,” Ross sounded dejected himself. “The fight has now moved to the court of law. I’ll touch base with Jeff and let you know what he says. I’ll also pay a visit to that tight-assed detective, Cade’s BFF. See if I can get him into talking to me.

“Willis? He was suspended from the force.”

“What? Fuck. When did that happen?”

Coco quickly told him about Willis’s clash with Detective Smirnoff.

“Fuck,” Ross said again. “That’s too bad. I thought he might be useful. Cade trusts him.”

Coco smiled thinly, knowing Ross wouldn’t see it. “I am not sure there is anyone Cade trusts, Ross. But yes, they had some sort of a symbiosis between them.”

Ross chuckled. “Sounds dirty.”

They talked about nothing for the next few minutes and then hung up.

Automatically, Coco stood up and stepped over Chap on her way to her bedroom. Once there, she stopped and turned around, surprised to find herself in another room. It was frightening, this airy lightness, this complete inability to concentrate and think. She was flying free, and the experience left her off balance. She wanted to stay grounded. She needed an anchor.