He studied one of the framed photos that hadn’t been knocked off the end table, even though a drawer had been pulled out. “She looks a lot like you, especially the eyes. She’s a little beauty.”
Natalie looked quickly at the floor, stunned by the personal comment. He’d sounded sincere. So far everything about him surprised her so much she couldn’t think clearly.
He turned to focus his attention on Natalie. “You’re very composed for someone who’s been through so much. Your husband’s funeral was just this afternoon, wasn’t it?”
“I’m trying to hold it together. If you’d taken any longer to get here, you might have found a screaming lunatic on your hands.” She was nervous and talking too fast, but she couldn’t help it. “Why would the Texas Rangers want to talk to me? I already answered the detective’s questions after they found my husband’s body at the hotel. It’s hard for me to believe he took his own life, but even more difficult to believe anyone would have wanted to kill him.”
“Why do you think it wasn’t a suicide?”
Averting her eyes she said, “In my opinion he was too selfish to do it. That’s what I told the police. Now I’ve probably shocked you.”
“Not at all. Tell me something. Was your husband right-or left-handed?”
“Left.”
“The report said the gun was found in his left hand, but the angle of the bullet raises some questions. Your answer convinces me the gunshot wasn’t self-inflicted.”
She sat back in the chair. “So someone killed him? Am I a suspect?”
“If this weren’t crucial, I wouldn’t have insisted on talking to you today. I’ll explain, but we’re going to need some time, unless you want me to come back this evening.”
“No, no.” Might as well get this over with. “I’ll call my sitter and prepare her for a longer wait. Excuse me.” Natalie got up from the chair and hurried into the kitchen to call her friend on her cell phone.
“Don’t hate me for this, Jillian, but the Ranger is here now and it sounds like this is going to take a while longer.”
“You poor thing.”
“It’s all a little scary. Would you mind keeping Amy? I hate to do this to you, but he’s made it sound like it’s really important.”
“The girls are playing in the toy room and having a great time. Don’t worry about us. I’ll give them both dinner. You take your time.”
“Bless you, Jillian.”
She hung up and rushed back to the living room.
The Ranger eyed her directly. “I know you’re full of questions, so I’ll get to the point. Your husband’s death was a homicide. But that’s not the whole of it.”
She knit her hands together. “What do you mean?”
“The police stumbled onto some information that has resulted in the case being handled by the Texas Rangers. My captain has assigned it to me. That’s why the detective informed me of your phone call instead of following through himself.”
“I still don’t understand.” Something told her she wasn’t going to like what he told her.
His expression sobered. “Your husband wasn’t the man he claimed to be.”
Her adrenaline surged. “What do you mean exactly?”
“I wish there was a way to soften the blow for you. The man you knew as Rodney Parker Harris was actually born Harold Bartlett Park. He was born and raised in Denver, Colorado.”
She felt as if her lungs froze while the revelation sank in. “Surely you’re mistaken!”
“DNA doesn’t lie. His grandparents raised him after his parents were killed in a car crash when he was seven, but they couldn’t control him. In his teens he ran away and got into serious trouble. In time he used various aliases and committed crimes that put him in prison for a sixty-year sentence.”
“Sixty?” Her cry resounded in the room.
“That’s right. He’d only served two of them when he escaped eight years ago during a prisoner transfer to another facility. He eventually ended up here in Austin. There’s been an arrest warrant out on him for years.”
A gasp escaped her lips. She sprang to her feet. “You’re telling me that I was married to a felon?”
His eyes looked at her with compassion. “I’m afraid so. You’re welcome to see the DNA test results. They prove he’s the same man who’d been on his way to another prison when he made his escape with a fellow inmate. That killer is still at large.”
Fear raced through her as her thoughts leaped ahead. “Do you think he’s the one who broke in here?”
“In time I’ll find out who did this.”
She shivered as he pulled a paper from his back pocket and handed it to her. “This is what we call a rap sheet.”
Her fingers trembled as she opened it. Another cry resounded in the room as she saw the mug shot of the man she’d been married to. It was Rod, but a younger Rod with long black hair and a beard. The good-looking man she’d fallen in love with had short-cropped, dark blond hair and was clean-shaved.
Natalie looked down the list of his crimes that had earned him a sixty-year prison sentence. “Murder?” The knowledge that she’d been living with a hard-core criminal caused her to break out in a cold sweat. This was her precious Amy’s father?
Her hands went clammy.
Horrified, she dropped the paper and ran to the bathroom where she threw up. When there was nothing left, she rinsed out her mouth and brushed her teeth. To her shock she saw the Ranger waiting for her in the hall while she clung to the sink to recover.
“I wish there’d been an easier way to break this to you,” he murmured. “If you want to lie down, I understand.”
His kindness got to her. She let go of the sink. “I’d like to pretend none of this is real, but I know it is or you wouldn’t be here. No wonder the Texas Rangers are involved. Since I was in the process of divorcing him, I’m sure the police have already decided I killed him.”
She left the bathroom and walked to the living room on shaky legs.
“They have to look at a death from every angle.” His brows lifted. “Do you own a firearm?”
“No.”
“Did your husband?”
She took a steadying breath. “Not that I ever knew about.”
He eyed her speculatively through veiled eyes. “Why do you think the police would automatically assume you wanted him dead?”
“Because he’d been unfaithful to me. Now that I know the truth about him,
