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Tati bellied up to the table and began stacking and moving the empty plates to the far corner. “The reason I reached out to Grant is basically because I need your help. I need to get inside the Cambridge estate. Based on intel from an informant, there’s a piece of evidence there that I can use to put Errol and Ariana away for quite some time. Hopefully, in ill-fitting prison attire that doesn’t align with their professionally curated seasonal color charts.”
“What about Flynn?” Lucas asked, having read that Errol had a twin, potentially culpable, as well.
“Flynn is completely innocent. Operating on the high end of the spectrum, if I were to guess. Not sure what his clinical diagnosis is, but he’s forbidden to speak in public and strictly relegated to a few nonverbal gestures for the sake of appearance. He’s actually pretty smart and hides it well. As far as all of Errol and Ariana’s illegal dealings, he’s nothing more than an innocent pawn.”
“How can you be sure?” Lucas asked.
She eyed one last chunk of celery next to a gnawed chicken wing, picked it up, and crunched down on it loudly. With a mouthful, she brought her hand to her mouth in an attempt of exhibiting table manners and said, “I was his caretaker for six months.”
Grant seemed to be surprised to hear this bit of information.
Interesting, the P.I. was holding out on the police chief.
“How?” Lucas asked. “If what Grant told me is accurate, you were considered a sworn enemy of the Shepherds.”
“I went in undercover. After I was sacked from the FBI.”
“How?” Grant echoed.
“My expertise, when employed with the Bureau, was identity disguise.”
“Like a makeup artist?” Grant asked, not thinking like a police chief but a starstruck layman.
She glared at Grant with the intensity of a thousand laser beams. “No, Chief Mason, like an expert in identity disguise.”
Oh, yeah, Grant was totally tanking with this one. And he was clearly smitten.
“Of course,” he said with a contrite look. “My apologies.”
“Apology accepted.”
Lucas found this exchange interesting, but unproductive. “You said you needed our help.”
“Correct. As you know,” she said pointedly toward Lucas, “Birdie Shepherd is once again married to a Shepherd.”
He bristled. “I’m aware.”
She leaned forward. “Birdie is solid. She was a good and faithful wife to Marshall. However, they didn’t ever consummate their relationship.”
Lucas reared back. “Why not? She’s smart and beautiful and…and kind.”
“Because Birdie was Marshall’s beard.”
Lucas gawked. “Marshall was gay?”
“No, he was in love with Pearl Landon. A socialite from Duxbury, whose family became rich selling the first solar-powered golf carts.”
Lucas squinted. “Aren’t all golf carts solar-powered?”
She replied, “It wasn’t until the fifties, when they became more mainstreamed, when the Landon family began to mass produce the carts, and dominated the market for decades.” She paused, and added, “Pearl wasn’t Marshall Shepherd-level wealthy, but she was considered a well-to-do woman and philanthropist. At the time of Birdie’s marriage to Marshall, she was in the throes of suffering the progressive effects of Alzheimer’s. Ariana and Errol were actively taking advantage of her mental state, becoming more bold in their attempts to apprehend her and do God knows what. Maybe, I don’t know, hold her for ransom.”
Lucas was becoming impatient. “Could you please fast-track to the part about Birdie?”
The woman’s back straightened. “These are people we’re talking about, Mr. Santos. Good people who have been targeted and attacked by a narcissistic mother and her sociopath of a son. Two very sick and twisted individuals, who wanted to divest Ms. Landon of her wealth not because they deserved it or needed it, but for the sheer evil joy of it. Who attempted to apprehend a sick and confused Pearl on several occasions. When they realized I was the one obstructing their efforts, they called for thugs to send a message by breaking into my home and beating me up, and then later kidnapping me and forcing me into a coma while Dr. Hillsboro did who knows what to slowly and systematically murder Marshall Shepherd.
“Later, they created and propagated an insane number of lies concerning Birdie Shepherd. Stripping her of her livelihood and rightful inheritance and eviscerating her reputation.”
She was breathing deeply now, and Lucas was beginning to feel remorseful, but he was pushing her buttons on purpose. Grant sat back allowing this to continue, his own professional instincts in solidarity with Lucas’s.
