not really Mackenzie—”
“No, I mean, this is how I help, right? I won’t put anything on air you don’t want out, but I’ve got a whole network of fans all over the world who can help us with information as long as we’re fighting for a noble cause.”
Gabriel grins. “I can’t think of anything nobler than saving Claw’s shaggable arse.”
George continues. “Since Eli’s dad is connected to this Brutus guy, that gives me reason to start digging through my old files again. Oh, speaking of Brutus, I think I know where he is.”
I drop my fork.
She’s kidding, right?
We’ve been looking everywhere for this guy, trying to keep this secret from George, and all along she’s had the information we need?
How did she manage to find him when Antony couldn’t?
Antony leans forward, and I swear his ears perk up like Queen Boudica when she hears me opening a tuna can.
“Okay, pipsqueak, we’re listening.”
38
Claudia
“Run it by me again how you managed to figure out where Brutus is hiding out?” I growl.
It’s Sunday. I’m in the kitchen with George and Gabriel, frying steaks for dinner (or rather, I’m frying. George has her research spread out over the table. Gabriel is pulling spatulas from the drawer and trying to whack my ass with them). We’re waiting for Noah to get back from his final winter track meet (fuck knows how he’s explained the welts on his arm from the whip) and Antony to return from the club so we can head out to have a little chat with Brutus.
“It’s simple. When I was researching Memories from the Hart, I started looking into what Walter Hart was doing with the bodies he wasn’t giving back to grieving families. I thought maybe he was selling the organs, but it turns out that you have to yank them out pretty soon after death for them to be viable. It’s more likely he was selling body parts on the medical market.”
“Do I want to know what the medical market is?” Gabriel asks.
“It’s where your body goes if you donate it to science,” George explains. “Mostly it’s chopped up cadavers medical schools purchase for teaching anatomy to doctors. Demand always exceeds supply, so plenty of schools won’t ask too many questions about the provenance of their supplies. It’s been like this ever since the earliest days of medicine, where medical students spent their nights robbing graves to supply cadavers for their anatomy lessons—”
Gabriel makes a face. “You take way too much delight in this stuff.”
“I know.” George grins. “So, anyway, I dug around a little into the medical market, learned some delightful things on the dark web, and I came up with this guy’s name – Brutus August. Apparently, he’s the guy you call if you want to sell a dead body in Emerald Beach.”
Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. “That’s my uncle, a real charmer."
Brutus seems determined to stomp on Daddy’s legacy. First, he gets out of the antiquities trade, then he doubles down on drugs and starts dealing in skin. He repeals Daddy’s rule about damnatio ad bestias. Now he’s moving cadavers?
Daddy is rolling in his grave.
“From everything I’ve heard, the guy is terrifying and dangerous and not well-liked,” George says. “He’s also fucking good. There’s no evidence he’s connected to Memories of the Hart. He’s wiped everything clean. I take a chance that Walter Hart isn’t that savvy. I got a hacker friend of mine to break into Walter Hart’s laptop and download files from a hidden directory. Those photographs show Walter and Brutus together at a party. It’s not enough to stand up in court, but it was a clear sign to keep digging. I handed over that photograph along with all my other information to the FBI, but August’s name never came up in the trial. I figured he’s organized crime so they can’t touch him and forgot about it until Eli asks me if I could look into him, along with what really happened to the Malloys. I remember the photograph of his dad with Brutus, so we confront Walter Hart with it and see if we can shake something out of him. Well, Eli confronts him, after he bribes a warden and—”
“Elias Hart bribed someone?” Gabriel bangs the table with glee. “This is bloody brilliant.”
“It was terrifying,” George shudders. “We needed to sneak Eli’s phone into the prison to record their conversation. But it worked – we got confirmation from Walter he worked with Brutus and we found out he’s been visiting Walter