Murder in Vail (19 page)

Chapter Fifty-seven

Gwen’s head was spinning when she left Detective Jackson’s office. He’d told her everything, and she thought she might pass out right there in his office. Walking down the hall, she broke into a cold sweat and found a ladies room where she splashed water on her face.

How could Glen have done this to her? All those lonely nights, waiting for him to come home. What a fool she’d been. She had trusted him, given him access to all of her money, loved him. Loved him so much. And he had betrayed her—had been betraying her for years. And then, if that wasn’t enough, he tried to kill her mother for her money!

“He’s damn lucky he’s locked up,” she said to herself. “Or I’d kill him myself.”

Gwen had spent most of the day trying to find a good criminal lawyer for him, convinced of his innocence. She’d been waiting all day to see Glen to find out how she could help him. Now, the only reason she wanted to see her husband was to give him a piece of her mind.

She sat down on the hard chair in front of the glass window in the visiting room of the jail at the police station and waited. She was determined not to cry. He had taken every other ounce of dignity from her. He wouldn’t get that too.

After about twenty minutes, Glen was led in. His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and he wore an orange jump suit. When he saw Gwen sitting there, his face broke into a relieved smile.

He grabbed the phone. “Gwen, I didn’t do this. I promise you, I didn’t do it.”

Gwen listened but didn’t respond. She just stared at her husband.

“Gwen, I need a lawyer. A good one.”

“I got you a good lawyer. He’s supposed to be one of the best in Colorado. He told me he would come by later this afternoon to talk to you.”

Glen hung his head. “Oh, thank God. Thank you, honey.” He put his hand up on the glass for Gwen to touch the other side. Gwen just crossed her arms in front of her, stared at his hand, and didn’t move to touch it. He frowned a little and took his hand down.

“Gwen, you have to believe me. I wouldn’t try to hurt your mother. I love your mother like she’s my—”

Gwen cut him off. “You seem to love a lot of women.”

“What?”

“Two hundred and thirty-five text messages, not just to one woman, but two! No wonder you spent so much time down at the marina.”

“Now, Gwen, they’re just friends—”

“I especially liked the text about how you were going to ‘divorce the bitch as soon as the money came through.’”

“Now, honey, I was just mad. We had just had a fight and—”

“How could you, Glen? How could you?”

“You know I love you, honey. That night we met at the Delano bar in South Beach was the best night of my life. You looked so beautiful, so classy. I looked at you and said to myself, ‘That’s the woman I’m going to marry.’”

He waited, expecting a reaction, but didn’t get one. She had heard that line many times before.

So he continued, “It’s just that sometimes, well, you can be kind of hard on me, Gwen.”

He stopped to gauge her response. When she said nothing, he continued. “You get on my back about little things. That’s tough on a guy after a while.”

  Gwen knew what he was saying was true, but that’s just the way she was. He knew what she was like when he married her.

Gwen told him, “I may not have always shown it, Glen, but I loved you so much. You know that.”

Glen let his head drop. “I know,” he murmured.

   “I wish you had talked to me about it, Glen, and not just gone out and had an affair.”

Glen looked up, hope entering his eyes. “You’re right, honey. Of course, you’re absolutely right. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Gwen bit her lip and was determined to hold the tears back. She would not cry!

“Having an affair is one thing, Glen, but trying to kill my mother!”

“I didn’t do that, Gwen! You have to believe me. I was shocked when they arrested me.”

“Glen, seriously? They have DNA evidence. And they found the pillow you used under our bed. You’re such a liar, Glen.”

She rose to leave. “No, Gwen, no! Don’t leave. Wait, wait. Please! Sit down. I’ll tell you …I’ll tell you the truth.”

More curious than caring at this point, Gwen remained standing, waiting to hear what he had to say.

“I admit it. I was a philanderer. Yes, I had an affair. We weren’t getting along, and I gave into temptation.”

“An affair? One affair?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Glen hesitated. Gwen could see that he didn’t want to tell her. She turned to walk out.

“Ok, I had two, well, three affairs. I’m not proud of it.”

“Three affairs!” Gwen screamed at him. “We’ve only been married for four years.”

Glen looked at her desperately and pleaded, “I know I’ve been a lousy husband, and if I ever get out of here I promise you, Gwen, I’ll never stop trying to make it up to you. But Gwen, I am not a murderer. I promise you on a stack of Bibles that I did not kill Rachel. I don’t know how the DNA got on those beds. I’m innocent.”

“Well, Glen, innocent or not, you’re on your own now. I hired you a good lawyer, who you can pay for by selling your damn boats. I’m done. I’m not coming to visit you, and I’m not accepting any phone calls from you. I’m going to get myself a lawyer too—a divorce lawyer.”

Chapter Fifty-eight

The Braddock family went to dinner that night at their favorite place, a quaint Italian restaurant overlooking the creek that flows through downtown Vail. Helga was invited, but chose to stay at the hotel and order room service. She’d had enough of the Braddock family.

Everyone thought Gwen would beg off too, but she seemed more eager than anyone to go out to dinner and talk about anything except Glen. When she’d gotten back to the hotel that afternoon, she told her mother about Glen’s affairs, and asked her to tell the others. They would learn soon enough from the police, she knew. Gwen just didn’t want to talk about it anymore than she had to.

“I’m getting a divorce,” she announced after their drinks had been delivered.

“Here, here,” Lance said, raising his wine glass. “The best thing you could do under the circumstances.”

“And, I’ve made a decision. I’m moving back to Vail.”

Sally almost choked on her champagne.

“Are you moving in with Mom?” Stephen asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Whoa,” Sally said, raising her hands. “Let’s slow down. Gwen, I’m thrilled that you’re thinking of moving back to Vail, but living together? No, no, no. That’s a little too close for comfort. We need at least a few miles separating us.”

They all laughed, Gwen louder than anyone. “You’ll be happy to hear, Mom, that I’m going to sell the house in Palm Beach and find a place I can afford here with the proceeds. And I’m not asking you for another dime.”

“That’s a good thing,” Sally replied, “because you wouldn’t get it. I haven’t changed my mind on that topic.”

The table became quiet, and Stephen broached the subject that was on everyone’s mind.

“Are you still planning on giving the big donation to that foundation?”

“Absolutely,” she answered quickly. “Now more than ever. The money has only brought us problems—and now death.”

She reached over and patted Stephen’s hand. “I’m going to give the donation in Rachel’s name, Stephen. The money will help so many people around the world with their health care and educational needs. It will help build schools and hospitals for underprivileged children.”

“Oh, Mom,” Stephen said, his eyes misting. “Thank you. That’s really something.”

“When are you doing this, Mom,” Lance asked in a concerned voice.

“I have an appointment January second.”

“Now, Mom,” Lance pressed. “Are you sure about this? January second? That’s only five days from now. Can’t you give it some more thought? I mean, I can see giving some money. That’s nice. But ninety-five percent is so much. What if we need—”

“I’m positive,” Sally answered in a tone that ended the discussion. “I don’t want to hear any more about it, Lance.”

She turned to face Gwen and changed the subject. “Gwen, what are you going to do when you move to Vail? Have you had time to give much thought to that?”

Gwen grinned. “You’re probably going to think I’m crazy, but I want to become an EMT and join the ski patrol. I got such a buzz skiing, and I want to do something to help people. I’ve wasted enough time sitting around doing nothing.”

“Oh Gwen. That is just fantastic,” Sally said. “With a little more practice, you’ll be perfect for the ski patrol. They need fast skiers like you.”

“I can’t wait to get out there again.”

“Well,” Stephen suggested. “Why don’t we go skiing tomorrow? What are we doing tomorrow besides sitting around waiting for the roads to be cleared? I was hoping to get in at least one day on the slopes.”

Gwen’s face lit up. “I would love that. It would definitely help me get my mind off my troubles.”

“We haven’t had a family ski day in a long time,” Stephen said, looking around the table.

Gwen asked her mother about her wrist. “Is it healed enough?”

Sally rotated her left wrist. “It’s fine. Luckily, it was just bruised and not sprained. I’d love to go skiing. We all need to get our minds off this horrible mess.”

Lance reminded them that all of their ski gear was up at the house.

Sally had an idea. “I could call Robbie. He owns a ski store and probably has rentals.”

Lance frowned. “There are plenty of places around here where we can rent skis. We don’t need to go to this Robbie fellow.”

“Yes,” Stephen agreed. “There are lots of other places around.”

“Fine,” Sally said, pursing her lips. Her sons definitely didn’t like the idea of her dating. “Well, where do you want to ski?” she asked. “Blue Sky Basin? Maybe Lover’s Leap?”

Blue Sky Basin was one of Vail’s three main skiing areas, along with the Front Side and the Back Bowls. All in all, there were nearly 200 trails, half of them for expert skiers. They had so many to choose from.

“That could be crowded during the holidays,” Lance said.

“How about the Highline?” Stephen suggested. “There’s less traffic up there.”

“That’s a great idea. I love the moguls on some of the trails up there,” Sally said of the Front Side ski runs on the more remote eastern side of the mountain.

“Gwen, what do you think?”

Gwen shrugged. “Whatever you want. I haven’t skied there, but if you like it, it works for me.”

 “Highline it is!” Sally said. “Let’s rent an SUV tomorrow morning to drive to a rental shop and then out to the ski lift.”

Yvette, who had been quiet when the subject turned to skiing, spoke up. “I’m not as good a skier as the rest of you, so I think I’ll just go shopping tomorrow. That’s how I’ll get
my
exercise.”

They all laughed. The waiter brought the check over, and Lance gave the waiter his credit card. “This one’s on me,” he said. The others thanked him.

“Speaking of shopping,” Gwen said. “I need to buy a pair of ski pants for tomorrow. Do you think any shops are still are open?”

“I need to get something too,” Sally said. “The only clothes Gwen and I had when we left the house were what we had on our backs. They wouldn’t let us go to our rooms to pack anything.”

“What have you been doing for clothes?” Yvette asked.

“The police took us to a tourist shop that stayed open late that first night. We bought some sweat shirts and sweat pants, but those won’t do for skiing.”

“I’m so sick of them already,” Gwen said. “We’ve been wearing them day and night. I feel like burning them. I’m just glad I was wearing my new ski jacket when they brought us down.”

When they left the restaurant, the family strolled down the pedestrian streets of the quaint village, enjoying the twinkling Christmas lights and looking for any shops that might still be open at almost nine o’clock.

Yvette locked arms with Sally as they walked.

“I just wanted to tell you, Sally, how much I admire you for being so strong through all of this. I could never have been as strong as you’ve been.”

“Well, thank you, Yvette. That’s so nice of you. Sometimes you don’t know how strong you are until you have to be. But I sense that you are a very strong woman too.”

Yvette smiled. “I guess I am, in my own way. Not athletic like you, but more my personality.”

“Yes, I can see that. You always stand up for yourself. That’s a good trait,” Sally said.

“Modeling is a tough world. I had to be. I was pretty meek at first, but after a few years of being pushed around and taken advantage of, I decided nobody would ever make me do anything I didn’t want to do, and nobody would stand in the way of what I wanted.”

“Good for you Yvette,” Sally said. But based on her history with her daughter-in-law, she couldn’t help adding, “You just have to be sure that you’re not stepping on other people’s toes to get what you want.”

Yvette didn’t respond right away. Finally, she said, “I know I must seem selfish to you. And I guess I am. I was just on my own for so long, that I had to take care of myself.”

Sally squeezed her daughter-in-law’s arm. “Well, luckily, you have Lance in your corner now, and he’s always looking out for your best interests.”

Yvette nodded. “I’m so lucky I found Lance. He never tries to tell me what to do. I wouldn’t like that.”

Sally knew Yvette was tough on Lance sometimes, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Well, you certainly make my son very happy. I’ve never seen him as happy as when he’s with you.”

“Really?” Yvette seemed surprised.

“Oh, definitely. When he’s with you, he just shines.”

“That makes me feel so good,” Yvette said, obviously touched. “Lance is such a sweetie. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Gwen was walking a half block ahead with Lance and Stephen. They passed by a shop that still had its lights on.

“Look, Mom!” Gwen called out. “They have women’s ski clothes. Now we don’t have to waste ski time tomorrow trying to find something to wear.”

“Great,” Sally called back, just as a woman walking a cocker spaniel strolled by. A tiny bark came out of Yvette’s purse.

“Is Duchess in there?” Sally laughed. “She’s been so quiet, I didn’t even know you brought her along.”

Yvette laughed, “Duchess goes everywhere I go.” She confided in a whisper, “Sometimes I have to sneak her into restaurants, but I haven’t been caught yet.”