The Queen of Cool (8 page)

“
How are you… getting by?”
Manny asked.

“
Earl’s unemployment,” Lo
said. “The house is paid off. Don bought it when we got married. So
we just need groceries and other stuff. But for three kids and
three adults… that’s a lot of food. And…”

Lo looked at Lisa.

“
Earl’s unemployment runs
out next week,” Lisa said.

“
We’re thinking of seeing
if we can work in Henry, uh, Don’s Dad’s air conditioning
business,” Lo said.

“
Oh.” Manny’s face clouded.
“Really?”

“
Did that burn down too?”
Lisa laughed.

“
It was shut down,” Manny
said. “In September.”

“
When I was in Vegas for
Ms. Fitness Olympia?” Lo asked.

“
The Feds thought the guy
who managed the place was using it for smuggling,” Manny said.
“They got a tip from one of those CIA prisons in Afghanistan.
Before they could talk to the manager, he killed
himself.”

Manny held two fingers to his temple and
pulled the imaginary gun.

“
Did they find any evidence
of smuggling?” Lo asked.

“
Not that I know of,” Manny
said. “They went through the business from top to bottom, really
trashed the place and found nothing. Don didn’t tell
you?”

“
No,” Lo said. “He kept
problems away from me when I was close to competition. A month or
so after I was done, he’d catch me up with the
highlights.”

“
Everything was settled in
late October or November,” Manny said. “Don decided not to reopen
the business.”

“
That sounds familiar,” Lo
said. “I guess I remember him saying the business was shut down and
he wasn’t going to reopen it. I never thought about the air
conditioning business. It was just something we owned, like the
house in Lake Worth. It didn’t really have anything to do with
us.”

“
Sorry, Lo,” Manny said.
“It’s another dead end.”

“
Maybe,” Lo said. “If I was
feeling better, I’d just take on more training clients. But I’m
not.”

“
Lo’s devastated by all of
this,” Lisa said.

“
We’ll go by the air
conditioning place and see what’s there. Maybe we can sell off
stuff,” Lo said. “I have an appointment with the lawyer on Monday
to see what I have to do to get our bank accounts back. Maybe that
will work.”

“
I hope so,” Manny said. “I
think that’s all my questions for now.”

Manny clicked off the recorder.

“
Do you still think Lo
killed him?” Lisa asked.

“
First, I never thought Lo
killed Don. That’s just dumb,” Manny said. “And second, I’ve done a
lot of interviews like this. I’ve never seen anyone as hurt by a
death as Lo is, especially two weeks later. But everyone I talk to
in this case is wrecked by Don’s death. It’s unusual.”

He held out his arm and Lo let him hug
her.

“
I’ll find who did this,
Lo,” Manny said. “I promise you that. No matter who or what it is,
I’ll find ‘em.”

“
Thanks Manny,” Lo said.
“Say ‘hi’ to Mindy Sue.”

“
She sends her love,” he
said.

He kissed her cheek and made a hasty retreat
from the backyard. Lo sat down on the bench and stared off into
space.

“
That fireman is gay?” Lisa
asked. “He was so hunky.”

Shaking her head at Lisa, Lo smiled.

“
Come on, sis,” Lisa said.
“Let’s get the kids and finish getting the garden
ready.”

Q

CHAPTER FIVE

Monday morning—9:25 a.m.

Downtown Fort Worth

Days: 16

Drifting, Lo found herself standing on the
sidewalk in front of Don’s lawyer’s office. She’d just spent a
frustrating hour with a man who didn’t like her. Even though he
thought she was beneath Don, she knew he had to be a very good
lawyer. And he loved Don too. That had to be enough for Lo.

Waiting for Lisa to come to get her, Lo’s
fragile mind skipped back over the meeting. The lawyer had shown
her the notice the Feds had used when they seized all of Don’s
assets. He had filed a legal response to release the funds but
there was little he could do until the Feds finished their
investigation.

And then everything went to shit.

“
Investigation into what,
Jaden?” Lo had asked.

“
How the hell would I
know?” Jaden Sadler asked. “What did you get Don into?”

“
Me?” Lo asked. “I got Don
into happiness, and if you were any kind of friend of Don’s, you’d
know that.”

Jaden was so surprised by her sassy
response, he just blinked at her.

“
I was at your wedding,”
Jaden said.

“
And? What did you see? Was
Don happy?”

The lawyer nodded.

“
And the last almost
fifteen years? Was Don happy – happier than he’d ever been
before?”

“
Yes,” Jaden said. “But
what man wouldn’t be with such a hot wife?”

“
Oh grow up,” Lo said. “Don
had a stable of hot women when he met me. He was happy with me. He
loved me. And if you were any kind of a friend of Don’s, you’d try
to help me.”

“
I’ve filed…”

“
You’re telling me that if
Donald Downs was standing here right now, you’d tell him you’ve
done everything in your power?”

Jaden Sadler guppy mouthed at her.

“
My car is mysteriously
gone. I don’t have money for food,” Lo said. “My sister and her
husband have been feeding me. You think that’s what Don would have
wanted? And what about Mandy? You think Don would have wanted Mandy
thrown out of school because her school funds were
blocked?”

“
You’ll blow right through
his money,” he said. “Next thing I know, you’ll be on the Real
Housewives of Fort Worth!”

“
I can’t access the money I
made myself, which, I’ll remind you, is not insubstantial,” Lo
said. “And what house am I going to film some stupid TV show in?
Someone burned down the house Don and I lived in. Everything…
everything is…”

Lo grit her teeth and hiccupped back a sob.
She’d been standing in front of the man and his intimidating desk
in her black funeral stilettos and a dark-blue coat dress she’d
found in the closet. She plopped down in a chair and shifted away
from him so she could regain her composure.

“
You’re upset about the
money,” Jaden said. “Frankly, losing access to a fortune would
crank anyone up.”

“
No, you stupid jerk, I’m
upset because my Don is dead,” Lo said. “I’m so upset, I can barely
function. I can’t see clients. I can’t take modeling gigs. I just
cry and stare at the walls. Ask yourself, good friend of Don’s, how
would Don be if I had died?”

The lawyer blinked at her again.

“
Well?” She raised an
eyebrow in challenge.

“
He wouldn’t have survived
it,” Jaden said. “You’re right. I’ve been a stupid
jerk.”

“
Yes you have,” Lo said.
“Will you help me? I really need some help. I don’t understand all
this legal stuff. Alisha said she’d take care of it, but she’s just
a child. I’m the only parent she has now. She doesn’t need the
burden of this crap on top of her tremendous grief over losing her
father.”

“
You’re their mother,” the
lawyer said the simple sentence as a statement of fact. But what
was clear is that he’d never thought of it before. Jaden repeated,
“You’re their mother.”

“
Of course I
am.”

Jaden flushed bright red. He began shuffling
papers across his desk.

“
Sir?”

“
I owe you an apology,”
Jaden said. “I’m very sorry, Lorraine. And all of this… It’s a
legal cluster fuck.”

“
Yes it is,” Lo
said.

“
I assure you I’ve done
what I can,” Jaden said. “But you’re right. I haven’t done all I
can. Moreover, I haven’t advised you to do what you
can.”

“
What can I do?”

“
You need to establish
yourself as an entity, a person, outside of Don’s estate,” he
said.

“
I don’t want to be a
person outside of Don’s anything,” Lo said. “I’m Don’s wife, now
and always. I won’t do it.”

“
As long as you’re
connected to the mess of this estate, every penny you earn will go
into the mess,” the lawyer said. “Even if you saw clients or got
another modeling gig, the money would be sucked into the estate.
There’s nothing that can be done about that.”

Lo shook her head and looked away from him.
He waited for her to regain her composure.

“
What am I going to do?” Lo
asked. “How am I going to eat?”

“
I’ve notified the State
that Don has passed away,” Jaden said. “You must file as a ‘widow.’
I’ll fill out the form and give you a copy of his death
certificate.”

“
I thought we didn’t have a
death certificate yet because they aren’t sure how he died,” Lo
said. “Waiting for tox something or other.”

The lawyer blinked at Lo and took a deep
breath.

“
You’re right,” he said.
“You’ll have to wait until the death dertificate is
available.”

“
What am I going to do in
the meantime?” Lo asked. “My sister’s husband’s unemployment runs
out this week. After that, we’re out of luck.”

“
I’m not sure,” Jaden said.
“And after the way I’ve acted, I’m fairly sure you won’t take money
from me.”

“
I wouldn’t want to pay the
interest.”

Lo looked the man up and down. This man had
leered and pawed at her for years. She knew damn well how she’d
have to pay him back. Uncomfortable at being caught, he cleared his
throat.

As much as she despised him, he was all she
had. Any new lawyer would want payment. And she didn’t have
payment. She had to get this guy on her side.

“
What do you know about
Henry’s air conditioning company?” Lo asked.

“
Not a lot,” Jaden said.
“But that’s good thinking. Don kept some of his father’s assets in
his father’s name. Don had control over them, but they aren’t a
part of his living trust. He talked about donating them to charity,
but we never got that far. Of course, the bulk of his father’s
wealth is tied into the estate, so we can’t tap into those
funds.”

“
And the air conditioning
company?”

“
I’ll tell you what,” Jaden
said. “I’ll look into the air conditioning company. I have a friend
at the Secretary of State. I’ll find out what I can. Do you know
where it is?”

Lo shook her head.

“
I’ll get the keys and find
out the location,” he said. He nodded to Lo. “That will give me
something to really do. Honestly, I’ve felt a little helpless
here.”

“
Welcome to my world,” Lo
said. “I don’t mean to dominate your priorities, but I’m desperate.
When can you find out?”

“
I’ll clear my schedule,”
Jaden said.

Lo blinked at what she was sure was another
innuendo.

“
I’ll clear my schedule to
do this work, Lorraine,” Jaden said. “But I understand I need to
prove myself to you.”

“
Yes, you do,” Lo
said.

“
Why don’t you come back
this afternoon? Two o’clock? And we’ll visit the air conditioning
company together.”

“
My sister, Lisa, is a
great accountant,” Lo said. “She has a degree and had her own
practice before she had kids.”

“
That will be very
helpful,” Jaden said. “Do you know anything about the air
conditioning business?”

“
No,” Lo said. “But if I
don’t do something, I’m not going to make it. Without me,
everything Don loved will just fade away. It will be like Don never
existed. It’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t
happen.”

“
I don’t want that either,”
Jaden said. “Let me get to work, and I’ll call you around one to
tell you where we are.”

“
Thank you,” Lo said. “I
appreciate your help.”

The lawyer stood and held out his hand.

“
It’s nice to finally meet
you,” Jaden said.

“
What do you mean? I’ve
known you for almost fifteen years.”

“
Yes, but I only just met
you,” Jaden said.

Unsure of what that meant, Lo smiled and let
him escort her to the door. Standing in the hallway, waiting for
the elevator, she’d drifted into her memories of Don.

For the billionth time, she wished she could
go back to the start of her life with Don. She should have enjoyed
it more; savored the flavors of peace and joy; loved him more.

But the past was over, Don was dead, and she
was standing on the sidewalk. When Lisa’s SUV pulled up, Lo got in
the passenger seat.

“
How did it go?” Lisa asked
as she pulled into traffic.

“
Awful,” Lo
said.

“
Is he going to help us?”
Lisa asked.

“
I think so,” Lo said.
“He’s going to call around one to let us know about the air
conditioning company.”

“
Yes!” Lisa made a fist
pump in the air. Lo smiled and leaned into the seat. “What’s next?
Should we go there?”