can be a bit cagey.”
Especially when it came to their mistresses, if my father’s friends were anything to go by. Most of them had at least two phones, and some had two names as well—one for their wife and one for their bit on the side.
“Yeah, so I wrote the number somewhere. A piece of paper… Someone probably paid Edwin though. He seemed pretty organised.” Muffled scratching was followed by a wail. “Eh, my kid’s crying. If I find the number, I’ll call you back, okay?”
The impatient part of me wanted to demand he keep looking right now, but I couldn’t afford to alienate what could be our best lead.
“I’d really appreciate it.”
“Wait, here it is.” He reeled off a number, and I wrote it down. “I’m sorry about Mr. Carnes.”
“I’ll pass on your condolences.”
Wow. My heart was going three hundred miles an hour when I hung up. Had I just managed to get a lead on the people who stole Emerald?
CHAPTER 35 - EMMY
SKY’S PERFORMANCE WAS improving. Rapidly. Staying ahead of her on runs was no longer a breeze, and I didn’t have to hold back so much in fight practice. On Saturday, I’d challenged her to a race to the centre chimney of Riverley Hall, climbing up the outside of the building, and she’d damn near beaten me.
Rafael wasn’t a bad teacher, or so it seemed. His methods may have been a little unorthodox, but they worked. No carrots or sticks; he preferred the psychological approach. Every time Sky asked a question, he came back with more questions until she worked out the answer for herself.
Yesterday, I’d seen them lying out on the back lawn. When I asked Sky later what they’d been doing, she said they were visualising the climb up the building so that next time she could do it better. Picture every move, every handhold, and then see yourself at the top. Did it work? Well, when I watched her having another go, she’d certainly seemed fast, and that was borne out by our race. When Black was teaching me to climb, he’d made me stand at the bottom of the cliff, building, whatever and work out the best route up. Rafael’s method made Sky exercise her memory at the same time. Two birds with one stone and all that. Not bad.
But today, Sky’s burgeoning perceptiveness wasn’t doing me any favours.
“You’ve done well this morning. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? Go into town or something?”
“Rafael said he’d run through sniper practice with me this afternoon. Carmen cancelled at the last minute.”
Carmen had cancelled because I’d surprised her, Nate, and their son, Josh, with a trip to a children’s science fair in Florida. Josh loved gadgets, just like his father. I’d also sent Toby to visit his sister in Idaho, encouraged Bradley to go shopping in LA, and given Mrs. Fairfax the day off. The grounds team didn’t work on Mondays. Dustin, my horse’s groom, rarely spoke to Black—he was a man of few words—and an emergency evacuation drill at Blackwood HQ had got rid of everyone else except for the roving security patrol and the guards at the gates. They were familiar enough with my shenanigans that a bit of fancy flying and somebody jumping out of an aeroplane wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
But Sky and Rafael… They were another problem.
“Sky, that wasn’t a request. If it helps, think of it as an exercise. You’ve got to come up with a convincing enough story to get Rafael away from this place without arousing his suspicions.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
I stayed quiet, and I was both pleased and resigned when she put two and two together and made sixty-three. Yup, Sky was smart.
“Is this about our conversation last Sunday?” She nodded, almost to herself. “The whole estate’s quiet as a grave. Everybody’s gone, and you’ve been grumpy as fuck all week. It is. You want to test shit out, don’t you?”
“Once again, you’ve proven why I was right to hire you. About Rafael…?”
“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll do it because I like Alaric and for some unknown reason I like you.”
“Thank you.” Then I changed the subject to an easier one. “How’s Lenny?”
“Yeah, he’s doing good. Says that hospital you put him in is more like a hotel. It’s even got satellite telly and a dinner menu.”
At the price I was paying, I’d expect nothing less, but at least he was recovering from his past indiscretions.
“Bet he’s charming all the