“Can confirm,” I said before pointing my fork at him. I’d given up on chopsticks. “You’re also a pro at changing the subject when it comes to your work.”
He shrugged. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help. That’s all.”
“Try me.”
“Well, I’d have to know where he is for you to help.”
“Aha! But that is the one thing I can help you with. Private investigator, remember?”
“Yeah, but he is seriously off the grid this time. Not just hiding from his wife.”
“O ye of little faith. Who told you he would show up at the gala?”
“You did.”
“Who served him with papers?”
“You did.”
“Who had video footage of him sneaking into your apartment?”
“You did. Because you are as brilliant as you are beautiful, but I also don’t want to drag you into this. For now, Grandpa believes me. I’ve pieced together everything that was erased and everything that was stolen but not backed up, but I’m still missing some pieces of the overall financial puzzle. There’s gotta be a shell company I’m missing, one that’s hiding really well. Or an employee who doesn’t really exist. Something.”
“Well, how about you work on that, and I’ll work on finding Blake.”
“I don’t think you’ll have much luck, but I’m not going to say no to your help.” Malone stabbed his chopsticks into the red-and-white box of lo mein he’d been eating. I’d never seen him with such a sour expression. Not even the ladybugs had provoked him the way Blake Malone did.
“Hey, Malone.”
“Yeah?”
“What is it about Blake that really eats at you?”
He stiffened. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m no psychologist, but every time you hear his name, you tense up.”
He exhaled and put his box on the coffee table. “That noticeable, huh?”
“Only to someone you’re in a special pizza-based relationship with.”
He chuckled and studied the ceiling. “Blake Malone is, and has always been, a bully. Our parents thought it would be good for us cousins to spend the summer together, but it was sheer torture for me. I guess Blake enjoyed it, probably in the same way some kids enjoy using magnifying glasses to set ants on fire. I hated it.”
“What did he do?”
“Believe it or not, Stark, I was a total nerd.”
“No!”
“Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that a prime male specimen such as myself, a child with a manly name like Tiberius, would have ever been pale, weak, and bookish, but it’s the truth.”
“I like bookish,” I said.
“Luckily for me.”
“So he said mean things?”
“Well, that and sometimes he threw a punch for funsies, but what he really loved to do was to take things away from me. The bigger cookie, the best lawn chair, the prettiest girl. His whole mission in life was to steal from me, no matter how big or small. I soon learned to take nothing I really wanted with me to my grandparents’ house because he would steal it.”
