Dig Two Graves by James Harper (important books to read .txt) 📗

‘You’re right, no reason. What’s unusual is that it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it. And that’s not all—’

‘Hang on. What do you mean it’s the first time you’ve seen it?’

Some of the excitement in Merritt’s voice slipped away as he was forced to explain something that ought to be obvious to a man who was clearly an idiot.

‘My parents never had a copy themselves. All my mother has is one photograph of her and my father. I always assumed it was because of what happened to him. I’m sure you know he committed suicide when I was very young. I thought it was all too upsetting and painful for her. And of course, I never asked her. It’s not the sort of thing a boy asks his mother.’

Evan agreed, probably not. But it still didn’t sound so strange.

‘What was the other thing?’

He felt the satisfied smile on the other end of the line warming his ear as Merritt got to the crux of the matter.

‘My other grandfather, Gerald Bloodwell, isn’t in any of the photographs. He was the groom’s father and there isn’t a single photograph of him. Not one. His wife is in them, everybody is in them, like you’d expect. But not him.’

‘Did you ask him about it?’

There was a nervous stutter of a laugh.

‘I was going to. I told him I’d found the album. He looked at me as if I’d said I’d done something stupid that wiped fifty percent off the company’s share price. So I didn’t say anything more about it.’

‘Maybe he was sick and wasn’t there.’

‘Ha! You’ve never met him, have you? He’s never been sick a day in his life. Being sick is for losers. If somebody chopped my arm off with a chainsaw, he’d tell me to man up and stop complaining.’

Evan kicked back in his chair, went to stand looking out of the window, a restless energy suddenly in his legs demanding movement. It was the mention of Gerald Bloodwell. He was curious, but the job Merritt wanted to hire him for still seemed bizarre.

‘You want me to find out why your grandfather wasn’t in your mother’s wedding pictures?’

Merritt let his exasperation show in his voice.

‘It’s not only that. They’re hiding something. And I can’t ask any of them. If they’ve kept it from me all this time, they’re not going to tell me now. I can’t let it drop either. It’s affecting my relationship with my mother. I look at her and think, what else aren’t you telling me?’

Evan didn’t need anyone to tell him about the cruel games your own mind likes to play, the doubts and fears that come calling in the small hours of the morning, the way that not knowing eats away at you. He’d been there, would be there again. But there was a problem.

‘Your family won’t be happy about me digging the dirt.’

Merritt’s voice was a mix of smug satisfaction at having a ready answer and apprehension at what that answer implied.

‘I’m surprised they haven’t called you already. Somebody tried to kill Arabella again yesterday. She’s in the hospital.’

Evan didn’t need the timeline spelled out. The latest attack had taken place on the day after Thomas Carlson died. His daughter Arabella had already inherited.

He ended the call with a couple of things on his mind.

It had never been about the money.

And Merritt wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been told the whole truth.

11

‘I thought I’d be seeing you again,’ Leon said when he picked Evan up in the Bentley at Logan International. ‘You here to stir up trouble?’

‘Only if you think it might help.’

Leon grinned at him. Evan noticed a bruise on his jaw and a graze on his knuckles as if he’d been in a fight, didn’t say anything about it for the moment.

‘Tell me what happened to Bella.’

Leon shook his head gently, not a refusal, but in disbelief. There was a residue of anger in his voice. Anger at himself for being so stupid.

‘After Mr Carlson died, everybody relaxed. We all thought she was safe.’

A dozen words and already Evan could’ve argued with him. The person or persons who knew the things he wasn’t being told didn’t think that at all.

‘The security was dismissed, the police at the bottom of the drive too. Then Bella decides she wants to go shopping. She made up some excuse about needing to get something to wear for the funeral. Personally, I think it was just to get her out of the oppressive atmosphere in the house. So I drove her to Newbury Street, waited in the car while she went into the shops. She came out of one of them with her arms full of bags. It’s lucky really. If she’d only had one or two, I wouldn’t have gotten out to help her. Then suddenly I heard the roar of somebody gunning a big engine. I looked around and an SUV is coming right at us. I dived at Bella, knocked her across the sidewalk, landed on my chin.’ He angled his face at Evan, thrust out his jaw. ‘That’s where I got that.’

‘What about Bella?’

Leon sucked air in through his teeth, looked a little sheepish.

‘I’m a lot bigger than she is. I really sent her flying. She hit a railing and sort of flipped over it, bounced down a flight of concrete steps on her head. She was out cold. Blood pouring out of a gash in her scalp. I swear I saw the white of the bone. And there’s all these sickos with their phones out taking pictures of her lying there all crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. If I hadn’t been so desperate to get her to the emergency room there’d be a lot of people walking around with phones stuck up their asses, I can tell you.’ He looked at his grazed knuckles gripping the wheel like he was wishing he’d skinned them on the bystanders’ faces, then carried on. ‘She’s got a