The Pretender - Cora Brent Page 0,70
out on my bed. I’m still aching to hear any news at all from Ben but in the meantime no one should ever underestimate the healing power of pouring your heart out to a friend.
“Well, for starters I’m completely in love with Ben Beltran…”
Ben
The Devil Valley PD doesn’t quite know what to make of all this excitement. A drunken New Year’s brawl between cousins would have been their speed but a high stakes business world scandal is a little out of their league. After they take statements there’s no talk about any charges for the assault on Angus since it was self defense in my own house. They seem eager to turn the case over to the authorities in the state where the real crime occurred.
The murder of my father.
When my mother arrives she looks like a basket case and she weeps as she clutches me and then exclaims over my bruises. Then a sudden shift occurs and she becomes steely eyed and begins making demands. She wants a lawyer. And she wants to make some phone calls. She still has a direct number for Reginald, my father’s old friend, the former federal agent who helped us get new identities and a new beginning in Devil Valley. Within hours he arranges for us to be put on a flight to Coral Beach.
The original responding officer is still on duty and offers to drive us home. He goes off to get his car and my mother dashes to the rest room while I wait outside. The last time I looked at a clock it was ten a.m. That had to be at least an hour ago. I know Camden is waiting to hear from me but my phone battery has been dead for hours.
I’m watching the cloud covered sky and wishing for the moment when I get to hold my girl in my arms again when a sleek black car pulls up. Two serious looking men emerge and walk right into the police station without glancing at anyone. They kind of look like secret agents, sunglasses and all, but I’m not thinking that their presence has anything to do with me. Not until the back passenger door opens and my cousin Grey steps out.
I’d like to punch him in his puffy, pathetic face. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He holds up a leather gloved hand. “My lawyers needed to have a word with the police chief.”
“Those guys are your lawyers?”
“They are.”
“Figures.” I exhale with disgust and glare daggers. “I wish he was dead.”
“He’s not.”
“I know.”
“He does have a severe skull fracture and perhaps some brain damage.”
“Bound to be an improvement.”
“I’m flying him to a real hospital as soon as the paperwork clears.” Grey says this with annoyance, as if he’s discussing a parking ticket. “I suppose the press will pick up the story.”
“I suppose they will.”
He looks at me. “Look, I know you hate my guts but I just want to tell you that I came here only planning to do right by you. And you can say whatever you want but it won’t stick. Whether anyone believes you or not, in the end it won’t matter.”
He’s saying that he has every confidence in the Drexler money and connections to make all this ugliness go away. That may be true. But I’m stepping up anyway. In what might be my last conversation with my cousin I render my final judgment.
“You believe me, Grey. You know what he is. What the family is. I wonder what kind of lessons you’re going to teach your own son.”
He flinches at that. I take some satisfaction in knowing that every word will stay in his head forever.
Grey ducks back into the car. “Good luck to you, Ben.”
I do not wish him the same.
The car is still there when my mother joins me but I say nothing to her about who is inside. For the second time today I climb into the backseat of a police cruiser. I’d like to ask to be dropped off at Camden’s, however the sight of a cop car in front of her house will only bring neighborhood gossip and I’ve already caused her family enough grief for now.
The cop turns onto our street and pulls up to the curb. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt glad at the sight of the slate colored house we’ve occupied ever since arriving in Devil Valley. Plenty of times I’ve been guilty of thinking of this place as a dump. I was