To Love and to Perish by Lisa Bork

Brennan were arguing about.”
    â€œShe’s Gleason’s estranged wife. Ken spoke with her.”
    â€œAnd what was the argument about?”
    â€œHis sister’s death. Both Brennan and the wife confirmed that.”
    â€œHow did you know?”
    â€œI talked to Catherine.”
    That sick feeling washed through my stomach again. “She called you?”
    â€œI called her to see what we could do to help Brennan.”
    A nice gesture on his part. We were all friends, after all. “Did Gleason’s wife say anything else helpful?”
    â€œNot really. Apparently her son suggested the family attend the race. She and Gleason ran into Brennan by chance. Gleason accused Brennan of not caring about his sister and causing her death, and the two got into an argument. When they wouldn’t stop arguing, his wife took off in the opposite direction, missed the whole crash, and didn’t even hear about it until the sheriff’s department showed up on her doorstep for next of kin notification. She and Gleason didn’t come to the festival together, and they don’t live together anymore either. Hard to say how broken up she is over his death.”
    Or if she told the truth regarding her whereabouts during the accident. “Did Catherine know anything else new?”
    â€œJust that she thinks Brennan’s going to have trouble with his bail.”
    â€œWhy? He has ties to the area, no prior record. Surely no one believes he’s going to go around pushing other people in front of cars.”
    â€œTrue. But right or wrong, the cloud of Gleason’s sister’s death is hanging over him now. The judge may not set bail at a figure Brennan can afford.”
    I wondered what amount would be unattainable for Brennan, who owned a million dollar, two-story contemporary house with a panoramic view of the lake and an in-ground swimming pool, plus a huge garage to house his car collection, a brand-new office building in the village, and a much-in-demand construction company. Very little got built on our lake or in the town without his involvement. “What can Brennan do?”
    â€œI don’t know. Catherine says it’s unreasonable, but the bail amount may be enough to keep him locked up. She said to tell Cory to sit tight for now. That she’s got it all under control.”
    I doubted Cory would be able to “sit tight,” especially if Brennan remained in jail indefinitely. In fact, I wondered what Cory was doing right this minute. When I hadn’t jumped on the idea of looking into things on our own, he’d gotten a wild look in his eye, a new and worrisome look for him. He wouldn’t plan a jailbreak in this day and age, but he might do something equally crazy in the name of love. Though for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what that might be. The last thing Cory had said to me was he would see me at work on Tuesday, two whole days from today. At lot can happen in two days.
    â€œI also got a disturbing call from Isabelle.”
    Ray’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He loves Isabelle. Everyone loves Isabelle, including her husband, Jack, no doubt. “How so?”
    He listened patiently as I told him Isabelle’s tale of woe, including a reminder about her cousin who believed in her husband for months until she walked in on him and his paramour in flagrante delicto. Ray’s lips twitched a little bit when I got to that, but he agreed with me.
    â€œIsabelle needs to give him some space. No way should she hire a private investigator.”
    â€œThat’s what I said.”
    â€œIn a couple days, they’ll have been back in the sack and it will all be over.”
    I could only hope. Still, Ray and I agreed. And maybe Isabelle had listened to reason.
    This left me with only one other potential adulterer to worry about—my sister, Erica.
    _____
    Our hometown of Wachobe sat at the head of a seven-mile, crystal- clear lake,