Page 51 of The House of Wolves

THOMAS CASUALLY TOLD JENNY,“I got this,” and told Cantor that the two of them should take a walk.

They walked down the flight of stairs closest to Jenny’s office and then outside into the stands and made their way all the way down close to the field, where Billy McGee had just concluded his workout, finally sitting down behind the end zone at the west end of Wolves Stadium.

“You guys really thinking of signing that little criminal?” Cantor said.

“In person,” Thomas said, “he’s much bigger than he looks on TV.”

Thomas turned to Cantor, wanting to get right to it, and said, “This thing with the yacht club—it’s not what you think.”

“You being there or you not telling me you were there?” Cantor said.

“Both.”

“And I thought we were buddies,” Ben Cantor said.

“You didn’t think that for one minute.”

“Why’d you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie,” Thomas said.

“But you didn’t tell the whole truth and nothing but, now, did you?” Cantor said.

He explained to Thomas that the regular harbormaster had just returned from racing down the coast to Catalina and back. He’d been gone since the day after Joe Wolf died. The first time Cantor had talked to him had been that morning.

“I honestly didn’t think it mattered,” Thomas said.

“Yeah, you being there does matter.”

“Not if ‘there’ means the boat.”

“Why were you there at all,” Cantor said, “on this visit that wasn’t even worth mentioning to me?”

Definitely not my buddy.

“I’d spent the night before there,” Thomas said. “They’ve got rooms that members can use. I go over sometimes for—well, you know.”

“If you mean for a night of unbridled passion,” Cantor said, “then yeah, I do know.”

Thomas grinned. “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

“But why were you still there in the afternoon? That’s when the harbormaster saw you.”

Thomas told himself not to sound defensive or as if he had something to hide. Even though the cop already thought hehadbeen hiding something. Thomas was used to lying to women. Considered it almost an art form that could evolve over time. Not something he could do with this guy. This guy just kept coming.

“I wentbackthere in the afternoon,” he said to Cantor. “The lady in question had left a bracelet behind. One her husband had given her.”

Thomas grinned. “Now you know everything.”

“Not quite yet. You still could have gone aboard and stayed aboard until you threw your father overboard and then swam for it yourself.”

“But I didn’t go aboard. If Lou told you he saw me do that, he’s lying.”

“He said that the last time he saw you, you were standing on the end of the dock in the rain,” Cantor said. “He just doesn’t remember seeing you leave.”

“Check my phone calls. I kept trying the lady in question until I told her I had the bracelet.”

“You could have called from the boat,” Cantor said.