French Silk(137)

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Chapter 30

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"Of course when she went to meet him he wasn't there."

The shadows on the kitchen walls of Aunt Laurel's house were long. They stretched across the round table where Claire and Cassidy sat across from each other over cups of orange-flavored tea that had grown cold.

Claire spoke in a distant voice; her expression was melancholy. "At first Mama thought that in the excitement of the moment, she had mistaken the time and place of their rendezvous. She went to his apartment building, but he had cleared out. He'd left no forwarding address with the building manager. Or any mention of where God might send him next," she added sarcastically. "When a week went by and Mama received no word from him, she realized that he'd stolen her money and abandoned her." She glanced up at Cassidy. "Would you care for more tea?"

"No, thanks," he replied gruffly.

Claire continued her story. "Wild Jack Collins played his hand extremely well. When Mama told him she was pregnant, he could have bolted. But he was too smart. Undoubtedly, he had discovered that the Laurents were well connected. For all he knew, Mama could have sicced the sheriff on him. He saw the advisability of proposing marriage instead. He made it all sound very romantic. Elopement. Running away together on a mission for the Lord. Remember, Mama was a devout Christian and believed in saving the lost. But she was also incredibly na?ve."

Her expression turned remote and cold. "To the day he died—to the day I killed him—Wild Jack must have still been laughing at her and patting himself on the back for being such a clever chap. If he even remembered her, that is. It's anyone's guess how many other young women he left with illegitimate children in those early years of his traveling ministry."

Cassidy scooted aside his teacup and saucer and rested his elbows on the table. "How did you learn about all this, Claire?"

"In Mama's diaries. They meticulously documented everything from that Saturday morning when her daddy took her to Café du Monde for breakfast and she saw Jack Collins preaching in the square. I found the diaries after Aunt Laurel died. She had continued the journal when Mama was no longer capable."

"So she knew all along who your father was?"

Claire nodded. "But only Aunt Laurel. When it became obvious to my mother that she'd been jilted, she confronted her parents and told them she was pregnant."

"Did they make an attempt to apprehend Jack Collins?"

"No. Remember, she never identified her lover, but led my grandparents to believe that he was among their elite circle of acquaintances. The only person who knew the truth was Aunt Laurel. Mama had confided in her. So when Wild Jack Collins emerged years later as the televangelist Jackson Wilde—and his name change is doubtless due to the many tracks he had to cover—Aunt Laurel began to chronicle his rise to fame.

"Apparently he wooed Josh's mother the way he did mine. Her family was Protestant, which made him slightly more acceptable to them than to staunch Catholics. They were also much wealthier than the Laurents. He saw a good thing and seized it. In her writings, Aunt Laurel surmised that he used his in-laws" money to expand his ministry into radio and television."

"This makes Josh—"

"My half-brother," she interrupted with a gentle smile.

"That's why you arranged to meet him."

"I wanted to see if he was like our father, or a man of integrity. He's weak, but, based on that one brief meeting, I think he's a respectable individual."

"Not too respectable. He was sleeping with his father's wife."

She didn't appreciate the mild rebuke and rushed to her step-brother's defense. "Josh was another victim of Jackson Wilde's emotional abuse. Having an affair with Ariel was his way of retaliating."

"And yours was to kill him."

"I did the world a service, Cassidy. Ariel pretends to be a grieving widow, but she's gotten out of Jackson's death what she wanted—the celebrity previously held by him. Josh has been released from his tormentor."

"Isn't that exaggerating it a bit? Wilde didn't keep Josh on a ball and chain."

"On an emotional level he did., Josh wanted to be a concert pianist. Wild Jack had other plans. He wanted a musician identifiable exclusively to his ministry, so he scoffed at Josh's ambition and disparaged his talent until Josh's self-confidence was in tatters. In the long run, he became what his father wanted him to be."

"Josh told you all this?"

"He told me that since Ariel has disassociated him from the ministry, he wants to resume his study of classical music, his first love. I filled in the blanks."

"What about your mother?"

"What about her?"

"Did she ever connect Jackson Wilde to Wild Jack Collins?"

"No. Thank God. His appearance must have changed over the last thirty years. You know she can't hold a thought for long, so even if recognition flickered, it didn't register."

Cassidy frowned, his eyes squinting with skepticism. "Claire, I strongly advise you not to say anything more without an attorney present."

"I'm waiving my right to an attorney, Cassidy. I've made a public confession and a crowd of people witnessed it. I don't intend to retract it. I'll tell you anything you want to know. Although," she added, "you've already guessed most of it."