The Wrong Wife by Carolyn McSparren

Author:Carolyn McSparren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

BEN COULDN’T FIND the slightest resemblance between the Raymond Langley whose mug shots stared up at him and Annabelle. Chantal Aucoin Langley’s genes had overridden her pallid husband’s. But maybe he hadn’t been quite such a lackluster person when he wasn’t being booked for murder.

He looked limp. Bloodless. Empty. A weak man with a weak chin and a sharply beaked nose. His eyes were a watery gray, his shoulders thin. He was six feet two inches tall, but had the look of a man who habitually stooped to make himself seem shorter. The prototypical henpecked male, hag-ridden first by his mother, then by the tempestuous wife he’d chosen.

Why had he married Chantal? Was she his one and only rebellion? Or had he needed to fill his mother’s place in his life with someone equally domineering the moment he was out of mama’s clutches?

Ben called Annabelle at her apartment as he wound through evening traffic on Union Avenue. No answer. He’d have to ask his mother whether it was polite for a suitor to give his intended a new answering machine.

He called the Langley house expecting to hear Beulah Mayhew’s voice. Instead, a deep baritone answered, “Langley residence.”

Ben hesitated. “Uh, this is Ben Jackson. I’m trying to get in touch with Annabelle. Is she by any chance with Mrs. Langley?”

“Sorry, sir, Miss Langley has already left.”

“If you should hear from her, would you ask her to call me?”

“Certainly, sir.” The line went dead before Ben could even say thank-you and goodbye.

It could only have been Jonas, unless Mrs. Langley had suddenly hired a butler, and that didn’t seem likely. He remembered he’d wanted to meet the man. This might be a good time to do it, if he could think of an excuse.

The first drops of spring rain hit his windshield, then the heavens opened. He turned on his lights and wipers and saw a dozen flashes light up the sky in his rearview mirror. The thunder that followed six seconds later sounded like cannon fire.

He checked the weather station on his radio and found that there were already warnings in Crittenden County, across the river in Arkansas, and that the entire west Tennessee area was under alert for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.

Annabelle shouldn’t be driving in this. Her apartment had no basement, but his mother’s house did. He wanted Annabelle close enough to take shelter should the sirens go off in the Garden District.

He pulled up in his mother’s parking area, saw that Annabelle’s little sedan was not in its accustomed place and drove out again without stopping.

The wind had picked up so that twigs and newly formed spring leaves whipped across his windshield. The big old trees nodded and twisted above the road. They’d withstood ice storms, snow, floods and many thunderstorms before this. Only a direct hit from a tornado would be likely to topple these giant survivors, but large branches could snap off and land on top of automobiles.

He cruised past Mrs. Langley’s mansion, saw lights on in only two upstairs rooms and turned the corner into the side street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.