“Oh! Sorry.” She tried to recover herself. She couldnottell him about his father killing a man and getting away with it. Or that Derek Oliver found out about it and blackmailed him. No, no, no. Or could she?
Troy sat down on the couch across from her. “You have to tell me all of it.”
“That’s for your mother to say.”
“I’m not a minor who has to be protected.”
Sara couldn’t think what to say, so she was silent.
“I grew up in LA, the sordid city of sin. I know things normal people don’t. I know about my father’s proclivities. More than once there were, uh, problems. Mom used her influence to keep things out of the tabloids. She’s not easily upset, but when she got your invitation to come here, she nearly passed out. I know she was upset about my bio father, but I think it was more than that. I want to know everything.”
Sara was still silent, trying to decide what to do.
“Okay, what can I offer in return? I am Harry Adair’s biggest fan. If you’re looking for something in his movies, I probably know what it is. So what is this about murder?”
“Which one?”
It was Troy’s turn to be shocked. “This is getting interesting. If I take you to Joe’s Crab Shack for lunch, then go with you to the home and set up the VCRs, will you tell me all of it?”
“I...” Sara hesitated.
“How about entertainment? I heard that my brother can sing. So can I. Think Jack would sing a duet with me?”
When she spoke, it was soft. “I think that meeting you will make Jack cry.”
“Me too.” He took a breath. “So how many murders are there?”
“Including the execution that may or may not have been of an innocent man?”
Troy’s eyebrows went up. “Yes! Every one of them. I’m like my dad and I do love a good murder plot.”
Sara knew she should probably keep her mouth shut, but the need to talk to someone about everything was overwhelming her—and this young man seemed like a good bet. He wasn’t born when Derek was murdered, so he was innocent of the crime. She had to be cautious about Barbara’s side of it all but... “Joe’s?” she asked.
“My dad used to say, ‘Give a woman fried food and tequila and she’s yours.’ Of course he meant making them sign contracts that weren’t to their advantage, but still...”
Sara laughed. “I’ll pass on the drink, but I wouldn’t mind a tubful of steamed seafood.”
“I have a rental car here, and I know how to get there.”
“That’s all I can ask of life.”
Smiling, they went downstairs.
Thanks to the wide, clean streets of Fort Lauderdale, they were inside the darkened Joe’s Crab Shack just minutes later. They were seated and their order was taken.
“Start talking,” he said.
She took a moment. “It’s like we have pieces of a puzzle but we don’t know how they fit together. We don’t even know the picture they’ll make when we complete the puzzle.”
“My dad would have used that line in a movie.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“Okay. Start with Derek Oliver. I’ve picked up enough to know you found his body.”
Sara hesitated. What should she tell him and not tell him? Certainly nothing about the jewels and the hedgehog. “Basically, the man threw a week-long party and invited people he was blackmailing.”
Troy’s eyes widened. “And he was threatening my mother about some long-ago murder?”
