“If they have no usable information,” I spoke up, shifting her to the bed. “What has you concerned? They were always coming after me. What’s changed?”
“Riot Royale. Someone brought a gun and Crows were all standing there stone-faced when I asked if it was them. That I had to give them something damning, so I told them you barely sleep or eat, and you’re hooked on pills to help you stay awake studying,” she rushed out.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but this is one of those ‘he said, she said’ accusations that can’t be proven unless someone drug tests you. Jeremy can’t say I lied, and no one else can say... it’s... true. I thought this was... the best way...” Rainey trailed off as my guffaws reached deafening.
I clutched my stomach, tears leaking from my eyes—laughing louder than I had in years. “Gave me a pill addiction?” I wheezed. “And he bought it?”
She nodded, eyes wide.
“Guessing you did the s-same for Arsenio, Cairo, Legend, and Roan?”
“Um, yes.”
“I gotta hear this.”
“Cairo has a foot fetish. Snaps pictures of women’s feet when they’re not looking. Legend got a girl pregnant and their baby was put up for a closed adoption. Roan picked up a few communicable diseases. Arsenio and his mom are a little too close. He calls her mommy when he thinks no one is around.”
I stopped breathing, I was laughing so hard.
“So, you’re not mad?”
Shaking my head, I wiped my eyes. “Nah. You had to give them something. Might as well be unprovable bullshit.”
“That’s not it,” she continued. “He wanted to know about your parents. The judge, the mayor, the dean, Mr. St. James, the sheriff, and Nora Keller. Jeremy reminded me they were all influential in the community and the main opponents to the new town.”
“What did you tell them?”
“There wasn’t much to tell. Not more than people already knew. The divorce between Cairo’s parents was brutal and the sheriff wasn’t fully over it. The mayor doesn’t believe a negative word against her son, and Nora wants to rekindle her relationship with Cairo. Mr. St. James is a hard man to do business with and a bit of a cheapskate, but he did pay Gran for deliveries even if he argued about it first.
“For your mom, I told him you didn’t talk about her and I never met her, so there wasn’t anything to say. By that point, I wasn’t comfortable with how many questions they were asking about you.”
“I wouldn’t be concerned about my mother.” I straightened in my seat, regaining my composure. “Even in a small town like Bedlam, she’s had no shortages of threats made against her and two attacks on her life. She takes every precaution.”
“I have a bad feeling, Jacques. You didn’t see the look in his eyes.” She drifted over my shoulder. “I’m starting to become familiar with that look.”
“He’s not going to hurt my mother. My father moved to New York after I turned eighteen and they no longer had to pretend they loved each other for my sake. My cousin and her family live hours away. A rich man’s reach is long, so I will warn them to be on alert, but I doubt they will take their vendetta across town lines.”
“Okay,” she said, though I could tell she wasn’t convinced. “In the end, the plan we settled on was inviting your folks and other influential people in the community to a party with his father and other Foundry board members. All this secrecy and double plays in the dark, it doesn’t come off well and makes people distrust them right off the rip.
“If they came out in the open and talked about their plans for improving the lives of Bedlamites and bringing out positive change, they could lure people to their side without any more beatings.”
“That’s a good idea, de Souza. So good, it might work better than we want.”
She cringed. “I had to prove I was on their side. Give them an idea that would work on Bedlamites where no one would get hurt. This was the best I could come up with. They want to do it soon. Micah was on the phone to their dad before I left. Next weekend or the weekend after.”
“We’ll be ready.”
She got up to leave.
“You should get ready too,” I said, stopping her at the door. “I have a feeling soon I’ll lose control.”
Rainey spoke without turning around.
“Polygamy,” she said. “That’s the topic of my paper.”
She closed the door softly behind her.
Very, very soon.
RAINEY
I walked into Cairo’s room. He tossed me a grin in the middle of his phone conversation.
“She just came in, Mr. Gold. No, thank you.” He laughed raucously. “You too. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Cairo held out my phone, his grin curling up. “Dear, the detective you’ve been cheating on me with is on the phone for you.”