“Hard to tell for sure,” Anthony said. “But it’s clear that the brothers are planning to stage his suicide. Can you send us the address you found?”
“Give me a second.”
Once they got the link, Anthony clicked on it, then waited for almost a minute because of the weak reception. Once the link loaded, he frowned at the screen.What’s this?
Ethan turned to him, his face pale. “It’s not where we've been looking.”
The address was for a house on the other side of the state, on the way to Rhode Island—hours from where they had spent all morning.
“I also found out another piece of information,” Mickey said. “It turns out that someone had recently reinstated the electricity in that house after it had been disconnected for years.”
They’re there. Anthony had no doubt. “Thank you,” he said and hung up the call.
“I’m calling the police,” Ethan said. “I’ll tell them to send someone over there.”
Anthony nodded and got back on the road with screeching tires.
25
TREVOR
He made Jay swallow enough pills to knock him out cold on the examination chair. Seeing that wild man bound and defeated was a sight to behold, and Trevor enjoyed beholding.
Back upstairs, Daniel sat on the couch in the living room, shirtless with his hands tied behind his back. The fireplace spread cozy warmth across the room, reminding Trevor of long-ago winter days when his parents and brother would watch TV together. He’d always known they were all messed up in different ways, but those rare moments made them feelalmostlike a normal family.
“I’m hungry,” Andy said.
“Yeah, I hear you. Let me get Daniel here wasted, then I’ll go grab something to eat.”
“You don’t need me wasted. I gave you what you wanted.”
Trevor sat next to him, pulling him close. “You still don’t get it?”
“What don’t I get?”
Trevor took the bottle of vodka from the table. “Take a sip, then I’ll tell you.”
Daniel reluctantly complied. Only after he’d drunk a considerable amount, Trevor placed the bottle back on the table and leaned back on the couch. “I need you dead, Danny boy. I don’twantto, obviously, but what else am I supposed to do?”
“Maybe not be a fucking murderer.”
“It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”
“You want me to drink heavily for the autopsy. That’s also why you’re careful about leaving bruises.”
Trevor smiled. “How did you get to be both smart and sexy?”
“People are not as dumb as you think.”
He cocked his head. “Aren’t they, though?”
“No. Your mother raised you to think you’re something special, but you’re not. I have no reason to take my own life, and you have every reason to want me dead. Can you get away with my murder? Maybe. Will it raise enough suspicion to make a judge not give you the inheritance? You bet your ass it will. Can you even picture Andy surviving a police interrogation? He’ll tell them everything in a minute.”
Trevor’s heart drummed faster. It wasn’t like him to let people’s opinions get under his skin, but Daniel had hit all the right spots.
He’s speaking out of his ass, a desperate man trying to stay alive.
But he’s a lawyer. He should know a thing or two about how these things work.
