Free Trespass by Marla Madison Page A

dozens of paintings, all with floral themes. She showed TJ to a small white table and chairs alongside French doors leading out to a colorful fall garden.
    If the woman tended to the yard herself, there had to be about thirty hours in her day. TJ opened her computer, accessing a slide show of the photos she had taken. “I thought we could go through these an’ you can tell me who all these folks are,” TJ began.
    She pulled up the photo of the mysterious woman with the white streak in her hair. “How about her? She acted like she didn’t want anyone to see her an’ I’m pretty sure she was cryin’ when she left.”
    Billie Jean poured cups of freshly brewed coffee from a silver carafe and pulled her chair next to TJ’s. “That’s Victoria Braun, Vicky to her friends. Her and her husband’s house is on the right of Norman’s. They aren’t here much in the summer months; they have a lake house up north on a lake in Manitowish Waters. She must have come back for the funeral.”
    “Why didn’t she want anyone seein’ her?”
    Billie studied the photo of Victoria Braun. “I’m not sure. Everyone that lived here at the time knows she and Norman had an affair. It was quite a few years ago. I thought she’d gotten over it, but there could still be a part of her that loves him. You’re right, she looks pretty upset.”
    “Does ‘everyone who knew’ include Mr. Braun?” TJ asked.
    “I can’t tell you for sure he knew about them, but that was the rumor. Norman was quite a womanizer.”
    TJ had seen the photo array of Norman at the funeral and hadn’t thought him particularly attractive, certainly not enough to be a womanizer. “He was?”
    “Norman didn’t go out of his way to hit on women. For them he was a convenience, I suppose. He loved women and he was a great listener, just what they needed when their relationships were troubled. There was a time when it seemed like he’d slept with nearly every woman on the block, but that was years ago. The neighborhood has changed a lot in the last ten years. There aren’t many of the long-timers still around.”
    Sometimes things that happened a long time ago came back to bite you in the ass, TJ thought. “But what about Teschler’s wife? Wasn’t he married for a long time?”
    Billie Jean chuckled. “You mean to the Dragon Lady?” She got up to take brushes out of a coffee can and wiped them on a clean rag. The sharp scent of paint thinner filled the air. “The scuttlebutt was he married her in order to get her family business as a client for the agency. It worked. Representing them is what made the Asian office take off. Her family’s chain of department stores was a real coup for the ad agency.”
    TJ frowned. “But he left her a bundle o’ money. Why would he do that if he just married her to get the business going?”
    “My guess would be they maintained a strong friendship after the divorce. I heard they still saw each other quite a bit. And not just for business purposes. Gemma could probably tell you more about their marriage. Norman didn’t confide in me.”
    TJ flipped through the photos, adding notes where Billie Jean had something interesting to add. She opened a photo she was curious about: a boy who appeared to be in his late teens. Although wearing dress pants with a shirt and tie, he wore a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, covering most of his face.
    “That’s Lucian Krause. He was born with cherubism. That’s why he tries to keep his face covered. He’s a nice enough kid. I think he’s about sixteen now. His mother is a widow, and they belong to a church that is an offshoot of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I don’t recall the name, but its followers adhere to very strict principles, one of which is not using doctors or hospitals. He has a sister about nineteen, Drucilla. Their mother homeschooled both of them after her husband died. Their house is right next door to Gemma’s.”
    “What’s cherubism?” TJ asked.
    “Actually,