Sparrow(48)

“I know he didn’t kill her,” I told him. And me. “He was just thirteen when she took off.”

“That’s true. He didn’t kill her. He just buried her out in the woods, oh, fifteen or so years later, so that no one would find out Cillian died in his mistress’s bed. Right, I forgot you still have some catching up to do. Your mother? She dumped you and your miserable excuse for a dad for Cillian Brennan. Robyn used to meet up with him in a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere, in these very same woods. Worked the lunch crowd at a diner in Amherst, but came here every Tuesday to start her second shift as Cillian’s bitch. Yeah, this was her kingdom.”

He opened his arms and gestured around him. “Must’ve been really crazy about him, and what good did it do to her? After Troy found them shot, he buried her right here in a deep grave. Come to think of it, you are awfully similar to Robyn, aren’t you, Sparrow?” He strolled toward me. “You like to cook, and you’re about to be buried here because of Troy Brennan, Cillian’s son. Of course, you, at least, were his legal wife.”

“Still am. Don’t talk about me in past tense.”

Brock dragged the gun gently along my cheekbone, his eyes drinking in my face. “I like that you’re optimistic. It’s a quality not a lot of city mice possess.”

I didn’t have to believe Brock. I just had to keep him talking. And even if he was telling the truth, it didn’t matter now. Was I appalled at the thought of what Troy might have done? Yes. But even if my husband hadn’t put me out of my misery and told me why my mother had left, where she was and what he’d done, it didn’t matter because soon I probably wouldn’t be able to feel a thing.

“So why did Troy marry me?” I heard myself asking Brock. That really didn’t make any difference either, which is why I asked. No matter the pain, I could take it, because it wouldn’t last very long. Not more than an hour, anyway. And Brock seemed keen on making conversation. It was more time among the living, something I wasn’t exactly opposed to.

Brock twitched his nose and wiggled his index finger back to the hole I dug, which wasn’t very big yet. “Keep digging and I’ll tell you.”

I picked up the shovel but only pretended to make any progress with my grave, mostly just movingthe soil around. In the back of my head I remembered him telling me that he would kill me when I least expected it.

I knew the cabin Brock was talking about was here somewhere. That’s why he brought me here. He wanted Troy to find my dead body, right here.

“Even though your mom was just Cillian’s mistress, he apparently loved her. But she struggled with leaving her family, with leaving you especially. Guess it wasn’t that difficult to walk out on Abe. Not that much of a catch, what with all his drinking and low-life friends. But you…she missed you. Talked about you a lot. At least that’s what Troy told Cat and what Cat told me.”

“Cat?” I choked. Of course. Troy’s only true love. Not me, her. He told her everything, I reminded myself, hurting myself a little more.

Can Sparrows die of heartache?

“Oh, yeah…” He grinned, his face dipping closer to mine when he whispered, “Troy was so in love with my wife, he gave her his balls on a silver platter, and Cat, like the disloyal stray cat she is, spilled everything when we were in bed, while she was coked up to the max on drugs I personally smuggled into the rehab facility Troy checked her into in Malibu.” He threw his head back and laughed, glee written on his face. “I was her counselor there. God, it was so easy to ruin him. He was Samson and she was his Delilah.”

The fact Cat had been an addict was news to me, but one thing was clear. Brock planned this revenge a long time ago.

“Go on.”

“So Cillian did the noble thing and made Troy swear that he’d take care of the little girl his mistress deserted for him. Marry you, to be exact. Fucked up, isn’t it? But that’s mobsters for you. And Cillian was one hell of a fucked-up man. The worst of ’em.”

“You hate him,” I said, turning to look at him.

“Of course I fucking hate him. He killed my dad, so I hired someone to kill him.”

The missing name on Troy’s list. The answer to Troy’s question was Brock.

“Aren’t you even a little bit sad?” I asked. “You were orphaned. Your dad was killed. Then you sent someone to kill Troy’s dad, and now…” I trailed off, exhaling. “Now you’re going to make Sam an orphan, too, because we both know Troy will hunt you down and make sure you’re deader than dead after this. What about Sam? What about Cat?”

“Don’t waste any sympathy on Cat. She’s been fucking your husband under your nose. And don’t worry about my son. ” He moved closer, stopping inches from me, and yanked the shovel from my hand. “After Troy finds your grave and sees how fucking symbolic it is that I buried you right next to your mother, I plan to kill your husband too.”

Now it was my turn to smile. It was a grim, humorless smile, but I had a point to make. “Oh, Brock…” I pretended to laugh. “Such a rookie, even by my standards. You are so fucking dead.”

“You first.” He buried the shovel in the ground and started digging. “Ladies first.”





TROY





MARIA PRETENDED NOT to speak English, but I knew her game. She did it so that no one would speak to her. Not at my mother’s house in Sparrow’s neighborhood where she originally started cleaning for us, and not at my place in Back Bay. It worked for the most part, but then I caught her at the mall, speaking fluent English to a cashier. She almost swallowed her tongue when she saw me waiting in line behind her, but I just smiled and let it slide.

She didn’t want to converse, and it’s not like I fucking needed her intellectual input in my life.

When I walked into my penthouse and saw that she wasn’t alone, I almost lost my shit completely. It was only by a miracle that I pulled myself together. I bit my toothpick so hard, the wood crushed like tissue paper.

“Mr. Brennan…” A short man with no-nonsense clothes and small eyes got up from my sofa—my fucking sofa—and reached to shake my hand. “I’m detective Phil Stratham. My partner is on his way here, as well. I’m here to ask you a few questions about the disappearance of Flynn Van Horn.”

This time it didn’t even take me a second to do the math.

Brock. The fucker tipped the police about Flynn’s death. This was orchestrated carefully. Wasn’t a coincidence. Red was with him and not only did he not want me to find them, he deliberately put an obstacle in front of me. He wanted to serve me my ass on a plate.

Well played, Kavanagh. Too bad I invented the game.

“We have a very strong reason to believe Van Horn was with you the last few hours before his, er, disappearance.”

The detective knew he was dead…and I had a feeling his death was a deliberate “accident” on Brock’s part. You didn’t leave a detoxing junkie alone in a cabin in the middle of the woods. His body was still fresh when I found him. Brock never answered my calls.

The walls were inching in. Closer…closer…

“Got a warrant?” My lips thinned as I walked straight to Maria. Her eyes widened. That was a good thing. She was scared. Maybe she knew something.

“Look, we got a tip and—”

“Got. A. Fucking. Warrant?” I repeated slowly, watching as the hair on his arms stood on end. “If not, get the hell out of my place right now. I won’t ask twice.”

“Brennan…” His voice pitched high. “Don’t talk to me like that. I’m just here for—”

“Someone’s fed you a pack of lies,” I cut him off. “I don’t know if Brock Greystone called you, or if he sent someone else to do his dirty work for him, but I didn’t do shit to Flynn Van Horn other than to deliver him to Greystone. He was the one detoxing him, not me.”

Pretty accurate. I got rid of the body, but for obvious reasons, that wasn’t something I wanted to mention. “Look, I really have shit to do. Our little friendly talk will have to wait.”

With that, I dragged Maria by the arm into the guest room, not caring about raising eyebrows. Pinning her against the closet, I got in her face, opening my eyes wide and giving her my crazy motherfucker look.

“Where’s your son in law?”

“Que?”

“Cut the crap. I know you understand me. I know you speak English when you fucking feel like it, and you better feel like it right now, if you want to get out of this place with your tongue not ripped out of your mouth. Tell me where he is, now.”

Maria started stuttering, a mish-mash of English and Spanish, throwing glances behind my head, hoping Detective Shithead would walk in and save the day. I was losing my patience, diving deeper into despair. Where the fuck could he be? Where could he take her?

“I don’t know!” she shouted. “I don’t know! He never to tell me anything!”

“You lie,” I screamed into her face, losing every ounce of control I had left in me. Time was not on my side. Hell, no one else was, either. “You lie and Sparrow’s life’s in danger because of the fucker. Answer me now, bitch!” I slammed my open palms into the wall. “Answer!”