Page 19 of Tex's Angel

She freezes in place for a brief moment, before he admits he wasn’t there. “I had a night out with the boys. They can vouch for my whereabouts. The bar we were at also had security footage that you can pull.”

“Name?” I ask.

“Jugs,” he replies. I see Clara’s sister’s expression darken. I reckon Chris is gonna have some explaining to do later, as to why he was hanging out at a bar with scantily dressed waitresses with huge breasts.

“I wasn’t anywhere near my home last night,” he clarifies.

“Former home,” Clara chimes in.

Her sister adds, “Oh sweetie, you’re gonna have to sell that so Chris can cash out his half. We’ve got plans and he’ll be needing his share of the proceeds from selling the house.”

Chris shoots her a dirty look, but it’s Clara who clarifies the situation. “That house belongs to me. I bought it with my inheritance before Chris and I married.”

“What inheritance? We only got fifty grand a piece from Grandpa’s estate.”

“Yeah, and I invested it wisely and didn’t blow it on vacations and shoes, I also had some money set aside and bought it before the housing bubble blew up.”

I can tell her sister is getting agitated. “That’s not fair.”

Clara mumbles under her breath, “Cheating with my husband and trying to make me sell my house is not fair.”

Her sister isn’t listening though. She turns to Chris and demands, “Is what she’s saying true? Does the house belong to her?”

He grits his teeth and answers, “It is. You have no right to stick your nose in our divorce.”

I stepped in again before things blew up, “We’re not here to talk about the divorce or estate planning. We’re here to talk about what Chris knows about the harassment taking place against his wife.”

Chris shakes his head, looking bewildered. “I honestly don’t know anything about it.”

“Did y’all buy a bunch of pornographic magazines and have them delivered to her house?”

“What? No! Of course not. I’m married to a beautiful woman. I’d be kind of stupid to ruin it all by getting addicted to porn.”

“But having a full-blown affair with your wife’s sister is somehow okay?” I ask, again making good eye contact.

“That was a drunken one-night stand. Clara knows I love her.”

Her sister makes an indignant sound in the back of her throat, stands up, and flounces away. I come to my feet and slip him one of my cards. “If y’all can think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to call. I may have to bring y’all in for questioning at some point. And be forewarned, if I find y’all within a hundred yards of Clara’s home, I will arrest you. Got it?”

He starts stammering, “I thought Clara came to talk to us, to make things right.”

I just stare at him. “How could she possibly make things right? She wasn’t the one who fucked up her marriage by having an affair with her spouse’s sibling.”

If looks could kill, I would be a dead man. Chris is only just now beginning to realize that I was not going to go out of my way to help him get face time with Clara. As far as I am concerned, he needs a good ass whooping.

I don’t know why, but something about his behavior seems too oblivious for him to be the one harassing her. Chris seems more focused on himself, rather than Clara or her sister. He seems depressed, like a man out of place who had pinned all his hopes on getting forgiven. Still, it would be dumb to rule him out based on my gut instinct. He’s still the most likely suspect, statistically speaking.

I follow Clara out the front door, where she gets briefly snagged by her tearful sister complaining that he’s out every night drinking, and she didn’t know what to do. Clara doesn’t have a lot to say, nor does she give her sister much eye contact. Their interaction is awkward, though to be fair I’m not sure how it could be anything but awkward. Clara extricates herself and continues walking to the truck with me.

The minute we’re inside with the doors shut, she asks, “What do you think?”

I press my lips together into a firm line for a few minutes as I mull the whole thing over in my mind. Being a former cop, I have a good nose for perps. “I’m not so sure that it’s Chris. But this whole damn situation is confusing.”

“How so,” she asks.

“Well, if what Chris is saying is true, that he wants you back, then by rights he should be moving heaven and earth to woo y’all back, not hanging out at his bit on the side’s place waiting for the woman he betrayed to come save him from his own shitty decisions. To be honest, he doesn’t sound half smart to me.”

“Oh, Chris is smart, I know he doesn’t appear that way, but he’s an accountant.”

---