"Well, if you keep partying like you're twenty-one, you might be kicking the bucket sooner than that, Nana," I said.
"Well then I'll go to the grave whooping it up," she said. "Like a rock star."
I laughed. "I missed you a lot, Letty."
"It's so good to see you, Tempest," she said. "But there is a reason I wanted you to come by."
"Not so you could regale me with tales of your debauchery?" I asked.
"Well, if you want to hear them, I can tell you all about Mr. Johnson in room 122," she said. "He snuck over here the other night and -"
I held up my hand. "Nana," I warned. "Do not tell me this story. I'll have to insist. Did you hear from my parents or something?"
She shook her head, a dark look crossing her face. "Your parents," she said, scowling. "The more appropriate question is whether you, their only daughter, has heard from them."
"I would tell you if I had," I said. "Of course not. I haven't heard from them since I went out on my own."
"How are things going?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper. "I know you won't spill all your secrets, but have you taken down any bad guys lately?"
I'd come clean with my grandmother years ago, told her I was following in my parents' footsteps, but with a twist on the con game. She'd smiled when I explained why I was grifting, said that righting wrongs the way I was doing was a "noble enough" profession. "Just got finished with a case, Nana."
"Someone who deserved everything he got?"
I nodded. "Definitely," I said. "And we got some money for the family he'd harmed, people who were really struggling."
She smiled. "You know, when your mother took up with your father, I was devastated. I knew he was a con artist the moment I laid eyes on him. He just had that vibe about him. He ruined our relationship. And when she took you away from me when you were a child, I thought that the two of them would ruin you. But here you are, all grown up, standing on your own two feet and doing what's right."
I felt myself flush. "Well, I'm not exactly doing what's right," I said. "I'm breaking the law."
She waved her hand. "Pshaw," she said. "Sometimes people get away with doing terrible things, and the law never punishes them for it. Life needs people like you to set things right. Even if it's not necessarily legal."
"It's definitely not legal," I said.
Letty looked at me for a long time. "Legal or not, I couldn't be more proud of you, dear."
“So you don’t think I’m crazy anymore, huh?” I leaned back in the chair, my arms crossed over my chest.
“Please.” Luke grinned at me. “You’re always going to be crazy, little brother. But I think your theory about mom’s death has some merit, at least.”
"Is that why you're sticking around in West Bend, Luke?" I probed. "Because you're interested in who might have had reason to want our parents dead?"
Luke's face reddened. I couldn't recall a time I'd ever seen Luke blush. I glanced across the room at Elias, who grinned.
"No," Elias said, crossing the room and pulling up a chair at the kitchen table. "There's a girl, isn't there?"
Luke shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Luke has a girlfriend," Elias said, his voice teasing. "Shit, I wish Killian were here. He would give you hell, man."
"Shut up, you assholes," Luke said.
"If he doesn't want to talk about it, leave him alone, Elias," I said, suddenly thinking about my reaction to Trigg when he asked about Tempest.
Elias studied me, his eyes narrowing. "What are you doing, taking up for him?" he asked. "You're usually the one to jump right on something like this."
"Yeah, well," I said. "Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it because it's someone who means something to him."
"Stop fucking talking about me like I'm not in the room, guys," Luke said. "I'm sitting right here."
But Elias ignored him, still staring at me. "Since when did you become Mr. Sensitive?" he asked. "Next thing you know, we're going to be sitting around talking about our feelings. Maybe we'll start crying, too."
"Shut up," I said. "You're the one mooning over River."
"Yeah, because it's River," he said. "Have you seen her?" He couldn't stop grinning, and I knew he was happy. It was good to see it.
"Why don't we talk about what we started with?" I said. "Stop getting off track. Our parents' deaths."
I could feel Elias' eyes still on me, but he relented. "Fine. I still maintain the entire idea they were murdered is ridiculous. Everyone wanted the asshole dead," he said, referring to our abusive drunk of a father. "If he were going to be murdered, it would have happened in a bar fight out in the open, not in the abandoned mine behind our house."