look, there’s Edith.”
Frustratingly, I’d lost her. I was desperate to know more.
“Why don’t you read a little for me,” said Aggie. Her eyes were heavy, and I sensed she’d doze, as she always did whenever I read to her.
“But I always put you to sleep.”
“That’s why I like it. You have a lovely, soothing voice and I have nice dreams and Monty…”
“Monty?”
She fluttered her hand. “Just read.”
CHAPTER TEN
BRONSON
“Here,” he said, handing me the USB stick. “They should all be there.”
I studied the unshaven investigator for a moment. “That was quicker than I expected.”
“I’ve got my sources. And your guy gets around. As it was, he got the shots from a restroom in a bar frequented by lawyers. It was a Friday night, an after-work shindig.” He sat back in his chair. “You know how some lawyers like to powder their noses.”
Nodding slowly, I pulled out my wallet.
“Just give me another five hundred. That should do it. It was pretty easy. Only took one outing.”
Having expected to pay at least double, I was pleased with that.
When I got home, I jumped into the shower. It had been a long day, and my hands ached. Now that I’d been working ten-hour days, six days a week, my bank balance had bounced back to life, despite my body feeling it.
The hot shower worked miracles in soothing my overworked muscles, and after grabbing a beer from the fridge, I settled in front of my laptop, where I brought up the images the P.I. had taken. There before me, nice and clear, was my scumbag brother bent over, doing a line. As I studied the image, I did wonder what good it would do, considering that Justin didn’t hide his habit. But the courts didn’t know.
And if it took me a lifetime, I was determined to clear my name.
I kept scrolling down to look at all the photos. One made me pause. I enlarged the image and spotted a familiar face at the bar by his side. It wasn’t a surprise—if anything, rather predictable—but it still hit me hard. The blonde in the photo, rubbing shoulders with Justin, was Candy. I looked for Uncle James, but only noticed those two, looking at each other in that unmistakable way, for I could tell they weren’t just talking about the price of bananas, more the size, I imagined.
My uncle was a good guy. He’d always supported me over the years. He resembled my late dad, which wasn’t unusual, given that they were brothers. Both good, salt-of-the-earth men. It pissed me off that Candy was cheating on him, even though it didn’t come as a shock.
I thought about Ava again, which had become a favorite pastime of mine since I’d seen her at my mom’s. My skin crawled as I thought about that bewildered reaction on her face following Justin’s outburst about me being me a jailbird. A beautiful, refined girl like Ava would never look at me the same way again, let alone allow me to seduce her.
One thing was for sure, my need to have her had grown. The trouble was, I couldn’t work out if that was still about revenge or whether my desire for her was something deeper and therefore harder to define.
Whichever it was, I had to see her again.
I asked the cab to drop me off at the end of the avenue. In need of some air, I soaked in the damp earthiness of the established gardens, which was one of the pleasures of being in the suburbs. I had a thing for old architecture, with a preference for gables rather than the flat asymmetrical shapes of modern design—which was often described as bold and intelligent by that well-spoken English dude on cable.
Marcus had called to invite me to his engagement party, which came as a surprise. Knowing how thick he was with Justin, I assumed that I’d been banned from future family occasions following that confrontation at my mom’s fiftieth.
Although I was still in touch with my mom, a month had passed since that spat with Justin. I did wonder if Ava was still in the picture. She struck me as too sensitive and intelligent to stay with that shallow, abusive asshole, especially after what had happened.
I stopped before the lantern-lit driveway to my uncle’s piece of millionaire fantasy. Enjoying the smell of freshly mown grass, I fed my lungs something wholesome after the noxious fumes of city living.
While locked up in prison, I’d had plenty of spare time to dream,