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I glance at my phone. We should go. We’ve spent too long in this house already. I stand up. Grace’s fingers clench the fabric of my shirt. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Me too.” I kiss her one final time, then we leave, closing the door behind us.
We descend the staircase. Claudia looks like she wants to say something, like maybe ask how we managed to sneak up to Grace’s room and hang with her for over an hour without my dad even knowing we’re in the house. But she reads my expression and remains silent. Instead, she shifts her hand to the leather scabbard hanging from her belt and draws out her father’s sword.
She always knows exactly how to cheer me up.
As we emerge in the foyer, Dad crosses from the hallway toward the kitchen, his nose buried in a paper. He sees us out of the corner of his eye. His whole body goes rigid.
Good. You should be scared. This man all but killed my brother and my mother. His hired goons broke into Claudia’s house and hurt Queen Boudica, to protect his secret. The blood on his hands won’t wash away just because we granted clemency.
I hope he pisses himself again. That was fun.
“Son,” the senator nods, peering at us over his glasses. He tries to rearrange his face into a mask of dominance, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“We just stopped by to see Grace,” I say, although my lie is undermined by the sunlight glinting off Claudia’s blade.
Senator Marlowe stares me down with the same violent incredulity he uses on his political opponents. He doesn’t believe a word of my story. No sense in keeping up the pretense.
Claudia flips her hair and smiles her cold Mackenzie smile. It’s strange and a little impressive to see her flick that switch inside herself and becomes a perfect imitation of a girl she’s never met. “We should step into your office, Senator.”
He leads us into the study he keeps behind the morning room. It’s not as impressive as the receiving room – practically a mirror of Howard Malloy’s office with its shelves of leather books and grand oak desk. The thinking room of an important man, utterly devoid of personality or heart.
“You got this place bugged?” Claudia asks, inspecting the titles on his bookshelf. She strokes her finger along the blade.
He shakes his head.
“Good boy. It wouldn’t do for anyone to hear what really goes on in here.”
“And what do you think goes on in here, Mackenzie?” He says it with a laugh in his voice. It’s weird, hearing my father laugh about something very, very grim. I can’t remember the last time I heard him laugh in my presence. Dad and I are the serious ones. Mom and Felix were the ones who loved to laugh and joke with each other.
She shrugs. “You know, shady dealings, backroom deals, that sort of thing. For someone who’s taken a hard stance against organized crime in this city, it’s interesting how your name keeps coming up in Tartarus Oaks.”
It’s a bluff, but he can’t see that. His shields are up. He knows he gave her too much last time, but he doesn’t yet know what she’s capable of. He stares Claudia down with a gaze every bit as cold as her own, but I notice him touching the spot where Tiberius pressed the barrel of his gun.
“I’m calling in my favor.”
“So soon?”
She thrusts her hands onto her hips and tilts her head to the side so her hair spills over her shoulder in a golden wave. “What really happened with Felix?”
“That’s what you want to know?”
“You pissed yourself instead of giving us an answer, and your son would appreciate the closure.”
My father leans back in his chair. “As I told you, Howard Malloy allowed me to bring the case to trial. My wife needed it. She was a resourceful woman. I knew if she couldn’t get answers from the court, she might look for them elsewhere, and I couldn’t allow her to…” his voice trails off, and his gaze flicks over to me. I’m surprised by the calm way his words wash over me. I see him for what he is, and I realize I feel nothing. All my life I’ve been afraid of this man. I’ve done everything I can to make him like me, to hear him say he’s proud of me. And he’s nothing. He’s not worth it.
I know the answer, Dad. You couldn’t allow her to discover what you’d done.
He put us through the hell of that public trial. He drove Mom to end her life in our swimming pool, all because he refused to admit what he did to Felix.
Dad clears his voice and continues. “Malloy promised me he’d got rid of all the evidence. We went through the plan numerous times, searching for a hole either of our lawyers could use to incriminate us. We were satisfied what we’d done would die with us. Malloy knew he’d never be found guilty. In exchange for the farce of the trial, I would push through legislative reforms that would allow his newest products onto the market, right when the trial made Malloy Supplements a household name.”
“That was his price?” Claudia says. “Interesting. My father usually drives a hard bargain.”
The senator sighs. “It’s not all. Malloy wanted to move a large shipment into Emerald Beach. He said that the usual methods were closed to him for the time being. He assured me the shipment wasn’t drugs or anything that would go against my moral stand in the community. I did as he asked. I pulled back my teams from the docks on the night I knew his shipment was heading out. I thought we had everything square, then Malloy shows up here late that night, fuming that his shipment has been stolen. He’s convinced I swiped it from under his nose, but why would I do a thing like that? I told him to get the fuck off my property, that our business was over. The next day I found Harriet…” he swallows. “My wife.”
That’s not entirely true. I found her. I came home from swim practice. The house was empty, her breakfast dishes still sitting at the table, her muesli untouched. The patio door was open and I walked outside and there she was, face-up in the water, a cinder-block looped around her ankle. Her fingers bobbing on the surface, clutching a sodden note with words I could barely make out.
