Cameron sighed. “Emmy, the only way I’m going to tell you this is if it’s is a one-way
conversation. That means no more questions.” He waited for my acknowledgement, so I nodded and
bolted the imaginary lock on my lips. It hadn’t escaped me that he had called me Emmy, or that
I really liked it when he had.
“Bill’s customers were actually my customers. And my customers were a paranoid bunch of kids
who were always looking over their shoulder, afraid that people would know their dirty little
secrets, embarrass their families. They never bought from anyone they didn’t know, or didn’t
trust, even a persuasive young blood like your brother.” I smiled, picturing my big-headed
brother. This was the world Bill and I knew too well—the hiding, the lying, the sham.
“When Bill finally figured out why he wasn’t getting any business, he decided that he was
going to become my partner. At first, I told him to get lost.” Cameron grinned wider. “But,
when he told me about his new plan, it made a lot of sense. So, I finally convinced Spider—
which wasn’t easy—and your brother, Spider, and I became business partners. Spider kept the
product coming in, I kept the school kids well supplied, Bill expanded the business to the
parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, et cetera.” He paused to take another bite. “You know, Bill
had a way of making people feel like they were untouchable. Spider said it was the smell of
money that was ingrained in his skin. Whatever it was, your brother was a great salesman, and,
for a while, with our customers’ deep pockets, we had so much business that we had a hard time
keeping up.”
“But your brother had one major weakness: women—the kind that came with a lot of baggage. He
always had to come to some girl’s rescue.” Cameron smiled mischievously at me, and I took
great care in red-coating the second half of my sandwich, willing my face to stay its normal
pallor.
“Seemed like he had a different girl hanging off his arm every other week. But once the
excitement was over and he decided that he was done saving them, he’d move on to the next train
wreck, leaving a bigger wreck behind. He got caught up with this one chick … girl …” He
corrected himself for my benefit. “… whose boyfriend liked to use her as a punching bag. Bill
came to her rescue and beat up the boyfriend.”
“Turned out that the boyfriend wasn’t just one of my regular customers, he was also the dean’
s nephew. Just a string of bad luck,” he said, shaking his head. “Bill’s dorm room was
searched, and they found the stash that was hidden under the floorboards. Bill got arrested and
kicked out of school.” I remembered this. Bill had been sent home in a police cruiser. Of
course, no charges were ever laid—the Sheppards were too well connected for something like that
to ever happen. But not even the Sheppard name could stop the gossiping. Bill had to be sent to
live with a distant relative, cut off from the family, for the family name’s sake.
Cameron held my gaze. “You know, I had bigger stashes in my room, so Bill could have used me as
a scapegoat to save himself. But he never did.
“Spider and I kept the business going after your brother got kicked out. We kept it lower key
though, selling only to the students I knew. When I finished high school, your brother came to
find me. He had whopping plans to expand the business, beyond rich kids and their families, and
needed a partner. I brought Spider in, and we spent the next couple of years getting new
suppliers and building more contacts. Your brother had big dreams, and the business kept
growing, so much so that we had trouble keeping track of all the money that came in. So Spider
brought Carly in, and soon we had the competition working for us. No one made a move unless your
brother approved it.”
Cameron paused. The smile left his face, replaced by darkness. “When you’re on top like that,
things get a lot more … complicated,” he told me carefully. “Everywhere you look, there’s
someone who wants to take you down so that he can get a piece of your action. You start having
to look over your shoulder all the time because your friends can become your enemies overnight.
Just trying to keep yourself …” He looked away. “… trying to keep the people you love alive
becomes a twenty-four hour job. It’s exhausting.
“And your brother had started to … change. He became …” He was trying to find the right word
and settled on, “… jittery. He started keeping secrets, disappearing from Spider, Carly, and
me.” Cameron took a breath here. “Things started to really fall apart when our clients and the
other partners noticed the change and second-guessed his decisions. Before we knew what was
really going on, Bill was dead.”
We took our last few bites in silence.
Cameron then pulled his eyes back up and surveyed my face. “To answer your question, yes, I
knew your brother very well, and yes, I knew him well enough to know who you are, Emmy. Your
brother was my best friend, and he talked about you all the time.” He stopped and waited
anxiously.
“Why didn’t you tell me before now? Why did you say that you were never going to tell me about
my brother?”