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“At the construction company?” Corey asked. “Doing what?”
“Receptionist.” She shrugged. “But if you can’t afford to hire me, I understand. I’ll find something.” She unwrapped one of the protein bars and shoved the whole thing into her mouth greedily. “Thank you,” she said around the food when Ed offered her a bottle of water. She drained the water bottle, then unwrapped a second protein bar. “Um, I could use something stronger than water, if you’ve got it.”
Without a word, Ed got up and rummaged through the boxes they’d brought from the old camp. He returned with a bottle of cheap whiskey.
Dianne gave it a disgusted look, but she took it, guzzling right from the bottle.
Holy shit. Corey began to wonder if killing her wouldn’t be more merciful than letting her kill herself with cheap booze. Her liver had to be suffering.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Where are Rick and Jace?”
“Rick turned himself in,” Corey said. A slight exaggeration, but it wouldn’t matter.
Her eyes widened in shock. “Rick turned himself in? Why? And where is Jace?”
Corey shrugged. “Rick figured that if he turned himself in, the cops would stop looking for Jace. He did it all on his own. We don’t know where Jace is. He ran away.”
She looked distressed. “But why would the cops be looking for Jace?”
Quickly considering the angles, Corey decided the truth would be okay for this question. “Jace was driving the van on Monday.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “Jace is just a big kid. He’s not capable of thinking up a crime like that. He’ll get chewed up and spat out on the street. I’m sorry. I should have been paying more attention to them. It’s... the drinking.”
Ed squeezed her hand. “Don’t you think it’s time to stop?”
She slumped in the chair. “I don’t know how. Maybe rehab. Except there isn’t any money. Aaron spent it all on that bitch Sandra.”
“We can help you figure it out,” Ed said. “It’s going to be okay.”
“But I failed Rick and Jace,” she said sadly. “We all did.”
Not me. I gave them a place to live and food to eat. Which they were never grateful for.
“We’ll find a way to fix it,” Ed said. “Don’t worry.”
But his expression was grim and Corey figured he was thinking about how hard it would be to kill her. Hell, maybe they wouldn’t need to. It wasn’t like anything she could say to the law would make a difference at this point. His need for an alibi had been decimated when Rick and Jace started talking to the cops.
That he’d killed a drug dealer wouldn’t get him that much time, and Jace couldn’t tell the cops anything more than that. That he’d tried to kill Rick was really Rick’s word against his. And neither of his younger brothers would be alive too much longer. He’d see to it, even if he didn’t pull the trigger himself.
But they could not allow Dianne to find out about Bella Butler. If the law even suspected that they’d killed Bella... That was a much bigger deal than killing Dewey and trying to kill Rick. Maybe they could just stick to the original plan and keep her drunk until they were ready to head out of New Orleans for their vacation in the Bahamas after they finished the Doyle job.
“I’ll try not to worry about anything while I’m here.” She put on her game face. “So what is there to do while we’re waiting for the media ruckus to die down?” She patted her pockets. “I’m missing my phone.”
“It might have fallen out when we moved you here,” Corey lied again. He’d removed the SIM card from her phone and thrown both into the bayou. “You can relax outside in the hammock we have around back. Listen to the birds. Or we can do some fishing.”
“I haven’t fished in a long time,” she said wistfully. “I’d like that. I’ll fry them up for lunch.”
“That sounds a hell of a lot better than protein bars,” Corey said. “I’ll wake Bobby up and we can get started.”
18
Mid-City, New Orleans, Louisiana
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 9:15 A.M.
ARE YOU READY?” Kaj asked, taking Val’s hand. They were using his home office to make the call to Van’s friend and former coworker at Cunningham and Spector.
“Of course,” she told him, grateful for his presence. “Van didn’t know that Sandra was a dealer. I’m sure of that. But I want to know if Aaron knew Sandra back then. And I need to know if Sandra’s dealing is recent or if she was doing it while she was with my brother.”
