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“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“You’re right.”

“And you know what?” he said. “I frankly don’t care if you’re recording this or not. I didn’t kill him.” There was a familiar smug look on his face. “Should I speak louder?”

He leaned back and folded his arms, put his feet up on his desk.

“And, by the way, why are we even having this conversation this much after the fact?”

“Because I’m sick of you and everybody else in this office treating me like a criminal,” I said. “That’s why.”

“Get over it.”

“You were there after I was there, even though the only two people who know that are sitting in this room.”

“DidCantor send you?” he said.

“He doesn’t know that either one of us was at the boat. And he doesn’t know that I came here to see you. All he knows is that Dad came to my house the night before.”

I could see that I had surprised my brother again.

“You told anybody who’d listen after he died that you hadn’t seen him since you walked away,” Jack said.

“I lied. Family trait. Like blue eyes.”

He shook his head, almost sadly, from side to side.

“You’ve never been any better than the rest of us. The only one who thought so was the great Joe Wolf.”

There was a knock on the door. Seth Dowd poked his head in.

“Not now,” Jack said.

Dowd closed the door and walked away.

“Iamcurious about one thing. What are you hoping to accomplish by coming here?”

“To get you off my back once and for all,” I said.

“Not happening. And why would I? Because you think you have some kind of leverage with me now? You don’t. The only person who can put me on that boat is you. If it ever came to it, it would be your word against mine.”

“Cantor likes me better,” I said.

“Obviously.”

I grinned.

“What’s so funny?”

“We’ve got something on each other,” I said. “Just like when we were kids.”

“I didn’t kill him,” Jack said again. “I hated him. But not enough to kill him and risk going down for it no matter how much better my life would get with him out of the way.”

“You nearly killed him once.”

“He deserved it that time,” Jack said. “And if you ask me, he deserved somebody finishing the job this time.”