Page 105 of A Dirty Business
“Not really, not if you think about it. It’s the same thing—stay away—but it’s against everyone except the person. You know? The other in the justice system is a restraining order against one person, not everyone. The one I did makes more sense, and a lot more effective too.”
She was talking freely and without fear. And that pissed me off. I felt like reminding her: “I have a gun, and we both know you won’t use the justice system against me, so instead of talking about that, why don’t you explain to me who put it in your head that my mother was the reason for your mother’s suicide?”
She stiffened, hunched down in a chair. “Don’t talk about my mother.”
“Your mother’s the reason we’re here, because news flash, I had no idea your pops and my mom hooked up. I have a feeling I might’ve known that if that had happened, you know, since I’m a PO and all.”
It was dark in the room—my flashlight was the only light—but I could still see her glaring my way.
“I didn’t know until recently. My dad told me, and I think he’s a better source than you.”
I didn’t like hearing that, because ... was it true?
I was still squatting but moved a little closer to her. “He told you recently?”
“Yeah. Why?” she snapped at me. “This is what we’re doing down here? You’re just going to interrogate me? I thought you were going to beat me up or something.”
I admitted, “I’m still thinking about it.”
She gasped.
“Haven’t made up my mind.”
She began whimpering just slightly, and I didn’t buy it, but she was putting in good effort. “My father will kill you for this.”
“Doubtful.” I stood up because I needed to pace. I needed to think. “I have a feeling if your dad could get my death sanctioned, he wouldn’t have had to resort to filling his daughter’s head with decades-old bullshit.”
“Then my brother,” she clipped out.
“I doubt that too. For doing something as reckless as you did, you weren’t smart about it. You didn’t suss out the real relationships going on. If you had, you might’ve stopped to wonder why Ashton took you away and didn’t fire me. Did you think about that? Did you ask yourself why your father was bringing up your mother’s suicide to you recently? I might be going out on a limb, but I don’t think a family suicide is fodder for normal conversation.”
She sniffled, adjusting on her seat. “I have no idea what ‘fodder’ means.”
“The context is that it’s not an everyday fucking conversation. You talk to your dad often?”
She didn’t answer.
I didn’t expect her to, because that didn’t fit the profile. I wasn’t a profiler, but I had enough psychology under my belt to know the reputation of her father wasn’t one of a great father. If he had been, if there was something to this beyond what I was starting to feel was total manipulation, then Trace would’ve reacted.
He hadn’t. There had been no reaction at all.
“I brought this up to your brother, you know.”
Her sniffling quieted, and she raised her head up.
I met her gaze, what I could see from the flashlight. “He didn’t blink once. He shrugged it off. Does that make you wonder again? You have a good relationship with your dad? You trust him? Or you trustyour brother? It seems the two different reactions might say something by itself.”
She looked away, her nose turning up before her mouth did a weird motion. “I didn’t talk to Trace about our mom. He hated her, so why would he care about this?”
“What about Ashton? He’d have the wherewithal to speak on your brother’s behalf. How’d he react when you told him why you were threatening me?”
She didn’t answer.
I took a step toward her, raising my voice. “What’d he say?!”
“He didn’t. He took me to the airport, booked me a flight to Vegas, and told me to stop talking about shit I didn’t know anything about.”
Fuck’s sake. Right there. She said that, and there wasn’t one ounce of remorse in her tone. The whimpering was fake. I stepped back and heard my own voice. It matched what I was feeling on the inside. Cold. “You don’t even believe it.”
