Page 91 of Convict's Game

Genevieve uttered a laugh.

My mistake slammed into me. In all my thoughts on the evening, I’d settled on the positive of spending time with the women here. But in that, I’d forgotten that I was supposed to be a convincing partner to Convict.

I’d agreed to play a role and had betrayed him with one sentence.

But the wife of the mob boss only handed me a glass with a sympathetic smile. “Equally if it helps, for the first two weeks of being with Arran, I wanted to strangle him.”

I widened my eyes. “What did he do?”

“Everything. He was overbearing, controlling, hostile, I could go on. But also, it was a two-way thing. We didn’t trust each other. Luckily, the game rules have a way of fixing that.”

“They do?”

Cassie bounced back over, her energy infectious. “Now we’re all here, I officially commence a meeting of the Skeleton Girls Detective Agency, welcoming two new members in Mila and Lovelyn. Ladies, do you accept the invitation?”

Lovelyn and I exchanged a bemused glance then nodded in unison.

Cassie beamed. “Excellent. Solid choice. On tonight’s agenda is the recent murder of a young woman named Esther Eavis.”

I choked on my drink. “Did you say murder? I knew her. I thought she drowned.”

Cassie’s eyes rounded. “Tyler said you knew her, but I thought he told you the details. I didn’t mean for that to be a shock.”

All week, I’d waited for a news report to come out regarding Esther, but all I’d found was a line in the local press that had stated the facts I already knew in short sentences.Woman drowned, no suspicious circumstances.

“We went to school together,” I explained. “Then I saw her again recently. If she was murdered, why isn’t there more of an outcry?”

Cassie spread out her arms. “Exactly. Which is why I wanted this meeting. No one else but us seems to care.”

Lovelyn set down her glass. “I can tell you why she’s not being treated as a priority. Sex workers never are. It’s common practice for police to overlook or even ignore those they consider to be on the lowest rung of society. Mostly because everyone else does, too. If my father came across a prostitute lying in the street, he’d more likely step over her than offer help.”

The set of her jaw told me exactly how she felt about that.

I was stuck on the sex worker label. It made sense, yet it made me feel even worse for Esther.

I asked, “Why do you think she was murdered? Couldn’t she have just fallen into the water and drowned?”

Cassie’s eyes flashed with intrigue. “Would you strip off every piece of clothing and go for a swim in Deadwater Harbour on a cold spring night? I find it hard to believe that Esther did.”

My mouth fell open. “She was naked?”

Cassie nodded. “Lovelyn told me on the phone earlier. Isn’t that right?”

Lovelyn confirmed it. “Naked aside from a bracelet of plastic beads. My father is not a fan of paperwork, and he often gives it to me to manage. Therefore, I have access to all the systems, so I can do some digging.” She winced and peeked my way. “It couldbe difficult to hear when it’s about someone you were friends with.”

The bracelet sounded like the one Esther had taken from Annabelle when we were in the holding cell. “No, it’s fine. We weren’t friends. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but I’m not sure she liked me all that much.”

The half a cocktail I’d consumed loosened my tongue, and I found myself spilling the history I had with Esther, from teenage years until when I’d gone to her to find Jacobs. Then onto the auction, and her presumed role in what happened to me after.

Genevieve held her hand over the jewelled choker at her throat, her only embellishment to a little black dress, aside from a huge diamond engagement ring and a shiny wedding band. “She helped them use you? To what end?”

I couldn’t talk about going into the game, so I hedged the question. “I’m not sure, and now, I’ll never know.”

What I really wanted to talk about was how Convict rescued me, but I was already deep into oversharing and risked messing up. Instead, I gave them the link to my family concerns, explaining that I’d been in turmoil after the funeral and how I knew Esther.

“I asked for her help in finding a man called Rhys Jacobs who’s manipulating my grandmother. She led me to trouble instead. Convict’s now helping to find Jacobs, and once we have him, I’ll finally be able to work out why he’s messing with my family. I’ll never be able to ask Esther why she did what she did.”

With the words said, I felt…lighter. No one judged me for the crazy actions I’d taken in my desperation and grief. They only seemed intrigued, even if they only knew half of it.