From what little I was picking up; they knew absolutely fuck all. Certainly nobody here knew even a fraction of what I did. Did I feel a slight urge to grab the nearest uniformed officer, and tell them everything? Unburden myself, and get things out in the open? Fucking right, I did.
Not just to try and get out from under the thumbs of the Bennetts, but also because it was the right thing to do. No matter what kind of asshole Harvey was, his dad deserved the truth. Not the manufactured story he’d get. His son had been his only family.
But then I pictured Lenore. And what I knew of her past. What I’d found on those two bastards who raped her, back in uni, and how this Harvey guy was the one person she’d trusted. And he’d tried the same. No. He definitely didn’t deserve anything. But she did. She deserved a chance to live a happy life. Even with some monstrous bastard like Marco, with fists the size of my fucking head.
And even if that were not the case… Marco and those Bennett dickheads were willing to do anything to keep her out of it. And if I was the one to let things be known, I’d be deader than this bloated corpse.
“Move back please, sir. Show some fucking respect.” A hand pushed me, and I realised I’d moved too close to the officer guarding this section of the cordon.
“Dammit. Sorry, officer. I was miles away… I’m a PI, investigating a local disappearance. Is there anyone I can talk to about whoever was found?”
He shot me a glare. “I give about as many fucks about you being a PI, as I do about the football tonight. As in zero. Back off from the perimeter, or I’ll cuff you myself.”
Wow. Police really don’t like a PI. Or maybe it’s just me. It could be me. Or my face.
“Please. I have a desperate client who wants to find his son.”
He leaned closer. “Listen, mate. I don’t know who broke your face, but I’m guessing it was someone who already told you to move the fuck on. So do it. My job is to keep you all back, and I’m not in the mood for sob stories. Why don’t you watch the news, and find out there? We’ll notify the guy’s family, if and when we know who it is.”
“So it is a man. That’s something at least.”
The officer groaned. “You people make me sick. Rubbernecking over a fucking crime scene like this. This was a person. Someone died. Whoever they were, they deserve more than people like you hovering over their last fucking resting place, getting a boner. Now fuck off.”
Yep, I’d heard enough. And also, I didn’t want to add ‘being arrested’ to my day so far.
I turned and walked away again, snapping a few pics with my phone, as soon as I was a safer distance away. Moving around the outside of the crowd, I could catch a glimpse from the other side of the cordon. Men in wetsuits, and a forensics tent. I snapped another pic. I needed something to show I’d checked it out.
After that, I hopped back in the car, and headed for the nearest coffee drive-thru on my phone’s maps app.
As I sat in the car, nursing my coffee, I found myself unable to leave her alone.
Me: You okay, little angel? Sorry I had to run. Had a tip come in.
There was no reply immediately, and that bothered me, but I had someone else to check in with, so I dialled the phone.
“This is getting old, Teller.” Marco said tiredly.
I hadn’t expected anything else. “Just wanted to make sure you’d had a heads up about the body turning up, that’s all. I’ve been to check it out. So far the police aren’t saying anything, and it’s apparently quite a mess.”
He sighed. “Yeah, Seb called to warn me. Thanks for ringing though. I haven’t decided whether to tell Lenore yet. She’s in the shower, and I’m sitting here like a little bitch, worrying about what it’s going to do to her.”
I hadn’t expected such honesty and vulnerability from a man like him.
“Seems to me she’s going to find out one way or the other. Better coming from you, so she isn’t caught unawares, surely?”
He was silent.
“I mean, you can save her from that shock and horror she’ll feel, if she turns on the ten o’clock news and sees his face…”
He let out a low growl of frustration. “Jesus… you’re right. You, of all people, are right. I didn’t see that coming.”
Charming. “They didn’t hire me for my looks, Marco.”
“Just as fucking well.”
“On that note, I’m going to go back into hiding, before I make more children cry when they see my face. Have a good fucking night, you sucker-punching dick.”
He snorted suddenly. “Yeah. Go put your face out of everyone’s misery.”