Page 13 of Diamonds

“Bill Lassard, yeah.”

“And he’s a…friend of the family?”

“I guess you could say that, yeah.”

Bill isn’t a family friend.At least not in the way Alissa means.He’s the city’s head coroner, and he rubbed elbows with my dad during his term as mayor.

But Alissa doesn’t know about my dad.And now certainly isn’t the time to tell that story.

“And you’re sure we can trust him?”

I rub at the back of my neck.“Fuck, Alissa.I can’t know for sure after all we’ve been through.But Bill Lassard is great at what he does, and he never asks too many questions.He’s not a member of Aces, so he has no connection to Rouge as far as I know.He’s our best bet.Speaking of which”—I reach into my pocket and grab my cell phone, speaking into its receiver—“Hey Siri, call Bill Lassard’s cell.”

It doesn’t ring at all.Just goes straight to his voicemail.

“You’ve reached Bill Lassard.Sorry to miss your call.Please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Alissa sighs.“Sounds like we may have to wait until morning.He probably has his phone on sleep mode.”

“You can break through Do Not Disturb if you make two calls back-to-back.”I tap the phone again.

This time it rings.Three times, four times.

And then the voicemail message again.

“Maddox, I think?—”

“No.One more time.”

I make the call once more, letting it ring once, twice?—

A groggy voice comes through the other end.“Christ, Maddox, do you know what time it is?”

“Bill.Thank God you answered.Listen, I know it’s late, but I have an emergency.Something I need you to look at as soon as possible.How close are you to the morgue downtown?”

“I live right around the corner, but?—”

“I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t an emergency.Please.I’m five minutes away from there myself.Can you meet us there?”

“Shit.”He yawns through the phone.“Are you sure it can’t wait until morning?”

“A hundred percent.Cannot wait.”

“What the hell.I suppose I owe you.”

I wrinkle my forehead.What the fuck does Bill owemefor?I haven’t seen him since he handed me the report for my dad’s autopsy.

Maybe Dad did him some favors during his term as mayor that Bill was never able to pay back.

Shit.What kind of favors would a mayor be doing a coroner?Was Dad into some bad shit?

He had all those sex scandals after his so-called HOUSE bill ruined his entire political career, but that was the worst of what came to light as his approval ratings took a nosedive.

Was there more?

And fuck… Does that mean Ican’ttrust Bill?

I rub my forehead.I don’t know what to think anymore.