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Gianni snorted. “Trust me, you really don’t. What do they call it—plausible deniability? If someone starts asking questions, you can say in all honesty that you know nothing.”
“Since when do you know anything about the law? And before you start throwing such terms about, you’d better check your facts, because I don’t think that phrase means what youthinkit means.” Bruno’s heartbeat quickened. “She did die the way you said she did? Because of her head wound?”
Gianni dropped his towel and put on his robe. “Sure. We’ll go with that.”
He sprang to his feet. “No, we’ll go with the truth.”
“And what if you can’t handle the truth?”
Bruno had heard enough. “I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”
Gianni scowled. “That’s the problem. You’re not the man I thought you were. You’ve gone soft. If Grandpa could see you now, he—”
Bruno’s laugh sounded bitter to his own ears. “‘Grandpa’ makes him sound like a sweet old man, but we both know better, don’t we? Now sit.” He pointed to the bed. “And start talking. Because I’m not leaving this room until you’ve told me everything.”
Gianni flopped onto the bed with a sullen expression. For a man of twenty-seven, he behaved like a child sometimes, petulant and stubborn.
But no child possessed his cunning, his malice.
“I settled an old score tonight, that’s all.”
Bruno frowned. “What old score?”
Gianni was quiet for a moment. “What if I was to tell you Cheryl Somers wasn’t born with that name?”
Bruno rolled his eyes. “I know you think I’m ancient, but I’m not stupid. Even I could work out she was transsexual.”
Gianni nodded. “Yeah, but whatIdiscovered was, before she was Cheryl, her name was Benjamin Raskin.”
Something began to clang in the deep recesses of Bruno’s mind. “Why do I know that name?”
“Because nine years ago, Benjamin Raskin killed my best friend.”
Shock thrummed through him. “Connor?”
Another slow nod. “Raskin was the other driver.”
“But—” Bruno wracked his brains for the details. “—it wasn’t his fault. Connor caused the accident that killed him, not Raskin. Everyone said so, the witnesses, the police.”
Gianni gaped at him. “Seriously? And Raskin’s dad justhappenedto work for a wealthy family that was able to pull a few strings, even pay people off?”
Bruno’s stomach plummeted. “Gianni, listen to me. I know you and Connor were close, but—”
“Close?” Gianni’s eyes were huge. “He was my best friend. He’dbeenmy best friend since we were five years old, when you took us to stay with Uncle Paul in Nantucket for the summer.”
The Brightmores’ summer home was next to Paul’s, and the two small boys had been inseparable. If ever Gianni couldn’t be found, Bruno had known to look no further than the house next door, and Connor spent as much time with them as he did playing with his sisters.
“How did you find out about Cheryl?”
That earned him another snort. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I knew I had to make him pay. I used to call him, telling him he hadn’t escaped justice, that I’d get him in the end.”
“When was this?”
“For two years after Connor died.”
Bruno’s mouth fell open. “You… you were eighteen.” Eighteen years old and making death threats.
Cold flooded through him. Bruno had the feeling he’d never known what his son was capable of.
