The House of Wolves (House of Wolves #1)(38)

“She was always Daddy’s little girl,” Rachel Wolf said. “No matter how badly she treated him.”

She leaned forward in her chair.

Eyes up here, Cantor told himself.

“Are you now suggesting I knew what was in the will?” she said. “Ask anybody who was in the lawyer’s office that day. Even I’m not that good an actress.”

She suddenly reached into her purse and came out with her phone and said, “I need to go.”

“Date?”

“Are you asking, Detective?” She gave a shake of her head. “Charity thing for the New Conservatory Theatre.”

She stood up. She really was quite tall.

“One more question,” he said. “If you had to put your money on a member of the family who could have killed Joe Wolf, who would it be?”

“That’s easy. The son who told me on multiple occasions that the whole family would be better off with Joe dead.”

“Jack or Danny?” Cantor said.

“No, that would be the boy prince,” Rachel Wolf said. “Thomas.”





Forty-Four



I OPENED THE FOLDER and removed the printouts of the email correspondence between Danny Wolf and Donna Kilgore on what was called ProtonMail, emails in which he laid out the terms of his deal with her—what she would be paid for accusing Ryan Morrissey, what she was supposed to say, and what her best friend, a woman named Barb Rubio, was supposed to say to back up Donna’s account of things.

There were also some embarrassing dirty exchanges as Danny and Donna Kilgore took what sounded like a rather sweaty trip down memory lane.

“You know,” I said to my brother, “your writing skills haven’t improved with time.”

He stared at the papers in front of him, then back at me, then back at the papers.

“This is an encrypted account.”

“That’s your response to what’s sitting there in front of you?”

“How did you get these?” he said.

“Not important. What’s important is that I did.”

He put his hands out.

“You know what I’m thinking?” he said. “Now it’s his word against hers, because I’ve got sworn statements from her saying that the coach did it. Or did her, as the case may be.”

“And I’ve got a sworn statement in which she recants everything in yours.”

He opened his mouth and closed it.

“You paid her off.”

“Somebody did. And paid a lot more than you did.”

“I don’t even need to guess who, do I?”

I shrugged.

“Our uncle,” he said.

“Well, not yours,” I said.

“Screw him. And screw you.”

“He said that I should remind you that not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Right before he called you the same schmuck you’ve always been.”

“So now you’re the one blackmailing me?” Danny said.

“Twist of the tale.”

I sat down. Danny laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair.

“So you win this round.”

“And the next one, if you ever try anything like this again. And the one after that.”

I watched him and wondered, not for the first time, how I was possibly related to him.

“Let me ask you something, Danny. Did it ever occur to you to try to work with me? To make this a real family business?”

He snorted. “Oh, wait—you’re serious.”

Then he said, “So are you going to fire me?”

“Nope. I’m going to let you sit at this end of the hall and know that I’m doing your job at the other end.”

“Not for much longer,” he said. “Those league meetings fast approach.”

“You’re not invited.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“I guess we will.”

He shook his head, almost sadly. Or smugly. As if somehow I were the schmuck.

“You think you’re so much better than us. And then you’re willing to crawl right down into the mud with me.”

“If that’s what it takes to get the win,” I said.

“Enjoy it while you can.”

“I already am.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Danny said.

“Get what?”

“A nick here, a nick there, and pretty soon you’re bleeding to death.”

Danny smiled then, as if he knew something I didn’t. Or as if he was the one who’d won something tonight, though I couldn’t imagine what.

“See you in the next news cycle.”

As I headed down the hall, I heard him call out, “You and the coach.”





Forty-Five



I GAVE MY TICKETS to the Eagles game to my friend Rashida and her husband. On this day I watched from Thomas’s suite, hoping that my football weekend might turn out to be a clean sweep, because my Hunters Point Bears had beaten Galileo 27–6 the day before.

It was 17–17, middle of the third quarter, when Ted Skyler was knocked out of the game with a concussion, and the next thing everybody saw at Wolves Stadium was Billy “Money” McGee running out onto the field to replace him.