Free Evidence of Murder by Lisa Black Page A

they certainly didn’t care for her having a baby and not only not marrying the father, but not even telling them who he was.”
    Theresa’s daughter, Rachael, chose that moment to dart in for another piece of her grandmother’s cheesecake, and Theresa took the opportunity to add, “As any parent wouldn’t. Something all daughters should keep in mind.”
    Rachael just laughed in response and carried her prize off to a corner of the living room, rejoining the daughters of Theresa’s cousins. The girls burst back into conversation. Theresa’s heart gave a contented sigh to see her daughter laughing; perhaps she had managed to keep up enough of a show at home that Rachael’s life, at least, had gotten back to normal. She
did
wish the kid would eat something other than dessert, like potato salad, though the cheesecake actually had more nutritional value. “But Jillian’s grandparents felt sorry for her and slipped her money now and then. They died, three days apart, two months ago. They left all their assets to Cara.”
    “Hmm. Lucky kid.”
    “She’s now an orphan.”
    “Okay. Poor kid. Very rich poor kid.”
    With some difficulty, Theresa turned her back on a plate of brownies. “And now it will be Evan’s. Or will it? He’s not Cara’s father.”
    “A man married to the mother is considered the father unless a court rules otherwise,” Frank recited around the potatoes.
    “Unless the biological father shows up and sues for custody.”
    “Obviously that mystery man hasn’t heard about Cara’s nest egg. Though isn’t it all tied up in trusts or whatever?”
    “No. Her grandparents thought Jillian would need the money now, so that Cara wouldn’t starve to death before she reached her majority. They didn’t have much faith in either Jillian’s job or her fiancé, according to Drew. No trusts or mutual funds for them, just a big ole pile of money with no strings attached.” She watched Frank chew thoughtfully, no doubt deciding what he could do with a million and a half.
    One of their aunts nudged him out of his daydream before Theresa could, placing a birthday cake festooned with pink-frosting roses among the other dishes. Theresa moved bowls out of the way to make room while the aunt grilled Frank about his latest girlfriend and when they could expect to hear some news. She did not give Theresa the same treatment. The nice thing about being a divorcée in a large Catholic family was that no one encouraged you to remarry. Oh, they had supported her engagement to Paul and planned to attend the wedding. They would be happy for her again if the same situation occurred, but they didn’t actively encourage the idea, an attitude for which she felt only gratitude. She had enough thoughtless coworkers encouraging her to “start dating again.” The thought made her want to gasp for air.
    As a bachelor, however, Frank remained fair game.
    “What about the phone number in her pocket?” Theresa asked him.
    “The main line for some place called Delta Dynamics. They do data processing for trade shows. Don’t ask me what that means, but neither the receptionist nor the manager had ever heard of Jillian Perry.”
    “Trade shows. She could have worked one of theirs.”
    Frank said, “Yeah, and one of their employees slipped her his number. Maybe Jillian did take on side jobs.”
    “Why? She obviously didn’t need the money. It could have been for a number of reasons, for that matter—a future contact for Georgie, or even Evan. He’s sponsoring a tech show at the factory tomorrow. I got that off his Web site.” As her aunt lit tiny pastel candles, Theresa asked, “What if Drew tried to get custody of Cara?”
    “Applied for guardianship? Why would he do that? Does he want the baby?”
    “Probably not. He seemed more interested in Jillian than her child.”
    “He’d have to prove that Evan is unfit, or at least that he’d be a better guardian than Evan would.” He sneaked a finger into the frosting