Chapter 4 - THOMAS ASHFORD
Belle threw Renick’s phone onto the table.
“No.”
Micah looked up from the couch.
Belle lowered her voice.
“No.”
Renick did not move.
“Your husband worked for my father.”
“My husband fixed elevators.”
“He did both.”
Belle laughed.
It sounded wrong.
“Thomas hated organized crime.”
“Most men who work around it say that at home.”
She slapped him.
Not hard.
Hard enough.
Sully appeared in the doorway.
Renick lifted one hand.
“Leave it.”
Belle’s palm burned.
“I’m sorry.”
Renick nodded.
“Good.”
That irritated her more.
Then he opened a file.
Thomas Ashford had been an electrical contractor at Kavanaugh properties.
He also quietly maintained surveillance equipment for Renick’s father.
He knew where cameras were buried.
Which locks were fake.
Which rooms had no microphones.
Belle felt sick.
Thomas died four years earlier in a warehouse fire.
The fire had been ruled accidental.
Renick’s file contained photographs Belle had never seen.
Thomas meeting Sully’s father.
Thomas meeting Maeve.
Thomas carrying a black envelope stamped with the wolf crest.
Belle sat down.
“He told me he was working overtime.”
Renick’s voice softened.
“He was.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I know.”
Then Belle saw a date.
Three weeks before Thomas died.
He had met Maeve alone.
Why?
Renick did not know.
Maeve never told him.
Belle looked toward Micah.
Her son was pretending to read.
His book was upside down.
She walked over and turned it around.
He whispered.
“Dad was a bad guy?”
Belle’s throat closed.
“No.”
Then she stopped.
She did not know.
“I don’t know.”
Micah looked relieved by the honesty.
“Okay.”
Later, Sully brought food.
Micah refused to eat.
Brinley stole one of his fries.
He glared at her.
She stole another.
He finally ate.
It was the most normal five minutes anybody had.
Then Brinley pointed at the photo of Thomas on the table.
“Bird boy’s dad.”
Belle stared.
“You know him?”
Brinley nodded.
Renick crouched.
“From where, baby?”
Brinley’s face tightened.
She stopped talking.
Micah sat beside her.
“You can draw it.”
Brinley looked at him.
Then took a pencil.
She drew a car.
A woman.
A man with a black coat.
And beside the road, another man.
Thomas Ashford.
Belle’s knees weakened.
Brinley tapped the picture of the car.
“Mommy.”
Then she pointed at Thomas.
May you like
“He tried to stop them.”
