Deconstructed

The closer I got to him, the more he smelled of Barbasol shaving cream and mint toothpaste. I glanced at the lone tweed couch and noted a neatly folded blanket, an empty tumbler, and a television monitor angled toward the sofa. I didn’t need a private eye to tell me that Juke had likely been sleeping one off when I phoned.

I sank down a bit too prissily on his chair and crossed my legs in the ladylike manner my mother had insisted upon. “I’m Catherine Crosby, but you can call me Cricket. I’m here about my husband. I need photographic proof that he’s screwing my daughter’s tennis coach. Only problem is that he now knows that I know, so he might be harder to catch.”

Juke arched an inquisitive brow—one that could stand a bit of grooming.

“You see, I hired Patrick Vitt because he was recommended but—”

“He’s an asshole,” Juke interrupted.

“Yes. He is. But I didn’t know that when I hired him. At any rate, he allowed himself to be paid off by my husband while he was sitting outside her house, and—”

“Wait,” Juke interrupted again, holding up a hand and leaning forward. “You’re telling me that Pat took money from your husband while he was on the job?”

“Yes, and he didn’t even try to deny it. I saw it with these two eyes.” I jabbed my fingers toward my eyes.

“How’d you do that?” Juke leaned forward, crossing his arms on the cluttered desk. At that moment, I allowed hope to emerge from where it had been hiding. Juke looked pissed, if not still a bit slovenly. With some grooming and maybe less booze, he could clean up nicely. He had pretty eyes and a full head of hair, and his shirt looked clean. Not to mention, he was outraged by a fellow PI’s abuse of power. He’d earned a bit more favor with me.

“I was just making sure he was watching the house,” I said.

Juke narrowed his eyes at me. “Yeah, okay, I get it.”

And I knew he did. I couldn’t help torturing myself, and I didn’t know why I kept driving by that stupid woman’s house. Probably needed to get a therapist on my payroll, too. But in actuality my weird obsession with seeing my husband parked in front of Stephanie’s house had proven fortuitous. If I hadn’t spied, then I wouldn’t have seen the transaction. Patrick probably would have told me that he had nothing and would have strung me along until Scott made the first move and left me.

“So your old man knows you’re trying to bust him?”

“Well, not necessarily me. Scott just knows someone is watching him. Because Patrick refused to tell him who had hired him. He just agreed to taking the money and leaving him alone.”

Juke snorted. “Honor among thieves.”

“Yeah, I guess, but Scott knows it’s probably me. Who else would it be? And he didn’t confront me last night, but the game is afoot. Trust me.”

Juke leaned back in his chair, the squeak making me wince, and tented his hands over his stomach. “Well, that will make it difficult. We’re going to have to be smarter than—what’s his name again?”

“Scott.”

“So tell me about Scott.”

I spent the next ten minutes going over everything I could think of that would help Juke—Scott’s personality, his friends, his habits, his job—and then I paid the retainer that Patrick Vitt had refunded me through Venmo minutes ago. Which made me wonder just how much my ass of a husband had paid him out on the street. After I finished, I rose and extended my hand.

Finally, Juke stood, and I saw that he, too, was tall like Griffin, but not nearly as muscled. Juke looked like someone had backed over him a few times, and his eyes looked haunted. I wondered about his story but not enough to pursue it. He took my hand. “I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you. I expect to hear from you in a few days.”

“May take a week or so.”

“The sooner the better. I have an attorney, and she’s proceeding with typing up the petition. She’ll file as soon as you get the proof we need. We want to strike first.”

He dropped my hand. “Okay, then.”

I started for the door.

“We’re not all bad, you know,” Juke said.

I looked back at him. “What?”

“Men. Not all of us are such dickheads. I’m not one of those guys. I can’t be bought.”

I gave him a small smile and a half shrug. “I hope not.”





CHAPTER TWELVE


RUBY

Ten days later

Gran was turning seventy-five years old on Monday, so I pretty much had to go to the huge birthday bash on the Saturday afternoon of Gritz and Glitz, even if it meant seeing my entire family, including my strung-out mother who was somehow still considered family. My mom pretty much existed on the painkillers and antianxiety meds she got from a pain management clinic. She’d slipped eight years ago on a piece of ice while waitressing at one of the casinos, which netted her a small fortune in a lawsuit and a resulting steady diet of pain pills. We didn’t talk much because we didn’t have much to say to one another. She had never been a good mother and wasn’t likely to change in the future. And lest anyone think I was a shitty daughter, I had tried time and again to connect with her with no result other than frustration that I had put myself out there and she hadn’t even bothered to open the door. My mom hadn’t even been pissed that my uncle, her former brother-in-law who she had always hated, had used me without my knowing and then got me locked up. In fact, my darling mommy had relayed to Gran that I was an idiot, and hadn’t bothered coming to my trial or sending me a single care package, even at Christmas or on my birthday. So let’s just say that I was cool with our official position to tolerate each other when we came into contact.

Gran, on the other hand, had been more of a mother to me than a grandmother. I had lived with her for most of my childhood since my parents were constantly splitting and getting booted out of their rental houses. Gran had baked me a graduation cake when I got my GED, sat beside me when I learned to drive, and glared at the prosecution at my trial. She was my greatest supporter and my chief confidante. I wasn’t missing her birthday celebration even if Ed Earl would be there.

When I arrived, I tried to wander up to the large congregation of people in the backyard of the farmhouse without anyone noticing me. Gran took great pride in the house on the outskirts of the small town, refusing any sort of junk left in her front yard and instead populating the expanse with daffodils, tulips, and iris, which danced in the afternoon breeze. Of course, this meant that many of my grandfather’s old heaps tic-tac-toed the backyard. Half-rusted livestock troughs held newly staked tomatoes, and Gran’s greenhouse was missing a panel. My uncle Jimbo, along with Ed Earl, manned the large grill off the patio, while the rest of the males clustered around souped-up pickups parked on the woods’ side, drinking beer and bragging about their hunting and fishing skills.

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