Zach huffed and sat down roughly in an armchair. “Fine. What is it?” He rubbed his chin, still not used to his short goatee.
“Chad and Dallas have some things to say to you.”
“What is it? Let’s get this over with so I can get back to what I was doing.”
“Well,” Chad said, “since you’ve been moping around here like a bull who just got his nuts cut off, Dallas and I decided to do something about it.”
“I ain’t been moping around. I’ve been carrying my weight.”
“That’s not what he means, and you know it,” Laurie said. “Now hear him out.”
“I made a phone call a couple weeks ago, to an old friend of mine from high school. Larry Parks. You remember him?”
“Hell, no.”
“Sure you do. Geeky kid. Kind of short and freckled?”
“Whatever.”
“Anyway, Larry’s a big time PI in Denver now. Not cheap either. Course he gave me a break.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about, Chad?”
“He can uncover just about anything. But he has to leave his scruples at home sometimes…”
“This is becoming tedious.”
“Big word, Harvard man.” Chad chuckled. “Can’t you just say boring?”
“Christ,” Zach muttered.
“All right, all right.” Chad fingered a few manila folders on Laurie’s coffee table. “Larry owed me a favor, so I called him up and asked him to do a little investigating.”
“And I should care about this because…”
“Because I had him investigate a little filly named Dusty O’Donovan.”
“Goddamn it, Chad.” Zach rose. He was pretty sure steam would shoot out his ears soon. “I ought to tan your hide.”
“Aw, sit down. I’m bigger than you anyway.”
“But not tougher.”
“You can whoop my ass later. Besides, it was Dallas’s idea.”
Zach turned his scathing gaze on his older brother. “I’ll whoop his ass too, then.”
“Simmer down,” Dallas said. “Before this goes any further, I have something to say.”
Zach crossed his arms. “I stopped caring what you had to say twenty years ago.”
“I know.” Dallas cleared his throat. “I don’t blame you, but after thirty years of being my little brother, I think you have the right to hear this once. I was wrong.”
“About what?” Zach asked.
“Yeah, there have been so many things,” Chad joked.
Dallas ignored Chad. “About Dusty, Zach. She wasn’t after your money.”