Page 111 of Degradation
She has a point.
‘Yes.’
‘We should get out there and take a look at the site ourselves now that we have this,’ Lu says, sitting next to me. ‘Visuals are important.’
‘When?’
‘Are you free later today?’ she asks.
‘Bennet and I have to meet for a project. Here, actually. But I can after that.’
She makes a face. ‘The lowlife hipster scumbag? Ew.’
I shrug. ‘He’s okay. Kinda funny, actually.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ she says with a grimace. ‘Let me know what time you’ll be done, and I’ll borrow a car.’
‘Okay,’ I say. ‘I have to go to my stepfather's this week for dinner, too. I might be able to find out more while I’m there.’
Lu nods. ‘Staff always know stuff in the rich people houses, even if they don’t want to. Do you think any of them will talk to you?’
‘Stevens, the butler, maybe. If anyone knows something, it’ll be him.’
‘Will he tell you anything?’
‘I don’t know. He liked my mom, though. I’m sure of it and he would let me hide in the kitchen when things were too much with John when I was a kid. He’s a decent guy.’
I let out a long breath and I put my head in my hands, trying to make sense of it all.
‘But why would my stepfather do it? They were together for years. Why would he suddenly want to get rid of her? I just don't get it.’
‘I don’t know, but, if there's a cover up, it has Novelle’s stench all over it. He definitely has something to do with her death. You need to be careful. If he was willing to kill his wife, he won’t have a problem doing the same thing to you. Maybe it’s time to tell someone else about this. Not the cops obviously, but… I don’t know.Someone.’
‘Blake knows.’
Lu makes a sound of derision. ‘Yeah, but what has the big, bad enforcer done since he found out?’
‘The what?’ I ask, frowning at her.
She looks away. ‘Nothing,’ she says quickly. ‘Just an expression.’
‘Oh. I haven’t heard that one,’ I murmur, shaking off my confusion. ‘He said he was going to look over all the information from the diagnostics data that the camera system spit out, but there was a ton. I think he’s still working through it.’
‘I think you should show him this. Maybe you should show all of them.’
I nod. ‘Maybe so.’
But Lu doesn’t know about Envy. I haven’t told her about my plan, or the fact that I might well make enemies of Mav, Shade, and Blake when they find out I’ve been going behind their backs for weeks.
She looks at the clock and stands up. ‘My break’s over. Do you want me to keep the files?’
I shake my head and stand up, too. ‘I want to look over them again.’
I lurch forward without warning, and give Lu an abrupt, awkward hug. She looks surprised.
‘What was that for?’ she asks.
‘Being you.’
