Too Far Gone

10

When it came to reading people, Alexa Keen’s instincts were like radar. Hard-learned lessons about human behavior had left deep scars on her psyche. She and her younger sister, both products of her dark-skinned mother’s liaisons with white men of dubious reputation, had resided in a series of foster homes in Mississippi. Those many residential assignations had been homes with every sort of person imaginable-some decent, some interested in the accompanying state funds, and a couple of them inhabited by predatory beasts.

“First off,” Casey said, “Gary did not marry me for my money.”

Alexa said nothing.

“When I met Gary, I was staying in New York doing a photography internship with Richard Avedon. That’s when I saw Gary’s play, Trailer Park Tales, which was off-off-Broadway. It was both funny and poignant-a comedy, but tragic, and showed a sensitivity that floored me. Gary is a highly intelligent, very funny, gloriously handsome-a complex individual who tolerates no bullshit. He isn’t impressed by wealth or the people who have and hoard it. He’s into justice for all, culture for the masses, food for the hungry, and affordable health care for the sick. He cries when he sees starving children on television.

“Despite the differences in our backgrounds, we hit it off. For the first time in my life I felt important-and appreciated for who I really am, on the inside. We talked for hours and hours on the phone and we fell in love like normal people do. With other men I dated, I was never sure it wasn’t my money that interested them-or I was convinced it was. He didn’t even know about my ties to money until after he’d proposed and I’d accepted. He was shocked by it and he actually tried to back out of the commitment because of it. He is a proud man, and he has never once taken advantage of the fact that he can have whatever he desires that my money can buy. He’s never even let me finance a play, even though I’ve begged him to allow me to. He doesn’t spend any of my money on himself. He goes out of his way to ground Deana and me, which is an uphill battle, because I’ve been spoiled rotten since birth. Gary is the best of me. Without him I am just another miserable, shallow rich girl.”

“Tell me about the prenup,” Alexa said.

“That’s standard with all marriages in the family. Only a blood LePointe can inherit more than a spousal allowance, sit in control of the foundations, direct the dispersal of interest, or make decisions on grants and investments. Did my uncle imply that if I divorce him, Gary gets nothing?”

“I got a short-form version. But yes, I got that impression.”

“What my uncle told you was probably a half-truth to make his personal opinion of Gary valid. It is fact that Gary can’t ever get his hands on any of the LePointe holdings because he isn’t a blood heir. His allowance is two hundred thousand a year, which is only meant to cover his personal expenses. Most of that Gary gives away. The trust pays our household bills, pays the help, all expenses related to the vehicles and insurances, food, et cetera. There are two separate prenuptial agreements, both of which Gary signed. One never changes. The other runs out on our fifth anniversary and isn’t connected to the LePointes. Five years ago, when I decided to marry Gary against my uncle’s wishes, I had my lawyers draw up a prenup to cover my personal assets. On Tuesday, Gary will get one quarter of everything I have-twenty-five million. It will be his with no strings attached, to do with as he sees fit. Period.”

“A quarter of your assets.”

“I had a trust from my maternal grandfather that I could draw living expenses from until I was twenty-five. When I turned twenty-five I inherited half of my mother’s estate. When Deana was born I inherited the remainder. My great-grandfather was Ben McLintock from Houston, Texas. He was one of the early oil wildcatters and buyers of mineral rights in what turned out to be big oil country. He built a real estate empire that spread his oil holdings into shopping centers, office buildings, and housing developments around the country.

“My mother was one of three children, and her marriage to Curry LePointe was a merger of sorts, but her prenuptial agreement ensured that her inheritance would pass directly to me. Upon the birth of my first child, the rest was transferred to me. When our prenup expires, Gary gets ten percent or twenty-five million dollars. On Tuesday, Gary West will be twice as personally wealthy as my uncle. In the event of my death, Deana and any other of my children will share my estate equally, but Deana alone, being the firstborn, will be entitled to head the LePointe legacy. Barring a total collapse in the world markets, she will someday control a multibillion-dollar fortune.”

“What about your father?”

“He’s dead,” Casey said, averting her eyes. “I was four when my parents passed away.”

Alexa didn’t know what to say. Her mind was running in several directions at once. Based on what Casey had told her, Gary West had no reason to make any waves. In fact, he had twenty-five-million reasons not to do so.

“Gary’s far too good for me. I try every single day to deserve his love and trust,” Casey continued. “He worships Deana. He’s never been unfaithful to me, and while he does drink more than he should on occasion, it’s very rare. He’s unbelievably thoughtful to everybody. He hates it when I give him extravagant gifts. He dresses in inexpensive clothes and buys me gifts with his money from royalties. He is a wonderful human being.”

“He has no close friends?”

“His best friends are theater people or people from his life before he started writing plays. Gary tolerates my friends, and is always polite to everybody. He is the only man I have ever loved. If I don’t get him back, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Alexa found herself being far more jealous of Casey’s good fortune in love than her fortune in dollars.

“Gary really does love us.” Casey started crying and Alexa got a tissue for her and waited in silence for the younger woman to gain control of herself. “I don’t really remember my parents,” Casey sobbed. “What I do remember about them is that they loved me unconditionally. For twenty years I didn’t have that.”

“What about your uncle? Your pet name for him is Unko. I got the impression he isn’t crazy about being called that.”

Casey offered a weak smile. “He hates it when I call him that around other people, because he thinks it somehow minimizes him, but despite his infuriating aloofness, he loves me truly and dearly. His concern for us-me and Deana-is out of affection.”

“Your uncle raised you?”

“My grandmother was in control of my upbringing. She was in control of everything else, too, including my uncle. We-my uncle and Aunt Sarah and me-lived with her because Grandmother wanted it that way. My father lived away from her, but what my father wanted, he got. She doted on him and accepted my mother like she accepted few others. After my parents died, servants actually raised me until I was old enough to be some sort of company worthy of her attention. I had nannies, maids, a driver, tutors, and the right playmates. Grandmother said often that I reminded her of my father. She wasn’t exactly the warm and fuzzy type.” Casey smiled, her eyes becoming misty. “But she loved me…in her own way. She was my protector and she was the person who taught me what was expected of me. She drilled into me what duties I had been born to assume and how to comport myself properly. I wasn’t always an attentive student and she was often angry with me.”

“Did she like Gary?”

“She passed before we met. But I think she would have absolutely hated him. Our relationship could never have been possible had she lived. She would have made short work of him, the way she did of any threats to the way she believed things were supposed to be. And I couldn’t have stood up to her the way I did to Unko. You’d have to have known her to understand. Nobody said no to my grandmother without regretting having done so.”

“Do your aunt and uncle have children?”

“Uncle William and Aunt Sarah had a son. He died when he was an infant. Sarah couldn’t have another child, and she was very kind to me. She has Alzheimer’s now and lives totally in the past. She doesn’t even know my uncle’s name, or who he is. It’s been hard on him.”

Alexa imagined that hard on him was a relative term, since Dr. LePointe had the ability to pay others to do any necessary caretaking.

“Could your uncle dislike Gary enough to do something about him?” Alexa asked.

Casey smiled. “Unko wouldn’t harm anyone. He tried to buy Gary off at the beginning, and failed. The only way Unko could understand a man refusing a great deal of money is he wants a lot more. The idea that anyone could be uninterested in wealth makes wealthy people suspicious. Gary doesn’t like my uncle, and he doesn’t like for Deana to be around Unko, because he thinks Unko will warp her somehow, and my uncle resents that. Not that Unko is comfortable around a child, but he hates it that Gary makes it obvious he isn’t welcome in her life, or mine, in any meaningful way-or in the way he chooses to be.”

“Who would have a motive to harm Gary?”

“Nobody.”

“Obviously Gary would be an attractive target for a kidnapper looking for a big score. Unless there’s a motive I’m not aware of. Except…” Casey started to say something, but stopped.

“What is it?”

“Gary is not a threat to my uncle, but it’s possible others might not know that…”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, someone else might take it upon themselves to do something that they thought would please Unko. Especially before Tuesday.”

“Before the prenuptial agreement expires. Who else knows about the prenup?”

“Very few people. Aside from Grace, just lawyers for the trusts, bankers, people running the companies I own who might be affected by Gary’s participation-if he ever chose to become involved in any of those businesses, which I seriously doubt. And there’s Unko, of course, and maybe whoever he’s told, but he would never hang family laundry in the open. His investigator, Kenneth Decell, is the closest thing to a confidant Unko has, but I don’t know what he tells him. Unko compartmentalizes every aspect of his life. Sometimes people do things because they think they will be rewarded for it one way or another. It’s possible, isn’t it? If Gary was kidnapped for a ransom, that’s federal, isn’t it? You could become actively involved, couldn’t you? Please?” Casey’s moist eyes-the eyes of a child in pain-plucked at Alexa’s heartstrings.

“Yes,” Alexa answered. “In the case of a kidnapping, the locals could ask for our involvement, but they don’t usually do so if they can avoid it. And in the event they do, I might or might not be assigned to the case. There are a lot of variables and politics at work within the Bureau, and the friction between federal and local authorities is often the least of it. If you think of law enforcement as parts of a large complex corporation with all the red tape, rules, competition between employees, and cliques, you begin to see it as it is.”

“You would be assigned to us,” Casey said, beaming. “I know you would. I mean, you’re an expert and you’re here already, so you’ve got a head start. And you have a wonderful track record.”

She stood, extended her hand, holding Alexa’s hand for what seemed to Alexa a very long time. “It will work out, I know it will. You are our only hope.”

“I truly want to help you, Casey. If this does turn out to be an abduction, I’ll do whatever I can.”

“I have to go. I don’t want Deana to wake up and not find me there. She’s already upset that Gary isn’t home, and the excitement and strangers in the house has her terribly confused. Please try to help us, Alexa. Without Gary, my daughter doesn’t have a chance. As deeply as I love her, I think without Gary I can’t stand up to Unko. I simply don’t have it in me to give her all that Gary can. We need him in our lives.”