Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [90]
Thane hesitated, ground his teeth, and slowly returned to his seat. Eyes narrowed on Henderson, his lips blade-thin, his manner was silently combative.
“I’ve got a job to do here.” Henderson riffled through his papers. “But don’t worry. We’re gonna find your ex-wife. Did you have any contact with your sister recently?”
The muscles in the back of Maggie’s neck tightened.
“Not for a few weeks. Five or six,” she said, refusing to think of that one silent cry for help only she could hear.
“Did she mention anything that was out of the ordinary?”
“She was always a little out of the ordinary,” Maggie said. “That’s why she was Marquise.”
“But more than usual? Was she depressed or angry or worried about anything?”
“Just the ratings of her show, I think. We mainly talked about my daughter. Mary Theresa and she were—are—very close.”
“When was the last time she saw your daughter?”
Maggie thought for just a second. “Last summer. Beginning of July. That’s the only time she came up to our place in Idaho.”
“Why?”
“Look, Detective, if you know anything about my sister, you know that a cabin in the woods in the panhandle of Idaho isn’t exactly her style. Mary Theresa was never one for…roughing it. She’s a city girl.”
“But she was married to you?” His gaze swung to Thane, and Maggie sensed the wheels of curiosity were cranking overtime in the detective’s mind. Cowboy boots, battle-scarred rawhide jacket, jeans, and a work shirt—Thane wasn’t the kind of man Marquise would deign to marry.
“We were young,” Thane explained.
“Opposites attracted?”
“Something like that.”
Maggie felt her cheeks flame. She bit her tongue. There was no reason to discuss what had happened so long ago. It was over. Ancient history. Or was it? Why had Mary Theresa kept in contact with her ex-husband if there was nothing between them? Why had they fought? And why did Thane seem like he was hiding something, a secret that he couldn’t confide in her? Somehow she knew that Detective Henderson would ferret it out, one way or another. Though she knew she wasn’t under suspicion—well, at least she thought she wasn’t—the conversation seemed like an interrogation. Henderson wasn’t convinced either she or Thane was telling the truth.
“When was the last time you saw Marquise—er, Mary Theresa?” He glanced at Thane as he rummaged in the top drawer of his desk.
“We discussed this the last time I was here.” Thane’s eyes were thunderous.
“I know about the fight at her house,” Henderson said. “We’ll get to that in a minute. But she’d come to see you before then, hadn’t she?”
A muscle worked in the corner of Thane’s jaw. “About three or four weeks ago. She’d come up to my ranch in Wyoming.”
“Not far from Cheyenne?”
“Yep.”
Maggie’s spine stiffened.
“Any particular reason?” Henderson asked, retrieving a pack of gum and shaking out a stick.
Thane hesitated and rubbed his chin. “It was unusual, even for her. I think I told you that she sometimes went to my spread in California, but this time she came up to see me. She was having trouble with her job. Ratings and arguments with the guy she worked with.”
“Craig Beaumont?”
“Right.”
“Anything else?” Henderson unwrapped the gum and plopped it into his mouth.
“Nope,” Thane said, and again Maggie felt as if he was hiding something from her. From the detective. Something vital. She couldn’t imagine what it was, but she was determined to find out.
“So,” Henderson said, wiggling his pencil and frowning, “the last time your ex-wife came to visit you, how long did she stay?”
Thane’s nostrils flared. “A while.”
“How long of a while?”
Maggie sensed something was going on here, something important.
Thane rubbed the back of his neck. “Three days,” he said, his face dead serious. “She stayed three days.”
Chapter Twelve
Three days?
Thane and Mary Theresa had been alone in his house for three days less than a month ago?
Maggie’s heart began to ache, though she didn’t understand why. It was as if she’d been lied to, betrayed, all over again. She couldn’t help swing her