Page 43 of Tangled Up In You

"Well, she was picking up her grandmother, so she seems like a nice girl. But I can get more information on Wednesday."

"What's Wednesday?"

"My yoga class with her grandmother and a couple of other older women. They told me that Phoebe's yoga class changed their lives, and I must keep it going. One woman said yoga had literally saved her marriage, giving her a place to de-stress, so I couldn't say no. I wasn't planning to start classes for another few weeks, but they were very persuasive."

"Do you ever say no?" he asked with a wry smile.

"I can say no, but I'm trying to build a business, and I need to keep Phoebe's customers happy. I actually learned something from talking to the ladies. Delores said that the day before Phoebe died, she was feeling down and worried about something at their yoga class. The morning she passed away, Phoebe left Delores a voicemail saying she was concerned about trouble heading her way and she might need help. I think her uneasiness had to do with the break-ins that happened after she passed away."

"That's possible. Let's keep talking, but how about we do it over drinks and food?"

"I'm in." Now that the shock of seeing Neil was waning, she felt hungry again.

They crossed the street and entered the Red Sombrero, which was decorated, not surprisingly, with a multitude of red sombreros. The tables had colorful tile tops, and delicious smells wafted across the room from the open-air kitchen. They were given a seat by the French doors, which led onto a greenery-filled patio, where a large party was celebrating a birthday and mariachi music was playing.

They ordered margaritas, chips, and guacamole to start, followed by two taco platters. While they were munching on chips, Adam asked her what else Delores had had to say.

"Not much. One of the other women suggested that someone in Caroline's family might have been unhappy with Phoebe being the recipient of so many items from the estate, but she was just speculating."

"It's not a bad theory. I just need a link between Ethan Mercer and someone in Caroline's extended family."

She raised a questioning brow. "Who is Ethan Mercer?"

"The man who broke in Saturday night. The bank around the corner caught the guy getting into a car. I traced the vehicle, and it was rented to Ethan Mercer at the Denver airport Friday night."

"Where is the car now?"

"The rental agency located the vehicle in a parking lot on the north shore. It hadn't been driven in several hours. I suspect it was abandoned there."

She thought about that. "So this Ethan guy didn't go back to Denver?"

"It doesn't appear that way. I started looking into Caroline's life. She had three husbands. She married Vince Jaeger, a Hollywood actor and one of her leading men when she was twenty-seven years old. They were media darlings. Their marriage lasted ten years, no kids. Caroline then married Ron Gregory when she was forty-four. Gregory was an investment banker. He was fifteen years older than her and had a grown daughter, Patty Gregory, who apparently didn't like that her father was marrying a woman only four years older than her."

"I can see how that would be strange."

"Ron and Caroline were married for eight years before he passed away. Her third marriage was to film director Charles Weatherly, who had two adult sons, Richard and John. Caroline was sixty-two when they tied the knot, and he was sixty-four. They had worked together on several films before they married. They separated last year, shortly before she moved back to Whisper Lake. They were not officially divorced at the time of her death."

"That's interesting. Maybe there was some property in dispute."

"They did have a prenup when they married."

"You did a lot of research," she said, impressed with his progress.

"Some of that was easy to find. Caroline was a public figure, and she married men who were also well-known. I didn't have to dig that deep. I also put in a call to Caroline's attorney, Ava Washington, but she was out of the office." He sipped his margarita. "What I didn't find was any connection to Ethan Mercer. But I'm not done looking. What do you know about Caroline's family background?"

"Not much. There might be information in the photo albums she left to Phoebe, but I haven't looked through all of them."

"Phoebe never talked about Caroline when you lived here before?"

"She did." Molly paused. "I think that Caroline's parents divorced when Caroline went to Hollywood. Her mom wanted her to be a star. The dad didn't. I'm pretty sure he stayed behind. Phoebe said something about Caroline being better off without her father in her life. It was all very vague."

"I need to look into her family background next."

She was touched by his persistence. "I appreciate you doing this, Adam."

"It's what I do, Molly. I take it you didn't find anything worth stealing today?"

"No. I saw some tapestries and vases that could be valuable, but I'm not sure. I haven't lived a wealthy life. Maybe some items are worth more than I think they are. To be honest, I didn't open more than three boxes. I had Drew take them up to the apartment so I can focus on the store. With the Harvest Festival this weekend, I'm planning a soft opening on Friday followed by the sidewalk sale on Saturday. I basically have three more days to get everything up and running."

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