Chapter 16

But Lawrence Tazewell was still mulling over what he’d just heard. “I’m surprised she hasn’t done herself in the same way her mother did. I wouldn’t blame her, but this does go a long way to explaining the Rory thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“He saw what happened to Ruth. And I’m sure he knows that, one way or the other, Aileen is a short-timer. By marrying Leslie, Rory puts himself in a position to be half owner of a very valuable parcel of Cochise County real estate.” “Are there any other children?”

Tazewell shook his head. “Max and his first wife, Margie, had a little boy who died of leukemia when he was twelve. Margie suffered a debilitating stroke while she was still in her forties. Ruth was the nurse Max hired to take care of Margie. Max and Ruth married within months of Margie’s death. The only child the two of them had together was Aileen. Max was delighted beyond bearing when Aileen showed up, and he and Ruth spoiled her rotten.”

“You said Ruth’s brothers died of Huntington‘s?” Joanna asked.

Tazewell nodded. “But they were younger than she was. The brothers were only in their twenties when they started going downhill. Ruth was in her thirties when Aileen was born. Because she still wasn’t sick, I think she must have thought it wasn’t going to happen to her.”

“But it did,” Joanna offered.

“Yes. Ruth was just beginning to show symptoms of HD when Aileen and I married. And when she found out Aileen was pregnant, Ruth went nuts. She wanted Aileen to have an abortion, but neither Max nor Aileen would hear of it. Aileen because she really wanted to have the baby, and Max because he wanted to keep the Triple H in the family.”

Tazewell paused. “Damn!” he exclaimed. “I had forgotten all about that.”

“About what?”

“Sometime early in October of that year, Ruth and Aileen flew to Albuquerque to see her brothers. By then both of them were confined to a nursing home. I offered to fly Ruth and Aileen there, but Ruth wasn’t having any of that. She insisted on flying commercial. At that stage of her pregnancy, Aileen had to have written permission from her doctor to fly at all. I remember she was really offended that she had to have a permission slip. But when she came back from that trip, Aileen was a completely different person.”

“How so?” Joanna asked.

But Lawrence Tazewell, lost in his own thoughts, didn’t seem to hear her. “Do you think that’s what happened?” he asked. “Do you think that, after seeing Ruth’s brothers, Aileen decided she couldn’t risk having a child of her own, so she got rid of her own baby and took someone else’s?”

“Tell me about Aileen Houlihan,” Joanna said.

“As in do I think she’s capable of doing such a thing? No,” he said after a pause. “I don’t.”

“What was she like then?”

The faraway look returned to Tazewell’s eyes. “When I first met Aileen Houlihan, she was a pistol,” he said at last. “Headstrong, stubborn, and spoiled rotten. She came to the University of Arizona with a whole catalog of parental rules and a single-minded determination to break ‘ em all. I was a case in point.”

“How so?”

“Aileen’s daddy wanted his daughter to graduate from the University of Arizona with honors, go on to law school, and then come home to do her parents proud-maybe end up going into politics. She carefully deconstructed that whole program. Her freshman year she did three things that sent her old man round the bend-she flunked out of school, married me, and brought me home to live on her parents’ ranch. Max was in his late seventies when Aileen came dragging home with me and told him that she didn’t need a college degree to raise cattle and horses.”

“You’re saying she married you out of spite?”

“Pretty much. Did you ever meet Max and Ruth Houlihan?”

Joanna shook her head. “Never. It sounds like they were a little before my time.”

“I suppose,” Tazewell agreed. “They were quite a pair. Ruth was beautiful. Fortunately for her, Aileen took after her mother in the looks department. Old Maxfield was ugly as a stump-a crotchety old bowlegged cowboy who never got over his incredible good luck at finding himself such a gorgeous young woman to be his second wife. He didn’t know about the Huntington‘s, at least not before they got married, and I don’t think it would have made any difference if he had. I’m sure he would have married Ruth anyway. Max was stubborn as hell. Aileen takes after her father in that regard.”

“So you and Aileen got married. What happened then?”

“Max was disappointed, but he decided to make the best of a bad bargain. He was the one who bankrolled my first election here in Cochise County. And, as I told you earlier, after Aileen dumped me, Max used his contacts to help me get a foothold up in Maricopa County. I suspect he was grateful that I left the marriage without making a fuss over custody arrangements or demanding a property settlement.”

“And you left the marriage because…?” Joanna asked.

“Because Aileen told me to get out. She made it perfectly clear that I’d never measure up to her father. She said she was bored with me. She said that she wasn’t ready to settle down- that she needed to live a little. When she hinted around that I probably wasn’t Leslie’s father, I finally decided she was right. Having a wild woman for a girlfriend is one thing, but having a wild woman for a wife is something else. I hung around for a while after Leslie was born, but when it came time for the next election, I didn’t bother to run. Instead, I took the job offer Max had found for me, moved to Phoenix, got a divorce, and went on with my life.”

“And Aileen?” Joanna asked. “According to Leslie, she never married again.”

“How long has she been sick?” Tazewell asked.

“Leslie didn’t say.”

“Once her HD symptoms started coming on, I can see why she would have stayed out of another relationship.” He paused and looked past Joanna to the ocotillo-and-bear-grass-dotted landscape outside her window. “I wonder…”he said thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Maybe Ruth convinced her to have a late-term abortion after all. And Aileen made arrangements to pass this other child off as her own so no one would know. Not even me, but I do have a right to know. I have half a mind to fly straight out to the ranch right now and ask Aileen about it face-to-face.”

“No,” Joanna said at once. “Please don’t. Interference like that could very well jeopardize our investigation into the Evans homicide. I’m convinced Bradley Evans died because he stumbled on a long-buried truth someone didn’t want exposed to the light of day.”

“Are you going to talk to her about this?”

“I’m going to try.”

“You’ll let me know what you find out?”

Joanna nodded.

“I loved her once, you know,” Tazewell added with a bleak smile.

“I know you did.”

With a light tap on the door, Frank Montoya reentered the room and placed a stack of papers in front of Joanna. At the bottom of the top sheet was a discreetly handwritten note: “T’s alibi checks out.”

“Is there anything else, then?” Tazewell asked. “Anything more you need from me?”

“Not that I can think of,” Joanna said. “Only your contact numbers so we can be in touch with you when we need to.”

Tazewell nodded and handed Joanne a business card.

Joanna stood and extended her hand. “Thanks for coming,” she said. “I know this has been hard on you. I’ll have a deputy take you back to your plane.”

“Thanks,” Tazewell said, then he added, “I don’t suppose you believe that I knew nothing about any of this-about the connection between my wife and the family of the man I sent to prison.”

“Actually,” Joanna returned, “I do believe you.”

“Thank you,” he said. “But once they get wind of it, I doubt the press will be that kind. Best case, I’ll lose the federal nomination. Worst case, I’ll be forced off the bench.”