Chapter 24 #2
A glimmer of a smile cracked his face, and he added, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Are you?” she muttered. “I never did anything really wrong, you know?”
“Never?”
“No, never,” she repeated.
“So, gambling isn’t wrong?”
“No, it’s an addiction,” she declared, staring daggers at him. “I will fess up to that.”
It was all Doreen could do to hold back her smile because just a few minutes earlier she wasn’t prepared to fess up to that one at all.
Birdie continued. “But my gambling? … I didn’t do anything to hurt anybody else.”
“And your grandson? You never hurt him?”
“No,” she snapped. “However, I should have helped him. I don’t even know what happened because I never thought he would do something like that.”
“You think he took his own life?”
Her gaze sharpened, and she turned to him. “You don’t?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied, “but we’re finding out an awful lot about his and your life that could have set him up as a target.”
At that, she sat up slightly and glared. “And you think it’s got something to do with the gambling?”
“Apparently he owed some unpleasant people a lot of money,” Doreen shared.
At that, Birdie gasped. “Oh no, please tell me that he didn’t. That fool …”
“Yes,” Mack interjected. “We don’t really know who all is involved in this, but we need help sorting it out.”
Birdie was thinking hard as to what she should say and what she shouldn’t.
Doreen finally noted, “You might want to consider that whoever Devon owed money to may have had something to do with Devon’s death.”
“It wasn’t suicide?” she asked.
“No,” Mack confirmed. “It wasn’t a suicide.”
Birdie’s shoulders sagged, and tears came to her eyes. “We weren’t close, but we did both have a passion for gambling, and that made for a very uneasy relationship. It wasn’t the kind of thing that I wanted to bond with him over. I mean, Devon and his mother both had terrible addictions.”
“But then so do you,” Doreen added, turning to her. “So it’s not hard to imagine it happening down the generations.”
“But that didn’t make me responsible,” Birdie pointed out, her tone hardening.
“I didn’t say it did,” Doreen clarified immediately. “But, somewhere along the line, there is a need to understand what happened. And if the gambling did in Devon, don’t you want to see whoever did it pay the price?” Doreen asked.
Birdie stared at her for a long moment. “If you even attempt to make these people pay that price,” Birdie began, “there’s a good chance … you might see the same end.”
At that, Mack stepped forward and snapped, “That will never happen.”
Birdie laughed. “And that’s the thing with men. You get all arrogant. You get all stirred up, and then you make mistakes,” she pointed out. “These people are not the type to make mistakes with.”
Mack declared, “We’ll find out one way or another eventually, so why not help us?”
Birdie’s lips twitched, and then she nodded. “Cisco,” she stated, by way of explanation. “And Cisco thinks he’s setting up a whole business here. We were all doing fine, just having our little games,” she added, “but he’s decided to start racketeering in a big way.”
Doreen wasn’t even sure how or what that actually meant when it came to a small town like Kelowna.
“He has lower mainland connections,” Birdie added. “And they’ll be moving into this area.”
Mack’s jaw tightened, and he said, “Not if we can stop them.”
“You won’t be able to stop them,” Birdie announced, waving her hands. “It’s one of the things that I did, … fight against them, I mean. And then I kind of gave in.”
“Hardly,” Mack argued, giving Birdie a stern look. “You spent the past twenty years muddling into local politics.”
“Yes, but then anyone would. It’s been twenty years since I’ve been working directly in the trenches. And I’m very grateful that I’ve been out for that long,” she muttered. “It isn’t an easy thing.”
“Of course not,” Mack agreed. “However, there’s an awful penalty to pay, even though in your own mind, you’re done and gone.”
She groaned. “That’s exactly why I gathered some material,” she shared, “hoping to blackmail my way out of it.”
“Something you apparently did often.” He paused, then added, “Do you owe money to Cisco too?”
“Not really.” Then she frowned. “Okay, so … a little bit, but nothing I can’t pay. I just didn’t want to pay right away.”
“How much?” Doreen asked, her tone inflexible.
Birdie stared at her and shrugged.
“How much?” Doreen asked again.
“A couple hundred thousand,” she snapped. Doreen’s gaze widened, and Birdie pointed at her. “See? Look at that. Immediately there’s judgment. It’s all over your face.”
“Do you think your grandson owed that kind of money?” Mack asked, trying to steer the conversation back in the direction he wanted it.
“Seeing as I didn’t even know that was going on, maybe,” Birdie acknowledged. “In which case, I can see why they would have gone after me next, drugging me, sending me here to die.”
“Not only you but Devon’s ex-girlfriend.”
Her gaze widened at that. “Uh-oh. … She’s not the most brilliant person, you know? I just didn’t really want him getting attached so young. And Annabel? … That girl was all about marriage. I figured she was all about making sure she was well taken care of, where money is concerned.”
Doreen shook her head. “You have a really terrible attitude about people, don’t you?”
Birdie stared at her. “When a lot of money is involved, people get funny. It’s not that the money changes you. It changes everybody around you.”
Doreen studied Birdie for a long moment. “That’s a very prophetic statement.”
“And who drugged you?” Mack asked Birdie. “We found drugs in your system.”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “I was heading back to my room at Rosemoor.” She frowned at Mack, and he nodded.
“Yes, we know about you living in the house with Devon too.”
“It’s my house,” she declared. “He kept borrowing so much money that it ended up being my house … again.”
“Right,” Mack replied. “We will take a look at the paperwork on that before I believe you.”
She shrugged. “You do that,” she muttered. “Besides, it doesn’t make a bit of difference now. Devon’s dead and gone, and I’ll be gone soon enough.”
Mack looked over at Doreen, shared a look, then Doreen turned back to Birdie. “Are you talking about imminently?”
“Yes, I would suspect so. The doctors aren’t speaking about it, but I don’t think I’ll make it through tonight.” She started to breathe heavier.
“I’m so sorry,” Doreen whispered. “Is there anything we can do for you before you go?”