I read the heading aloud. “Title: A ton of money and it ain’t worth shit. Date: Couple weeks ago. Maybe more. Hard to tell when you’re dyin.”
“Keep reading,” Sapphire said as she pulled another note from the box. “We need to get through all of these. Everyone, take one and call out anything important, especially anything that might help us find Frank or Bob.” She passed the folded notes around the table and grabbed one herself.
As I read about Frank stacking Bob’s laundered cash on his brother’s table and claiming he had no idea what to do with it, I wanted to put my fist through the wall. Frank had lectured us about honest work our whole lives. Every single day. It had all been bullshit.
I’d spent thirty-two years thinking I knew Frank Branson—the man who’d raised me, beat me, called me useless, and never once told me he was proud of me. Turned out, I hadn’t known him at all. None of us had. Somehow, that was worse than anything else I’d learned today.
“Listen to this,” I said, and read out loud: “When I googled my symptoms and figured out what I got, I reckoned I had six months to live. By the time I got my shit together and made a plan to vanish, five months had gone. I’d stocked this place with a month’s worth of food. I’m fucked if I run out, ‘cause I can’t go outside. Last thing I need is to run into one of Bob’s men.”
“So, he’d been planning this for months,” Sapphire said, frowning at her own page.
“Maybe he did leave the house at some point,” Xavier said. “Didn’t Lyle say Bob sent the Henderson brothers to William’s house? That could be how Bob found out where he was hiding.”
Sapphire nodded and jotted something down in her notepad.
“But why didn’t Bob go himself?” Charlie asked.
“Because Bob doesn’t do his own dirty work,” I said. “Keep reading.”
“Does anyone remember Ingrid?” Cassidy said, not looking up from her page.
I frowned. “Frank’s girlfriend after Mom left?”
“Yeah. Listen to this.” Cassidy kept reading in silence for a moment. “Frank goes on about Ingrid doing the books and then—this is genuinely gross—how they were having an affair while he was still with Mom.” She shook her head. “There’s stuff about you in here, too, Dec. I’ll pass it to you in a sec. But listen to this.” She lifted the page.
“She told me once she hadn’t meant for it to get serious. Said she’d only ever planned on doin my books, not doin me.” Cassidy stuck out her tongue and shuddered. “I told her plans are for people who don’t know what they want. Then all that bullshit happened with Edith. When I found her with that bastard in my shed—read my other note if you’ve forgotten—I did what needed to be done. Nobody screws my wife and lives to talk about it.”
“Jesus, did Frank just admit to murder?” Charlie said.
“Maybe,” Cassidy said, “‘cause listen. After I handled that prick, I needed Ingrid’s help to clean up the mess. She didn’t scream. Didn’t faint. Didn’t run to the police. She went pale as milk and threw up twice, but she stayed. She understood the need for secrets. After all, we’d been living one for months. After Edith vanished, Ingrid moved into my bed proper. Not because I dragged her there. Because that’s where she’d been headed all along.”
Cassidy put the page down. “Fucking creep.”
“Mom had an affair?” I said.
“Christ. Can this get any worse?” Declan’s voice was flat and tight.
I banged my fist on the table once. “What the hell went on in this place?”
“Let’s find that other note he’s referring to,” Mitch said. “Maybe we can finally find out what actually happened to Mom.”
“Nothing on this one,” Bella said, folding the note up. “Can I swap?”
Sapphire pulled another note from the box, unfolded it, read the heading, and her expression shifted in a way that made my neck hair stand on end. “What?” I asked.
She handed it to me. “This one’s about you.”
The title stopped me cold.
Kayden was always a ratbag.
“Great start,” I muttered, and kept reading.
The first section was Frank doing what Frank had always done, listing my failures like he was rattling off a supply list. Troublemaker. Bullshitter. Went off the rails after Mom left. Had to whip his ass more times than I can count.
I’d heard all of it before. To my face.
I read faster.
