Page 15 of Death in the Family
“Oh my God,” said Abella. “I mean, I’d love to, of course!” Flynn watched her closely, took in her red face and the slur in her speech.Nice, he thought.First time meeting the family, and the girl gets shitfaced.
“It’s an idea,” said Bebe, “but—”
“What do you think, Jas?” said Miles.
“Might cramp my style, what with all my office affairs.” Jasper grinned as Abella rolled her eyes. “You might be onto something, Nana.”
“No more for her,” said Miles sharply, his sudden change in tone at odds with the happy atmosphere. Norton had taken the new bottle of wine around the room and come to Jade. The girl held up her glass for her share, but Norton hesitated.
“Aw, let her have it,” said Jasper. “It’s just a little wine.”
“She’s fourteen,” said Miles. “One is enough.”
“Come on, man, it’s a special occasion.” Jasper winked at Jade and her cheeks went pink. The kid was well on her way to joining Abella in her drunken haze.
“You’re such a killjoy, Miles,” said Bebe.
“You can give her some of mine, it’s mostly water,” saidCamilla. “This job idea. Promise you’ll all talk it over. I would hate for Abella to have to go.”
“No one’s going anywhere,” said Miles, nodding at the window. “Have you seen the forecast for tomorrow? This is going to be one hell of a storm.”
“Welcome to the family,” Jasper said, kissing Abella’s neck. “Looks like you’re stuck with us.”
Abella tried and failed to suppress a hiccup and raised her glass to toast the room. “Fine by me. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
—
“Forgive me,” I said, “but I don’t see it.”
I’d have bet a month’s salary Flynn was going to paint Abella as a murderous vixen prone to fits of rage. Instead, he’d described a girl with every reason to stay on Jasper’s good side. The couple seemed to care for each other. Camilla liked Abella so much she wanted to give her a job with the family business.
“Don’t you get it?” said Flynn. “She needs Jas, and the feeling isn’t mutual. There’s no way he’d hire her. She’s just a fling.”
“But he brought her all this way to meet the family. Norton prepped for days. Ned’s under the impression they’re getting engaged.”
“Ned repeated a rumor he heard from Jade, a kid who stirs shit up just for laughs. Abby—or Bella, or whatever her name is—is a fuck buddy, nothing more. She may be the first girl to come here, but we’ve met dozens of Jasper’s girlfriends in the city. We used to do a family dinner once a month at some of the best restaurants in Manhattan, and he brought a different woman every time. Abella’s not his one and only. She’s just the only one who realized she’s being used.”
The implication was Abella wanted more than Jasper was willing to give. As far as motives for murder go, I thought, it was weak. “You don’t do that anymore? Get together as a family?”
“It was our mother who organized those dinners. So no,” Flynn said bitterly. “We don’t.”
Two years since the death of their parents meant two years without family get-togethers. It wasn’t as if Bebe, Flynn, Jasper, and Camilla couldn’t have kept up the tradition. That left me wondering if there was another reason the siblings no longer made an effort to catch up.
“And you didn’t hear anything last night?” I confirmed, remembering Norton and Camilla’s insistence that nothing happened after dark. “Voices maybe, or loud noises? Seems like you might not have slept so well, given what’s going on with Ned.”
Flynn bristled. “I’ll tell you what I heard. I heard perfect little Abella stumbling around drunk in the hall.”
“How do you know it was her?”
“What?”
“How do you know it was Abella you heard and not Jasper, or somebody else?”
He hesitated. “There was a fight. I heard them shouting.”
“What time was this?”
“Late, past midnight. Abella must have left the room to use the bathroom afterward. I didn’t hear anything else.”
