Page 15 of Pocketful of Shame

"No," I snapped. "Strike him off, Pres."

Wisely holding his tongue, Presley scratched my father's name off his list before asking, "What about your mama?"

I glared at him. "She's number three?"

"Sure is."

"The woman who genuinelyisin a state of cata-phobia since my brother's death? You think she'd kill her own son? The same woman who was at home with me the night he died? Seriously, asshole?"

"Catatonia," he corrected with a small tug of his lips. "And we have to be open-minded here, Sketch."

"By suspecting only members ofmyfamily?" I arched a brow. "Hell no. Forget it. Strike my folks off that damn list. He was the apple of their eyes. Ain't a damn thing either one of them would've done to harm a hair on golden boy's head."

"Golden boy." Presley let out a whistle. "Ooof, am I sensing some deep-seeded sibling hostility, mister black sheep of the family?"

"You know what I meant," I muttered, rubbing my jaw.

"I sure did," he agreed. "But speaking of your parents – have they tried to contact you since we left Pocketful?"

"Wouldn't know. Turned my phone off."

"Is that wise?"

I brushed off his question and changed the subject, knowing full well that it didn’t matter whether I had my phone turned on or not. Nobody was going to come looking for me. "Who's number four?"

"Cal Dillon."

I grunted my approval. "NowthatI can get on board with."

Pres chuckled. "I bet."

"What about Vic-whore-ia?" I suggested then. "Put her down as number five."

"Already beat you to it, buddy."

"Number six?"

"Uh, I've only got five."

"Five?" I deadpanned. "I thought you were supposed to be a genius? So far, all you have is a list of my parents, Romi's asshole dad, the whorefuckingboth of our dads, and some faceless dude. Good job, Pres." I gave him two solid thumbs up. "You're on fire."

"Got any suggestions?"

"What about people at school?"

He shook his head. "Nah, your brother was adored. And besides, this is bigger than some shitty high school grudge."

"Enemies of the family?"

"Know any?"

"No." I sighed in defeat. "None that I know of."

He smirked. "Not so easy, is it?"

"Well, you said all of this started when Chris started digging around in Vic-whore-ia's business." I waved a hand around aimlessly. "I say we start there."

"Or we could wait until we get Romi back and ask her?" he suggested. "Chances are she knows a helluva lot more than us, dude."

---