CJ narrowed his eyes. “Because he didn’t know, or he just imagined she was and she wasn’t really?” CJ realized that they had a hostile witness on their hands where Laurel’s aunt was concerned. He hadn’t expected this.

“The woman didn’t do anything. She didn’t work for him. He didn’t want her to. He wanted to care for her. He loved her. Treasured her. Doted on her. He wanted to mate her, but she kept putting him off. And what did she do in return? Used him. Free room and board, smiled sweetly when it was convenient for her, and that was it. He kept broaching the subject of mating her. He adored her, no matter how she treated him. I tried to get him to see what she really was. I did all the household chores—cooked, cleaned, and kept the books. I adored my brother. The two of us had always been close. Until the night that she arrived.”

Thinking back on what Stanton Wernicke had said, CJ prompted, “So Warren took her in because he had no room at the hotel for her and—”

“Who said that? Of course, there was room for her. Only she didn’t have money to pay for a room. And my brother, who didn’t want to give up a good room to a nonpaying guest, decided to make other arrangements. I objected, but my brother just ignored me. She was a perfect stranger. What did we know about her? Nothing. And we needed another maid. Not that she would have been a good choice. She was spoiled rotten. Never lifted a finger around the place. Didn’t know how to cook. Didn’t want to learn. I doubted she would have done a good job as a maid.”

“What did she do while she was staying with you?” Laurel asked, her tone cool.

“Nothing!”

“She sat on the couch and stared out the window? Read books? Left the house each day? She had to have done something.” Laurel sounded totally exasperated.

CJ knew that the woman held a major grudge against Clarinda and everything she said was tainted by that hate. Was she jealous? He wished they could hear Clarinda’s version of the story. “So your brother disappears—”

“Right. And I had to take over the hotel.”

“And my aunt?” Laurel asked.

“Oh, she disappeared the night before that. I figured my brother had gone after her. And then he never came back. At first, I thought he had caught up with her, decided not to return, and they went off together. But he loved the hotel. And she just wasn’t mating him.”

Laurel took a deep breath and let it out. “Why wouldn’t she mate him? Did she say?”

“No. And my brother kept asking her. They started having arguments. I wasn’t supposed to be privy, but you know how it is with our wolf hearing. I was in the kitchen making supper so I wasn’t all that far away. They were loud. She started crying, and then she left. I heard my brother pacing across the floor in the living room. I came in to check on him.

“He growled at me to stay the hell out of his business. He knew I didn’t like her, so I guess he felt I’d say something bad about her to him, and he didn’t want to hear it. But I hadn’t planned to. He was angry and distraught, and I had no intention of making it worse. I was trying to lend him a sympathetic ear.”

CJ didn’t believe it. “When did he leave?”

“He was up most of the night, pacing or cursing. He managed the hotel through the next day, but when she hadn’t returned by nightfall, he went out looking for her.” Even though Charity’s words were spoken with annoyance, her eyes clouded with tears again, and he assumed she still grieved for the loss of her brother.

“Wearing a suit and his diamond stickpin?” Laurel asked.

“I guess. He was dressed that way for work, and he hadn’t changed when he went out.”

“You came to the pit when I had fallen down there. You visited him, didn’t you?” CJ asked, his tone reconciliatory. He knew she had to have realized her brother had died there, and she was drawn to the place, mourning him. No matter how much she hadn’t liked Clarinda, she must have still loved her brother.

“It was the anniversary of his disappearance. I always visit him at his grave and wish him well. I always wished I had gotten through to Clarinda. Done something differently so I wouldn’t have lost my brother.”

The thing CJ couldn’t understand was why Charity had also vanished. “Why didn’t you report this to the sheriff? To the pack?”

“I reported it to Sheriff Sheridan Silver.” She gave CJ an annoyed look. “And your father said he’d look into it. He said he never knew that some woman named Clarinda O’Brien was living with us since she never was involved in the pack, and she never showed her face in town. He acted like I had made the whole thing up! Like I was crazy. Even like I had something to do with my brother’s disappearance.

“Once Warren was gone, I could run the hotel the way I wanted to. But the truth was I hated the hotel. It brought in money, sure, but I was happy running the household. Some of the drifters that came through the hotel were not…respectable types. And it was way too much for me to manage on my own. Then I hired someone to do the books, and he ran off with the money.”

The pack would have gone after the thief. “Did you report this?”

“No. My brother was gone. The money was gone. We had debts to pay. I would have lost everything. It just seemed…futile at that point. I’d begun to hate the hotel. I packed my bags and left. It was like once Clarinda arrived, we were cursed.”

“Why didn’t you stay and ask the pack for help?” CJ couldn’t understand why she hadn’t gone to Darien’s father, the pack leader at the time.

“I did when my brother disappeared. Fat lot of luck that did me.”

True, but she could have gone to the pack leader if she felt the sheriff wasn’t doing his job. “What was the fight between your brother and John all about?” he asked.

Her white brows shot up and she looked thoroughly confused, although he swore he saw a faint hint of panic. “John?”

“Your triplet brother.” CJ hadn’t thought he’d have to remind her she had another brother. Maybe they had all been estranged, but he didn’t expect that kind of reaction.

“What triplet brother?”

Was she kidding?

“Warren and I were twins. We didn’t have any other siblings. Well, wait, yes, years later Mom did mention she had a baby that was a stillbirth. So I guess we started out as triplets. But we never thought of ourselves like that. Maybe she named the other baby John. I don’t remember if she ever told us even. But she didn’t have any other living children. Just Warren and me.”

CJ glanced at Laurel. She quickly said, “There are three brothers staying in Silver Town who are claiming they are the sons of John Wernicke.”

Charity was silent for a moment. Then she said, “Maybe they are.”

Laurel looked so exasperated. “You just said your mother didn’t have another living son.”

“She didn’t. But it doesn’t mean that the three brothers don’t have a father named John. However, he wasn’t related to us.”

CJ sat back on the couch. “Well, hell. How did they know about Clarinda and a supposed love triangle?”

“Maybe they’re related to the man who was her lover? How do I know? Are they new wolves or old?”

“Now that I don’t know,” CJ said.

“We’re new wolves. Not royals. Our bloodlines haven’t been lupus garou forever. Our parents were humans turned. If the brothers are several generations lupus garou and can hold their human form during the call of the full moon, then they’re not related to us by any stretch of the imagination. They could be distant cousins. Our dad did have one brother. He was killed in one of the wars, but never had a mate or any offspring as far as we knew. But it’s possible, and that would make his offspring fairly new wolves like us. It will show another hole in the brothers’ story, if they’re royal wolves. Full moon tonight.” Charity smiled. “Good time to check.”