with a warning because I’d been doing something wrong. No, we’d become friends because he’d taken my recording to his superior…and he hadn’t laughed when I’d screamed while ripping the tape off. Well, not until I’d started laughing, anyway.
The memory of our meeting flashed through my mind as Nyx and I made our way to the table where Maury was waiting. He was off duty and in civilian clothes, but there was still something about him, that thing that some police officers have where it doesn’t matter how they’re dressed, they look like cops.
“You two look like shit.” He leaned back in his seat, his dark eyes quickly assessing both of us even before we sat down.
“Thanks,” I said dryly as I took the seat across from him. “You try gettin’ up at the ass crack of dawn, flying for a few hours, then getting home to find your place trashed and vandalized. See how good you look then.”
“I heard about that.” Maury’s expression grew serious. “No one was hurt, right?”
“Not physically, at least,” Nyx said. “Scared the Huxleys pretty good, though.”
“I heard that too,” Maury said. “They’re good people.”
“I hope that means you’re going to help us find the bastards who did it.” After a moment, I added the part I hadn’t told Maury yet. “And help us prove why they did it.”
“Why they vandalized and trashed the ranch? I figured it was the usual racist shit.” Maury leaned forward. “What aren’t you telling me, Bradyn?”
I looked at Nyx, and she nodded. It was time to bring someone else into the know. It was a risk, especially for Nyx, since she had to rely mostly on my judgment, but a line had been crossed. I didn’t know if whoever had trashed our cabins would have hurt anyone if someone had been there, but it wasn’t something I was willing to risk if they tried again.
Starting with my part of things seemed the easiest. “I’ve been working on a documentary about some of Savannah’s most prominent families but focusing on the truth of their pasts.”
“Yours?”
“That’s one of them, yes.”
Maury let out a low whistle. “You’ve got some serious balls on you.” As soon as he said it, he glanced at Nyx and blushed. “Sorry, miss.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She made a dismissive gesture. “And it’s Nyx. Not miss.”
“Sorry, mi-Nyx.” He turned back to me. “You don’t think your parents had the place trashed as a warning about the film.”
Another reason I liked and respected Maury was that he was smart. He could’ve been a detective or start working his way up the other ranks, but he’d only ever wanted to be a training officer. I was glad to know that someone like him was influencing future police officers.
“It’s not just the film,” I said. “You saw Nyx’s PI license, right?”
“From New York. I remember.”
Not a surprise. He didn’t miss much. “There’s some confidentiality about her case,” I continued. “But what you need to know is that she found out my ancestors did some seriously shady shit. Even more than owning slaves, I mean.”
“You think your parents would go to all that trouble just so you won’t badmouth people who lived a couple hundred years ago.”
“More like they’re worried that we can prove they not only know what their ancestors did but that they’re still covering it up, which means they could lose a lot of money,” Nyx said. “Pride is a nice motive by itself, but if you add in money…pretty bad combination if you ask me.”
“It is,” Maury agreed. “I’m guessin’ that means you’re sure it’s your parents behind what happened at the ranch.”
“I’d be surprised if it wasn’t.” I sighed. “But you know as well as I do that it’ll be almost impossible to get enough evidence to arrest them, let alone convict them.”
“And you think I can help you.”
“We want to confront my father, and we need you to help us figure out a way we can do it and use whatever we get in court.”
Maury let out a low whistle. “You’re going to help send your dad to prison?”
“If I have to,” I said. “I’m hopin’ that we can get somethin’ bad enough that he won’t be able to just talk his way out of it. He’ll have to bargain at the very least.”
While Maury thought, I turned my attention to the food on my plate.
I hated that it’d come to this. I’d never thought of my parents as being ‘good people.’ Yeah, they donated to